I want you to turn in your Bibles
to Leviticus chapter 13. If you don't mind Leviticus chapter
13. See everything in the Bible.
Has one message. Just one message. Jesus Christ
in him crucified. Our Lord said you are searching
the scriptures. And in them, you think you have
eternal life because you search the scriptures. You exegete the
scriptures. You parse the verbs and the nouns
and the predicates. And you watch over the jot and
tittle of the law. And you are stewards of the history
of scripture. And you learned in textual criticism
and historical analysis of the text. But they are they. which testify of me, but you
won't come to me that you might have life. So when we read the
Bible, if the author of the book is operating, we're gonna see
the author of the book in the Bible. And the title of our message
today is the lepers cleansing, a type of baptism. the lepers cleansing, a type
of baptism. And today we're gonna be observing
the Lord's table. And those of you who are true
believers in Christ, you know the Lord Jesus, you are welcome
to observe the table with us. Our table is not closed except
to people who are not true believers. To all the saints in Christ,
the table is yours. God gave it to us to fellowship,
to strengthen our heart in what Christ accomplished for us. So
you're welcome to partake of the table with us. But most importantly,
we are going to be witnessing the confession of faith through
baptism on the part of several of our new family members today.
And I was thinking about this as we prepare to have what has
been for us over the last two and a half, three years. a relatively
frequent occasion to be able to baptize people every three
or four months is special to me. And it's not because we are
going through a ceremony or a rite or a ritual by which we can say,
look at us, look at the numbers we're compiling to ourselves.
Look at all the people we're bringing into Grace Bible Church.
That's not the issue. That's not the issue. But I do
want you to know where my joy lies. It lies in the fact that
we know. That the gospel. Is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believes we know that I
do and I rejoice in the gospel. Because the gospel listen to
me now is a sinner's gospel. A sinner's gospel. and it's only
for sinners. Now, what we're looking at in
Leviticus chapter 13 and 14 has to do with one of the ceremonial
laws that pertain to purity rights and cleansing rights and cleanness
rights. These were fastidious rules that
God had given to the children of Israel once he set them up
as a royal priesthood to make sure that they were clean and
proper in their protocol, in their relationship to him. And
he's dealing with right here a particular problem that existed
in the culture of Israel in that day. And that was leprosy. He's
really dealing with the issue of disease. If you listen to
the text carefully in 13 verses 1 through 14, you see that this
priest was carefully examining this leper. And if you listened
carefully to the examination, there were things that he saw
that caused him to draw conclusions. And there were only two conclusions
he could draw. Listen to me, clean or unclean. But in order to make those conclusions,
he had to have discernment. He had to be able to discriminate.
He had to be able to determine whether or not that person was
clean or unclean based on skills that had to do with what they
call in the medical field, dermatology. And in this case, epidermatology.
And the issue of leprosy, whether you know it or not, is the issue
of disease. And the Bible speaks of sin as
a disease. Is that true? All through the
scriptures. If you're here in the Sunday
school, you would have learned that. Our elder was dealing with that,
going through the Gospel of John. If you don't know, the Gospel
of John teaches concerning the Godhood of Jesus Christ. But
it uses a metaphor all the way through the gospel of John and
that's water, water, water, water, water from John three, all the
way through the end of the book, John 19. It starts off in John
three, except you be born of the water and of the spirit,
you shall not see the kingdom and you will not enter in. And
in John 19, verse 34, that centurion soldier pierced the side of our
crucified savior and out came blood and water. So the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing
with cleansing and purification. And as I said, leprosy is one
of those diseases that signified sin in several ways. And we want
to see how that works today. Now, in that culture, this was
1500 years before Christ, 3500 years to our date. In that culture,
leprosy was a problem. It was found in the Mediterranean
culture. It was found in the regions of
Mesopotamia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Asia. In other words, right
where those folks are acting a fool right now, that's where
leprosy was 3,000 years ago. 3,000 years ago, that's where
it was. And so God saving the people
for himself, setting them apart in order to relate to them, he
would teach them through these physical diseases, spiritual
reality. And that's what I wanna talk
to you about today. The spiritual reality through the physical
disease of leprosy. And if you have your outline,
the first point that I want to underscore, the first point that
I want to underscore, you don't have this part of the outline,
I'm sorry. This is in Leviticus 13, but if you have your Bibles,
follow me. Here's my first point. Mark this now and you can get
the CD after the message, listen to it 10 times, God will speak
to you. The first point that I want to underscore is that
a revelation and confession of sin is necessary to cleansing. A revelation and confession of
sin, singular, is necessary to cleansing. If you have your Bibles,
look at what it says in verses one and two. And the Lord spake
unto Moses and Aaron, saying, when a man. Shall have in the
skin of his flesh. A rising or a scab or a bright
spot. Now that's a man or a woman.
It's a generic man and it be in the skin. Do you see that
of his flesh? Like. the plague of leprosy,
then he shall be brought unto Aaron, the priest, or unto one
of the sons of the priest, or one of his sons, the priest,
and the priest shall look on the plague. Do you see that?
Mark that for a moment. The priest shall look on the
plague. This is important, because the
observation is on the part of the priest. It's not on the part
of the person with the plague. It's on the part of the priest.
And what he's looking at right now is the plague. The plague
in a moment. Are you going to see the scripture
saying is the priest shall look on him shall look on him. So just hold on now and notice
what it says. He shall look at the plague and
see if it be turned white and the plague in sight if it's deeper
than the skin of his flesh. It is a plague of leprosy. Do
you see that? and the priest shall look on him and pronounce
him unclean. First thing I want you to understand
is what the priest must look for is the plague of leprosy
going deeper than the skin of his flesh. See, we talk about
this all the time. Mark this down. You've never
heard it before if you're new here, but this is important for
you. Sin is not merely what you do, is what you are. See, he looked on the skin and
he saw that there was a blotch, a scab, a swelling, a lot of
dermatological evidences. But if it wasn't deeper than
the skin, then it couldn't be called leprosy. But if it was
under the skin, deeper than the skin, it was called leprosy. And the man was pronounced, listen
to me now, unclean. Did you get that? You know what
John said in the gospel of John chapter one, verse eight, we've
been dealing with this. Whosoever says he hath no sin is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. Did you get that? Whosoever says
he hath no sin, now mark me now, sin, S-I-N, use your outline,
because this is gonna help you fight this battle if you're a
child of God. Whosoever says he has no sin, singular, is a
liar, the truth is not in him. He didn't say sins, plural, he
said sin, singular. Now, what a lot of people don't
know, and we're beginning to learn this here, is there's a
difference between sin singular and sin plural. Every one of
us have sin singular. Isn't that right? Is that true?
