Luke chapter 5. Those of you who were here last
Sunday evening remember we were studying from John chapter 5
and we saw the greater witness, the Lord Jesus Christ, said he
had a greater witness than that of John, and the greater witness,
of course, was God the Father, who witnessed to Christ in a
threefold way, by the works, the miracles which Christ wrought,
the voice from heaven which testified, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased, and the scriptures all testify. of Christ. And in looking at the miracles,
or naming a few of the miracles, the works which the Lord gave
him to do, I mentioned this man, this leper. So let's read here,
if you will, in Luke chapter 5, verses 12 through 14. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy. who seen Jesus
fell on his face and besought him saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and
touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the
leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no
man but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy
cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. Matthew, Mark, along with Luke
all recorded this same miracle. And there's no variance, no variance
in their records. They all record these four things
that we've just read. They all record, first of all,
a leper came to Jesus and worshiped him. Now here, Luke tells us
he fell on his face. But that's what the word worship
means. It means to prostrate oneself
before the Lord. So they all tell this, a leper
came to the Lord and worshiped him. Number two, all three Gospels
tell us that he acknowledged that Christ could make him clean
if he willed to do so. It was not, if you can, would
you please make me clean. That's not the way he approached
the Lord and that's not what he said. No, all three Gospels
records tell us that this man came to the Lord and he said,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And then the third
thing that all of these gospels tell us is that Lord Jesus Christ
touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And then number four,
they all tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ sent this man this
leper who he cleansed by touching him. They all tell us that our
Lord sent this leper to the priest according to the law which had
been given through Moses. He could have gone to the priest
singing this song shackled by heavy burden, neath a load of
guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched
me, and now I am no longer the same. In Leviticus, remember
the book of Leviticus. Leviticus, L-E-V-I, Levi, Leviticus. It's the book where God gave
the law through Moses to the priesthood, the tribe of Levi,
from which Aaron's family came. And in that book of Leviticus,
we have two chapters, chapters 13 and 14. They're rather long
chapters, and they concern, all of the chapters concern this
matter of leprosy. Now, I have three observations
I want to make to us tonight concerning that law of leprosy,
and then we are going to look at what this man would have experienced
when he did what the Lord told him to do, when he went to the
priest. So first of all I have these
observations to make. Number one, when a person had
something abnormal in his skin, he was to be brought to the priest. Now, It could have been a minor
spot, could have been a pimple, could have been anything that
would come up in a person's skin. But if there was even the possibility
that it could be leprosy, the man was taken to the priest. And the point that I want to
make when I say that is, he was never taken to a doctor. You say, well, what kind of doctors
could they have had at that time? Makes no difference. Whether
they were very primitive medical men or if there were no medical
men, makes no difference. The law said when a person is
suspected of having leprosy, to the priest, to the priest,
not to a doctor. And number two, The man was taken
to the priest for one reason. One reason. Very simple. Not
hard to figure out. Not hard to understand. He was
taken to the priest for one reason, and that one reason was to determine
if he had leprosy. That's all. That's all. That's
the only reason he was brought to the priest. He was not brought
to the priest to be cured. There was no cure for leprosy. The fact that he was brought
to the priest was only to determine, is this leprosy or is this not
leprosy? He was not taken to the priest
to be cured. And number three, I observed
this. It was not always easy to determine
if a man had leprosy. There were many things that might
come up on a man's skin that would cause him to be carried
to the priest that would not be leprosy. It was not an easy
thing to determine. Sometimes a man would have to
be quarantined. The priest would look at him
And then he wouldn't send him back home because he was not
sure whether it was leprosy or it was not leprosy. So the man
would be put in hold for seven days and then the priest would
look at him again. It was not always easy to determine
if a person had leprosy or not. There were four marks and all
of these marks are given in Leviticus chapter 13. I'm not taking the
time for us to go back there. If you would like to read those
two chapters about leprosy, you can later. But there were four
marks that the priest looked for. Four marks that he looked
for to investigate, to make a diagnosis. Is this leprosy or not? Now the
fact, before I give us these four marks, think about this.
The fact that he was taken to the priest, that tells us right
away that leprosy in the scripture is a type of sin. It's a type
of sin. Now all sickness is in this world
because of sin. There's no question about that.
