FBC Sunday Evening Service

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good evening. Hope you had a good afternoon today. It's pretty nice outside, so you could have enjoyed a little outside time.

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Hope you got some rest and didn't wear yourself out doing that work that's only supposed to be done in the six days.

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You know, that kind of a thing. So I hope you had a good day of a good day of rest. I want to begin this evening with number 522.

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I have a song I love to sing since I have been redeemed. We'll see in our text tonight in Mark's gospel, a guy that just could not stop singing.

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So let's stand, shall we, as we sing 522. I have a song

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I love to sing since I have been redeemed.

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Of my Redeemer, Savior King, since I have been redeemed.

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Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed,

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I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed.

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I will glory in my Savior's name.

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I have a Christ who satisfies, I have been redeemed.

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To do His will, my highest prize, since I have been redeemed.

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Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed,

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I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed.

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I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a witness bright and clear, since I have been redeemed.

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Dispelling every doubt and fear, since I have been redeemed.

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Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed,

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I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a home prepared for me, since I have been redeemed, where I shall dwell eternally, since I have been redeemed.

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Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed,

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I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed,

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I will glory in my Savior's name.

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All right. Well, it's so good to see Denny in service again.

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Denny, would you please lead us in prayer tonight? Amen. Thank you,

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Denny. You may be seated. So we're going to read a psalm here in just a moment, but I first need to give a word of clarification.

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I did not realize this. Vicki mentioned to me when she came in tonight, Kent is not home.

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Kent Foster is not home. When Chris and I went to see him on Thursday, he was,

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I mean, good spirits and telling us all about everything. He's really had a good long visit with him.

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And he said that the doctor told him he would probably be going home

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Saturday, maybe Friday, maybe Friday if he behaved himself, but otherwise he figured

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Saturday. So, you know, I saw a few comments of Lori's along the way and asked her this morning how he was doing, and she gave me an update and never said he was, you know, still in the hospital.

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So I thought, you know, he'd gotten home and everything was all good. You know, he was making progress and so forth, but not the case.

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So he is still in the hospital up in Rockford and will be there at least until tomorrow, at least, maybe

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Tuesday. All right, so he has a way to go. I guess he wasn't being very good. You know, he wasn't behaving himself.

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So he told me about, told us about, you know, conversations with some of the people there, witnessing to them and so forth, has had some good opportunities to witness.

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And this is in St. Anthony's. Okay, you get the point.

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But I did actually come across a couple who were professing believers and had some good conversations with them, so that was good.

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Well, let's turn to Psalm 107. Psalm 107,

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I want to read verses 1 through 9, and then jump down to verse 17 through 22.

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And then we'll sing about this in just a moment. If you're thinking of any words of testimony you'd like to share tonight,

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God's doing in your life or has done this past week, if you'd like to share it, it would be an encouragement and a blessing to us.

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So Psalm 107, verse 9 verses first of all, O give thanks to the

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Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. That word mercy, by the way, is the word hesed, his steadfast love, the

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Lord's faithfulness to his covenant. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

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They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

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Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place.

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Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

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For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

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Look down at verse 17. Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.

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Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the

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Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of all their distresses. He sent his word and healed them.

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He delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

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Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

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Keep those couple of verses in mind here in a few minutes. We have some opportunity to do that very thing.

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That men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, his wonderful works. We would sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, declare his works with rejoicing.

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Well, in our Psalter, number 229 is the musical version of that psalm.

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And so, when a sing stands as 1, 2, and 3, and then over on the next page stands a 6.

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So 229, give thanks to God for he is good. This is a tune that we should know.

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Give thanks to God for he is good, his love will never end.

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Oh, tell how he has ransomed you, your Savior and your friend.

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Give thanks for his unfailing grace, when we were dead in sin.

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He sent his word, our souls to raise, that we might live again.

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In north and south and east and west, some wandered without aim.

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Until they cried to God for rest, and he delivered them.

