Turn in your Bibles to Exodus
chapter 4. We're going to continue on with
our second part of last week's sermon. In Exodus chapter 4,
there were three signs given. And this is part two in the message
we entitled, The Message of the Signs. And today we're going
to be looking at the second of those signs. Last week we saw
the rod that God told Moses to cast on the ground. And then
he told him to pick it up again by the tail. And it became a
rod again. It became a serpent when he first
cast it down and became a rod the second time he picked it
up. And we saw in that that the Lord Jesus Christ who has the
glory of God as the Son of God, was predetermined by God to save
his people from their sins, and the way he would have to do that
is by himself taking their curse. And so he was made a curse for
us, and that is represented by the serpent. The serpent is the
cursed one, the one who's cursed by God. But the Lord Jesus Christ
not only ruled in heaven as the Son of God, but he rules over
all things as the God-man, our mediator. And so it says in the
gospel that though Christ was equal with God and was himself
God, he humbled himself. He made himself of no reputation.
He laid aside all that was his as God and took on the form of
a man, the form of a servant, in order to fulfill all that
was required for his people. And that required him to come
under the law, to come under the curse of the law, and to
bear that curse because he bore the sins of his people. But when
he finished bearing that curse, he was raised by God to sit on
heaven's throne and to reign and rule over all things, mostly
to reign over his people in order to deliver them from their sins
and their enemies. And this is pictured by Moses
taking the serpent again by the tail, the curse having been completely
meted out on Christ. There was no wrath left in God. And he picks it up. Not only
does it represent that, but I think it represents Christ's victory
over the one who is the serpent in the scripture. He bruised
the head of the serpent, and so he became a rod, this time
ruling and reigning as the God-man on the throne of glory. But we
looked at that last week, and there was many verses we didn't
look at. I would like to take you to them. We don't have time.
I don't think it would be appropriate to do that right now. I'd like
to go on in our study of these three signs
and discover the second sign. And let's read now from chapter
4, verse 1. And we'll read through verse
1. Verse 8, it says, And Moses,
in verse 1, answered and said to God, Behold, they will not
believe me, nor hearken to my voice. For they will say, The
Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What
is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said,
Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it
by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and
it became a rod in his hand, that they may believe that the
Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee." The reason God gave
these signs, these three signs, was that His people might believe
that He, who is the God of His people, had come to save them,
to deliver them from Egypt by Moses. And one thing I didn't
mention in the sermon last week was it was strange that, it's
not strange that Moses would flee from a serpent. But if you
think about that, if the serpent represents Christ coming into
the curse for us, Moses fled from before that. Because I think
when Christ was hung on the cross, the whole heavens were dark,
remember? And God himself forsook his son,
his people forsook him. and he came under the curse.
And we don't understand all that is meant by that, but it's an
awful sight. It's an awful sight to see sin
laid on Christ. It's also wonderful, but it's
awful too, because it causes us to stand and to say, like
the soldier who saw him hanging on the cross and said, truly,
this man was the son of God. It wasn't a joking thing, it
wasn't a light thing, it was a very serious thing. And so
he said that, and Moses fled, even Moses had to flee from before
the holiness of God coming on his son made sin. What a sight. But in verse six he says, he
told him to pick it up, and then he said in verse six, and the
Lord said furthermore to Moses, this is now the second sign,
And listen carefully, he says, put now thine hand into thy bosom. That would be his hand before
anything was wrong with it. He looked at his hand, it was
just like my hand or your hand. Just like his other hand, nothing
apparently wrong with it. And he says, take your hand and
put it into your bosom, right next to your heart. And so Moses
took his hand and he put it into his bosom, And when he took it
out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow, white as snow, because
it was diseased. His hand was covered with leprosy. And then he says in verse 7,
And God said to him, Now the first time I'm sure that when
Moses put his hand into his bosom there was no problem. Moses thought,
sure I can do that. He took it out and I'm sure he
was petrified with fear looking at his hand. Now there was a
time when Aaron and Miriam spake against Moses because he married
an Ethiopian woman and God told Aaron and Miriam and Moses to
come before him. And God came down in a cloud,
and when the cloud ascended up, Miriam was covered with leprosy. And Aaron said to Moses, he said,
oh my Lord Moses, her flesh is half dead. She looks as if one
is half dead. Because for the sin that Miriam
and Aaron committed, Miriam was struck with the disease, the
plague of leprosy. And so it was an awful thing. Leprosy was an incurable disease,
and we'll look at this in a minute here. But when he took his hand
out, no doubt Moses was a little concerned, if not just a little
concerned about his hand. But God told him, take your hand
again, the same hand that was now leprous, and put it into
your bosom again. And I can imagine that there
would have been some reluctance to do that. I wouldn't want a
leprous hand against the flesh of my skin that was normal and
healthy. But he put it into his bosom
again. And it says, when he put it in there again, he took it
out again, out of his bosom. And behold, his hand now was
turned again as his other flesh. And God said, it shall come to
pass, if they will not believe thee, nor hearken to the voice
of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the
latter sign. Now, the first sign we saw, the
work of Christ for us. And the work of Christ for us
was entirely outside of our personal experience. Christ, why was the
Lord Jesus Christ cursed? Because sin was found on him
and he was made under the law. But why was the Lord Jesus Christ
made under the law? Why was he made sin? Was it arbitrary? No, it wasn't arbitrary at all.