Do I have to tell you what the scriptures say? All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Isn't that right? That's
Romans chapter 3 verse 23. The scripture says for by one
man sin entered into the world, death passed upon all because
all have sinned. Isn't that true? The scripture
says in again Ecclesiastes 7 20. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and what sinneth not. But watch this now. It's important for you to make
a distinction between your sin nature and your sinful deeds. You ready
to learn something? Cause this is important. God
makes a distinction. He makes a distinction. First
of all, everyone who has been taught of God, everyone who's
been taught the truth of the gospel, everyone who has submitted
to Christ's righteousness, who's been illuminated by the spirit
of God has been taught this true. That sin is not just what I do.
It's what I am. It's what I am. I am seeing I
know that hurts but it's just true. That's why I said when
the when the priest looks and he's looking on the leprosy in
a moment. He will stop talking about looking
at the leprosy and he'll be talking about looking at the man and
when he sees in the man and when he sees in the man because the
leprosy in the man become one in God's sight. See, I am sin
and you are sin by nature. Do you know when God punishes
sin, he's not punishing deeds, he's punishing people. Is that
true? Sin's not going to hell, people
are going to hell. Am I helping you? Sinners are
going to hell, but they're going to hell not merely because of
what they do. but what they are. And if the
spirit of God doesn't teach you that first work, are you ready?
John 16, eight, you can mark it down. And when the spirit
of truth has come, he will convince the world of sin, S-I-N, singular. It's the noun form. He will convince
men and women that they have a sinful nature. How many of
you got a sinful nature? You better know it. Now out of
this sinful nature flow sinful deeds. Now, did you notice that
in the scriptures in the New Testament, it says. To those
who are believers who have confessed their sin singular, that they
are to mortify their deeds, mortified, therefore, your deeds, mortify
your members never says mortify your sin. Are you with me? Never
says mortify your sin. I'm helping you. It says mortify,
therefore your members would be upon the earth and put away
the deeds of sin because you can't put away your sin nature.
Nothing you and I can do can put away our sin nature. If you're
a child of God today, let me help you understand something.
When Christ died on the cross 2,000 years ago, what he nailed
on that cross was my sin nature. Adam was nailed on that cross.
My sin nature was nailed on that cross. And when God brought that
to me by the power of the spirit through the gospel, he broke
me free from Adamic control so that now I can deal with the
deeds with him having already dealt with my nature. Is that
good? So when you talk to people about,
you know, you got to put that sin away. You got to put that
sin away. Watch this now. Are you the Savior? Am I helping you? Christ put
my sin away. By the sacrifice of himself on
Calvary Street one time, hath he by himself purged our sin. I like this though. Go with me
to Psalm chapter 32. I want you to see this for yourself.
We'll get back here. Cause I want us to understand
what we're dealing with when we talk about the cleansing of
the leper. Psalm 32. I want you to see how
David understood precisely what I'm talking about. Psalm 32 verse
five. Now this is one of David's penitential
Psalms. after having gotten into a lot
of trouble. And I want you to notice the
terminology, particularly if you have a King James Version
Bible. If you have other translations, I hope they were faithful to
this translation and you'll see it in the text. I'm going to
start at verse five. Now, here is what every godly
child of God, every true believer does when God reveals to him
his transgression and sin. This is what we do every day.
You ready? Look at verse five. I acknowledge
my sin. Is that true? I acknowledge my
sin. There are a lot of religious
folk, Christian folk who say that they don't sin anymore after
they come to cry. That's a problem. I've said this
before. That's a problem. You know why?
Because Jesus is in heaven as a great mediator on the behalf
of sinners. And if there are no sinners, he's up there pleading
for nothing. And he's my high priest. Did you get that? He's
my high priest. Whoever lives to make intercession
to us who come to God by him. You understand what I'm getting
at? But now notice what David said in verse five. I acknowledge
my sin unto you. Singular. and mine iniquity have I not
hid. That's an honest believer. I
said, I will confess my transgressions, plural, unto the Lord, and you
forgave, watch this now, the iniquity of my sin. Do you see it? Do you see it?
Look at verse six. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when you may be found surely
in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh you.
Isn't that good? That's exactly what I'm trying to get across
to you. David was a child of God. David was a believer. If
you read verse one, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there's no God.
He's not lying to God. His spirit is right. He's not
lying to God. You know why? Because he has
an advocate, a mediator. He has a high priest. He has
a paraclete. He has a sin bearer. He can come real with God now.
Someone has put away his sin nature and he's promised eternal
life. So all he has to do now is fight
the battle against the deeds. through the power of the Spirit.
So we can be real now. The first work of the Spirit
then is to convince the world of sin. Go back with me to Leviticus
chapter 13, because I want you to see how this works. Let me
ask you a question as we move on in the establishing of this
point. If you had the opportunity to shave the fur off of a leopard,
if you had the opportunity to shave the fur off of a leopard,
When you shave that fur all the way down to the skin, you've
got all the hair off. And you know the distinction
between a leopard and a lion, right? It's his what? His spots. And you can shave him all the
way down to his skin. Guess what you would see once
you shaved all that hair? His spots. You know why? Because his spots is not in his
hair. It's in his skin. is in his DNA. If you could rip
back the skin and get down to the flesh, guess what you would
find? Spots. Because it goes all the way into
the bloodstream. It goes all the way into his
DNA. That's how God made him. And that's how we're made when
we're born into this world. David says, I was born and conceived
in sin. And in sin did my mother produce
me or shape me. In sin was I shaping. In iniquity
was I shaping. And I was conceived in sin. And
so the point is, by nature, that's what we are. By nature, that's
what we are. I was thinking the other day
about Moses. Remember, we were dealing with Moses when God called
Moses to be the leader of Israel, bring them out of the land of
Egypt. And there were three signs that Moses was to do to affirm
the fact that God had called him. Three signs, three signs
that affirm a God called leader. The first was God gave him a
rod. Isn't that right? No, he didn't.
