Let us turn once again to the
Word of God. Turning now to the New Testament. And I direct you this morning
to words that we find here in the first chapter of the Gospel
according to St. Mark. Mark 1 and the end of the
chapter reading from verse 40 through to 45. Mark 1 verse 40. 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 said
unto him, I will be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And he straightly charged him,
and forthwith sent him away, and saith unto him, See thou
say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the
priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. But he went out, and began to
publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that
Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without
in desert places, and they came to him from every quarter. This incident of course is not
only found here in Mark, we have a record of it in all the synoptic
Gospels. You'll find it also at the beginning
of Matthew chapter 8 and then again in Luke and the first part
of chapter 5, the threefold record then the threefold cord that
cannot be easily broken it's a significant miracle as with
all the miracles that we see in the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ but though Christ was one who performed many mighty
works we must always remember that the prime part of his ministry
was the preaching And we certainly see that here in the opening
chapter of Mark's Gospel in the previous verses to what I've
just read. verse 38 he says to his disciples
let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also
for therefore came I forth and he preached in their synagogues
throughout all Galilee and cast out devils and then earlier in
the chapter we have the beginning of his ministry after John the
Baptist was imprisoned verse 14 now after that John was put
in prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand, repentance and believe the gospel. We see then here the primacy
of the preaching of the word of God and how the miracles are
really subservient to that preaching. how the miracles in a sense authenticate
his authority in verse 27 for example where he performs a miracle
they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves
saying what thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits and
they do obey him and you can think of the words of Nicodemus,
who was a teacher amongst the Jews. Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God. No man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. But thou, the Lord's
ministry is such a wholesome ministry. Yes, he preaches, but
he is also concerned for the physical well-being of the people. And here we see with this man
how he's moved with such compassion towards him as the man comes
before him and makes his request beseeching him, kneeling down
to him saying to him if thou wilt thou canst make me clean
and then at verse 41 and Jesus moved with compassion put forth
his hand and touched him and said unto him I will be thou
clean and immediately Oh, there's an emphasis here in that 42nd
verse. As soon as he had spoken, immediately,
the leprosy departed and the man was clean. Well, I want us to consider something
of this particular incident as we find it recorded here in the
account of Mark and really dealing with two basic points this morning. Lord willing we'll come again
to consider something more of the incident this evening but
this morning to say something with regard to leprosy clearly
a type of sin and then secondly we see Christ as that one who
is a complete saviour and a compassionate saviour first of all then leprosy
and sin the type that we have here and it's interesting that
when the Lord performs the miracle he immediately directs the man
to observe what was required under the Mosaic Law in verse
44 he wasn't to say anything to any man he says but go thy
way show thyself to the priest show thyself to the priest and
offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. Under the Levitical law the leper
has all his dealings not with the physician but with the priest
and we saw that of course in that portion that we were reading
in Leviticus chapter 13 where we have all those instructions
and directions with regards to how the leprosy is to be properly
diagnosed and the work does not belong to a physician the work
very much belongs to the priest and it's emphasized we have it
again for example in Deuteronomy 24 and verse 8, these words take
heed in the plague of leprosy that thou observe diligently
and do according to all that the priests, the Levites shall
teach you as I commanded them so ye shall observe to do. What an emphasis there is here.
