I've come here today with a message
from God for you, a message you need to hear. It is a message
about leprosy. The law of leprosy as it's given
in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14. I want you to open your Bibles
to those two chapters and just hold them open on your lap. as
we look at these chapters together and see what God teaches us by
the law of leprosy. In these two chapters, God gives
specific laws regarding all kinds of leprosy. Strange as it may
seem, he describes leprosy in a man and then leprosy in clothes. and then leprosy in houses. And these laws God gave in the
law of leprosy were given by inspiration to teach us how to
distinguish between that which is clean and that which is unclean. Let's begin by reading the last
few verses of chapter 14, verse 54, and this will summarize the
two chapters at once. Leviticus 14, 54. This is the
law for all manner of plague of leprosy and scald and for
the leprosy of a garment and of a house and for a rising and
for a scab and for a bright spot to teach when it is unclean and
when it is clean. The law was given to teach us
when a thing is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law
of leprosy. The Lord God sent this horrible
plague of leprosy into the earth. It didn't just arise, God sent
it into the earth, specifically to be a representation and picture
of sin and the consequences of sin. The progress of leprosy
in a man. shows us the progress of ruin
in the race of humanity. The cleansing of leprosy by blood
sprinkling, by atonement, and by the pronouncement of grace
show us God's way of saving sinners. By the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ upon the altar of God, the acceptance of atonement,
and by God's pronouncement of grace by the power of His Spirit
from Christ, our great High Priest, who declares His people clean. In these two instructed chapters,
Leviticus 13 and 14, God speaks to us about this matter of plague,
I repeat, in men, in garments, and in houses. I'm deliberately
going to spend the bulk of my time where it needs to be spent
talking about leprosy in men. In chapter 13, beginning at verse
1, the law of leprosy deals with leprous men. The plague of leprosy
portrays for us the personal depravity of all human beings,
all the sons and daughters of Adam's fallen race. Look at verse
1, chapter 13. And 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 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. Verse nine. And when the plague
of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the
priest. Verse 12. And 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, he sees nothing but leprosy. Now remember, back
up in the first verses, The leprosy's here and there and here and there,
scattered all over, and the priest says, he's unclean. But now the
leprosy covers him from the top of his head to the sole of his
foot. When the priest looks on him,
the only thing he can see is leprosy. Leprosy. Verse 13. 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. What a strange, strange, strange
pronouncement. When the man is covered from
head to foot, all white, he's clean. while he's got spots of
leprosy here and there. Spots of leprosy in his head,
on his face, on his arms, on his back, around his waist, down
his legs, on his feet. Spots of leprosy in his hands. All the while he has spots of
leprosy, he's unclean. But when he is completely covered
from head to foot with leprosy, God says the priest is to look
at him and say, he is clean. And then God says, there's a
reason for that. He is clean. He is clean. So it is with sin. Leprosy begins
deep within and works its way outward. A man may have leprosy
for a long time, three, four, five years, before it ever shows
any signs in his outward appearance. And then he would just have a
rising, a boil, a scab, a small tumor, or a bright spot in his
flesh. And those things are the signs
of leprosy. They don't cause it, they're
the signs of it. They simply reveal the existence
of a corruption within. Sin primarily is an inward thing. The plague of our race is a plague
of the hearts. Our problem is leprosy, not leprosy
broken out in the flesh, but leprosy in the heart. Sin in the heart, out of the
hearts, the cesspool of human life, the septic tank of human
corruption, your heart. Out of the heart proceeds all
evil. Religion likes to deal with outward
things. Religion gets you to join the
church, get baptized and start acting right and quit drinking
and cussing and smoking and chewing and horsing around and stuff
like that. As you start acting, you start
acting better. Oh, what a godly man he is. I remember when he
used to be a drunk. I remember when you used to couldn't
trust it. Oh, but things have changed now. We've cut off the
limbs. That's how religion deals with
men. Grace deals with sinners from the inside and works outward. Grace never begins in the outward
formalities and the outward works of religion. Grace, God's saving
grace begins working within. You see, man looks on the outward
appearance and man's impressed with the outward appearance.
