Four Types of Leprosy — Andy Brink

Good to see y 'all this morning. I know y 'all just came off of lockdown. So I'm sure it's good to move around a little bit and It's good to see you today. Well, I'll tell you what before we get started.

Let's just open up a prayer. And I know that God has set apart this morning. He set it apart for good. He set it apart to open up his Word. He's drawn us into this place. Because there's something he wants to communicate to each of our lives.

And each one of us sitting in this place. He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what your thoughts are. He knows what was going on this morning and yesterday. And it's by his grace that he's brought us in this place because he has something beyond what we even realize.

Let's pray together Father I just call on your name this morning, and I'm so grateful that you've allowed us to assemble to come together. And what I know that you have drawn men into this place from the north the south the east and the west.

By your Holy Spirit they have come in here. And what I know there may be many whose mind may have been in other places. But Lord, I ask you this morning to grab a hold of Lord to make yourself known in such a way that every one of us Recognizes the evidence of your presence.

We're right now in faith and because of the precious blood of Jesus. Well because of the resurrection and the empty tomb. And the promise of your word in Colossians 2 where you said you made a public display over the powers of darkness having triumphed over them in Christ.

And what I thank you that we don't walk by what we see, but we walk by what we don't see. So right now in the heavenlies in this place. I take authority over every work of darkness or scoffing all resistance to the word.

All religious spirits right now all oppression. Confusion. Lord that qual it's on the front of some of the men here on their mind. What I ask you to release that. And I pray that this morning you would give clarity.

To be able to hear and understand the Word of God last for an anointing and an inspiration God. I pray that your Holy Spirit would Flow through me in such a way that living the Word of God becomes living and active.

Powerful. Reaching to the very heart the inward places and God only you can do that. What I pray for the singing and the worship Lord that it would be led by your Holy Spirit. I pray for those that have been Downcast this morning that they would enter in by faith and choose with their heart to give thanks and to worship you.

Or demonstrate your power in this place and I pray for the salvation of the lost. I pray for the deliverance of the captives. What I pray that blind eyes would be opened that we would be able to see. And ears open that we'd be able to hear.

What I ask you to do that in Jesus name Amen well as We get ready to praise worship. Maybe you're coming in and asked how we're back in the family's doing and we're all doing well and babies healthy growing and strong and.

And so I thank you for your prayers and you guys ready to get started.

I know that that song is really special.

Because we need to be reminded that he's coming back for us and that there's resurrection power in our lives. And this last week we had a brother go through some things and. And he had stuffed and stuffed a lot of things down in his heart and there were a lot of walls because there'd been a lot of pain in his life and.

And God loved him and so he resurrected all those things in his little heart. And he caused them to come to the surface. So he could be healed and and he's being healed and I'll tell you God doesn't want those walls.

Because like Zechariah 2 says the reason these things these walls have to come down is so the glory of the Lord will be in the midst of you and so that he can be the wall about you with that protection and.

So we need to be reminded from time to time. He is resurrection power he is life and he's working life in us and through us all the time. And he's not just risen I mean he is risen and He is here to stay and here to stay in our hearts.

Did someone have a song.

Okay, okay number seven. Well, I don't know about you, but I've already been.

Ministered to and encouraged by this morning you know, we We're all walking through if you're going to walk with the Lord. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

But I tell you there's promised for each heart that desires to come after him there's trials there's testing there's there's Endurance and those things that you go through and it's funny in my world over this last week there's been a lot of different trials that have come up in my life and many different areas.

But it's like in last few days. God keeps saying praise him praise him. So trust him in faith. Well, once again just for my sake, let me let me just open up prayer again for getting the word Lord I just asked for your help this morning.

I Asked for your help to communicate the word. And Lord, I pray that you would so direct my mind and my spirit that you say the things that are important to you and that you help me to To distinguish and know your voice and I just ask you to do this Lord in Jesus name.

