The Lord And The Leper

The Lord And The Leper

A Sermon

(No. 2008)

Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, February 12th, 1888, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the [2]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to
him, and saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. and
Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and
saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed."'Mark
1:40-42.

Beloved, we saw in the reading, that our Lord had been engaged in
special prayer. He had gone alone on the mountain-side to have
communion with God. Simon and the rest search for him, and he comes
away in the early morning with the burrs from the hill-side upon his
garments, the smell of the field upon him, even of a field that the
Lord God had blessed; he comes forth among the people, charged with
power which he had received in communion with the Father; and now we
may expect to see wonders. And we do see them; for devils fear and fly
when he speaks the word; and by-and-by, there comes to him one, an
extraordinary being, condemned to live apart from the rest of men, lest
he should spread defilement all around. A leper comes to him, and
kneels before him, and expresses his confident faith in him, that he
can make him whole. Now is the Son of Man glorious in his power to
save.

The Lord Jesus Christ at this day has all power in heaven and in earth.
He is charged with a divine energy to bless all who come to him for
healing. Oh, that we may see today some great wonder of his power and
grace! Oh, for one of the days of the Son of Man here and now! To that
end it is absolutely needful that we should find a case for his
spiritual power to work upon. Is there not one here in whom his grace
may prove its omnipotence? Not you, ye good, ye self-righteous! You
yield him no space to work in. You that are whole have no need of a
physician: in you there is no opportunity for him to display his
miraculous force. But yonder are the men we seek for. Forlorn, and
lost, full of evil, and self-condemned, you are the characters we seek.
You that feel as if you were possessed with evil spirits, and you that
are leprous with sin, you are the persons in whom Jesus will find ample
room and verge enough for the display of his holy skill. Of you I might
say, as he once said of the man born blind: you are here that the works
of God may be manifest in you. You, with your guilt and your depravity,
you furnish the empty vessels into which his grace may be poured, the
sick souls upon whom he may display his matchless power to bless and
save. Be hopeful, then, ye sinful ones! Look up this morning for the
Lord's approach, and expect that even in you he will work great
marvels. This leper shall be a picture-yea, I hope a mirror- in whom
you will see yourselves. I do pray that as I go over the details of
this miracle many here may put themselves in the leper's place, and do
just as the leper did, and receive, just as the leper received,
cleansing from the hand of Christ. O Spirit of the living God, the
thousands of our Israel now entreat thee to work, that Jesus, the Son
of God, may be glorified here and now!

I. I will begin my rehearsal of the gospel narrative by remarking,
first, that THIS LEPER'S FAITH MADE HIM EAGER TO BE HEALED. He was a
leper; I will not stay just now to describe what horrors are compacted
into that single word; but he believed that Jesus could cleanse him,
and his belief stirred him to an anxious desire to be healed at once.

Alas! we have to deal with spiritual lepers eaten up with the foul
disease of sin; but some of them do not believe that they ever can be
healed, and the consequence is that despair makes them sin most
greedily. "I may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb," is the
inward impression of many a sinner when he fears that there is no mercy
and no help for him. Because there is no hope, therefore they plunge
deeper and yet deeper into the slough of iniquity. Oh, that you might
be delivered from that false idea! Mercy still rules the hour. There is
hope while Jesus sends his gospel to you, and bids you repent. "I
believe in the forgiveness of sins": this is a sweet sentence of a true
creed. I believe also in the renewal of men's hearts; for the Lord can
give new hearts and right spirits to the evil and unthankful. I would
that you believed it; for if you did, I trust it would quicken you into
seeking that your sins might be forgiven and your minds might be
renewed. Do you believe it? Then come to Jesus and receive the
blessings of free grace.

