14th chapter of the book of Leviticus
opens with the following words, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his
cleansing. This shall be the law of the
leper in the day of his cleansing. It continues to offer exacting
commands and instructions to the priest of how a leper should
be cleansed of his leprosy, of what should be offered for him
to cleanse him, to atone for him. And the chapter following such
instructions in verse 32, concludes these instructions
with, this is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy,
whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his
cleansing. Whose hand is not able to get
that which pertaineth to his cleansing. The law of the leper
in the day of his cleansing. Of all the pictures in the scriptures
used to describe our sin and our state, our fallen state of
sinfulness, the picture of leprosy is one
of the strongest. It's a very graphic, a very awful
description of what we are like as sinners. As a disease in the
natural realm, there are few as loathsome, as horrifying,
and as damaging as leprosy. The effects of leprosy upon a
person, should we ever see someone inflicted by this gruesome disease,
are horrific. It eats up the flesh. It brings
about loathsome conditions upon the skin of those who have it. And ultimately it leads to the
eating up of the flesh and the eating up of people's very limbs. Many who have this disease untreated
for long begin to lose their hands and their feet and their
fingers. They lose all sensation. in their
hands and in their skin. They cannot feel when they hurt
themselves. So they usually stub their toes,
they touch fire, they burn themselves, they cut themselves without realizing
with the inevitable consequence. This is a horrific disease that
eats away at the flesh of man. And the scriptures point us to
this and the condition of those in the times in which the scriptures
were written who suffered from this disease in Israel, it points
us to this as a very vivid picture of what we are by nature. Because
as those into whom sin entered when man rebelled against his
maker in the garden, as those who are born as his descendants,
sinners, we have spiritually speaking the disease of leprosy
in our flesh. We are corrupt. We are corrupt
not simply in the sense that the things we do before God and
other men are wrong, but we are corrupt in ourselves. Our very
flesh, our very person, our very being is vile. It's loathsome. And it's because
we are like this that we commit sins. But the sins simply flow
out of this awfulness which is in us. We're lepers, we're unclean. Now in these days when somebody
contracted leprosy, such was the awfulness of the disease
and such was the fear of others of getting the disease from somebody
that already had it, that they were declared unclean and were
sent to live outside of their camp. They could not dwell where
others were, they were isolated, they were sent outside, they
had to dwell on their own. for fear that the disease would
be passed to others. And many who had leprosy, and
indeed these days many who have leprosy, can feel rejected and
cast out by others. Nobody dares go near them. Not
only is this disease eating them up, but everyone looks upon them
as unclean. Everyone avoids them. They cast
them out, they despise them. This is what we're like as sinners. Fit to be cast out. Not fit to
approach to anyone. And certainly not fit to approach
unto a holy God who cannot look upon wickedness and cannot have
sin in his presence. The disease that we have contracted
has set us at a great gulf, a great distance from our Maker. This is why we have been cast
out from His presence. This is why Adam and Eve were
cast out of the Garden of Eden and could no longer walk with
the Lord God in the Garden. It is because of what they had
become. when sin entered and death by
sin. Sin was in their members. They
were sin through and through. And a holy God could no longer
walk in the presence of man into which sin had entered. This corruption
ran to the very heart of man. and continues to this day, we're
conceived in iniquity. We're born in sin, born in corruption,
speaking lies from the moment we are born. Our hearts think
thoughts which are evil continually. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. We are lepers. We are unclean. How deep this corruption goes
within us. Not just our sins, our outer
actions. Not just our mistakes. Not just
the bad decisions we make. Not just the wrong deeds. But
we are corrupt within our very flesh stinks. Much like Job when
he was afflicted. Not only did he have everything
taken away from him, not only were his children taken away
from him, but he was afflicted with loathsome boils in his body,
that no one wanted to be near him, that no one wanted to look
upon him. He was unclean, and so are we,
we're lepers. But do we know it? Do you know
it? Do you know your state? Would
you ever look upon yourself and think of yourself or describe
yourself as a leper, as unclean before God? Well, we are. We are. But how wonderful in the Scriptures,
how wonderful that here recorded in the Book of Leviticus in the
Law of God and how wonderful in the Gospels it is that God
