The day of his cleansing. That's
my subject this morning. In the day of his cleansing. What a horrid, horrid disease
leprosy is. Even in our modern society, in
the western world. But the leprosy that is known
to men today, and has been for some time in the western civilization,
is not at all alike the leprosy described in Leviticus chapters
13 and 14. The leprosy described in these
two chapters was both a real disease of the most horrible
kind and the disease distinctly given to the children of Israel
by the hand of God to be a type and picture of sin. It was specifically
given to Israel by the hand of God when he brought them into
the land of Canaan. He said, I'll give you this disease.
It was given to them to be a type and picture of sin. More particularly,
it was designed to show the believers experience of God's grace in
the cleansing of our souls from sin. It was designed to show
the experience of every heaven-born soul when he is made to know
his own uncleanness before God and is delivered from that uncleanness. Leprosy was a disease that caused
virtually no pain. In fact, it had a numbing effect,
deadening the senses. It was unknown until the priest
identified it. And once it was identified, once
the man was made to know he was a leper, he was marked. He was
defiled, corrupt, unclean, marked as such in the camp of Israel.
The wife that he loved, The brothers and sisters with whom he was
raised, the friends who had loved him as their own souls, all immediately
cut him off. Just cut off. He was unclean. The leper became at once an outcast
and an alien from family and friends, from hearth and home. What a sad picture. Those things
were painful, deep, cutting strokes. But the most painful, the deepest,
the most cutting stroke was this fact. He was cut off from God. The leper was driven from the
people of God, banished from the camp of Israel. He was not
allowed to come to God's house. He had no access to God. No gate
was opened by which he might draw near to the Holy One as
the other people did. As far as he was concerned, being
shut out of the camp of Israel, the poor, unclean, corrupt leper
was without hope. There was no altar for him, no
sacrifice for him, no sweet incense for him, no access to God for
him. He was cut off without hope. He was a man cut off from man
and cut off from God. Leprosy was completely incurable. Nothing could be done to help
him except by a miracle of grace. The leper had no prospect before
him but to die a miserable death. flesh rotting off his bones and
limb dropping from limb. The leper might best be described
as a dead man waiting to die. All those things show leprosy
to be a vivid, vivid type and picture of sin in the experience
of it. Very few people ever have the
experience of it. Very few people ever have the
experience of it. Sin as it is made known in the
heart and conscience of the child of God by God the Holy Ghost,
when he convinces chosen redeemed sinners of sin, is here portrayed
in Leviticus chapter 14. Once the hand of God touches
a sinner, once God Almighty puts leprosy in your house, once sin
is laid bare in your soul, the sinner finds himself cut off
from God and man. Let a man or woman become convinced
of sin. I mean his own sin. I hope some
of you know what I'm talking about. I hope some of you will
begin to experience it this hour. Let a man or woman be cut off
with sin, convinced of his sin before God Almighty and his family
and friends. Those who know nothing about
sin, who know nothing about Christ, who know nothing about the gospel,
those who have nothing but that which looks a little like leprosy.
That's the way most folks are. They have a little rising, a
little bright spot, a little white scab, a little baldness
here or there. Those folks will immediately
cut him off. Husband or wife, sons and daughters,
companions and friends will renounce the sinner when he becomes convinced
of his sin as a gloomy madman. The more you discuss your pain
with them, the more they will distance themselves from you.
I don't know what's happened to Don, but he's not the same.
I'd just as soon stay away from him. Job expressed it like this. He hath put my brethren far from
me. Mine acquaintance are barely
estranged from me. My kin's folk have failed, and
my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in mine house
and my maids count me for a stranger. I'm an alien in their sight.
