The Cleansing Of A Leper

Q: What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

The Bible teaches that sin is a plague within every individual, ultimately leading to spiritual death and separation from God. The Bible describes sin as a pervasive disease affecting all humanity, akin to leprosy in Leviticus. All individuals are seen as spiritually dead due to sin, even while alive in this world (Ephesians 2:1). The unclean state of humanity before a holy God necessitates an acknowledgment of sinfulness to seek salvation. Romans 3:23 highlights that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,' indicating the universal nature of this condition.

Q: How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Christ's sacrifice, symbolized in the cleansing of the leper, is sufficient as it covers our sins through His shed blood. The cleansing of the leper in Leviticus illustrates the necessity of atonement through blood sacrifice. In Leviticus 14, two birds are used, representing both the death of Christ and His resurrection. One bird is killed, symbolizing the sacrifice made for sin, while the other is set free, representing the new life believers have through Christ's resurrection (1 Peter 1:18-19). This act underscores that 'without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin' (Hebrews 9:22), affirming that Christ's blood is the ultimate means for our cleansing.

Q: Why is understanding our sinfulness important for Christians?

Recognizing our sinfulness is crucial as it drives us to seek Christ, the only source of salvation. Awareness of our sinful nature is fundamental to the Christian faith, as it reveals our need for a Savior. Just as the leper had to recognize his condition to seek cleansing, believers must see their unclean state to understand the magnitude of Christ's grace and mercy (Luke 5:31-32). The apostle Paul emphasizes this in Romans 7:24, where he cries out for deliverance due to his sinfulness. Understanding our plight enhances the joy of salvation, as it shows the depth of God's love in providing a means of redemption through Christ.

Q: How does Leviticus teach about God's grace?

Leviticus illustrates God's grace through the law of cleansing for lepers, pointing to Christ's redemptive work. The book of Leviticus provides a framework for understanding God's holiness and grace. The detailed laws regarding leprosy and cleansing reflect how God provided a means for the unclean to be restored. The high priest is a foreshadowing of Christ, who intercedes on behalf of sinners (Hebrews 4:14-15). By following the prescribed rituals, lepers could experience physical cleansing and societal reintegration, paralleling the spiritual cleansing available through faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. God's grace is evident in His provision for sinners to be made clean and restored to fellowship with Him.

Q: What role does faith play in the process of salvation?

Faith is essential for salvation, as it is through belief in Christ's redemptive work that we are cleansed from our sins. Faith is pivotal in the Christian experience of salvation, acting as the means through which individuals are united with Christ's sacrifice. In Leviticus, the leper's healing begins when he is brought to the priest, symbolizing the need for faith in Christ's role as the High Priest (Hebrews 3:1). The New Testament reinforces this truth, as Ephesians 2:8-9 states that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works. This faith recognizes our need for divine intervention and trusts completely in Christ’s sufficiency to save and cleanse us completely from sin.

