Turn to Leviticus chapter 15.
I hope that at least most everyone
was able to read Leviticus chapter 13, 14, and 15 in the past few
days. Leviticus 13 through 15 is the
context of my message, but there is no way I will be able to deal
with everything there. But these three chapters are
summarized in chapter 15. Some places in Leviticus are
separated quite evident. Others are a little more difficult
to see. But here we have a clear statement,
a summarization of chapter 13, 14, and 15. Let's begin in verse
31. Thus, he's speaking about everything
he said through the past three chapters. Thus shall ye separate
the children of Israel from their uncleanness. Did not say, thus
shall you make them clean. But thus shall you separate them
from their uncleanness. That they die not in their uncleanness. Now you have the statement of
something beyond uncleanness must take place. But then here's
an amazing statement. that they dine on their uncleanness
when, do you see that next one? Not if. Because when a man or a woman
is unclean, even though they are not a priest, even though
they were not a priest, people who brought their sacrifices
brought them to the door of the congregation. They did not go
in and do their sacrificing for themselves. The priests took
care of that. But the very fact of a man or
a woman's uncleanness defiled God's tabernacle. Mine and your
existence defiles God. It is a defiling of his holiness. It doesn't change his personal
character, but it defiles God. when they defile my tabernacle
that is among them. This is the law of him that hath
an issue, and he's dealt with several, of him whose seed goeth
from him and is defiled therewith, or of her that is sick of her
flowers, or of him that hath an issue of the man, or of the
woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean. Those are pretty pointed phrases,
and I'm not certainly going to deal with those in detail. But
this is the summary. This is about our uncleanness,
our defilement, because do not think of uncleanness as your
hands are dirty. Or that you got a cold. This
ain't the uncleanness we're talking about here. In these three chapters,
uncleannesses are then summed up as what? Defilement. Defilement. And in these three
chapters, we see things ranging from viral, to bacterial, to
germ, to mere ceremonial uncleannesses. Leprosy was a real uncleanness.
Leprosy was and yet is today a contagious, real, bodified
uncleanness. And I have to be kind of blunt,
but a woman on her menses is not such uncleanness as leprosy. But she still declared to be
unclean by law, just as much as a leper was. As a matter of fact, the leper,
especially when you read more of the preponderant testimony
of the scriptures, the lepers lived outside the camp. When
a woman was on her period, She had to be separated from the
camp too. So these deal with several kinds of defilements.
As to leprosy, this is going to take up most of what I have
to say. As to leprosy, it first must be detected. As a matter
of fact, if you read chapter 13, 14, and 15, when it speaks
of leprosy, most of what is said is about the detection of actual
real leprosy, and not just some kind of sore. Here's my title. My, and I say
that because I am included. Most preachers today will talk
to you. You people on TV, they'll talk
to you like they've already apprehended. Like they've already arrived.
I'm on this journey with you. The only difference is God has
ordained and sent me to publicly preach and lead a local assembly,
and that's the only difference. My defilement detected. I text most of you with that
title. There are three conclusions that
are evident about defilement, especially leprosy. The first
one is this, if you read the book, chapter 13, 14, 15, suspect
defilement is suspect until proven otherwise. Did you read that? And it's beginning, chapter 13,
and let me just read that. I'll just read it and make a
few other statements. Suspect defilement is suspect
until proven otherwise. Chapter 13 verse four, if the
spot or the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh and
in the sight not deeper than the skin and the hair thereof
be not turned white, then the priest shall shut him up that
hath to plague seven days. Why? Because we're gonna detect
what this really is. and the priest shall look on
him the seventh day, and behold, if the plague in his sight be
at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin, then the priest
shall shut him up seven more days, and the priest shall look
on him again the seventh day, and behold, if the plague be
somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, and the
priest shall pronounce him what? Clean. In other words, he don't
really have leprosy. Might have looked like leprosy
to start with. It may have been comparable to leprosy to start
with, but it was not leprosy. But you shut him up until you're
sure. Suspect defilement is suspect
until proven otherwise. And John comes along with the
New Testament in 1 John 4, verse one, we hear these words recorded
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, try the spirits. You know why? Because there's a lot of people
out there that lie on God. Just because a man, and nowadays
you pretty much probably have to say it, or a woman. Somebody
say, are you against woman pastors? I'm against most pastors. Male
or female. Because they lie on God. And
just because a man or a woman quotes from the Bible, reads
from the Bible, and says Bible words does not mean they're sent
of God. Try the spirits. You judge what
I say from this podium by this book. And you'd be like the Bereans
who were noble, even more so than others. They searched the
scriptures, what does it say? Daily to see if what Paul was
telling them was right. Wait a minute, he's the apostle.