These words observe, do, as I commanded. They were to be diligent then
in attending to those things that the Lord God himself had
said with regards to how the lepers were to be attended to. And we see quite clearly how
in Scripture sin is set before us really as
a spiritual leprosy. It is clearly a type. We read something of the various
symptoms that would appear in that portion in the 13th of Leviticus,
but think of the language that we find in other parts of scripture
with regards to sin. In the opening chapter of the
prophecy of Isaiah, as the Lord sets before the children of Israel
their condition, how they were guilty of great sins, gross sins,
what idolatries. And the Lord says, from the sole
of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and putrefying sores. He's describing the condition
of the people, the children of Israel, those who were supposedly
God's covenant people. And yet, they're like a leprous
nation. Or they were a people who were
full of sin the sole of the foot to the crown of the head no soundness
at all putrefying swords and even David the man after God's
own heart remember how David makes his confessions in many
Psalms for example there in the 38th Psalm and look at the language
that we find verse 3 there is no soundness in my flesh because
of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because
of my sin. My iniquities are gone over my
head as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds
stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. My loins are
filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in
my flesh. What is David doing He's confessing
himself to be a sinner before God, and yet he speaks this language
that so appertains really to the plague of leprosy. It is
a type, I say, of sin. Now what it was that poor Job
was afflicted with, we're not told. And yet, in some ways it
seems to be a leprous condition, covered with sore boils, from
the sole of his feet to the crown of his head and he takes a potsherd
remember and he goes and he sits amongst the ashes and he is scraping
himself and bemoaning now his awful state and condition but
not only in the symptoms of the sinner is
the language associated with leprosy employed in scripture
but also when it comes to the cleansing of the leper and we
read that short portion at the beginning of chapter 14 in Leviticus
the cleansing of the leper, what was he to do? and this is what
the Lord is really directing this man to in verse 14 offer
for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony
unto them Well we read there that leper was to go and he was to take two birds and
cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop and one bird was to be killed
and the other bird dipped in that blood and then all those
other parts that he was to bring the cedar wood, the scarlet,
the hyssop also dipped in the blood of the slain bird and then
applied to the leper and this is all part and parcel of his
cleansing and it's interesting when we turn to such a psalm
as the 51st David's psalm of penitence after his great sins
how he had sinned in the matter of Bathsheba and her husband
Uriah and he was one who was an adulterer and a murderer and
how faithful Nathan deals with that man and tells him all that
he has done and he feels it, he is a man, he has transgressed
and he cries out to God against thee, thee only have I sinned
and none this evil in thy sight, we're familiar I'm sure with
that Psalm? Why that hymn that we just sang
of Isaac Watts? Is it not a paraphrase of part
of Psalm 51? But what do we read there in
Psalm 51? Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Is there not there some allusion
to the cleansing of the leper? Purging with hyssop. just as
was the case when the leper has to come for his cleansing. Leprosy
then in the Old Testament is a type. The Old Testament is
full of types. Leviticus is a typical book,
we know that. All those types and shadows,
all the burnt offerings and the sin offerings and the trespass
offerings They're all types of the great sacrifice that Christ
has made once and for all. And so leprosy is a type, but
we have to be careful. What is it a type of? It is a
type of sin, but it is just a type of sin in a very general sense. I would say it's not a type of
sin in general. We know all of sin. and come
short of the glory of God and in Ecclesiastes Solomon says
there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not but are all really sinners in God's sight? how many
have a sense of their sins? sin is a man we are culpable
as sinners But where does the sense of sin come from? That
can only come from God. And I would say this, that the
leper, when we see the leper, that's a type of that man whose
eyes have been opened to see something of what his foul condition
is. To understand these things are
rights. This grand distinction must be known, though all are
sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our Lord was
sent. They're only sinners who repent."
How true are those lines of Joseph Hart. It is that person who has
a sense of what he is that he set before us in the
type of the leper. and what are the symptoms? let's
consider for a while something of those symptoms those symptoms
of leprosy and how those symptoms relate we can examine ourselves,
do we know anything of those symptoms? that we see there in
the book of Leviticus did you observe how in the opening verses
of that 13th chapter the symptoms are very small we might say insignificant
just a rising it says, or a swelling in the flesh, a scab a bright
spot, that's all that we read of there in Leviticus 13.2 just
a small thing all sin is so subtle a thing, so insidious the heart
of man is deceitful above all things, it's desperately wicked
who can know it? Why the psalmist cries out in
the agonies of his soul, who can understand his errors? Cleanse,
O mine, from secret faults. Oh, are we aware, you see, of
those little things, those little sins? James tells us, when lust hath
conceived it bringeth forth sin, sin when it is finished bringeth
forth death. I think that's the most striking
verse that we have in the opening chapter of that epistle of James.