He was made under the law. because his people were made
under the law. He was made sin because his people
were made sin, and before he entered into the world, even
before the world's foundation was laid, God the Son agreed
and engaged himself to be the surety for his people. As a surety,
he obligated himself to fulfill all the requirements God would
place on his people. And he also obligated himself
to pay all of their debts. So when God made man, and man
fell into sin, God first put him under the law. He was made
under the law. God said, in the day you eat,
you shall surely die. And later, God gave the law of
Moses, even further expanding the law. And his people violated
that law. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, who
had obligated himself before God to fulfill all of their required
obedience and to satisfy justice for them in every way the law
required, he now In the fullness of time, just like the Israelites
here in Egypt, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law. And He was made under the
law because His people were under the law, and He put Himself under
the law to answer to God for them as their surety. But now
he's under the law to answer in obedience, but also his people
had violated that law. He has to answer the full justice
of the law. And so God laid the sin of his
people on Christ and Christ came under that. Being a sinner under
the law, the law pronounced a curse on him. He was cursed. that we might be redeemed from
the curse of the law. And so we see that in that first
sign here, the Lord Jesus Christ doing all of the work for us
outside of our personal experience, answering to God the full demands
of justice and destroying all of the consequences of sin, putting
them aside and bringing us to God in His resurrection by the
rule of His authority now as our resurrected Savior. But here
in the second sign, what we see is the experience of that grace
in our life. The second sign is a sign of
leprosy. If you turn with me to Leviticus
chapter 13, that's where God in the law gives the instructions
for how to identify leprosy. And there's a few things, I'm
not going to spend a lot of time on this, I just want to point
out a few things about this. that God makes it clear how to
identify leprosy. First of all, look at verse 3,
"...and the priest shall look on the plague of the skin I'm
sorry, the plague in the skin. Let me read verse 2. When a man
shall have in the skin of his flesh arising a scab or bright
spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of
leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto
one of his sons the priests. And the priest shall look on
the plague in the skin of the flesh, and when the hair in the
plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than
the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy, and the
priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean." You see
that? The first thing you see about
leprosy, and notice these things, it's important to see these.
The plague was identified because it was deeper than the skin. The second thing I want you to
see here is that when a man was suspected of having leprosy,
they sent him to the priest. Could you imagine, you get sick
and you say, I need to go to the doctor. And they say, no,
no, you need to go to the priest. And the priest is going to look
at you to decide whether you're clean before God or not. But
wait a minute, I have a disease, I need a doctor. No, you need
to go see God. You need to stand before God's
man, the priest. And so this man goes to the priest,
or the woman goes to the priest and stands before the priest.
And the priest looks to determine whether this person in the sight
of God is clean or unclean. And one of the signs is, is there
a plague of leprosy that's deeper than the skin? And then look
on down in verse 7. But if the scab spread much abroad
in the skin, after he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing,
he shall be seen of the priest again. And if the priest see,
behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall
pronounce him unclean." It is a leprosy. The second thing,
how does the priest determine leprosy? Not only is it deeper
than the skin, but it spreads. It can't be stopped. And then
look in the verse 10. And the priest shall see him.
I'm sorry, verse 9. When the plague of leprosy is
in the man, then he shall be brought unto the priest, and
the priest shall see him. And behold, if the rising be white
in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be
quick raw flesh in the rising, it is an old leprosy in the skin
of his flesh. And the priest shall pronounce
him unclean, and he shall not shut him up, for he is unclean."
So how was leprosy identified? It was deeper than the skin.
