Alright, go with me to Leviticus
13. Leviticus 13. My hope, my prayer is that God
and the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and show
them unto us. Maybe call a sinner to Christ. But then, all of us are sinners
in there. Peter said, to whom coming? We
need to keep coming to Him. Though God's people are clean
everywhere, because God justified, because Christ died, yet Christ
said, your feet need washing. We still feel the rising in our
flesh called leprosy. It rises up in us and we keep
coming back to Christ for cleansing, to the gospel. It cleanses us. Leviticus 13, it says, the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, now this is the word of the Lord
to his preachers, to his high priest, concerning lepers. This is the word of God for lepers. And so is this whole book. It's for sinners. Christ came
into the world to save sinners. And this whole book, from Genesis
to Revelation, is about how Christ came into the world, how Christ
died for us, according to the Scriptures, substituted, shed
his precious blood for the cleansing, the putting away of our sin.
That's what this whole book is about. The Word of God for lepers. Now, leprosy. It's still around
today, but it's not what it used to be. Leprosy back then was
widespread. It was everywhere. Our Lord healed
many, many lepers. There were many lepers back then.
Many who didn't know they were lepers. Eventually became lepers. It was widespread then. And this thing called sin, the
leprosy of sin, is widespread now. Son of Adam is filled with this
leprosy. It was always fatal. In the Old Testament, it was
always fatal. Unless you were cleansed from
this leprosy, you will die. While you had it, you were a
dying man. Dying, you shall die. That's
what our Lord said about sin, that when it entered, that one
man's sin entered into this world and death. And so death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. All are lepers. It was always
fatal. And sin is always fatal now. We die because of sin. It was
highly contagious. It was airborne. The noxious
stuff that came out of the mouth of lepers would infect you. Every
time. And nothing could prevent it.
And so is sin. Same way. Touch, you got it from
contact with the leper. It's the same today with sin.
Nothing's changed. Everyone and everything back
then who came in contact with a leper was contaminated. It
contaminated and corrupted everything and everyone that's seeing it. Nothing's changed. That's the
purpose of this whole chapter, all this about leprosy. Did you
read all of Chapter 13? I'm sure you didn't understand
all of it. If we had the understanding, we could see how it applied.
It wasn't all these things weren't just so you could know if somebody
really had leprosy. God didn't have to say all that.
He put the high priest in charge. He could look at a man and say,
that's leprosy, and that's it. But all these little details,
every single thing, if we had the time, we could show us how
it's the corruption of man through and through, from the sole of
his feet to the top of his head, called sin. No human means could
eradicate or heal a person from leprosy. No human being. There was nothing there, nothing
out there that could heal someone of leprosy. And there's nothing,
there's no man-made, nothing that man can do to put away one
sin. Not one. Only one hope for a
leper back then. Only one hope. If he found out
he was a leper, his only hope was to go to the high priest. And hopefully he'd hear that
high priest pronounce him clean. And then offer that sacrifice,
blood. Chapter 13, verses 1 and 2. When
a man, verse 2, when a man shall have in the skin of his flesh
a rising. Oh, how sin arises. Proud flesh. Speaks of that throughout
this time. Oh, the pride that rises up in
us. Oh, the passions that rise up in our flesh. Oh, the anger
that rises up in us. It's leprosy. It corrupts us
through and through. It says he was to be brought
to the high priest. Then he shall be brought unto
Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priest. He was
to be brought to the high priest for the cleansing of this leprosy.
And there's only one high priest. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
But notice it said here that he was to be brought to Aaron
or one of his sons. Can they heal? Well, they are
types of God's preacher. God sent the apostles out and
he said, go preach the gospel. And the next thing he said, heal.
