There are numerous things in
the Old Testament ordained of God for Old Testament times to
be what Paul called shadows of New Testament truth. A shadow,
you know, is the reflection of the true substance. In Colossians
chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, Paul says, let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or
of the new moon or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come. But the body is of Christ. What Paul just said, what he
has just stated is that Israel's holy days and feast and observances
and Sabbaths, which were all ordered of God in the Old Testament,
but they carried it over into the New Testament. He says those
things were but shadows pointing to Christ, the true substance. And he said, let no man judge
you in respect of meat or drink. Now the Old Testament was very
specific concerning God's instruction for Israel's diet in certain
foods. Some things were allowed, some
were not. Some meats were pronounced clean
by God, some unclean. And of course, some people, as
we know, even today, in their religious life, in their denominations,
they will partake of certain foods. And some we know are very
firm about assembling on the Sabbath day, Saturday. Paul says, let no man judge you
in these things. They were but shadows of things
to come. Christ came. He is our diet. Eat anything you want to physically,
but spiritually, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
He's the one and only to feed on. We have no part of any religion
in which Christ Jesus is not its all. He is all, Christ is
all. So far as Sabbath days, worship
God every day in Christ. He is our rest. Sabbath means
rest. He is our Sabbath. Another of
these Old Testament shadows is that of lepers and leprosy. And that's what we read about
this morning in Leviticus chapter 13. The words leper, lepers,
leprosy, and leprous are spoken of in scripture 69 times all
together. That is not by accident. And
it's not just that God wants us to know about diseases they
had back then. No, it's for something more than
history. There is a spiritual application.
It's a shadow of a spiritual substance, truth. Now this thing of leprosy that
we've read about, it is certainly not a pleasant subject. Some of you were not impressed
with our reading about it even. It's almost a sickening subject
when you study specifics about leprosy, then why so much about
it? It pictures sin that has infected
Adam's race. No exceptions. All that are sprung
from Adam are infected. There's no national distinction.
There's no moral distinction. There's no social distinction.
There's no religious distinction. There is none good, no, not one. All Adam's race is infected with
spiritual leprosy, sin, sin. The finest person you've ever
known, be it dad, mother, granddad, grandmother, husband, wife, child,
or friend, you've not known anyone in this world that's not part
of this race of spiritual lepers. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Leprosy in Bible times was the
most hated and loathsome of all diseases. It ends in death. No hope for it. Certain types of leprosy that
is. James 1 15. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. Leprosy not only ends in death,
but what's worse is that it's a picture of death working in
life. Parts of the body actually die
while the person's living. That's what sin does. It actually
brings death to parts of our lives, areas of our lives while
we're still living. We occasionally see the sad sight
physically of someone in a wheelchair with no legs or with no arms
or both. Years ago, I remember one time
going to the VA hospital. And there in the lobby was a
man in a wheelchair with no arms and no legs. The man was alive with a great deal to be thankful
for, I'm sure. But he could not come and go and
live and do as you and I do every day. So sin, spiritual leprosy,
has done that to us all. Now I want us to note a few things
in this text here in Leviticus 13. First, the scriptural order of how to
deal with leprosy or even the suspicion of leprosy in a person
was not just Moses and Aaron's idea or opinion of how it ought
to be done. It's not their opinion. It was
not a denominational thing. It was not a national thing. It was not something that the
elders agreed on and voted to become law. No, the first line
of the first verse says, and the Lord spake unto Moses and
Aaron. And I would remind us when the
Lord speaks, He does not speak suggestions. When He speaks,
it's law. Someone has said the Ten Commandments
are not ten suggestions. And when God speaks, it's not
by suggestion. When He speaks, it's law. And
this too, this matter of leprosy, was not left to popular opinion.
or to be decided on in the legal establishment of the nation,
how they'd deal with it. This awful disease of leprosy
was not to be judged by one's personal opinion. Well, this
is what I think about it. You know, I don't think it's
so bad. Yeah, well, that person would
have been told right quick by Moses and Aaron, Just shut your
mouth. We don't care what you think
about it. This is what the Lord says, and this is how it is. God's word is law. And that cannot be overstated
in this hour. The false religions that are
invading our country and growing by leaps and bounds right now
are the spreading effects of spiritual leprosy. We're all
victims. We all have the disease. But
there are many effects that God's people are troubled about this
morning. All the same-sex union business
is the spreading effects of spiritual leprosy. All the false religions coming
in are the spreading effects of
spiritual leprosy. The pride of what some call old
time religion that puts free will in the driver's seat. God
at our mercy instead of us at his mercy. It's all the spreading
effects of spiritual leprosy. And the ongoing slogan of it
all is kill God and kill everybody that acknowledges God to be God. But this book will stand. This
is God's work. Heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word shall not pass away. Now, the Jehovah's Witness, they
make something wild out of that. Heaven and earth annihilated.