With sin came sickness and death. Were there no sin in this world,
there'd be no sickness, there'd be no death. But out of all the
diseases, all the sicknesses that men may have, and there
are thousands of them, God chose this one, leprosy,
as a type of sin. You say, why did he do that?
I don't know. He did so because he would do
so. But leprosy is a type of sin. And the scripture, that's
the reason you never read a leper was healed. You won't see that. Leper was cleansed. Not healed,
cleansed. Because it's a type of sin. But there were four marks that
God gave the priest to look at this person. Number one, the
first mark was, was the spot only skin deep. Was it just skin
deep? The second mark was, was there
a hair in that spot? Was that hair turned white? And usually those two marks would
go together. The priest might look at a person's
skin and he might think, well, it's more than skin deep, or
it is skin deep, more than skin deep. But the hair, the hair's
black, the hair's not white. He couldn't diagnose him as having
leprosy. And the third mark was, was the spot spreading. And that's
the reason, I believe, when a person was quarantined. Maybe when the
priest first looked at this individual, the spot was maybe just about
the size of a quarter. But when he comes back in seven
days, it's spread. Now it's about the size of a
man's hand or something. That was the third mark. And
the fourth mark was raw flesh in that spot. was their raw flesh. Now, as a priest, use these marks
to determine this. Think of how these marks, these
four marks that God gave and I've just mentioned to us, think
of how they are significant spiritually. When we think of leprosy as a
type of sin, is sin just skin deep? Is it? If it is, then I guess some water
will do the trick. Put a person under the water.
It's just skin deep. That'll clean him up on the outside.
Is sin just skin deep? Reformation. Turn over a new
leaf. Change his lifestyle. Is sin
only skin deep? Oh, no. Sin comes out of the
heart. It's not reformation that a person
needs. It's regeneration. Because our
Lord said, out of the heart. It's not that which goes into
the man that defiles the man. It's that which comes out. And
He named those things like murders and envies and evil speakings
and adulteries and things like that. Come from within. Come
out. That's what defiles a man. Sin
is not just skin deep, it's deeper. Remember that hymn or song that
we used to hear sung, Blood of Jesus Goes Deeper Than the Stain
Hath Gone? Remember that? I remember Brother
Bill and Lynn Sasser used to sing that a lot. Beautiful, beautiful
hymn. deeper than the stain is gone. See, and it's deep. It's not
just skin. And then the second thing, the
hair. There's a hair turned white.
Now, when a person's young, the hair's bushy and they have hair,
most people. Black, dark, you know. But then they see a white hair.
A white hair Tells us something about age, doesn't it? You don't
save babies with gray hair or white hair. Not normally. White
hair. Age. What about sin? How old
is sin? Did it just come up? No, sin
is as old as Adam, our father is. It's been in this world since
Adam disobeyed God. And when you and I, when we came
into this world, when we were born, We brought a sinful nature
with us. It's not our environment. That's
not the problem. It's our nature. Our nature is
sinful. And then the third thing is it's
spreading. Isn't spreading. Doesn't sin
spread? Our Lord, speaking of the sin
of the nation of Israel, He said, From the sole of the foot, even
unto the head, there is no soundness in it. We see a baby, a child,
when they first begin to be able to manifest that fallen nature
which they have inherited. But it soon spreads, doesn't
it? and a little lie, and then there's
more lies, and big lies, however you want to illustrate it, spreads. And then the third thing, that
raw flesh. Raw flesh is painful, isn't it? You've had probably raw flesh
somewhere on your body. Raw flesh is painful. Is sin
painful or not? Yes, it is. The wages of sin
is death. The way of the transgressors
Difficult, hard, the scripture says. So all of these marks to
determine if a man had leprosy, they all have their spiritual
counterparts because leprosy was a type of sin. There was
no medicine. There was no medicine. There
was no remedy for a person who had leprosy. Once the priest
signed off on it and said, that person has leprosy out of the
camp, out of the camp. He can no longer live among his
family, his friends, his neighbors. He's got to be out of the camp
and he's got to cover his His upper lip, not just the bottom
lip, he's got to cover his upper lip just so he doesn't breathe
upon anyone. He has leprosy. He's out of the
camp. If God healed him, now listen,
no remedy, there was no medicine you could take. If God healed
him, it would be a miracle. And the same thing is true about
salvation. If a person is saved, it is a
miracle. A miracle of God's wondrous grace
and mercy in Christ Jesus. If God healed him and the priest
determined that he was healed, then there was a law given And
that's what our Lord here told this man. He was cleansed. I mean, his flesh, I'm sure it
was like Naaman's flesh after he had dipped in that Jordan
seven times. It was like a baby's flesh. I
mean, when the Lord heals, it's healed, right? It's clean. It's smooth. It's His flesh. I mean, He was cleansed, and
Luke tells us this man was full of leprosy, and the Lord touched
him, and he was cleansed. But then our Lord told him, now
you go to the priest. Read that again here in our text.