The gospel is the healing power of God. All who preach it, there's
healing power in the gospel. And while the preacher doesn't
heal, the gospel does. God does. The Word of the Lord
does. And it says in verse 3, that
the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh. And when the hair in the plague
is turned white, if the plague in sight be deeper than the skin,
if it's deeper than skin deep, he's a leper. And all through this, if you
read it, it kept saying that if it doesn't go more than skin
deep, not leprosy. In other words, if it's just
on the outside, if it's superficial and he's not affected on the
inside, he's no leper. Because leprosy really starts
on the inside. and then begins to manifest itself
on the outside. Sin starts. Sin's not outward. Look at Mark chapter 7. This
is what our Lord said. We read this Sunday, part of
it. Mark chapter 7. This is what
our Lord said about this leprosy called sin. It's on the inside. It's not outward. He said in
verse 14, we called all the people unto him. He said unto them,
hearken unto me, every one of you. Oh, how we should. Take
heed to the things we've heard, lest at any time we let them
slip. Hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand. We
need to understand that. There's nothing from without
a man that entering in can defile him. So you can quit this and
quit that. That doesn't mean you quit being
a sinner. Or you can clean up. That doesn't mean you clean your
heart. Or you don't. The things which come out of
him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears
to hear, let him hear. Or he entered into the house
from the people and his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
You see, everyone doesn't know this. Everyone doesn't believe
this. The Pharisees were shocked. The
Pharisees were offended. The Pharisees didn't believe
that. They didn't believe that. And our Lord condemned them,
didn't He? He said, you cleanse the outside of the cup, but the
inside is full of extortion. But they were so evil and so
corrupt, their consciences, their will, everything about them was
corrupt, and they could not see themselves for what they were.
They were so corrupt. But His disciples asked, Lord,
what do you mean by that? And He said, verse 18, Are you
so without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without enters into the man, it cannot defile him,
it entereth not into his heart, it goes into his stomach, his
belly. Your belly can't condemn your
soul. It goes out in the draft, purging
all meat, get rid of that poison that goes in your mouth, but
you can't get rid of this poison that's in your heart. Only one
can. He said, that which cometh out
of the man, verse 20, and that defileth the man from within,
out of the heart of man proceed evil thought, adulterous, fornication,
and murder. And where does God look? On the
heart. Man only sees the outside. It wasn't always evident back
then, go back to the text, It wasn't always evident someone
had leprosy until after a little while, and
then finally it started to. And usually, you know, usually
the first thing that would happen, if not, little blemishes, and
a person could hide those. An old name, a Syrian, a great
man, captain, Syrian, big, powerful man, he's a leper. So he put
on all his armor. Cover his leprosy. Put on his
shield, his helmet, and all that. Put on his medals. Oh, man. And what he's going to have to
do to be cleansed of his leprosy is strip. Strip. The preacher told him, strip. Get rid of all those medals.
Get rid of that pride. Get rid of your covering. Get
rid of naked. You're naked anyway. strip and
dip seven times, that old red water called Jordan. Well, it
wasn't always evident. The first work, now here's the
first work in salvation. This was the first thing in the
cleansing of a leper. He was to be brought to the high
priest. And the high priest, the first
thing the high priest is going to tell him is, you're a leper. That's the first thing he's going
to show him. First thing he's going to reveal to him. You're
a leper. You've got leprosy, son. Daughter, you've got leprosy. And you're going to die from
it. And that's the first thing God does in saving a sinner from
their sin. The Holy Spirit, through the
preaching of the gospel, the first thing He does is convince,
convict of sin. That's what our Lord said. Sin,
righteousness, and judgment. Sin. They're full of it. Righteousness. You don't have
any. Judgment. You've got to face it. What are
you going to do? There's nothing you can do. Come to the high priest. So the Lord, the first work in
salvation and saving a sinner is bringing them to hear the
gospel that condemns us. First thing you know, the law
condemns us. Now, the law is the knowledge
of what? Sin. Paul thought he was righteous.