He was still a man. He wrote inspired scripture,
but that didn't mean everything he said and everything he always
done was right. When God moved him to write the
letters he wrote, he was perfect. Any other time, Mason, he was
not perfect. Just a clay pot. Try the spirits. When a man speaks,
and he says he's speaking for God, automatically hold him suspect. Now I know even in some grace
churches, they don't really want to talk that way. They want you
to think that when they speak, it's from the cathedral itself. But it ain't so. Suspect defilement
is suspect until proven otherwise. But here's another thing we're
taught. Actual defilement is immediately declared to be so.
Now you see it, chapter 13 again in verse one. The Lord spake
unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the
skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or a bright spot, and it be in
the skin of his flesh, like the plague of leprosy, then it shall
be brought unto Aaron, and the priest, or unto one of his sons,
the priest, 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. You pronounce him what? You don't
shut him up seven days. He's what? Right off the bat,
unclean. John, again in 2 John, verses
six to 11, he basically tells us if someone's not preaching
the doctrine of Christ, don't even bid them into your house. And when you tell them to leave,
don't bid them Godspeed. And let me summarize this, because
I could spend the whole message right there, four months What
is the doctrine of Christ? He says that some will come and
preach not that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh. He says they
are anti-Christ. They are anti-Christ. But what's
that mean? Let me put it this way. Jesus
Christ in human flesh did not fail at anything he came to do. I'm no prophet, That's a summary
of everything concerning the doctrine of Christ. Jesus Christ
did not fail at anything the Father sent him to do. If he
came to sanctify, people gonna be sanctified. If he came to
reconcile, people gonna be reconciled. If he came to save, people gonna
be saved. If he came to redeem, people
gonna be redeemed. The very ones he did it for.
And I started once, Joe, start giving all the Old Testament
passages, and I thought, I will never get through. But that's
a good scale. Jesus Christ in human flesh failed
at nothing. Nothing. But there's another
one here. All defilement must have atonement. And here's the
amazing thing about chapter 13, 14, and 15. All defilement must
have atonement even after healing takes place. Did you read 13,
14, and 15? As a matter of fact, in 13, 14,
and 15, with these issues, or these uncleannesses, or these
defilements that are mentioned here, atonement always comes
after the person is already clean from the ailment. Do you see that in leprosy itself?
A person has leprosy, but then if they are healed, and how could
the healing happen? They did not have drugs for this.