Jesus Cleanses the Leper as a Picture of Sin

Amen. Matthew chapter 8. I'm going to start in verse 1 and We're going to skip around to several different places. But I want to start off with this leper in Matthew chapter 8 verse 1 it says. And when he had come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him and Behold a leper came to him and bowed down to him saying Lord if you are willing you can make me clean and he stretched out his hand and he touched him saying I'm willing be cleansed and Immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him see that you tell no one.

But go show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded for the testimony to them. I'm going to share on different some different parts here. Matthew chapter 8. But as I was looking at that this first part in regard to the leopard I touched on it last time I was here there were some other thoughts that began to come to me and First of all without going into everything obviously leprosy in the scriptures is a picture of sin.

God always refers to it relationship to to our spiritual life and leprosy was a disease that began as a small like a rash or small circle and Then it would begin to affect their body and you would go to the priest and they would do things to See if that's really what it was and once they distinguished that what it was you had was leprosy you were isolated.

You were set aside. Maybe you've heard of leprous leprous leprosy colony leprosy leprosy leprosy leprosy. Colonies, you know, we really didn't have that as much in in America. There was a colony used to be in in Louisiana.

They used to have but but they had these Leprosy colonies where they were forced to stay outside the camp and and when they would come amongst the people. They had to holler out unclean unclean there were usually Sores, there was one of the things that leprosy would do is would kill your nerve endings.

You couldn't feel pain anymore. Sitting in this place there are men who can't feel pain you become numb to it and. The reason for that is is every one of us in this room, and I really I don't care who you are I don't care where you from.

I don't care what your background or what economic background or educational background everyone in this room. Everybody in this world was created for this sole purpose and that is to know and experience the love of God.

That's why you were made. That's why I was made. But because of sin and death when we come into this world, there's a spiritual enemy that we can't see. All right, everybody. Hold up. Just a minute. Everybody look up here.

Now, let me just say we've got for the most part a fairly new class a fairly new class a lot of new people. You know what guys? There's a lot of talking coming in time to visit time to share. Count time there's a lot of talking going out a lot of talking coming back in.

And I always try to end as much as possible by about 10 after. Sometimes 15 after this class didn't really finish till about half an hour after. There's a lot of time to visit and talk and I know there's going to be a little bit of whispering and sharing back and forth.

Let me tell you when you become an obstacle to everybody else around me and to me. And when there begins to be this this light roar all the way across the place. And I'm telling you right now. I Don't have any problem.

Asking the chaplain to come get a guard and to have somebody removed. I Don't want to do that. I want you to be a part of here and I know that not everybody here is born again and not everybody here for the Same reasons, but we're not going to have everybody in this place visiting and talking.

So you just need to know that for the front end now when we get back to this place of leprosy I Begin to consider to think about lots. There's one kind of leprosy, but there's several different kinds of lepers.

One of those lepers is a man Whose sores can be seen. But he can't see him. Anybody know like that anybody like that. It's like you can see in somebody else. Whether it's pride or an angry temper. Or something about their life, but they're completely blind to it.

Their eyes can't see they can't recognize Their own heart life. Look with me in Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. Look with me verse 20. It says wisdom shouts in the street. She lifts up her voice in the square at the head of the noisy street.

She cries out at the entrance of the gates in the city. She utters her sayings how long simple ones will you love simplicity and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate? Knowledge. I Think about that says a voice cries out.

And it's saying we're gonna see in a moment says turn to me. If you'll simply turn from where you're at and begin to seek me I In turn will pour my spirit out upon you and I will begin to make my words known to you.

But here's what happens as we continue on in Proverbs 1 Says behold, I will pour out my spirit on you and I will make my words known to you. But because I called and you refused I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention.

And you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof. I will even laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your dread comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind when distress and Anguish come upon you then they will call on me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently. But they will not finally find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof. I think about that for a moment.

See those are passages that are never read. Anybody heard that passage in church lately. But think about that. God says I lifted up my voice in the open square. I tried to get your attention. I Came and brought counsel.

