Judging in Cases of Leprosy (02/24/2002)

Turn with me this morning to the book of Leviticus, chapter 13, verse 1.

It was a bit frightening, though, until it did click, Brother Roger. And, yes,

I was playing basketball the last part of the week, watching it anyway. And I'll tell you more about that when all of our young people are here, but most of them are out with the flu.

So many of them caught the flu while they were there, and they're out today, so I won't talk about it when they're here. But our girls team won third place in state, so we're real proud of that.

The boys played well, but they got eliminated by a better team. But they did well.

They've got room to grow, too, so we'll talk a little bit more about it when they're all here. We've talked about some of the roles of the believer priest in recent days, and we're winding down to the last two or three duties that they have, that I can find, anyway, listed in the

Scriptures. There are probably others that we haven't mentioned. But they're supposed to keep the charge of the tabernacle.

They're supposed to offer sacrifices to the Lord. They're supposed to keep the sacred fire always burning on the altar.

And they're supposed to place and remove the showbread faithfully.

They're supposed to offer the firstfruits, which pictures the resurrected life, if you remember that lesson.

They're supposed to trim the lamps and continually burn incense unto the

Lord, which pictures prayer, if you remember that lesson. And then last time we talked about the fact that they're supposed to bless the people.

Now this morning we have a duty that is perhaps not the most enjoyable to talk about.

This probably won't be the one that just fills your heart with glory. But it is one that's discussed in the

Bible, and so therefore it must be important. And so this morning we're going to speak to you on judging in cases of leprosy.

Now that doesn't sound too fun, does it? But that was one of the roles of the priest.

And matter of fact, it probably wasn't real fun to do, but God commanded that they do it.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to see Jenny's boyfriend,

Mike, get to play baseball for Laterno. He's on their baseball team. And they had a triple header, so I got to watch him play three games in the last two days in between all the basketball games that my son and all the other young people in our school were playing.

And so his parents were there just yesterday, and I got to visit with them a little bit.

And we're kind of getting to know each other. And his mom was talking to him.

She said, we had a religious discussion on the way down here in the car. And we were talking about the

Methodist church that I wasn't sure if it's where they attend.

I think she has a friend that attends there because they're Baptists, so I think it must be coming from a friend of hers.

And she was pointing out that they had a music director that was a homosexual.

And she said, I assume he is anyway because he lives with a young man named, and I don't remember the name, but it was a cute name, kind of a cute

Spanish name, like, I don't know, wasn't Pedro, I don't know what it was.

But it was more effeminate than Pedro, Pedret, I don't know. But she said, you know, they were discussing, she said, well, how do you handle that in the church?

How do you deal with the scriptures in Romans chapter 1 and with Sodom and Gomorrah and all that?

And she said, well, we just take the middle of the road. And she was asking, she knows

I'm a pastor, so she was asking my advice on it and what I thought the truth was about it.

So that was an enjoyable game because I got to preach a sermon while her son was playing.

She enjoyed it too. She just wanted the information. She wanted the chapter and verses. I know what she was looking for, ammunition.

So I gave her some. But the point was that she was bringing out the fact that it's obvious to her, and she's not in a church that's a real

Bible -oriented church either. It's a big Southern Baptist church, but it's not, they're more into the social messages,

I believe, just from the things she tells me. But she said she's noticed that the church has gotten away from desiring to have purity in the church and to take a stand on any issue, even if it's biblical.

They don't want to take a stand. And so this message has a lot to do with the very discussion we had and curing that problem in the modern church.

But you can't really be a modern church and cure it. You have to go all the way back about 2 ,000, maybe 3 ,500 years ago to get to the place in Leviticus where it tells how to deal with it.

You've got to be an old -fashioned church. But let me read you a couple of passages that are not in this chapter.

We're going to go into Leviticus 13 in a minute, point by point, and see what God says. But I want to read you some related passages.

You can turn to them if you want to. I'm going to read them quickly. First, Joshua 7, verse 11. And then 1

Corinthians 5, verse 1, to give us another historical viewpoint and also a New Testament viewpoint of the same topic.

Judging in cases of leprosy. That is the job of the priest. So it becomes the job of the believer priest.