He had a rod already. I'm messing with you. I'm messing
with you. It was a shepherd's hook, remember that? God sent
him out for 40 years to help him learn how to tend the sheep,
because he'd have a million and a half sheep he'd have to get
from Egypt to the land of Canaan, isn't that right? But God took
that shepherd hook, that staff that he had, and he put power
in that staff. And he gave him the ability to
take that staff and swallow up the serpents of Egypt. Remember
that? Because his staff would turn into a serpent too. And
what that was indicating, we learned this before, is that
God gave Moses the authority to deliver the people. His message
was a gospel message. Let my people go. That's the
message of the gospel. He shall set the captives free
and an authentic gospel ministry will set people free That was
the first sign second sign if you recall he said now if they
don't listen to you on this first one I got another one for you
Moses. Give me your right hand. He said Moses. Give me your right
hand stick it in here Are you guys looking stick it in here?
Now watch me now put it right up against your heart You know
that clean, white, pure, impeccable wellspring of the soul? Is that what it is? Now watch
this now. Now pluck your hand out from
your heart. And you know what it was? Leprous all the way through. Remember that? Leprous all the
way through. You know what God was teaching Moses? You're a
sinner. Are you with me? You're a sinner. You're not only
a sinner by what you do, because you killed that Egyptian. You
loved your brother, but you killed him. Murder was in your heart.
But you're a sinner by nature. And then he said, now stick your
hand back in there. Isn't that what he said? Stick
your hand back in there. And he said, now pluck it out
again. And that man's hand was white and clean and pure as a
baby's behind. You know what he said? Salvations
of the Lord. Men and women must be born again. They must be redeemed
by the power of God. This is what I'm saying. We're
sinners by nature. We're sinners in our heart. We're
sinners in our mind. We're sinners in our will. Everything
we do is contaminated with sin. You believe that? I'm gonna help
you see that now. We're at 13. I want us to see
the second point. Leprosy, not only is in our sin
nature, but it does manifest itself in our conduct. That's
just true. I think that's a universal reality.
I think we all know that. Isn't that so? You know, we try
to subdue our sin. Try to, you know, we try to walk
holy. We try to live nice. Isn't that
right? I say I'm going to be patient
with my wife. Five minutes later, I'm saying the wrong thing. And
vice versa. I'm going to be kind and generous
to my kids. And when the fella jumps in front
of me at the grocery store, I'm still going to think good thoughts
of him. And it doesn't happen. And it doesn't happen. Isn't
that true? And see, this is called walking in the light. I'm helping
you. I'm helping you. You walk in the light. The person
that walks in the light tells the truth. I'm helping you. Because
it comes out. And that's what leprosy is about.
It comes out. I wish we could subdue it, but
you can't. But it has to come out. It has
to come out. The man or woman that does not
see his leprosy is deceived. It has to come out. A leprous
person is seen by everyone to be a leper. Isn't that right?
Look at our text again. This is very interesting. Leprosy
must manifest itself in terms of its deeds. I'm over at verse
7 and 8. Watch this now. Let me start
at verse 6 and the priest shall look on him. Notice now. He's
not looking on the leprosy. He's looking on him. And again,
after seven days, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark and
the plague spread not in the flesh, the priest shall pronounce
him clean. It is but a scab and he shall
wash his clothes and be clean. Let me say something about that
as we go on. What we are dealing with is the spiritual ministry
of discernment. determining whether or not you
are a true believer are still lost in your trespasses and sins. When this priest looks on the
progress, our development of the skin rash, and he sees that
it really is not making much progress, after having shut that
person up for seven days, he's concluded that that's simply
a surface rash. It's not deep in his soul, it's
not the leprosy that is part of his nature, so he's considered
clean. Now, that's the position of every believer. We still deal
with the deeds, the surface issues, the scabs on the top. They don't
spread that much by the grace of God, but they're there. However,
it doesn't constitute separation from fellowship with God. Are
you following what I'm saying? And so he's called clean. But
watch what he goes on to say. This is important. This is important. But if the scab spread much abroad
in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his
cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again. And if the
priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then
the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It's leprosy. See, it's
advancing. It's advancing. Now watch this.
And when the plague of leprosy is not on the man, but in the
man, then he shall be brought unto the priest and the priest
shall see him. That's my point. He's no more
looking at the plague, he's looking at him. Because the him and the
plague are one. And behold, if the rising be
white in the skin, if it has turned white in the hair, and
there be quick raw flesh in the rising. In other words, if there's
an active epidermatology taking place, if there are active sores
under the skin, rising and swelling and producing sores and running
sores and scabs, he know that it's a live leprosy in that man. Am I helping you? You gotta see
that. You gotta see that. See, because
his job as the priest is to make a distinction between the clean
and the unclean. That's Leviticus 1010. And that
thou shalt make difference between unholy and holy, between clean
and unclean. That's what he's doing. And the
unholy and holy and clean and unclean has to do with people.
It has to do with whether or not we're true believers. Are
we still in bondage to our sin nature? Does it rule? And this
is what he's determining here. And so he looks and he sees that,
man, this is an active plague. Verse 11. It is an old leprosy
in the skin of his flesh. And the priest shall pronounce
him unclean. Do you see that? And shall not shut him up anymore.
He doesn't need to even examine him anymore. You're unclean.
