Try to get a picture of the scene
of what we have read in Leviticus chapter 13. Men and women with fear that
they have somehow contracted the horrible, ultimately deadly
disease of leprosy are brought to the priest one by one. One man is brought to the priest
because he has a sore A little feverish, rising his arm, and
the priest looks at it, and he says, no, that's not it. And another comes, and he has
a scab on his leg, just seems to not heal, and the priest looks
at it, shuts him up for seven days, looks at it again. He said,
no, that's not it. Another has a boil right on his
neck. Maybe lots of boils. He's very
concerned. The priest looks him over, shuts
him up for seven days to see if the hair begins to turn white,
see if it spreads. He brings him out and the hair
has turned white. So shuts him up another seven days, see if
the leprosy is spreading. But it's not spreading. And the
priest said, no, you're right, you're clean. You're going home. And then a man comes to him,
a man is brought to him who's covered from head to foot with
leprosy. There's nothing about it that's
not reeking with the obnoxious disease. The hair has turned
white all over him. What hasn't fallen out? And the
priest looks at him, says, you've got leprosy. You're clean. What a paradox. Looks like if
anyone would be pronounced unclean, it'd be this man. But that's
not the case. Look with me, look Leviticus
chapter 13. We'll look at several passages
within this chapter, but let's read together verses 12, 13,
and 17. If the leprosy break out abroad
in the skin and the leprosy cover all the skin, all the skin of him that hath
the plague from his head even to his foot. wheresoever the
priest looketh. Then the priest shall consider
and behold if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall
pronounce him clean that hath the plague. It is all turned
white. He's clean. Verse 17. And the
priest shall see him and behold if the plague be turned white,
then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague. He is clean. The priest shall
pronounce him clean that hath the plague. He is clean. In other words, the Lord God
declares, he who has the plague is clean. Leprosy was very common
disease in the Old Testament. It lasted very commonly in that
part of the world where the Jews resided around the land of Canaan
all the way through the days of our Lord's earthly ministry.
But unless I'm mistaken, the leprosy that we have read about
in Leviticus 13, the leprosy that we read about during the
days of the Old Testament and during the days of our Lord's
earthly ministry, was very much unlike the leprosy with which
we are familiar from tradition, from textbooks, and from even
the fact that people today still have leprosy. There are still
some who are lepers and plagued with a horrible, horrible disease. It is in many ways similar, and
yet the symptoms And the things that were done in the Old Testament
with regard to leprosy clearly set forth that it was somewhat
different, unique. It was a disease that stood alone. And it was a disease that was
particularly unique to the children of Israel in the land of their
possession in the land of Canaan. It was a real disease. No question
about that. But it was also typical. In fact,
it seems to have been a disease specifically sent by God into
the world, into the land of Canaan, because of sin, but also to be
a type and picture of sin, particularly a type and picture of sin in
God's own people. You say, well, pastor, how can
you say that God sent this shocking thing to be a picture of sin?
How can you say this was deliberately designed by God for that purpose
and sent for that purpose? Let me give you two or three
things. First, all the ceremonial purifications regarding leprosy,
the cleansing of the leper, the purifying of the leper, the healing
of the leper, all of them, as they're described in chapter
14 of Leviticus, point to and refer to our Lord Jesus Christ,
his sin atoning work, his blood atonement, the cleansing of his
grace, the cleansing of his spirit. The leprosy was not cleansed
ever. Not one word is spoken here in
these chapters dealing with leprosy about medicine or about physicians
or about doctors. The leprosy was something dealt
with by the priest, not by a doctor. It was cleansed not by medicine,
but by blood. Not by ointments, but by grace.
It was altogether something that reflected that which is spiritual.
No one but the priest, no one but Aaron or his sons, those
men specially ordained and set apart by God to be representatives
and types of the Lord Jesus Christ, were able to discern the leprosy. None but Aaron could look at
the leprosy and say that's leprosy. None but Aaron could identify
it. Aaron and his sons. None but God's priest could say
this is leprosy. This is not leprosy. None but
God's priest could pronounce the leper unclean. None but God's
priest could pronounce the leper clean. None but the priest could
make atonement for the leper. None but the priest could apply
the atoning blood to the leper and thereby ceremonially accomplish
the cleansing. All these things show us that
Jesus Christ alone is the savior of sinners, the cleanser of lepers,
the healer of our diseases spiritually. A careful reading of Leviticus
13 to 14 will make something else manifest. Leprosy was not
so much a manifestation or a type and picture of sin universally. It is often thought to be so.