The Lord looketh on the heart and this is what he sees in your
heart, iniquity, transgression and sin. Now, we don't like to
think about that. We don't like to acknowledge
that. It's easy enough to acknowledge things we've done that are wrong. Easy enough to acknowledge the
evil ways we've lived. In fact, if a fella has been
in prison for great, horrible crimes and he gets a little dose
of religion, folks will bring him out and have him preaching
everywhere. And the more he brags about his crimes, the better,
because we like to talk about outward things. But nobody wants
to deal honestly with what he is. Nobody wants to honestly
face what's in him. No one wants to honestly acknowledge
the sin, the depravity, the uncleanness, the leprosy of the heart. We like to talk like we think. Well, he's a good boy. I know
her, she's got a good heart. We talk like we think. and we
talk like we want to convince others to think, well, he's really
good at heart. The fact is, you're really not
good at heart. You're really corrupt at heart,
evil at heart. All the evil that's in the world
that you claim to despise, is the evil that's cherished in
your heart. I am surprised every time I get
surprised at the report of some evil thing a man has done. My first thoughts, David, how
could a man do such things as that? my first ungodly, self-righteous,
vile thought. Because I could do that, and
you could do that. And it shouldn't surprise us
if any of us did that, whatever it is. Why? Because the heart is corrupt
with leprosy, the filthy disease. Physician of my sin sick soul,
to thee I bring my case. My raging malady control and
heal me by thy grace. Pity the anguish I endure, see
how I mourn and pine, for never can I hope for cure from any
hand but thine. I would disclose my whole complaint,
but where shall I begin? No words of mine can fully paint
that worst distemper sin. It lies not in a single part,
but through my frame is spread a burning fever in my heart,
a palsy in my head. It makes me deaf and dumb and
blind and impotent and lame. and over clouds and fills my
mind with folly, fear, and shame. A thousand evil thoughts intrude,
tumultuous in my breast, which indispose me for my food and
rob me of my rest. Lord, I am sick. Regard my cry
and set my spirit free. Say, canst thou let a sinner
die who longs to live to thee? Now hear me, God help you to
hear me. You will never be saved by the
grace of God until you confess your sin. You will never be saved by the
grace of God until you confess your sin. It won't happen. Not
to me. I don't need to hear about it,
and I don't want to hear about it. Not to the church. If you were to walk up to me
and say, I need to confess my sin to the church, I'd say, let's
go talk in the office. They don't need to hear about
it. and they don't wanna hear about it. Not to a priest. He wants to
hear about it, he doesn't need to. Not to another man. Men love to hear about it, and
they love to act like priests, but if you confess your sin to
God, then there's hope. Oh, God help you now to confess
your sin. Not just the evil things you've
done, but your sin. Rip open your heart before God
and confess your sin. Open that black, dark cesspool
of iniquity. Hide nothing. Bow before God
like the publican. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And you will go home today justified. You will go home today with the
word from God spoken to you, clean, if you confess your sin. I told you no one will ever be
saved except that man. That woman who for himself confesses
his sin. Now understand this too. No one, no one, no one will ever
confess his sin to God and not have God salvaged. It won't happen. The leper had
to be brought to the priest. He must come, but he could only
come if someone brought him to the priest. And the priest looked
at the leper and dealt with the leper according to his case and
dealt with him plainly. You and I had the privilege of bringing
folks Leprous sinners to the priest. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels, and we carry the gospel of God's grace to
sinners around the world. And you, you meet with men and
women every day in your various walks of life. Ah, leprous men. Leprous sinners. Men whose lives
are corroding away. If you should meet a man on your
way home today who'd just been hit by a car laying in the middle
of the road, you would pick him up and take him to the hospital,
wouldn't you? Or call an ambulance and see
to it he got to the hospital, wouldn't you? I know you would. But you meet with folks every
day at your kitchen table, at your work, in school, in the
grocery store, bump into them at a ballgame, leprous. Die. And treat them as if you
knew nothing of their need or the cure. Oh, don't be so hard. So cruel. Rather, be like those
four men who had a friend who was sick with a palsy and could
by no means get to the Savior. And they came and brought him
to the master and tore down the rooftop and led him down through
the roof. And when they did, the Lord Jesus,
seeing their faith, said to that man, your hope. The leper had to be brought to
the priest. And the priest did not make him clean. But rather
the leper came with a sacrifice. A sacrifice, the scriptures tell
us a lamb, or if he's poor and he can't get a lamb, a turtle
dove or a pigeon. And then it says, if he's poor,
such as he can get. what a good word. He, He brings
a sacrifice such as He can get. And by the blood of that sacrifice
atonement is made and the leper stands before the priest. Now the atonement made And there's nothing in him but
leprosy. Nothing in him but leprosy. Top of his head, the bottom of
his feet, all white with leprosy. That's the picture of you who
are born of God. When a man, a woman, is made
to see that he's nothing else but sin, that man, that woman
had been born of God, washed in blood, and as he confesses
his sin, The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses him from
all sin. And the priest in heaven sends
his spirits down to the earth and says he's clean. For you
see, this great priest, our high priest, the Lord Jesus, portrayed
here in Aaron and his sons, came to the leper. He came down to
the leper. Not only did He come down here