Joshua 7, verse 11. Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which

I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. That was the result of having sin in the camp, was they were weak before their enemies.

They couldn't stand, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will

I be with you any more, except you destroy the accursed thing from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say,

Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee,

O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.

In the morning, therefore, ye shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof, and the family which the

Lord shall take shall come by households, and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.

And so who is it that exposes sin in the camp? It's the

Lord. We're not always the first to see it or to be aware of it. It can be there and we not know about it, but the

Lord will expose it, because it is necessary. Now as he goes on, he says he will come down man to man.

In verse 15, And it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire.

So there were repercussions, if you want to put it softly for what happened.

There were repercussions to sin being in the camp. It wasn't just overlooked. They didn't just take the middle of the road, and I'm sure

Akin's family recognized that they didn't just take the middle of the road and say, well, everything's okay, really.

You're human. We know that we all sin, and so it'll be okay. We'll just overlook it. They shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, even the children, even the animals, the parts of his household that seemingly to us would have been innocent.

He and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken, and then you know the rest of the story.

But it shows the process by which God takes care of sin, but it also shows the necessity of God's people working together with God to take care of sin in the camp.

Now 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication is not so much as named among the

Gentiles. That's pretty bad fornication. If you want to talk about like my

English teacher used to tell me, you can't have a glass and say it's more full than another glass.

It's either full or it's not. So she explained that the proper way to say it if you don't think it's full is you can say it's more nearly full than the other glass, but you can't say it's more full than the other glass.

So I don't know that you can say that this was worse fornication than Gentiles had.

I mean either it's fornication or it's not, and I don't even know if we could say it's more nearly fornication.

But if you could say that in America, you could certainly say that the church is more nearly a fornicating church than it used to be.

Now the problem with the Corinthian church was they didn't worry about it. They took the middle of the road on this, and I'm sure this sin was used as an example, but it's certainly this teaching is not exclusive to just that sin.

It was a different type of sin that was in the camp in Joshua's day, a sin of covetousness.

So he goes on and he describes this in verse 2. He says the problem with this sin, this flagrant sin that's among you, in verse 2 it says you're puffed up about it and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you, which is the same thing that happened to Achan.

So we see in the New Testament it wasn't done exactly the same way. He was not burned at the stake under grace, but he was excluded from the congregation and from the fellowship.

The goal here was to restore him. The goal was so that he might see his sin and be restored to the fellowship, which

I believe 2 Corinthians indicates that he was. This very soul that we read about here

I believe got right with the Lord and Paul instructed them now, and then he had to rebuke them on the other side and say now don't extend the hand of fellowship to him.

He's repented. He's right with God now. Bring him back in. So Paul had to instruct them on both sides of this issue.

For I barely as absent in the body but present spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you gather together and my spirit with the power of our

Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of his flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a saved person that was doing this sin. Now why do you think

Paul turned him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, but then he comes right back says however his soul shall be saved.

Well, it's because God's children cannot lose their salvation, but it's also because the sin is found in the flesh.

That is the part of this person that was giving him problems. It was not his spiritual new man.

It was his old fleshly man. Your glorying is not good.

Know you not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If you have a little bit of sin in the church, it begins to spread.

God teaches us here. That's why it has to be dealt with. Now the modern church doesn't like to deal with sin at all.

They like to take the middle of the road because it is more comfortable and it's easier and there's no confrontation that way.

Purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Notice the phrase purge out therefore the old leaven.

Verse 8, therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven and neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

When we come together to keep the feast, which would be the Lord's Supper, and we come together to meet, we should not meet with those who are leavened.

They either need to get right with the Lord or we need to remove them from the fellowship until that happens.

Now God gives precise methods for all this which we won't have time to get into today. But the point is just the overall judgment message that it is the job of the believer priest to judge in cases of leprosy.

Now, therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven but with sincerity and truth.

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. Well, that kind of takes care of Mike's mom's question.

Kim could take this passage and do well to see clearly what

God says about it, not to company with fornicators. Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world.

In other words, when you're out in the world doing business and so forth with people that are not saved, if you kept that rule, you couldn't do any business with anybody.