I do hope you have a Bible with
you. It would be very difficult to follow along and to get anything
from this unless you look at the Scriptures with me. Leviticus is the third book in
the Old Testament. We've met here together to, we
meet here together to worship God, to look into this book.
I don't prepare these messages and I don't get up here with
the intentions of entertaining anyone. And I hope you don't
come for that reason. I know most of you don't. But
we come to listen and to learn from the pages of this book.
So I ask you to bear with me and follow along closely in this
study. Leviticus, chapter 13. Let's
read a few verses, beginning with verse 9. Leviticus 13, verse
9. And when the plague of leprosy
is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest, and
the priest shall see him. And behold, if the rising be
white in skin, and it hath 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 shall not shut him up. for he is unclean, unclean. Now, leprosy is a disease which
few, if any of us, know anything about or have ever seen it. It
is completely unheard of in our society. It has practically been
eradicated entirely from everywhere. except in a few remote parts
of the world now. But there is a plague of leprosy
within every one of us. There is a plague among us right
now that infects every single individual, every one, even all
of us here. Every single individual upon
the face of the earth is plagued with this disease. And almost
every single case is ultimately fatal, as it was with this, as
it was. We know something of the disease
AIDS. Well, this disease I'm speaking
of can be equated with that, spiritual AIDS. I'm talking about
sin, sin, sin. There's a plague of sin within
every one of us, and in almost every single case, it is ultimately
and finally fatal, except in a few people. And just as in
our story here, we're going to see it in a moment, just as all
those who contacted leprosy, they were dead, really. They
were walking dead men. They could just expect to die
at any time. They were dead while they yet
lived. Even so, all who have been infected,
which is every man and woman and young person, all who have
been infected with this disease called sin are dead, though they
are alive in this world, dead. But there was a cure back then
for leprosy, and there's a cure now for this thing called sin. And I want you to notice with
me in this the similarities between the diseases and the cures. It's remarkable. You're going
to get a blessing if you gather yourself and follow along. This will be a blessing to you. God will help us. First of all,
there are four things I want us to notice in this study. I want us to notice the leper
and his disease, and then we'll see how the leper is brought
to the high priest, and then we'll see how he's cleansed And
then we'll see the man later on, after he's cleansed. Now,
first of all, I want to look at the leper and his leprosy. Some characteristics. Now, leper
was a loathsome fellow. Loathsome means a despicable-looking,
awful-looking and odious creature to be around. terrible-looking
person and smelling and so forth, a leper, was loathsome in their
person. Now, leprosy was at first, when
leprosy first came upon a person, it was imperceptible. That is, it wasn't manifest on
the outside at first, because it started within. Leprosy was
a disease that started in the bones. The bones, the skeleton,
you know, is the foundation of the person. Everything else hangs
upon it, the skeleton. And leprosy was a disease of
the bones. It started in the bones, and
then eventually, in the latter stages, it began to manifest
itself outwardly. But at first, when leprosy came
upon a person, It only manifested itself in a few little spots
here and there, mostly painless, just a scab or a sore on yourself. And it really wasn't very painful,
but nevertheless it was leprosy. And the leper, the person who
had leprosy, could have it and be unaware of it. They could
have leprosy, a deadly disease within them, and not even know
it. But it was there, and it was in the bones, like I said.
That's where it started. Until finally, it began to manifest
itself in every way. It began to grow worse and worse
until finally, outwardly, the fingers would drop off. The whole
body would become covered with scales. And the joints would
become so weak and the bones brittle until actually, until
actually a person would just fall into a pile. The bones,
it was just a totally debilitating, destructive, annihilating disease
that just wastes the person away to nothing, to literally nothing,
despicable. terrible disease, and a leper
was loathsome in his person. And even so, it's really too
hideous to describe the sight, to go into great detail concerning
a smell, a stench. If you ever smell the rotting
flesh, you say, well, this is a terrible subject for such a
beautiful Sunday morning. Well, if God showed us what we're
really like in his sight. This is what we'd say. This is
what we look like. This is what we appear to be
before this holy and spotless, sinless God. This is what we
are. Our true sinful nature would
be too hideous to bear, too hideous to describe. But sometimes, just
like that leper, finally, finally he had to know he had leprosy.
And sometimes we see, sometimes we get a whiff of ourselves,
some people. And it's a blessing to have revealed
to you your true nature. That's a blessing. It's a gift