Sin, from its conception to its awful end in the matter of a
few words. Lust conceives, brings forth
sin. And where does sin end? It ends
in death. All men might know something
of the beginning, those small beginnings of their sin, but
who can book the ends thereof? We have to look then and examine
ourselves and prove ourselves and know ourselves. What are
the real symptoms? Well, again, we see a number
of things in that portion that we were reading in Leviticus
13. Where it is a real leprosy, it's
deeper than the skin. This is why the man has to go
away for seven days, and then he comes again to the priest,
and the priest examines a second time, and then maybe he goes
away for another seven days. There's a procedure to be followed. It's not a superficial thing,
this. It's deeper than the skin. And of course, when it comes
to that faith that he's saving, that also is deep, isn't it? Through faith to the life of
God, deep in the heart it lies. It lives, it labors under load,
though damped. It never dies. The faith is greater than the
sin, really. But as we see there, as he's
examining the man, the priest is seeking to establish how deep,
how deep is this eruption that has come to me concerning. And there are other symptoms
that he's to look for. As the hair turned white, What
does that indicate? Well, it's something that has
perished now. It's perished from its very roots. The hair turned
white. Now, go and think about in Scripture
there in 1 Corinthians 11 where we have that ordinance of the
New Testament that the woman is to have her head covered in
the worship of God and amongst other things there we read that
the hair is the woman's glory. the hair is spoken of as a glory
it's the same also isn't it there in the Old Testament we read
of Absalom David's son who rebelled so grievously against his father
but what a striking man Absalom was why he was renowned for his
beauty throughout all the tribes of Israel and his hair was his
glory and he would polish, we are told, at the end of every
year. The hair has to do then with the glory, the glory of
the woman. And the head covered then when she comes before the
great God. The glory of Absalom. But there
in the leper, the hair has turned white, it's perished. Well, these
are some of the symptoms of that person who feels himself now
to be such a sinner, there's a depth of conviction in his
soul now there's that sense of his corruptions, it's spreading
that's another symptom that we have mentioned in those verses
that we were reading in the opening part of that 13th chapter it's a spreading disease and
this is what the priest is looking for or here surely we see that
in that person who has been awakened and there's a measure of conviction
taking place in that man's soul there won't be any sense of goodness
no as the Lord proceeds as the man is growing in some measure
it's never a growth in conscious goodness but a growth in felt
necessity. Isn't that the language that's
used even in the gospel standard articles? No growth in conscious
goodness, but that increasing sense of needs, growing grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, says
Peter. Or when the Lord deals with us,
And then also there's mention of raw flesh in that portion
that we read from verse 14 of that 13th chapter of Leviticus. There's raw flesh. What is the
raw flesh? Doesn't that indicate something
of a tender conscience? A rawness in the soul of this
man. He feels things. Well, this is
that sinner you see. He's such a sensible sinner.