I sent people into your life. You had a parent a grandparent somebody there that kept saying turn. But you neglected it wasn't important to you. Yeah, think about this. If I was to give you a choice today and I was to say I'm gonna let you have a choice I would give you this bucket Full of precious diamonds or this bucket full of water.

Now I'm gonna let you choose. Now that question is really an insult, isn't it? Every one of us in this room would choose the diamonds, but you know what guys you change the setting. And all of a sudden you've been walking through a desert.

For four days three days and there hasn't been any water. You've been walking under a blistering heat with no cover. Your lips are swollen and cracked. Your throat is dry. There's one thing you have that you need that you need to live and that's water and I stand before you as you're on the ground as you're Thriving and needing and gasping and and your throat is parched.

I ask you I want to give you a choice a bucket full of diamonds or a bucket full of water. You know, it's amazing that same question is an insult again to our intelligence. The diamonds aren't gonna do you any good.

You're dying. You're parched. And you know what guys Wisdom cries out. It says I want to make you an offer. I'm gonna make you an offer for living water. C10 bottom a visit. C10 bottom. And so that offer begins to be made.

But I hear in Proverbs 1 it says we spurn the counsel of God we resist the reproof from the correction of the Almighty. And he says there will come a day When you will so harden your heart against the voice of God.

That one day you will cry out and it says I will not listen. I don't know what point that is guys. But I'm gonna tell you what every one of us in this room will be held accountable for what you hear today.

And what you do with it if you remember last week or last time we were here. We talked about the wise and the foolish man. The wise man hears and takes he takes the heart the Word of God. The foolish man Discounts it he resists it.

He doesn't let it have place in his life. Hey guys, there's a storm coming. There's a storm coming that's going to reveal what it is we've been building with. He goes on in verse 29 because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

But he who listens to me shall live securely and shall be at ease from the dread of evil. You ever thought about the leprosy? That a man can't see. He's blind to it. Until God begins to open his eyes to it.

The destructiveness of his life the brokenness of Relationships. And yet we continue to do the same thing the same thing the same thing it did amazing. You know, I've told again I shared this last week, but I tell all my children really the only thing I watch sometimes is a football.

And you always have the commercials, you know with whether it's the beer or the wine or the vodka or whatever it is and the good-looking woman and and the party and all around. And Sam what's amazing?

I'm talking my son Sam. We listen to that message. We take it to heart. We live our life that way. Listen, if some of you knew the end result of the things that you had taken to heart. Would you really want to do it again?

If you knew the burned relationships and the broken family the scarred lives. Would you really want to do that same thing again? And yet like a dog we continue to come to it because our hearts are dark and we're blind.

We're driven by the powers of darkness. There's another world going on around us and every thought that comes into your head isn't just yours. Matter of fact look with me in Ephesians chapter 2. Some of you or some of us listen, I remember when I Began my journey of coming to the Lord.

I Don't remember hearing anybody. Maybe I just couldn't hear it ever teach on this and yet. It happens in all of our lives chapter 2 verse 1. It says and you were dead and your trespasses and sins every one of us dead and trespasses and sins a Leprosy that was eating us away on the inside that was killing the nerve endings of our life.

We could no longer feel pain. We came numb to life. You know why and that's what I started off just a second ago. We were all born for this purpose. It's to know the love of God. That's why you were created to have relationship with him.

But in the same way if love is our greatest need acceptance validation. Then there's nothing more painful than the pain of rejection and the moment you and I have come into this world. There were thoughts coming into your mind saying you're rejected.

Betrayals of people rejection of parents. My family loves the older son more than the younger or vice versa. There's always these things that begin to happen inwardly. I Know even with my oldest daughter already.

You know something begins to happen. All of a sudden we try to bring correction. You always take her side. Or maybe it's my younger son. In relationship to the older son. But these thoughts these these thoughts that come up here and they begin to say you're not loved.

And guys what happens because none of us I don't care who you are when you come into this world. Want to be rejected or betrayed? We begin the process of building these walls around us to protect us. Anybody ever said these words.

