Well, I want to take one more
stab at Leviticus 13 and 14 this morning. I had planned on moving on to
chapter 15 and made some preparation in that direction, but there
were two things that kept bothering me in chapters 13 and 14. In these two chapters, the Lord
gives us the law for leprosy. He tells us about leprosy in
men, and that we've looked at a good bit. We'll look at it
some more. But then he speaks of leprosy in garments, and leprosy
in houses. And those two things I couldn't
get away from. And I believe the Lord's giving me something
for you. So if you will hold your Bibles open here in Leviticus
chapters 13 and 14, the Lord gives us these instructions concerning
leprosy, the law for leprosy, so that we might be able to distinguish
between the clean and the unclean. In this passage of scripture,
the Lord tells us plainly he sent this horrible plague of
leprosy into the earth specifically to be a type and picture of sin. The progress of leprosy in a
man shows us the utter ruin of all our race, but most specifically
shows each of God's children his own utter ruin by reason
of sin. The plague of leprosy in the
garments describes how that everything we touch is corrupted and defiled
by sin. And the plague of leprosy in
the house tells us plainly that all this world is defiled and
corrupt and must ultimately be destroyed because of sin. The atonement, the cleansing
of leprosy by blood atonement and by the pronouncement of grace
shows us God's way of saving sinners through the Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute, by the work of his almighty and free
grace in Christ. All right, now this morning let's
look one more time first at the plague of leprosy in a man. Look
at verse 9 of chapter 13. When the plague of leprosy is
in a man, Oh, may God put the plague in
you. When the plague of leprosy is
in a man, then he should be brought unto the priest. Now, leprosy
began deep within and worked its way out. might have leprosy for many,
many years, two, three, four, five years, and showed no symptoms
at all. There'd be no indication he has
leprosy. He could live with it for a long
time before he finally got it. And then, after a few years,
he would have a small rising, a little boil, a scab, some small
tumor, something to give a little disturbance, or a bright spot,
just something, not much more than a pimple arising. And these
things might cause some concern, but they were not the cause of
the leprosy. They were simply the outworking
of the leprosy that was within. These things were not the cause
of the disease, but rather they were the manifestation of the
disease, and so it is with sin. Sin is primarily an inward thing. We haven't half yet begun to
realize that. Religion deals with outward things.
Religion will get men and women to chop off outward things. Religion
will get men and women to either cover up or do away with the
swords. But it doesn't do anything inward.
Our Lord tells us plainly, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. We have the idea, we are still
convinced by nature, it is the tendency of our flesh, it is
the tendency of religion, it is the tendency of the whole
concept of man in himself, that we're really good. And if we
could just keep ourselves from being influenced by things out
yonder, then we wouldn't have these bad thoughts, and we wouldn't
have these horrid imaginations, and we wouldn't have all the
crimes that come to pass in time. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We are not defiled by what we see outside us. Oh,
that may stir defilement in us, and it's a good thing to keep
away from those things that stir up your lust. But we're not defiled
by what's outside us. We're defiled, James, by what's
in us. And what comes out of us is what defiles everything
outside us. So the problem with man primarily
is an inward problem. The grace of God works from the
inside out. The Lord looks on the heart. You see, this is the great difficulty
in religion. The great difficulty, I shouldn't
say in religion, but in preaching the gospel, is to make many women
see that they're lepers inside. We don't have much difficulty
confessing and acknowledging the guilt of what we do. That's
not too hard. That was wrong. I shouldn't have
done that. That was wrong. I shouldn't have said that. That
was wrong. I should not have gone there. That was wrong. We
acknowledge the guilt of what we do. Our problem is no man
will ever by nature acknowledge the guilt of what he is. You see, your problem is not
just that you have committed sin. Your problem is that you
are sin. Your problem is not just that you've done that which
is evil, your problem is that you are what is evil. Your problem
is inside, and that leprosy inside is enmity against God. That leprosy
inside is man's hatred of God Almighty. All men and women by
nature hate God, you too. That's exactly right. Now folks love to be religious.
Folk love ideas of God. They love religious symbols.
They love religious preaching. They love religious nonsense.
They love religious entertainment. But all men by nature hate God. They love their ideas of God.