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Give thanks for all his faithfulness, his mighty deeds make plain.

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He satisfies the purposeless and gives them hope again.

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Some sat in prisons dark as night, despising

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God's commands. But when they cried, he gave them light and cut away their bonds.

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Oh, thank him for the liberty that cuts through every chain.

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His word breaks down captivity and sets us free again.

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And on the 6th, then praise the Lord, his love acclaimed, all fears he will destroy.

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And when the hungry cry to him, he'll fill their souls with joy.

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Praise him who puts his power within our spirits to sustain.

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For those who come in need to him will never thirst again.

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All right, so who will give testimony to the works of the Lord? Yes, Sue.

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Okay, all right, now how many years anniversary? 30, so did you bike for 30 miles?

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Okay. Hey, that works. That's all good. You also hiked, so that counts too, you know.

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You get two miles of biking for every one mile of hiking, so that's the way it works.

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That's my rule. Good, well, praise the Lord. Glad you guys were able to get away. Yes, Dan.

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Good, good, very good. And brought you all home. Back to safe harbor, as that psalm talks about.

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Anybody else? Yes, Dave.

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Oh, my word. Oh, my word. Yeah. Amen. Thank the

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Lord for his protection, preservation. That's how he providentially got you to see that gas thing going.

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Yeah. And providentially delivered you from ever smoking. Good. Anybody else?

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All right, then. So a couple things. One, next Sunday evening at 4 .30,

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the Young Married Single Adult Fellowship at the Foreman's. There's a sign -up sheet, so don't forget to take care of that.

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Bring meat to cook on a side dish, and it'll be a good time of fellowship.

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And if you're not in that group, then the encouragement is to invite someone to your home for some fellowship next

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Sunday evening. Fireworks is part of it, whatever.

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But that's next Sunday night. The other thing, I just wanted to kind of publicly say a word about the little canopy out here and this little accident.

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And it's not like nothing's being done about it. It's just that the wheels of these things take a long time.

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They grind slowly. And step one was to have one insurance company deal with it, say what they were going to do, which was never enough.

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So then we had to get our insurance company involved, and then those insurance companies will deal with them.

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They'll deal with each other. But there's all kinds of processes involved. Where it stands right now is our insurance company is sending a design engineer as well as a contractor.

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So it's an independent person that the insurance company gets, and they will come and analyze the thing and come up with a process and so forth.

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But the city has weighed in on it and said, we cannot repair what's there.

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It doesn't meet code. So it has to come off. The whole thing has to come off and has to be rebuilt.

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And one word I've gotten is that code says on a building with the roof hanging so low and all this that the canopy can't attach to the building.

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There has to be a space between the roof line and the canopy so that exhaust can escape up.

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So you don't get any exhaust fumes come into the building kind of thing. So there's all kinds of little details that are involved.

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So it'll be a process. It'll be a time before we can even get to the point of step one, which is demolition, tearing everything off and then going from there.

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So I just kind of wanted to update you on that and let you know where that stands.

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All right, let's take our hymnals again. Turn to 511. 511.

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Only a sinner saved by grace. Let's stand again, shall we, as we sing.

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Not have I gotten but what I received. Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed.

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Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.

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Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.

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This is my story to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.

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Once I was foolish and sin ruled my heart. Causing my footsteps from God to depart.

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Jesus has found me happy my case. I'm a sinner saved by grace.

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Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.

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This is my story to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.

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Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows. Loving his

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Savior to tell what he knows. To tell it would

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I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.

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Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.

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This is my story to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.

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You may be seated. So we're going to pray tonight for Kent. Also if you think about it pray for Melissa and Ileana and Ricky.

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They're out in Seattle and Melissa and Ileana are flying back here tomorrow.

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There's a court hearing thing on Friday. And then she'll be going back out to Seattle next

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Monday or Tuesday. So pray for their safety and their travels. She sent me a text today with a screenshot of the weather situation.

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It is 100 degrees in Seattle. And the forecast tomorrow is it's supposed to be 107.