Nobody will ever do that to me again. Nobody will ever hurt me like that again. And The moment you did that you surrounded yourself with a castle so that you can no longer really feel or express or receive love.

Because in order to love you have to be vulnerable. And most of our relationships, I'll guarantee you all the way across this room are very shallow. There's really not a lot of depth to it. Because in order for there to be depth you have to let the walls come down.

And in order to wet the walls come down it gives somebody the ability to reject you or hurt you and you know what guys. Because we're all born in this world. We all have a way of rejecting each other even after we come to the Lord.

We say things we do things we we mistreat one another but I would tell you there's one and this is where love begins and it says you and I can't even Love truly until we first receive the love of God the more convinced we become of the fact that he loves us.

And guys the demonstration of the cross is for this reason. When it all narrows down to this it's because you were created to know love and the only way God is holy and perfect and Spotless could have relationship with us.

Was for there to be a sacrifice the the penalty. For the the law the sin and death had to be paid and he came into this world in order to take the full brunt Of the wrath of God not so that God could somehow say well if you'll just show up at church once a week.

No, the reason for it is for all man without a respecter of persons. God said if you'll trust me by faith I want to walk with you. I want to walk day by day as a friend walks with a friend. I Want you to distinguish and know my voice and guys I can't explain it to you.

Listen, I'm going through some trials right now in my life in a lot of different fronts a lot of different areas. And sitting right there in that chair some of the songs sung this morning. All I can tell you is that God was communicating to me and he was saying Andy Trust me.

Praise me. It's gonna be okay. Well, we're done look like it's gonna be okay. Don't live by what you say. Trust me. Trust me. I'm gonna tell you that's my friend. That's my lord. That's the God who saved me.

He's not distant or far away. He's right there involved and I want you to know he wants to be involved in every life here. And he says I'm crying out. I'm doing everything I can to get your attention.

I've even sent this nut with gray hair. To come in and share. To the word of the Lord. Ephesians 2 it says and you were dead in your trespasses and sins caught in leprosy. In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air.

The spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. Romans. Romans 6 says we are all slaves. You can't get away from that. You're either a slave of sin resulting in death. Or you're a slave of righteousness resulting in life and right here.

It says every one of us front row back row choir loft pulpit. We're formerly in darkness controlled by the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience those thoughts.

Listen, nobody had to teach me. I remember listen when I grew up. That's when they first came out with HBO. It was the first movie box office thing that came on television and you had these boxes on top of your television.

And you put your television on a certain channel and you switch the box over and you can watch movies. Listen nobody trained me in this but at one o 'clock in the morning on a Friday on a Saturday morning something would I'd wake up and Something start telling me.

If you quietly make your way that television turn it on turn the volume down real low so your parents won't hear. There's a lot of stuff that goes on on there. You know what happened almost every Saturday morning about one o 'clock as a young boy.

Boom, I'd wake up. These thoughts start going through my head. Who do you think it was? Do you think that was leading me into deeper places of bondage? I'm gonna tell you who it was. It's the same voice as you hear.

What's that voice you hear? That caused you to be up half a night with anger thinking about what somebody said. You can't even sleep at night. You're filled with rage thinking about what you're going to do to somebody when you see him.

I'm gonna say this and when he says that you've got a conversation going on your head. That's not even real. It happens all the time. That's the reason I've broken relationships with wife. We can't that's why that's why marriage is almost non-existent now.

Because we can't get along, you know. Why because the moment somebody says something or doesn't say something you read between the lines and this thought comes. What's she trying to do? What does she really mean by that?

I'll show her you know. These are the things that you battle night and the whole world is in the power of the evil one. We're being controlled by our thoughts like a puppet being just generated and if you don't learn through the Word of God to take up the shield of faith I Resist that right now listen in my life when I came to the Lord.

There was a lot of falling down and getting up but I would get up that thought would come to me at one o 'clock on Saturday morning. God, I don't I don't want that stuff in my life. It's done nothing but created a perverted heart in me and I can't even think with purity in my heart and I hated it.