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer. I entreated him
with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife,
though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body. Yea, young
children despise me. I arose, and they spake against
me. All my inward friends abhorred me, and they whom I loved turned
against me. Heman put it this way. Lover
and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance
into darkness. You remember the Lord spoke by
Hosea and said, I will allure you into the wilderness. God
has a way of getting you alone with himself. The Lord Jesus
has a way of making you be isolated just with him, like the woman
taken in adultery. In such circumstances, you will
feel my lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and
my kinsmen stand afar off. Painful as those things are,
that which far exceeds them, that which continually torments
the soul of an awakened sinner to a sense of sin is the separation
from God. That's the result of sin. an aware, conscious alienation
from God. I've had some things in my life
that disturbed me. I've had some things in my life
that pained my heart. But I've never known anything
in my life like what I knew when I was awakened to an awareness
that I was shut off from God. Shut off from God. There was
no door open. Heaven was barred. God wouldn't
hear and God wouldn't speak. I was shut off from God, unclean. Joseph Hart wrote many very,
very good hymns. One of his most instructive hymns
deals with this very thing. Let me read it to you. Listen
carefully. When Adam by transgression fell
and conscious fled his master's face, Linked in clandestine league
with hell, he ruined all his future race. The seeds of evil
once brought in, increased and filled the world with sin. But
lo, the second Adam came, the serpent's subtle head to bruise,
he cancels his malicious claim and disappoints his devilish
views. Ransoms poor sinners with his
blood and brings the sinner back to God. To understand these truths
aright, this grand distinction must be known. Though all are
sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own.
To such as these, our Lord was sent. They're only sinners who
repent. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who never knew their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. new life from him we must receive, before for sin we rightly
grieve. This faithful saying let us own,
where worthy it is to be believed, that Christ into the world came
down, that sinners might by him be saved. Sinners are high in
his esteem, and sinners highly value him. I labor constantly
from this pulpit as I prepare to preach to you. I labor constantly
to show you two things, your sin and God's Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Many, many years ago when George
Whitefield was preaching across the New England states during
the time of what's called the Great Awakening, he was staying
in the home of a friend and a servant girl was in the house. And Whitefield
always tried to witness to anyone around him, waiting for God to
give an opportunity. And this servant girl didn't
come to any of the meetings, but Whitefield made an effort
at trying to tell her about the Lord Jesus and God's salvation
by him. And the girl was broken. She was broken. She said to Whitefield,
what can I do? And he said, pray that God will
show you your sin. And he left and was gone on a
long journey. And after about three months,
came back to the same house and quickly realized the servant
girl was no longer there. And he asked about her. And the
lady of the house said to her, Brother Whitfield, shortly after
you left us on your last visit, she simply lost her mind. She's gone mad and she left us. Whitfield said to her, what do
you mean? She said, well, she's so overcome with guilt and sin
that she can't function. And Whitfield said, please take
her this message from me. Go tell her to ask God to show
her his son. And they did. And shortly, God
showed the girl his son. That's what I want you to know,
your sin and God's son. And as surely as ever you know
your sin, you will see God's Son, not otherwise. Let's look at Leviticus 14. Oh, may this be for you the day of
your cleansing. 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
priest. And the priest shall go forth
out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and behold, if the
plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, then shall the priest
command to take for him, that is to be cleansed, two birds,
alive and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the
priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an
earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall
take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop,
and shall dip them in the living bird in the blood of that bird
that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle
upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times,
and shall pronounce him clean. and shall let the living bird
loose into the open field. I want us to see that as the
leper in Israel was cleansed only by God's priest, only by
blood, oil, and water, so our Lord Jesus Christ alone cleanses
leper souls as the priest of God. He alone cleanses poor guilty
sinners. He does it by blood, the blood
of his sacrifice. By grace, grace he bestows. And by the work of God the Holy
Spirit who brings grace into the soul. Now be sure you don't
miss this. Under Mosaic law in the Old Testament,
leprosy was cleansed and lepers were healed only by the priest. No doctor was called. No exercises
were prescribed. No special food was given to
them. No therapy was administered.
No medicine was prescribed. Moses did nothing. The people
did nothing. The leper did nothing. Everything
was done for the leper by the priest. The leper was totally
passive. He didn't even come to the priest. He didn't even come to the priest.
The priest came to him and called the leper. The man was not brought
into the camp of Israel, lest he defile the camp. The priest
went out of the camp to the leper, where lepers were isolated, and
he called for the leper, and the leper was brought to the
priest. So it is, Christ comes to us. We don't come to him. But pastor, you know we must
come to him. Yes, you must, but you won't.
You must, but you can't. Yes, you must come, but you will
never come to him till he comes to you and brings you to himself. Christ calls us, calls us by
effectual grace, irresistible grace, grace that you can't resist
and sweetly forces you to come to him. It is the Holy Spirit
who by the power of his own omnipotence brings the sinner to the Savior. The priest comes out to the place
where the lepers are found and calls them. That speaks of the
preaching of the gospel. He goes out and calls the leper. I'm calling you, come now to
the Savior. The Lord Jesus comes to his people. He comes to chosen sinners by
the preaching of the gospel. And if he sends the gospel out
in the power of his spirit, sinners come. The priest then examines
the lepers one by one. He identifies their malady. And
he either pronounces them clean or unclean. Just that simple.