We have a number of lepers who come in among us whose disease is white
upon their brows, and visible to all beholders, and yet they are
indifferent: they do not mourn their wickedness, nor wish to be
cleansed from it. They sit among God's people, and they listen to the
doctrine of a new birth, and the news of pardon, and they hear the
teaching as though it had nothing to do with them. If now and then they
half wish that salvation would come to them, it is too languid a wish
to last. They have not yet so perceived their disease and their danger
as to pray to be delivered from them. They sleep on upon the bed of
sloth, and care neither for heaven nor hell. Indifference to spiritual
things is the sin of the age. Men are stolid of heart about eternal
realities. An awful apathy is upon the multitude. The leper in our text
was not so foolish as this. He eagerly desired to be delivered from his
dreadful malady: with heart and soul he pined to be cleansed from its
terrible defilement. Oh that it were so with you! May the Lord make you
feel how depraved your heart is, and how diseased with sin are all the
faculties of your soul! Alas, dear friends,'there are some that even
love their leprosy! Is it not a sad thing to have to speak thus?
Surely, madness is in men's hearts. Men do not wish to be saved from
doing evil. They love the ways and wages of iniquity. They would like
to go to heaven, but they must have their drunken frolics on the road;
they would very well like to be saved from hell, but not from the sin
which is the cause of it. Their notion of salvation is not to be saved
from the love of evil, and to be made pure and clean; but that is God's
meaning when he speaks of salvation. How can they hope to be the slaves
of sin, and yet at the same time be free? Our first necessity is to be
saved from sinning. The very name of Jesus tells us that: he is called
Jesus because "he shall save his people from their sins." These persons
do not care for a salvation which would mean self- denial and the
giving up of ungodly lusts. O wretched lepers, that count their leprosy
to be a beauty, and take pleasure in sin which in the sight of God is
far more loathsome than the worst disease of the body! Oh, that Christ
Jesus would come and change their views of things until they were of
the same mind as God towards sin; and you know he calls it "that
abominable thing which I hate." Oh, if men could see their love to
wrong things to be a disease more sickening than leprosy, they would
fain be saved, and saved at once! Holy Spirit, convince of sin, that
sinners may be eager to be cleansed!

Lepers were obliged to consort together: lepers associated with lepers,
and they must have made up a dreadful confraternity. How glad they
would have been to escape from it! But I know spiritual lepers who love
the company of their fellow lepers. Yes, and the more leprous a man
becomes, the more do they admire him. A bold sinner is often the idol
of his comrades. Though foul is his life, others cling to him for that
very reason. Such persons like to learn some new bit of wickedness,
they are eager to be initiated into a yet darker form of impure
pleasure. Oh, how they long to hear that last lascivious song, to read
that last impure novel! It seems to be the desire of many to know as
much evil as they can. They flock together, and take a dreadful
pleasure in talk and action which is the horror of all pure minds.
Strange lepers, that heap up leprosy as a treasure! Even those who do
not go into gross open sin, yet are pleased with infidel notions and
skeptical opinions, which are a wretched form of mental leprosy. O
horrible malady, which makes men doubt the word of the living God!

Lepers were not allowed to associate with healthy persons except under
severe restrictions. Thus were they separated from their nearest and
dearest friends. What a sorrow! Alas! I know persons thus separated,
who do not wish to associate with the godly: to them holy company is
dull and wearisome; they do not feel free and easy in such society, and
therefore they avoid it as much as decency allows. How can they hope to
live with saints for ever, when they shun them now as dull and moping
acquaintances?

O my hearers, I have come hither this morning in the hope that God
would bless the word to some poor sinner who feels he is a sinner, and
would fain be cleansed: such is the leper I am seeking with my whole
heart. I pray God to bless the word to those who wish to escape from
evil company, who would no longer sit in the assembly of the mockers,
nor run in the paths of the unholy. To those who have grown weary of
their sinful companions, and would escape from them, lest they should
be bound up in bundles with them to burn at the last great day'to such
I speak at this time with a loving desire for their salvation. I hope
my word will come with divine application to some poor heart here that
is crying, "I wish I might be numbered with the people of God. I wish I
were fit to be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord. Oh, that my
dreadful sinfulness were conquered, so that I could have fellowship
with the godly, and be myself one of them!" I hope my Lord has brought
to this place just such lost ones, that he may find them. I am looking
out for them with tearful eyes. But my feeble eyes cannot read inward
character; and it is well that the loving Saviour, who discerns the
secrets of all hearts, and reads all inward desire, is looking from the
watch-towers of heaven, that he may discover those who are coming to
him, even though as yet they are a great way off. Oh that sinners may
now beg and pray to be rescued from their sins! May those who have
become habituated to evil long to break off their evil habits! Happy
will the preacher be if he finds himself surrounded with penitents who
hate their sins, and guilty ones who cry to be forgiven, and to be so
changed that they shall go and sin no more.

