Sin is described in many ways
in scripture. Three words are used particularly
to speak of sin. Iniquity refers to us kicking
down the fences, trespassing, breaking the law, coming short
of what God requires. And trespasses speaks particularly
of deliberate rebellion, deliberate breaking of God's law. Our iniquities,
our trespasses. And then the word sin is used. That speaks of our nature. Nature. Sin is what you are. Sin is what I am. And it is set before us in scripture
as a most loathsome thing. Sin is a plague, a plague of
the heart, a corruption, a defilement, an uncleanness. Perhaps there
is no more vivid, instructive picture of what sin is and how
God deals with sin in his chosen than the picture given to us
in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 about leprosy. Turn with me
if you will and let's read just the first 17 verses of Leviticus
chapter 13. Leviticus chapter 13. The Lord spake unto Moses, and
to 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 he shall 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,
and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague
in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh. It is a plague
of leprosy. And the priest shall look on
him and pronounce him unclean. If the bright spot be white in
the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the
skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest
shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days. 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 days more. 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, the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is but a scab,
and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scab
spread much abroad in the skin, after he hath been seen of the
priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again.
And the priest, if the priest see that behold the scab spreadeth
in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.
It is a leprosy. When the plague of the 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 the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be
quick raw flesh in the rising, it is an old leprosy in the skin
of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean,
and shall not shut him up, for he is unclean. And if the leprosy
break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover the skin
of him, that hath the plague from his head even to his foot. Wheresoever the priest looketh,
then the priest shall consider and behold, if the leprosy have
covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean, that hath
the plague. It is all turned white, he is
clean. But when the raw flesh appears
in him, he shall be unclean. And the priest shall see the
raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh
is unclean. It is a leprosy. Or if the raw
flesh turn again and be changed into white, he shall come unto
the priest. And the priest shall see him,
and behold, if the plague be turned into white, then the priest
shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague. He is clean. What strange language. What a
paradox. This paradox is stated in dealing
with the law of leprosy. Throughout the chapter, that
person who has some symptom of leprosy, or maybe many symptoms
of leprosy, whose flesh was just spotted here and there, maybe
a hair, maybe discoloration, maybe raw flesh. He was pronounced
unclean. But when the priest looked at
a man and he's covered from head to foot, in all his flesh, the
priest sees nothing but leprosy. Then the priest pronounces him
clean. What a paradox. The priest shall
pronounce him clean that hath the plague, he is clean. Did you hear what God says? He
who has the plague, he is clean. He who has the plague, he is clean. was very common in the Old Testament. From the time that Israel came
into the land of Canaan and on through the days of our Lord's
earthly ministry, leprosy was pretty common. Unless I am mistaken,
and I'm certain that I'm not, I've done a little research,
the leprosy described in Leviticus 13 and 14, and that leprosy that
we find in the scriptures, that leprosy that we read about in
the New Testament era that our Lord Jesus dealt with when he
walked upon this earth and healed the lepers. That was a leprosy
greatly to be distinguished from what is commonly referred to
as leprosy in our day, hence his disease. That's a disease
that can be cured with medication, with time, if caught early enough,
can be treated. But the leprosy spoken of in
scripture was not like that leprosy which we have in our minds today
when we think of it from movies or reading things in the current
day. The leprosy described in these
two chapters was a leprosy specifically given to Israel by the hand of
God when he brought them into the land of promise, the land
of their possession, the land of Canaan. He tells us that in
chapter 13 and verse 34. While the leprosy described in
these two chapters was a real disease, It was also intended
by God to be typical. In fact, it seems to have been
sent into the world specifically by the hand of God to teach us
about sin. and how God deals with the sin
of his people. The characteristics of the disease
certainly vivid reminders of the plague of our hearts, the
corruption that's in us, the disease of our lives. Leprosy
is held before us as a horrid, sickening, shocking picture. A horrid, sickening, shocking
picture of what we are. See it. See it. From the sole of the
foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in us but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been bound nor
closed up nor mollified with ointment. It is evident that
leprosy, as it is set forth in the book of God, was intended
by God to be a picture of sin. I'll say that for just two reasons.