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And they have no air conditioning. Most people don't have air conditioning. It's out there.

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I mean it's just unheard of to have those kind of temperatures. So pray for their safety and their well -being.

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Ricky, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, he had torn his Achilles tendon.

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Had to have surgery on it. And it's a long process of recovery. And still dealing with that.

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So let's have a word of prayer. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's read our text first and then we'll pray. So turn to Mark 1.

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Mark 1 and we'll read verses 40 to 45. Mark 1, verse 40.

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It says, Now a leper came to him, that is to Jesus, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him.

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Notice the focus on him. Came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, saying to him,

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If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him,

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I am willing, be cleansed. As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.

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And he strictly warned him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which

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Moses commanded as a testimony to them. However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places.

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And they came to him from every direction. Let's pray. So Father, we do thank you tonight for our time together this evening.

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Thank you for this day of rest from the normal routines of life. And pray that it has been a refreshing day for us.

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And by the time we retire for the night, we can look back over the day and give thanks for that refreshment.

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We do pray tonight for Kent and ask for your continued intervention in his life, strengthening his body, weaning him off of the oxygen that he needs, and clearing up the fluid problem.

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Pray that he could get home soon. Just be gracious to him. Do protect those out in the

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Northwest, and think particularly of Melissa and Ricky and Ileana. Just pray that you would protect them from this extensive heat.

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And just pray also for their safety in travels tomorrow. So Father, bless in our time in this text this evening, and we pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, near the end of my seventh grade year, so this goes back a couple of years, we were living at the time in Niles, Ohio.

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And it was about a couple of weeks before school was out, and my father sat us down around the table in the kitchen, and he said, we have some news.

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We're going to be moving to Chicago area. We're going to be moving to Chicago.

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So this was, what, 1971, I guess it was. And he wanted to talk about it, what he's going to be doing.

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And he was, I mean, when we were in Niles, Ohio, he was pastoring a church. And by the way, did you know that before we lived in Niles, Ohio, we lived in Wellington, Ohio?

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And yesterday, I guess President Trump, former President Trump, had this big rally in Wellington, Ohio.

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Wellington, Ohio is a town of about 4 ,000 people. I mean, it's out, you know, it's just a farm town.

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It's one -fourth the size of Sterling. But it happens to be the town where the

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Lorain County Fairgrounds is situated, and they're kicking off the Lorain County Fair this week, and they had

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Trump there, and it was, to me, it was kind of fascinating because, you know, having lived there, and just this sea of people, thousands and thousands of people showed up for this rally.

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But anyway, so my dad was pastoring a church in Niles, and he sat us down.

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He said, we're going to be leaving here. I've taken a position with Regular Baptist Press in Chicago, so we're going to be moving to Chicago the end of June.

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And I was thrilled. I was thrilled because, I mean, it's really excited me because I was born in Chicago, Mount Sinai Hospital in Oak Park, to be precise.

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And yet I never saw it. I mean, as a one -month -old child, what do you see, right?

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I mean, we moved away from Chicago when I was about a month old, and I'd never been back. I'd never been to Chicago.

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And so I was all excited about this. I get to go back to my birthplace, and we get to live there and all this.

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This really excited me. But my dad threw a damper on that excitement when he said, now here's the thing, you can't say a word of this to anybody until after I announce it in church, until I announce my resignation at church.

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When's that going to be? It's not going to be for a couple of weeks, so you just have to keep a lid on it. A couple of weeks, you know.

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The next day I told my best friend. I mean, I was excited. I couldn't wait to tell somebody about that.

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And about a week and a half later, sure enough, my dad, at the end of the service on a Sunday morning, he announced that he was resigning and that he was taking this position, and we would be in and around for another 30 days, and then we would be moving.

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And I was sitting in church with my best friend, and he looked over at me, and I looked at him, and we kind of smirked a little bit.

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But then I looked back at his mother, who was in the pew behind us, down the pew, and she looked over, and she smiled like this too.

