Here, looking at the cleansing of the leper, it may not necessarily be the other leper, but the one that was declared clean. It was possible, of course, by the grace of God and by the power of God, for leprosy to be taken away. Here we have, in Chapter 14, the ceremonies and the law regarding the cleansing of the leper.

After he is pronounced clean, if you notice that, as we read, after he is pronounced clean, when the leper comes to the priest and the priest examines him, he looks him over from head to foot. And both the one who is white with leprosy and the one who has been cleaned is pronounced clean.

This, at the very beginning, we have to remember that the leper is passive. The leper does nothing. The priest does it all. The priest is the one that, and the priest, read down with me in verse 11 of chapter 14. And the priest that maketh him clean. How are we made clean? We're made clean by the priest. All of these priests are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest. That's the only hope we ever have of being clean. The priest maketh him clean.

And he presents that man. I love reading those verses out of Colossians chapter 1. Many years ago, the Lord, when he began his work amongst us, Colossians was the first book that we read. The priest maketh him clean. I love reading them, don't I? You were sometimes, verse 21, you were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Colossians 1.21. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. if you continue in the faith. The faith that declares that that's what he's done. The faith that declares this is the one who saves. This is the work of our great and glorious high priest.

This is the work of our great and glorious high priest. Now let's go through these verses again. Don't you love the fact This is the law of the leper. In verse two it says, and he shall be brought unto the priest. How do you get to God? He has to come and get you. He has to come and do all the work. The priest, he shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest, verse three, shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, then the priest shall command for him to be cleansed.

Two birds alive, and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. The birds were probably doves. This is a glorious picture of substitution, isn't it? This is a glorious picture. It takes two birds to picture the finished and the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you listen to the picture of it here. This is substitution. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. It's bloods to be shed in an earthen vessel. There's not to be a drop of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to go wasted on the ground here. This is precious blood. This is precious blood. In an earthen vessel over running water.

And as for the living bird, so he takes this living bird and the seed of wood and he ties this this living bird to the cedarwood with the scarlet twine and the hyssop and he shall dip them in the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. Wonderful, isn't it? The pictures of the gospel in all of this are just so, so amazing. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times and he shall pronounce him clean. So get the picture, isn't it? There are two birds brought, two doves brought and one of them is killed over this earthen vessel beside the running water And that blood is collected in this earthen vessel and then that other bird is tied up with the scarlet twine and the cedar wood and the hyssop. And it's dipped in the blood. And then that blood is sprinkled upon him that is to be cleansed seven times. Is to be sprinkled seven. Seven is the number of perfection, a number of completeness. The number of complete that refers to complete cleansing.

By one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. It's the blood of sprinkling that speaks of better things than the blood of ables that the book of Hebrews tells us. It's the blood of sprinkling. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has to be applied to us. And it is applied by God the Holy Spirit. And we'll see more of that as we go on further.

But the cedar is that wonderful tree. The cedars of Lebanon were deep-rooted and they're evergreen and they're ever-fragrant. And those pictures the Lord, and they are, it's durable and strong. It was the timber that used in the temple. And it always pictures, doesn't it, the Lord Jesus Christ's people. They are deep-rooted in him, as Mr Hawker says. They flourish in him, however unprofitable they are in themselves.

And the scarlet. Every time I read this word, scarlet, I love looking it up in the original. The Hebrew word is tola. I don't like talking about Hebrew because I don't understand it very much, but I love what the word means. Let me read you the description of the insect from which all of the scarlet in the ancient world came. It's called a scarlet worm. You can look it up. When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach herself to the trunk of a tree. fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter into their own life cycle. As the mother died, The crimson fluid stained her body and the larvae and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial dyes of antiquity were extracted.

This is just an amazing picture, isn't it, of the Lord Jesus Christ dying on a tree. What does he say of himself in Psalm 22? He uses this same phrase, exact same phrase, in Psalm 22. He says, but I on the cross, this is his Psalm of the cross, but I am a worm, I'm a scarlet worm, and no man, the reproach of men and despised of the people. Everything, everything in the Bible so gloriously points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What's hyssop? You might recall hyssop is used for the sprinkling at the Passover. You took the blood of that lamb that had been taken in as part of your family for those days and you'd nourished it and nurtured it and you took it in there into your house and then on that Passover evening you slew that lamb and you took the blood of that lamb and you dipped a hyssop branch in it. And you put, using the hippocampus, you apply that blood to the doorpost and the lintel of the door of your house. And when God says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Everyone under the blood is clean.