Paul thought he was blameless concerning the law, like so many
religious people do. But he said, when God sent the
law, it slew him. He said, sin revived. It raised up in me. Sin welled
up in me and I saw the exceeding sinfulness of my sin. He said,
woe is me. I'm undone. Unclean. That's the first thing. When
these lepers found out they were lepers, they were to say, they
were to tell everybody, unclean, unclean. So the first thing the Lord does
in saving a sinner is bring them to hear the gospel, which condemns
us of our sin, convinces us of our sin. And if God, the Holy
Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, will cause us
to come to Christ, and He always does when He convinces of sin, we'll be cleansed. We'll be cleansed. Look at verse 4. He said, now if the bright spot
be white in the skin of his flesh, and the sight is not deeper than
the skin, the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest
shall shut him up a little while and look at it seven days. Verse
5, the priest shall look on him the seventh day, behold, if the
plague in his sight be at a stay, it hasn't spread any further,
the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shut him up
a little while longer. This is kind of a picture of
people that get religion. And they go into a church and
become members of the church for a little while, seven years,
14 years, and after a while, there are no more sinners, and
then they're gone. This man doesn't need the high
prayer. This man, he's not a leper. Verse 6, said the priest shall
look on him the seventh day, behold, if the plague is somewhat
dark, the plague spread not in the skin, you're clean. It's
just a scab. Wash your clothes and leave. Our Lord one time told about
a man who, a spirit that was in a man, dwelling in a man,
and left. And the man cleansed up, cleaned
up the room and garnished it and put some perfume and all
that and made this just an empty room. There was nothing there.
The soul of men and women that get, eat the husk of religion,
the empty, vain profession of faith. They're possessed by Satan
himself, but they don't know when he leaves, if he got them.
And they garnish the room, and then it says later that the evil
spirit comes back and brings seven more spirits worse than
himself. And that happens so many times.
People clean up their act, wash their clothes, as it were, and
think they're clean. I think they're clean. Oh boy. Did you read with me,
did you read on your own in chapter 13, it talked about a fretting
leprosy. Did you read that? Did you read
the margin? That's why I love this, what
we have here. In the margin it says, fretting
leprosy, fretting. In other words, it's a leprosy
that just feels, you just fret. And the word means, I looked
it up, fretting means it's bitter, it's painful, it's gnawing, and
it's pricking. It pricks you constantly. It's
a leprosy that won't go away and continually gnaws at you
and causes you pain. It's just bitter. It's just something,
I've got to, it's always with me and I can't get rid of, a
fretting leprosy. That's leprosy. That's what David
said. It's ever before me. That person
with a fretting leprosy was to be brought to the high priest.
Look at verse 9. Here it is. Now, when the plague
of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the
priest, and the priest shall see him. Look on it. If he's brought to the priest,
if he finds out that he's a leper and he's brought to the priest, Verse 11, verse 10, there's a
quick raw flesh in the rising. In other words, the flesh is
rising. It's a fretting leprosy. It won't go away. It's constantly
open. You know, Isaiah 1 says about
mankind, all of us, it says, from the sole of our feet to
the top of our head, there's no sound, no good, flesh, no
good thing. Nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. That's what this raw flesh is,
putrefying sores. It's despicable to think about
it. And it is. Man, when God sees man, Psalm
14 says, God looks down upon the children of men, and he says,
there's none good, no, not one. And he said, they all together
become filthy. And the margin says, stinking,
rotten flesh, rotten flesh. Pride is nauseous to God, nauseating
to God. Verse 11, it says, it's an old
leprosy in the skin of his flesh. Old leprosy. We've been lepers
a long time. Saul of Tarsus Paul, he as a
young man was probably, you know, did what young men do. And yet
he got religion and, you know, began to keep the commandments,
he thought, and got real zealous and all that. He had some old
sin. What are you going to do about
that? And he said, when the commandment
came, sin revived, meaning my old sins came back to haunt me.
David, David said in one of his psalms, he said, remember not
the sins of my youth. Those are ever before me. Fretting
lepers. Old leper. I'm an old leper.
Right? Been a sinner a long time. And
the priest will pronounce him unclean. Verse 12, if the leprosy
break abroad, now here it is. This is great. If the leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, it just breaks out all over. And the leprosy cover
all the skin of him that hath plagued from his head to his
foot, wheresoever the priest looketh. Now here it is. This
man comes. And at first, he's got some signs,
and the priest says, you're a leper. Well, I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as that leper
over there. Look at him. He's got leprosy all over. I'm
not that bad. I got some bad points, but not
bad through and through. You're a leper. To offend in
one point, to be able to go, you're going to die for your
sin. You've got old leprosy, what are you going to do about
that? And then finally he finds out,
and finally he begins to feel. You know, one of the first things
the Lord makes a sinner do is get a whiff of himself. You know, you've got to be pretty
bad. Here's the thing about depravity. Do you notice this? No matter
how bad you smell, you really can't smell yourself. Your wife
has to tell you. Isn't that right? But if you get so bad, start
smelling so bad sometimes where you smell yourself, you know
you really must smell bad. And this is the first thing,
one of the first things the Lord does to a sinner. is make them
get a whiff of themselves. Oh, wretched man, Paul said,
that I am. Have you ever smelled anything
that makes you want to retch? Is there anything more nauseous
than rotting flesh? Nothing. Dead flesh. A human being is... You can't get rid of the smell.