does not simply destroy the leper, that he has not cast out the
leper, but that we read here in the Law of the Law of the
leper in the day of his cleansing. that God would have these people
to be cleansed. And we read in the Gospels of
how Christ had compassion upon the sick, how he had compassion
upon the maim, the dumb, the deaf, the blind, and he had compassion
upon lepers. There were those who came under
him with this loathsome disease, and he did not run from them,
he did not turn them away as others would, but he even touched
them and healed them of their leprosy. In Matthew 8 we read
that when Christ was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed him. And behold, there came a leper
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. and immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. This Jesus, the Son of God, who
came into this world to save sinners, came unto lepers those
with a loathsome disease and he touched them he put forth
his hand and touched them and said i will that thou be clean
and they were what power is this in the touch of christ that he
can come to one with such a disease that eats away their very flesh
and can cleanse them and make them whole What sort of a power
is this and what sort of a desire and will we see here in Jesus
that Jesus is willing to heal the leper. That his love for
that one whom he touched was so great that he would as it
were risk contracting this disease from that one whom he touched,
naturally speaking. because of the love he had for
that one that he was willing to suffer in his place and to
cleanse him. He did not think for himself
but he fought out of love for the other. He was willing to
suffer that the other should be made whole. He touched the
leper and the leper was cleansed. And having cleansed him he sent
him to the priest to show unto the priest what Christ would
do in the gospel, of which their law was but a type and a figure. For in Leviticus we read that
there was a law of cleansing of the leper. But the rituals
of the priesthood then could do nothing for the reality of
the leprosy. and could do nothing for the
reality of the sin in the heart of those lepers for whom the
rituals were performed. But they were a tremendous picture
of what Christ, the prophet sent unto Israel, would do in his
gospel for sinners, for lepers. The priest there was commanded
to go forth out of the camp to find these lepers who were cast
out. And to take for him that was
to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedarwood and
scarlet and hyssop. And that one of the birds should
be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. And the living
bird should be taken with the cedarwood and the scarlet and
the hyssop and they should be dipped And the living bird dipped
in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.
And then this was sprinkled upon the man, the leper, seven times. And then he would be pronounced
clean. And the bird let loose into the open field. time and
time again as we read through this these commandments of what
should be done both here and later on in the chapter we read
the number seven it should be dipped seven times on the seventh
day this should be done something else should be done seven times
and the picture here is that this cleansing needed to be a
perfect cleansing to cleanse the leper no half measure would
do To cleanse something so inward, so deep, so all-encompassing,
requires a perfection of cleansing. Hence the number seven. Wash
seven times and then you will be cleansed. We read of this
elsewhere in the scriptures where we read of leprosy. 2 Kings chapter
5 tells us the account of Naaman, the captain of the host of the
king of Syria. And Naaman was a great man, a
mighty man, but for all his might, for all his acclaim, for all
that he had done, nevertheless, he was a leper, a leper. And the leprosy in his flesh
was killing him, it was eating him up. And it meant that in the eyes
of other men he was unclean. And his great might and his great
success could do nothing to take away his leprosy. Just like us, spiritually as sinners we are
lepers. And no matter how mighty we are
in this world, no matter what height we may reach in our lifetimes,
no matter what the acclaims of other men, no matter what people
may say of us, in whatever realm in which we enter, whether it
is success in life, success in business, success in family,
success in religion, wherever men look on and say what a mighty
man what great things he has done for others what a godly
person that is how self-giving how selfless how much he does
for others no matter what we do or what people say of us we are lepers and the sin of
leprosy. The leprosy of sin is eating
us up and has made us unclean and will slay us in the end.
For when sin entered man, death entered with it. We're lepers. Naaman was a leper and Naaman
could do nothing to take away his leprosy. because he had no
strength to take it away. As that chapter in Leviticus
told us. In verse 32, when it spake of
the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, it said that
his hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.