II. In the second place, let us remark that THIS LEPER'S FAITH WAS
STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM BELIEVE THAT HE COULD BE HEALED OF HIS
HIDEOUS DISEASE. Leprosy was an unutterably loathsome disease. As it
exists even now, it is described by those who have seen it in such a
way that I will not harrow your feelings by repeating all the sickening
details. The following quotation may be more than sufficient. Dr.
Thomson in his famous work, "The Land and the Book," speaks of lepers
in the East, and says, "The hair falls from the head and eye-brows; the
nails loosen, decay and drop off; joint after joint of the fingers and
toes shrink up and slowly fall away. The gums are absorbed, and the
teeth disappear. The nose, the eyes, the tongue and the palate are
slowly consumed." This disease turns a man into a mass of
loathsomeness, a walking pile of pests. Leprosy is nothing better than
a horrible and lingering death. The leper in the narrative before us
had sad personal experience of this, and yet he believed that Jesus
could cleanse him. Splendid faith! Oh that you who are afflicted with
moral and spiritual leprosy could believe in this fashion! Jesus Christ
of Nazareth can heal even you. Over the horror of leprosy faith
triumphed. Oh that in your case it would overcome the terribleness of
sin!

Leprosy was known to be incurable. There was no case of a man being
cured of real leprosy by any medical or surgical treatment. This made
the cure of Naaman in former ages so noteworthy. Observe, moreover,
that our Saviour himself, so far as I can see, had never healed a leper
up to the moment when this poor wretch appeared upon the scene. He had
cured fever, and had cast out devils, but the cure of leprosy was in
the Saviour's life as yet an unexampled thing. Yet this man, putting
this and that together, and understanding something of the nature and
character of the Lord Jesus Christ, believed that he could cure him of
his incurable disease. He felt that even if the great Lord had not yet
healed leprosy, he was assuredly capable of doing so great a deed, and
he determined to apply to him. Was not this grand faith? Oh that such
faith could be found among my hearers at this hour! Here me, O
trembling sinner: if thou be as full of sin this morning as an egg is
full of meat, Jesus can remove it all. If thy propensities to sin be as
untamable as the wild boar of the wood, yet Jesus Christ, the Lord of
all, can subdue thine iniquities, and make thee the obedient servant of
his love. Jesus can turn the lion into a lamb, and he can do it now. He
can transform thee where thou art sitting, saving thee in yonder pew
while I am speaking the word. All things are possible to the Saviour
God; and all things are possible to him that believeth. I would thou
hadst such a faith as this leper had, although if it were even less it
might serve thy turn, since thou hast not all his difficulties to
contend with, since Jesus has already saved many sinners like thyself,
and changed many hearts as hard as thine. If he shall regenerate thee,
he will be doing for thee no strange thing, but only one of the daily
miracles of his grace. He has now healed thousands of thy fellow
lepers: canst thou not believe that he can heal the leprosy in thee?

This man had a marvelous faith, thus to believe while he was personally
the victim of the mortal malady. It is one thing to trust a doctor when
you are well, but quite another to confide in him when your body is
rotting away. For a real, conscious sinner to trust the Saviour is no
mean thing. When you hope that there is some good thing in you, it is
easy to be confident; but to be conscious of total ruin and yet to
believe in the divine remedy'this is real faith. To see in the sunshine
is mere natural vision; but to see in the dark needs the eye of faith:
to believe that Jesus has saved you when you see the signs of it, is
the result of reason; but to trust him to cleanse you while you are
still defiled with sin'this is the essence of saving faith.