We just had a little mouse die or something died in the furnace
room down there. And we couldn't get rid of it.
It lingered for a long time, did it? Well, human flesh, you
know, about the only way you can get rid of it? Burn it. Burn everything to get rid of
it. Oh my, the Lord, if the Lord is good to us and merciful to
us, He'll let us have a whiff of ourselves. Show us that we're
unclean. And it says in verse... 13. Then
the priest, so if this leper, it comes to him, and he's got
the plague from his head to his foot, wherever the priest looketh,
and the priest is looking at him, John read from, well, Scripture
says, Hebrews 4 says that everything's open before the eyes of the Lord.
Naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to discern
the thoughts and intents of the heart. And if God looks upon
us through His Word, you know what we find out? In my flesh,
there is no good thing. That which is flesh is what?
Flesh, unclean. Flesh and blood can't get to
God. Nothing you can do with your flesh can get you to God.
Clean it up? No, it won't work. It won't work. One way. One way. You've got to come to the high
priest. Unclean. Through and through. Confessing,
I am a leper. And look, now here's what the
high priest does. In verse 13, then the priest
shall consider, you're a leper? I am. I'm covered with it. There's
not one good place on me. Behold, if the leprosy have covered
all his flesh," verse 13, then the high priest shall pronounce
him clean. Son, you're clean. But I'm covered up. No. Clean. One of the old writers said,
as soon as admission is made, admitting our guilt, remission
is made. Soon as confession is made, sins
are gone. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, you know, in John 13, when
the Lord washed his feet, remember he came to Simon Peter and the
Lord humbled himself. And that whole story of our Lord
washing feet is a picture of our Lord washing us in His blood.
Stripping Himself of His garments, of His robes, and putting on
a towel of flesh, He made flesh, and coming down here, stooping
down here, and taking the blood, His own blood in a basin, and
washing us clean with it. He stooped down to old Simon
Peter. Remember what Simon Peter said?
Oh Lord, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't stoop down
to wash my feet. I said, Simon Peter, if I wash
you, if I don't wash you, you have no part in me. You can't
be with me. If I don't wash you, you can't
be in glory with me. This is my glory. I came down. I condescended to safe-sitters
like you, Simon. If I don't wash you, I'm the
only one that can. I'm the great high priest. You're
a leper. Well, Simon Peter said, wash me all over. Remember that?
Wash me all over. Your ears, my eyes, my feet,
because I'm vile. Behold, I'm vile. And he said,
you're clean. You're clean. But what? Why is he clean? Because Christ said so. When
is a person saved? When God says so. When God purposed
before the world began to save a people, it's done. Nothing's
going to stop Him. Right? For whom He did foreknow,
He did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. That all sounds like it's past
tense. It was. It is. Christ, the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. That's why every single
sinner has ever been saved in the Old Testament and is saved
by the blood of Jesus Christ. From Abel to Zechariah. When is a man saved? When it pleased God to make us
His people, when He purposed to save us. It's as good as done.
When Christ died on Calvary's tree, all the sins of all of
God's people from the beginning to the end were put away. Right then and there. When is a man saved? When the
Holy Spirit comes through the preaching of the gospel and convicts
of sin and gives repentance and faith, right then and there.
But then Paul said, I haven't arrived yet, I'm not perfect.
Which is it, Paul? It's both. We have been saved,
we're being saved, we will yet be saved. So this leper was pronounced,
claim. Who is he that condemns? It is
God that justifies. But Christ had to die, didn't
he? He had to literally come down here and die. Of which all
the Old Testament types speak of. Now look at chapter 14. These two birds. This is wonderful. I love this. I'll never forget
when I first heard this. I'll never forget. I was reading
Spurgeon when I First time I ever read Leviticus 13. I was sitting
there reading Spurgeon, and I jumped about two feet out of my chair.
