You will take your Bibles this
evening and turn with me to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Going to read
the first four verses in this chapter. When he was come down
from the mountain, everyone has heard of the Sermon on the Mount. And we have that in Matthew chapters
five, six, and seven. And now the Lord is coming down
from the Mount. After having preached that message,
great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will. I mentioned this morning the
words of that hymn, majestic sweetness sets enthroned upon
the Savior's brow and his lips with grace or flow. Certainly,
this is an example here when his lips overflowed with grace
to this man, this leper. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And the Lord Jesus touched him
and said, I will. Be thou clean. What grace flowed
from our Lord's lips to this man that day. Leprosy is a disease
that is in this world because of sin, as we know that all diseases
came in because of sin, as well as death. For by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. But this disease the
Lord chose out of all the hundreds, maybe thousands I assume, diseases
to use to picture sin and the repercussions of sin to the man
or woman. It was a strange disease when
God called Moses, remember at the burning bush, Moses was hesitant,
to say the least. He did not apply for the job. But the Lord called him and sent
him to Egypt to deliver his people. But one of the signs that God
gave Moses was he put forth his hand into his bosom and pulled
it out, and it was leprous. And the scripture says it was
as white as snow, a discoloration in the skin. We had a lady that
attended our worship services in one of the towns of villages
in Mexico who had leprosy, was being treated for leprosy, and
I remember that about her, there was discoloration of her skin. It was a disease that evidently
was common in Israel. Our Lord said, we read that passage
a few minutes ago when he read the scripture in Nazareth, that
there were many lepers, he said, in Israel in the days of Elisha. But Elisha was sent only to one
man, a leper, who was a Gentile, Naaman. There were many lepers
in Israel. Now, evidently, leprosy, when
a person had it, He didn't go to the doctor when he suspected
that he had it. Let me put it like that. Some
sign on his body, something different on his body. He didn't go to
the doctor, as poor as doctors were back in that day, compared
to the doctors of medical science that we have today. But he went
to the priest. He didn't go to a doctor, he
went to a priest. And we may assume this man here
in our text this evening in Matthew chapter eight, he had been to
the priest and the priest had examined him. And sure enough,
the priest said, yeah, it's leprosy. And he had put him out of the
camp. Now, of course, when the law
was given, they were traveling from Egypt to the promised land. But when they entered into the
promised land, they would be living in houses and in cities. This man, we see, he wasn't in
a city. He was outside. When the Lord
came down from the mountain, he approached the Lord, and the
first thing we see about him is he worshiped. That word worship
means he prostrated himself before the Lord. He bowed down before
the Lord. And I like to think whether the
Lord would heal this man or not, it was all up to God. It was
up to his will whether he would do it or not, but he was still
worthy of worship. And this man realized that. And
he worshiped him. And he said, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And these gracious words from
our Lord, I will be thou clean. There are three chapters in the
book of Leviticus, and they're long chapters. But there are
three chapters given to this matter of leprosy. The first
chapter, chapter 13, tells how a priest could determine. Now
the priest went out to the leper, and our Lord touched this man. No one else was to touch a leper. And that's the reason this man
was put out of the village and he covered his mouth and he was
to cry unclean if he came close to someone else who didn't have
leprosy. He was to cry out unclean, unclean,
so that people would be warned not to come into his proximity. But the priest, The point I want
you to see is a priest could go out and examine a man and
not become unclean. The Lord Jesus Christ, he was
a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order
of Melchizedek, we know that. And when he touched this man,
he then was not unclean by touching this leper. as the priest of
old were not. This man, in our text here this
evening, we may assume, and I think rightly so, surely he had gone
to the priest, the priest had examined him, the priest had
determined, yes, you have leprosy, and he was put out of the camp,
out of the city in which he must have lived. Now, that was chapter 13, but
in chapter 14 of Leviticus, the instructions were given, the
law was given, as to what was to take place when he came back
to the priest and the priest said, well, the leprosy is cured. Or, yes, it's cured. That's what we see here in verse
number four. And Jesus, now when Jesus touched
him and said, I will be thou clean, he was cleansed of his
leprosy. Immediately, the scripture says,
immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Now a whole chapter
is given, so when a person, Think about this, when a person had
leprosy, he goes to the priest, the priest examines him and says,
yes, it's leprosy, yes, you must leave your home, you must leave
your city, you must live outside the city, and you must warn people
who come near to you that you are a leper. But leprosy could
be cured. because we've given a whole chapter,
not cured, God cured leprosy. And I think it's a type of sin,
don't you? A picture of sin and what sin
does, the disease, the worst disease of all the diseases. And there are many of them that
are bad and people suffer greatly from various diseases. But the
worst disease of all is sin, is sin. Only God could cure a
leper. Only God can cure a man of this
disease of sin. No need to go to any other doctor.