He sprinkles it seven times and he pronounces him clean. Don't you love that? It's a pronouncement by God that you're clean. Pronounce him clean. And then, having done that, he lets this living bird go and that living bird, covered in the blood of the other bird, flies away. What a glorious, glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going entering into the Holy of Holies with his own blood.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 chapter 9. Now let's read so we understand what was happening in this ceremony. This ceremony was a ceremony that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary Street and what was happening on when he was sacrificed.

I love these verses. Hebrews is such an amazing book. But Christ, verse 11 of chapter 9, but Christ being calm and high priest, whose work was it for the cleansing? The priest's work. Who made the declaration of cleanliness? The priest made the declaration.

Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Who has eternal redemption? He has eternal redemption. He's obtained us, who's he done it for? For us.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot, to God. Who was the offering made to for the cleansing? The offering is made to God. God made an offering to God.

Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. What a picture. That dove, that one, the bird that's left loose, covered in blood, and that blood sprinkles those people as it flies away, and it flies as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going back into heaven, having shed his blood for us, for us.

And then, if we go back to Leviticus 14, then the leper, is washed. He washes his clothes, verse 8. Washes his clothes, he shaves off all his hair and he washes himself in water. It's the washing of regeneration, isn't it? These living waters. Out of the sight of the Lord Jesus, a fountain was opened for sin and uncleanness. On the cross of Calvary, that fountain was opened. What came out? Blood and water came out.

He'll wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and wash himself in water that he may be clean. After that, he shall come into the camp and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. And on the seventh day, he'll shave himself again. He'll shave off all the hair of his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all of his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes.

Hair is the glory of women, isn't it? is to be exposed for what you are yet again, just like the leper is full of leprosy. On the eighth day, he shall take two he lambs without blemish and one ewe lamb of the first ewe without blemish. There's a new beginning now, isn't it? And three tenths steels of fine flour for a meat offering, mingle with oil, one log of oil, and the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean and those things before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Then the priest shall take one he-lamb and offer him as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and weigh them for a way of offering before the Lord. God has to deal with God before he can deal with us. And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering. You know what these things mean, don't you? The burnt offering is that offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered the infinite wrath of God in his own body on the cross of Calvary. He is the trespass offering. He is the sin offering. And there is only one in the holy place. For as the sin offering is the priest, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. The man brought them, but they are the priests. This is the work of the priest.

And then I love these next verses. I think this is just so extraordinary. And then the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and the priest shall put it upon the right ear of him that is to be cleansed and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot. So he takes this blood and he puts that blood on the ear and he puts that blood on the right hand and he puts that blood on the toe. Isn't that a glorious picture of what the application of the blood of Christ does in a regenerated sinner? What do we hear? What do we hear when we hear the gospel? We hear about the blood. Don't we? We hear about the blood shed, we hear about the blood applied, we hear about the blood that makes clean. That's what we hear. That's what the application is, isn't it? When God, the Holy Spirit, speaks to our heart, and faith cometh by hearing, we hear about precious blood. We hear about precious blood.

Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. Hebrews 10.10, by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We are sanctified. It's hard for us to imagine how amazing it must have been for a leper to be declared clean. That's the truth of the gospel. For sinners to be declared, have it declared by God Almighty that in the work of our great high priest, in the work of our substitute, the work of our sacrifice, God's children are holy. And we're not going to be any more holy in heaven than we are now, children of God. We're not going to be more righteous than we are now. We're not going to be more sanctified than we are now. If that blood is on our ears, and we'll see in a minute that the oil is applied, and the oil's a picture of the Holy Spirit, is applied in exactly the same places. God declares it. The priest maketh clean. I don't make myself clean. All that God does in my life is to make me realise how much I need a saviour, how sinful I am, how glorious our saviour is.

We're sanctified once for all. Once for all. This is what God says about this cleansing. And this priest, Hebrews, to go on in Hebrews chapter 10, and this priest standeth daily, listen to what he goes on to say, and every priest standeth daily, Hebrews 10, 11, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, listen to it, If there are any lepers in the house, listen to it. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He's declaring this man clean, not because of anything in or any of them. He's declaring this man clean by the work of God, the Holy Spirit, bringing the work of God, the Son to our hearts. So it's applied to the ear. We hear about the blood. We love to talk. As Paul said, he determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul knew what it was to be a leper on that Damascus road. In those days of darkness, he knew what it was to be a leper. and he knew what it was to have a saviour of sinners.