No, that's not what he's saying. He's saying the order of this
world, the system of this world, the sin of this world shall be
dealt with. It's all going to cease one of
these days, but God's Word endureth forever. So understand this first. We're looking at God's Word.
I want to hurriedly consider three things from this text.
First, the suspicion of leprosy. When a person is conscious that
he or she might have leprosy, some things are mentioned in
verse two to watch for. Look at it. When a man shall
have in the skin of his flesh A rising, a scab, or a bright
spot. Three things. A rising, that is a raised place. A welling up of the skin. It
don't seem to be at first nothing much to be alarmed about. It
might be nothing. That's how we look at sin in
its beginnings, don't we? Oh, it's not so bad. Everybody
does it. I may as well try. Seems so harmless
in the beginning. Can I say to us this morning, no man or woman ever crossed
the line of unfaithfulness in their marriage with the intention
of losing their spouse and their family and their respect. No person ever experimented with
alcohol with the intention of becoming an alcoholic. No person
ever experienced with drugs with the intention of becoming addicted. I've talked to many. And the story is always the same.
It's always, I can handle it. I know what I'm doing. I know
how far I can go. My mother used to say, you can't
play with fire and not get burned. I guess some more of you have
heard that. I know Margie's heard it. This rising in the skin of the
flag. Rising, it suggests a puffing
up. Pride. I'm somebody. I'll live my life. Nobody tells me what to do. Someone
wrote, there's pride of race, pride of place, pride of face,
but worst of all is pride of grace. Because I have a little
religious affiliation, God thinks more of me than he does other
folks. Hear me this morning, your religion
will damn you. Spiritual leprosy is in the heart.
Man looketh on the outward appearance. It's one thing to look good,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. Then it says a scab, that is
a sore scabbed over. Any man that works knows about
this. Every time you turn around seems like a covering up of some wound or sore. The spiritual application, something
in your heart. some wounds, some hurt from back
yonder, some prejudice, some bitterness, some unforgiveness
that you've kind of let scab over and you've told God and
the world and everybody, you'll never deal with it. Just let
it scab over and stay there. Then he mentions a bright spot.
This is a reversal of thought. Instead of looking bad, it may
look good. It's a bright spot. When Eve saw the tree as a bright
spot, that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes
and desired to make one wise, to disobey God became a bright
spot. It looked good. There is pleasure
in sin for a season, but the season ends. Sin is always deceitful. It never just ends with the transgression. It goes on and ends in death. That's leprosy. That's sin. Satan has been busy since the
Garden of Eden to this present moment. preparing bright spots,
good looking things, bright lights, things appealing to the flesh, things we say could be a problem
if we don't control it. But what Satan don't tell you
is that you can't control anything. We're no match for him. I'm talking
about spiritual leprosy. So what's to be done? with one
suspected of this leprosy. This is second thing. Look at
verse two. He shall be brought to the church. Is that what it says? No. He shall be brought to the AA
meeting. No. He shall be brought to the rehab
center. No. He shall be brought to Aaron,
the priest. Aaron was the high priest. He is a picture of our great
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall be brought to Christ. Hebrews 4.14, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus.