We're talking about a miraculous act of God. And all of a sudden,
this leper out there in that leper area outside the camp says,
look. What's he to do? Atonement must
be made. If it was a house leprosy, house
leprosy. That sounds pretty nasty. They
had to disassemble that whole building pretty much. Did you
read it? House leprosy. It goes on with issues of the
flesh, spit, saddles, men's seed, menses. But always the atonement
comes after the malady is over with. Now that does not mean
that Jesus Christ's work at Calvary is of no value till you do something
to clean up yourself, because none of these people cleaned
up themselves. It was either in the natural process of the
ailment they were going through, or of certain cleansings that
they could go through, or in the case of leprosy, that they
were actually healed by God of the leprosy, then atonement was
made. What's that talking about? It's talking about this. You
never know God in mercy and grace until you first, first see the
atoning work of Jesus Christ. But that's only based upon when
you didn't even know about the atoning work of Jesus Christ,
that Jesus Christ died for your sins. You see, conversion apart from
Christ's personal work is useless. Did you hear what I said? there
are thousands of men and women that will probably be converted
this morning. Converted to what is a big question. But one thing that most of them
will not be converted to is Christ and his person and work. You know, there's some people
that really think Jesus died just to show us this great example
of how we ought to live for God and serve God even if it means
we die. But then we are converted and that's what saves us. Men
and women were saved by the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension
of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. That's right. Conversion
apart from Christ's personal work is useless. You could have
all the faith that God has, but if you have sin, God Almighty's
got to deal with that sin. In faith, your cleanness don't
deal with your uncleanness. Remember, here's the leper, he's
cleansed, he's still got to have what? Atonement. Why? Because the cleanness is bad? No. Because the uncleanness was
bad. And if I only ever committed
just one sin, Jesus Christ to save me would still have to be
all he is and do all he ever did and do what he's doing now
for me to ever be saved. So again, I say conversion apart
from Christ's personal work is useless. But here's the question
for me. And I ask it of you, but I can't
prove it to you one way or the other, yea or nay. Only the Spirit
of God can prove this to you. Has my defilement been detected? I walked the Nile, walked it
more than once, but walked the Nile years and years and years
ago. I was probably five, six years old. And I prayed the prayer. I believed
everything I was told I was supposed to believe. but my leprosy had never been
detected. I didn't know I was unclean.
I didn't know I was defiled. I didn't want to go to hell.
I remember being asked that. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? Of course not. Well, pray this prayer. I did. And I believed
what I prayed. But I didn't know anything about
my defilement. Nothing. Do you even suspect
you're defiled? Do you even suspect it? Well,
preacher, I'm just not so sure about all this sin and then sins
being different. I'm just not so sure about what
all that means. I don't know if I've experienced
the right thing. If you even suspect you're unclean, go to
the priest. Do you hear me? Go to the priest,
right? And who is the priest typifying? Run to Jesus Christ. I didn't
say try Jesus. Run to Jesus Christ. Go to the
priest and say, look what I got. Look. That looks like it could
be nasty. Right? Run to the priest. See the priest. And that is impossible until
a person starts to see a blemish. Right? Why would you go to the
priest if you don't see no blemishes? But let me tell you something,
there's one place you got blemishes, that's all over your back. And we generally don't see the
blemishes on our back. You got to have what? Somebody
detect them for you. Mason, even if it's a mirror,
something else gotta detect it for ya. Run to Jesus Christ. Compare your flesh to his. Run to Jesus Christ, compare
your spirit to his. Run to Jesus Christ, compare
your motives to his. Run to Jesus Christ, compare
your works to his. If you think you're still unblemished,
you ain't run to the right Jesus yet. Because if you go to God's high
priest, if you go to God's priest, you're gonna see everything about
him is perfect. even in his humanity. And when
you see him, if you really are enabled by God to see him, you're
gonna say, I am defiled. I'm defiled. We all have leprosy
by nature. And you know what the scripture
calls that leprosy? Unbelief. Unbelief. That is our chief problem. We all have leprosy by nature,
but it's not detected in all, is it? Oh, you know what the
book says. Christ said of the Spirit of
God, he called him the Comforter. And when he's come, he'll reprove
the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And he said sin,
why? Why, what's the main problem
with sin? Because they believe not on me. Now do not fall into the same
trap that I was born and raised in. And Joe could validate this,
a few others that were caught up in that false religion as
well. We were actually taught that
Jesus Christ died for all the sins of all mankind except for
unbelief. We're actually taught this. And
nobody ever really goes to hell for anything other than what?
