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Until the security at Walmart chases you down and tackles you, if you think about that too much it might bother us, I guess you'd say. A lot of ground to cover today and we're going to actually do so very briefly. It's a survey of Leviticus chapter 13 and 14. There's a lot of material here, I'm going to condense it dramatically and just boil it down to certain principles that I think we need to look at. It's fashionable these days to dismiss the idea that Leviticus 13 and 14 describe the disease that's known now as Hansen's disease or leprosy. Yet when we read this with attention we realize that Leviticus deals with a variety of skin diseases. It's not just what we would call leprosy or Hansen's disease, but it's a variety of skin diseases which includes the disease known as Hansen's disease. The truth is that the only reason these skin diseases are categorized under the name leprosy is because the Hebrew word serat was translated in the Septuagint by the term lepra, which was later used to describe Hansen's disease but was not the intention of the writer, was not the intention of the inspired text that is simply supposed to mean serious skin disease, the Hebrew term does, or malignant skin disease. So if we were to translate serat properly it would be something of that sort rather than just the term leprosy. Therefore the disease that is commonly known as leprosy or more specifically as Hansen's disease would certainly be considered within this legislation but is not the terminus of what the text is talking about. The symptoms described here are varied and the point is that all of them render a person unclean, that is the idea. They do of course apply to the outward symptoms of Hansen's disease. Now although this mosaic legislation had a very practical application in the control of infectious skin disease, we need to understand that the principles contained here have a much more profound application in the spiritual realm. It is typical to consider leprosy a metaphor for sin and that is a legitimate understanding of the symbolic meaning of this text. But in order to get to that we need to first glance at the practical sense that the original readers would have understood when they read this or were told these particular rituals and laws and legislation. In the end it is also true of course that we can make use of the mosaic legislation in a spiritual sense or a spiritual application. Indeed I would say that we can feel confident in making an application in both the physical and spiritual realm. In other words it is legitimate according to this text for the civil government, civil authorities to enact laws of quarantine based upon what we see here in Leviticus 13 and 14. In addition it is legitimate for ecclesiastical authorities to look at this portion of the Bible and make application in the spiritual realm as well. So it is not just about health and hygiene, it also has some application or more profound perhaps we can say application in the spiritual realm. There is something else we need to understand when we read this. Skin in the Bible is predominantly an image of human frailty, vulnerability, subject to disease and physical suffering and I think that is because the skin is a visible organ that is most subject to decay and disease. No other aspect of the human person so clearly is affected by the ravages of this world that we live in through injury or disease. We might say that in Leviticus 13 and 14 this preoccupation with skin conjures up an image of terror in that the inability of the person to protect himself or cure himself is seen in a dramatic fashion when we look at what we call leprosy here or just these malignant skin diseases. Therefore we are reminded that sin is a deadly disease and that we as human beings are very vulnerable to that disease. I am not going to read the entire section of scripture, we are going to look at the first several verses of chapter 13 and then we will dip into this I guess we can say as we continue through our examination of these two chapters but to read the entire section 13 and 14 would be too lengthy for our purposes this morning. Let me begin with chapter 13 verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said when a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab or a bright spot and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore and there is where we see the Hebrew Seraat and again just a malignant skin disease, some sort of serious skin disease. Then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priest. The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body and if the hair on the sore is turned white, the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, it is a leprous sore. The priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean but if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body and does not appear to be deeper than the skin and the hair is not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. In verse 5, the priest shall examine him on the seventh day and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was and has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. Then the priest shall examine him on the seventh day and indeed if the sore has faded, has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is only a scab and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scab should at all spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. And if the priest sees that the scab is indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy. Heavenly Father, this portion of Leviticus may seem strange to us, it may seem without any real use in the modern world and yet Lord God we learn things that are obviously valuable in the sense of quarantine and in health and so forth. But also Lord God we see a picture here of sin and what it does to our soul. Lord I pray that you will give us wisdom as we look through this portion of scripture that you will enable me to speak what you placed in my heart. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. We should also note that this isn't supposed to be written in medical or scientific terms, scab, bright spots, swelling, etc. If you read through the entire portion, you see a lot of very indefinite terms. And again, it's supposed to guide the priest, not supposed to be a medical journal, but it does include, as we mentioned, what is known as Hansen's disease and another, I should say other varieties of skin disease. So what we are going to look at, what we are going to see here is that this portion of scripture talks about the infection, the skin disease, it talks about the determination, what the priest is supposed to do and then interestingly enough it talks about resurrection. Infection, determination, resurrection is what actually takes place. Again, there is a wide variety of skin diseases that are covered here, even some sort of a persistent mold or mildew in a garment or a house is also covered under this law of leprosy and those things obviously are not skin diseases. So we see that this Hebrew word again, seirat, was not limited as a medical term, it just covered a wide variety of corrupting process, fungus, skin disease, whatever it might be and of course this would include what is known as leprosy today, Hansen's disease. On the person, if we read through this, you will see that it's not just that they would have some kind of a blemish, but it would be a persistent blemish that would go deeper than the skin and then begin to spread. It could be a white look to the skin, it could be an open sore, a scab, a swelling, and so forth. So it covered a lot of different diseases, a lot of different complaints of the skin, but the point was that it would be something, either a spreading scab, a bright spot, a white area, the rawness of the skin, something deeper than just the surface that would grow worse in time and that was really the key issue here. On the person, whatever it was that the priest would see, and by the way the way this would be initiated is that the person would call for the priest and say I think I've got something going on here, some sort of a leprous disease and I need your determination. So the infection would be examined by the priest, maybe it was a neighbor who didn't like the loud tambourine playing that this particular person would indulge in every Sabbath evening, I don't know what it was, and so he might say hey would you priest come and look at this guy, I think he's got a sore or something. So it could be anyone actually who might say that this person needs to be looked at or examined and see if there is some kind of a leprous skin disease going on here. In the case of a garment, and this would be in this text as well, there would be a reddish or greenish mildew that was growing and it says in the warp or the woof, the reason that it mentions that probably is because in that culture there might be times where, and you understand what that means, you have the threads running one way and the other, they would sometimes use different types of material. Always would be either wool or linen, but it might be the wool from two different types of animals or whatever, and sometimes there would be a mold or mildew that would attack only one kind of material. So the point is that if they saw it at any point, at any place in the garment, a woven garment or a leather garment, any time they saw this they would have the priest examine it and if it looked like it was something that was spreading they would wash the garment, set it aside, and there is a whole process that they would go through to see if this garment had a leprous infection. And again that's a broad term. It would even affect a house. A house might have a reddish or greenish coloring, a mold or mildew that was deep in the wall and spreading. And again in each case it always has to be a persistent mold or mildew or skin disease. Something that spreads and something that cannot be gotten rid of. In the case of the house, they would scrub it out, scrape off the plaster, replace the stones, and if it came back then the house would have to be destroyed. And again the garment, if it was not, once they cut out that portion of the garment, if it came back it would be destroyed as well. In each case you have something that is abnormal. You have a skin problem that is not normal. You have a garment that has mold or mildew that you cannot get rid of. You have a house that is infested with a mold or mildew or fungus, whatever it might be, that you cannot get rid of. And so it's abnormal. Remember to be clean is to be normal. And to be holy is to be someone who is normal that is set apart. So in this case we have an expression of abnormality because of this disease, this leprosy on the skin or a leprous mold, I guess we could call it, in the garment or the house. It's spreading and growing worse. The priest is the one who has to examine this. And I should mention, it's intruding on my thoughts, I'm going to go ahead and mention this. We did talk about this, I think it was last time we looked at Leviticus, that Leviticus takes the third place in the covenant sequence, which is the law. And interestingly enough we can also break down a portion, this portion of Leviticus. And this legislation, the 13th and 14th chapter of Leviticus, also deals with law. And as we're going to see, it's significant because what we find is that leprosy, eventually, we'll get to this point, the person who is leprous or the house that has been declared leprous and then cured or healed by God, is required to bring, in the case of the person, a reparation offering, as if he stole something. And the point is that leprosy steals from God, steals this man from God, steals his ability to worship and to serve