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And after church, she's telling everybody, oh, I already knew it. I already knew it. Brian told

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Richard. Brian told Richard. And I heard about it when

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I got home, that I didn't keep my mouth shut. But I couldn't help it. I was so excited about moving to Chicago that I just had to tell somebody.

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Now in Mark 1, in this text that we read tonight, there is a young man or man who is affected, who is impacted by Jesus, and he cannot help but tell it.

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His heart just overflows, and he has to say what's on his mind, what's on his heart.

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He has to tell it. And I see this, and I wonder how many of us are so impacted or have been so impacted by the work of Christ in our lives that we can't help but tell it.

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Of course, the impact of his work of grace in saving us, apart from any merit of ours whatsoever, but totally taking us out of the pit of despair and putting us on a rock forever.

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How many of us have been so impacted that we can't help but tell it? How many times does

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God work in our lives, does Christ work in our lives in a way that leaves us with a heart overflowing that just has to tell somebody about it?

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Well, this man really represents how we ought to respond to the work of Christ in our lives.

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So I want to see, first of all, the composite of the needy that this man represents.

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He serves as like a picture of the needy. He's a leper.

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He's a leper. So this man is typical of the sinner. Leprosy is one of those types of sin.

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It's a figure of sin. But the desperation of this man, this deplorable condition that he finds himself in as a leper, it means he's an outcast.

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He's an outcast. I wanted to remind myself of the way the lepers had, what the lepers had to do.

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So I went back to Leviticus 13. Look at that passage with me. Leviticus 13.

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And look at verses 45 and 46. And just imagine what life would be like for a person so afflicted with leprosy.

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For this man that comes to Jesus. Leviticus 13 verse 45.

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Well, verse 44 declares he's a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean.

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His sore is on his head. So, by the way, the condition of leprosy, as it's described in Leviticus and the leper in Mark's gospel, could stand for a variety of skin diseases that could be contagious.

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Not all necessarily the kind of leprosy that we think of today that would eat the flesh and cause members to fall off and so forth.

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Some would have had that kind of disease. But the leprosy spoken of in Leviticus could be any kind of skin infection, bodily infection.

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So, one so afflicted, verse 45, is declared to be unclean. Verse 45 tells what he had to do.

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Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare, and he shall cover his mustache and cry,

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Unclean, unclean. He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, he shall be unclean.

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He is unclean. Notice the emphasis here. He's unclean, he's unclean, he's unclean.

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And he shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. This is that man.

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This is his condition. Some of you have mentioned or indicated that you've watched those episodes of The Chosen, and there's one of those episodes where this scene is played out on the screen.

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This man with leprosy comes before Jesus, and Jesus cares for him.

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And I think they did a very good job of expressing in that visual form the deplorable condition of one such as this.

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He's an outcast. And as an outcast in this deplorable condition, he is desperate.

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He's desperate. He's in great need. And the extent of his desperation is seen in what he does.

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He comes to Jesus imploring him, imploring him, that is, begging him.

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Now, we don't see too many in our community, individuals who resort to a position or a place of begging.

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We've seen a few, but really very few. But you go to some of our bigger cities, and you see images of cities like L .A.

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and San Francisco where those who are in terribly deplorable condition are reduced to beggary, to begging people for help.

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And it is heart -wrenching to see. Now, I saw someone the other day.

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I thought it was kind of an interesting juxtaposition. Where was it? Maybe it was in... Was this in Rock Falls? I don't know.

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I can't remember. We were somewhere together and saw... Where?

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Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, it was when we were in Rockford. We were visiting Kent. And what an interesting juxtaposition.

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Here's a guy who's standing at the street corner. He says, anything you give would be helpful. God bless you kind of a thing.

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And he seems to be perfectly healthy. I mean, he's walking around. He's doing all this kind of stuff.

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And so we just passed all these signs that say, Help Wanted, Help Wanted.