They love their thoughts of God. But all men and women by nature
hate God. That's what rebellion is. Rebellion
is saying, no, I will be God. You've got no right to be. Man
by nature, his heart is imitative against God. And the fact is,
no one will ever be saved who doesn't acknowledge the leprosy
within, what he is inside. George Whitefield said, I repent
of my sin, my sins, and my righteousness. And that's a pretty good way
of putting it. We acknowledge that what we are
by nature is sin. We acknowledge that the evil
we do is sin. And we acknowledge that that
which we have looked upon in the past as being the good things
we do is nothing but sin. It all must be bathed in the
blood of Christ, washed by his grace, and robed in his righteousness. Salvation cannot be had except
by those who are made to know the leprosy within them. And
no one who does confess his sin No one who does acknowledge his
sin, no one who is brought to God's priest as a leper, acknowledging
himself unclean, will ever go away without forgiveness. It
won't happen. Leprosy was not a terribly painful
thing. It was not something that a person
knew he had because he had some acute sensation of pain. It wasn't like having a and sharp
pain in your back, having a cancer in your bowels that caused horrible
pain. But rather, leprosy simply made
a person feel a little restless, disturbed him a little, caused
him to have a bit of a moroseness, a little sadness, a little mental
anxiety, a little mental threatfulness, so that he He could function
all right, but he knew something wasn't right. There's something
wrong. But he figured it wouldn't be much. It'd pass in time. It did go away with a little
time. It's just one of those things. And so it is with sin. Seeing something that causes
a man a little restlessness. A little mental anxiety. of frustration, but no sharp
acupuncture. You know something's wrong inside. You don't know exactly what is
wrong, but that's all right. Everybody has to live with that.
It'll be all right. But the leprosy was a corrosive
cancer, constantly eating away and would ultimately bring forth
death. That's the way it is with our city. It's unseen. and unfelt until it's begun to
consume the beauty of a person. It's always present, always secretly
eating away from the inside out. Suddenly, it bursts forth with
some horrid, putrefying corruption, but it's always there. And ultimately,
when it's finished, it ends in death. Oh, may God graciously
show you what you are. God, show me what I am. God,
show me what I am. Pronounce what I really am in
my soul. Make me to know my uncleanness. If ever God shows you your sin,
if ever God makes you understand that inside you're leprous, all
unclean, it's because he's come to show you mercy. and to cleanse
you by his grace through Christ his son. The healing of the leper,
you see, was all God's work. I tried to emphasize this over
and over again. The picture given us here is
clear. Salvation is of the Lord. The leper wasn't healed with
medicine, he wasn't healed by a doctor, he wasn't sent to a
physician for a cure, but rather the leper was healed by the priest.
No one but the priest could minister the medicine he needed, for the
medicine he needed was medicine for his soul. He was healed merely
by the pronouncement of the priest's word, merely by God's sovereign
work, and the priest pronouncing him clean because of blood atonement
and the proper ceremonies being performed on his behalf. Only
God's priest could help the poor leper. There's great grace revealed
in that. You see, the examination of the
leper and his standing was all together in the hands of the
priest. His neighbor couldn't help him,
though he might want. His neighbor couldn't do anything
for him, though he might be very concerned for him. Moses certainly
couldn't help him. The leper wasn't to be brought
to Moses. Only God's priest had the wisdom and the skill and
the experience to do the leper any good. And only the priest
could have compassion on him. and look at him and say, it's
going to be all right. Because the priest alone knew
how the cure came. He's the only one who knew the
power of the blood atonement to cleanse. He's the only one
who knew the power of the pure water to cleanse. He's the only
one who knew the power of God's grace to heal. He's the only
one who could look at the leper and say, now, get clean. And
so the priest was the only one who was moved with compassion
toward him. How sweet and blessed this thought is. The Father judgeth
no man. Let me have nothing to do with
God Almighty in his absolute character as God. Buddy, we can't see him. We can't
approach him. We can't come to him, we can't
speak to him, and he won't come to us, he won't speak to us except
to be a consuming fire. They may have nothing to do with
God Almighty in his absolute character as God. Thank God the
Father judgeth no man but has committed all judgment to the
Son, the Mediator, the representative man, that one who came here as
our priest and our surety, our substitute and our mediator,
that one who came to save sinners is now the one into whose hands
the Father has committed all judgment. The priest, in order
for the leper to be healed, had to come out of the camp and come
down to the leper. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
came out of heaven. He came here to the place where
we were, but more than that, he came here to what we were.
He was made to be sin for us. And the scripture tells us plainly
in Matthew 8, 17, that when he took our sins in his own body
and died as our substitute upon the cursed tree, he bare our
diseases in his body. Sin, disease, Isn't it a wonderful
thing? Our father looks upon our sins,
the sins of his children, not as crimes to be punished. Oh,
as the judge of heaven, he must and must punish them. But it
looks upon our sins as diseases to be cured and healed by his
grace. Come, my son, my children. that I can heal. With your stripes
they shall be healed. And he sent his son here to be
made sin for us. And there is some indication,
I think, in Isaiah 53 of this very thing that he was made.