Unbelief. And the only way to escape hell
was to quit unbelieving and start believing. Now was we taught
that, Roy Jr., was we taught that or not? That's not what
the book teaches. But the book does teach that
unbelief is our leprosy. We're all born, after Adam fell,
we've all been born into a leper colony. Your mommy and daddy
were lepers and they brought forth what? A leper. When you
found you a husband or a wife and y'all joined up and had kids,
they were born lepers. And when it says he will, he
will, that is the comforter. Now it's not real comforting
when it first begins. When he first begins to detect
your leprosy, when he first begins to show you your defilement,
it's not real comforting. But he is doing it as the comforter. See, he's called the comforter. And he does it according to God's
own wise way. If I never seen the spot, Joe,
I really wouldn't care. And leprosy, they say, generally
begins like in one or two little spots. And then it can like,
just spread. And I've seen some pictures,
especially of years ago. I mean, that stuff eats you alive. He will, but he's gonna do it,
he will reprove. Now go ahead and talk to most
folks. Go to the mall this evening and ask them, has the Spirit
of God reproved you of your unbelief in Jesus Christ? I bet you most
of them, well, I believe in Jesus. Ain't nobody sees no spots, do
they? They don't even suspect a spot.
I believed in Jesus since they sprinkled me when I was a baby.
I've been brought up in the church. Oh, but when the Spirit of God
shows you your spots, that's when things will change. Unbelief. And look at what Leviticus 13
says. Look at it one more time. Verse
three about leprosy. And the priest shall look on
the plague in the skin of the flesh. Remember, this is the
real leprosy. And when the hair of the plague
is turned white and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin
of his flesh. My problem ain't just what you
see out here on the outside. It's what's down underneath.
Most of us, we can do pretty good about putting on some long
sleeves. Long dress or long pair of pants cover up our what? Our
spots. But the problem with leprosy
is it starts where? On the inside. On the inside. And our problem, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. The things we do outwardly are
because of our corrupt, leprous heart. And the scripture calls
it an evil heart of what? Unbelief. You see, if I believed
God like I ought to believe God, I'd never have a problem with
anything else. Look at Jesus Christ. Look at
Jesus Christ. I didn't say he won't have troubles.
He had trouble. He's a man of trouble, sorrows. But Joey faced
them in perfect faith. Perfect obedience. Why? Because
he had faith in its fullness. He is God! He's God! And God is called the
faithful God. In other words, Mason, he plumbed
full of faith. He plumbed full of faith. And
remember, remember by the law you must be clean first when
it comes to leprosy. then you'll see atonement. Now this lets me know a couple
things. One, the Levitical sacrifices were insufficient. Right? Because you didn't offer sacrifice
to get rid of the leprosy. You only offered the sacrifice
once God Almighty had healed you of the leprosy. But isn't
there something there for us as revealed even in the New Testament? You remember Peter, they wasn't
told this directly right up front. It's amazing how God sometimes
will teach you the truth. God's gonna tell Peter, you're
gonna go down here and preach to a bunch of Gentiles. And Peter,
if it had just been somebody that said, well, I believe God
wants you to go preach to the Gentiles. What do you think Peter said?
I ain't going to the unbelieving, unclean Gentiles. But God in
a vision sent down a sheet. It had, as Earl used to say,
polliwogs and catfish and frogs and all these unclean beasts
in it. God says, arise, slay and eat. And he said, no. But what did
God say? Now, Cornelius ain't even heard
the gospel yet. Because Peter's going to be sent
to Cornelius with the gospel, which Cornelius must hear. But
what took place before he even seen the atonement? He was actually
cleaned. He said, don't you call common
or unclean that which I have, what? Cleansed. See, I'm telling
you that Jesus Christ cleansed me way before I ever even really
seen it. But see it, we must. And when
God shows you your spots, your leprosy, you gonna start looking
for it. You see, belief in Christ comes
only by an act of God. By the very power of God Almighty,
even it's called the resurrection power of God that he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead. That's what it
takes for you and I to believe. A resurrection act of God Almighty. I cannot preach the gospel strongly
enough to make you believe. But even if I preach it faultingly,
if I'm preaching the truth, if God Almighty's cleansed you,
bless God, you're gonna run to it. You're gonna love it. You're gonna seek it out. You're
gonna believe it. Let me illustrate this. Now,
one of my illustrations has already been dealt with by Paul. That
don't mean I'm gonna spare you less time. It just means I'm
not gonna talk about it as much. I'll talk about the other one
more. There are two actual illustrations. and examples of faith, believing,
given in the New Testament that are pertinent to our chapter
13, 14, and 15. One is, remember the leper who
came to Jesus Christ? And I am persuaded, because of
the preponderant testimony of this book, just like Christ said
of lepers in Old Testament days, there were many lepers in Israel.