First, all the ceremonial purifications given in chapter 14, by which
the stain of leprosy was removed from a man, by which the defiled
leper was made clean, all of those purifications refer to
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The disease of
leprosy was cleansed and removed not by a medicine, but by atonement. Not by medical treatment, but
by blood atonement. Leprosy was medically incurable. Its only cure was blood and grace. The leper was not brought to
a doctor, but the leper was brought to a priest. So the leprosy,
just for those two reasons, was obviously given, this law of
leprosy given, to show us how God deals with the leprosy that's
in us. It is cured by blood and by grace. and is not cured by anyone except
God's priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can. Only
the priest could pronounce the leper unclean. Only Christ by
His Spirit, by His Word can convince a man of his sin. I can talk
to you about things you do and your mom and daddy can talk to
you about things you do and get you to feeling guilty and put
pressure on you and get you some emotional excitement and some
distress, but only the Lord Jesus Christ by his spirit and by his
word that I now preach to you can open your hearts and make
you see what you are seeing. Until he does that, you will
deny it to your death. Until he shows you your sin,
you will cover it to your death. Only the priest can make atonement
for the leper, and only Christ could and did make atonement
for sin. Only the priest could apply the
atoning blood and pronounce the leper clean. and only the Lord
Jesus Christ can apply his atoning blood to you and pronounce you
clean in your heart. A careful reading of these two
chapters will make something else manifest. Leprosy is a picture
not so much of the universal depravity and sin of our race,
though it certainly portrays that, But rather, as it is dealt
with in these two chapters, leprosy portrays for us the Holy Spirit's
work in convincing men and women of their sin. The leper, pronounced
clean by God's priest, is held before us as a picture, a picture
of a sinner convinced of his sin by God the Holy Ghost and
made clean by the miracle of God's saving grace. Oh, may God
today Show us our sin. Some of you have never seen it
yet. Oh, may God today show you your sin. Open your heart and
convince you of sin, the leprosy, that corrupting, vile disease
and plague of your heart. And if he'll do that, I am certain
he will do the second thing I desire of him. Oh, may he speak clean
to you. Oh, may God graciously open your
heart and cause you to hear him by the voice of his grace, pronounce
you clean, clean by the blood of the crucified one. Let me
show you four things. Just hold your Bibles open here
at this 13th chapter of Leviticus. I wanna show you four things
about leprosy. First, in verse two, In the giving of this law of
leprosy, this 13th chapter of Leviticus sets before us what
I guess would best be called the fear of leprosy. The fear
of leprosy. Today, if you suddenly have some
breathlessness, you fear something's wrong, you go to the doctor.
You suddenly start to cough up some blood, you fear something's
wrong, you go to the doctor. Well, here in the Old Testament
law of leprosy, many women being told about the leprosy would
often have fears that they might be leprous. We have several examples
here of people who would come to the high priest fearful that
they might have leprosy, seeking relief from a disease they never
really had. They were alarmed, but they weren't
lepers. They had the appearance of leprosy,
but not leprosy. Look at verse two. 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 he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto
one of his sons the priest." What a picture. It's a picture of what the old
writers used to call spurious sinners, spurious Christians,
spurious disciples, spurious believers. This man comes to
the priest because he has a rising. And men come and make a profession
of faith, run to a soul winner or a preacher or church and get
joined up with folks because they have some stirring of emotions,
some feeling of remorse and guilt, some sense of danger, some fear
of death. And preachers who despise God
and despise your soul capitalize on it. And they'll scare you
into making a profession of faith. And you do so, but you don't
have your leprosy. And you hear a man preach, as
I preach to you, as any gospel preacher will, and tell you the
truth about yourself, you get so mad you can bite nails in
too. I won't hear that. I'm not that bad. Don't tell
me about that. Or the fellow has a scab, an
old scar, something on his conscience that he did long ago that he
can't quit thinking about, some scar of other risings of religious
wounds he's had, or a bright spot, maybe a boil of self-righteousness
or a pimple of religious zeal. The fact is, for the most part,
for most people, religion amounts to nothing else except a rising,
a scab, or a bright spot. The religion is nothing but superficial
froth and froth. Just a little excitement. There's
nothing to it deeper than the skin. Nothing deeper than the
flesh. As I thought about that statement
and I wrote it down, no wonder modern religion and modern religious
activity is so appealing to men. The music and the entertainment
and the showmanship and the drama and the plays and the skits and
the show of religion and the excitement, it appeals to the
flesh. And the religion of most people
is nothing but something superficial of the flesh. Some of you have
been told by others that you're lepers. And you tell yourself
you're a leper. You have pronounced yourself
a leper, and therefore you presume that you're clean. You use the
language of lepers. You wear sackcloth and ashes,
and you tear your clothes, and you cry, unclean, unclean, and
you therefore vainly imagine you are clean. You have heard
the preacher say, or you have heard the preacher recite the
scripture that says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just
to forgive us our sin. And so you confess your sin.