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And I made a comment about that. It seems like an able -bodied guy ought to be able... In this day and age, ought to be able to get a job.

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But then we realized, you know, every place you go to apply for a job, one of the things they insist upon is you have a residential address.

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You have an address. If you don't have an address, they're not going to hire you.

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So someone like that might be in a pretty serious situation. But anyway, we don't see this kind of thing very much.

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And this guy is in such a deplorable condition that he's desperate.

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And his desperation is seen in his begging Christ for help, imploring Him. And in his deplorable condition, he is also without hope.

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There is no doctor he can go to that's going to prescribe an antibiotic for him to clear up his skin infection or whatever this is that he has.

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There isn't anybody who's going to help him. This is why the only thing they could do was, you know, get away from anybody that they might infect with that disease and hope and pray that it clears up.

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This is it. He's really without much hope other than that. He's hopeless and therefore doomed.

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If somehow this disease doesn't take care of itself, he's destined to a life of misery and woe and, you know, death and squalor.

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This is a good picture of the sinner, of each one of us before Christ, outside of Christ, isn't it?

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An outcast that once was an outcast. Is that song? An outcast in a deplorable condition, desperate, desperate, without hope, and doomed.

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So he's in a deplorable condition. But he has, as he comes to Jesus, a desirable attitude.

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He comes kneeling down. This, I suggest, is the first step. This attitude expressed in kneeling down.

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This is the sinner's first step. Recognizing his needy condition and acknowledging the

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Savior's ability. This is what he's communicating in coming to Jesus and kneeling down.

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He is acknowledging, I am desperately needy, but you, you, Lord Jesus, you are sufficiently powerful.

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You have sufficient ability to deal with my needs. That's what he's communicating in that kneeling down.

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He has a desirable attitude. The sinner that stands aloof, with his eyes up to heaven, and he says,

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I'm so glad I'm not like other people, like this guy over here, like that guy over there. Yeah, I may have a few things in my life, but I'm glad I'm not like all these miserable people.

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Such and one as that, he's in a deplorable condition and doesn't even know it. He comes kneeling down.

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And this needy sinner, this needy man, also demonstrates a definite faith.

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A definite faith. He says to Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

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Understanding Jesus' ability is, and my own inability, is a sinner's first step.

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The second is the expression of this faith. If you are willing, you can make me clean.

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And look at how this faith is expressed. This faith prompted his boldness.

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It prompted his boldness. He believed that Jesus was able. That's why he comes to him in the first place.

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It prompted his boldness. It compelled, his faith compelled his statement.

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He believed that Jesus was able. The only condition is, is he willing?

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But his belief that Jesus is able, his faith in the ability, the power of Christ, it compels him to say this, to speak of this.

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But his faith also goes a step further in that it submits to his sovereignty.

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You see that? If you are willing, you can make me clean.

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He's submitting to the sovereignty of Christ. He knows Christ can make him clean, but he doesn't presume upon that ability.

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He counts upon his sovereignty. He submits himself to that sovereignty. If you are willing, you can make me clean.

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So this man in his condition, he really is kind of a composite of the sinner in his need.

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Well, verses 41 and 42 express to us and reveal to us the compassion of the

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Savior. He, Jesus, is moved to action. It says, Jesus moved with compassion, stretches out his hand.

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This is a regular feature of the compassion of Jesus.

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Action. Action. Every time compassion is used, action follows.

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Pity doesn't always equal compassion. You can see somebody and pity them, but really not show any compassion for them because you don't do anything about it.

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It's like the guy that we saw the other day. My heart went out to him. I pitied him in his condition, but I didn't really do anything about it.

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I didn't really do anything about it. What to do? It is a dilemma for us, isn't it? It is, isn't it?

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I can't imagine how much more of a dilemma it is when you get into the bigger cities where it's like every single street corner, you've got two or three or four people that are there just asking, wanting a handout, and so forth.

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What do you do? It is a pitiable situation. What do you do about it? How do you feel?