So God says, I'm not talking about that. He said, I'm talking about in the church. He said, if you have a brother who calls himself a brother and he's a fornicator, then take these proper measures to exclude him from the fellowship.

Now those are a couple of examples. Let's go into Leviticus 13 verse 1. And let's look at the role of the priest here and see if we can't see some spiritual lessons, some symbolism that's found in this passage that would teach us spiritual truths of how to deal with this in our day and time in the church.

Leviticus chapter 13 and verse 1 says, And the

Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising,

I'm going to stop there just for a moment. That's where the old timers got the idea. I got a rising.

I got a rising. Got that from the Bible. Leprosy throughout the

Bible, before we move on in this passage, is a type or a symbol of sin.

It pictures sin in the believer. Now, Romans chapter 6 verse 12 says,

So we see that the place that sin tends to take its home is in the mortal body, in the flesh.

So we see this idea of lust, burning lusts and so forth. Yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto

God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you.

For ye are not under the law, but under grace. So we see that this sin principle is pictured by this disease called leprosy.

God uses it as a picture of sin throughout the scriptures. So with that in mind, let's read on just a little bit here.

Now, look at verse 2. Now, ladies and gentlemen, this gets a little bit graphic.

God gets kind of specific when he describes this particular disease, which pictures sin graphically and how ugly it is.

And he wants us to get right down into the understanding of this horrible disease even to the point of oozing sores and raw flesh and so forth.

So look what it says. Notice where this disease is manifest.

It's manifest in the flesh. That's certainly a picture for us, isn't it? A spiritual teaching. Like the plague of leprosy.

Now, notice the word like. We're going to see here that throughout this passage we're going to see real leprosy and we're going to see something that looks just like leprosy.

And it's the job of the believer priest to figure out the difference. God gives specific symptoms to look for, very specific, which all teaches that we have to be very, very, very, very careful before we judge someone.

When we're judging by what we see on the outside, which is what God gives us to judge by, it's like seeing a scab on someone's skin and trying to determine what's in their blood.

Now, Miss B could understand that this disease really comes from the blood even though we don't see that.

That's not the part we could see. We see the scab or the bright spot as the

Bible talks about this rising on the skin. But it came from a virus that had infiltrated the blood of this person.

But we can only look at what we see. We see the scabs. We see the bright spot. We see this rising or boil on the skin, on the flesh of this person.

And he says in verse 2 that at this stage of the game, this is like leprosy.

We don't know that it is, but it looks like it. Now, we find ourselves there all the time in life when we deal with one another.

We see things. We hear things. We begin to judge things, anywhere from the tone of a voice to a facial expression to body language to history that we know about a person.

And we make judgments. We have to be very careful that what we see and we call leprosy really is leprosy.

Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it looks just like it, but it's not coming from a virus in the blood called leprosy.

So he says when you see this person that has this in his flesh and it's like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto

Aaron the priest or unto one of his sons. One of the sons of the priest. You see how the believer priest is involved in this.

They picture us. They typify every one of us as believer priests.

So this tends to tell us that from time to time in our walk, we're going to have situations with brothers and sisters where we look at them and we say, man,

I think I'm seeing leprosy. First thing we need to know is it looks like leprosy.

It doesn't mean it is. Now we tend to do the opposite. We tend to go ahead and burn them, and that way we're clean of it.

We don't have to worry about it. We just go ahead and proclaim them guilty, maybe begin to talk to one another about this person and the problems they have behind their backs, and we put them on the stake and we just burn that leprosy and just kill it.

Then we find out later it was chicken pox. You see my point? We have to be very careful about being judgmental, and yet this whole passage is about judging, but judging properly according to the symptoms that God gives for us to look for.

Now, so he is taken to the priest, so it is the priest's job then to observe prayerfully.

Now let's move on and see what else we have. There's a lot of interesting information in this passage.

Look at verse 3. And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh.

Now some symptoms are going to be given here. He says, and when the hair in the plague is turned white.

So if this little scab or boil or risen has a hair growing out of it, and this hair turns white, that is something to look for, he says.

And the plague in sight, let's see, the plague, and the plague in sight, the plague you're looking at, be deeper than the skin of his flesh.

There is a second thing to look at. It is deeper than just a surface thing that you're looking at.