You speak about being a sinner. Might talk loudly about it, but
the disease hasn't spread any. After seven days of being shut
up, there's no spreading of the corruption. Another seven days,
no greater corruption. The hair of the sower hasn't
turned white. Your beauty hasn't withered. You still think very highly of
yourself. You still imagine you are good,
though you talk about being sin. You still imagine you are righteous,
though you talk about confessing your sin. The fact is, for most people
in the church, everything with regard to the experience of grace
is at a stand. They have no deeper awareness
of sin than they had 20 years ago. They're no more acquainted
with themselves today or with Christ than they were in the
beginning. Your religion is like water in a tank. It has neither
ebb nor flow. It's just stagnant. That's all. Always stagnant. Now, there's
something else spoken of in our text. In verses 12 and 13, we
see a gift. The gift of leprosy. The gift
of leprosy. Yes, you heard me right. The
gift of leprosy. Oh, what a gift. What a gift when God makes you
to know your sin. Oh, what a gift. Blessed is that
man, blessed is that woman whom God has made to be a leper. First look over in chapter 14
and verse 34. I want you to see that what I'm
saying is what the scriptures say. It was God who made men
and women lepers. It was God who put leprosy in
a house. He put the plague in the house
only after the children of Israel had entered into the land of
Canaan. Now remember, their entrance into the land of Canaan is a
picture of our experience of grace. Yes, it has reference
to our heavenly Jerusalem, our heavenly Canaan, but you read
about Israel in Canaan and their struggles and their enemies and
the things they experienced, it's talking about the believers'
experience of grace in this world. Only after Israel entered into
the land of Canaan did God give them this gift of leprosy. He did it in fulfillment of his
covenant grace. Look in Leviticus chapter 14,
verse 34. When ye become into the land
of Canaan, when I finally brought you in to possess that grace
that I promised you, which I give to you for a possession, And
I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession. And he that owneth the house
shall come and tell the priest saying, it seemeth to me there
is, as it were, a plague in the house. We raise our sons and daughters,
and I hope you'll understand this the way I mean it. We want
to do them good. We want them to behave. We discipline
them to make them mindless. We teach them to be honest, to
be thrifty, to be upright, to be good workers, to be responsible
in their various spheres of life. Teach them those things. But
we tend to impress upon them a sense of their goodness. And we want them to be good in
the way we commonly use that word. This little girl here,
this young lady, oh, I'm so happy for her, so thankful. She honors
me in so many ways. Couldn't ask for a better granddaughter.
She's like a mama. That's a high compliment, high
compliment. But good, not before God. Not before God, that's not in
you. We teach our boys and girls,
good boys go to heaven. No, they don't. They go to hell
just like crooks and robbers. How come? Because they've got
a leprosy in them. and only God can make you know
it. Only God. Oh, blessed is that
man. Blessed is that woman to whom
God makes known the leprosy of their being, their sin. Joseph
Hart put it this way. What comfort can a savior bring
to those who never felt their woe A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. I've got good news for sinners.
Christ died for sinners. God saves sinners. Come listen to me now. Are you
listening? There's never been such a thing as a sinner God
didn't save. There's never been such a thing
as a sinner for whom Christ didn't die. There's never been such
a thing as a sinner who's not born again by God's Spirit. There's
never been such a thing as a sinner who went to hell. Not one, not
one. Ask God. Everybody, sinners,
ask them. Go find me one. I wish you would. I wish you'd make it your business
from Sunday morning to Sunday morning to find every sinner
you can. Find sinners and bring them in here. I've got good news
for sinners. God saves sinners, every last
one of them. Every one of them. What does
the Scripture say about our Savior when it went around healing folks?