to the lepers, He made Himself a leper. He who knew no sin was made sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And when He brings
his grace to the sinner. He takes that sinner. For whom blood was shed and sin
was cleansed, washed away at Calvary. And he speaks to the
sinner. And he says to the sinner, you're
clean. And now the sinner who had been
shut out from the congregation is received of God and received
by the congregation, consciously so, because now he's clean. He's clean. He'd been made clean
by the pronouncement of grace in his heart. so that the blood
sprinkled on his conscience says he has no more guilt of sin. Now he's free from sin. He's
free from sin and he sees that he is clean before God. Oh, what grace, what grace, what
grace. Clean before God. How can I persuade you to come
to Christ? That's my business, but I can't
do it. So as I speak, I pray that God, the Holy Ghost, who
can and does bring sinners to Christ by almighty, omnipotent
grace, will be pleased to seize your heart and graciously bring
you poor lepers to the Savior. We read in 2 Kings about four
lepers who were sitting by the gates outside Samaria, time of
famine, and they were dying, and they began to reason to themselves. And one said to the other, why
sit we here and die? If we go to Samaria, they're
starving to death too, no point going there. Let's fall out to
the Syrians. If we go into Syria and they
see we're leprous men, they may kill us on the way in, but we're
just gonna die. And if we stay here, we're gonna
die. And so they said, that's a pretty good idea. At least
there's hope the Syrians might have some food and might throw
us a crumb here and there. And the four of them got up and
went into Syria and God had driven the Syrians out and everything
was there that they needed. Why sit where you are and die? Come to the Savior. Come to the
Savior. Pastor, you've been telling me
all my life, I can't come. I know I can't come. If you come,
you can. If you come, you can. And if
you come, it's because God has brought you to the Savior. Come
to Christ and live forever. And this I declare to you on
authority of God's own word. You come to Christ with all your
leprosy. With all your leprosy. And he will take you with him
to glory. This is what he says. Him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. What he said, him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You mean, pastor, if
right now I come to Christ, if right now I come to Christ, I
mean right now, God'll save me? No, no, I mean if right now you
come to Christ, God has saved you, you're clean, you're clean,
you're clean. And I mean to tell you something
else. Everybody who must have Christ, everybody who's got to have him,
everybody who, oh, give me Christ or else I die. Everybody who must have him shall
have him. And as long as you can get along
without him, you'll go to hell without him. You see, this is
altogether God's grace by which sinners are saved. Altogether
God's work by which sinners are saved. And altogether your fault. if you choose to go to hell thinking
you're good. I know I've got some spots. I
got a little rise in here, a white hair there, yellow hair there.
I got a little scab here, a little boil here. You think you're good. Think you're good. But if you
must have Christ, If leprosy covers you from the top of your
head to the bottom of your feet, death, working out from your
dead hearts, then life eternal is yours in Christ Jesus. Look at the next thing. The law
of leprosy deals with leprous garments. Chapter 14. This plague of leprosy
in the garments speaks of the corruption of all we touch. Oh,
how corrupting our lives in this world are. We who are fathers so anxious
to have our children born in this world, and the one thing
we're dead sure going to give them is death. sin, corruption, because our
seed is corrupt. And then we want to do them good, but our influence is corrupted. If my leprous hands touch a thing,
it's defiled. If your leprous hands touch a
thing, it's defiled. The bulk of these two chapters
deal with leprosy in men and women, but here the law of leprosy
deals with leprosy in garments and in houses. Look at verse
47, verse chapter 13. The garment also that the plague
of leprosy is in, whether it be woolen garment or linen garment,
whether it be a garment made out of something from, a lamb
that God made or made out of something that man's made, a
linen garment, whether it be in the warp or woof. That's the various stitchings
in a garment, the way the threads are made, stitches this way,
that way, going in and out. Whether it be in the warp or
woof of linen or of woolen, whether it be in a skin, or in anything
made of skin, verse 52. He shall therefore burn that
garment, whether warp or woof, in woolen or in linen, or anything
of skin wherein the plague is, for it is a fretting leprosy.
It shall be burnt with fire. What's this talking about? What's the significance? Which
of you ever heard tale of leprosy in clothes? Where did you ever read about
it in a book except in this book? Well, why is this law given? Because garments speak of those
things in which people wrap themselves. Garments are those things that
you put on to cover your nakedness. And garments are those things
you put on to protect yourself from the elements. Garments refer
to religion. Oh, how we love our garments
of religion. The things we wrap ourselves
in, by which we hope to cover ourselves from God. For some,
it's a creedal religion. For some, it's a sacerdotal religion. For some, it's a religion of
this work or that work of man's decision. We've got us a rapid! Oh, it feels so good. It's wonderful. Look here how pretty my garment
is. Don't you want to brag on my
garment? This is a garment that I've had from passed down from
my father for many generations. It's been in our family for a
long time. See this crown? See these rings? These bracelets? See this necklace? You see this
robe I'm wearing? It's been in the family for a
long time. Oh, this one, this is what I, I made that. I worked
hard to get the money to get the material to make that. I've
got these shoes and this outfit. Oh, don't I look good in my garment? Don't I look good in my garment?