the Son of God, the only one God says that you can bring your
spiritual leprosy to is the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great high priest. Verse three, and the priest shall
look on the plague. It's not a question of what anybody
thinks. What does Christ say? It's not
a question of what you think about yourself. What does the
Lord say? This is emphasized over and over
and over that it's the priest's word that counts. It's his look
that counts. Verse three, and the priest shall
look. Verse five, and the priest shall
look. Verse six, and the priest shall
look on him. Verse eight, and the priest,
if the priest see. Verse 10, and the priest shall
see. Verse 13, then the priest shall
consider. Verse 15, and the priest shall
see. Verse 17, and the priest shall
see. Verse 20, and if when the priest
seeeth, Verse 21, but if the priest look on it. Verse 25,
then when the priest shall look on it. Verse 26, but if the priest
look on it. Verse 27, and the priest shall
look upon him. Verse 30, then the priest shall
see the plague. Verse 31, and if the priest look
on the plague. Verse 32, and in the seventh
day the priest shall look on the plague. Verse 34, and at
the seventh day, the priest shall look. Verse 36, then the priest
shall look on him. Verse 39, then the priest shall
look. Verse 43, then the priest shall
look. Verse 50, and the priest shall
look. Verse 51, and he shall look. Verse 53, and if the priest shall
look. Verse 55, and the priest shall
look. Verse 56, and if the priest look,
that's 25 mentions of the priest looking. Revelation 1 14, Christ eyes
are as flaming fire. What does fire do? It burns right
through whatever's in the way. Man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. He sees the real you this morning. He's not seeing what you made
the rest of us see. And he's not seeing in me what
I've made you see. He sees us as we are. He's not
looking at the clothes you've got on or the shoes you're wearing. or whether or not you've combed
your hair. He's looking deeper than that. The priest shall look. He's looking. He's looking. The
third thing, what does he see? Does he see, as did the Old Testament
high priest, a potential leper? That was the question here in
this chapter. But the answer for you and I is no, he does
not see a potential leper. He sees that you really are one.
You've got it and you've got it bad. Spots of leprosy all over, deep
spots that have penetrated and done damage in every area of
our lives. Leprosy has had its killing effect. We understand that the priest
in the Old Testament could not cure leprosy. He could only diagnose it. He
could only pronounce a person clean or unclean. This law, all the law in the
Old Testament never cured anyone. It just told them for sure the
trouble they were in. And religion, so-called cannot cure anyone. The church, the preacher, the
preaching, all we can do is to tell you
what God's word says. I can't fix anybody. Confessing
your leprosy to me won't do you any good. But there's a strange thing in
this passage I want you to see. And this is the fourth thing
and we'll be through. What hope do we have? And I have studied and I have
looked up numerous, numerous, numerous comments on this and
I can't really find much except what I feel the Lord has shown
me. What hope do we have? As long as leprosy was only in
parts of the body, that person is unclean. That's what we read
about. But look at verse 12 and 13. It's something different
that said, and if a leprosy breakout abroad
in the skin, And the leprosy cover all the skin of him that
hath the plague from his head even to his foot, whithersoever
the priest looketh." In other words, if the leprosy has run
its course, if it's done all the damage it can do, that man's dead. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. There's no point in the priest
pronouncing anything when sin has fully run its course. The
person is dead. Then what's our hope? Our hope
is in one where sin ran its course, claimed its subject in death,
and that one rose from the dead. That's our hope. The person that's covered with
leprosy entirely. Nothing good left is the person that's absolutely
hopeless and comes to God in Christ. You see, this business
is not about religious folks competing over who's in the best
shape. And church is not about us hooting
about what we believe in and they don't believe in no yonder
and about what we don't put up with and what they put up with.
It's not about all that competition mess. Oh no. Oh no. This is all about the broken
center of Isaiah 1.6. From the sole of the foot, even
to the head. There is no soundness. Nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. What is this about for
you and I this morning? It's like the man in Luke 5.12
that the Bible says was full of leprosy. When something's
full, That means there's not room for any more. Full of sin,
nothing but sin. Good folks with just a little
bit of leprosy, to hear them tell it, never come to Christ. And as long as you have any reputation
of feeling respectful of what you are and what you do to any
degree, you're not coming to Christ. You're just slightly
a leper. You're just a part-time sinner. You'll have to go on to hell. But if the mercy and grace of
God the Spirit should convince you in your heart, show you the
wretched soul that you really are, and point you to the one who
took all your leprosy upon himself, who called himself a worm and
no man, that one that all heaven, earth,
and hell frowned on as he bore the curse of your sin and your
shame and your guilt upon the cross. You can look to him today and
be clean. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. 19 times in this chapter, the priest
pronounces clean or unclean. Contagious or not contagious. But that's all the priest can
do is pronounce. He couldn't cleanse. He could
only pronounce clean or unclean. But in verse 13, pointing to
Christ, our Lord, who bore it all. It's more than a pronouncement. The last three words of verse
13 says, He is clean. He is clean. He's not dispronounced
clean. He is clean. Only the Lord this morning can
convince you. I can't. Only he can convince
you that your disease is beyond your ability to do anything about
it. You say, well, I'm not that bad
yet, and I don't plan to get that bad. Oh, but hey, hey, the
end is death. Sin within is finished, bringing
forth death. Only he can convince you that
his mercy and grace is your only hope, and I pray he will. May the Lord add his blessings
to his word this morning.