of God. People come in here and they
hear practically every message that I bring. They hear something
of man's despicable wickedness and nature and so our sinfulness.
They hear that. And perhaps some people go away
saying, well, I'm tired of hearing that. Well, it's a blessing of God to have
revealed to you what you are. This is where salvation starts.
It's got to. And if I'm faithful in preaching
the gospel, every time I stand up here, I've got to faithfully
proclaim from God's Word what we are by nature, what we are
before God. Because only when a man sees
himself as a sinner, Will he apply to this Savior? Only then,
only then. Let me give you a very crude
illustration. Mindy's not in here. This is a very crude illustration,
but it'll illustrate what I was just saying. The person may not
understand why it's a blessing of God to see that they're a
sinner, to have God's Word clearly revealed to them to see that
they're just awful, wicked, and deserving of hell. People may
not understand that. Well, let me give you an illustration.
I get up here every Sunday. This is my most difficult day. And generally, every Sunday, I drench the shirt that I'm wearing
with the perspiration. I'll use the proper term, perspiration. And perspiration, you know, brings
about with it an odor. We all have it now. We all have
it. Perspiration odor. BO, some people
refer to it as. But, you know, we don't smell
ourselves. We can have BO. Let's get real
graphic. We can have B.O. and not know
it. Hell, we can't. Everybody else here knows it.
Well, Mindy brought it to my attention now, last Sunday night. We were laying on the bed after
the whole day. She brought it to my attention.
At first now, I thought, what do you mean, telling me that? But then I thought, I was glad
she told me. I said, now you tell me from
now after that. I said, you tell me from now on. I need to, probably
need to go through two or three shirts on Sunday, don't I? It'd
be well. Maybe that's the reason the crowds
will go down on Sunday night. I don't know. But she told me
that, and I was offended at first, but then I thought, I'm glad
she told me that. I need to know that so as not
to be offensive. Buddy, we need to know we're
sinners. in the sight of this holy God.
We need to know, don't we? So as not to be offensive before
this God. So we'll know where to go to
get this odor taken care of, to have it taken away. But man, by nature, is a sinner. And sin, like this leper, may
not manifest itself at first. Just a few spots here and there
in our children. These little girls right here,
they look so sweet. Mama and daddy know better, don't
they? Oh, they look... It just manifests
itself in a few ways at first, doesn't it? A little tantrum
here. Oh, it ain't much. Oh, it's the workings of the
devil in that child. A little tantrum here. A little
lie told here, you know. And the sinner, some people are
unaware of it. They've got it, but they're unaware
of it. You ask them. Ask them if they're a sinner.
Well, you know, I've done some, but I'm not really that. No,
no, I'm not. Really. Some people are unaware of what's
within them. But it's there. And like leprosy,
it first started in the inward being, in the soul, in the bones.
It's in the heart. It's in the mind. It's in the
attitude. It's in the will. That's where it starts. And it
eventually manifests itself outwardly. In every way imaginable until
finally you grow worse and worse until somebody takes care of
this problem. You grow worse and worse until you just drop
into a pile of sinful flesh. And that's where we're described
over in Isaiah chapter 1. No soundness anywhere. That's
the way God looks at us and sees us. Well, this leper was loathsome
in his person and he was defiled in all of his acts. Everything
he did, everything he touched became defiled with him. That's
how contagious this disease was. Everything he touched. Now, he
was much more contagious than AIDS. He touched something and
they had to destroy it, had to get rid of it. His eating utensils,
his drinking utensils, his bedding, housing, houses had to be burned.
Everything that he touched or contacted became right along with him. And the
natural man and woman, all of our actions even, everything
about us, our eating and our drinking, is full of sin, self-pride,
self-righteousness. The Scripture says even the plowing
of the wicked is evil inside the Lord. You mean a man out
there raising his garden? That's evil. He's outside of
Christ now. He's not doing anything fit or
worthy of notice. It's evil. Why? Because of this
nature within us. Our motive, our will, our attitude,
it's for self. That's why. Why is everything
sin? We read it over there in Psalm
51, it gets, thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. Why? Because God gives and gives and
gives and we don't acknowledge and we just heap upon ourselves,
heap upon ourselves, heap upon and don't acknowledge. So everything
we heap upon ourselves and don't acknowledge God, it's sin, it's
wicked, it's evil. But even our, you get into this
realm of religion, even our prayers, our singing. Now, I'm going to
ask for a show of hands. How many people in here sung
those two songs from the heart? Really many. Every word you sang,
really many. Could say before God Almighty,
oh, I sung that from the heart. Praise and thanksgiving to God.
I really mean it. Free from the law, oh, happy,