They'd bring the leper, the priest would look him over, and he would
either say, you're clean, or you're unclean. One leper is
brought out before God's priest, and then another, and another.
Try to picture the proceedings. Here comes a man with a spot.
that looks like leprosy. The priest looks at him, looks
him over pretty closely, and there is a spot on the leper
which is not leprous. It's just a place of raw flesh. The rest of his body is healthy.
So the priest sets him aside and said, you're unclean. You
stay right here, outside the camp. Here comes another leper. He has one or two red spots appearing
beneath the skin. A little concern. His body, however, is perfectly
sound, except for those few little red spots that appear under the
skin. The priest puts him aside, too. He says, you're unclean. And then there's a third man
that comes. He comes before the priest and he's covered from
head to foot with sores, breaking spots, raw flesh. A scaly whiteness of the filthy
disease is all over him. His hair is all turned white
because the disease has killed his hair at the roots. There's
not so much as a single speck of health in him. from the crown
of his head to the sole of his feet. He's covered with the disease. He's one ugly mass of filth,
pollution, and corruption. The priest says to him, you're
clean. What strange language. What a
strange picture. After certain necessary ceremonies,
he's brought into the camp of Israel, and afterwards he's brought
to the very sanctuary of God, clean. pronounced clean by God
himself through his priest. If there had been found in him
any soundness of body, any place unaffected by the disease, he
would have been unclean. But when the leprosy covered
him, completely covered him, the man was made clean by the
sacrificial ceremonies prescribed by God in this 14th chapter. Now let's see if we can apply
this to ourselves. I wonder if there's a leper in
this house today. Here you are before the Son of
God, God's great high priest. Is there a leper here? Some of
you, I have no doubt, are ready and willing to confess that you
have done some bad things, many things perhaps that are wrong.
And yet you think like this, though I've done much that I
can neither excuse nor justify, I've done some good things. I've
been charitable. I try to help the poor. Yes,
I have my faults. I know I have my sins too, but
I read my Bible and I try to pray and I'm basically good.
God's high priest looks at you and says, you're clean. You don't
need a thing. You're clean. Some of you will
admit with candor that you're guilty of many things. You acknowledge
many evil thoughts. You confess that you've committed
terrible immoral deeds. Still, though you have no good
works of which to boast and no righteous deeds in which to trust,
you do hope by repentance and the help of God's good grace
to do better. You too are clean. There's nothing here for you.
There's no fountain open for you. There's no sacrifice for
you. There's no way of access to God
for you. There's no cleansing for you. You don't need it. But
here comes another leper. He's been standing in the back
far off. I don't know you. You may be a much better man
than either of the others, but not in your own opinion. Your
heart is heavy. Your conscience is tormented.
With broken heart, you confess your sin. You cry constantly
in your soul, unclean, unclean, unclean! I'm a man unclean! You look upon your neighbor and
see him good and noble and righteous, but your righteousnesses are
filthy rags. Your goodness you see to be corruption. You count all those things you
once thought your most excellent distinctions as nothing but dung. You're convinced that if ever
there was a sinner who deserved the hottest depths of hell and
everlasting condemnation, if ever there was a man who was
absolutely reprobate, that sinner is you. You think in your soul,
I'm damned, I'm lost, and I deserve it. I don't have a shred of hope.