It spread, and it was in this flesh that was exposed to the
priest's eye. He could see it. It was plain
and evident. And being exposed, it was as
flesh that was dying. He was dying of this disease,
and it was a plague. It was in the man, deeper than
his skin, and this is the way sin is. It's deeper than the
skin, it spreads throughout us, and it's causing us to die. We're exposed by it. We can't
cover it up. So what was the leper to do if
he had this leprosy? Well, I'll just give you the
answer to this. It says, look over, actually
in verse 44, He says, now this is for a leprous
man. He is a leprous man. It concludes,
he's a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall
pronounce him utterly unclean. His plague is in his head. This
is a man who has a leprosy on his head. And the leper, in whom
the plague is, here's what he's supposed to do. His clothes shall
be rent. What happens when you tear your
clothes? It shows that you are in sorrow
and mourning, but it also exposes what's underneath, doesn't it?
You can see right through to the problem. And his head bare. His head is bare because he's
exposed to judgment. He's exposed to God's judgment
and he's exposed in his shame. And then it says also, Besides
having a bare head, he shall put a covering upon his lip and
cry, unclean, unclean. So the covering on his lip means
there's nothing about what comes out of my mouth that's clean,
and he just has to tell everyone, I am unclean before God. I have a plague. Look at 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter eight. Solomon is writing there, and
he says, He says this to tie these things together. In verse 38, I will read verse
37 too. If there be in the land of famine,
if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be
caterpillar, if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities,
whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness be there. What prayer
and supplication so ever be made by any man, or by all thy people
Israel, listen, which shall know every man the plague of his own
heart, and spreads forth his hands toward this house, then
hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and
give to every man according to his ways. for whose heart thou
knowest, for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all
the children of men." Solomon says, if there's any kind of
a plague or sickness in the land, a famine, or we're besieged by
our enemies, when a prayer is made to God, if the man who prays
the prayer sees the plague in his heart, than hear thou in
heaven." So this was required. Here's the setting. God has put
upon Israel these plagues. One of them is this most dreaded
plague, the plague of leprosy. The plague of leprosy is a plague
that is analogous to an evidence of sin. It's what we can see. We can't see sin so much, can
we? We can't see the way sin appears to God. But we can see
how leprosy appears. Because when a man had leprosy,
his flesh literally rotted from his body. I heard a description
that someone gave of what leprosy looked like. A man's nose would
fall off of his face. His ears would fall off. You
could actually see his skin would get tight and shiny because of
the swelling of the fluids underneath it. His hair would fall out so
much so that if the hair was pulled out, it would actually
pull out not only the roots, but pieces of his scalp. And
you could see this man was rotting away. Leprosy was a horrible
thing. If you cut a man with leprosy,
it wasn't so much blood that flowed out, but it was the stinking
pus from these sores. It was a horrible thing. People
feared leprosy. And if a man was declared to
be a leper, he couldn't stay in the camp. The law required
that a man with leprosy had to be outside of the camp. Back in Leviticus, I didn't read
that, it says, In verse 46 of Leviticus 13, So everything about
this man was defiled. He had to stay away from God. And there
was an article that I wrote in the handout today,
and it says this, and it's the first one there. I got this from
a sermon by Bruce Crabtree. It was an excellent thing that
he said here, so I wrote it down for your looking at this. He
says, this is what Bruce said about this, the law forbids lepers
to come. The law does that. The law told
lepers go outside the camp and do this, cover your lip, rend
your clothes, and let everyone know you're a leper. Shout, unclean,
unclean, and stay away, don't come near. So the law forbids
lepers to come, Bruce said, and it shuts the door against sinners. That's what the law does. It
closes the door to sinners. What is a leper going to do then?
He's totally alienated from the life of the people of God. He's outside the camp. He's under
the curse. He's under this curse of leprosy.
He has a plague and the plague is deeper than the skin. It's
spread throughout and his skin is dying and his flesh is raw
because of it. Now I want you to turn with me
to Matthew chapter 8. And we're going to look at this,
this account of a leper. This is repeated. We'll also
look at this in Mark. It's almost the same in each
of the Gospels. But it says here in Matthew chapter
8, in verse 1, when Jesus was come down from the mountain,
great multitudes followed Him. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
from the mountain. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
God descended upon Sinai and the mountain quaked. It quaked
greatly and there was thunderings and lightnings and the people
were terrified and they knew they would die if God spoke to
them. But here the Lord Jesus Christ who is God comes down
from the mountain. and great multitudes followed
him. God told them on Mount Sinai, stay back, don't come near. If
the people look to gaze upon me, I'll have to kill them if
they touch the mount. If a beast even touched the mount,
it shall be thrust through with a dart. And so here the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is God, comes down from the mountain, and great
multitudes followed him. And verse 2, and behold, there
came a leper and worshiped him. Here's a leper. What did he do?