I'm so happy. How many? A sin in it. It's evil, wicked
sin. We're singing like we mean it.
It's hypocrisy in it, Rick. That's the worst form of sin,
hypocrisy. Our prayers, our singing, our
worship is full of pride and unbelief. We're unclean lepers
to God Almighty. This is a picture of an unclean
leper. Our thoughts are everywhere. We claim to be in here to come
worship God, and our thoughts are everywhere else but here.
We're unclean. Unclean. Well, a leper was not
only loathsome in his person and defiled in everything that
he did, but he was also shut out from society. Now look at
verse 45 with me. Leviticus 13, verse 45. When a man got leprosy, he was
banished to a place without the city, and he was confined with
other lepers, and he was commanded to wear the covering of lepers.
Look at verse 45 of Leviticus 13. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes
shall be ripped up, his head bare, and he shall put a covering
on his upper lip, And he'll have to cry wherever he goes, whoever
he comes in contact with, unclean, unclean. And verse 46, all the
days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled,
he's unclean, he'll dwell alone without the camp. Kick him out.
Get him out of here. Without the camp shall his habitation
be. I don't think there's anything
funny about that. It's not funny. It's just a perfect picture of
the way things are in salvation. But these lepers were separated
from society. They were separated from their
dearest friends and loved ones. They were dead to life. They were dead. They were commanded
to be kicked out, and those leper colonies were not nice places
to live. But they were placed in these
places, and they were just dead to the world, waiting to die.
And that's us. We're sinners. The Scripture
says our sins have separated us from our God, God who is life.
And if we separated from our God, we're what? Dead. While
we yet live. Dead in trespasses and sin. Just waiting to die, waiting
to be condemned to eternity, or through eternity. But you
know, I read one time that they took a homeless man, took him
in and gave him a job and gave him a home and so forth, cleaned
him up and set him on the right path. And you know, the man got
in such a rut when he was back as a homeless man. He got in
such a rut that he couldn't make it in society, that later on
he left his job, left his home and everything, couldn't make
it, had to go back. the living homeless. He thought he was,
he didn't know any other way. He just couldn't make it. Couldn't
exist. That was the way he got used to it. And even so, men
and women in this world without Christ, without God, some are very content, aren't
they? Very content. Seem to be enjoying
themselves. Most prefer it this way. But they're dead. Separated from
God. God who? They don't care anything
about God, but they're separated from God, and they're dead, and
they're waiting for condemnation to come. No communion with God,
no love for Christ, and they ridicule these things such as
prayer and worship and study as being false and useless. And
they may not know this, but like this leper here, they wear the
covering of leprosy. This leper was told to wear a
covering. over his upper lip and everywhere
so he couldn't spew out this obnoxious disease out of his
throat. It was an open sepulcher. He
had to wear a covering so as not to be so contagious. Unclean! He had to cry out, Unclean! I'm
unclean! And people, Christ said, your
own mouths shall be clean. He said, by your words you'll
be judged. And people's mouths Their tongues,
their speech, their lives, give them away. Give them away. Claim to be a
disciple and follower of Christ, and your mouths, your thoughts,
it'll come out and give you away what you're really, who you're
really pursuing. You'll be given away as to what
you really think. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth, what? Speaks and readily say what's
on their mind, what's on their heart. And just like that old
leper was banished to the outside of the camp, we're dead while
we yet live to the enjoyments of true life, spiritual life.
Terry, man doesn't, he doesn't know anything about this life
that's in Christ, the natural man. So consequently, he doesn't
seek it. He's not interested in that. But every man by nature is like
a leper, loathsome in his person, defiled in all of his acts and
everything he does. He defiles it and he's incapable
of fellowship with God. He's kicked out from the presence
of God, God's people. He's shut out utterly and entirely
by sin and from the presence and acceptance of God Almighty.
Now, notice this with me. I want you to notice him bringing
this leper to the priest. Look up there in verse 9, verse
9 of chapter 13. Now, when the plague of leprosy
is in a man, when the plague of leprosy is in a man, then
he shall be brought unto the priest, unto the priest. Whenever a leper was to be cleansed,
the leper did nothing. He did nothing. You're going
to see this in a minute. and got cleansed. He did nothing. If you'll read chapter 13, you'll
see that. Read it sometime. But the leper
was passive. The priest did it all. Look over
chapter 14 with me. Let's look at it here. Chapter
14, begin with verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his
cleansing. He shall be brought unto the
high priest, and the priest shall go forth Out of the camp, the
priest shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed
in the leper." Now, the priest was the one that did these things. He came out of the sanctuary. He came out from amongst healthy
people from the city. He came out of that and went
to the place of leprosy. He went to the leper colony and
went out there to them. No one but the priest was to
go out there. Why? Because anybody else would
get contaminated. Anybody else. The priest, by
God's power, was immune to that leprosy. He and he alone could
go out there and meet those lepers and meet the ones that had me
and heal them. He could go in with the lepers
and be immune to them. And then he called the leper
before him. He called that leper before him.
Now here's the picture. Look at, let's see, look over,
back over, I'm going to go back and forth from chapter 13 and
14. Look at verse 1 of chapter 13. Chapter 13, verse 1. Now the
Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, Now when a man shall
have in the skin of his flesh a rising scab, just a little
spot, They be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of
leprosy. Then he'll be brought unto Aaron
the priest, or unto one of his sons the priest, and the priest
shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh. When the hair
in the plague is turned white, the plague inside is deeper than
the skin of his flesh, and it's the plague of leprosy. And the
priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean." Unclean! Now here's the picture. This
priest goes out. He leaves the camp, leaves the
sanctuary, and comes out of the camp and goes down to the leper
colony. And he calls one of the lepers to himself. He brings
him out here and says, let me look at you. And the man takes
his shirt off or whatever, and the priest looks at him and he
only sees a few spots on him, just a spot here, maybe a spot
there, just a few spots, not much, not many outward signs,
but just a few spots. The priest says, Unclean. He brings out another man. Now
this man has many spots on him, but they may not be seen. His
face may look OK, his hands may look OK, but when he takes his
shirt off and looks on his back, he can't even see him. He turns
around and first looks at his back, and his back is covered
with spots. He's got good flesh on the front,
but on the back he's covered. Unclean. He's got some good flesh
of it. He's unclean. I don't care. He's unclean. But if one comes
along, look down at verse twelve in chapter thirteen. Look at
this. This is amazing. Verse twelve
of chapter thirteen. If a leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that
hath the plague from his head even to his foot, Everywhere
the priest looks, then the priest shall consider, and behold, if
the leprosy is covered all his flesh, he pronounce him clean." Do you see that? If this man comes in, he's covered
all over with leprosy, all over. There's no soundness in him anywhere. He comes before the priest, the
priest says, And then he goes through some
ceremonies to cleanse him. You say, that doesn't make sense. Oh, yes it does. It makes gospel
sense. Gospel sense. You see, first
of all, Christ left the Father's throne. Christ, the holy, spotless
Son of God, left the camp, left the throne of God, left Life
itself left the bosom of the Father to come down into this
leper colony, and only he and he alone could come. Why? Because
he'd be immune from sin. He's the perfect high priest.
He's the spotless one. He came down into this leper
colony, and he could come in among us, took on the likeness
of sinful flesh, but not the sinfulness of flesh. But he took
on this body as a man. He came down here and as a man,
and he comes up to lepers like you and me. And he comes up to
one. And through the work, through
the gospel, this is how Christ comes. He comes to the gospel.
And one is brought before him, and one stands before him, and
one says, well, you know, I've done all these things from my
youth up. I never drank, I never smoked, I've never cursed, I've
never chewed, I've always attended church unclean. Well, another one comes up, and
he says, Well, I've got some faults, you know. Yeah, I haven't
lived a perfect life. I fell back when I was up there.
I'm straightened up now. My back's slid a little bit,
but now I've straightened my life up. I'm going to church,
and I'm okay now. I've done some bad things. Unclaimed. Unclaimed. But you let an old
boy come in, or an old woman come in, that says, I'm undone. I'm unclean. I'm cut off. And
so let somebody realize that they're cut off. They live in
a, they're a man of unclean lips and live amongst the people of
unclean lips. A leper, in a leper colony. I'm no good. All my righteousness
are filthy rags, my thoughts, my imaginations, my heart is
evil continually. There's no good in me, no soundness
in me. I want to be clean, but I have
no hope in myself. If you will, you can make me
clean. What's he saying? Clean! I will
clean. Be thou clean. Well, there's
some other things that are necessary in this thing of the cleansing
of the leper. But you know, this is the first
thing. This is what I said a while ago.
Always preaching on sin. It's old-fashioned, I know. But
it's the starting point of the gospel. Always must be. As soon
as leprosy is uncovered in a person, when they see themselves as leprous...
You know, if we come down with some deadly disease, we're going
to run to the doctor, aren't we? Immediately. Immediately. And as soon as sin manifests