He healed as many as had need of healing. The only reason you
don't have God's grace is because you don't want it and you don't
need it. That's all. The only reason you don't know
anything about redemption is because you don't have it, you
don't want it, you don't need it. The only reason you have
no interest in Christ is because you don't need it. That's the
only reason. This is what's portrayed for us in verses 12 and 13. 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, wheresoever
the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider and behold
that the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague. It is all turned white, he is
clean. Now God specifically gave the
high priest of Israel four distinct marks by which he could determine
whether the plague of leprosy was really in a person. Whether
it was really leprosy or just a little pimple, a little raw
spot, a little bald spot. In verse three, if the leprosy
was real, the disease was deeper than the skin. And then we're told that the
hair over the sore turned white. In other words, got a spot of
leprosy here, it's down lower than the skin and that black
hair, right in the middle, that's just white as it can be. It turned
white because it died at the root. As you know in the scriptures,
hair represents two things, beauty and strength. A woman's long
hair, we're told, is her glory. There was a young man by the
name of Absalom. He must have been one handsome fellow, just
exactly what all the young ladies were looking for. And one of
the things by which he was best known was his thick, wavy hair. It was his glory. Samson's strength
was in his hair. And the song of Solomon, the
bride of Christ, speaks of his beauty saying, thy locks are
bushy and black as a raven. In Ezekiel 16, the growth of
hair speaks of the growth of beauty. Now this is my point. The true leper is one whose beauty,
whose comeliness, whose strength, whose glory, everything that
makes him and stand tall before God. His beauty, his strength,
his glory is withered and dead. His comeliness is gone. There's no soundness left in
him. And the leprosy, the leprosy
of one who truly was a leper, was a disease that never stopped. It constantly worsened, ever spreading, until it covered
all his flesh. Tell me, you who are gods, you who know the Lord, is it
so with you? Am I alone in this experience?
It's been over 50 years since God saved me by His grace. And
when I was not quite 17 years old, all my strength and comeliness
and beauty and glory before God vanished. And I knew something
about sin. Not just things I'd done, what
I am and what I was. And now, 52 years later, Santa's
leprosy is worse than it's ever been. It's worse than it's ever been. The corruption, the sin, the
evil, the defilement, the plague of my heart. The leprosy, if
it's real, never stops spreading until it engulfs the whole man. And here's the fourth mark of
it. I may just say all our righteousness
are filthy rags, and our flesh dwells no good thing. But then
in verses 14 through 17, if the leprosy was real leprosy, there
was a raw flesh in the leper. When the raw flesh appeareth
in him, he shall be unclean. So it is an experience of grace.
who are made sinners before God, lepers before the Most High,
know what it is to have raw flesh, a tender, bleeding conscience,
a screaming conscience, a conscience that can't bear being touched.
Yes, when a man is guilty before God, he can't bear the thought
of God touching him. but cries and screams against
God touching him are him drawn near to God, until at last the
touch comes. Had did when he touched me. All is well, all is well. Once the raw was, as it were,
crusted over and turned white. The leper was clean. So when
it's crusted over, that's all right. It don't hurt nothing. That that was so raw. Matter
of fact, that feels pretty good. Lord, touch it again, will you? Wonder if I can show a picture
of that. Hold your hands here and turn to Isaiah 6. Isaiah six. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above us stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone. because I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips.
Woe is me, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live cold in
his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar.