You're unclean. It has spread. and it's running
rapid, and it soars, and they're busting sores, and they're oozing
sores. And this is not proper for the kingdom of God, because
in the kingdom of God, God's people are washed. God's people
are sanctified. God's people are justified. Is
that true? That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, but you are
washed. You are washed. We'll get to
that here in a moment. There's some seats up front here.
Do y'all help these folks? We're going to get to that in
a moment. But here I want you to see in verse 11 and 12, something
very important. Verse 12 and 13, rather, he's
already said that this is an old leprosy in verse 11. He says
it's an old leprosy. What he's doing, he's tying this
leprosy to the old man. This is an old leprosy. It's
the old man, it's that old nature still there. You still haven't
been separated from that old leprosy. You need to be born
again. You need to be saved. But then
he goes on in verse 12 and 13 this way. Listen, and if a leprosy
break out abroad in the skin. Oh, listen, and the leprosy cover
all the skin of him that have the plague. From his head. Even to his feet. Now watch this
now, please watch this. everywhere the priest looks. Then the priest shall consider.
That's the first time he said that. Then he shall consider.
Interesting. Now watch me now, I'm gonna help
you. Everywhere I look, there's sin. There's sin at the top,
there's sin at the bottom, there's sin in between. That man's clean. That man's clean, isn't that
what he pronounced? Look at it for yourself. If it breaks out in the skin,
covers all his skin, from his head to his foot, wheresoever
the priest look, 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's all turned white. He's clean. Isn't that strange? Follow me
now. This man that the leper, this
man that the priest has just pronounced clean, you better
hear this. This is gonna point you to the
straight and narrow gate, is a real sinner. He's a complete sinner. He's
a total sinner. He acknowledges his sin everywhere.
Are you hearing me? He's not saying there's a part
of me that's not sinful. He's not saying, well, you know,
there's a part of me that's still raw flesh. I'm sinful in my deeds,
but I'm not really sinful in my heart. Most of the time I do good, but
every now and then I do right. I remember a time about 10 years
ago where I did one good deed, raw flesh, raw flesh. My heart was sincere, raw flesh. My will is still desires to do
God's will, raw flesh. And when I made a decision for
Jesus, Jesus looked on my decision and saw that it was raw flesh. Do you hear me? The Lord knows
I love him, raw flesh. Am I helping you? Raw flesh.
See, because the scripture tells us in the Proverbs, every way
of man is right in his own eye. The scripture tells us that everyone
proclaims his own goodness. But God says a faithful man.
Now, I can't find a faithful man. Do you hear me? Until you realize that from the
top of your head to the soles of your feet, you are sin. God
will not pronounce you clean. Is that the truth? He only saves
real sinners. Now there's a whole bunch of
folk that think they're clean, but they're not. because they've
never seen this in nature. See, the Holy Ghost have to make
you a real sinner. The Holy Ghost have to teach
you sin deep down in your soul. He has to teach you not only
that your deeds are sinful, but your thoughts and your motives
and your actions are sinful. And when he's cut the lights
on you and you see yourself like God sees you, then you got hope.
Do you hear me? Until then, you're gonna lie
to God. You can lie to God and say, Lord, I didn't know. I wasn't
wrong in that. My heart wasn't wrong. My heart
was right. Do you know the scripture says
in Jeremiah 17, not the heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked above everything. Who can know it? That's why we
learn Friday night and in Psalm 19, David says, Lord, Lord, who
can understand the error of his ways? Who can understand his
deeds? Who can understand his actions?
Keep me back from presumptuous sin. Am I helping you? Now this man who was pronounced
clean was blessed. And I'm gonna show you how he
was blessed. Turn with me to chapter 14. Those of you who have your
outline, you can follow your outline. By the way, I wanna share with
you something that you probably don't know. No time ever in all
of the Old Testament history, no time ever was there any leper
in Israel healed. No time, no time. I want you to hear me now. You
can run all through the scripture you want to. Nowhere in the culture
of Israel, no time was there any leper ever healed. Now we have a law stipulating
healing. We have a law for cleansing.
We're gonna look at that now, but the law never was executed
because those who were lepers We're always lepers, except on
one occasion where God in his mercy saved a man named Nehemiah. You better listen to me. Nehemiah
was a Gentile. He wasn't a Jew. Do you hear
what I'm saying? Nehemiah was a Gentile. He wasn't
a Jew. Naaman was never under the law. He wasn't a Jew. Naaman
never offered sacrifices. He wasn't a Jew. Naaman never
kept the Sabbath. He wasn't a Jew. Naaman never
went to the temple. He wasn't a Jew. Naaman was never
under the Decalogue. He wasn't a Jew. Naaman was saved
by the free grace of God in Christ, told to dip in Jordan seven times. You understand what I'm saying?
He went straight from sin to Christ. He bypassed the law,
God teaching in the Old Testament, the only way lepers would ever
be cleansed is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Are you
with me? So then when the Lord Jesus comes,
one of the things that is asked of him in reference to the authenticity
of his call as Messiah is how do we know that you're the Messiah?
Isn't that right? His own cousin in prison, doubting,
wondering, did we get the right man? You know what Jesus said
in Matthew 11, go back and tell, my cousin John, these words,
tell him this, the blind received their sight, the deaf hear. Watch this now, the lepers are
cleansed. Do you hear me? Only when Jesus
shows up is a leper cleansed I saw I saw only when Jesus and
I want you to hear this now. He cleansed all the lepers Every
leper that came to him. He just touched him. They got
cleansed touched him You know why because leprosy can only
be cleansed by Christ It can never be cleansed by the purification
of the law cannot be cleansed under Moses cannot be cleansed
under that old commandment Cannot be cleansed by your good works.
Only Christ can cleanse your leprosy Only Christ I'm gonna
tell you this leper is happy to this one here in chapter 13
is a happy leper I'll tell you why because lepers Had to live
in leper colonies outside of the camp That's how bad sin is
in God's sight Sin separates between us and God. See, you
and I love sin. We drink it like water till we
become born again and we realize that it'll kill us. But that's
the conflict, isn't it? But God can't look on sin. The
only way God's gonna ever have fellowship with you is by someone
being between you and him so that he doesn't see your sin.