It goes deeper than just the skin. It's deeper than skin deep. It goes all the way to the heart.

But the point is, that's a type. This is a type, when he says, you look at that boil, that risen, or that scab, and see if it actually seems to be going down deeper than the surface skin.

Okay. Then it is a plague of leprosy. And the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean.

So we see here that we have an underlying invisible disease in the blood.

But we're left to have to judge it by outward appearances, aren't we? We have a situation where sin comes from the heart, but we can't see the heart.

We can only see the skin. We can see the risens and the boils and the scabs. And we have to judge from that, does this go deeper than the skin?

Does this really go into the heart? And is this leprosy? And he gives them little symptoms that they had to look at, which teach us that there are symptoms that we can look at, that are given in the

New Testament, dealing with these sorts of things. Now, look at some more.

We see some of these outward signs that are listed in verse 3. We see that the hair growing out of this scab or risen, if it turns white, that's an important thing.

We see that there are risings and scabs and bright spots, and sometimes they're slightly reddish.

But the key is not to focus so much on that as it is to look and try to see if it's deeper than the skin.

Is it deeper than just skin deep? We saw that there in verse 3.

These signs are specific and must be carefully examined before this person is judged unclean.

Now, let's look at verse 4. We see how careful

God instructed the priest to believe. If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh and in sight not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague for seven days.

So he takes this person who obviously has something wrong, but yet the symptoms have not all been seen.

It is not clear that this is leprosy that comes from the blood. This is not clear that this is sin that comes from the heart, in other words, that it's a type of deeply embedded disease that this person has that is not going to go away easily or be dealt with immediately.

That's not clear yet. There are outward signs that we were supposed to see, such as this little hair being white.

It's not white. And other things like this. So what happens? He gives him another seven days.

What would that picture for us? Seven days would not be literal for us.

In this case, it's symbolic. It means give this person a season to continue to observe the symptoms to see if you can discern that they do in fact stem from this disease called leprosy.

And so they're given a little season. If all the symptoms are not clear, in this case the little hair being white that grows out of it, and it's not deeper, it does not seem to be growing down into the skin yet, so it's not clear, then you give this person a season.

I think our Constitution calls it being innocent until proven guilty, which is the way

I've tried to live my life because it's what's kept me from being cynical. When you get to be past 45, you're old enough to be cynical.

You have the right. You've been burned enough times by people who seem to be totally right, and they turn out a different way that you can become cynical.

I don't let myself be that way. Innocent until proven guilty. Now I've talked with some brothers and sisters in our church who have symptoms that aren't the way

I am. They're like, it's guilty until proven innocent. Well, that's just the way they are.

So some of us are under observation. But the point is, you should give another season.

This is typified by seven days, a perfect number. So I don't know how long it would be, but you give them a season to continue to watch and see.

Now that's listed in verse 4. Look at verse 5. And the priest shall look on him on the seventh day. So after this season, you're still observing.

And behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, now that's interesting because the

Hebrew word Ahmad means if it has ceased or been repaired. If it has ceased or been repaired, it's not spreading, and the plague spread not in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up another seven days.

He's not free to go yet. He's being observed for another season.

So this is two seven -day periods. So I believe what God teaches us as believer priests that it is not unwise and not entirely wrong to observe people that you have not known for a long time.

Maybe you hadn't known them for 20 years. Maybe you hadn't been around them all your life. Maybe no one in the church has been around them for very long.

If you see some things that cause you to worry, don't be judgmental about it.

Don't go talking to people about it. Just give it a season of watching because one of two things will happen over time.

That scab, that sore, that rising will begin to grow down deep into the skin and spread, which will reveal that this is a sinner, a person who has eaten up with the sin from the insides, or it will clear up and go away, which shows,

I guess, in the spiritual world we're discussing, it would be that maybe they had a sin problem in their life, but they dealt with the

Lord about it and the Lord dealt with them about it and they got right with God and it was healed. And it's gone now.

So here we have another seven days that go by. And verse 5 talks about perhaps it will stay or be healed or cease to spread.

In fact, look at verse 6. Maybe it wasn't leprosy. Maybe it was just a scab.