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched
thy lips. Thy iniquity is taken away, and
thy sin is purged. Oh, how blessed when God touches
the leper. who cringed at the thought of
God touching him. For when God touches you with
his grace, when God sprinkles the blood on your heart, when
God speaks peace to your conscience, then you walk before God clean,
forgiven of all sin. Now back in Leviticus 13. Here's
the third thing. The humiliation of leprosy. He
is a leprous man, verse 44. He is unclean. The priest shall
pronounce him utterly unclean. His plague is in his head. And
the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent,
torn, and his head bare. And he shall put a covering upon
his upper lip and shall cry, unclean, unclean. All the days
wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. he
is unclean. He shall dwell alone without
the camp shall his habitation be. Here is a leper in whom the plague
is, a leper indeed. Our leprosy, our plague is an
inward thing. In whom? In whom the plague is. Not on whom, in whom. We look
at outer things, but the plague is in us. And if something happens,
it's got to happen inwardly by God's grace. It travels through
our minds. It lies down with us every night,
gets up with us every morning, goes with us every step of the
day. It's in all our thoughts. It's in us. Now here's the humiliation
portrayed that comes to a man, comes to a woman who knows the
plague of his heart. The leper's clothes were rinsed. Grab his hands, rip his clothes. That's used frequently in scripture
as a sign of humiliation. When Eli heard that the ark of
God was taken, he rent his clothes. When Joseph was taken, Jacob
rent his clothes. The leper in Israel was never
allowed to mend his garments. He had to wear torn clothes all
the time. And the believer, The sinner,
saved by God's grace, never ceases to acknowledge and confess his
sin. The rending of his clothes not
only spoke of humiliation, it spoke of something this world
is scared to death to even think about, let alone talk about.
It referred to an abhorrence of self, a loathing of self. Keep thinking the good thoughts.
Think good thoughts about yourself. It'll be all right if you think
well of yourself. I'm here to tell you it's high time you quit
thinking so well of yourself. You're nothing but sin. That's
the reason you act like you do. You're nothing but sin. That's
the reason you think like you do. Sin. And if ever you find
out what this thing is in your heart,
If ever you find out what it is, you will abhor yourself. This rending of the clothes,
also a picture of contrition. The Lord God dwells with those
who are contrite of heart. Contrition. Contrition is one
who is bowed. One who is bowed. Josiah had
the word of God brought to him. Hilkiah the priest brought to
him, read in the book, and Josiah read in his clothes and bowed. The king bowed before the king. If God ever shows you what you
are, you won't need me to teach you that Jesus is your Lord. You won't need me to take you
through discipleship classes. I see this, I read it, I hear
it. Sometimes you hear preachers who ought to know better talking
about these are our discipleship classes. What that means is,
here's what that means. That means we got you to make
a profession of faith, but you don't know God. We got you baptized,
but you don't know God. We got you in Sunday school,
but you don't know God. You're church members, but you don't
know God. So now we're gonna teach you how to act like you
know God. That's called discipleship classes. Believers are men and
women. knowing God, who are bowed before
him with contrition, bowed to him. The leper was compelled
then to cry, unclean, unclean. So it is with God's people in
this world. Spiritual lepers we are. And
we're compelled from within so long as we live in this body
of flesh to cry unclean. Now I know what some of you are
thinking. I know exactly what you're thinking. I've been there.
Brother Don, I know I'm a sinner, but I'm not that bad. I read
my Bible, I go to church, I pray. I'm not perfect by any stretch
of the imagination, but I do the best I can. And I'm not so
bad as that I need to cover my mouth and constantly cry, unclean,
unclean. Well, I'll tell you something,
I know you're not. I know you're not that bad, but
I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to folks who are
unclean. Unclean, vile. All you have is a little scab
in your flesh, a little redness on the skin here and there, maybe
a old leprosy, but you're not a leper. But you, my brother,
go ahead and cry unclean, unclean. You don't need to tell anyone
else about the plague. No one else can help but before
God cry unclean, unclean, unclean. The leper, because he was a leper
and clean, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet,
was required to dwell alone. Turn over to Lamentations 3.
I want you to see this. Lamentations 3. Would to God he would get you
alone with himself. Hosea 2, the Lord Jesus says,
I'll head you about. I'll take away your corn and
your oil and your wine and your flax and I'll eat to you and
strip you and I'll lure you into the wilderness and I'll get you
alone with me. I woke up real early this morning
and turned my Bible and read again the eighth chapter of John. It was Pharisee brought that
adulterous woman publicly before the Lord to humiliate her Little
did they know what they were doing. They brought her to the
Lord Jesus and then he chased them all away. And the Lord Jesus
looked up and he saw nobody but the woman. The woman alone with
the Savior. Oh, if God ever gets you alone
with himself, he's got you forever. He's got you forever. Look here
in Lamentations 3 verse 26. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly waits for the salvation of the Lord. It
is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. He sitteth
alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He
putteth his mouth into dust, if so be there may be hope. He
giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full
with reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though
he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. I do a strange thing for preachers
who've been trained to do better or do worse, whichever way you
wanna look at it. Folks come to me and they're
concerned, they're anxious to make a decision, make a profession
of faith, We want to do something. Want to do something. Oh, how
quickly we want to do something. Do something to feel better.