He was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. as one stricken
with leprosy, smitten with the rod of his wrath, and afflicted
with the horrid disease. So Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
was made to be sin for us. Not only must the priest come
out and come down to the leper, but the leper had to be brought
to the priest. The scripture speaks plainly,
if leprosy is in a man, then shall he be brought to the priest. You see, the man sees a little
rising, maybe a little tumor, maybe a little bright spot at
the eye. Nothing really wrong. How many
men have died with cancer because they thought they just had a
little headache? Wouldn't go to the doctor. had a little hurt,
but didn't go to the doctor because they weren't convinced anything
was wrong. They weren't convinced. And the
only reason they go, and that's the way with most of us, I acknowledge
my stubbornness, but it's not any worse for men than women.
Most of us don't go to the doctor unless our wives just stay on
our case and finally, all right, I'll go. All right, I'll go. You find out something's wrong.
He needed to be there. You got to be brought. And you
will not come to Christ. It ain't gonna happen. You won't
come to him. You won't come to him. Because
you're convinced there's nothing wrong. You're convinced you don't
need him. So you must be brought. Oh, compassionate
friend may endeavor to bring you. A compassionate friend may
urge you to come, a compassionate friend may say, look, there's
something not right. Come on, let's go see the priest.
But you won't come. He who brings the leper to God's
priest is God the Holy Spirit. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and calls us to approach him to thee. And the leper was
healed by God's intervention. This leper being healed by God's
intervention, we're not told how. We're just told if he's
healed, then he comes to the priest now, and this is how he's
made clean. He is made clean by certain ceremonies
and by the mere word of the priest. Atonement had to be made for
him, for atonement must be made for sin, and Christ is it. The
atonement sacrifice was such as the leper could get. In fact,
the scripture tells us plainly that there are certain animals
set aside, but now just in case you can't get the lambs, it'll
be all right to bring turtle dove, two young pigeons, just
such as you're able to get. Because God's sacrifice for sin
is within the reach of all men. Yes, sir. It's within your reach.
The word is neither even in thy heart and in thy mouth, that
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
thine heart that God has raised him from the dead. Thou shalt
be saved. What word says, isn't it? How near is the Savior? Jesus Christ, Lord of glory. God brought him right there and
put him in your mouth. Right now. The word is near you, within
reach. Anybody who wants it can have
it. Anybody who needs it can take
it. But the black blood, now watch this. I saw this and I
thought, oh, what condescending grace. The blood had to be caught
in an earthen vessel. Hold your hands here, turn over
to second Corinthians four. When the priest sacrificed that
living bird, that bird that had to be sacrificed, he'd catch
the blood of the bird in an earthen vessel, and then he would dip
the living bird in the blood in that vessel. Now watch this.
2 Corinthians 4, 7. We have this treasure. What treasure? the gospel of God's free grace,
the blood of Christ, God's substitute, God's salvation in earthen vessels. I'm here carrying the sacrifice
to you in a broken clay pot. God condescends to you such things
as we are, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Then the blood must be sprinkled
on the leper, having our hearts sprinkled with the blood of Christ,
and the leper must be washed. Our hearts sprinkled and washed
with pure water, the washing of God in the Holy Spirit by
the work of regeneration, so that we're made clean before
God to approach Him. And then the priest looks at
him and says, you're clean. And he presents the leper to
God, clean. Holy, unblamable, unapprovable
before God. He brings the leper to the congregation
and he presents him clean. Dear our brothers and our sisters,
clean. But we know what old Don Fortin
is made of. He's going to have to have probation period. No.
He's clean. But we know what he's done. We
have to examine him, watch him for a while. God says he's clean. And you're going to watch him.
God says he's clean. And the priest presents him clean. So that the congregation of God
Here we sit, many women, many women, some of whom have been
raised with moral virtue and integrity and in God's good providence
have been disciplined and kept chaste and upright and at least
outward behavior. And many women who are drunks
and whores and whoremongers opiates, thieves, rapists. I know some of all. Sitting in the house of God,
clean. Clean. Presented so by Jesus
Christ, God's priest. This leprosy, this deadness,
is your condition by nature. This is where you are. This is
your present state. You've lost all holiness, every
power, every bit of comeliness that was in you has withered.
All putrid iniquity seems to now stream forth from your heart. Your eyes betraying hopelessness. There's a death you about you. And you're sitting in your corruption.