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How do you feel about these pictures, these images? You see them of the tents and the shanties and the cardboard shelters that are just set up in these homeless camps.

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It's awful. It's pitiable. But do we have compassion for those things?

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If we don't really do anything about it, we may pity but not have compassion. See, that's the difference between pity and compassion.

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I'm not suggesting that we ought always to have that compassion. I don't want to suggest that, because, like I said, your wallet would be empty very quickly if you drive to Chicago or to Rockford, but you're certainly going to have pity.

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You're certainly going to have pity. Well, Jesus was moved with compassion.

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The pity didn't end with feeling sorry for the guy. The pity moved him with compassion.

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He had compassion on the individual, and that compassion compelled him to touch.

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You see this? Moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him. Touched him.

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I loved that scene in that episode of The Chosen where Jesus heals the leper, because it communicated the horror on the part of those who witnessed this, because you don't touch a leper.

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They went out of their way to make sure nobody touched them. They had to cry out,

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I'm unclean, I'm unclean, stay away from me, because you don't want to touch me. Stay away, lest you touch.

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And Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him.

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And he touched him. This, I suggest, is an expression of his love.

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An expression of his love. The touch. The touch is a...

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It's an amazing means of communicating love and compassion for someone.

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Jesus touches the leper. It not only expresses his love, though, it's a channel for his power.

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Channel for his power. Look back, for example, at verse 31. We see this many times as well.

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Jesus came to Peter's mother -in -law, took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.

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In Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, verse 40, let me just read this for you.

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It says, When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

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So it's like the touch of Jesus was a channel for his healing power.

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He touched him and he healed him. And he demonstrates in his compassion that he is motivated to help.

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He's motivated to help. He says, I am willing. I am willing.

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This is the response of Jesus to the sinner's faith.

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He always responds to faith. Always responds to faith.

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Faith in the sinner who calls upon him. Faith in the believer's prayer.

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He responds to that prayer. Maybe not always the way we want. We would like to see it respond, but he does respond.

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He responds to our faith. How many times have you read this?

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How many times have you seen this in the Gospels? When he saw her faith. When he saw his faith.

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When he saw their faith. Remember the four who brought the lame guy and let him down through the roof.

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When he saw their faith, Jesus responds to faith. And he responds to your faith.

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This is Romans 10, tell us. Romans 10, 9 and 10. You believe in your heart with the

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Lord Jesus. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

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Thou shalt be saved. And then that faith is expressed in verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the

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Lord. What's the response? Shall be saved. So Jesus is motivated to help as he responds to the faith here.

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And here's the thing. Here's the thing. He had compassion.

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That compassion compelled him to act.

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It motivated him to help. He said, I'm willing. But what if he didn't have the ability?

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Isn't that really the final step that's critical here? And yet he does have the ability.

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He is competent to save. He says to him, be clean.

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Be clean. I am willing. Be clean. And the cleansing, look at this.

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As soon as he had spoken. As soon as Jesus said that. Immediately the leprosy left him.

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Immediately. And he was cleansed. The healing was immediate.

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The healing was thorough. The leprosy departed. The healing was unquestionable.

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He was cleansed. And everybody who was standing there witnessing this saw with their own eyes as that leprosy was healed.

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It was gone. Immediately. He's competent to save. Now this then leads to verses 43 and 44 with the commands of the

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Savior. And what I want us to catch here in this command when

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Jesus told him in verse 43 says he warns him and sent him away at once and said don't say anything to anybody but go your way.

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Show yourself to the priest. Offer for your cleansing those things. Notice which Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

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Jesus in his commanding this guy I want you to catch first of all how he charges him to obey the scripture.

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And that is a consistent charge of the Lord Jesus. Even to us.

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He charges us to obey the scripture. And what Jesus is getting at when he says here do those things, offer for your cleansing those things which

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Moses commanded. We're not going to take the time to go back and look at it but back in Leviticus 14 there is a whole ritual that they had to go through for the cleansing to be declared cleansed by the priest.