He has such a remarkable feeling in his soul. He feels what he
is before a holy God. To see sin smart, but slightly,
to own with lip confession is easier still. But all to feel
cuts deep beyond expression, says the hymn writer. And you
know, it's quite amazing, isn't it? as I read those verses as
I ever read those verses what said there in the 13th verse
of Leviticus 13 then the priest shall consider
and behold if the leprosy hath covered all his flesh he shall
pronounce him clean at the plank if he is all turned white he
is clean when the leprosy is all over the man he is pronounced
clean and that's the sacred sinner or that's the real sensible sinner sin is of man, as I said, but
that sense of his sinnership comes from God the sinner is
a sacred thing the Holy Ghost has made him so new life from
him we must receive before for sin we rightly grieve where there
is such a sense of his sin and certainly this is the case with
this man as he comes before the Lord Jesus oh what reality and
what sincerity in the man's approach 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 doesn't this man feel what he is and
there's no hope in himself where can he find his cleansing though
he comes before the Lord Jesus Christ and he comes in that spirit
of real reverence he kneels before him and he cries to him for his cleansing
and the Lord deals with him in the way of compassion and so
I want us in the second place to turn as it were from the sinner
to turn from all those dreadful symptoms and to consider something
of the Lord Jesus Christ a complete saviour a compassionate saviour
Alfred Edersheim, the Jewish convert to Christianity, who
understood much of rabbinical law and so forth, said the rabbis
would treat lepers with the utmost contempt. Rabbis had no time for lepers. How different is
this rabbi? Remember how Nicodemus recognizes
him as a rabbi, a teacher. Rabbi! No man can do these things
that thou doest except God be with him. Oh, the Lord is different,
you see. To those proud men, the rabbis. Those proud men, the Pharisees. What would they say to such a
man as this? Stand by thyself. Come not nigh me. I am holier
than thou. But what do we see with the Lord
Jesus? Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched
him, and said unto him, I will be thou clean. Remember friends, the Lord Jesus
was ever always the sinless one. He was free from sin in every
sense. he was free from any original
sin the sin of Adam that has come
down the generations and so we are all born dead in trespasses
and sins we all have to confess we died we were conceived in
sin shapen in iniquity going astray from the womb but there
was none of that original sin in the holy thing that was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Ghost so came upon that
sinful woman. And she was a sinner who rejoices
in God her Saviour in the Magnificat. The nonsense that is taught by
the apostate church of Rome we reject. We follow the Word of
God. She was a sinner. Adam and Eve were sinless when
they were first created of course when they came pristine from
the hand of their maker there was no sin but they fell they
sinned and all descended from them of sin there is only one who is all together without any
sin and that is the last Adam the second man the Lord from
heaven that holy thing said the angel to Mary, that holy thing
that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Oh, He is the Son of God in human
form. He is God's manifest in the flesh
and there's no sin. And as He is sinless in His birth,
so He is sinless throughout His life. Holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens says the apostle
to the Hebrews that's the Lord Christ and yet how sympathetic He is
to sinners that's the amazing thing all we sow fields for sinners
we read of God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin although he's sinless he's in the likeness
of sinful flesh and he has a feeling for those
who are sinners we have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities Paul says he was in all points
tempted like as we are yet without sin this is the wonder, isn't
it? of the incarnation, the person of Christ. He is God and He is
man. And as a man, how He feels for
men and sinful men and feels for this man. Oh, the leper,
he was unclean. He was cut off. That was what
the Lord of God commanded. we read the first part of chapter
13 it's a long chapter but the whole chapter really deals with
the matter of the leper and his awful disease that's chapter
13 chapter 14 really deals with his cleansing and I want you
to read something of the cleansing as well as all the symptoms of
the disease but there in chapter 13 if we'd have read further
it says in verse 45 the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes
shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon
his upper lip, and shall cry unclean, unclean. All the days
wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he
is unclean, he shall dwell alone, without the camp shall his habitation
burn. Why, the leper is utterly cut
off He has communion with no one
else other than his fellow lepers. And the reason for that is that
the disease was a contagious disease, it seems, but not only
contagious, if anyone was to touch the leper, he was ceremonially
unclean. He wasn't just in danger, you
see, contracting the leprosy from the man but ceremonially
in Israel he was considered to be an unclean person again we
have it there in Leviticus 22 at verse 4 following and this man in Luke's account Luke 5.12 it says
he's full of leprosy oh he's a leper And what does the Lord
do? What does the Lord do with this
man? Jesus moved compassion, put forth
his hand and touched him. Now, this is God. This is the One who was there
at the creation of all things. He's the Word of God. And by
the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host
of them by the breath of His mouth He was there at creation and
how did He create? He spoke and it was done, He
commanded and He stood fast, all the Lord needed to do here
was to say to this man be thou clean and he would be clean that's
all he needed to do, speak the word but no, what does the Lord
do in His compassion? he put forth his hand and touched
him and then he says the words I will be thou clean all where sin abounds grace does
so much more abound no matter how leprous the soul might be
there is such a fullness of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and
that fullness is there for the greatest of all sinners remember
the language of Paul writing to the Corinthians and Corinth
was such a wicked city there were great sinners in Corinth
and yet the Lord had much people in that city and Paul goes and
preaches the word of God there and what happens? why these great
sinners are saved? And what great sinners they were.