The leprosy was firmly seated and fully developed in this man. Luke
says that he was "full of leprosy": he had as much of the poison in him
as one poor body could contain, it had come to its worst stage in him;
and yet he believed that Jesus of Nazareth could make him clean.
Glorious confidence! O my hearer, if thou art full of sin, if thy
propensities and habits have become as bad as bad can be, I pray the
Holy spirit to give thee and renew thee, and do it at once. With one
word of his mouth Jesus can turn your death into life, your corruption
into comeliness. Changes which we cannot work in others, much less in
ourselves, Jesus, by his invincible Spirit, can work in the hearts of
the ungodly. Of these stones he can raise up children unto Abraham. His
moral and spiritual miracles are often wrought upon cases which seem
beyond all hope, cases which pity itself endeavours to forget because
her efforts have been so long in vain.

I like best about this man's faith the fact that he did not merely
believe that Jesus Christ could cleanse a leper, but that he could
cleanse him! He said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."
It is very easy to believe for other people. There is really no faith
in such impersonal, proxy confidence. The true faith believes for
itself first, and then for others. Oh, I know some of you are saying,
"I believe that Jesus can save my brother. I believe that he can save
the vilest of the vile. If I heard that he had saved the biggest
drunkard in Southward I should not wonder." Canst thou believe all
this, and yet fear that he cannot save thee? This is strange
inconsistency. If he heals another man's leprosy, can he not heal thy
leprosy? If one drunkard is saved, why not another? If in one man a
passionate temper is subdued, why not in another? If lust, and
covetousness, and lying, and pride have been cured in many men, why not
in thee? Even if thou art a blasphemer, blasphemy has been cured; why
should it not be so in thy case? He can heal thee of that particular
form of sin which possesses thee, however high a degree its power may
have reached; for nothing is too hard for the Lord. Jesus can change
and cleanse thee now. In a moment he can impart a new life and commence
a new character. Canst thou believe this? This is the faith which
glorified Jesus, and brought healing to this leper; and it is the faith
which will save you at once if you now exercise it. O Spirit of the
living God, work this faith in the minds of my dear hearers, that they
may thus win their suit with the Lord Jesus, and go their way healed of
the plague of sin!

III. Now, notice, thirdly, that this man's faith WAS FIXED ON JESUS
CHRIST ALONE. Let me read the man's words again. He said unto Jesus,
"If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Throw the emphasis upon the
pronouns. See him kneeling before the Lord Jesus and hear him say, "If
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." He has no idea of looking to the
disciples; no, not to one of them or to all of them. He had no notion
of trusting in a measure to the medicine which physicians would
prescribe for him. All that is gone. No dream of other hope remains;
but with his eye fully fixed on the blessed Miracle-worker of Nazareth,
he cries, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." In himself he had
no shade of confidence; every delusion of that kind had been banished
by a fierce experience of his disease. He knew that none on earth could
deliver him, and that by no innate power of constitution could he throw
out the poison; but he confidently believed that the Son of God could
by himself effect the cure. This was God-given faith'the faith of God's
elect, and Jesus was its sole object.

How came this man to have such faith? I cannot tell you the outward
means, but I think we may guess without presumption. Had he not heard
our Lord preach? Matthew puts this story immediately after the Sermon
on the Mount, and says, "When he was come down from the mountain, great
multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Had this
man managed to stand at the edge of the crowd and hear Jesus speak, and
did those wondrous words convince him that the great Teacher was
something more than man? As he noted the style, and manner, and matter
of that marvelous sermon, did he say within himself, "never man spake
like this man. Truly he is the Son of God. I believe in him. I trust
him. he can cleanse me"? May God bless the preaching of Christ
crucified to you who hear me this day! Is not this used of the Lord,
and made to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth?