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They had to do all these different things. The priest had to inspect them they had to offer these sacrifices this offering and all the rest of this kind of stuff.

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But what Jesus is compelling this man to do commanding him to do is to obey the scripture.

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Now why does he do that? Because he's communicating that our greatest allegiance needs to be to the scriptures.

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Our greatest allegiance needs to be to the scriptures. Why emphasize that at this point?

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Because of the inclination. The inclination would be the inclination would be to just live off of the experience.

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Alright I'm cleansed. And he goes off and he's cleansed. He goes back home and he says hey look

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I'm cleansed and all this kind of stuff. But he's completely bypassed the scripture in the meantime. He's living off his experience.

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Our inclination can be to ignore what the scriptures tell us to do and live off the experience in some way or another.

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For example I have run into a few along the way charismatic individuals who make the big deal out of speaking in tongues.

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They say you haven't gotten the spirit if you haven't spoken in tongues. You don't have the spirit if you haven't spoken in tongues.

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Well the scripture doesn't command me to speak in tongues. The scripture nowhere commands anybody to speak in tongues.

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And it's nowhere said to be a necessary expression of the presence of the

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Holy Spirit within you. So what are you really getting at here? I'm getting at my experience.

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See I've spoken in tongues. No we're to be obedient to our greatest allegiance needs to be to the scripture.

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And our greatest need in that allegiance is to obedience. And there's a sternness in Jesus' voice in verse 43 where we read that he strictly warned him to do this.

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He strictly warned him to go away and do this. And that sternness is due to the tendency to ignore the scriptural guidelines.

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Now this still is true today. You know people in our day they say well you know I'll worship the

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Lord the way I want to worship the Lord. I can worship God out of the bass boat. I don't need to be in church to worship the

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Lord. I don't need to assemble with Christians to worship God. I can worship God any way I want to worship

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God. No. No. Our greatest allegiance needs to be to the scripture and our greatest need is obedience to those scriptures.

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And so he earnestly warns him. But he also compels the man to do this as a testimony.

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As a testimony. See this at the end of verse 44. He says offer for your cleansing those things which

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Moses commanded as a testimony to them. So here's the thing. The testimony of his cleansing is the credibility of that testimony is going to be based upon his obedience.

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Because it was the responsibility of the priest to verify the cleansing.

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So if the guy goes home and says I'm cleansed. I'm cleansed. Well, has the priest declared you cleansed?

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Well, no, I didn't need the priest to declare me cleansed. I'm cleansed. Look, I'm cleansed. Well, wait a minute.

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No, God said you need to do it this way. Well, no, I don't need to do it this way. Well, how can

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I then be sure that you actually really cleansed? You see that the credibility of the man's testimony of cleansing would be determined upon his and based upon his obedience.

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And furthermore, if he did not follow this prescription that Moses laid out.

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Remember, we're still under the old covenant here. If he didn't follow those prescriptions, those guidelines that Moses laid out, that would paint

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Christ, Jesus, in a bad light. As if he's spurning the

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Mosaic law and so forth. No, the testimony's credibility is based upon his obedience.

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But so is the power of that testimony. The power of that testimony. Here's the point.

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Think of it in a contemporary situation. If I profess to be a believer in Christ, if I profess that Jesus has saved me from my sin and I'm a follower of Jesus, and Christ has done this for me and saved me, but I flaunt a disobedient worldly lifestyle, what kind of a testimony do

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I have? I mean, think about the scandals in the church, broadly speaking, that we've known about in the last couple of decades.

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What a blight upon the church's testimony. Here's these guys who get up and proclaim,

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I'm all this for Christ, da -da -da -da -da -da -da, and the whole time they're living an adulterous relationship with somebody else's wife and all this kind of thing.

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And it only comes out after... It's horrible. It's deplorable. The power of the testimony is destroyed by such disobedience.