God, because he is, we'll see in a moment, separated. So the priest comes, looks things over, in each case, whether it be a human being, whether it be a garment or a house, and yes there's a practical application, it has to do with health and hygiene, you don't want someone wandering around the community who has some kind of a disease that everyone's going to catch and render them unclean. But this is, I think, more specifically, has a spiritual application. One of the reasons I think that is because, we will look at it in a moment, but there's a point in this sequence where if the person is covered from head to foot, actually head to foot, I made my motions backwards, head to toe, in a white flaky leprosy, he is actually considered clean, and we'll get to a point when we talk about that in a minute. But in the meantime, if the person is covered from head to foot, he is considered clean. So in the meantime, what I want you to see is that this, and if you read through this, and I hope you have or will read through Leviticus 13 and 14, to see the great detail that is given here concerning this leprous infection, what the priest had to look for, what was considered unclean and what was considered okay. Not necessarily normal, but I guess it would be normal in the sense that it wasn't unclean, it was clean. So I do encourage you to read through Leviticus 13 and 14 if you haven't already done that. The second thing that we want to consider is the determination by the priest. In verse 44, the 43 of chapter 13, then the priest will examine it, meaning the condition of the skin and indeed of the swelling of the sore's reddish white on his bald head, and this is specifically with someone who has lost their hair, bald forehead, appearance of the skin of leprosy. He is a leprous man. He's unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean. His sore is on his head, the leper on whom the sore is close shall be torn and his head bare. He shall cover his mustache and cry unclean, unclean, and he shall be unclean all the days that he is a sore. And he shall be unclean and dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. So the determination is made by the priest, not just in the case in this particular situation. As I said, there is a lot of detail here. I was talking about somebody who had lost their hair and losing their hair, it actually says is not unclean, which is good news because I'm doing that myself. But if there happened to be a sore or some sort of an open raw place or whatever, then the priest would examine that and make a determination. In some cases, though, there would be a problem with the skin that was not leprosy. And so the priest would have to have enough knowledge to be able to look at that and make that decision. There was a determination. He would have to be able to know, is this leprosy or is it not? And we might think, well, that's kind of subjective. And the answer is no, it's not. If you study the text, and this is one reason I'd like you to read this at some point, because it does have ramifications for our understanding of what is sin and what is not. It isn't that hard. There's a lot of detail here, but it would be easy, for instance, to make a list of what is and what is not clean and unclean and so forth. But if he's determined, if the priest determines that someone is unclean, then as we read, they have to tear their clothing, mess their hair up, cover their face and cry out unclean. Really what they're doing is they're going around and mourning. They are acting as someone who is mourning for the dead and the person they're mourning for is their own self. They're mourning for their own death. Indeed, what we have here is, in the case of a leper, we have the walking dead. They are cut off from Israel. They can no longer worship in the sanctuary. They can't fellowship with other fellow Israelites. There weren't leper colonies, per se. And remember in Ben-Hur, when his sister and mother are in this cavern, in a leper colony, that was not necessarily part of the Mosaic legislation. That did come about. But if you read the New Testament, though, you'll see that the lepers were out in the open. They saw Jesus Christ, for instance. In this case we read from Luke, the man saw Christ, was able to actually have access to him, and Jesus, in fact, touched him and healed him. The ten lepers who stood at a distance and cried out to Christ and said, please heal us. So they didn't, the Mosaic law didn't require a leper colony per se. They were supposed to live apart from the people though and not intermingle with others because again if they did they would be rendering other people unclean. So they're like walking dead. They're mourning their own death. It's kind of like a zombie existence. We don't know to what degree they were allowed to participate in normal commerce. In some cases, in the case of Naaman for instance, he was not an Israelite but the view concerning leprosy was rather common. He was a commander of the army, the Syrian army. So it didn't keep him from being part of what was going on at least in that culture. However, when we read in Leviticus it seems pretty clear that these people were completely separated and that even their interaction in day-to-day commerce and so forth would be dramatically limited. Now there's one exception to this I mentioned earlier. I want to read that to you right now. Leviticus 13, 12. If leprosy breaks out all over the skin and the leprosy covers all over all of the skin, excuse me, of the one who has the sore from his head to his foot wherever the priest looks, the priest shall consider and indeed if the leprosy has covered all his body he shall pronounce him clean who has a sore. It's all turned white. He's clean. You think, oh good grief, he's completely infected. How could he be clean? From head to toe he's got this leprosy all over him or this skin disease and again we