But you know what? It didn't change just because I said I pray God. I don't want to do that anymore. All of a sudden one o 'clock Saturday morning something will wake me up and that thought would start going.

And sometimes I'd fall to that thought sometimes I'd get up say no, I'm not doing it. I resisted. I'd wrestle in my bed. Just try to go back to sleep. But I'm gonna tell you what it's the process of overcoming and the process of overcoming involves falling down.

But a righteous man falls down it keeps getting up and I'm gonna tell you I don't live with that anymore. Not from the inside. And I'm not saying there's not temptations that come to my mind the things that I have to face.

But I've been there. I resist it and God's teaching me still how to take thoughts captive. I Want you know right here for Ephesians 2 we can walk at it and laugh at it. And we can say oh, I'm not leprous.

But every one of us knows exactly what I'm talking about. Verse 3. Among them two we all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh. Indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and whereby nature children of wrath even as the rest.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with what he loved us. Even we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ. Can you see your own leprosy. Are you aware the vileness of your own heart.

Can you see the rebellion in your own life? Listen that's the starting point. If you can't see it. Then you don't know you need a helper. In first Timothy chapter 1 Paul was talking about himself, and he said listen God saved me as a pattern.

What's a pattern? It's something we get an idea of what it looks like. If there's a basic structure to it listen every one of us in this room. We're unique and different and Even the ways in which God speaks to us matter of fact if we gave testimonies around this room for those that know the Lord.

You'd be amazed at how different every testimony is and how God Grabbed a hold of them who'd like God used in their life. What experience made their hearts begin to be tender. Where they came from? Let me tell you guys there's certain things that remain the same in every testimony.

And the first thing that Paul said in first Timothy chapter 1 God saved me as a pattern. The chiefest of sinners. Listen Paul. Was he really a chiefest of sinners? Philippians he says I was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He was a religious man who was studied in the law of God. Matter of fact he was welcomed into the temple. Anybody here feel like. Sometimes you'd be welcomed in a church. I got a friend of mine who loves the Lord.

She got saved from being a stripper prostitute. She was riding just recently. You know I go into churches. And I immediately feel like I'm on the outside and listen, this is a this is a girl. She doesn't want to sit in the pews.

She's created a ministry and outreach called reach out to her Roth. And she's out on the streets ministering to other prostitutes other strippers trying to help her. She says I go into a church and immediately I feel judged.

Immediately I feel like I'm I'm put on the defensive. I'm put on the outside. Do you know what? Those are the places for God loves to work. Matter of fact his greatest rebuke always came inside the church.

It always came inside those walls. Where we become stiff and in in and we pretend and we live as hypocrites. And we find ourself throwing stones at other people. Let me ask you who you're gonna throw a stone at if you're the chiefest of sinners if you're the worst of the worst.

There's if you see yourself in the light of this and I came to the Lord going into my high school years. I'm gonna tell you guys there's a lot of things outwardly that I never did that I did in my heart.

Let me tell you this. I Saw myself in the light of God's holiness, and I knew the wrath of God was just upon my life. And I knew that if I died. That I would rightly so spend the rest of eternity in hell.

And I'm gonna tell you my heart tormented me. Any over here those those like those electric power boxes that are up on the you know when they. You know you hear him, you know. Yeah, there was a time I scare somebody.

There was a time When that used to torment me and I'd run through the house looking for my mom. Seeing seeing if I'd been left if the rapture had happened or something and somehow I got left because you know what my heart condemned me.

My heart condemned me because for the first time in my life I was aware of my sinfulness that I was worthy of the wrath of God. I wasn't shifting the blame and making excuses and saying it's their fault in this person's fault.

I knew how I stood and where I stood before God. But it was in that place that I cried out to mercy and God met me and because of that. You can't help somebody if you've judged him in your heart. You know that don't you?

You know what one of the one places that people ought to be able to get help is inside the church. When I speak of church, I'm talking about right here, you know what the moment somebody begins to share some of the struggles of their life.

