Mark
1:40-42 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying
to Him, “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, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left
him, and he was cleansed. NKJV
Despite the continual and constant opposition our
Lord encountered from satan’s use of religious Jewish leaders or pagan Gentile
rulers, He was never deterred from His primary mission for leaving Heaven and becoming
a Man and that was to rescue sinners from the captivity of their sin, from darkness,
and from the power of satan. As He walked the streets of the Jewish towns and
provinces, He would always face opposition from the enemy trying to keep people
from Him for even the enemy knew who the Lord Jesus was and that He would be
always willing to heal the broken and contrite sinner. It was the religious
people who felt they were already right with God and in no need of spiritual
healing that our Lord rejected. For as it is written:
1
Peter 5:5 “God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.” NKJV
Everyone who would come to Him would never be turned
away or cast out. The diseases that bound men and women during that day and time are no
different than the many physical diseases we see in our generation, but as then
so it is now that our Lord heals people from physical infirmity. However, it is
His compassionate, merciful, and most willing urgent desire to gain entrance
into the souls of men and women to heal and cleanse their souls from the most
terrible, tyrannical, and torturous disease that has plagued every generation
and that would be the sin disease we are all born with. The writer of Hebrews
captures the heart of our Lord in the following words:
Hebrews 2:17-18
So it is evident that it was essential that He be made like His brethren in
every respect, in order that He might become a merciful (sympathetic) and
faithful High Priest in the things related to God, to make atonement {and} propitiation
for the people’s sins. For because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in
being tempted (tested and tried), He is able [immediately] to run to the cry of
(assist, relieve) those who are being tempted {and} tested {and} tried [and who
therefore are being exposed to suffering]. QAB
I
recently witnessed a PBS news story of a School District somewhere in this
country using a 7 or 8 month child as a teacher to Elementary School children.
The 2nd or 3rd graders would observe the behavior of this
little baby while adult Psychologist would use the baby’s behavior to try and
improve the Elementary Schools kids’ performance in their class work and their
attentiveness to their Instructor and their social skills with the other
children. The news report claims that this program has had documented
improvement levels in all of the areas mentioned and they are planning to
expand its reach to many other Schools around the country.
First,
I would like to commend them for trying to help little children in any manner
to improve in all of those areas, but again we find the same mindset of
humanity since Adam’s Fall and that is earthly methods developed and practiced
to improve humanities spiritual problem. I’m sure they will see some success in
those young kids up to the age of 12 maybe, but it is only the gospel of
Jesus Christ (that is even simple enough for a child to hear, believe, and
receive) that will place a permanent fix upon the little ones hearts that will
last even into adulthood and throughout the remainder of their earthly lives. The
Apostle Paul warned that secular people (void of regeneration and new birth)
would not get this glorious truth and would continue going about using their
own human wisdom to try and fix the problem in the hearts of men, women, boys,
and girls and they would be so captivated by their seemed success they would attempt
to impose it on all of society, even true believers in Jesus Christ.
Colossians
2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according
to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and
not according to Christ. NKJV
The hearts of all human beings from the very womb
are stained with a coat of sin that cannot ever be improved by human wisdom or
methods. It is a black, dark, vile, evil, and wicked heart that resides even in
that little 7 or 8 month old child that was being used in the School
experiment. Humanities problem is the acceptance of this truth. From generation
to generation world leaders and rulers have desired to improve their countries
through violence in eradicating or isolating those who were thought to be
inferior races of human beings that only served to bring the rest of good
humanity down, we have all the documented cases from apartheid, to the Jewish
holocaust, to Rwanda and the massacres that occurred there and many other such
acts in human history (see the article entitled “Man’s Fear of other Men”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=85143).
Today that fear of other human beings still lingers and it is a severe root
cause to those past ideas of race superiority which still remains throughout the
world today.