There's nothing a man with leprosy can do to cleanse himself. And his wisdom is to learn that. and to be brought to that humble
state that he seeks cleansing from another. And our wisdom
as sinners is to learn that. To know that we are lepers in
need of cleansing. And to know that we can do nothing
about it. Our great deeds, our righteousnesses,
our religion, anything we do will do nothing to cleanse our
leprosy. We need someone to cleanse us. The lepers in Israel needed the
priest to make an offering for them. They needed the priest
to wash them with that ceremonial washing, with a perfect washing
seven times. they couldn't cleanse themselves,
they needed the priest to come unto them and cleanse them. And
Naaman despite all his might was a leper and he could not
cleanse himself. But Naaman's great hope lay with
that maid of Israel that God had sent into his household to
wait upon his wife, Naaman this Syrian, outside of Israel. In the providence of God had
one sent into his household who could point him to one who could
heal him. God as it were sent the gospel
unto Naaman. And when the Gospel came, the
Gospel told him where to go for salvation. The maid said unto
her mistress, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is
in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. There is
a prophet who can heal him. And one went in and told Naaman
and said, The maid is of the land of Israel. So the king sent
letters, and the letters were brought to the king of Israel,
saying, Behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass when the
king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes and
said, am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth
send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider,
I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. When the
king of Israel received this request from Naaman, from the
king of Syria in respect of Naaman, that they should have Naaman
healed, the king of Israel was filled with horror because he
had no ability to heal lepers. Though the report had gone that
they lay salvation in Israel, the king of Israel, a mere man
in Israel's courts, had no ability to heal lepers. And he thought that Syria was
merely coming under him to fight against him. But unknown to him,
there was a prophet in Israel. And that prophet, because of
the God whom he served, knew that his God could heal the leper. When Elisha the man of God had
heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he
sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let
him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet
in Israel. There is one in the midst of
Israel who can heal the leper. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou
shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth. and went
away, and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me,
and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike
his hand over the place, and recover the leper. On Ottabana
and far, far rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and
went away in a rage. Now what does this account tell
us? Well it tells us firstly that there was salvation to be
found for Naaman from his leprosy in Israel. Which is a picture of the Church
of God in our day. There was no salvation outside
of it. But when a message came to the
people of Israel from this leper, a request that this leper should
be healed, Their response was, we can't heal the leper. We're
not God to kill and to make alive. And we're not either. Man can't
heal the leper today. The church can't heal sinners. The salvation of the sinner is
not in men and women, not in believers. The church can't take
away people's sins, not the people themselves. We can't heal a sinner
of his sin. A preacher can't heal a sinner
of his sin. We're but men. But the prophet who was in Israel
could. And the prophet who is in the
church today can and does, for that prophet is Christ. And he
not only can heal lepers of their leprosy, but he does. He not only can, but he's willing. He alone has the power to heal
the leper. He alone has the power to heal
a sinner of his sin. It's to the prophet we must go,
to Christ we must go, to Christ alone we must go. If God shows
us our leprosy, our sin, our state and our need of salvation,
we must go to Israel first but we won't find salvation in the
church or in other men. Whoever they are, however godly
they may be, however wise they may be, man can't save us but
the Prophet in Israel can. Christ can. Salvation is in Him. That is why He came in the Gospel
in which we read and He touched that leper that came unto Him
and He said, I will. Be clean. And He was. No one else can save. Our hand
cannot cleanse us. We can't save ourselves and no
one else can save us either. There's no proxy unto salvation. There's no salvation in works,
in what we do. There's no salvation in being
a member of a church. You can join any church, you
can join the Catholic church, you can make your confessions
to the priest, you can do all the rituals and the rites, but
there's no salvation in these things. Salvation is in the prophet
in Israel alone. Naaman had to go to Elisha. But when Naaman went to Elisha
and Elisha told him to go and wash in Jordan seven times, Naaman
was angry. Because Naaman despised Israel
and Jordan. He thought well of Syria, he
thought well of where he had come from. And he would rather
have been told to do some great and mighty deed in order that
he might earn his salvation. He rather that the Prophet would
send him away and say, if thou wilt be saved, go and do this
and go and do that. That he might go and do this
great thing and that great thing and that salvation might come,
not entirely due to the Prophet that came for his salvation,
but in part at least because of something that Naaman did.
And this is exactly how we are when the Gospel comes unto us.
When we're brought to hear the Gospel, when we're brought to
hear the message of Christ, it makes us angry. Because the Gospel
says that salvation is at the touch of Christ, at His command
alone. And has nothing whatsoever to
do with anything that we do or say. It strips us bare. It makes us naked before God,
it exposes us as we are, as lepers before Him, as sinners through
and through, and it says that we have no strength or ability,
no price to pay. We're bankrupt before Him and
our reaction when we hear this, even when Christ speaks in His
Gospel and declares it unto us and says unto us, simply wash
in this river. We rage against it. But the servant came near unto
Naaman, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?