I can't possibly be saved. Much as I hate my sin and hate
what I am, I know I can never do any better than I've done. If I'm healed of this plague
that consumes my soul, it must be the work of God alone. I can no more change myself than
the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard can change
his spots. You're covered with sin. From
head to foot, from the inside out, nothing but sin. I hear God's high priest. What
does he say? You are clean. You are clean. You are a clean
leper. Your sins are forgiven you. Your
iniquities are put away. Through the blood of Christ,
who died upon the cursed tree, you are saved. You, a leper,
are righteous before God. As soon as the leprosy had covered
him completely, the man was clean. Wonderful picture. And as soon
as your sin is manifest to you. As soon as you know your sin,
you're clean. God says so. God says so. By the sprinkling of the blood,
by the washing of the water of regeneration, you're made clean. God's salvation is yours. What
are you saying, pastor? As long as you think you have
anything to boast of, there's no Christ for you. But the moment
you have nothing to boast of, Christ is yours. As long as you
are anything, Christ is nothing. When you're nothing, Christ is
everything. In the book of God, Believing
people speak of their personal righteousness, their personal
good works, and their personal holiness in just three ways. I spent a lot of time looking
at this this week. Just three ways. You remember what they
are? Believers speak of their personal
righteousness, their good works, their personal holiness in only
three ways. In Isaiah 64, verse 6, the believer
says, all my righteousnesses are filthy rags. Filthy rags. A stinking, discarded,
rotting, minstrels cloth. That's the word. Filthy rags. In Philippians 3, 7, The believer
says, those things I can't regain to me are dung, just manure,
just waste. And in Isaiah 26, 18, the believer
describes all his efforts at personal holiness as nothing
but breaking wind, that's all. That's what your holiness is
and mine. That's what your goodness is
and mine. That's what your righteousness
is and mine. Well, you sure don't make me
feel very good about myself. I hope not. My intention is to
make you know and acknowledge the truth about yourself. All
the warrant that a sinner needs for coming to Christ is to know
that he's a sinner. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Oh God, convince me of that with
every breath I have in this world. Let me never draw breath without
acknowledging it. I am sin. Christ came to save sinners.
That means he came to save me. Well, I can't say that about
myself. I wasn't talking to you. I didn't
come here to preach to you. I'm talking to sinners. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Is there anywhere
a sinner who hears his voice? Anywhere a sinner who knows his
leprosy from within, from the top of his head to the soles
of his feet, Christ Jesus came to save you. How does he do this
work? How is this cleansing accomplished?
Three things sit here. I'll give these three things
to you and come back to them again another day, the Lord willing.
The cleansing of the leper is found in his separation, as is
set before us in verses seven and eight. The ceremonial cleansing
without the camp involved killing a bird, the sprinkling of the
blood of that bird upon the leper, the shaving of the leper's hair,
and the washing of his clothes. That's all a picture of salvation
by the sacrifice of a God-ordained substitute. They'd take a bird
and kill it under running water, living water. And then they'd,
over that bird's sacrifice, they'd take a living bird and tie it
to a piece of cedar wood, incense, incorruptibility, speaking of
Christ our Redeemer. And they'd dip that living bird
in the blood of the slain bird. And then they'd turn that bird
loose. They'd turn him loose, just turn
him loose. And as he flew through the air,
droplets of the sacrificed bird would fall to the ground. That's
how sinners are saved. God sent his son into the world,
and by the sacrifice of his darling son, in the stead of sinners,
satisfied the justice of God, fulfilling all righteousness.
And the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven's glory. And when he ascended
into heaven's glory with his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And
now his blood, the merit and efficacy of his blood, falls
from heaven. to sinners upon the earth who
need his cleansing. And there, by the sprinkling
of his blood, sinners have their consciences purged with the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ in their hearts. And God pronounces
his enix, men who please him. God pronounces his Abrahams righteous. God declares his people justified
in their consciences as he gives them faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But not only was it necessary
that there be a sacrifice made and blood sprinkled, and the
cleansing of the leper shows restoration as is described in
verses eight and nine. once the leper was restored to
the camp of Israel. But while he was still required
to dwell outside his own tent, on the seventh day, the day of
grace, the day of perfection, the leper was required to shave
himself, to shave all the hair off his body, his beard, his
eyebrows, all the hair. And he was required to bathe
himself and wash his clothes. Look at verse 9. Here's a picture
of the work of God's Spirit in us in regeneration. And he that
is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all
his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean.
And after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry
abroad out of his tent seven days. But it shall be on the
seventh day that he shall shave all his hair off his head and
his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off. And he shall wash his clothes.
Also he shall wash his flesh in water and shall be clean.