Look at the sins that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 following. Paul tells them, he reminds them,
these who are the church at Corinth, these believers, Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be
ye not deceived, or mark the sins, neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves
with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
Nothing that defiles is going to enter heaven. But, he says,
verse 11, "...and such were some of you, but your wash but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God." Oh, there is a great salvation in
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A great salvation,
an accomplished salvation. And isn't something of that redemption
set forth again in type? we see the sinner in the 13th
chapter of Leviticus and all that set forth there concerning
the symptoms, they might be small beginnings but they're such a
real need because this disease it so takes hold of a man but in the 14th chapter we see
the Lord Jesus where the leper is being cleansed ceremonially
cleansed as he offers the prescribed sacrifices we see the Lord Jesus
now there's quite an amount of ceremony to be attended
to we only read the first part of that 14th chapter but how
significant it is what he said concerning those two birds In the day of his cleansing,
he goes to the priest. Verse 4 of 14. Then shall the
priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds,
alive and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the
priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in a northern
vessel over running water, over fresh water. As for the living
bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet,
and the hyssop, and shall dip them, and the living bird in
the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle upon him
that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall
pronounce him clean. And he shall let the living bird
loose into the open field. There's significance in every
detail of the type, of course. Notice it's two birds. It's two
birds. Or there are multitudes of sacrifices. There's only one sacrifice once
and for all. That's the great sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus. But in the types, we have a multitude. and here there has to be two
birds and it shows something of the fullness of the work of
the Lord Jesus one of the birds is to be killed and is to be killed over a vessel
containing that running that fresh water and the blood is
to be caught in the vessel none of that blood is to be spilt
in vine it doesn't fall to the ground What does it set before
us? Does it not remind us that the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that blood was never shed in
vain, it was shed for a particular people, obviously. All for whom
that blood was shed at Calvary shall be saved. It's particular redemption, it's
that great doctrine of limited atonement. Not one drop of blood
falls to the ground, it's all caught in the earthen vessel
and being caught it's all applied it's all applied to that leper
who has come for his cleansing but there's also another bird
there and that bird is not killed but it's dipped in the blood
and then it's released in a way it reminds us of the great day
of atonement in Leviticus 16 where the two goats are to be
brought before the priest and the one is going to be the offering
for sin and the other is going to be the scapegoat and remember
the one that's slain that's the sacrifice and then the priest
comes and he confesses all the sins of the children of Israel
upon the head of the live goat and that goat is then taken into
the wilderness and released It sets forth such glorious truths.
It's not just the dying of the Lord Jesus, but the living bird,
the living goat, speaks of His rising again, His living. But it also speaks of all that
Christ has done for His people. He's not only died for them,
He's risen for them. And does He not say, Thy dead
men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise? What a wonder it is, you see,
the fullness of that salvation. Christ is the complete Saviour.
Just as we see here the Lord Jesus is such a compassionate
Saviour. And oh, this leper, oh what reverence
as he comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. And does he not recognize
something of Christ's sovereignty? And his faith is in that. If
thou wilt, he says. Oh, if only the Lord is willing. And the Lord is willing. If thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean. And the Lord says, I will be
thou clean. Oh, that the Lord might come
then and speak such words of authority to our souls and cleanse
us from every sin. Where the word of a king is,
we know there's power. And the power belongs in him
who is able to perform such remarkable deeds, these miracles. All of
them authenticating that great message of salvation that he
came to proclaim. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom
of God is at hand. Repentance. and believe the gospel. Amen.