Clean! Chapter 14 now. Christ had to
die. Christ had to literally come
down here, made in the likeness of sinful flesh. The living Lord
had to come and die. Verses 1 through 3, the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, This is the law of the leper in the
day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the
priests, and the priests shall go forth out of the camp. Where was Christ crucified? Outside
the camp, on Golgotha's hill. And that's what the Scripture
says in Hebrews 13, 13, Let us go forth therefore unto him,
cry, without the camp. bearing his reproach, crucified
with gratitude. The priest shall go forth out
of the camp, verse 3, and the priest shall look, and behold,
if the plague of the leprosy be healed in the leper, the one
that's brought to him and the one that's pronounced clean by
him, here's what he'll do, verse 4. The priest shall command to
take for him, that is to be cleansed, two birds alive and clean, and
cedarwood and scarlet and hyssop, two birds alive and clean. Cedar
wood and scarlet or scarlet lime, thread, cord, because you're
going to take one of these birds and bind it to that piece of
wood with a scarlet lime. And hyssop, that's a fragrant
green herb that grows out of a rock. healing, medicinal quality. Hyssop. All right? And you'll
see in a minute why David said what he did in Psalm 51. All
right? You take that and verse 5, the
priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an
earthen vessel. One of the birds should be killed.
Who killed the Lord Jesus Christ? God did. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He made his soul an offering
for sin. He gave him a body, an earthen vessel. Oh, we have
this treasure, which is Christ and his blood in an earthen vessel.
And he took an earthen vessel. A body hast thou prepared me,
Christ said. Christ came in the fullness of
time, made of a woman, made under the law. to redeem them that
are under the law, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet
without sin. Why did he take a body? To die. To go to Calvary's tree. First
to fulfill the law. To fulfill the law. A man, actually,
in thought, word, deed, in actions, hands, clean hands. He had clean
hands, pure heart. God look on his heart, perfect.
God look on his hands, clean. There's no leprosy in him. Okay? So, as a substitute, as a perfect,
made perfect, the perfect substitute, made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, to live and to die. Christ came to die. He said,
for this cause came I into the world, to die. A substitute for
sinner. You know what Christ did? He
came into this leper colony called Planet Earth. And you know what
he did? He became a leper. There's true stories of missionaries
that preached to the leper colonies, and they had to go in the leper
colony to preach to them. And they became lepers. This
is a true story. I think his name was Kerry. William
Carey was a missionary, and he was in India preaching. And they went out into the jungle
with some natives, and they were going somewhere to another little
village. And he said he heard the most awful cry he'd ever
heard in his life, moaning and groaning. Somebody cried, help
me, help me. And he said they worked their
way through that jungle, chopping the bush and the shrubs and the
hedges. They went into the hedges. And
this man, he got louder, help me, help me, help me. And Carey
said they got through it finally, and there sat the most awful
sight he'd ever seen in his life. He said there was a man in the
last stages of leprosy. And leprosy, the flesh literally
rots and corrupts and falls off. And he was sitting there and
his corruption flies all over him. He said both hands were
gone, just his face was like melting. And he had his hands
up there, help me, somebody help me. And Carrie said, I thought, If
only I could take my clean flesh, my pure health, and go and get
a hold of that man, and put him up to my bosom, and put that
awful face into my face, and his stinking flesh, wrap him
up, and give him my life, and give him my flesh, and me take
his leprosy. If only I could do that. He said,
but I can. But you know what? Christ did.
That's exactly what Christ did. Would you do that? Would you
go in a leprechaun? Behold, what matter of love the
Father has bestowed upon him. So, he said, take that. Alright,
now verse 5. The priest shall command one
of the birds to be killed, an earthen vessel overrunning So
there's blood and water flowing. Blood and water for the cleansing
of this land. All right? So two birds alive.
Our Lord was crucified. Our Lord was killed. An earthen
vessel. And hanging on that cross, out
of his side, scripture said, came out blood and water. Blood
for our justification. Water for our sanctification.