On the right hand, the blood's applied to the right hand, applied to the thumb of the right hand, and that implies all of our actions, the works of our hands. Our works are accepted in the Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted in the Beloved. He has prepared good works for us in which he has promised his people will walk.

Sometimes, as someone said to us long ago, it's too good to be true. Your gospel's too good to be true. Listen to what Ecclesiastes says to the cleansed. Go thy way. Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for now God accepteth thy works, because they're all in him, in an eternal union. They're not good in and of themselves, but they're good because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That man who was covered in leprosy was still a leper and he looked at himself and he just saw leprosy and God says you're perfect. God says you're holy in my sight. We're well pleasing in his sight. And the toe, obviously the toe on the foot applies to our walk, the whole of our work. Whether we're talking about our walk of faith, our walk of repentance, our walk of love, or the fruit of the Spirit, or our motives, the blood of the Son of God is everything. The blood of His Son is everything in all of our time here on this earth.

And don't you love that picture, again then back to Leviticus chapter 14, Don't you love the picture that wherever the blood is applied, the oil is applied. The blood's applied to the ear, the oil's applied to the ear. The blood's applied to the hand, the oil is applied to the hand. The blood is applied to the foot, the oil is applied to the foot. And he'll sprinkle that oil with his fingers seven times before the Lord. Verse 15. The blood of the slain bird is sprinkled, and the oil is sprinkled. The blood is applied, and the oil is applied. He puts it there in exactly the same place.

You can't separate the work of God the Son and the work of God the Holy Spirit in terms of its application to the hearts of God's people. The oil is applied like the blood by God's priest. The oil's put on the blood. Redemption and grace have the same objects. Justification and sanctification, they belong to the same people. Our consecration, our being set apart for God arises from hearts of gratitude and love because we're cleansed. And it's all the operation of God.

The message is really clear. It's really wonderful, isn't it? I can't hear a thing about the blood of Christ unless the Holy Spirit teaches me. And the oil of the Holy Spirit causes me to believe that I'm His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And it's the oil of the Spirit on the blood that keeps my feet in the narrow way. There's a narrow way that we walk. We walk in this world. The lepers were rejected by the people of this world. The lepers were rejected by the religious people of this world.

Can we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, full of leprosy? When he makes us sinners, we will. The leper that's clean is the one that's brought to the priest, and he's covered from head to toe. And this is the wonder of the gospel, that he, this priest, applies that blood. He applies that blood. And the blessed Holy Spirit makes that blood to be pressured for us. Who gets all the glory? Who gets all the glory in the cleansing of the leper? God gets all the glory. Who does all the work? God does all the work. Who gets all the comfort and peace?

It's hard for us to imagine what it was to live in a leper colony with other people around you, being like some of those people I saw in India, but in much, much worse condition. And no hope. And there a priest comes and says, you're mine. I've made you clean. Come now into fellowship with me. Perfect. fellowship with God Almighty.

Why? The only way to have perfect fellowship with God Almighty is to be as holy as God is holy, to have all of your sins taken away. What a saviour! Lepers still, but saved lepers. It's a precious place to be.

May God the Holy Spirit apply that blood to our ears and to our hands and to our feet and apply that blood now with that oil to sanctify us to be vessels for his glory in this world to be used by him. What a saviour.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father we thank you again for your word. We thank you Heavenly Father that Only, only as you open our ears by the precious blood of your Son and only as the Blessed Holy Spirit takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them to us can we see how cleansed we are Can we see how much we need to be cleansed from day by day?

We praise you, Heavenly Father, for sprinkled blood. We praise you for sprinkled oil, that we might, Heavenly Father, rejoice in the glorious and finished work of your dear and precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, as we eat and drink in remembrance of him we declare what he did so long, long ago. to the lepers in that land.

And Heavenly Father, make us to come like that leper who can say, Lord, if you will, you, you alone can make me clean. Cause us to come, Heavenly Father. Cause us to come just as we are. We praise you, Heavenly Father, there's a saviour for sinners. May we eat and drink in remembrance of his broken body and his shed blood, and may we do so, Heavenly Father, with the faith that you alone can give.

We pray in Jesus' name, for his glory. Amen.