Perhaps this man had seen our Lord's miracles. I feel sure he had. He
had seen the devils cast out, and had heard of Peter's wife's mother,
who had lain sick of a fever, and had been instantaneously recovered.
The leper might very properly argue'To do this requires omnipotence;
and once granted that omnipotence is at work, then omnipotence can as
well deal with leprosy as with fever. Did he not reason well if he
argued thus'What the Lord has done, he can do again: if in one case he
has displayed almighty power, he can display that same power in another
case? Thus would the acts of the Lord corroborate his words, and
furnish a sure foundation for the leper's hope. My hearer, have you not
seen Jesus save others? Have you not at least read of his miracles of
grace? Believe him, then, for his works' sake, and say to him, "Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

Besides, I think this man may have heard something of the story of
Christ, and may have been familiar with the Old Testament prophecies
concerning the Messiah. We cannot tell but some disciple may have
informed him of John's witness concerning the Christ, and of the signs
and tokens which supported John's testimony. He may thus have discerned
in the Son of Man the Messiah of God, the Incarnate Deity. At any rate,
as knowledge must come before faith, he had received knowledge enough
to feel that he could trust this glorious personage, and to believe
that, if he willed it, Jesus could make him clean. O my dear hearers,
cannot you trust the Lord Jesus Christ in this way? Do you not
believe'I hope you do'that he is the Son of God; and if so, why not
trust him? He that was born of Mary at Bethlehem was God over all,
blessed forever! Do you not believe this? Why, then, do you not rely
upon God in our nature? You believe in his consecrated life, his
suffering death, his resurrection, his ascension, his sitting in power
at the right hand of the Father; why do you not trust him? God hath
highly exalted him, and caused all fullness to dwell in him: he is able
to save unto the uttermost, why do you not come to him? Believe that he
is able, and then with all thy sins before thee, red like scarlet'and
with all thy sinful habits, and thy evil propensities before thee,
ingrained like the leopard's spots'believe that the Saviour of men can
at once make thee whiter than snow as to past guilt, and free from the
present and future tyranny of evil. A divine Saviour must be able to
cleanse thee from all sin. Only Jesus can do it, but he can do it'do it
himself alone, do it now, do it in thee, do it with a word. If Jesus
wills to do it, it is all that is wanted; for his will is the will of
the Almighty Lord. Say, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."
Faith must be fixed alone on Jesus. None other name is given among men
whereby we must be saved. I do pray the Lord to give that faith to all
my dear friends present this morning who as yet have not received
cleansing at the Lord's hands. Jesus is God's ultimatum of salvation:
the unique hope of guilty men both as to pardon and renewal. Accept him
even now.

IV. Now let me go a step further: THIS MAN'S FAITH HAD RESPECT TO A
REAL MATTER-OF-FACT CURE. He did not think of the Lord Jesus Christ as
a priest who would perform certain ceremonies over him, and formally
say, "Thou art clean"; for that would not have been true. He wanted
really to be delivered from the leprosy; to have those dry scales, into
which his skin kept turning, taken all away, that his flesh might
become as the flesh of a little child; he wanted that the rottenness,
which was eating up his body, should be stayed, and that health should
be actually restored. Friends, it is easy enough to believe in a mere
priestly absolution if you have enough credulity; but we need more than
this. It is very easy to believe in Baptismal Regeneration, but what is
the good of it? What practical result does it produce? A child remains
the same after it has been baptismally regenerated as it was before,
and it grows up to prove it. It is easy to believe in Sacramentarianism
if you are foolish enough; but there is nothing in it when you believe
in it. No sanctifying power comes with outward ceremonials in and of
themselves. To believe that the Lord Jesus Christ can make us love the
good things which once we despised, and shun those evil things in which
we once took pleasure'this is to believe in him indeed and of a truth.
Jesus can totally change the nature, and make a sinner into a saint.
This is faith of a practical kind; this is a faith worth having.