All right? It's interesting. What is a scab? Delightful subject. Ladies, if you'd like to go elsewhere and have a study with Miss B, you could,

I suppose. But even John can't handle it back there. He's talking about scabs.

I'll be through pretty quick, John. You can come on back. What is a scab?

That's right. It's a place that was wounded and had raw flesh, just like leprosy causes.

But the scab is what healed it. Now, there may be a scar left forever, but it is healed.

Sin may scar our lives, but it doesn't mean we can't fellowship with one another if it's healed properly, dealt with by the

Lord. So this may not even be leprosy. What it may be is you may be looking at a person who's got scabs all over because he's been beat up by life and by the things the

Lord brought in his life to beat him up so that he could be humbled and get to the place where he could be healed.

And you may be looking at the very end stage where he's already healed and judging it as leprosy, where you're supposed to cast him out, not fellowship with him.

That'd be a major error on your part or mine. So verse 6 is kind of humorous if you think about it.

It actually is saying this is not leprosy. It's just a scab. It says, and the priest shall look on him again on the seventh day.

Now, this is after the second season of time. He's been watching him now. He's been watching him two times, thinking this man has a real leprosy problem.

And on the seventh day, and behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, kind of like a scab, and the plague spread not in the skin, it's not deeper than the skin, the surface skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean.

It is but a scab. That's what I should have named the sermon today.

And the title this morning is, It is but a scab. Couldn't name it that, though, because sometimes it's really leprosy.

So this is just a part of the study. He goes on and says, It is but a scab, and he shall wash his clothes.

What do we do when we've been healed from sin? We want the Lord Jesus to wash our feet, and we want to know the truth that we're clothed in white garments, don't we?

So they wash the clothes. It pictures all this, and he shall be clean. So we see this possibility that we might judge wrongly if we weren't careful and didn't give it the season that God says to give it and watch it, and all of a sudden we find out it was but a scab.

Now, I thought that was John coming back, because we are through with the scab part.

That's Ben coming in, because he likes to hear about stuff like that. He's at that age.

Plague has turned dark. It's not spreading. He washes his clothes, and he's pronounced clean. Now look at verse 8.

But, I'm sorry, verse 7. But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing.

Now, here we have another scenario that's possible. We have someone that was seen and was cleansed, and he goes on and says, and now all of a sudden the scab begins to spread much in the skin.

After he has seen the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again. We have situations in life where people have had a sin problem, and God brought them through it and healed them, and yet the enemy and the flesh and the world combine in different strengths depending on what the problem is or who the person is and what their weaknesses are, and all of a sudden this thing, this same old sin comes back and begins to spread again.

Well, just because he was cleansed once and brought back into fellowship doesn't mean you just let it go this time. If a sin habit from old comes back and begins to attack this person, then there is a way to deal with it.

Verse 7 says all these things. He is seen by the priest again. Look at verse 8. And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is a leprosy. And so here we are again. Now, it's interesting that we have the idea of a scab, which is a scar from healing where previous sin has been healed.

Sometimes this scab can break out into leprosy again. Isn't that true? Don't we know that's true of human nature?

That whatever plagued us as a sin habit of the past, if we don't continue to walk with the

Lord and stay in the Spirit rather than in the flesh, there might remain a weakness in that same area.

And right out of that old scar, it could come back. Now, I'll say this, though.

The Bible doesn't really say that it comes back from the scar. It says it comes back from the scab.

Now, what's your experience in life, the difference between a scab and a scar? Brother Roger, you're into this.

What's the difference? And what else does it show about the incident?

Was it long ago or recently? Compared to a scab,

I'm helping you here. So you just know what I'm asking for. Now, but if you see a scab, and it's basically almost healed, but is that a more recent incident?

Okay. So when it's still fairly recent, isn't it true in human nature that it is still a little more difficult to get away from sin habits?

They say if you can stay away from a habit two weeks, you've just about whipped it. And that's true unless on the third week you open the sore back up.

I went for three weeks with no sugar here recently. Because Brother Russ taught me that it's really sugar that creates cholesterol, not fat.

So I went three weeks without sugar and did very well. My cholesterol went to zero. And I said, hey,

I'm okay. So I ate some candy. Now my blood pressure is high this morning, and so I wasn't completely healed from it.