Did he stay away? Did he stay away? No, actually
he came to the Lord Jesus. And that's the first thing that
we see here that's contrasted by the leper in this gospel and
the leper in the Old Testament. And Bruce went on to say this,
the law forbids lepers to come and it shuts the door against
sinners, but grace bids only lepers to come and it shuts the
door against law keepers. Isn't that amazing? The law only
admits the obedient. The law only allows those who
are strong, who continue in all things written in the law to
do it. The law only rewards the good and the righteous. And it
forbids sinners to even come near to God. But the gospel does
exactly the opposite. The gospel says, if you are righteous
in yourself, if you have no need to come as a sinner, then you
are not allowed to come. The gospel says only sinners
can come to Christ, because Christ came to save sinners. The whole
need not a physician, but the sick. And Jesus said, right after
he spoke those words, he says, I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And that's why the law forbids
sinners to come, but grace requires only that law breakers come.
And so Bruce goes on to say this in this thing I'm quoting. He
says, remember what the rich young ruler said, Lord, all these
things have I kept from my youth up. Bruce says in his sermon,
then you are shut out of grace. You don't need a Savior. If the
law can save you, you don't need somebody else to render perfect
obedience to the law on your behalf. It's only lepers that
can come to Christ. It's only lawbreakers that can
approach to the Savior. The law can do nothing for us
but shut us up. It condemns us and it curses
us. So we have to be saved all together
in a different way. We have to be saved by another
man who rendered perfect obedience for all who believe him. That's
what grace does. Grace provides a way for lepers
to come. But it's important that we see
here how this man comes. He comes as a leper. He comes as a leper. Now, I'm
going through this before we go through the sign because we
have to see this in order to see how to interpret the sign. The New Testament has to be used
to interpret the Old. And here's a man coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ as a leper. I can imagine that there would
be this tendency, if I were a leper, to put a hat on. or to put on
a scarf around my neck or cover my face with it, or something
on my body to cover up these torn clothes, wouldn't you? I
don't like it when I'm sick and people can see it. It's evident
on me that I'm sick. There's something wrong with
me. They look at me. There must be something. You need to take
care of that. You're kind of offensive to us. Isn't that the
feeling you have? You don't want to be around people
when you look bad. But here's a man who was told,
don't even come, stay away. And yet he comes, he comes. That in itself is an amazing
thing, this man who comes. There's an account in 2 Kings
7. Where the Syrian army had besieged
Samaria, the capital of the nation of Israel. And they had besieged
it and shut it up so that no one could come out, no one could
get in. So they were starving. They were completely out of food.
And Elisha at that time had prophesied that in a few days, That there
would be so much that it would be unbelievable. And the king
didn't believe it. No one believed Elisha about
this. At least it didn't seem like anyone did. But there were
these four lepers in this case who were outside of the gate
of the city. Strange, huh? The lepers who
were unclean were outside the gate of the city. Inside the
city walls, people were dying of famine. It was horrible, so
horrible that one woman had agreed with another woman, today we'll
boil my son and eat him, and tomorrow we'll boil yours. It
was that bad, it was repugnant. And these four lepers were outside,
the Syrian army had besieged them, and they were outside the
gate too, but further out. And the four lepers were reasoning
and they said, if we stay here, we're gonna die. If we go in
the city, We're going to die of famine. Hey, what if we go
to the Syrian army and we plead for mercy to them? The worst
they can do is kill us. We're going to die anyway. And
it's very much like this leper. He had no hope. The law pronounced
a curse upon him. And he looked at himself. He
knew he was dying and under the curse. And it was evident to
others, you're under the curse, man. Don't you see it? And you know what? He did the
opposite of what you would have expected because of what the
law said. Think about this. When you read the Bible, And
you find things in the Bible that make it seem evident that
you yourself have no reason to hope in God. What are you going
to do, man? Are you going to stay outside?