Or he has to actually put your sin away. Are you understanding
what I'm saying? And until then, we're outside the camp. The world
is nothing but a leper colony. Nothing but a leper colony. And
you know what the law said concerning the leper colony? That whole
group of lepers, whenever anyone would come by, you'd put your
hand over your mouth and say, unclean, unclean, don't come
near me. I might spit on you. And I'll
tell you why. Because leprosy is contagious. Is that true? Leprosy is contagious. We've said it before. I can't
communicate righteousness to you. If I touch you, you just
might get my sin, but you're not going to get my righteousness.
See, the law says if an unclean thing touch a clean thing, that
clean thing becomes unclean. And do you know you and I contaminate
one another all the time? So when folks are talking about,
well, you know, it's my sin, my secret sin, it's sin between
just me and myself, it's not hurting nobody else. Everybody's
sin hurts somebody. Do you hear me? Everybody's sin
hurts somebody. You can try to keep it to yourself,
but you can't because it breaks out and it contaminates others. And the thing you need to know
is the spreading, the spreading, the quick spreading of the sin
is designed for you to deal with it. So, you know, you try to
hide in your corner and you do your thing. But eventually it
overtakes you, isn't that right? And the nature of sin is we got
to have more, isn't that right? You got to have more. So you
go from one degradation to the next degradation to the next
debauchery until after a while. You know what? Sin hardens your
heart so much so that you don't care after a while. Isn't that
so? People can see you doing what you're doing. And now you're
so hardened, so callous, because that's the nature of leprosy.
It kills the nerve endings. destroys the nerves so that you
lose your sensitivity to sin. This is what we're learning in
the series on the apostasy. Harden not your hearts as in
the day of provocation. Sin hardens the heart. Leprosy
hardens the skin. So after a while, we don't care.
You know, you used to be ashamed. But then after a while, you don't
care anymore. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God cares. God
cares. And I'll tell you another thing
about leprosy, too, as it represents sin. It'll kill you. leprosy
will kill you that sin will send you to hell if someone doesn't
arrest you and heal your leprosy it'll send you to hell it'll
send you to hell it won't stop it'll attach itself to something
else it'll grow and it'll send you to hell that's just true
lepers died of their leprosy and they died a miserable lonely
death a miserable, lonely death. But I wanna move on to a very
important point here. This particular leper was called
clean, wasn't he? The one who confessed his leprosy,
the one who admitted his total leprosy, the one who had leprosy
from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, that man
was pronounced clean. How'd he get clean? I want you
to see how he got clean. This is the gospel. I'm in chapter 14. of Leviticus,
and I want you to see some glorious truth in chapter 14 of Leviticus. Oh, this is so glorious. We read
in verse one and two, and the Lord spoke unto Moses saying,
this shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing,
in the day of his cleansing. Now what's the first law? Are
we there? He shall be brought to the priest. I love it. This is called the
law of the cleansing of the leper who is the center. He shall be
brought to the priest. Now, notice it's in the passive
verb form. He shall be brought to the priest. You know why?
Because he's a far off. He's a long way away. He's separated
from God and eternity because of his sin. But he has to be
brought nigh, isn't that right? And watch this now, he can't
bring himself nigh, someone else has to bring him nigh. You ready,
saints? How do we bring lepers nigh to God to cleanse them in
the day of their cleansing? Prayer. Is that true? Prayer. Is that true, brother? When you can't get to him, you
can pray for him. Follow me now. Remember that
man that was lame? Those four brothers had to bring
him to Jesus. They tore the roof off the house.
They were serious about getting them to the high priest. Isn't
that right? You can get a sinner to the high priest by praying
for him. You better hear me. Pray for them because they're
far away. And, you know, sometimes they
run from us when we try to go to preaching to them. They won't
even get an earshot of us. But the long arm of the Lord
can get them. So you pray for them. And so
you bring them near to God in prayer. Did you hear me? Because you got God's ear. If
you know the gospel, if you're if you're Christ, you've got
God's ear. So the leper can be brought to Christ. He can be
brought to the only high priest. Now, watch this now. I love this.
And the high priest shall go out to look for the leper. Isn't
that good? Look at what it said. This is
the law of leprosy. This shall be the law of the
leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the
priest, verse three, and the priest shall go forth out of
the camp. I love it. And the priest shall
go forth out of the camp. The Lord Jesus, who is our great
high priest, goes forth out of the camp. He leaves the glories
of heaven. He leaves the bliss of glory. He leaves his father's paradise. He comes from that place of perfection
down here to the dunghill of sinners. Is that good? To the
dunghill of sinners. And he comes looking for lepers. That's what he does. Now, how
does he do that? Are you ready? Through the preaching
of the gospel. is through the preaching of the
gospel that the leper is brought to Christ and Christ is brought
to the leper. When we preach Christ, Christ
comes by his spirit to the leper. Is that true? Ephesians chapter
two tells us, and you who are far off were brought nigh by
the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of the blood,
the message of the blood, the preaching of the blood. And Christ
came to you preaching peace. How does he do that? Through
the gospel? Through the gospel. Isn't that so? Isn't that good?
Isn't that a loving high priest? I want you to understand now,
he takes chances on sinners. He takes chances on sinners.
He's the only one that can be clean. Go touch the unclean. and the unclean become clean. Isn't that right? He who knew
no sin became sin for us who knew no righteousness. I added
that. But it's true, it's true, isn't
that right? Who knew no righteousness, that
we might become the righteousness of God in him. I'm telling you
what Christ does to save sinners. Have you ever experienced that?