don't know what all of the variety of diseases that are brought under this particular term say Xera'at. We don't know what they all were but psoriasis or something we don't know but he's totally covered with it. Why would he be considered clean? Well the reason is because he's wholly consumed. He's turned to dust and ashes. It's as if he had been placed on the altar and completely burned up and offered up to the Lord. Remember in the whole burnt offering the Hebrew term means going up is really what it means. That someone who places the offering there is sending up to God this offering and in a sense, in a symbolic sense, that's what's happened with this person. They have been wholly consumed and they are now just dust and ashes. They have this white flakiness from head to foot and completely covered with this disease. So they're no longer walking dead, they are completely dead and because they're completely dead they can then come back into fellowship. Now if this was merely or purely I should say hygiene and health that is considered here, that wouldn't be the case. You wouldn't let somebody back into the community who was covered with some kind of a disease. There may be some skin disease, I'm not a medical professional, that is suddenly non-infectious if it covers your entire body. I don't know that and I don't think that this was particularly the case or particularly the issue in this case. What we are told here is that this law is not all about health and hygiene but it is about the spiritual condition of the person and yes it has very practical application to Israel for health and hygiene but this text here reminds us that one who is wholly consumed and offered up to God is indeed clean and holy and so this person would have to go through the process of sacrifice that we'll talk about in just a minute but he has died, he has been fully consumed, he is a proper sacrifice that has been wholly given over to God. Not cured you might say but in a sense destroyed, not cured but rendered completely dead. Now in the sense in the place of the garment by the way when the priest makes the determination he would likewise look at this and there would be an isolation and we already talked about that but one of the things I want to mention, well I guess we'll get to that in just a minute here. The third thing we see is that there is a process of I guess we can call resurrection. Sometimes God heals, sometimes God brings this leprous complaint to a conclusion and the person is no longer considered infectious. It could be the case as if you read through here you see that the priest will examine the sore and if it's scabbed over, no longer spreading, no longer a running sore then he is no longer considered infectious and he's called clean. In any case the person would request that the priest come out and make an examination and that's when the determination would be made. That can also be the case of the ravaging mold or mildew in the garment or the house and if there's the, on the case of the single person, the individual, if they think they're healed all they have to do is call for the priest and he comes and examines him and if he declares him clean there's an interesting ritual beginning in verse 1 of chapter 14 that he must take part of. I'm not going to read all of this, read a little bit. The Lord spoke to Moses, verse 1, and said this will be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest. The priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall examine him and indeed if the leprosy is healed with the leper then the priest shall command to take him who is to be cleansed to take for him two living and clean birds, cedarwood, scarlet, and hyssop. And then what happens is the one bird is killed over an earthen vessel with running water which is not real clear as to, if you read the text there, the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. It's not real clear exactly what that means other than that the vessel is supposed to capture the blood, we know that, but whether it means running water through the vessel or in the presence of running water which would be living water they would call them, it's not entirely clear. The real point though is that once that blood has been captured the clean bird, the scarlet, probably a scarlet thread, it doesn't say, the hyssop and the cedarwood are all grasped apparently in the hand of the priest and then dipped altogether, the bird and the other articles, into that blood and then sprinkled on the person who's been declared clean seven times. Now we have the bird who's still alive dipped in the blood along with the cedarwood, the scarlet, and the hyssop and again the scarlet, it doesn't say if it's a thread or whatever it is, but I'm assuming it's some kind of a thread. There is no indication as to whether it be a large piece of cloth or whatever, I'm assuming a thread. But they're dipped in this blood and then sprinkled seven times on the person who's declared clean and then the bird is set free, the living bird is set free and he's going to have blood on him when he flies away. This is a rather interesting, a very interesting ritual that has some connections to other ritual in the life of Israel. When you think of the hyssop, what is the first thing you think of? Hyssop and blood. And what you should think of is the Passover because remember on the day of Passover when the Israelites were in Egypt they were told to slaughter the lamb, take a bunch of hyssop and strike the doorpost and the lintel of the houses wherein they were living so that the angel of death would pass over them. So there's a connection there with the application of blood as a means of protection. And so this use of hyssop in this ritual would draw the mind of the person who's cleansed, would draw the minds of these Israelites back to the Passover and how God had protected them, how he had not killed them but had