But if you read these chapters carefully, you'll see that clearly
is not the case. But rather, leprosy was set apart by God
distinctly to be a type and picture of sin in the man or the woman
who's the object of God's grace. Sin in the conviction of sin
by God the Holy Spirit. The leper pronounced clean by
God's high priest is held before us here as a picture of a sinner
convinced of his sin by God the Holy Spirit and made clean by
the miracle of God's saving grace. All right now, Hold your Bibles
here at Leviticus 13, and I want to show you four things in the
chapter we've read. First, the fear of leprosy, and
then the gift of it, and then the humiliation of leprosy, and
finally the cleansing of it. The first thing set before us
in this chapter is a fear of leprosy, fear of it. We have
here several examples of people who would come to God's priest
fearful that they had leprosy, seeking relief from a disease
that they really didn't have. They had the appearance of leprosy.
It looked like leprosy. They were afraid it was leprosy.
They were terrified at the thought that it might be leprosy, but
it was not leprosy at all. Look at verse two. When a man
shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab or a bright
spot. and it be in the skin of his
flesh like, you see that? Like the plague of leprosy. Then
he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his
sons, the priest. Arising, some stirring of emotions,
some feelings of remorse, some sense of danger, some desperation
of guilt, a scab, an old scar on the conscience. A sense of
guilt about something long ago, perhaps you thought was long
hidden, but now seems to rise up in your memory. A scar from
old risings in the past in the religious world. A bright spot,
some boil of self-righteousness, some pimple of religious zeal.
For most people, that's all their religion amounts to. Just a rising,
a scab, a bright spot, nothing else. It's all superficial from
start to finish. It's just foam and froth. There's
nothing in it deeper than the skin, nothing deeper than the
flesh. It's all just a fake leprosy, a spurious leprosy,
a fake conviction, a spurious conviction, a an emotional movement
of the mind and heart and soul towards some place where you
can find relief, but everything just on the surface. Everything's
superficial. I've been told by others that
they're lepers. I can't tell you how many times
in talking to people, I've had folks who talk about Christ coming
to save sinners. And I said, well, everybody's
sinners. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you $5 for every
one you can find at the dinner table today. Go try to find one. You don't
find any sinners out there. Oh, no, no. They've been told
they're lepers. They say, yes, I'm a sinner. They say, yes, I'm a leper. They
use the language of lepers with regard to themselves and they
therefore pronounce themselves lepers and presume they're lepers. They may even say unclean, unclean. They may rip their clothes. They
may throw ashes on their heads. Some time ago, I was down at
the airport in Dallas. What they called Lent had just
begun, and I thought I was going to bust a gut. The fellow standing
beside, he was a limo driver waiting on his fare to arrive,
and the fellow came out and had ashes right there. And it looked
like somebody popped him in the head. And this fellow said to
him, and the man, what do you want? He said, you got something
on your head. He said, oh, it's lead. They wear the ashes, the ashes
of religion. Now, you might not be so foolish
as to put a little ash on your face. But you put the ash of
religion and religious facade and religious experience up and
make that to be nothing but a show of leprosy. But the disease doesn't
spread. After seven days being shut up,
there's no spreading of the corruption. Another seven days, no spreading. The hair on the sore hasn't turned
white. The beauty hasn't withered. Everything
has come to a stand. Week after week, month after
month, year after year, they see nothing more of corruption
in themselves. See nothing more of beauty in
Christ. Nothing has grown, nothing has
gotten any deeper. Everything stands still. That's
a pretty good description of most people's religion. It's
like water standing in a sealed tank. There's no ebb, there's
no flow, there's no rising, there's no sinking. It's just full and
stagnant, that's all. Now look at verses 12 and 13.
Here, the Spirit of God speaks of the gift of leprosy. You heard
me right. Oh, what a blessed gift. What
a blessed gift. Look in chapter 14 before you
look at this text. Verse 13. I'm sorry, verse 34. I want you to see what I'm saying
in the Bible. I had you pull this out of my
head. It was the Lord God who made men and women lepers. It
was God who put the plague of leprosy in the house. And he
did it only, he says here, after they came into Canaan. He did
it only after he had brought them into the land of their possession.