Are you going to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? This man came,
but he didn't come dressed up or made up. He didn't put things
on to cover it up. He came as he was. And I don't
think there's anything more difficult to do than to understand that
leprosy, like sin, spreads abroad, is deeper than the skin, and
it's causing us to die. We can do nothing about it, and
we have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ as a leper. We have to come to him as sinners
with no hope because we're justly condemned, with no hope because
we cannot change ourselves. We can't make improvements. And
there's no point in making promises. Those would be like the leper
covering up his wounds and denying the fact that he was dying. We
have a plague, it's so deep it goes into our heart. Solomon
says, the plague is in your heart. And so here's the leper coming
to Jesus. And he worships him and he says this, If thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. He was confident that the Lord
Jesus Christ could. He had the power to make him
clean. Where he got that, I don't know. Not in the immediate context. It's clear from scripture. But
it's not clear that this man had all that knowledge. But God
sets this man up as an example to sinners who have no reason
in themselves to hope for mercy from God. He sets this up so
that we will take the same attitude, even the same words as the sinner.
God gave these words. He gave this example to lepers. He says, look, here's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He came down from heaven. And
He says, come to Him. Remember what it says in John
6, 37? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Even though the law forbids us
to come, even though we think, I read the word of God and all
I find is condemnation against myself because everything it
describes that I ought to do, I am not doing. And everything
it says I shouldn't do, I've already done. And whenever I
try to do good, I find evil is present with me. It's just, I'm
just infected by this and I can't be rid of it. What are we to
do? Go to the Lord Jesus Christ just
like you are. Don't make promises. Don't say
you're going to change. Don't do anything to try to remove
what you cannot remove. Acknowledge that the problem
is in your heart and it's a plague and you can't do anything about
it. That He has to do something for you. And this something he
can do. He says, if you will, you can
make me clean. He laid the entire weight of
his destiny in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to
him and he says, if you will, can you imagine? Here you are,
you know you're under the curse of God, under the wrath of God
even. And you say, Lord, my eternal
destiny hangs in your hands. And that's the only thing that
determines whether or not I go to heaven or I go to hell. It's
your will. When Jesus In Matthew chapter
7, sits on the throne of glory and all the people are gathered
before him and he gives a judgment of them. And his judgment that
he gives is the final judgment. After him, there's not a second
jury, there's not a second appeals court. You go to Christ, you
receive the judgment, and his judgment is final. it's right
and when he says to those who come before him depart you cursed
that's it the cursed are made to depart and there's no plea
bargaining there's no there's there's nothing more they can
do or say and and and at the same time if he says come you
blessed then there's then those are truly blessed and here the
leper comes to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one that can only
heal him and he says Lord I It's all in your hands. I am guilty. I am corrupt in
my heart all the way through and through, and I'm dying of
this under the wrath of God, and I have no hope unless you
heal me of your own free will. And Bruce also pointed out something
Todd Nyberg had said in his sermon. You know one thing this leper
didn't say? He didn't go to Jesus and come back and say to his
friends, I let Jesus save me. I made a
decision for Jesus today, and I accepted him. Because if he
had said something like that, the people would have turned
to the leper and said to him, haven't you looked in the mirror?
You're a leper, man. You are a leper, and your accepting
Jesus did nothing for you. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
heal us of our leprosy. Can you feel the dilemma this
man is in? He's cursed, he knows it, everyone
else knows it. He's not supposed to come covering
up. We have to own, we have to own that sin is all our fault. If we don't think sin is our
fault, you know what we'll be? Victims. We'll be those who were,
where sin was put on us somehow. Like Adam said, well the woman
you gave to me, she gave me the fruit and I ate that. I mean
we start doing this pedal dancing and coming up with all kinds
of scenarios, but we're ultimately victims. Someone did it to me. It's not my fault. Ultimately
I couldn't help it. I was born this way. Guess what? If you were born a leper, you
were still cursed. Leprosy, sin, is all our fault. And until we own that, we will
just be victims. And you know what? If we're a
victim, there's only one villain. It's God. Because we would think,
I'm under God's wrath. He's going to punish me for my
sin. Therefore, God is the villain. He's the one who created me. He could have stopped me if he
wanted to, and he didn't. We come up with this whole movie
going on in our mind of how we are helpless before God. But
that's not what the leper did. The leper said, I'm the one who's
guilty and cursed. Lord Jesus, you can heal me.
I know you can, if you will. And you know what? According
to John 6, 37, all who come to the Lord Jesus Christ like that
are healed. And here's why. Look at 1 Peter
2. 1 Peter 2. He says this in 1
Peter 2 and verse 24. And notice how many times in
this one verse, that the Apostle Peter, by the
Spirit of God, refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who, that's
one. His, that's two. Own self, that's
at least three. Bear our sins in His own body
on the tree. You see that? that we, being
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
you were healed. Why does Peter combine our sins
in this verse and mention healing? Why didn't he say, by whose stripes
you were forgiven, or by whose stripes you were purged? Because
sin is a sickness. It's a sickness for which we're
responsible. Reading Deuteronomy 28, you'll see that the reason
God brought the plagues on the people was because of their sin.