God, and especially in the time of Elijah or Elias, one or the
other, said God didn't heal a one, not even one Israelite leper.
But he went and healed a Syrian. And those people in that synagogue
were ready to kill him for that. Right? But here comes a leper.
Wait a minute. He's unclean. He's supposed to
cry. Unclean, unclean, unclean. even when he begins to approach
someone else. He doesn't do that. It says he ran to Christ and
fell down and worshiped him. But lots of people think they
worship Christ. His words show his worship. He
said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He knew
it had nothing to do with Christ's ability He knew Christ had the
absolute full ability, the only question was God's willingness
to do this thing. And yet religion today turns
that right around, false religion, anti-Christ religion, do they
not? Oh, God's so willing, he's just not able unless you do something.
What a lie. If thou, where'd such a faith
like that come from, Joe? He'd evidently heard something
more than what most folks were hearing in the synagogues, wasn't
it? Here's a man that he bowed down to and acknowledged his
sovereign right to either heal him or not. Right? Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And the Lord, I can see, I probably
looked him right in the eyes, Joe. and said, I will. Don't you think this automatically
did that to make his heart rejoice? I will! Be thou clean, and bless
God he was really clean. But it also said, not just that
Christ did what? Let me tell you something, unless
God Almighty and the person of his son actually touches you,
you've still got nothing but your leprosy, whether it's ever
been detected or not. Amen. Where do you get such a
faith like that? That's the gift of God. Amen.
It took the power of God, Raulton, that man. Yes, sir. What about
that woman with that 12 years of bleeding? I'm not going to
say much other than this. Many banged up. I can just see
everybody wanting to touch him. but she touched him. She touched
him in faith. I know some people say, well,
y'all talk about faith being God's gift and it makes faith
belittled. No, it doesn't. No, that gives
faith a grandness because faith resides intrinsically only in
God. True bona fide, that saving faith. resides only in God. It's called
the fruit of the Spirit, who is God. So if I got any of it,
it had to come from Him. Right? That makes it glorious. Glorious. Many thronged Him. She just touched Him. Where'd
she get such faith? As Paul said, she heard. She
heard. Think of it, both of these people
disregarded scorn or even rejection. The first guy knew he didn't
have to do it. But he had no other option. Did he? He had no other option. The lady,
she exhausted all of her options. He was the only place she had
left to go. And they weren't worried about the scorn of everyone
else around them. They both broke the law. I'm
gonna say it, I'll just let the chips fall, I'll pull the pin
out of the hand grenade. They both broke the law to get
to Christ. Let me tell you something, when
God Almighty really shows you, detects your leprosy, you will
get to Christ. You will get to Christ. Doesn't
matter if mom and daddy likes it. Doesn't matter whether your
brother or sister likes it. Doesn't matter whether your spouse
likes it. Doesn't matter whether your cousins like it. Doesn't
matter whether your coworkers like it. I got to get to Christ. And neither one of these people
had any right to think Christ had to heal them. Even the woman
just knew, here's one who can do it. And all's I gotta do,
touch the hem of his garment. And she didn't even know he was
the one that put her there to start with. Cause as Paul said,
I see, I mean, he preached my message, but I'm not gonna let
you off it quicker. He turned around to find her
and he could have said, you did it. Could he not? It was you. He knew who it was. He gave her birth. He had sustained
her. He's the one that caused her
to actually spend everything she had so she'd have no other
place to go. Why'd he call her out? So she'd
confess it. And bless God, when God Almighty
shows you what you are by nature and you flee to Jesus Christ,
you won't be ashamed to confess it. He says, if you are, I won't
confess you before my Father. Isn't that what he said? Well, preacher, that's works.