Look at verse 34. When you come into the land of
Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, when I have brought
you into my kingdom, when I've established you in my house,
when I've established you as my people, heirs of my covenant,
possessors of my promises, beneficiaries of my grace, when I brought you
into the land of Canaan, and I give it to you for possession,
and I put the plague of leprosy in a house, in a house of the
land of your possession. Oh, blessed is that person whom
God Almighty has made to be a leper. Blessed is that man, blessed
is that woman whom God Almighty has made to be a sinner before
him. Joseph Hart put it this way.
What comfort can a savior bring to those who never knew their
woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. This is what we have portrayed
in verses 12 and 13 of Leviticus 13. Here, God specifically gave the
high priest of Israel four distinct marks by which he was to determine
whether the plague of leprosy was really in a person. And if the leprosy break out
abroad in the skin, The leprosy cover all the skin of him that
has the plague from his head, even to his foot, wheresoever
the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider him. Behold,
if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague. It's turned white. He's clean. All right. And here's the first
mark back up in verse three. If the leprosy, was real, if
the leprosy was real, if the sin in you, if the conviction in you is real,
it's deeper than the skin. It's not a surface thing. Second, if the leprosy was real,
The hair over the sore turned white. Turned white. May have been just black, jet
black before. And suddenly it's turned white.
Turned white not because of age. Turned white not because of time.
It turned white because it was dead at the root. That's a pretty good picture.
You know how hair is used in the scriptures? I couldn't help
but think of Brother Peterson and myself when I read that part
of the chapter. Even if a fellow's bald, he's
clean. But in the scriptures, in the scriptures, hair is always
representative of beauty and of glory. In 1 Corinthians 11,
we're told that a woman's glory is her hair. Absalom's beauty,
his outstanding characteristics as a handsome man, stood in his
thick, long locks, thick and bushy. In the song of Solomon,
as the church describes our Savior's beauty, he says, your flocks
are like a raven, black as a raven, thick and bushy. We're told in
the book of Ezekiel that the growth of hair is an emblem of
beauty and of excellence. Samson's strength was in his
hair. The point's this, the true leper, that man who's convinced
of his sin, I wonder if anybody here is. I mean, convinced of
his sin. Has God made you a sinner? Has
God made you a sinner? Has God Almighty made you a sinner? All his beauty and all his comeliness
and all his glory is dead at the root. It's withered. Listen to this. David said, thou
makest his beauty to consume away like a moth when you rebuke
a man and correct his iniquity. Daniel said, when I saw the Lord,
he said, there's remained no strength in me for my comeliness
was turned into corruption. Third, if the leprosy was real,
if it was true leprosy, the disease never stopped. It spread constantly. There was no staying of it. There was no stopping it. You just, you see yourself with that sore and you can almost
see it grow. And soon it covers your arm. covers your shoulders, chest,
spreads down your torso, covers your legs, finally can't even
put sandals on your feet, you're covered with leprosy, spreading,
spreading, spreading, never stopping. If the leprosy was true, real
leprosy. We're told in verses 14 through
17 that there was a raw flesh, quick flesh, rawness. Not just a rash, but
more like skin torn off that wouldn't heal. Have you ever had it? I recall
when I was a boy, I got severe burns on this arm. Matter of
fact, it happened twice. But when I was just six or seven
years old, because of my stupidity, I was showing off and I burned
my arm horribly. And the skin just peeled off.
And my mother would come to put some salve on it. I don't have
any idea what it was. But when she would reach for
it, I'd jerk back. She was just trying to heal it. She was just
putting on it what was necessary. But when she'd reach for my hand,
I'd jerk it back. When she'd touch it, I'd scream.
Because it was raw, sensitive to the slightest touch, sensitive
to everything that came in contact with it. So it is in the experience
of grace in the soul. Those who have made centers before
God, lepers before the most high know what it is to have raw flesh. A tender, bleeding, screaming
conscience. A conscience that can't be touched. And when a man is made guilty
before God, he can't bear the thought of God's touch. Even
that which is absolutely necessary for his healing, he can't bear
the thought of God's touch. His conscience is terrified that
God should come to him. He cries and screams against
it until the touch comes. And then everything's all right.