Solomon said it in 1 Kings 8, 28 or 38, wherever, we just read
a minute ago. He says, all these plagues come upon them. It's
because of the plague of their heart. In Matthew chapter 8,
we were just there, I'm going to read this to you. Matthew
chapter 8, he says, In verse 16, Matthew 8, 16. When the even was come, they
brought to him many that were possessed with devils, and he
cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were
sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, saying, listen to these words very carefully, himself
took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. And now look over in the same
chapter where we just were. The man said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And look what happened in verse
three. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying,
I will. Be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. What happened here? The Lord
Jesus Christ was willing. It was his will. purpose to heal
this man and the way he healed him first he touched him second
he spoke to him he healed him by his will by his touch and
by his word by his will because it's the will of God that by
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ we are sanctified were
purified were cleansed before God Hebrews 1010 Jesus says in
it says in about the Lord Jesus and in Ephesians 525 that the
Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that
he might sanctify and and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word he gave himself for the church in order that he might
cleanse it And we're washed in the blood of Christ. But how
does he do that? Well, he says here he touched
the man. And we just read in verse 17
that he took our infirmities. He himself became sin. He became
plagued with the sin of our leprosy. Or the leprosy of our sin. He
took that curse, that plague, to Himself and bear it. That's
what it says in verse 17. And then He says here that He
said immediately, I will be thou clean. He gave a commandment
to be clean to this leper. And it was His Word that healed
him. Now look over at Isaiah 53, where these verses are taken
from. Isaiah 53, you see the two things
combined there. how the Lord Jesus, by His touch,
healed this man. Not only was it His will, He
did it willingly to fulfill the will of God, to sanctify us before
God, but by His touch. He says in verse 4 of Isaiah
53, Surely He hath borne our griefs. Do you see that? The
word is normally translated in the Old Testament as sicknesses
or diseases. There was a king named Jehoram
who was an evil king and God said to him, because of what
you've done, I'm going to bring a plague on you in your own bowels. Your bowels are going to rot
and fall out and you're going to die from that plague. What
an awful plague. And the same word translated
in those verses in the Old Testament where it refers to Jehoram's
bowels being sick and rotting is what's translated here as
griefs. He bore our diseases. the anxiety of our diseases and
our sicknesses. You know what sickness does to
you? It makes you really feel down, doesn't it? It makes you
feel like you can't function. You can't function right. You
don't feel good. And you have this fear that maybe
you won't get better. Maybe this sickness is going
to be your final sickness before death. And you're going to suffer
the shame of it. There's all kinds of things that
happen with sickness. We get depressed by it. That's
what sin does. It's exactly the same thing.
We feel despondent and anxious, the anxiety of our sin. But Jesus,
the Lord Jesus, bore our griefs, our diseases, and our sicknesses,
and He carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God. We considered, we reckoned Him
to be smitten of God and afflicted. But he explains it here. This
is why he bore them. This is why he was afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And this is the verse that Peter
quotes. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with
his stripes we were healed. You see that? How God intermingles
the two things, sickness and healing. Look at Psalm 38. We
read this before the service, but I encourage you to read the
whole Psalm through and look at this. He says in Psalm 38,
This is the prayer, I understand this as the prayer of our Lord
Jesus Christ under the weight of our griefs and sorrows, just
like it described in Isaiah 53, verse Psalm 38, There is no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. David felt the consequences of
sin. How much more David's Lord, of
whom he prophesied, felt the consequences of sin when God
made him sin for his people, put the plague on him. That's
what happened. And that's the way the Lord Jesus
Christ heals his people. Now, look back at Exodus chapter
4. Here's a man, here's Moses, God
tells him, if they don't believe the first sign, the sign of the
rod being turned to a serpent and then turned back again to
a rod, which points to our Lord Jesus Christ being made a curse
for his people and coming to rule over them for their good
and for the glory of God and subduing their enemies. Here
the second sign is the experience of the believer There's three
ways that the Lord heals us of our plague of sin. The plague
that's compared to leprosy. And if you look at this, you
don't have to look at it really, we've already gone over it. Moses
had a clean hand, didn't he? It looked fine. Until he put
it into his bosom. And in his bosom, he had his
hand right next to his heart. This is Moses, who was a figure
of the law. God told Moses, take your hand.