itself to your conscience, really, from this Word, you're going
to run to the Savior. Yeah, you are. And not until
then. Not until then. You know, as long as a man has
anything to boast of, any goodness in himself, he doesn't need a
Savior. He doesn't need Christ, as long as he's okay. But when
he becomes completely undone, unclean, sinful, wretched, defiled,
without hope, without God, then Christ will mean everything to
him. Everything. Everything. Any feelings of worth,
and good works, they take away this feeling of sinfulness, and
that's what these trials are all about. That's the reason
God chose us. That's the reason it's a blessing.
That's the reason God lets these things come. Our little girl
the other day asked a question, Why does God let me have bad
thoughts? That's a good question. Good question. To show you what
you are, so that you will appeal to Him who He is, the only hope,
the only Savior. Don't ever lose your centerhood
or if you don't realize it, I hope God will show you. You know,
when you're sick, who has a right to a physician? If I went to
the doctor today and went in to see him and I didn't have
anything wrong with me, why, he'd cast me out of his presence,
wouldn't he? What are you doing here? What do you mean taking
up my time? If I go in with a terrible problem,
sick, on my deathbed, He'll readily see me. I need Him. I need Him. And He'll help me, a true physician
will. And we come before Christ He's
called the Savior. He's called the Redeemer. Now,
we better need, we've got something we need saved from. He's a great
physician. And we're deathly sick. And only
those people, you know, old Scott used to say this. He said, go
ahead and convince me I'm a sinner. Go ahead. He said, the more you
convince me I'm a sinner. Just tell me, just tell me how
bad I am. Just make it bad. You can't make it bad enough.
He said, go ahead and tell me how bad a sinner I am. Tell me
all you want to. He said, that gives me more right
to the Savior. It gives me more right. Yeah,
it does. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repent. Now let's look at how this leper
is cleansed real briefly, real quickly. Look at chapter 14.
Look at it again with me. Chapter 14. Now, verse 3, he
said, the priest shall go forth. He brought to the priest. The
priest comes out to him, and he'll look and behold if the
plague of the leprosy is healed in the leper. Now, stay with
me. This is a blessing here. Look at it. This is amazing.
This is God's work. This is going to astound you.
Verse 4. Then shall the priest command
to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds. Two birds, both of them alive
and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running
water. And as for the living bird, he'll
take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop. That
is, he'll tie this bird to this stick with this scarlet thread
and dip him, dip that living bird in the blood of the bird
that was killed over the running water and sprinkle that leper
that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times." And then
he pronounced him clean. See, without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission of sin. There's no remission. There's
no cure for leprosy without the shedding of blood. Without the
shedding of the blood. And look at him. And he'll pronounce
him clean, and then he'll let that living bird loose. That living bird will fly off
into open fields. One dead, one alive. Well, two birds were slain. You know, come and The priest
coming down to this man wasn't enough. There had to be a sacrifice
made. There had to be enough. It's
the reason John 3.16 won't say him a soul. But John 3.14 through
16 will. God so loved the world, John
3.16 says, that he gave his only begotten son. That's not enough. That doesn't tell me enough.
That's out of context. Let's read verse 14. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. Everybody knew what that's called,
crucifixion. And you only lift it up on a
pole when you die and you shed your blood. Lift it up! As Moses
lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that all that believe in Him, look
to Him, come to Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, how did he love him? He loved him
in this way, by killing his son on that cross. And whosoever
believeth in him, who will crucify his Savior on that cross? So
here's the story. Two birds, one slain with the
blood and the water, and the other bird was tied to this cedar
stick with this scarlet thread and dipped down in this blood
and sprinkled this leper with this blood. And then the living
bird was set free. Christ came down here to earth.
He had two natures. He's a man, and he was God. Now, God can't die. You can't
kill God. God didn't die on that cross.
Oh, no. The man, Jesus, died on that
cross. God can't die. But a man can. So he came down. Two birds, two
natures. one man, these two or one, he
came down and took upon him a body, a body of a person. And God put
upon him our sin, our iniquities, our judgment, our punishment,
what we had come unto us because of our sin. He put this on Christ,
and he tied him to—this is the reason I believe the cross was
cedar. It wasn't dogwood, it was cedar, because of the root—tied
him to this cross, nailed him to the cross. shed his blood. Did you notice there it said,
run in water also. He was nailed to this cross,
that hyssop, that's the Holy Spirit, that's a healing balm,