Can't you imagine Isaiah and the picture that he draws for
us in Isaiah 6 when he says the one's the seraphim came with
a live coal with tongs from off the altar and he comes to put
it right on his lips. What? Hold on. No, no, that's too hot. I can't
take it. That'll kill me. I can't handle
it. That'll be absolutely unbearable. And just as soon as he touches
his lips with the sacrifice of God's darling son, everything's
all right. He says, your iniquity is taken
away. All right. Third, in verses 44, 45 and 46, Moses describes for us the humiliation
of leprosy. Oh, it is a humbling thing to be
a leper. Oh, my soul girl covered from
head to foot with the rotting deadly disease of sin. Look at this first. Scripture
says the leper in whom the plague is. He's a leper indeed. You see, our plague is an inward
thing. In whom? Not upon whom? It's one thing to have a sore
on your flesh. It's something else to have one
in it. It's something to have a disease old your body. It's something else to have it
in it. You see, sin is what we are. It's part of us. as much part
of us as breath is part of us. It's in us. Oh, sin rises with
us every morning. It goes with us every step of
the day, all the way through the day. It travels with us in every thought,
moves with every emotion. It's found in every word. It
lies down every night. It's the plague of every living
soul. The leper's clothes then were
rent. The Lord says, just rent your clothes. This was a sign
of mourning. You remember when the ark of
God was taken, Eli rent his clothes. When Jacob thought Joseph was
dead, he rent his clothes. When the leper in Israel, was
made to rend his clothes. Not only was he made to rend
his clothes, but he was never allowed to mend them. Once they
were rent, he couldn't sew them up again. And so it is that the
believer, his heart rent before God can never mend it. He constantly tears open his
heart before God, spreading out his sin before him. The rending
of clothes was a sign of abhorrence. Self-loathing Job said, Job read
his clothes and said, I've heard of you, but now my eye sees you. Oh God, I abhor myself. It was a sign of great, great
contrition. Josiah the king, when the priest
who was the Okiah came with the book of God, he said, look what
I found. And Josiah said, read it to me. And Shaphan the scribe
read in the book, when Josiah heard the words of God, he ripped
his clothes. The king ripped his clothes right
in front of all the king's court. He ripped his clothes in utter
contrition before God. The leper had no covering for
his head. If there was a leprosy in his
head or in his beard, he'd shave his head. and he had no covering
at all, nothing to shelter him from God, nothing to stand between
him and God, nothing to give him a refuge, nothing to hide
him, nothing to cover it. Oh, thank God there isn't hell
enough salvation for all who believe on the son of God. But
until the leper is clothed in the righteousness of Christ and
declared clean by Christ himself, until the leper has the word
of peace spoken to his own conscience, the guilty sinner stands before
God and cries, I have no refuge, I have no hope. Here I am, naked,
undone, unclean. But he had to have a covering
for his lips, his upper lip, his upper lip. You know how sometimes you'll,
you've been out working all day and it's been a while since you've
had anything to drink, been a while since you had a stick of gum
or anything else, somebody comes up close to you and you, when you talk
to them, kind of turn away, or you cover your mouth, because
you don't want them to smell what's inside there. The covering
over his lips, put your hand over your mouth, was the covering
of a grave, a rotting sepulcher inside. It's the covering lest
contamination pass from you to another. A covering lest corruption
slip from you to another, displaying humility. And then the leper
was compelled to cry unclean. Unclean. He made anybody in society,
lest they come too close, don't condemn me! I'm unclean! I'm unclean. If you touch me,
you'll become unclean like me. Don't get near me. I'm unclean. You say, Brother Don, I know
I'm a sinner, but I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad. I know I've done some bad things.
I know that, but I've changed. I read my Bible. I go to church.
I pray. I'm not perfect, not by any stretch
of the imagination. I know that. We're all sinners.
But I do the best I can. I'm not so bad that I need to
cover my mouth and constantly cry unclean, unclean. I know. I know you're not. I know. And I'll tell you right there,
you're clean. You're clean. You don't have any lepers. You're
not a leper. All you got is just a little
rising, a little scab, a little A little burning spot. That's
all. You're clean. You're clean in
your own mind. You don't need a redeemer. You
don't need grace. You don't need a substitute.
You don't need someone to stand you in good stead with God. You
don't need someone to make you righteous. You're good enough
and you'll go to hell with your cleanness. Oh, brother Todd. I'm so unclean. I dare not speak to God. He's the one person you can't
speak to. You don't need to tell me about
it. That won't do any good. Matter of fact, it's best if
you don't try to tell me about it. Tell me about it, you probably
won't tell him about it. But you can go to your great
high priest. The only high priest there is,
the great physician. And show him your uncleanness. A modest lady has a horrid cancer on her breast. And she doesn't show it to anybody.