You call it what you want. That's what Christ said. Yes
or no? He said, you deny me before men,
I'll deny you before my Father, which is in heaven. Call it what
you want. But then, gotta move to Mark
3. Now here's a malady that a man
had. It's not one of them particular
to Leviticus 13, 14, and 15, but I wanna read it real quick,
make a couple comments. Mark three, and he entered again
into the synagogue, and the scripture doesn't give us details just
willy-nilly, just so we'd be historically informed. He entered
into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had what?
A withered hand. A withered hand, I mean, he couldn't
use it. And then, you know, the people
who like to write the commentaries, they want to argue over what
it really meant to have a withered hand. It was a withered hand,
they couldn't use it. No matter what the reason was. And they
watched him, that is these other people, watched Christ. Whether he would heal him, and
here's the whole thing. So they said. So they said to
themselves. Whether he would heal him on
the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. I want you to see
here Christ's faith. Not too many people are talking
about Christ's faith. But if you've got any faith whatsoever,
it's Christ's faith and a little piece of it given to you. Or
maybe a big piece of it. That's according to his sovereign
will. Isn't it? First Corinthians or one of them.
It's according to his sovereign will. Let me move on. They watched
him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they
might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered
hand, stand forth. He could do that. Right? He could do it. His hand was
withered, not his legs, not his feet. So this ain't talking,
though, about human ability. What's he doing here? He's setting
this man up to where he gonna have to go through this publicly.
Could he not have just healed the withered hand's man, man's
hand, and he walked out of the synagogue and nothing else be
said? Well, he had done that, just healed it, walked out, nothing
else said, but he said, you stand up. He put the man on the spot,
did he not? God's gonna put you on the spot
when he saves you. Stand forth, and he saith unto
them, this is the them now, not unto the man, he saith unto them,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days? Or to do evil?
Or to save life or kill? But they held their peace. Religionists
don't ever wanna deal with truth. And when he looked round about
on them, with anger. This is Jesus Christ, folks.
You see that? Now let me tell you something,
to have Jesus Christ look on you with anger, that's not a
good place to be in. I'd rather have a withered hand,
wouldn't you? Then behold, and you could jump up and wave your
hands, use them to, whatever. Looked on them with anger, being
grieved, what? For their leprosy. The hardness
of their hearts. He saith unto the man, I want
you to do the one thing you cannot do. Stick your hand out here. Stretch forth thine hand. That's
the one thing he couldn't do. He could stand up, he could probably
jump, he could squall, he could do anything, but do what? Of
his own power. The one thing he couldn't do
was to stretch out his hand. Stretch out thy hand. And he
stretched it out. Why? Because Christ Almighty
not only commanded him to do it, but gave him the ability
to do it. You see it? Stretch forth thy hand, and he
stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the others. So the Pharisees left, read it
on, and so did Christ. You see it? Now you would think,
this ought to be the tell-all of tell-alls, right? Everybody
ought to have been bowed down. But they weren't. But one man,
I'm sure, was. I bet you that man with that
straight hand now. I need to know more about this fella. Huh?
I got to know more about this man. This man's unlike any other
man I've ever met. He healed my hand. The Pharisees went forth and
they took counsel with folks they didn't get along with, and
this is the way religionists do. I remember Henry said years
ago, You can have a Baptist, a Methodist, a Church of God,
a Presbyterian, a Pentecostal, a holiest name in Jesus Christ,
go on and down the line. They don't get along, don't go
to church together or anything. But you let one sovereign, free
grace believer walk in their midst, they'll all join together
to attack that man or that woman. The Pharisees joined up with
the Herodias, finding some way they could get rid of Jesus Christ.
And what of Jesus Christ? But Jesus withdrew himself with
his disciples. Now which group do you want to
be in? All men are going to be in one
or the other. Let's stand and sing number 305.