Do something to make us feel less guilty. Do something to
make us feel like everything's all right. Want to do something. Do something.
Get baptized. Join the church. Start serving
the Lord. Got to do something. I say a prayer. Repeat something
my preacher tells you to say. And I just don't do that. Because
I'm honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you,
Mark. No matter what, be honest. Get alone with God, seek the
Lord. That's all you got to say. That's
all I've got to say. You get alone with God and seek
the Lord. You don't need a priest, none
except Christ who is your priest. You don't need a mediator, none
except Christ who is the mediator. You don't need someone to plead
your cause, none except Christ, and you can call on him like
David did and say, oh, plead my cause, oh God, plead my cause. Get alone with him. J.C. Philpott made this statement.
He said, what we get alone weighs the heaviest, wears best, and
last longest. What you get alone with God weighs
heaviest, wears best, and last longest. One more thing about
this leper. In verse 46, we read that without
the camp shall his habitation be. This refers to the ceremonial
separation. from the tabernacle, the worship
of God, the privileges of citizenship in the nation of Israel. He dwells
without the camp in the center. until he has a pronouncement
from God that he's clean. Dares not come to the camp of
God. The waters of baptism are not for babies or to get you
religious. The waters of baptism are for
sinners confessing their sin and confessing redemption and
righteousness by Christ. You dare not come into the church
of God, you don't belong, member of God's church, unless you've
been made clean. You dare not take the Lord's table, you dare
not do it, that's eat and drink unworthily, unless you've been
made clean by the blood of the sacrifice. Now one more thing,
I'm gonna wrap this up. Oh, I pray, oh how I pray that
you have been found out a leper today. and you're crying in your
heart, oh, how can I be made clean? Listen just a minute longer.
Verses 12 and 13. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
high priest, can make you clean. 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. Wheresoever
the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider and behold
if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague. It is all turned white. He's
clean. The priest made him clean. How? by blood atonement. Christ makes the sinner clean
by blood atonement. Well, brother Don, but the atonement
was done before the leper got the leprosy and was pronounced
clean. Was, wasn't it? The Lord Jesus redeemed us from
our sins at Calvary. And he comes in the time of mercy
and pronounces us clean. Pronounces us clean. The leper
was pronounced clean, but the leprosy didn't change. He's still a leper. He's still
a leper. He's still a leper. He's still
a leper. The sin doesn't lessen. The corruption
doesn't lessen. The evil doesn't lessen. Oh,
you start to behave better once God saves you by his grace. You
ought to, and you do. But inside, you're none better,
except for the new man put in you. represented in that holy
oil with which the priest anoints him, puts a little on here, a
little on here, a little on here, and then pours it over his head.
Oh, God the Holy Spirit makes you a new creature in Christ,
puts a new man in you, but the leprosy is just like it always
was. And then the priest presents
him to the congregation, and he says, Here he is. Now try to picture this. Here's
this leper. Merle, he's all covered with
leprosy. That's uglier than I am. He's
covered with leprosy. He's covered with leprosy. Who
wants to see him? Who wants to look at him? Who
wants to smell him? Who wants to be around him? But
the priest brings that leper and he sets him up with a congregation
and says, clean! He's clean. He pronounces him
clean to the leper. And he pronounces him clean to
the people of God. and he pronounces him clean before
God with God's authority. That's called healing by blood
and healing by grace that only God can do. Oh, may he sprinkle you now with
his blood and speak peace to your heart and declare you in
your conscience clean before God. And you'll go home clean,
a conscience at peace with God, clean. And He will at last present
you faultless before the presence of His glory as a chaste virgin pure, with white linens, clean, perfect
righteousness. And it won't be a fairy tale.
That's the way it really is. Amen.