Now I want you to know right now that this leper is about
to experience something that's glorious. You know what's about
to happen to this leper? Will you listen to me? He's going
to have a personal message preached to him by the high priest. Watch
it. He's gonna have a personal message
preached to him by the high priest. This leper who was separated
from God, who is now brought near to whom the high priest
has come. He says, here, take a seat right
here. I wanna show you something. I wanna show you something. I
wanna show you what I do for sinners in the day of their cleansing. Are you ready? Look at it with
me over in verse four. And the priest, verse three,
and the priest shall go forth of the camp and the priest shall
look and behold if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper,
verse four. Then shall the priest command
to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and
clean. Are you ready? Two birds. Now
these two birds are special birds. These two birds are choice birds. They were in the day of the Levitical
system, birds that were set apart for this specific ceremony. They
were clean birds. They were birds that were particularly
trained for a purpose that will execute fully what is being symbolized
in this account. I want you to get this now, two
birds, two birds, they were pigeons, they were doves. They were the
same kind of dove that descended upon our Lord in his baptism.
They were the same kind of dove that was in the ark with Noah.
When Noah sent the dove out to see if the land had dried up,
the judgment was gone. Sin was put away and God's new
people could come into the new heavens and the earth. Typically
the world that Noah seen after the flood. Same dove. This is
the dove that we see in the temple that they try to sell for sacrificial
offerings. Same doves. Are you following
me? These are clean doves. Mark this down. One dove is going
to be killed. The other dove is gonna live. Are you ready? Watch it now.
This is why I say, you gotta hear the gospel in the scriptures.
Other scriptures mean nothing to us. Here we go. Here's this
leper sitting there listening to the gospel from this priest,
this high priest who comes to him. And he says, command to
take for him that is to be cleansed. We said it before, salvation
is God's command. It's the will of God. David said
in Psalm 71 verse three, you have commanded to say, God command
salvation, command to take two birds alive and clean and Cedarwood. And Cedarwood, now those of you
who don't know your Bible have no idea what he's doing. I'll
tell you exactly what he's doing. He's maintaining connection between
the leper and the temple, the leper and the tabernacle. Because
in the tabernacle, in the wilderness, remember it was acacia wood,
shidom wood. But I'm telling you, when Solomon
built the temple, after the tabernacle was getting old and raggedy,
and David wanted to have it redone, and Solomon, you know Solomon
was wealthy, right? Solomon was your Bill Gates of
the day. And it's very important to hear
me now. Solomon was gonna make sure that the temple glorified
God. So that brother brought in tons
of gold and tons of silver. That's why I said before, I really
do believe Solomon was a black man. He loved all that gold,
gold everywhere. Now read it for yourself. First
Kings chapter six. First Kings six, you know what
the scripture said? Gold everywhere. Everything was laden with gold.
I can see his chariot with gold. I told you that before, gold
everywhere. Gold, Solomon, gold. This is a gospel truth because
the gold represents deity. The gold represents eternality.
It represents imperishableness. In the new heavens and the new
earth, the street is paved with what? Gold! When we deal with
the elements, wood, hay, and stubble, which are the perishable
things, we're talking about the tangible things, the things that
will burn up in the judgment, the things that we love. The
material things of this life, it'll be burned up. That which
will last will be the silver, the gold, and the precious stone.
They represent the spirit's work. They represent the finality of
the gospel. They represent the presence of
God in the world. We'll see that when we get back
to the tabernacle. But in the temple, that glorious temple,
rather than using shitum wood or acacia wood, they use cedar
wood. For two reasons, cedar wood was
very durable, very hard, like chitin wood, so that it didn't
corrupt either. Remember what we learned? The
wood had to be hard. You guys have ever felt hard
wood? It's almost as hard as steel. This discourages termites,
because their teeth break when they try to chew on it. I'm kidding,
but the point is, the temple represents eternality. God used
that, however, to teach us that when we are united to Christ,
our old nature, our corrupt nature, our dying nature is done away
and we live forever. We have eternal life with the
one who himself was perfect in his nature. Is that true? Christ
was perfect in his human nature. Do you believe that? His human
nature was perfect. Now the scripture teaches that
man is likened unto what? Trees. Isn't that so? Trees, Psalm 1. Blessed is the
man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scumful, but
his delight is in the law of the Lord. He meditates in the
day and night, and he shall be like a tree. Isn't that right? Planted by the rivers of water.
Christ is that tree. He's that true vine. He's the
only man that never saw corruption. And we're identified with him.
If you're in Christ, you don't have any sin. In him is no sin
at all. In us is nothing but sin. That's
why true believers are simultaneously righteous and sinful at the same
time. I'm righteous in him, I'm sinful
in myself. In him, I have eternal life.
In myself, I have no hope. In Christ, I'm a victor. In myself,
I'm a failure. In Christ, I rule. In myself,
I'm a slave. That's the way that it is. That's
the way that it is. And so the Cedarwood, speaking
to the leper, tells him that he has one who represents him
that's already clean. I'm gonna tell you something,
this leper's heart is beating faster as he listens to the message
preached by the high priest. See, because he has to stand
there and watch this ceremony take place. First of all, he's
happy because he's close to the camp, because the work was done
right outside of the door of the tabernacle. He never had
the privilege to come so close. Never had the privilege to come
so close. Never had the privilege to hear the communication of
the high priest like this. Now he's about to hear what God
did to heal him. Here we go. Follow me now. Take
the two doves and take the cedar wood and take the scarlet. There
it is. See, we're going back to the
tabernacle again. Take the scarlet. We're going back to the tablet.
See what this what this leper is about to learn. Brother, you're
being brought back into the community of the Saints. See, because everything
that Christ is, I am in him. And everything that I am, Christ
is for me. And so this leper is being brought
hope, isn't he? The gospel is a message of hope.
It's a message of hope. This leper is being told, in
a moment, you'll be brought into the camp through the scarlet.