How many of you get offended or threatened because it's not where you walk. It's not something you did. It's all of a sudden they're doing something worse leprosy. Have you come to the place yet of seeing your own leprosy?

The law of God came into this world to shut every man's mouth. There are no good people. There are no holy people there are no righteous people. Even the best of the best have been born in sin and desperately needy of a Savior.

Recognizing Sin and Believing God Can Change the Leper

Well the next thing that came to mind In regard to a type of leprous person as if I can just think about it meditate on it. Is the one that knows his leprosy? He sees his sin. He recognizes that he's slowly being eaten away.

He knows that his his, you know, leprosy your body parts just start to fall off because the nerve endings have killed. It's a it's a leprosy. It's a disease that affects the very bones they rot and you don't even realize it all of a sudden your bone because the the Pain is dead and you don't see it.

You might twist an ankle and you keep walking on that ankle and then it just dies and it falls off. And there may be some in here they recognize I'm not listen you don't have to convince me. That I'm undone that I'm full of sin that I've done awful things that I've hurt people.

I know it, but you know what they can't be convinced or believe. That there's a place. They can't come to a place and believe. They can believe God can change somebody else's life. They can sit and maybe even hear somebody else's testimony.

They can know him personally that walked out on those hallways. I said listen that man. Yeah, that guy really did. He really did change. God met him. But they don't believe he can do it in their life.

They don't believe he can change them. They believe in God. They believe in the answer, but they believe he's the answer for somebody else. They don't believe he's the answer for them. There's two men in Scripture that betrayed Jesus.

One was named Peter. Jesus said listen three times. They're gonna take me and three times you're gonna deny me and Peter said not me. I'd fight for you. I'd give my life for you. Guess what happened when they took Jesus.

Three times he was asked. Aren't you don't you belong to him. Aren't you with the disciples with hey? He said no he said no and finally cursed and swore and in Indian swore. No, it's not me. That says Jesus looked at him.

The scripture says he wept bitterly. He knew His sin. He knew that he had sinned against Christ. And he betrayed him. They did the very thing he said he would never do. He did under the pressure of life.

So there was another man that betrayed him. His name was Judas. Judas walked with Jesus for three years. He heard the same teachings everybody else did. He heard Jesus talk about the cross. He heard Jesus talk about dying.

He heard Jesus talk about all these different things. And there came a place where Judas himself betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and Once the act was done. It says now think about this. It says he came back to the priest and he said I have betrayed innocent blood.

It looks like he's made a confession. He takes the money and he returns it to him. He throws it on the ground. They said listen. What's that to us? So it says it goes out. And he hangs himself. He couldn't believe.

The words that Christ said were for him. It was a leprosy of despair. He couldn't believe that God could heal his past. He couldn't believe that God could forgive his sin. He couldn't believe that God could change his life.

He could believe it for someone else but not for him. And some of us in this place sit there in that same place. It's not that you don't agree with the fact that you know, there's a problem in your heart in life that you can't change.

And it's not that you don't agree that you've heard about it over and over and over again. Matter of fact, you're sitting in this service something drew you here today some kind of tenderness and heart.

There's something in your heart that draw you to this place. And it's not that you haven't seen the lives of other people get changed. Maybe even people in this very place. Maybe that's why you came here because you do though.

There's some of people here whose lives have been changed, but you can't accept it or believe it for yourself. But I'm gonna tell you if you're trusting. The scripture says you will not be disappointed.

Those who trust in the Lord will not be ashamed. I'm gonna tell you I won't spend much time on this next leper. Because it's hard for us to believe matter of fact. I bet you mom I say it most people here just will not be able to believe that this kind of leper exists.

It's the one who knows he's a leper and boasts and his leprosy. Takes pride in the things that's killing him. Where's death as a badge. Boasts and the very thing that's destroyed his life. Of course. None of us have been there have we the scripture says when we come to that place where our hearts become seared.