Oh, hear me now. Leper sinner, hear me. God's
high priest has come to your land today. God's high priest
comes by his word and by his spirit with power to heal the
leper. God's high priest has come down
here on purpose to make lepers clean and make them whole in
his sight. Come to him. Come to him. Say, preacher, but I can't come.
If you come to him, it's because God's spirit brought you. Come
on. How can I approach Him? How can
I, how can I approach Him? Like that leper in Matthew, just
fall down before Him. Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. You don't have to. I don't deserve
it. If I go to hell, it'll only be
right. But if you will, you can make
me whole. And there's never been a sinner
who fell at his feet, crying out for his mercy, who didn't
go home home. Never been one. He passes by, he walks outside
the city where lepers are sitting in their uncleanness. He's come
to bring lepers to himself. You sit out and you look in and
you say, oh, I wish I could I wish I could enter into that. I can
see through the gate something of the beauty of the camp of
Israel, but I'm unfit. I can't come in. That's the reason
Christ comes out to get you, to bring you in to himself. This
priest is one who heals all who have need of healing. All right
now, look in verses 47 through the end of chapter 13. Scripture speaks here about leprosy
in garments. The bulk of these two chapters
talks about leprosy in men. But the law of leprosy deals
with leprosy in garments and in houses too. This is but another
indication that the leprosy described in these chapters, the leprosy
God sent into Israel in the land of Canaan, was unlike the leprosy
that's known to men in our day, in our society, in our culture.
But this was specifically intended by God to teach us some things.
This leprosy was specifically sent by God to remind us of some
things. Look here at verse 47. The garments also that the plague
of leprosy is in, whether it be woolen garment or linen garment,
whether it be in the warp or in the woof, of linen or of woolen,
whether in a skin or in anything made of skin. Verse 52. He shall
therefore burn the garment, whether warp or woof, in woolen or in
linen, or anything of skin wherein the plague is, for it is a fretting
leprosy. It shall be burnt in the fire. I won't make any attempt to guess
what the leprosy was in the garments of the house. We're not told.
I've read a lot of speculation, so it makes a little sense, but
we're not told what it is. We're simply told that if leprosy
is found in the garments of man wore, that leprosy, that defilement,
that corruption, so defiled and corrupted the garment, even if
it's a little spot, whether in the wolf or in the wolf. The
garment had to be burned. Nothing else to do with it. You
see, anything a person wears, anything we wrap ourselves up
in, is his garment. Our circumstances, the business
we wrap ourselves up in, all those things we wrap ourselves
in in this world, all that gives warmth, comfort, and joy to us
in this world, all the events of our daily lives. Shelby and I spend a little time
with our grandbabies Monday and Tuesday. I want so much to influence them
for good. But they're something I wrap
myself in. And just as sure as I touch them,
I'll heart them. Just as sure as I get near a
name, I'll hurt them. Just as sure, just as sure. Oh
my God, I wish I were so. But it is, it is. The leprosy, the leprosy, the
corruption. But particularly, as it is used
in scripture, the word garment refers to that in which we wrap
ourselves in the hope of salvation. It speaks of the garment of salvation. The garment of our hope. The
garment, then, is our religion. A lackless garment speaks of
a corrupt religion. The religion a man makes for
himself. Jude describes it. Look in Jude,
verse 23. Turn over there. Jude says in verse 23, Others
saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even
the garments spotted by the flesh. Now, I read a good bit on this
and not everybody says that's talking about, you know, if you've
got your garment and you spot it by going out in the world
and you, you know, you went to a picture show and dirtied that
garment or you played a game of cards and you dirtied that
garment. Read Scripture as context. The spotted garment, Merle, spotted
by the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, the gainsaying of
Korah. What's that talking about? The
way of Cain, self-righteous works, religion, I'll come to God on
my own. Hey, error of Balaam? What did Balaam do? Find me something
that Balaam said that was wrong. Finally, something in his book,
Balaam said it was wrong. He didn't say anything was wrong.
And yet one of the worst false prophets ever existed. Well,
what was the way of Balaam? Balaam said, now boys, you don't
have to, you don't have to deny God. You don't have to deny Jehovah. You don't have to deny the gospel.