healing in his wing. But he was nailed to the cross,
shed his blood, and when that soldier came by and pierced his
side with that sword, blood and what came out? Water. Blood and
water. That's justification and sanctification
is what that is. All in this one person, this
God-man, but he didn't stay dead. He didn't stay dead. His manhood,
yeah, that body died, yeah, but the God-man, the God in him rose
and flew off into the presence of God to sit at the right hand
of the God. On wings of angels and sat at
the right hand of God, and now because he's seated with the
Father, because He lives. I live, because He took that
blood and tied me to that cross, and dipped me in that blood,
and sprinkled me with that blood. And then He set me free, too.
I was crucified with Christ. I was crucified, me and Him both. But nevertheless, I live. Where
do I live? In Him, seated at the right.
I flew off, too, on the wings of a snow-white girl. Well, notice with me that that
leper, that leper is still just standing there. He's still just
standing there. All this time, when he's brought
down to that high priest, they bring this leper. Now, the high
priest comes out of the camp, comes down to where the lepers
are, and somebody goes in and gets the leper and says, the
priest is out here. And they say, oh, okay. And they bring
him out here to the priest. That's illustrative of the gospel. Somebody bringing somebody to
hear the gospel. Somebody's got to sit here on the sound of the
gospel, or wherever the gospels preach, to hear the gospel, to
be under the healing power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel.
Somebody's got to be brought. We know that the Holy Spirit
does that, but he does it through me. But anyway, the priest comes
down, and he comes down to us, and the leper He's just standing
there. He's just standing there. And
he comes out. The priest is here, and he comes out there. And all
this time, the priest is doing it all. He's killing, he's getting
this bird and tying it up, and tying it with string, and cutting
the throat of the other bird, and dipping it down, and sprinkling
that blood on him, getting all over him, cleansing him. That
man's just standing there. Just standing there. Sure, there's
something for him to do. No. Let the priest do it all. Just rest. Just leave it right
there, and the priest will take care of it. What if he thought,
let me help you out of here, priest? That man, that priest,
would have left and gone to somebody else that appreciated what he
was doing. Well, you stood there. If you
ever come to Christ, if you're ever brought to Christ by faith,
that's all you'll do. You'll stand there. You'll do
it all. He does it all. He's the Savior. He does it all. He sheds it.
He lives the life. You don't have to live it. He
lives it. He dies. You don't have to die.
He dies. And he ascends to the Father
and he pleads with the Father. You don't have to go to the Father.
He goes for us. He does it all. Totally passive. And laid clean by the sacrifice
of the high priest. and the resurrection. There would
be no cleanliness with it, no clean leopard without this resurrection,
that second birth. It's got to rise again. It's
got to rise. Well, many people, Christ's blood must be sprinkled
on our consciences. It must be sprinkled on our conscience.
We must be purged from dead works to serve a living God. In order
to know salvation as a reality, this blood has to be sprinkled
on us. Yeah, it does. Salvation, Terry, is God seeing
the blood, first of all. But assurance, comfort, peace,
hope is when we see the blood, you see. And that leper, you
know, back then, he knew when he was clean, didn't he? He felt
that blood in his face. He saw it all over him. And then
the end result, well, he thanked that priest for that blood, didn't
he? Well, many people say this, I
know Christ died for sinners, but I don't feel saved. I feel like I'm a sinner, but
I don't feel saved. Salvation is not in feelings. Salvation's not feelings. It's
in the blood. It's in the blood. If Christ
really died for you, now listen very carefully. This may be comforting
to you. If Christ really died for you,
you're saved. Yes, you are. You are saved. If Christ died for you. He did. You say, well, but I want to
feel it. I want to know it. I want to realize it. Maybe so.
But that's not salvation. It eventually will show itself. Feeling, like I said, I wouldn't
give you a plug nickel for salvation is not feeling, a religion you
don't feel. But that's not salvation. Feelings
come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. Your
only hope is in the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing else is worth believing or trusting, only Him. Look into Him and Him alone. Not to your feelings. They come
and they go. But if you're willing, by God's grace, by God's Spirit,
if you're willing to stand before Christ, before God as an unclean
leper, a condemned and dying leper and sinner on the authority
of God's Word, Christ died for you. I'm not taking that out
of context. I'm just telling it like it is.
And that's salvation. And that's good hope. That's
comfort. That's assurance. You mean I
don't have to do anything? Feel a certain way? No! Stand there and let Him save
you. Let Him. Look at that. Listen
to what I say. Stand there and He will save you. Yeah, He will. But you maintain any goodness