How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean. Then went he down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Oh, he says, if he'd said to
you, do something, you want to do some great thing, you'd have
done it, wouldn't you? Because you so desire to be cleansed
of your leprosy. But He presents unto you something
simple, something where there is no effort required. He just
says, wash in this water. Then why don't you simply do
it and forget your desire to do a great thing? The Gospel's simple. It makes
no great demand of us, it does not send us as lepers, as sinners
to go and to do this and to do that. But it simply points us
to a river in which we wash. It simply points us to a river,
a river called Jordan, where the leper may cleanse, where
the leper may wash and be clean. dip in this river seven times,
wash perfectly in this river, and thou shalt be clean. And Naaman dipped himself seven
times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God,
and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean. He dipped in this river seven
times. He was cleansed perfectly. No half measure. It was perfect
seven times. If he'd only done it five times
and said that's enough, his leprosy would have remained. But he was
cleansed perfectly. And those who are cleansed in
that river in which Christ cleanses his people are cleansed perfectly. They go with him into a river
called Jordan and they are dipped in it seven times and they come
out the other side with that once leprous flesh which they
were born with having been taken away and they come out with the
flesh of a little child and they are clean. And it is Christ who
takes them in that river. It is Christ who takes them by
the hand, who touches them, who with love looks upon them in
compassion and says, come with me into this river and I will
cleanse you to the uttermost. I will cleanse you of your leprosy. I will make you whole. Oh what
compassion Christ has for sinners, for lepers like you and me. Not
even simply that he should save us but his compassion is so great
that he should even approach unto us to save us, that he should
even come near unto those who are unclean. The lepers were
cast out of the camp and people wouldn't go near them. But Christ
in his gospel approaches unto us who are unclean. He comes
in grace, he approaches, he does not keep at a distance but he
comes and declares what he's done in his gospel and he brings
us to that river. And he says in grace, come into
this river and be clean. Be clean. Who is this who speaks? This prophet in Israel, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's God. And God is holy and
righteous and cannot look upon iniquity. His holiness is such
that he cannot look upon iniquity. Yet in Christ he comes and meets
with sinners like you and me, full of iniquity. corrupt lepers
and he touches us and he cleanses us that he might bring us under
his father, washed clean and forgiven. Christ not only looks upon his
people however wicked they are by nature, however corrupt But
He approaches unto them, He reaches out to them, He puts His arms
around them, and He takes them with Him into a river in which
they are cleansed like Naaman seven times. A river called Jordan. That river in the Old Testament
being the picture of the river of death, through which the Prophet
should walk. with his people, that he should
cleanse them of that death that lies within in their sin and
bring them out the other side clean with everlasting life. He takes us into Jordan, a river
of blood, a river in which he died for us, that we should be
washed with him, that this people should be made clean. Have you
seen this prophet? Have you heard him? Have you
heard his voice? Have you felt his arm embrace
you and lead you into this river? Have you been cleansed in this
river? Cleansed in this river of Jordan,
in this river of death, in this river of blood? Has Christ taken
you with him to his cross? that river in which he was crucified,
that place in which his blood was shed for sinners, as he stood
in their place taking their sin upon himself, taking the judgment
of God against their sins, drinking up the wrath of God's judgment
against their sins for them. has he taken you there and set
you before him that you may look and see what he did for sinners,
what he suffered in their place, the anguish, the wrath that was poured out
upon him, not because of anything he had done, not because of his
leprosy, but because of his people's. Have you looked? Has God put
faith in your heart to look upon him that you might look and see
and know that he did not just suffer for sinners for others,
but that he was stood there suffering for you? that He was made to
be sin for you, that He was made to be a leper for you, that He
was made unclean because of your leprosy and your uncleanness. Did you look upon Him and yourself
in Him crucified for you? Has your heart poured out in
love and compassion towards that Saviour who was made a leper
for you that you should be cleansed? Oh have you seen his salvation,
have you seen his love pouring forth out of his side as the
blood flowed forth with water out of his side upon the cross? And have you been plunged in
that river of blood, that river of water of life? Have you been
cleansed in this river? Has God dipped you in it seven
times? And have you come out the other
side with Christ, risen again alive, victorious, knowing, knowing
that the sin, the leprosy has gone? Has gone. Have you looked on in astonishment? as that flesh which was once
full of sin is now like the flesh of a little child. Have you felt
within the assurance of the Spirit of God within saying unto you,
Son thy faith have made thee whole, thy sins are forgiven
thee. My son, the Lord Jesus, your
prophet in Israel, who died for you, has washed you clean in
his blood. Has he? As the Lord made this
known unto you, is it something you vented into experimentally
that you can say from your heart, once I was blind, but now I see,
once I was a leper, but now I am whole, in Christ, washed, made
clean because he took me to Israel and he took me to the prophet
and he took me to the river and I was washed in the river by
the prophet in Israel in that gospel river in the church with
Christ as Christ made you whole as Christ washed you clean. Can you say that you were a leper,
one with the plague of leprosy, whose hand was not able to get
that which pertaineth to your cleansing? But there was a prophet. who came unto me in his gospel
by his Spirit in power, who took me to his river, in which he
died, a river called Jordan, and plunged me in that river
seven times. And I came out with him rejoicing,
because he cleansed me of all my wicked deeds, of all my leprosy. of all that kept me from God
and made me in Him to be the righteousness of God. And now I am His. Now I am clean. Now I am God's. And now I walk
every day looking under Him, my prophet, my priest, my King,
my Saviour, my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.