A little bit of the scab was still there, you see. So we have a lesson here that when we're dealing with believers, people come into our church family, and they have a scab, a recent sin problem, but it has been healed, and God is healing it.

It's evident. That is wonderful, but we have to understand that if that thing begins to spread again, then it needs to be brought to the believer priest for judgment again.

And the same precautions need to be taken. We don't need to just proclaim it leprosy. We need to say, well, that's what it looks like, but let's give it a season.

Let's watch for the symptoms, just like we just went through. So we see this scenario can take place.

Now, look at verses 10 and 11. We see described here something called an old leprosy.

An old leprosy. Kind of interesting to think about what that can picture for us.

An old leprosy can be a sin that has been going on in the life for many, many years.

It may even have stemmed from the youth, the sins of our youth, and it has gone on in life for many, many years.

Look how this is described in verses 10 and 11. And the priest shall see him, and behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, which is one of the previous symptoms we were to look for, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising.

Quick. It's almost like quick means living. Living, oozing, raw flesh in the rising.

It is an old leprosy in the skin. Now, there's your other symptom.

It's down in the skin, and it's old. It means it's been in this life. There is a stronghold here that Satan has placed upon this life of sin that this person has not been able to conquer and have victory over.

And it is oozing and raw and literally beginning the early stages of eating the very flesh away, which leprosy can do.

It is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean and shall not shut him up.

You don't give him the season of seven days. You don't give him the time of, well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't.

When the flesh is oozing, and it's raw, and you can see it, you proclaim, and the hair is white, and all the other things that we previously were given are there.

Then we pronounce it leprosy at that point. And if the leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and I'm going to hold off on verse 12 just a second.

What do we add to the formula here? We had the little white hair growing out of it.

We had the rhizome that was down deeper than the skin growing down into the skin, and now we see that it's beginning to make the flesh raw.

And I want to, we're going to come back here to verse 12, but I want you to look forward here to verse 24, and I want to add another of these symptoms of this old leprosy.

We see that leprosy can come out of a scab, which means you might have just been healed from something that's recent, and not enough time passed where the

Lord worked in your life, and you were strong in this, so that it literally healed, became a scar, and you went on and perhaps never bothered by it again.

You can have sin come out of it while it's still in the scab stage. And then we see this raw flesh where it's literally eating away at the flesh, and you're supposed to proclaim leprosy immediately in that case.

But there's another situation other than the raw flesh that can happen, and we see it in verse 24 and 25.

Look at this. Or if there be any flesh in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot somewhat reddish or white, then the priest shall look upon it, and behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin, it is a leprosy broken out of the burning.

Isn't that fascinating? Because now we see another type or place from which leprosy can break out from, and it's a burning, which to me would picture lust, hot lust.

And we read about this in James 1, 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

Then when the lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.

So we see a burning that this leprosy can come out of, a burning sore that's pictured here.

And I wanted you to see that to be thinking about for a moment, but let's go back to verse 12 now and pick up where we left off.

This little passage deals with a truth that we need to be very aware of, is that there are some people who seem to have leprosy who don't.

And we need to be careful not to judge unwisely and uncarefully. Look what it says in verse 12.

And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot.

Now when it says he has a leprosy, what this means by the context is he has something that looks just like leprosy.

In fact, he's broken out from his head to his foot. Wheresoever the priest looketh, anywhere on this man's body the priest looks he sees sores.

Look at verse 13. Then the priest shall consider, and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean, that hath the plague, it is all turned white, he is clean.

So there's a way that God gave the priest to know where these boils and sores had a different coloring than they did in the true case.

And perhaps the little hair growing out of the boil wasn't white. And some of the other symptoms were not there, and even though he had these sores from head to foot, he proclaimed him clean, and it says that this plague had turned white.

But, verse 14 says, when raw flesh appeareth in him, he is unclean.

So we see the lesson here taught that there are some who seem to be full of leprosy who don't really have it at all.

And the priest that is in tune with God will proclaim him clean anyway, and he's still in fellowship with the people.

But if that very same person in those same areas that are already irritated becomes raw flesh, then he is proclaimed unclean.