He looks at it, no doubt it is perfectly whole. He puts it in
there next to his heart. He takes it out and his hand
is completely covered with leprosy. The curse of leprosy on his hand.
and this teaches us just what Paul the Apostle said in Romans
chapter 7 I was alive without the law once but when the commandment
came sin revived and I died when God told Moses take your hand
the hand is what we do It's all that we can do. It's our actions. It's our works. God says, place
that right next to your heart. The heart is who we are. As a
man thinks in his heart, so is he. That's who we really are.
And God says that every imagination of the heart of man is only evil
continually. And so when God says, when you
look at your hand, it looks normal. But when you take it to the law,
when you take it and compare it to what God really requires
of men, and you look at it again, you're completely plagued with
the plague of leprosy. And you deserve the judgment
of that plague and to die in it. And so I believe that's what
he's first talking about, is that God tells Moses, you take
your hand, you put it in your bosom, it comes out, it's leprosy
snow. And then he says a strange thing,
now take that hand again. and put it back in your bosom
and take it out. And this second time it was made
completely whole. What is this? Well, there's these
things that happen in scripture that come in pairs in order for
God to teach us. You remember that verse in Hosea
chapter 6? It says, the Lord kills and makes
alive. I wound and I heal. He says,
Let me just read it to you. What I quoted was actually from
a different place, but Hosea chapter 6, he says this. He says,
Come, let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he
will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will
bind us up. You see that? This principle
occurs throughout scripture. First God wounds, then God heals. God is the one who kills and
makes alive. But he does it in that strange
order. First he wounds, then he heals. First he kills, then
he makes alive. Here Moses sticks his hand into
his bosom as the law tells us. Our heart and our hand is plagued
with leprosy. The law says so. I have no hope
before God, according to the law. In fact, the law tells me,
stay away, cry unclean, you're defiled, you're dying, and you're
exposed. And make sure you leave your
clothes torn, and your head uncovered, and cover your lip. Everything
about you is unclean before God. You went to the priest, because
the priest is God's representative, telling you of your sin. But
then, something amazing happens. Something amazing happens. Remember
in John 8, a similar thing happened there. Here a woman is taken
in adultery. The Pharisees bring her to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Set her right in the middle.
John 8 verses 1 through 11. And he says, they say to him,
Moses and the law commanded that we should stone this woman. But
what do you say? Now, isn't that the same thing?
It's the analogy. In the law, we are defiled, we
are unclean, and we're prevented from coming to God. Only the
righteous can come. Only the obedient live to God. The rest are cursed. But here
the woman is before the Lord Jesus Christ, and the first thing
he does, he doesn't say a word, he stoops down, and with his
finger, he writes on the ground. And then he rises up. And he
says, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast
a stone at her. And he stoops down again and
writes on the ground, and he rises up. But between the first
and second stoop, all the accusers left, didn't they? And when he
rose up again, Jesus looked at her, and he says, woman, where
are your accusers? And she says, there's no man,
Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn
thee, go and sin no more. These two things, first the hand
into the bosom and the hand out of the bosom, back in again and
back out and clean. God wounding and healing and
then the Lord Jesus Christ stooping down the first time and rising
and stooping down again and rising again. They all teach the same
thing. The law was given by God. This is what God requires of
His people. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
become surety for His people. Because they were under the law
and they had sinned, He had to fulfill all the demands for their
sin to the satisfaction of God's justice and to fulfill all the
righteousness that God required of them. In his first stoop,
he gave the law. In his first stoop, he was the
one who was on Mount Sinai giving the law. And that law kept us
back. It's the holiness of God, the
righteousness of God. He's the Word of God. But in
his second stoop, he comes down from the mountain as the Lord
Jesus Christ. bone of our bones, flesh of our
flesh. Because the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
He also likewise took part of the same. And He comes in our
nature, and He takes to Himself our leprosy, our plague, our
curse. And He was made under the law,
and He Himself was cursed. And when He touched the leper,
in Matthew 8, and later in Mark 1 and Luke 5, He touched the
leper. All that was plagued in the leper,
He took. What he gave to that leper in
his place was his own virtue, just like the woman who had an
issue of blood, the very same thing. 12 years before the law,
she's unclean. This issue of blood coming out
of her, this death that comes out of her, no life in it, and
it made her unclean. And she sneaks up behind the
Lord Jesus and touches his garment and says, if I can just touch
his garment, I'll be made clean. And she touches and virtue flows
from him into her because she touched him. This connection
to him caused all that she was to come upon him. He himself
took our iniquities and took our sicknesses and bear our sorrows,
our diseases. And so when the Lord Jesus stoops
down in John 8, writes on the ground, the condemnation of the
law makes everyone guilty and the Pharisees who came with their
righteousness have to depart with their plague. But the woman
who came with her plague, like this man, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
condemned and guilty and with nothing in her hand to bring,
he stoops down again and writes again on the ground, this time
as the Lord who came from heaven, descending to fulfill the very
law he gave for his people, and he fulfills it to the uttermost.