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No, the testimony's power is based upon obedience. So the Lord commands this man, but one of the things

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He also commands him is to not say anything to anyone about this.

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And here's the challenging part of this story, isn't it? Because what does the guy do?

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What does the guy do? Well, he kind of does what

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I did when I was a 7th grade boy and I was going to be moving to Chicago, and my dad said, don't say anything to anybody about it.

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My heart was so full of excitement that I just had to tell somebody about it.

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And Jesus tells this man, don't say anything to anybody, but go your way to the priest.

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Go to the priest first. Do this first. However, verse 45 says, he went out and began to proclaim it freely.

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It's like he couldn't help himself. He couldn't help himself. Can you sympathize with him?

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I mean, can you imagine how difficult it would be? I mean, it would be almost impossible, don't you think?

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If this had happened to you? I mean, imagine the worst -case scenario.

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Like, you know, talking about Ricky with his torn Achilles tendon and having to get the surgery, and he's in a cast for all these...

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But could you imagine if two days after his surgery, you know, Jesus touched him and he's healed, and he's no more cast.

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He can walk around like he's perfectly fine and perfectly healthy. And he said, don't say anything to anybody. Don't say anything.

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Don't jump up and down. Don't be running around. Don't say anything to anybody. Well, we don't want to magnify the guy's disobedience as if it was irrelevant.

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It wasn't. It had an impact. You know, Jesus could no longer openly enter the city because the guy couldn't keep his mouth shut.

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But what I want to kind of zero in on is the guy's zeal. The guy's zeal.

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He began to publish this much, proclaiming it freely and spreading the matter.

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He found an opportunity to tell somebody, look what happened to me. You saw me begging by the side of the road.

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Look, I don't have to beg anymore. I'm cleansed. I'm clean. You know, I don't have to do this thing. Look, look.

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What zeal. What zeal. And the message that he proclaimed is a message that we can also emulate and proclaim.

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The matter. The matter. He went out and began to spread the matter.

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What is the matter? What was the matter that he proclaimed? Once I was lost, but now

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I am found. Once I was unclean, now I am clean. Once I was doomed, but now

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I am redeemed. Now I'm redeemed. I have a song

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I love to sing since I have been redeemed. And I think we can pray for his impact as we emulate his zeal and proclaim his message of the matter.

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What was the impact? The end of verse 45. They came to him from every direction.

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We can pray that God in his grace would use us in our proclaiming the matter of what

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Jesus has done for us to draw people to himself. So I find this a rather challenging text in that regard because, you know, on one hand,

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Jesus told him don't say anything, and yet he went out and said. But I am challenged also by the guy's heart, a heart that could not be stopped.

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And I wonder, is there something that has stopped our heart? Have we become quiet?

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Have we forgotten? Have we lost sight of what Jesus has done for us?

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And we, therefore, have lost that zeal to spread the matter.

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And have we lost the heart to pray for this kind of an impact?

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Our Father and our God, I pray that this man's disobedience and where he could not keep his heart quiet would challenge us.

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We don't have this command not to say anything. We have just the opposite. And yet, what is our heart like?

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Has our heart been stopped? Have we lost our zeal? Have we lost the message?

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Have we lost the prayer from our heart that you would use us to draw people to yourself?

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Oh, Lord, I pray, challenge us with this passage, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

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And let's close just the first stanza of 538 and allow that to be a challenge to us as well.

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538, I love to tell the story. And as we sing it, we can ask ourselves, do

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I love to tell the story? Let's stand, shall we, as we sing.

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I love to tell the story of unseen things above Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love

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I love to tell the story because I know it is true

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It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do

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I love to tell the story, my theme in glory

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To tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love

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All right, I trust the Lord will bless you this week and give you opportunities to proclaim the matter and share what

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Christ has done in your life. Father, dismiss us now with your blessing. Use us as your children in this world in which we live and move and have our being.

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And I pray that we would walk with you faithfully in it. Keep us from the wicked one as we go.