Proverbs
29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be
safe. NKJV
Acts
17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the
boundaries of their dwellings. NKJV
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not look upon this leprous
man’s heritage, family tree, social status in the community, or any other such
earthly external thing, but He saw the man’s need and more importantly the man’s
humble desire to be cleansed. It was not the man’s disease only that moved our
Lord with compassion to heal him, for there were many lepers all about the
surrounding cities He trekked through that He did not heal from their disease.
Our Lord is willing to cleanse every lost soul from sin, but He will not
receive the soul that comes to Him only for fire insurance that will keep them
from hell.
Our Lord desires no one to enter this place of
torments, but He cannot save a soul that does not want their sins taken away. To
be attached to the Lord Jesus Christ with no heart felt love and desire to obey
His word is like proposing to your earthly bride to be and marrying her consummating
the marriage on the wedding night and then abruptly the very next morning
informing her that you have 3 other girl friends who you will also regularly
sleep with at your convenience anytime you desire. If that bride is pure and just,
she would immediately divorce such a man that would make that profession and
marry one that would honor their marriage covenant, and so does the True Pure
and Just One Jesus Christ cut off superficial or hypocritical branches attached
to Him.
John
15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as
a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the
fire, and they are burned.” NKJV
Romans
11:27 “For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” NKJV
1
John 3:4-5 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is
lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in
Him there is no sin. NKJV
Here is the beauty of what our Lord Jesus Christ has
done for humanity by His first coming and by His death, burial, and resurrection
as we today look back at the cross, when the leprous man came to Him directly
and to our Lord only (not through some Priest, or to pay some modern day
Prophet to prophesy over their lives, or to pray through Mary or any other dead
human being) he was immediately healed and made clean. Today and in the future,
Jesus Christ is the only way any soul filled with the leprosy of sin will ever
be cleansed. The sin sick soul of anyone will hear our Lord say to them, “Now you
are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.” Immediately the person
is reposed, refreshed, and at rest as the weight of sin, the guilt of sin, and
the power of sin is lifted and destroyed by the loving King and Savior (see the
article entitled “Power went from Him”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=78998).
Now that person has a new Master (no longer sin) and his soul is resurrected
from spiritual death just as our Lord was resurrected from His death on the cross
and needs not the counsel that proceeds from the secular world and the people
who are still under its ruling authority, but instead hears the sweet voice of
his or her beloved Lord, Master, and Savior whisper, “Son, Daughter: your sins
are forgiven you.”
Psalms
32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I
will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my
sin. Selah NKJV
Psalms
33:9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
NKJV
Psalms
107:20 He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their
destructions. NKJV
Romans
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death. NKJV
“The Lord Jesus Christ (the great Physician) is the
only one who can perform spiritual surgery on our souls to make them fit for
Heaven and for living the abundant life—real life—while we are down here on
earth. When we are touched by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and He applies
His healing balm to our sin-sick souls, immediately our condition is changed.”
Clifford D. Tate, Sr. excerpt from the book my Lord Jesus wrote through me “Silent
Assassins of the Soul” Chapter 12 Immediately the Leprosy Left Him”
“If he has made us clean from our leprosy of sin, we
are not commanded to conceal it. On the contrary, it is our duty to publish it
abroad, both for the honour of our Benefactor, and that others who are sick of
sin may be encouraged to ask and hope for the same benefit.” John Wesley
“The kingdom of God is for the spiritually sick who
want to be healed, the spiritually corrupt who want to be cleansed, the spiritually poor who
want to be rich, the spiritually hungry who want to be fed, the spiritually
dead who want to be made alive. It is for ungodly outcasts who long to become
God’s own beloved children.” John MacArthur
“Why do we make holiness out to be some austere
obligation or burden to be borne, when the fact is that to be holy is to be
clean, to be free from the weight and the burden of sin? Why would we cling to
our sin any more than a leper would refuse to part with his oozing sores, given
the opportunity to be cleansed of
his leprosy?” Nancy Leigh DeMoss
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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