Now, you know, running from Genesis to Revelation is a scarlet colored
thread. Did you know that? Now, listen to me. Running from
Genesis 1-1 through Revelation 22 and 21 is a scarlet colored
thread. You know what it's called? The
blood of Jesus Christ. Am I telling the truth? The blood
of Jesus Christ. And see, the temple requires
the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
what? No remission of sin. No remission of sin. And the
scarlet also represents royalty. Royalty, the scarlet robe, the
scarlet color, royalty. And they put on Jesus a scarlet
colored robe. Remember that? A scarlet colored
robe. So the sinner who comes to Christ
is royal. See, this is a royal priesthood
that's God setting up. So it's the scarlet. Here's the
next one, hyssop. Do you see it? Hyssop. Now you know what
the hyssop is used for? Taking the blood. absorbing it
like a sponge and sprinkling it upon the people. Do you hear
me? And when the gospel is preached
in power, guess what the Spirit of God does? Takes the blood
of Christ and sprinkles it upon sinners. Isn't that true? Sprinkles
it upon sinners. That leper, his heart is just
beating. He can't help it. His heart's
beating because he knows what's about to take place. Now follow
this now. Follow how this works. Here it is. Take the two birds
alive and clean and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the
hyssop and the priest shall command that the one bird, one of the
birds be what? Killed and killed in an earthen
vessel and killed in an earthen vessel over running water. Are
you ready? Who is that bird that will be
killed? Jesus. Did you hear me? Jesus, the innocent one, Jesus,
the holy one, he will be killed in an earthen vessel. See the
earthen vessel then is a metaphor of our human nature. We have
this treasure in what earthen vessels that the excellency of
the knowledge might not be of us, but of God, the glory belongs
to God. So God himself assumed an earthen
vessel, didn't he? He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh and in his flesh, he condemned what? Sin. Am I
making some sense to you some of you get this some of you not
get the CD listen to it What this leper is beholding is the
sinner substitute What this leper is beholding is a high priest
who loved him enough to leave heaven's glory To assume his
nature and to take on his sin down the cross for him. That
bird is gonna be killed. I in the presence of this leper. Watch it now. Now watch how this
goes. The priest commands that the
bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. The
better translation is what? Living water. Living water. You know who the living waters
are in the scripture? God himself. God is the fountain of living
waters. You do know that, right? The scriptures make it abundantly
clear. Jeremiah said the error that Israel made in Jeremiah
chapter two was to forsake God, the fountain of living waters.
God's our fountain. Isn't that so? Isn't that what
Jesus said in John chapter seven around verse 38? And he cried
out in that great day of the feast. If any man believes on
me, what did he say? Out of his belly shall flow what?
Rivers of living water. Now those Rivers of living water
don't come out of our belly. They come out of his belly You
better get that now and we read according to John the Revelator
in Revelation 22 in verse 1 and I beheld a throne a Throne this
is the sovereignty of God on his throne as king and the Lamb
of God on that throne This is the crucified Christ now watch
this and from the midst of it a river of water of life flowing
from the throne Did you get it? Flowing from the throne. What
am I saying? What is John saying? That God is sovereign in the
salvation of sinners, represented in the water, but it only comes
through the crucified Christ. Did you get that? It only comes
through the crucified Christ. The lamb is on the throne. He's
a sovereign lamb. And if you and I are gonna drink
the waters of life, if we're gonna drink from that well of
living water, we gotta come to the crucified Christ. Now I'm
telling you that this leper is watching a metaphor that is teaching
him the same thing that we preach and rejoice in every day, Christ
and him crucified. Am I making some sense? Oh, I
love this because this leper is happy. He's happy. Now watch
how this goes. The bird is killed over an earthen
vessel in order that the blood may be poured in that vessel.
The blood may be poured in that vessel over running water. Now
in Jesus ministry on this earth, that one vessel, that one living
bird, he was always the presence of the Father. The Father was
always with him. The Spirit of God was given to
Jesus without measure. He was anointed of God. So the
waters, those living waters, they were always with Christ.
Everything he did was approved of God. Everything he did was
anointed of God. Everything he did, he did by
those rivers of living water. Everything he did, God saw. He
said, I work and my father worked. He says, I never do anything
of myself, but my father, which told me he's the one doing the
work in me. So I'm trying to help you to
see that even the life of Christ, his his physical existence, his
suffering, his atonement on the tree, all of it was in the presence
of the father. It was all the father's will.
It was all the father's will God approved of everything Jesus
did especially his death on Calvary. Now watch this. Now the priest
shall command that he be killed in the earth and vessel of a
roll over running water verse 6 as for the living bird. Oh,
the leper is happy. You know what? He's called a
living bird. Here, this man, dead in trespasses
and sin, under the curse of the law, under the bondage of sin,
here he is just wreaked with leprosy. It's in the sight of
God called clean. and living. You know why? Because
Christ has substituted traded places with him. Did you get
that? Because Christ has substituted traded... I know you see it.
Some of y'all see it, some of you don't. But listen to it now.
This is so good. As for the living bird, listen
to what it says. As for the living bird, he shall
take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, watch
this now, and dip them in the blood. You missed it. Dip them in the blood. In a few
moments, you're gonna see three, six, eight, nine people dipped
in the blood. Dipped in the blood. Do you see
that? Isn't it good? Bring a brother
to tears. Isn't he so good? dipped in the
blood. That's why I wanted them here
because I'm hoping the high priest is speaking to them now. See,
baptism is not just a perfunctory ceremony. Baptism is a confession
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Baptism teaches us who Christ
is. Baptism teaches us why he did
what he did. Baptism teaches us how a sinner
can be brought into union with the Savior. That's what baptism
teaches us. That's why baptism is for people who are conscious
enough to know what they're doing. It's a confession. Not just for
those that we love you, but I want you to understand children are
not to be baptized Not until they understand the gospel and
they can make that confession of faith see because baptism
is not only a confession It is the answer of a good conscience
before God 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 21 says baptism the life
figure where unto which also now does save us is the answer
of a good conscious watches now by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. The gospel is preached and the
Spirit of God teaches the sinner everything that Christ did for
them justification sanctification and glory propitiation and union,
Christ the lamb, Christ the servant, Christ the high priest, Christ
the prophet, priest and king, Christ being everything for them.
And when he rose again on the third day, they know that their
sins were forever put away by the sacrifice of Christ. You
know what they say? Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I know by virtue of
the death of Christ and his resurrection that my sins are gone. My sins
are gone. And I'm ready to confess that
to the church and to the world. Christ is my savior. That's what
they're doing. That listen to me. Listen to
me. That's why. We don't baptize
baby. They can go to heaven without
baptism. But when they get old enough to understand the gospel,
they must, like you and I, profess Christ as Savior to the world
and let the world know Christ is my King. He's my owner. He's
the one that died for me. I live through him. Because he
lives, I live also. You understand what I'm saying?