passed over them and spared their lives. And that's what's happening here. Remember this man is walking dead until this process of being declared clean takes place. He's like dead. And so there's a connection between the blood of the lamb of Passover and how it was applied to the house and a connection here with this man who's declared clean. There's also on the Day of Atonement as you recall there would be among other sacrifices two goats. One would be sacrificed, the other would be let go in the chaos of wilderness with the sins of Israel placed on his head and he would be released into the wilderness. We see something like that here. In this case the bird, one of them, killed and the other bird set free so that like the goat would be taking with it the sins of this one who's cleansed, who would be removing from the presence of this man or this woman this sickness and this disease. And so the bird would be flying away taking that with him or it should say. So there's a tie-in with the Day of Atonement as well. Not unlike also on the Day of Atonement there would be sprinkling of blood seven times and that would be on the mercy seat which would remind God as he looked down so to speak at the blood on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant and he would see that blood and be reminded that yes I am not going to bring judgment for the sins of these people. Because he's looking at the law if you will there in the Ark of the Covenant but this blood reminds him although they have transgressed the law I will forestall judgment and one day I will wipe clean their sins with the blood of the Messiah. And so there's a seven sprinkling this time seven times sprinkling with the blood and so we see some tie-in with some of the other ritual in the life of Israel and how there is a connection. It's interesting that the leprous house would likewise have a sacrifice made on his behalf and that's rather strange if we think about that too much it might bother us I guess you'd say because the house itself is actually atoned for says in Leviticus 1453. In fact let's turn to there real quick cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and a living bird with the cedar wood the hyssop and the scarlet sprinkling the house seven times just like the leper the man let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field and make atonement for the house and it shall be clean. What this reminds us is that God's interest is not in the soul of man alone but in all of creation for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son God so loved the world and the Greek term there in John 3 16 is cosmos it's the whole of creation. Colossians 1 19 20 says that Jesus Christ his work was that of reconciling all things back to the Father in heaven and so one of the things that this tells us is that God is concerned with not only the human person and his spiritual self but with the works of his hands and so he redeems he actually atones for this house actually redeems this house actually reconciles this this created thing this thing that mankind has made reconciles it back to himself through the work through the ritual of cleansing and sacrifice so once this happens though in the case back to the leper once this ritual has taken place there's a couple of the steps that he must take and if you look at the scripture you see that he comes into the camp after he has shaved his hair all of his hair changed his clothes washed his clothes himself in water comes to the camp and he stays at his tent outside of his tent for seven days on the eighth day which is the day of resurrection he takes two male lambs without blemish verse 10 of chapter 14 a ewe lamb of the first year without blemish three-tenths of a fine flour oil so forth and verse 12 the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass or reparation offering and a log of oil and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord so he is making this offering that says I owe somebody something I stole from somebody that's what the reparation offering is about and I said earlier that what was what was stolen was the life of this person leprosy had stolen him away from God he could not come to the tabernacle he could not participate in the normal intercourse of the Israelite community but instead he was stolen away from that and so he is required to bring this this reparation offering which at first glance seems a little odd until we realize that that's exactly what this is about he had been stolen away and he must make repayment and it has to be this lamb and because of the the cost of what he had done can only be equaled by this lamb this would also be the case by the way with the person who was covered from head to foot with some sort of a leprous disease and the priest would decide that he was clean at that point he would still have to go through this same ritual there is then blood placed on his ear his right thumb and his right big toe which is again a little bit unusual because that's what they would do with the priest when he's being consecrated to the service of God and again what we see is that this person is being brought back into the fellowship of this kingdom of priests that God said he was establishing he was once dead he's now made alive again the significance of the 8th day same reason that the child was circumcised on the 8th day he would be grafted into in this case you'd be re-grafted back into the church like the newborn baby and be made re-animated I guess we could say would be made alive so the the oil and the blood both on the on the right here thumb and toe the anointing of the spirit the anointing for the work of the kingdom brought back into the fellowship of Israel that he might be part of this kingdom of priests and then the burnt offering would follow that and the grain offering as per usual and he's restored at that point I guess we could say he's