All you got to do is get along with these other folks and tell
them everything's all right. And so you mix the worship of God
with the worship of idols. The game saying of Korah? Who says I can't come to God
like I am? Moses! I'm as holy as you are,
Alan. That's it. Spotted you glamorous. You see, all religion that involves
what you do, all religion that makes your will, your worth,
and your works to give merit to God Almighty. All of it is
but spotted garments. What do you do with them? Burn
them quicker than that. Now sew them up, burn them. Not
cut it out and patch it up, burn it. Burn it. All the preachers
This garment's been in my family for years. I got this from my
daddy. He got it from his daddy. The quicker you burn it, the
better off you'll be. But preachers, you don't know
what this garment cost. Man, we put money in that church
building. We put money in that denomination.
You don't know what it cost us. The quicker you burn it, the
better. Burn it. And you won't be sad you gave
it. Our Lord replaces it with a better garment. He says, I
can't see you. To buy of me, listen to this,
listen. Buy of me white raiment. Who are these? These uncountable
multitudes standing before his throne, arrayed in clean white
linen garments. Who are they? Why, these are
the saints of God. They are chaste virgins. They're
pure and white. These are folks arrayed with
his garments. All right, now thirdly, in the
last half of chapter 14, verses 33 to 57, the plague of leprosy
is described as being in a house. The Lord gives these instructions,
I remind you, to teach and remind us that the earth itself is under
the curse of God because of sin. The Lord sent leprosy into the
houses of Israel for that reason. Look at verse 33. The Lord spoke
unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, When you come into the land of
Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put the plague
of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession. Sin
is a horrible leprosy that's defiled our race. That's leprosy
in a man. Sin is a leprosy in us that defiles
the whole world around us, everything we touch, everything we come
into contact with, everything that comes into contact with
us. That's leprosy in the garbage. But here's more. Sin reaches
the earth itself, the very ground on which we walk. The atmosphere
in which we live, the air we breathe, is all defiled by sin,
leprous and unclean, and therefore cursed of God. That's what's
represented here. It was as though the plagued
walls of the house cried out in defiance, confess your sin,
turn to God. The leprosy in the houses of
Israel said to the inhabitants of the house, no matter how stately
the house, this place is polluted. This is not your dwelling place.
This is not the place of your rest. This is not your home. Bob, we look for new heavens. I'm looking for something better
than anything found here. How about you? We look for new
heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Now you
read this chapter. Here's what had to happen to
that house. They had spots of leprosy in the house. And goes
to the priest and says, Aaron, I believe my house has got the
flag. Aaron says, go take everything and everybody out of the house. That's what's going to happen
with this world. When Christ comes again, The dead in Christ
will rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be
called up to meet the Lord in the air, forever to be with the
Lord, and then the dead shall be called before God in judgment.
Scrape the house. Scrape it clean. Salt it good. Purge the house. Judgment's coming
to this world. God's gonna consume this earth
in fire. Folks debating, fussing. write
books and people spend their money trying to figure out how
God's going to burn it up. It doesn't matter how, He's always
going to burn it up. He's going to burn it up with the brightness
of Christ coming. And then Aaron said, the house
is not any better. Tear it down. What? Tear it down. Every stone, every timber, every
board, take the mortar, gather all the mortar dust up and take
it all away. put it in an unclean place and
the Lord God Almighty is going to dissolve this whole thing. But still there was provision
made for atonement for the leprous house. How come? Because Christ
will lose nothing because of sin. You see, there's some people
he bought, and they're going to be his, clean and holy, through
his atonement, through his grace. And in order to get those people,
he bought the earth itself. And this earth, cursed by the
fall, I'm talking about the physical universe, belongs to him. And this earth that has been
defiled with sin, he's going to fold it up. Burn it up and
make it new. And then shall come the new heavens
and the new earth. And the priest will pronounce
this is clean, this is unclean. Listen to the book. This is what
he says. He gives us these laws, we're
told in verse 57 to teach when it is unclean and when it is
clean. And no one can make that judgment.
No one can make that declaration except God's priest. Here's what
the priest says. Behold, I make all things new. And there shall in no wise enter
into this new creation. Anything that defiles neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Behold, I come quickly. He that is unjust, let him be
unjustly. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy
still. Behold, my reward is with me,
to give to every man according as his work shall be. I am the
root and offspring of David, the bride and morning star, the
spirit of the bride, say come. And let him that heareth say
come. And let him that is the first come, And whosoever will,
let him come and take of the water of life freely. Come on. Come on. Christ has come to heal
lepers. Christ has come to cleanse lepers. Christ has come to take lepers into himself. Make them clean. Clean as he
is, Bob Paulson. With his spotless garments on,
I'm as holy as God's own Son. Clean. Look here. Look here. The plague's gone. The plague is gone. When I stand
before God Almighty in resurrection glory, there will be no trace
of the plague left. I come because Christ has made
me clean. Amen.