None of us would imagine that this leper meant that the Lord Jesus
could make him feel comfortable in remaining a leper. Some seem to
fancy that Jesus came to let us go on in our sins with a quiet
conscience; but he did nothing of the kind. His salvation is cleansing
from sin, and if we love sin we are not saved from it. We cannot have
justification without sanctification. There is no use in quibbling
about it; there must be a change, a radical change, a change of heart,
or else we are not saved. I put it now to you, Do you desire a moral
and a spiritual change, a change of life, thought and motive? This is
what Jesus gives. Just as this leper needed a thorough physical change,
so do you need an entire renewal of your spiritual nature, so as to
become a new creature in Jesus Christ. Oh that many here would desire
this, for it would be a cheering sign. The man who desires to be pure
is beginning to be pure; the man who sincerely longs to conquer sin has
struck the first blow already. The power of sin is shaken in that man
who looks to Jesus for deliverance from it. The man who frets under the
yoke of sin will not long be a slave to it; if he can believe that
Jesus Christ is able to set him free, he shall soon quit his bondage.
Some sins which have hardened down into habits, will yet disappear in a
moment when Jesus Christ looks upon a man in love. I have known many
instances of persons who, for many years, had never spoken without an
oath, or a filthy expression, who, being converted, have never been
known to use such language again, and have scarcely ever been tempted
in that direction. This is one of the sins which seem to die at the
first shot, and it is a very wonderful thing it should be so. Others I
have known so altered at once that the very propensity which was
strongest in them has been the last to annoy them afterwards: they have
had such a reversion of the mind's action that, while other sins have
worried them for years, and they have had to set a strict watch against
them, yet their favourite and dominant sin has never again had the
slightest influence over them, except to excite an outburst of horror
and deep repentance. Oh, that you had faith in Jesus that he could thus
cast down and cast out your reigning sins! Believe in the conquering
arm of the Lord Jesus, and he will do it. Conversion is the standing
miracle of the church. Where it is genuine, it is as clear a proof of
divine power going with the gospel, as was the casting out of devils,
or even the raising of the dead in our Lord's day. We see these
conversions still; and have proof that Jesus is able to work great
moral marvels still. O my hearer, where art thou? Canst thou not
believe that Jesus is able to make a new man of thee? O brethren, who
have been saved, I entreat you to breathe a prayer at this time for
those who are not yet cleansed from the foul disease of sin. Pray that
they may have grace to believe in the Lord Jesus for purification of
heart, pardon of sin, and the implantation of eternal life. Then when
faith is given, the Lord Jesus will work their sanctification, and none
shall effectually hinder. In silence let us pray for a moment. (Here
there was a pause, and silent prayer went up to heaven.)

V. And now we will go another step: THIS MAN'S FAITH WAS ATTENDED WITH
WHAT APPEARS TO BE A HESITANCY. But after thinking it over a good deal,
I am hardly inclined to think it such a hesitancy as many have judged
it to be. He said, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." There was
an "if" in this speech, and that "if" has aroused the suspicions of
many preachers. Some think it supposes that he doubted our Lord's
willingness. I hardly think that the language justly bears so harsh a
construction. What he meant may have been this'"Lord, I do not know yet
that thou art sent to heal lepers; I have not seen that thou hast ever
done so; but, still, if it be within the compass of thy commission, I
believe thou wilt do it, and assuredly thou canst if thou wilt. Thou
canst heal not only some lepers, but me in particular; thou canst make
me clean." Now, I think this was a legitimate thing for him to say, as
he had not seen a leper healed'"If it be within the compass of thy
commission, I believe thou canst make me whole."