Your garment's got leprosy in it. If you touched it, it's got
leprosy in it. And there's only one thing to
do with your leprous garment. Burn it. Burn it. All your religious works,
all your religious confessions and creeds and experiences and
knowledge, All your religious doings, all those things are
things that Jude speaks of as a garment spotted by the flesh
to be despised. You take the garment and burn
it. Burn it with fire, no matter
how costly, no matter how long it's been in the family. No matter
how beautiful it appears, it's to be burnt. If there's so much
as one spot of leprosy, and the warp are in the wolf. I had Shelby
to look this up for me last night. I had gotten a memory forgotten.
I'd looked it up just earlier in the week. The warp, that's
the threads running the length of the fabric. The woof, the
threads running this way, all mixed in together. It doesn't
matter what you're talking about your good works toward men, or
your good works toward God, there's a spot of leprosy in your garment. And any garment of your making
you must burn, throw away the filthy garments, the leprous
garments of religion and religious profession and religious experience
and religious knowledge and cling to Christ. Sadly, most everyone likes to cling to religion. And for you who are God, Satan
would have you push Christ aside and cling to religion and wrap
yourself up in your religious garments. Cast them aside and
burn them. Burn them. God help me never to forget what you've done for me by your
grace. God, help me never to forget
any sweet experience of repentance and faith, of conviction and
learning, of downcasting and rising again, of liquefying and
reviving. Let me never forget any. And God, let me never look to
any for hope. but wrap myself in this garment. This garment. I don't often wear
a robe at home. I wear my pajamas. I'm a little
hot in nature and that's enough for me. But when it gets real
cool, I have a robe. You wouldn't believe my robe.
I think my wife got it for me back when I was pushing 400 pounds
and three of us could have got in it then. It's a robe big enough
for the world. We could all get in it tied up
and you wouldn't feel any wind. Let me tell you something. I
get in that thing now and I'm so skinny and I wrap that thing
around me almost twice, tight, tight, come on wind, I'm all
right. Let me tell you about a robe. A robe big enough for you and
me. A spotless white robe called
the garments of salvation. Linen white robe called righteousness. His name is Christ. Put him on and you stand before
God clean. But you can't put him on. except
you burn every other robe, every other garment. This is a garment,
a covering broad enough to wrap yourself in with complete comfort. Now, the third aspect of the
law of leprosy deals with leprous houses. Again, I ask you, which of you
ever heard tale of a leprous house? Where did you ever read
about what? Except right here in the book
of God. The plague of leprosy in the
house is obviously intended of God to teach us something spiritual. Look at verse 33 in chapter 14. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron saying, when ye become into the land of Canaan,
which I give to you for possession. And I put the plague of leprosy
in a house of the land of your possession. This is a plague
of leprosy that God says, I put into the house. And then he tells
us what's got to be done. The priest has got to come in
and look at that house. But before the priest comes in
to look at that house, you gotta move out. You gotta move out
of the house. And then the priest is gonna
scrape it. And then he's gonna tear it down.
Timber by timber. And everything in that house
is gonna be taken out and burnt. Even the mortar joints. Ground
up, thrown in the fire, and burnt. That's a pretty good picture
of what God's doing for us. This leper's house has to be
burned. It's got to be destroyed, but
it's got to be emptied first, referring both to these physical
bodies and to this earth. We know that if earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building not made with
hands, a house not made with hands, a building of God eternal
in the heavens. But to get into that, you got
to move out of this. The same is true with regard to this earth. In the last day, when our Lord
Jesus comes, and the dead in Christ rise first, and then we
which are alive and remain are called up to meet the Lord in
the air and descend with our Lord to this earth in judgment.
The priest exercises judgment upon the earth, and he's gonna
tear it down, every timber in the house, every mortar joint. He's gonna take it and burn it!
and then make it new. Behold, I make all things new. And in that new house, the new
heavens and the new earth, there will be no leprosy, no disease, no corruption, no
sin. And the priest shall pronounce
everybody entering into this house not made with hands eternal
in the heavens. The priest shall pronounce them
clean to all the world. And we shall enter in to that
everlasting kingdom That house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Now listen to me. We shall enter
in worthy of God. Worthy of God. Worthy, because he doesn't just
pronounce us clean. He says, you see Don Fortner
there? You see him? Take a good look. He is clean. Oh, may God speak that to you. For Christ's sake, amen.