They're doctors of no use. They won't serve. Only Christ
can heal and can cleanse from sin. But you notice in verse
four, after the Lord touched this man, immediately his leprosy
was cleansed. But Jesus said to him, Seeth
thou tell no man, but go thy way. Now what? Show thyself to
the priest. And that's what the law told
them to do. When you think you have leprosy,
go to the priest. The priest determines whether
it's leprosy or not. When you think you've been cured
of leprosy, go to the priest. The priest will determine whether
the leprosy is cleansed or cured, whichever word you want to use.
Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way,
show thyself to the priest. And of course, when this man
went to the priest, showed himself, the priest would say, yes, you're
clean. He was cleansed by the Lord.
He wasn't to tell the priest how he was cleansed or anything
like that or anyone else. But just go show thyself to the
priest. But that wasn't the end of the
matter. No. And offer the gift that Moses
commanded for testimony unto them. He was told, in other words,
obey the law of Moses concerning leprosy. I want you to look back
just a few pages into chapter five, Matthew chapter five and
verse 17, when the Lord said, think not, Matthew five and verse
17, think not that I'm come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. Until the Lord Jesus Christ died
upon the cross and said, it is finished, then the law of Moses,
that Old Testament law, men lived under it. Men lived under it. And that's the reason the Lord
sent this man to the priest to offer the gift. That's what it
says, to offer the gift that Moses commanded. That old dispensation
was in effect. Men lived under that law of Moses
until he fulfilled that law. And the law, the goal of the
law was reached. by the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, when the Lord said, I will
be thou clean, this man immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Did
he now have liberty? Could he now return to his city,
to his home and to his family? No, no, no. When you read the law concerning
leprosy in Leviticus chapter 14, what you see is it would
be eight days. Now he's cleansed today. He goes
to the priest today, but yet it will be eight days before
he can move home and be with his family. There are certain
things that he had to do. And tonight, I want to point
out several of those things, several truths about those things,
which are all included here in our Lord's word, all for the
gift that Moses commanded. All for the gift that Moses commanded. And I bring this out to us this
evening, if for no other reason. First of all, we know that the
scripture spoke of Christ. It revealed Christ. Remember
when our Lord appeared under the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus, the day of his resurrection. They were discouraged, they were
downcast, you remember. They said, we thought that he
was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And he had been
crucified. And then they said, and some
of our people have said, they've seen him, he's alive. And the
scripture there, they didn't recognize that it was the Lord
Jesus who was walking along with them. But the word of God says,
beginning at Moses, beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them and all the scriptures, the things concerning
himself. And so even in these types and
ceremonies and laws in that old dispensation, they all somehow
pointed to Christ. pictured Christ, was a type or
a picture or a shadow of Christ. Now I want to bring out several
things that would be included in these words, offer. You go
to the priest, show yourself to the priest, and offer the
gift that Moses commanded. There are three things I'm going
to point out. First of all, the gift that Moses
commanded included death. You offer the gift that Moses
commanded, and in offering this gift that Moses commanded, there
must be death. Death. Death of a substitute. How it pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ. First of all, the law said you
get two birds, two birds, two clean birds. It didn't say what
kind of birds, but we know the law differed between unclean
and clean birds. fowls, birds, and so you find
two birds. That was the responsibility of
this man or his family or his friends. Someone had to come
to the priest when he was seen to be clean of his leprosy, and
two birds, and they had to be clean birds. He would need two
birds, and one of those birds would die. One of those birds
must die. That's the reason I say, when
our Lord said, you go and offer the gift that Moses commanded,
that gift included death. Death. One bird must die. One bird must die. And the law
was explicit in how that bird was to die. It was to die over
what the scripture says, running water. Now, when you study it
out, you realize that maybe has a different connotation to us,
running water. They would have a vessel with
clean spring water in it. And one of those two birds that
was taken, one of those birds would be slain and its blood
would be squeezed or somehow would fall into the water of
that vessel, one bird would be slain over
a vessel with water. Thus we have blood and water,
the blood and water together. Now the first thing that that
reminds us of, I'm sure it does you, it did me, is when that
soldier came after the Lord Jesus Christ had died upon the cross
and he took that spear and plunged it into the heart. Now, the medical
people, they can tell you exactly what happened there. When he
plunged that spear in and pierced the sac that is around the heart
of all of us, then the scripture says blood and water flowed out. Blood and water. Now, in offering
the gift that Moses commanded, there was death and there was
blood mixed with water. The blood that flowed out of
the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, pictures to us justification,
doesn't it? Justification. There is no forgiveness
of sins without the shedding of blood. But the water also
pictures cleansing, and this reminds us of sanctification,
that they always go together. A person who's justified is also
sanctified. People get the idea that you
can be justified and then, according to what you do, that somehow
you're going to get sanctified. No, no. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
just a moment. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul in verses 9 and 10 speaks
about sin that he said some of these people he's writing to
were guilty of these things. We're all guilty of sin, aren't
we? Maybe you can read that list and you think, well, I never
was guilty of any of those things. You're probably lying if you
say that, but maybe you could say that, but not guilty of all
these things. But remember this, the law says
if you're guilty in one point, you're guilty of the whole law.