Verse 14, our Lord told this man, he charged him to tell no
man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy
cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. Now I want to bring some things
to us here tonight. concerning what this man experienced. Now, we have no way of knowing
if the Jews at this time, if they still tried to practice
and obey the law of Moses concerning the leper, cleansing of the leper
or not. But this is what this man, I
have three things here tonight. This is what this man that our
Lord cleansed should have witnessed when he went to the priest. And
the priest looked at him, and sure enough, he was clean. First,
the first thing that this man should see and hear, the priest,
he would see that the priest commanded to take two birds alive,
and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet and hyssop. That's the first thing that he
would say. The priest commands, he commands
someone. I'm not sure who would do this. The priest would command that
this be done. Take two cling birds, live birds
with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet. That's what this man should have
heard. And all of these things, as we look at them tonight, all
of these things that I've just mentioned, we read there in Leviticus
chapter 14, all of these things in some way speak to us of Christ. And that's what we want to see,
isn't it? We want to see Christ. It's not all that important that
we learn about the law of leprosy as given in the book of Leviticus. But what is important is that
we learn that Christ is the only one who's able to cleanse a leper. And that He was willing when
this leper came to Him, prostrated himself before the Lord and said,
Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. Number one, as birds, he was
to take two birds. Now, as birds, naturally, live
above the earth. They build their nest in the
trees, but we would say they live in the heavens. And isn't
this to picture to us that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from
heaven? He who is one with the Father,
who inhabits eternity, the eternal Son of God in the fullness of
the time, the Apostle Paul tells us, in the fullness of the time
God sent forth His Son made of a woman. He came down. And in Philippians, let's turn
over there just a moment. Philippians Chapter 2, I believe it is. Yes, beginning with verse 5.
And as I read these few verses, look at how Christ stepped down. Stepped down. Stepped down. Let this man be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and this is his first step down, he took upon him the form of
a servant, and, step down, was made in the likeness of men,
stepped down, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, stepped down again, became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. We see the Lord God Almighty,
the eternal Son of God, as He condescended in coming into this
world. These birds, they inhabited the
heavens, so the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what it shows to me, that
my Savior, the only Savior, is God who came into this world
as a man. The Word, John 1, 14, the Word
was made flesh. Now the second thing, these birds
were clean. You say, well what does that
mean, clean? Well you know the law, the law
that God gave through Moses, there were certain animals that
were not clean. And certain animals which were
clean. Certain animals they could not eat. A pork was one of those
animals. Camel, you couldn't eat a camel.
I wouldn't want to, would you? But you couldn't eat those. There
are certain animals that the law said they're unclean. And
then there's other animals that were pronounced clean. You can
eat these animals. The same thing was true about
birds. Here's a buzzard. You know what
a buzzard lives off of? It's unclean. Don't eat that
bird. But here's another bird, a quail,
dove. That's clean. Take two clean words. And doesn't that remind us of
the fact, fact, that the Lord Jesus Christ, he who came from
heaven and took into union with his deity that body prepared
him by God the Holy Spirit, was clean. In Him was no sin. These three apostles put it like
this. The Apostle Paul wrote, He who
knew no sin. He knew no sin by experience. The Apostle Peter said, He who
did no sin. And the Apostle John, he wrote,
He in him was no sin. Clean. Clean. Pure. Sinless. Had to be sinless to
be accepted, didn't it? Alright, number three. The birds
had to be alive. And isn't this to picture to
us that Christ is life? He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. In another place he said, for
as the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to
have life in himself. That is, as a mediator, as a
servant of Jehovah, God gave him, the God-man, life in himself
to give life to others. He, as a mediator, is given to
have life in himself. And remember this, he said, because
I live, you shall live also. Because I live, I'm the head,
you're members of my body. Because I live, you shall live
also. And number four, cedar wood. Now isn't that a picture of Christ's
human nature? Cedar wood is considered to be
incorruptible wood, isn't it? People make a cedar chest and
it lasts for a long time. Solomon built that palace of
his out of cedar. Cedar is considered a wood that
is incorruptible. And the Lord's body, think about
this, His body saw no corruption. His body, now my body, your body,
just as soon as the soul leaves, just as soon as the spirit leaves,
this body is going to begin to be corrupted. Why? Because of sin, that's why. The
Lord Jesus Christ, His body lay in the tomb from from the time
it was taken down from the cross until that first day of the week
when he came out of the grave, and yet Peter on the day of Pentecost,
he said he saw no corruption. It wasn't possible. Why? He had no sin, incorruptible. And then cedar wood, it smells
good, doesn't it? People like to line their closets
with cedar, I guess, and people make cedar chests. And why? Just
for the aroma. It smells well. And this certainly
reminds us of what the Apostle Paul wrote concerning Christ.