Christ has made unto us all things in. Complete cleansing. You're
complete in Him. Completely whole in Him. Your
sin's completely gone in Christ. Crucified. No other way. No other
way. Killing. Running water. You know,
running through all this book. That, you know, it doesn't take
but one drop of blood to turn water red. It's significant,
and we looked at it, why the first miracle our Lord performed
was to turn water into wine. Why is that? Because this is
the water of His Word, and it's full of blood. One drop would
turn the whole thing red. The plagues, several plagues,
the Lord turned the water to blood, showing everybody it's
one way. One way. Now see, the priest
would kill that one bird over running water. So there's blood
and water. And verse 6, as for the living
bird, take it, lay hold on that living bird, and the cedar wood
and the scarlet, get that scarlet line, that cord, and bind that
bird to that wood and that hyssop, and dip on it. Dip that bird. in the living bird, in the blood
of the bird that was killed over the running water. Now this is
all Christ. Christ is the bird that was killed.
Why a bird? Why did it say the bird? Why
not a bull? Why not a goat? Here he uses
a bird. Why a bird? Because birds soar
above everything. They soar above everything. And
there's only one creature besides man Let's sing. The bird sang. Right before our
Lord went to the cross, he said, let's sing. Didn't it? He's going
to his death, and he said, let's sing. And he did. The bird. He's going to die. Christ is the bird that died,
and Christ is the one that lived. The sword. And Christ, this bird that is
tied to the cross is us. That's us too. We're going to
have to be crucified with Christ, buried with Him, but risen. Risen. This is us. We're going to have
to bear His cross. His cross. Brothers and sisters,
don't call anything a cross but the cross of Christ, okay? And
the cross we bear is persecution for the truth, for the gospel
said. And we're tied, we're bound to Him by love's strong cord.
Bind the sacrifice of the altar with this bloody line, this scarlet
line. And verse 7, it says, take that bird
that's dipped in sprinkle upon... Now here's the priest and the
leper. Here's the priest and the leper. Think about this. I thought about
this. That living bird watched that
fellow, his fellow, get killed. That living bird was probably
trembling. The high priest grabbed one and
grabbed the other. Going to kill one of them. Going
to let one lose. Which one? You remember when
Christ came in the garden and said, if you seek me, let them
go. And the Lord laid hold of him
in the garden. Men couldn't have helped him. He showed them one
last time, I am, and they fell to the ground. It was God that
apprehended him. It was God that killed him. It
was God that chose him to be the one to die so that we go
free. But first, we're going to watch
him die. First, we're going to see him die in our place. So
he dies and we go free. And that little bird's watching.
You think he's trembling? You think he's trembling? And then here comes the leper.
The high priest and the leper, okay? The leper's watching him.
He's watching it. He's watching a bird die for
his cleansing. A substitute. A sacrifice. And the high priest and the leper
sees this It's death, and so the high priest takes this bird,
this living bird, dipped in the blood, and that's Christ. He lives.
He's not dead. He lives. And he's the one that
puts his blood on it. But he takes this living bird,
and it says that he sprinkles, verse 7, upon him that's to be
cleansed, this leper, seven times. Now this is a big basin of blood
and water, and he takes it and dips that bird down in it deep,
and it's covered with blood, covered with the blood of its
fellow. And he takes that bird and sprinkles,
he doesn't just, you know, it's not a token, he covers it all
over, it gets in his eyes. It gets in his ears. It gets
in his mouth. He can taste it. He can smell
it. He can feel it. He can see it. It's all over him. He feels it.
He knows it's the blood. When this is through, he's covered
from head to toe in the blood of another. And he knows if I'm
cleansed, I'm pitched all over. Why sprinkling? Well, no type
is perfect, right? Baptism is being immersed in
Christ's blood. All of God's people are immersed
in the confession of faith. Sprinkling, you know, we don't
sprinkle our babies and all that. But there wasn't enough blood
of a bird for him to dip in, right? And besides, the blood
of bulls and goats and birds can't put away sin anyway. But
Christ's blood, It's enough for every child of God. It's an ocean
of blood, of fullness. And every one of God's people
plunge. It's a fountain for sin and clean,
flowing for sin and unclean. And sinners plunged beneath that
blood. So he sprinkled him seven times.