That's where some of you, but thank God, you are washed, but
you're sanctified. but you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. You see, washed
who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We're
washed and we're sanctified and we're justified. Some people
have a problem with sanctification, they're being placed before justification,
but they always go together. They always go together. And
the word sanctified means to set apart. That's what it means,
to set apart. And surely every one of these
in the church at Carthage had been saved, they'd been set apart.
Now we think about being set apart in election before the
foundation of the world. We think about being set apart
by Christ and Him dying in our stead. And we think about being
set apart by God the Holy Spirit when we're called and quickened
and made alive in Christ. We've been sanctified. So that's
something I see in the gift that Moses commanded. There would
be death, there would be blood and water together. Now the second
bird, the first bird, was killed. Well, another thing that comes
to my mind is the Day of Atonement, right? When there were two kids. Two goats which were taken and
the lot was cast and one goat was then designated the Lord's
goat and it would be slain. The other goat would be the scapegoat. It would be set free, but it
would be set free picturing carrying away the sins of the people.
after the priest confessed the sins of the nation of Israel
upon its head. Then it was led out into no man's
land, never to be seen again. What a beautiful, beautiful picture
of our sin. Well, this bird that's not killed,
it's taken and dipped down into that vessel, into the blood and
water, and then it's set free. It flies away, it soars toward
heaven. What a picture there of our sins
being taken away. Remove, the scripture says, as
far from us as the east is from the west. What a picture of the
removal of our sin. And then it also may be a picture
of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember when Paul
writes that 15th chapter, what's become the 15th chapter of 1
Corinthians, he speaks about How do some say there's no resurrection? Oh, you know, error comes in
all kinds of ways, doesn't it? All kinds of ways. And even before
Paul had left this world, people were coming into the church and
they were denying the resurrection. And that's something that only
Christianity has ever taught. All these other false religions,
none of them ever taught that this body's going to be raised. That just seems an impossibility,
doesn't it? And when you think about it,
it does seem an impossibility. But our God, he's able to do
the impossible, isn't he? When you think about some of
those martyrs, you think about Was it William Tyndall or John
Wycliffe? I can't remember. I think it's
William Tyndall. When they not only killed him,
not only assassinated him, what was he doing? Translating the
scripture. Translating the scripture into
English. Kill him! They wasn't satisfied
with that, was they? Dig up his bones. Dig up his
body. Burn it! And take the ashes and
throw them in the river. and the river empties into the
ocean, there's gonna be a resurrection. It seems impossible. And it's
not gonna be another body, it's gonna be this same body. You
say, how's that possible? God. That answers that question,
God. You say that we believe it because
it's revealed to us in the scripture, right? That's what the word of
God tells us. But Paul in that 15th chapter,
he said, if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, empty. That's what he told those believers
there at Corinth. If Christ is not risen, your
faith is empty. And if Christ be not risen, you
are still in your sins. There's no gospel. and certainly
not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not include his
death, his burial, and his resurrection, according to the scriptures. A second thing, the gift that
Moses commanded included sprinkling. Sprinkling. Death first, then
sprinkling. Along with the two birds that
the man must bring, he must also bring a piece of cedar wood,
scarlet thread, and hyssop. Now these three items may picture
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know anything about cedar
wood? You ever seen a cedar tree cut? cut into slabs. You know, cedar wood is like
that wood, that Chittum wood that God commanded the pieces
of furniture in the Ark to be made of. It's incorruptible wood. It lasts, it's just a picture,
right? Of the table for the showbread,
the Ark of the Covenant. It was made of incorruptible
wood to picture unto us the humanity of Christ, the sinless humanity
of Christ, overlaid with gold to picture his deity. Well, they
were to bring cedar wood, and he was to bring scarlet, some
kind of a scarlet thread. You say, how does that picture
Christ? Well, the color scarlet, I think about what the The bride
in the Song of Solomon said when she's speaking, what's your beloved
more than any other beloved? And she begins to describe him
and one of the things she says about him, he's ruddy. He's ruddy. And that of course means red,
doesn't it? Red. Yes. And then The hyssop, you
know the hyssop, there's a verse in Kings that speaks of the cedar
and the hyssop. And what we have here is the
greatest, greatest plant and the smallest plant, the weakest
plant, the nothing plant, hyssop. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as a man who was poor and lowly, meek and lowly rather. Hyssop was pointed to. Now, they would take the piece
of cedar, cedar stick or wood or something like that, and with
the scarlet thread, they would tie the hyssop onto it. And then
they would dip the hyssop down into that vessel with the blood
and the water, and they would sprinkle. They would sprinkle
the man who is being cleansed seven times. Seven, of course,
in scripture. Speaks of completeness, doesn't
it? Seven days in a week, a complete
week, and there's other examples of that. Speaks of completeness. Well, he's then to wash his clothes. He's to wash his clothes, he's
to take a bath, and he's to shave off all his hair. All the hair
on his head, his eyebrows, all of his head. Shave it off. In seven days, he's got to repeat
that. Do it over again. Now that's
what our Lord pointed out to us, how thankful we should be
that we have been delivered from the law with all of its rights
and ceremonies. It was a yoke of bondage. You can't call it anything else.