On the seventh day, the day of grace, the day of perfection,
the day of completion. That's what the number seven
always represents. He shaved off his hair and he washed his
clothes. A complete removing of the old
hair so that fresh new hair might grow. I can't imagine anything
representing, disrepresenting anything other than what Paul
describes in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And then the leper was required
to wash his flesh in water and be clean. It seems to signify
the washing of regeneration by the Holy Ghost. I have no idea
what Paul, I have no doubt rather that Paul was referring to this
very thing in Hebrews 10 when he said, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The believer is one born of water
and of the Spirit, born again by the grace of God, represented
by oil and by the Spirit, by oil and by water. And then the
leper was consecrated. Look at verses 10 through 32,
just read verse 10. On the eighth day, he shall take
two lambs without blemish, and one new lamb, of the first year
without blemish. And three-tenth deals of fine
flour for meat offering mingled with oil and a log of oil, just
something less than a pint of oil. In these verses, 10 through 32,
we see what the priests did for and to the leper on the eighth
day. The eighth day, the day of new beginning, the day when
Everything starts fresh and new. Ah, that's a good description
of the day of God's grace in your soul. Oh, may this be a
day of new beginning for you. In that day, on the eighth day,
the leper brought three lambs to the tabernacle, two males
and one female. The first is burnt as an offering.
The second, a trespass offering. And the third, a sin offering.
The two males were burnt and the sin offering, the female
for trespass offering. This picture is faith, the consecration
of faith. This brought before the eye and
heart of the worshipers in Israel, The Lamb, Jesus Christ our Lord,
the Lamb of God, burned in the flames of God's wrath, consumed
upon God's altar in our stead. The trespass offering represents
Him as well in a different way. The trespass offering, the inward
parts of that offering, particularly the fat, Around the kidneys and
the entrails were burned in the fire. This speaks of the wrath
of God we deserve, the fire of hell, fueled by the sin that's
in us. And then the smoke and flame
of the burnt offering, the burning fat and trespass And the sin
offering ascended in the sight of the leper from the brazen
altar, and there he saw a picture of the Lord Jesus accepted. Accepted. And looking on Christ,
the sacrifice accepted of God. God has accepted a sacrifice
for me. God has accepted a sacrifice
for me. I know he has because that sacrifice
is for lepers, sinners like me. God's accepted a sacrifice for
me. And then the priest. He who is
the sacrifice is the priest. He takes some of the blood and
puts it in his hand. And he puts it on the tip of
the fellow's right ear and upon the thumb of his right hand and
on the great toe of his right foot, consecrating the whole
man to God publicly. And then he takes oil from that
log of oil and pours a little bit in his hand. mixes it with
the blood, and he puts it on the right ear, and the right
thumb, and the great toe, the leper's right foot. And the leper
is consecrated to God, and comes to the house of God, and worships
God, accepted of God, because now he's clean. he's clean. All the ceremonies,
all the ceremonies did nothing to cleanse the leper, but only
the word of pronouncement by the priest giving a miracle of
God's hand. And the ceremonies pictured the
method by which the leper is cleansed. I've often told you this story, but I don't know
a better way to wrap up the message or a better way to illustrate
the message. Many years ago, I heard of a missionary who served
in India for a long time, and he came home and was visiting
some churches, and one night he told him an experience he
had. He said, as we were making our way into a clearing, he had
a large group with him, he said, I heard A raspy voice, sounded
like a moan. He said, somebody obviously needed
some help. And I made my way through the clearing till I saw
a man sitting on the ground in that clearing, a leper, who'd
just been taken out there and left to die. And he was covered
with leprosy. I looked at that man as I approached
him and I heard him crying, help me. Help me. Won't somebody please help me? And I looked at him and saw those
hands stretched out with nubs where he used to have fingers
and his filth and his corruption and his stench. And I couldn't do a thing for
him. But I stood there and looked at him for a little bit and I
thought to myself, if somehow I could go over to that leper
and stretch my body on his body and put my mouth to his mouth
and draw out of him all his sickness,
corruption, disease and filth and death. Draw it all into me. and then breathe into him all of my life
and health and strength and vitality. That would be a pretty good picture
of what Christ has done for me. At Calvary, he who knew no sin
was made sin for us. He drew into himself all our
guilt and corruption and sin and death and suffered in our
stead the fury of God's holy wrath. And then in the appointed time
of love, he comes to the chosen sinner, the object of his everlasting
grace, And by the power of His Spirit,
He breathes in His life, His perfect holiness, His nature,
making us new men in Christ, new creatures in Christ. living
before God, and He who is the Lord our righteousness takes
up residence in lepers, saved by His grace, making us to be
His holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Oh, may
God do that for you. Oh, may God do that for you. And if He has, If he does, he
puts the blood and the oil right here, and right here, and right
here. And he says, you're not your
own. You're bought with a price. Glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's. Amen.