The Leprosy of Sin

Introduction

Matthew 8:1–4 KJV 1900

When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Holiness is a moral and ethical wholeness or perfection

-God’s Holiness is perfection

-The Hebrew word for holiness implies to be

+Sanctified and to be set apart for a devine service

Uncleaness as used in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 means:

-impure, immorality, filth, defilement, foolish, declared to be void, and considered to be invalid.

ALL SIN IS UNCLEANESS

The Characteristics of Sin

Leviticus 13

1. It’s deeper than the skin

Leviticus 13:3 “And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.”

The problem lies within sinful human nature.

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Our wicked flesh is the source of many of our troubles.

Sinners cannot be changed by surface remedies.

-The need a changed heart and a changed mind

-Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

-Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

-Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.”

2. It Spreads

Leviticus 13:7 “But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again:”

Leprosy was not an Isolated sore, it had a way of spreading and defiling the whole body.

Just like sin. What may start out as a thought, turns into a desire, then an act, then a terrible result!

-James 1:13–15 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

-Bring every thought into Captivity!

+2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

ii. 2 Samuel 11 is a perfect picture of this!

-When David should have been fighting, he allowed his eyes to wonder, he lusted, he committed adultery, he lied, and he got Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, drunk, then killed.

3. It Defiles

Leviticus 13:44–46 “He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”

This of course means ceremonial defilement.

Lepers were not allowed to take part in any religious services.

-They were forced to mark themselves as lepers and to cry “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!” to warn people around them.

-anyone who touched a leper was also defiled

+this is some of the tragedies of sin, it defiles:

the mind

the heart

the body

and all that it touches

-one sinner can defile a whole household

+Achan in Joshua 7

4. It Isolates

Leviticus 13:46 “All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”

“He shall dwell alone” what sad words

They were placed outside the camp in a place of isolation

Sin always Isolates

-Any time you’ve every backslid on God, have you ever felt distant from your family? your friends? your church?

iii. What was it that Christ said when he bore the sins of the world?

-“Why have You forsaken me?”

5. It is only fit for the Fire

Leviticus 13:52“He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in woollen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.”

Any garment that was found to be defiled with leprosy was to be burned

There is only one place that sin it fit for… its the fires of judgment

people may laugh at sin, excuse sin, or even try to explain it away

-But to God sin is serious

The Cleansing of the Sinner (Lev. 14)

1. The priest goes to the leper

Leviticus 14:3 “And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;”

2. The priest offers the sacrifices

Leviticus 14:4–7 “Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”

3. The leper washes and waits

Leviticus 14:8–9 “And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.”

4. The leper offers the sacrifices

Leviticus 14:10–13 “And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil. And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy:”

5. The priest applies the blood and oil

Leviticus 14:14–20 KJV 1900

And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord: And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering: And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering: And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

-Oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit

Job 14:4 “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.”

Close

Jesus Healing the Leper

Matthew 8:1–4 “When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”

1. The Leper

-made to live in isolation and if in public to yell “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”

2. The Lord

-he made the sacrifice and hes waiting on you!

3. The Cleansing

JESUS IS THE HIGH PRIEST!!!!!

JESUS CAME TO WHERE YOU ARE

OFFERED A SACRIFICE THAT NO ONE COULD EVER FATHOM

YOU’VE TRIED TO CLEAN YOURSELF UP AND HAVE BEEN WAITING

YOU’VE SACRIFICED YOUR TIME AND EFFORT

JESUS IS JUST WAITING TO APPLY THE BLOOD AND FILL YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST!!!!!