He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling savor. And then number four, the scarlet
and the hyssop. Surely this pictures the blood
sprinkled. The hyssop would be used to sprinkle
the blood, but the scarlet pictures the hyssop. We would think about
Rahab. Remember Rahab was commanded
by those spies to put that scarlet thread, let it out of your window. And when the wall, this large
city of Jericho, when the walls come down, That scarlet thread,
that part of the wall is not going to fall. And everyone in
that place will be saved. Why? It's a picture of the blood,
isn't it? The blood applied, the blood
sprinkled. All right, the second thing.
So that's the first thing. This man, he would see that the
priest commanded to take two birds and clean, two birds alive
rather, and clean and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. Number two, he would see that
the priest commanded the birds to be killed. The birds to be
killed. The law there reads that one
bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. I
said the birds, no, one bird. He saw that the priest commanded
one bird to be killed. and it was killed over a vessel
that contained water. In scripture, of course, an earthen
vessel we know represents a man's body, and we know that Christ,
he was crucified in the flesh, but there was water in that vessel,
and the blood from the bird that was slain would fall into that
receptacle, and so we would have blood as well as water. And this, I think, may picture
to us that Christ's pierced side, when that Roman soldier took
that spear and thrust it into the side of Christ, John tells
us that blood and water flowed out. And in that order, right?
Blood and water. Blood to justify. Water to sanctify. And the third,
the last, no, not the last, but the third thing, he would see
the priest take the living bird. Now, one bird has been killed
and its blood has been caught in that vessel with water. The
priest would then take the living bird, and the cedar, and the
scarlet, and the hyssop, and he would dip all of that down
into that vessel, in that earthen vessel. Then he would see the
priest with the hyssop, sprinkled blood and water on himself. Seven
times the priest would sprinkle blood and water on this man who
had been cleansed of his leprosy. And then he would hear the priest
pronounce him clean, clean. Oh, don't you know, don't you
know that was something to hear? This man who'd had leprosy, full
of leprosy, been put out of the camp, lived apart, Now he hears
the priest say, clean, clean. And this reminds us that it is
the blood of Christ crucified for our sins that cleanses us
from all sin. The bird had to be slain. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And the
last thing, the fourth thing, This man would see that priest,
after he had sprinkled him with the blood and water seven times,
he would see that priest take that living bird that had been
dipped down into the water and the blood also and turn it loose,
set it loose. You know what a bird does when
it's turned loose? It flies up, doesn't it? What
a picture, right? Of the resurrection and the ascension
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, he was crucified. He died for our sins. He was
buried. But he arose on the third day. And after 40 days, he ascended
back to the Father. And something else. When that
man saw that bird loosed, he realized, I'm free. That bird's free. Fly where it
will, the bird's free. So I'm free. What a picture,
right, of how the Lord Jesus Christ saves us from our sins. Those of us who trust in him
as our Lord and Savior. Washes us with his precious blood
and sets us free. Free to serve him. to live for
Him, to worship Him, and to honor Him. Well, I pray that the Lord
would bless these words and these thoughts to all of us here tonight.
What a wonderful picture, as we have so many in the Scripture
of Christ. Let's sing a verse or two, David,
of a hymn.