Moreover, I admire in this text the deference which the leper pays to
the sovereignty of Christ's will as to the bestowal of his gifts. "If
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean";'as much as to say, "I know thou
hast a right to distribute these great favours exactly as thou
pleasest. I have no claim upon thee; I cannot say that thou art bound
to make me clean; I appeal to thy pity and free favour. The matter
remains with thy will." The man had never read the text which saith,
"It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy," for it was not yet written; but he had in his mind
the humble spirit suggested by that grand truth. He owned that grace
must come as a free gift of God's good pleasure when he said "Lord, if
thou wilt." Beloved, we need never raise a question as to the Lord's
will to give grace when we have the will to receive it; but still, I
would have every sinner feel that he has no claim upon God for
anything. O sinner, if the Lord should give thee up, as he did the
heathen described in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,
thou deservest it. If he should never look upon thee with an eye of
love, what couldst thou say against his righteous sentence? Thou hast
wilfully sinned, and thou deservest to be left in thy sin. Confessing
all this, we still cling to our firm belief in the power of grace, and
cry, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst." We appeal to our Saviour's
pitying love, relying upon his boundless power.

See, also, how the leper, to my mind, really speaks without any
hesitancy, if you understand him. He does not say, "Lord, if thou
puttest out thy hand, thou canst make me clean"; nor, "Lord, if thou
speakest, thou canst make me clean"; but only, "Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean": thy mere will can do it. Oh, splendid faith!
If you are inclined to spy a little halting in it, I would have you
admire it for running so well with a lame foot. If there was a weakness
anywhere in his faith, still it was so strong that the weakness only
manifests its strength. Sinner, it is so; and I pray God that thy heart
may grasp it'if the Lord wills it he can make thee clean. Believest
thou this? If so, carry out practically what thy faith will suggest to
thee'namely, that thou come to Jesus and plead with him, and get from
him the cleansing which thou needest. To that end I am hoping to lead
thee, as the Holy Spirit shall enable me.

VI. In the sixth place, notice that THIS MAN'S FAITH HAD EARNEST ACTION
FLOWING OUT OF IT. Believing that, if Jesus willed, he could make him
clean, what did the leper do? At once he came to Jesus. I know not from
what distance, but he came as near to Jesus as he could. Then we read
that he besought him; that is to say, he pleaded, and pleaded, and
pleaded again. He cried, "Lord, cleanse me! Lord heal my leprosy!" Nor
was this all; he fell on his knees and worshipped; for we read,
"Kneeling down to him." He not only knelt, but knelt to Jesus. He had
no difficulty as to paying him divine honour. He worshipped the Lord
Christ, paying him reverent homage. He then went on to honour him by an
open acknowledgment of his power, his marvelous power, his infinite
power, by saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." I
should not wonder if some that stood by began to smile at what they
thought the poor man's fanatical credulity. They murmured, "What a poor
fool as this leper is, to think that Jesus of Nazareth can cure him of
his leprosy!" Such a confession of faith had seldom been heard. But
whatever critics and skeptics might think, this brave man boldly
declared, "Lord, this is my confession of faith: I believe that if thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean." Now, poor soul, thou that art full of
guilt, and hardened in sin, and yet anxious to be healed, look straight
away to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is here now. In the preaching of the
gospel he is with us alway. With the eyes of thy mind behold him, for
he beholdeth thee. Thou knowest that he lives, even though thou seest
him not. Believe in this living Jesus; believe for perfect cleansing.
Cry to him, worship him, adore him, trust him. He is very God of very
God; bow before him, and cast thyself upon his mercy. Go home, and on
thy knees say, "Lord, I believe that thou canst make me clean." He will
hear your cry, and will save you. There will be no interval between
your prayer and the gracious reward of faith, of which I am now to
speak.

VII. Lastly, HIS FAITH HAD ITS REWARD. Have patience with me just a
minute. The reward of this man's faith was, first, that his very words
were treasured up. Matthew, Mark, Luke, all three of them record the
precise words which this man used: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean." They evidently did not see so much to find fault with in
them as some have done; on the contrary, they thought them gems to be
placed in the setting of their gospels. Three times over are they
recorded, because they are such a splendid confession of faith for a
poor diseased leper to have made. I believe that God is as much
glorified by that one sentence of the leper as by the song of Cherubim
and Seraphim, when they continually do cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
of Sabaoth." A sinner's lips declaring his confident faith in God's own
Son can breathe sonnets unto God more sweet than those of the angelic
choirs. This man's first faith- words are folded up in the fair linen
of three evangels, and laid up in the treasury of the house of the
Lord. God values the language of humble confidence.