I hope you do. I hope you do. Listen to this.
The priest says, now dip it and the bird, the living bird, in
the blood of the bird that was killed over running water. See,
there it is. He was killed in the sight of
God. He was killed as the anointed one. He was killed according
to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God. He
was killed according to the scriptures. He was killed according to the
will of his father. He was put to death on the behalf
of a people chosen in him before the foundation of the world.
Christ died according to the scriptures. Am I making some
sense now? Watch this now. And he I love this part. And
he The priest shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed
from the leprosy seven times. You know what you do? You take
that hyssop, sprinkle it on it. That leper is standing there,
right? You know he's happy. The blood has been sprinkled
on happy, happy. Now this is what happens in the
spirit when the gospel is preached. A sinner right now might be experiencing
what we call the sprinkling of blood. Peter speaks about this
in first Peter chapter one, verse two, the sprinkling of blood,
which the spirit of God does, bringing you to a knowledge of
the obedience of Jesus Christ. That's the sprinkling of blood
by which we are sanctified. This is what the Hebrew writer
said when he says draw nigh unto God with a with full assurance
of faith, having having your hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and your bodies washed in pure water. This is what he
said in Hebrews 9, when he says, The blood of bulls and goats
can never take away sin, but Christ, who offered himself up
without spot to God, hath purged our conscience. from dead words,
that we might serve the true and the living God. I'm hoping
the spirit of God is sprinkling some of you right now. Purged
our conscience. You know what that means, man?
That means I'm free from my sin. I'm free from the condemnation
of my sin. I'm free from the guilt of my sin through the power
of the gospel. Now I'm still a sinner, but I'm
free from my sin. Cause I see who Christ is. I
see what he did. You understand? I want to show
you one more thing. One more thing. This leper is happy. I
was reading, I was listening to the song we were singing.
Um, there is a fountain filled with blood and I was taking notice
of the second stanza. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. I said to myself, but he better
be a dying thief. Cause some of you living thieves
do not rejoice in the gospel. The only way you're going to
rejoice in the gospel, if he kills you and raises you again in Jesus
Christ. Do you hear me? See only sinners
who see themselves under the wrath of God in need of a savior
can rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rest of you will keep lying on
God and go to hell. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. That's the thief that was on
the right side of Jesus. When that centurion pierced his
side, straightway came out blood, justification, water, sanctification,
the gospel. That thief was happy. He saw
that fountain that Zechariah said shall be opened up in that
day for cleansing and for uncleanness. That fountain is Christ. And
sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain. What you waiting for? Unless
you're a living thief. Now listen to this one more thing.
Are you ready? He'll smirkle him seven times and then he will
pronounce him what? Clean. and he shall let the living
bird loose into the open field. Isn't that good? Now, I just
said the living bird represents that leper, isn't that so? Yeah,
there are two things I want you to see here. That leper is standing
there watching that living bird set free. David said in Psalm
124, around verse four or five, my soul, my soul is escaped from
the snare of the fowler. The snare is broken and I am
escaped. He sees himself liberated in
Christ. He sees himself resurrected with
Christ. He sees himself free from his
sin. You know what else he sees gone? His sin is gone. His sin
is gone. See, under that system, there
was always this two principle system. In the Levitical code,
Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies all by himself, he had two goats. One of them
was the Lord's goat. That goat was killed. The other
goat was what we call the goat be gone, the scapegoat, the get
out of here goat, the run down the road goat. And when you run
down the road, don't come back. Why? Because everybody had their
sins laid on him representatively through the high priest. So my
sins are put on that scapegoat and that scapegoat has ran into
the wilderness never to come back again. And he's cast my
sins behind his back into the depths of the sea of forgetfulness
as far as the East is from the West. So hath the Lord removed
my transgressions from me. Isn't that good? That's good.
See, that's the gospel. Listen to me now. That boy watched
that bird fly off. And see, this is what I was saying
earlier. The priest prepared special holy birds. They were
clean birds. And these birds were taught.
They were taught that when they were to be released, never to
come back. Never to come back. Now, I want
you to know now, you feed anything and you let it go, it's coming
back. Isn't that true? Isn't it good? But they taught
the bird to take off in one direction and never come back. That leopard
crying, just watching that bird fly off. And then what the priest
did is what your pastor do. The priest says, I got a couple
more things I wanna say. And I intentionally did not go
to that, but I'm gonna share it with you here. He took the
blood of a ram and a bullock and he went to the leper and
he had a bottle of oil and he took the blood and he dipped
it on the right ear of the leper. That was a blood dipped ear.
That leper can hear the gospel now. And he took the blood, look
at this in the chapter, and he dipped it on the right of his
thumb, right hand of his thumb. See the thumb signifies humanity.
Only human beings can exercise hands like this. And his hands
are clean now. Who have clean hands and a pure
heart? You understand? His hands are clean now. He can
fellowship with God. And then he dipped his right
toe. You know what that means? He can go now. He can walk with
the Lord. See, the right hand represents
fellowship with God. He's been purged. He's been washed
in the blood. He's been brought back into the
community by the blood of Christ. Am I making some sense? Then
he took the oil and poured it in the palm of his left hand.
And he took the oil and he put his finger in there, the high
priest. He told the leper, hold the oil in his hand. He took
the oil and he sprinkled seven times the oil toward the tabernacle
because the oil represents the anointing. The oil represents
the Holy Ghost. The oil represents the spirit
of God. Sisters over there just coming out now. That's the goodness.
And then he took that bottle of oil. Are you ready? And he
started at the top of that boy's head and the oil ran all the
way down that boy. Do you know how happy that man
was? Do you know how happy he was? Clean by the blood of the
lamb, sealed by the spirit of God, anointed by the grace of
the gospel, accepted in the beloved, set free from his sins.