So I say again, innocent until proven guilty. Now this one really looked guilty, didn't he?

He really looked like he had the problem. But he was innocent until it broke out in raw flesh.

Now you say, well, I don't know if I'd hang around him that long. And that's the problem with most churches, is most people won't.

And they begin to have division over chickenpox. Now we see strong lessons there.

Let's go down here in verse 15 through 17.

Verses 15 through 17. There's always a place for repentance and restoration to fellowship.

Verse 15 says, And the priest shall see the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean.

It is a leprosy. Or if the raw flesh turn again and be changed unto white, now here we're going back the other direction, he shall come unto the priest, and the priest shall see him, and behold, if the plague be turned into white, that picture is,

I guess, the righteousness of God that can cover these very sores, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, that hath the plague he is clean.

So there's always a place for restoration and fellowship again and repentance.

And that's discussed here. Now, there's another case of leprosy that we come, as we come down into verse 18.

We had the scab, the kind that can come out of a scab. We had the kind that come out of a burning place.

And now let's look at this. In verse 18, it says, The flesh also in which even in the skin thereof was a boil, and is healed.

And in the place of a boil there be a white rising, or a bright spot, white and somewhat reddish, and it be showed to the priest.

And if when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in the sight lower than the skin.

In other words, it's growing down into the skin, beneath the surface. And the hair thereof be turned white.

The priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a plague of leprosy broken out of a boil that had been healed.

Now, so here we have the kind that come, come out of a boil that's been healed. It's the kind that comes out when we've seen a boil or a scab and it went away and this person was healed and we proclaimed them clean.

And then later, true leprosy breaks out from it. And then once again we see that it must be dealt with.

In summary, if we ask the question, what must be done in these cases, we find the answer in chapter 13, verse 46.

So look at that verse. 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 is separated from the fellowship of the congregation and he dwells alone just like the man in 1

Corinthians was put out of the church by Paul. He instructed them to do it and they did do it.

And guess what the first thing happened? Apparently he repented. It enabled him to see how exceedingly sinful his sin was and he came back to the

Lord and repented and was healed and was restored to fellowship. That might never have taken place had they just rode the fence and kept the middle of the road and said, well, we know what that's going on, but we love him, we don't want to say anything to hurt his feelings, so we'll let him go on.

That was not the right way to deal with it. So ultimately, verse 46 points out very clearly that he is unclean, therefore he shall dwell alone and he'll be placed outside of the camp which pictures the fellowship of the church.

Now, let's look at verse chapter 14. Maybe we can end with something more positive.

Wouldn't be difficult, would it? Chapter 14.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.

So it is possible for a leper to be healed and to be cleansed and to be restored to the fellowship and God gives the procedure for it.

It says, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the priest.

Once again, the believer priest takes part in this. It is part of his duty. And the priest shall go forth out of the camp.

So you go forth out from the pews, so to speak. You walk out the door of the church and you go out to where this disfellowshipped person is because you have heard that his leprosy is changing and perhaps there is a healing going on.

And so this priest goes forth out of the camp and the priest shall look. So you go to the person and you observe.

And behold, if the plague of the leprosy be healed in the leper, then shall the priest command to take him that is to be cleansed and then it begins to give the process.

And I'll save you some time. You can read this later, but let me just tell you the key parts of it. First of all, there are two birds taken and cedar and scarlet, which pictures the blood of Jesus, and hyssop, which pictures the faith of the believer.

And all of these things are present and one of the birds is killed and the other bird is soaked in the blood of that bird and then let free.

What does that remind you of? This is the scape bird. You've heard of the scape goat.

It's the same principle. I think it's beautiful that he uses the bird because the bird can fly away free.

And he is sinless, but he's been dipped in the blood, which pictures the blood of the

Savior, Jesus Christ. And so this bird is let go. It required scarlet, which pictures the blood of Jesus.

It required hyssop, which pictures the faith of the believer that God has given. And one is killed and one is sprinkled and let go, which pictures freedom from the disease that's plagued this person, perhaps his whole life, and perhaps dismembered him in some ways, certainly left scars.

But now he's cleansed by the blood of Jesus, by the death of Jesus, by the resurrection, by the ascension, by the application of the blood to the mercy seat.