Except the only person she hopes can help. And she goes and shows
it to a doctor. Maybe in hell, maybe in hell. Oh, my fellow lepers. Come now and acknowledge your
uncleanness. Come clean with God with your
uncleanness. Come to Christ and acknowledge
your uncleanness. The leper, because he was a leper, all unclean. from head to foot, was required to dwell alone. You see that? He shall dwell
alone. This man, a woman who knows his
or her uncleanness before God, really prefers to. He can't stay in the den of the
crowd. He can't stand the sound of merriment. He can't stand
all the froth and foam that goes on around him. He can't stand
it. He's got to be alone, but not just alone. The Lord God
in Hosea 2 says, he says, I will allure you into the wilderness.
And blessed is that man whom God gets alone with him. The
Lord Jesus took that A woman taken in adultery and drove away
her accusers and he stood with her alone in the midst. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed
isolation. Alone with God, alone with Christ,
alone with other members, alone with God's people, alone before
God. That's where we get what we need. Alone. Alone. I like company. I like people.
I like to be with you. Enjoy fellowship. But I need to be alone. Alone with my Redeemer. J.C. Philpott once said, what we get
alone weighs heaviest. Where's best and last longest? Alone. One more thing here. The leper, this unclean thing,
we read in verse 46, was required to dwell outside
the camp. Without the camp shall his habitation
be. Now there's no question this
is referring to the leper's ceremonial separation from the tabernacle,
the temple, the worship of God, the sacrifice of God, all the
privileges of citizenship in the nation of Israel. The leper
full of his disease, full of his uncleanness could not come
to the house of God. He could not bring a sacrifice.
He could not bring an offering. He could not bring a song of
praise. He could not come and pray unto
God. He could not come to God's house.
He was made to dwell in a habitation alone outside the camp. Now this
I say to you, until God's high priest, the
Lord Jesus, speaks peace to your conscience, You dare not come
to his house. We don't recruit church members.
We don't recruit folks to come fill the pews. We don't recruit
folks to come to the Lord's table. We don't recruit folks to get
them in the waters of baptism so we can put their names on
a tote board. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm concerned for your
soul. I'm concerned that you know God. You dare not come. into the membership
of God's family and membership of God's church. You dare not
come to the waters of baptism. You dare not come to the Lord's
table. You dare not come. You must dwell alone until God's
high priest declares in your heart, in your conscience, in
your soul, by the gospel of his grace, by the power of his spirit,
you're clean. You're clean. Now let me show you one more
thing. Oh, I pray I found some lepers. Is there one here? Unclean. Unclean. Unclean before God. Unclean. From head to foot, inside
and out, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
But listen to me just a minute more. I've got good news for
you. In verses 12 and 13 again, we see the cleansing of the leper. Now look at it. Over in chapter
14, you see the priest alone made the leper clean. But here,
the priest made this leper clean by one remarkable thing. Just
one remarkable thing. And it's destructive, not by
accident. All he did was say clean. He said, you're clean. That's
all he did. But the man's still a leper.
Yeah, but he's clean now. But the man's covered from head
to foot with leprosy. Yeah, but the priest says he's
clean. And Wes, that makes him clean. Well, he still looks like a leper
to me. That don't matter. The priest says he's clean. That
makes him clean. He still smells like a leopard
to me, that don't matter. The priest says he's clean, that
makes him clean. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great priest, by himself alone, cleanses foul lepers and presents them before God.
The priest shall bring the leper back to the congregation and
present him before the house of God, clean before the Lord. The priest brings him to God's
people and presents him clean before the Lord. Here is a colony
of lepers. All unclean. All unclean. The longer we live, the more
unclean we know ourselves to be. Here's a colony of leopards
with a sore that reaches far beneath the surface of the skin,
down to our hearts, making us cry, I know that in me, in my
flesh, dwells no good thing. Unclean, unclean. But Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, by the power of his grace on the grounds of
his blood atonement, has declared me clean, and here I am, accepted
of God. Would you be clean? Go to Christ. Go to him like
that leper in the gospel, Lord, if you will. You can make me
whole. Now then, in chapter 14, we'll
look at it again, Lord willing, next week. You see the leper
healed. But here, when he's made clean
in his conscience, Made clean and presented to the Lord experimentally. Made clean and presented to the
congregation experimentally. There's no healing. In resurrection glory, but if
Christ is going to heal us of our leprosy. But for now, we
just have to live with it. But once it's crusted over and
the man made white all over, his sore covers his whole body. He's no longer contagious. He's
not dangerous to anybody. He's just clean. Thank God for
cleansing. Amen.