So much so that in his fulfilling the law, in his obedience unto
death, he not only gave that individual sinner a right standing
before God, but he earned for all of his people eternal life
and eternal glory. His life and his death had a
super abounding benefit to it. He profited his people in it
so much so that not only was their leprosy removed, but they
were brought to heaven to sit with him in glory. And that's
what happens here. God kills and He makes a life.
He brings a leper in our experience. Because Christ has done this
for us, the second phase of our healing is this. In our experience,
God brings the leper to know his sin and to come to Christ
in nothing else but what you are. Come to the Lord Jesus.
It's not just a doctrine. You're coming to the Lord himself.
He's the one who gave his life. He's the one who, in his compassion,
touches the leper. Come to him and confess what
you are, who you are, and that you're nothing but sin in yourself. And you have no hope. And if
he doesn't heal you, you will justly be condemned for eternity. And leave it all in his hands.
Do you have another person who could or would save you? Anyone
else who could actually heal you from the plague of your leprosy,
the sin plague? No. If you have someone else,
go to them. If you can heal yourself, then
don't come to Christ. But if you need a savior who
can heal you from the depth of your depravity and set you in
glory at his own right hand, then come to Christ. He only
has this compassion. Look at Hebrews chapter 4. He
healed him by a touch. He took his sin, took his sorrow,
and he healed him by a word. Remember what he said on the
cross, it is finished. It's all done. He heals all who
come to him like this. It says in verse, I've always
wondered about these verses, but look at Hebrews chapter four,
verse 12. The word of God. is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." What are you going to do if God's Word is a sword
to you to divide you open and find out what you really are?
He says in verse 13, neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Doesn't that feel
like the hand coming out leprous? In God's eyes, I don't care how
clean you think you are in your own eyes, when you come to God
and his law, you're gonna find out you're really plagued. But
he says in verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest,
that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, our profession. We profess that the
Lord Jesus Christ has taken our iniquities, has finished our
transgression, has established for us everlasting righteousness.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted,
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And that's the way the gospel
does it. It takes those who, have you
ever felt that? I feel it all the time, it seems
like daily. I feel like, what business do
I have to even think I have a part in this salvation? And I feel
like my own conscience would send me away And yet, in God's
word, the gospel, he tells us to come. This hymn that I recorded
in our bulletin today, it says this, come humble sinner, in
whose breast a thousand thoughts revolve. And this is, I think
of myself, I know what goes on in my head, a thousand thoughts,
and a lot of times it's just a tangled web of confusion. Come with your guilt and fear
oppressed and make this last resolve. I'll go to Jesus, though
my sin like mountains round me close. I know his courts I'll
enter in, whatever may oppose. You see the determination? I've
got to get to him. Prostrate, I'll lie before his
throne, and there my guilt confess. I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
without his sovereign grace. I'll to the gracious king approach
whose scepter pardon gives. Perhaps he command my touch,
and then the suppliant lives. Perhaps he will admit my plea. Perhaps will hear my prayer.
But if I perish, I will pray and perish only there. If you
have another hope besides Christ, then you might as well go there,
because this is the only place you'll find relief for your leprosy.
He says in his hymn, I can but perish if I go, I am resolved
to try, but if I stay away, I know I must forever die. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I the king have tried this were to die. Delightful thought.
A sinner never died. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the lawgiver himself,
engaged to take obligation for his people to fulfill his own
law. And even though the law repels
us because of who we are and what we've done, he tells us,
come, come to me. I will in no wise cast out. We
hear the compassion in His voice. We know the power of His word
and His touch to take our infirmities and our sorrows and our sicknesses,
this disease of our sin to Himself and bear it all away. And we
know, Lord, that by Your Spirit You speak to us of His blood
and sprinkle it on our conscience so that we can come and confess
that he is our only hope, that what he did is enough to purge
us from all of our sin. Because he sits on eternity's
throne, our sins have been put away. Lord, help us to come to
him and to speak to him with his own words, with the gospel
in our heart and his cross in our eye, and this faith that
you give in our heart, Lord Jesus, bring us to yourself. For your
name's sake we pray, amen.