in yourself, you can find any non-leprous flesh and He didn't
die to you. Well, look, and I'll hurry. The clean leper afterwards. Look
at it here. Look at verse 8 with me. Leviticus 14. You know, we're
speaking tonight from John 14 or Romans 14 this morning or
Leviticus 14 tonight. Well, anyway, verse 9. And it
shall be on the seventh day that that man shall shave all his
hair off his head. And his beard, look at it, verse
9, his beard and his eyebrows, all his hair, shave it off, every
bit of it, and wash his clothes, wash his flesh and water, and
he'll be clean. See, what's that talking about?
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, all things
become new. Old things have passed away.
All things become old habits, old sinful pride. Yeah, you know,
you say, well, not all of it's gone from me. No, it won't. It's
not, but someday it will be completely. The high priest will shave it
off of you to enter into his presence. All the old joys and
pleasures of sin, now listen to this, said the beard had to
be shaved. This beard back then, as well
as it is now, was a symbol of Jewish pride. A guy with a long
beard, you know, had to be holy. Look at him, he's got a beard,
as some feel today. I had one one time, and I was
the most wicked man on the face of the earth. I had a long beard.
Hell's angels have long beards. Well, the beard, that symbol
of pride and religiosity, cut it off. Cut it off and come naked
and open before this holy guy. Show that off. It says the eyebrows. Your eyebrows. Boy, you can show, you know.
That's how I look at my daughter when I'm mad at her, you know.
She knows how. Your eyebrows tell. Shave them
off. That old countenance of stern
countenance of wrath and anger, let it be gone. Shave it off.
We hide behind, you ladies hide behind your makeup. When you
come see you in the morning, hmm, don't look at me. And you
put that makeup on, oh, you know. Hide behind it. Well, these are
things you hide behind. Shave it off. Cut it off. Come
clean before God. Cut everything off that gets
in the way of you and your Father. Mortify your members which are
upon the earth. Wash in water. That's the word. Wash by the cleansing of the
word. And the priest shall make a priest that makes him clean
shall present the man that is made clean and those things before
the Lord. The priest that made him clean
finally in the end brings him into the temple, brings him back
into communion with the rest of the people, brings him before
the door of the congregation it says, and presents him before
the Lord. Clean, there he is. Look what
I did. And there's coming a day when
Christ is going to present His people as holy, spotless, unblameable,
unreprovable. Out of the spot! Unreprovable
in God's sight. Why? By the body of His flesh,
through death, to present us in this way. He's made peace
by the blood of His cross. And in conclusion, look at verse
32. This is the summary. Look at
verse 32. This is it. This is the way of salvation.
Verse 32 of chapter 14. See now, this is the law. Rick,
we just talked about laws, it's unalterable. God's law, it's
never done away with. It's fulfilled, but it's never
done away with. And this is the law of salvation. This is the
law of cleansing. Anybody back there that's going
to be clean, this is the way it's going to be done. You ain't
going to be clean. And if you're going to be saved from your sin,
this is the only way you're going to be saved, by the sovereign
grace of God through the redemption and imputed righteousness and
shed blood of Christ. Only way. That's the law. Look
at verse thirty-two. This is the law of him in whom
is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that
which pertains to his plant. If anybody thinks they can go
and get it some other way, let them try. As sure as that high
priest said, go on then. Go somewhere else if you feel
like it. You see, this is a lot of love. For the man that can't
cleanse himself, you've got to go to the high priest. You've
got to go to the high priest. Well, there's healing for lepers
in Christ. There's pardon for guilty, sinful
souls. And if you're dying of leprosy,
you come to Christ, the Savior. He's got God's Word on it. He's the great high priest. He
did all that's necessary. You don't need to do that. Stand with me now, this message
is in practice. Our Father, we are humbled. before this glorious book. It's so clear. We pulled out
just a few little portions out of this this vast ocean of wisdom
and wealth. Just a few little verses here
and there that speak such glorious wisdom. God, how we wish that
we saw more. It rejoices our heart what we
do see. What little we see, our little finite minds are capable
of entering into, we rejoice. We
pray that you'd bring us back and let us see some more. In
Christ's name, amen.

The Cleansing Of A Leper

What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is understanding our sinfulness important for Christians?

How does Leviticus teach about God's grace?

What role does faith play in the process of salvation?

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The Cleansing Of A Leper

What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is understanding our sinfulness important for Christians?

How does Leviticus teach about God's grace?

What role does faith play in the process of salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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