resurrected and that's the significance of the 8th day again that these rituals would take place on what became to be known I should say as the Lord's Day in the day which we worship let's make some application here this is a lot of I've skimmed it actually and there's a lot of material here a lot of detail that we don't need to go into today so let me make some application when we think of this in terms of sin and we're not going to deal with quarantine laws and so forth in this modern age but when we think about in terms of sin and the corruption that it brings to our lives the first thing I think we might want to consider is the question what are the symptoms of a leprous sin if you will in our life what should we look for the priest was supposed to look for certain complaints to the skin and so forth but what do we look for when we want to discover whether we have a leprous corruption of sin in our life now those who aren't born again it's obvious they they don't have Jesus Christ they're consumed by sin whether they act like it or not they're on the road to hell and without Jesus Christ there's no way that they can turn back from them they need to understand the need for repentance and the need for salvation in Jesus Christ for a sacrifice on their behalf that there is salvation in Jesus only and so on we're not going to get into the detail on that let's talk about us as Christians what kind of symptoms should we look for if we think that perhaps we have a leprous condition when concerning sin well one of the symptoms would be a disinterest in the things of God if you are being overcome by leprous sin and I'm going to use that term so you get the idea that it's something that's corrosive and spreading it doesn't sit there and and do nothing it will consume you one of these symptoms would be a disinterest in the things of God it's not that important for you to come to church reading the Bible is a chore prayer is something that is difficult to do I'm not saying that on the days that you're worn out or something or you've just had a bad day I'm talking about persistent you just don't care that much anymore about the things of the kingdom they're just not that important to you maybe they never were and you're wondering why well this would be an indication of a leprous corruption a a sin that is corroding your soul a disinterest in the things of God another one would be an embarrassment concerning your relationship with Jesus Christ you're embarrassed concerning the faith I know it's hard sometimes to speak up when you have opportunity or you feel an obligation for instance somebody might say something about Christ or about the faith and it might be hard sometimes to speak up but if there is this undercurrent of embarrassment. You don't really want to be identified with Jesus Christ because it's an embarrassment to you. Then that might be a sign that you are dealing with a leprous condition, a corruption of sin in your heart. It's an embarrassment concerning the faith. Another symptom would be a complaining attitude. Now that's a sin itself, if you happen to read the article in this week's paper, but it's also a symptom of deeper sin. The reason that's the case is because if we have some sin, let's say we have a persistent sin of we're thieves, and we find that when we go down to Walmart, we always want to steal something. I'm just using this as maybe a wild example. But there's a persistence there to sin in this particular case. There's a corruption there. Well, that might not be known to people until the security at Walmart chases you down and tackles you and duct tapes your hand to the post there. I don't know if you've seen the new Walmart, but when you walk in, there's a post. No, that's not related. People may never know that you are a thief, but that hidden corruption will sometimes show itself in a complaining attitude. Now, the complaining is a sin itself. I'm not saying it isn't. But sometimes that's a symptom of something deeper. So if you have this symptom of complaining, you have that problem, but you also may have a symptom that this is showing, something that there is a deeper sin there. So if that's present, you might consider that an indication of this corruption. Another symptom would be that you rarely think about the kingdom way. When you're confronted with something in life, when you are making decisions, when you're interacting with other people, you don't think about the kingdom way of doing things. You just go about your merry way and do things as you see fit, pragmatic or whatever. But you don't think about the kingdom way and you act without the Spirit of God in your life. Another symptom would be that you drag others down with you. You pull others into sin. Paul says that bad company corrupts good morals. And if you have the leprosy of sin in your life, you're going to begin to pull others into sin with you. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it's not so obvious. I'm not talking about drinking and carousing and taking drugs and so forth necessarily. It might be something much less obvious than that. It might be pulling others into this embarrassment or this disinterest in the things of the Lord such as church and fellowship and so forth. So if you begin to drag others into you, infect them with this leprosy of sin, that's another symptom that you're dealing with a deep-seated corruption. And then of course if there's increasing sin in your life, if there's a continual desire to do what is wrong that you must satisfy, you feel, then that increasing sin, that spreading sin, that corruption, that leprous condition is again being manifest in this fashion. So in any case, these things, these symptoms of this infection if we can use the term, are we need to be aware of them. We need to see them. We need to also realize that they're incurable without Jesus Christ. We can't do anything about this in our own