His next reward was, that Jesus echoed his words. He said, "Lord, if
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean"; and Jesus said, "I will; be thou
clean." As an echo answers to the voice, so did Jesus to his
supplicant. The Lord Jesus was so pleased with this man's words that he
caught them as they leaped out of his mouth, and used them himself,
saying, "I will; be thou clean." If you can only get, then, as far as
this leper's confession, I believe that our Lord Jesus from his throne
above will answer to your prayer.

So potent were the words of this leper that they moved our Lord very
wonderfully. Read the forty-first verse: "And Jesus, moved with
compassion." The Greek word here used, if I were to pronounce it in
your hearing, would half suggest its own meaning. It expresses a
stirring of the entire manhood, a commotion in all the inward parts.
The heart and all the vitals of the man are in active movement. The
Saviour was greatly moved. You have seen a man moved, have you not?
When a strong man is unable any longer to restrain himself, and is
forced to give way to his feelings, you have seen him tremble all over,
and at last burst out into an evident break-down. It was just so with
the Saviour: his pity moved him, his delight in the leper's faith
mastered him. When he heard the man speak with such confidence in him,
the Saviour was moved with a sacred passion, which, as it was in
sympathy with the leper, is called "compassion." Oh, to think that a
poor leper should have such power over the divine Son of God! Yet, my
hearer, in all thy sin and misery, if thou canst believe in Jesus, thou
canst move the heart of thy blessed Saviour. Yea, even now his bowels
yearn towards thee.

No sooner was our Lord Jesus thus moved than out went his hand, and he
touched the man and healed him immediately. It did not require a long
time for the working of the cure; but the leper's blood was cooled and
cleansed in a single second. Our Lord could work this miracle, and make
all things new in the man; for "all things were made by him; and
without him was not anything made that was made." He restored the poor,
decaying, putrefying body of this man, and he was cleansed at once. To
make him quite sure that he was cleansed, the Lord Jesus bade him go to
the priest, and seek a certificate of health. He was so clean that he
might be examined by the appointed sanitary authority, and come off
without suspicion. The cure which he had received was a real and
radical one, and therefore he might go away at once, and get the
certificate of it. If our converts will not bear practical tests, they
are worth nothing; let even our enemies judge whether they are not
better men and women when Jesus has renewed them. If Jesus saves a
sinner, he does not mind all men testing the change. Jesus does not
seek display, but he seeks examination from those able to judge. Our
converts will bear the test. Come hither, angels! Come hither, pure
intelligences, able to observe men in secret! Here is a wretch of a
sinner who came hither this morning. He seemed first cousin to the
devil; but the Lord Jesus Christ has converted him and changed him. Now
look at him, ye angels; look at him at home in his chamber! Watch him
in private life. We can read your verdict. "There is joy in presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"; and this proves what
you think. It is such a wonderful change, and angels are so sure of it,
that they give their certificates at once. How do they give their
certificates? Why, each one manifests his joy as he sees the sinner
turning from his sinful ways. Oh, that the angels might have work of
this kind to do this morning! Dear hearer, may you be one over whom
they rejoice! If thou believest on Jesus Christ, and if thou wilt trust
him, as the sent One of God, fully and entirely with thy soul, he will
make thee clean. Behold him on the cross, and see sin put away. Behold
him risen from the dead, and see new life bestowed. Behold him
enthroned in power, and see evil conquered. I am ready to be bound for
my Lord, to be his surety, that if thou, my hearer, wilt come to him,
he will make thee clean. Believe thy Saviour, and thy cure is wrought.
God help thee, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Mark 1:16-45.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"'428, 602, 546.