Then he is to wash his clothes and shave the hair off of his head and his face, wash himself in water, pure water, which pictures the water of the

Word. He is exhorted to begin to take away the filthy thoughts and imaginations and things that he's brought into his mind and to replace it with the pure water of the

Word, to turn off some of the bad things that he's been watching and to turn on the Word of God and get into it and read it and cleanse his mind with it.

He's to stay outside for another seven to eight days lest he be the stony soil and rise up quickly and appear to have a great testimony, and then the sun comes out, which pictures the

Word, and scorches him, and he dies because he had no true root. But he is left out there for seven or eight days.

During this time period, lambs are presented at the door, and I should say after this time, he brings his lamb and presents it at the door of the tabernacle, and this former leper who's been cleansed is now brought before the

Lord. He is now in the presence of the Lord with his lamb. Isn't that amazing to picture?

The cure is there with him, and with the lamb, he can stand before the Lord. He was just previously a leper, eaten up with sin.

It came from inside, from his bloodline, and now he's standing before the

Lord with his lamb. Oil is applied to his right ear so that he has an ear that can hear again.

Pictures the Holy Spirit. Oil is applied to the thumb of his right hand and the right big toe of his right foot.

That would be the left big toe of his right foot. Think about it. Isn't that right,

Rick? All right. It shows that he can now walk in righteousness and serve the

Lord. He can serve the Lord with his hands and with his feet, and he's been anointed with the oil of the

Holy Spirit, having cleansed his mind with the word of God and had it being appeared before the Lord in his presence with the lamb.

Upon the blood of trespass offering, this oil is also poured.

And then the remainder of the oil is poured upon the head of the former leper, representing that he is indwelt and filled with the

Holy Spirit. Then a sin offering is made for the atonement, which pictures the finished work of Jesus Christ, having eliminated his sin completely.

And then a burnt offering is given, which pictures a freewill offer that is freely given up by this rejoicing soul as he gives a sacrifice to the

Lord. He's one of the ten that came back. He's the one leper that came back and came and kneeled before the

Lord and offered the sacrifice back in return, a freewill offering, because of his healing.

So we see quite a lesson in this chapter, in these chapters, about the duty of the believer priest to recognize sin in the camp, but to not be overly judgmental, but to be very careful in examining the symptoms over maybe several periods or seasons of time.

And certainly innocent until proven guilty, until the flesh breaks out in an open, oozing, living wound, then we proclaim it leprosy.

And they are put outside the camp, out of fellowship, and left to the

Lord and then prayed for. And then what the hope is is that you'll get word someday that outside that camp there's been a transformation.

You go out there and you get him, and you bring him back, and you're reminding that he can't come without a lamb, and you remind him about the little bird that had to be killed so that one could be set free, and you remind him that he's got to get the corruption out of his mind and place the word of God in there and be cleansed with water, and you anoint him with the oil of the

Holy Spirit, and with his lamb he comes back before the Lord in the tabernacle.

Isn't that beautiful? The whole process is right there. Now the details, we find more details in the

New Testament, but there's the process. Let's stand and have prayer together, and may the

Lord remind us this is one of our duties, not the more pleasant of the duties, but certainly very important to keep the church right with the

Lord. Father, always remind us that we will fall down in weakness before our enemies if we don't recognize the sin when it's in the camp and deal with it scripturally and properly.

And we know that all along it's you that deals with it because we wouldn't even recognize it if you didn't select out the tribe and the family and the man.

And so Lord, we thank you that you've given provision. We didn't see that provision in the story of Joshua, but we do see the provision in the story of the leper, that in some cases, even though the sin is placed outside the camp, there can be a healing and a restoration because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and his application of that blood in a living way.

So Lord, help us to be strong enough to apply these principles. Help us to bear up under the duty that we have as believer priests.

Help us to watch over one another in love, always with the desire to strengthen and edify and help one another.

Lord, if we think we see a disease in a brother or sister, help us to be careful to watch for the true symptoms and not to call one thing something that is not, but also help us to be caring enough to desire for healing.

And Lord, we pray that you would go with us into our time of fellowship. We do ask that you would heal those that are ill today, couldn't be with us, bring them back to our fellowship soon.