strength. And I also want to mention this is another thought intruding. All of us deal with sin. I'm not suggesting that you have to be sinless. I'm not suggesting that if you ever complain and you're on the road to hell that you are so corrupt with a leprous sin that there's no hope for you because all of us deal with sin. All of us have specific areas in our life that are more difficult than others. It depends on our character and personality sometimes. The difference is that the person who is being overcome by the leprosy of sin does not do battle against them, against these symptoms I should say and against the disease itself. Those who are still battling, those who are still working to overcome sin are not in the same condition. They're overcoming. They are not surrendering. Those who do surrender though eventually end up dead. The second point of application would be that if you continue the sin you do die. The leprosy of sin will kill you. Does this mean that you lose your salvation? No, it means that you were never saved in the first place because if you're willing to allow sin to continue to grow and to work as corruption in your life then that would be evidence that you are not actually born again. It would be evidence that you have never turned your life over to Jesus Christ. If you feel that, well, it's not that big of a deal. I'm going to be a Christian in name only. Then you are spiritually dead. If you're satisfied with sin in your life then you cannot be truly saved. Nevertheless, even believers can be weighed down and made less effective. Hebrews 12.1 The sin that so easily ensnares us and entangles us and weighs us down. We can be tangled up in sin and we can find that it does work a death in our life. Not to a loss of salvation but we will find that there is a gap that opens up between us and the Lord. We no longer have the kind of fellowship we should have. We don't have the sense of His presence. We don't appreciate the presence of other believers. And so there is a death that begins to work in our life that must be arrested and reversed but it can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the last thing I want to look at here as we make application is this idea of resurrection. Obviously those who are unsaved are born again. They are resurrected in that case, in that sense I should say. But a Christian can also be resurrected. I'm not talking about on the last day when we all rise but I'm talking about the very simple fact that if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And it is a kind of you might say a sense of resurrection. We return from this place of the dead. We return from this place where fellowship has been severed and we are brought back into fellowship with the Lord God. It's really not that difficult. It's not something that requires this ritual because the sacrifice has been made. It doesn't require all these elaborate things to happen. It's simply coming to the Lord with a repentant heart and saying, Lord, I'm dealing with this particular leprous sin and I need to have it eradicated. I need to have you do something here in my life. Again, it's not that we just sit back and say, Lord, you do it, but we also have the responsibility to free ourselves of this leprous corruption through the cultivation of the new creation. That's how we remain free. That's how we remain healthy and vital in a spiritual sense because if you are building your spiritual muscle, if you're taking your spiritual vitamins, you're in the Word and you're in fellowship, you're in prayer, you are seeking after the Lord God and you are growing in strength, growing from glory to glory, from strength to strength, you will then be able to withstand the onslaught of temptation and sin. And it's not just the personal aspect either. It's all of life. If we allow our arena of activity to become corrupted with the leprosy of sin, then we will expect, we should expect, that eventually it's going to reach us as well. When we see in Leviticus the house that is cleansed and atoned for, it reminds us that our sphere of influence must likewise be under the authority of Jesus Christ and we cannot allow things to intrude into that arena of activity that will then eventually work their way inward, if we can use the term, and find ourselves overcome by the mold and mildew of sin that is corrupting our arena of activity. So, when we look at this portion of Scripture, we're reminded that Leviticus, as with all of the Scripture, finds its conclusion, finds its fulfillment in the work of Jesus Christ. Now, we don't know how common serious skin disease was in ancient Israel, but one thing we do know for sure, that sin is an ever-present danger for the Christian. We cannot ignore the presence of a leprous sore in our life. And we cannot ignore sin that is taking root in our heart. We must deal with it. Instead, we must commit ourselves to a daily examination of our spiritual condition. And so, if we discover persistent sin, we need to take immediate action. We need to repent, turn to the Lord, Jesus in prayer, asking for forgiveness. And then, if need be, we should shine a light on that corruption by asking for help from other believers. Once that sacrifice of Christ has been applied through repentance and prayer, we then must labor in the strength of the Lord to eradicate the disease. And this comes about as we cultivate a new creation so that we remain spiritually healthy and resistant to the disease of sin. So, in conclusion, I want to enjoin you to honestly examine your life, search out the corruption of sin, turn to Jesus for healing, and then live a life of victory in His strength. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ, the cleanse that is found in Jesus Christ, that can rid us of this leprous corruption. Amen. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 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