Our grace has set us free. Free not to sin, of course not. That's what our people that don't
agree with us on this matter, they say, well, if you preach
that message, are people just gonna feel free to sin? I've thought about that like
this. A man tells his wife, sweetheart,
I love you. You are the light of my life. I love you. And there's nothing
you could ever do that would cause me not to love you. Bang. That just gives her freedom to
go out and cohabit with another man. Why? Because he's convinced her of
his love that will never change. Well, when we hear how Christ
loved us and gave himself for us, and how he's delivered us
from that yoke of bondage, what does it do? It constrains us. It doesn't command us so much
as it constrains us. The law was like a whip, you
know, you see in those old western, whoop. Take that whip and hit
somebody with it, you know? That's the way some preachers,
I believe, use the law, to try to whip their people into order. No. It's the love of Christ which
constrains us, seeing what he's done for us. And we want to honor
him. We want to glorify him. Well? He's done that, he's washed his
clothes, he's taken a bath, he's shaved off all his hair. Well,
he still wasn't finished. Now he could go into the camp,
he could go into the camp, but he couldn't live in his house.
Not yet, he wasn't through. He was still outside, outside
his tent. And I'll just say this about
the sprinkling. You know, the apostle, in Hebrews
chapter 9 speaks about the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer and
how it would cleanse us, ceremonially cleanse those people under the
law. How much more, he says, shall
the blood of Christ cleanse us from dead works? And the dead
works he's talking about are these works of the law. He's not finished. Man, he's
already done a lot, right? Sounds to me like. Oh, yes. He's inside the camp, but he
cannot stay the night with his family yet. The gift that Moses
commanded him, number three, is that there's still more. That's
what the law always said, right? More, more, more! Never can completely
obey it. More. Demands more. Aren't you thankful that the
gospel gives us all things? All things. Well, three more. Think about three more animals
have to be slain. Three more animals. He's got
to bring two lambs, a ewe lamb, and a lamb, and a ram. He's got to bring three more
animals, and they're all going to be slain. And one of them
is going to serve as a trespass offering. One will be a sin offering,
and one will be a burn offering. And all of these offerings, these
sacrifices, to make an atonement for him. The trespass offering,
he had to bring so much fine flour for a meat offering, a
meal offering. He had to bring so much oil also
to be added to that trespass offering. And then the priest, after the
The trespass offering has been sacrificed, and the priest, he
takes his finger, puts it in the blood of the trespass offering,
and he's got to put it on the right earlobe, right thumb, and
right big toe. What a process, right? But that's
still not finished. Gotta take some oil now, that
oil that the man brought. Some of it was offered with the
offering. He pours it in his left hand,
then he takes his finger and puts it on the earlobe and on
the thumb and on the big toe. The oil on the blood, and that's
important, isn't it? That's important. It's in that
order. The oil must be placed on the
blood in the same three places. And then what's left of the oil,
he pours it on the man's head. What did this picture? It pictures
to us that both the blood of Jesus and the anointing of the
Holy Spirit are essential in their operation, their united
operation of salvation of a sinner. This is the law in whom is the
plague of leprosy. This is the law. I hope the Lord
will bless something I've said here tonight for all of us to appreciate the
gospel of the free grace of God. The law, it speaks to us of God's
holiness, and we know he is holy. And because he is holy, his son
had to be a sacrifice to redeem us, to reconcile us unto God. Amen. Let's all turn to hymn number
77. Hymn 77.