That's perfectionism. Like old Naaman was to dip seven
times. And it pronounced him clean. Once he's sprinkled seven times,
it's over. It's done. It's done. There's
nothing left to be done. No more sacrifice. It kills something
else. Nope. One sacrifice. That's it. You're clean. Go,
leper, go home. Tell your friends. Tell your
family what the priest has done for you, what God has done for
you. He's done. Now look at that. Let that living bird loose. Unwrap him, take off those bloody
garments, and let him live. What do you
reckon the bird's doing? Flying, what else? Singing. What's he singing? There's power
in the blood, power in the blood. Are you all... He's singing.
Everybody's been let loose. You have to sing. You can't stop,
you can't not sing. You can't force them to quit
singing. And in fact, ask Paul and Silas, they'll tell you,
you start singing, that'll let you loose. That'll turn you loose. Ask Jehoshaphat and the people,
ask them. They'll tell you, just start
singing, the chains will fall off. Flower through the air. Free. Because another one died. And I'm covered in his blood. Fifteen hundred years later,
listen to this, true story. Fifteen hundred years later,
the great high priest came to this earth, Jesus Christ, of
whom all this is a picture. Christ is all of this. The great
high priest came to this earth. And he was hanging on a cross,
and beside him there was a sinner from his youth, a sinner from
head to toe. He'd never done one good thing
his entire life. He was wretched, vile, a murderer,
a robber, a thief. Never given God a thought, only
thought of himself, loved himself, hated God and hated people. Lived
for himself. He was a vile, wretched, sinful
leper. Hanging there on the cross, right
beside the great high priest, Jesus Christ. And he saw that leper, that thief,
saw them strip Christ of His garments. He saw it all going
along. And he did not know at the time that God at the same
time that Christ was being stripped, he was clothing him. He didn't see it, but God was
putting a... He's covering that prodigal with
his son's righteousness. He heard words come out of Christ's
mouth like hyssop, fragrant words. Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" All along he heard those words. And surely he had Christ's blood
on him. Physically, literally, he probably
had. Christ was covered with blood all over. And he was alive
hanging on that cross, wasn't he sister? He's alive. Was that
blood flowing? Did that thief have some of Christ's
blood on him? Whether or not he had it on him
outside, he has it on his soul. He didn't know it. And then, all of a sudden, that
man who didn't know just how bad he was, at one moment he's
cursing the Lord Jesus Christ. And then all of a sudden, After
hearing his words and looking, he's on his right hand, looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's convicted of his awful sin. He knows, he smells himself. He knows he's a leper. And he
said, I'm getting what I deserve. This man hath done nothing amiss.
He's holy. He's pure. I'm a sinner through
and through. Always have been. I am right
now. And I'm dying because I deserve it. And I'll go to hell right
now. Lord, oh great high priest, I'm
a leper. Would you save me from my sin? Would you heal me? Would you
remember me when you come into your kingdom?" With one word,
the high priest said, clean. Clean. Today. You'll be with me in paradise.
That actually happened. 500 years later, another leper,
right here, another leper came, brought, crucified with Christ. And you know, that old thief,
that old thief, After he saw Christ crucified and heard those
precious words from his mouth, a little while later, you know
what happened to him? He was turbulent. From sin, from the world, they
flew on the wings of an eagle into the presence of God. A vile
leper came into the presence of a holy God. For that spot,
that blemish, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight.
Why? The blood of Jesus Christ. Okay,
stand with me. Holy God and Father, thank you
for your blessed word, blessed truth, the gospel of our salvation. There is no other thing For us,
no other story. This is it. This is all. Christ
is all. We need nothing else. We need nothing else. Oh, make us so thankful. We have one thing
needful. Every human being needs this
one thing needful. Thank you for revealing this
to us, that Christ is all. Let us never lose sight of Him
and Christ crucified. Let us be determined like Paul
to know nothing that this world has to say. The glory of nothing
and no one. Be caught up with and taken up
with nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And all who
do are going to be in glory forever, singing of Him that loved us
and washed us from our sin in His own blood. Oh Lord, hear
our prayer for Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed.