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Most people have at least heard about the 10 commandments which formed the cornerstone of the Moral Law of God. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God actually gave them 613 commandments through the prophet Moses. These laws were carefully written down and studied and were to be rehearsed once a year to all the people. We are still bound to the moral law of God because the basic principles of God never change, but the ceremonial laws no longer rule us. Instead we live in a time where the ceremonial laws have been fulfilled and so we can learn about our spiritual life by looking at the ceremonial laws and how that they have been fulfilled through the process of salvation under Grace. Jesus said:

The word for "schoolmaster" here in the Greek refers to the custom among wealthy families in Biblical times to assign servants who were the teachers and "tutors" of the children. Every morning the servants took the children to schools taught by the rabbis and then spent the remainder of the time helping them to understand what had been taught. Until the children reached adulthood, they were not to leave the side of their "schoolmaster." The law is our guide to understand the process of what has happened under Grace. It is the physical example of the spiritual. For example, Calvary makes much more sense when you realize the law's teaching of the Passover Lamb and how that it caused the death angel to "passover" the house of the person who had properly applied the blood to their house, etc..."

Until you realize that a spiritual process is represented, some of the commands of specific laws of Moses seem quite silly. In this lesson, I want to talk about the law of the cleansing of the leper. The entire process is found in Leviticus 13 and 14 in scripture and God goes into quite a bit of detail of a lengthy process. We are not so much concerned with the procedure, of course, but of what the procedure represents in our spiritual walk today.

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Leprosy was the dreaded, incurable disease of Biblical times. Today we have such things as AIDS and SARS that are highly infectious and deadly and for which we have no known cure. Back then, the disease that sent chills through the spines of those that contracted it was leprosy. Leprosy was an animal poison that got into the human blood stream, fermented and multiplied there and infected the entire body. It would begin to affect the nervous system causing a person to lose all feeling in their skin and then would also cause the skin to ooze a sick substance which was infectious and carried the disease. For this reason alone, a person infected with leprosy was banished from society and forced out of a normal life to live with other lepers in the ten or so horrible years that it would take him to die. Because of losing feeling in his skin, the leper would often accidentally lose parts of his body {adlib}. The most common type of leprosy would mutilate and distort the facial features and joints of the body and then cause the skin to break and boil and recede so that the white of bones and red flesh would be visible. Usually the disease would cause the skin and hair to turn white and would cause the lips of the victim to drop revealing the gums and teeth in a permanent ugly countenance. Because the disease was primarily spread through fish without scales and unclean pork the law forbade the Israelites to eat those type foods (Leviticus 11:7-12). Because of their state of infectious disease and being banished from society, the leper had to go through life not being able to go into the cities and if they came within a few hundred feet of a person they had to cry "Unclean, Unclean!"

Leprosy represents sin. We know this because Paul used the familiar cry of the leper to describe the sins that would not inherit eternal life:

Sin is very similar to the effects of leprosy. Like the disease, sin is a death sentence. Leprosy could only be healed in those days by a miracle from God, Sin is healed only by the miracle of the New Birth experience. Sin is also infectious and also spreads generation to generation. A leper was not able to marry a clean person according to the law because they would infect them! A person infected with sin begins to lose all feeling and sensitivity toward God and His Spirit and begins to ooze an attitude and spirit of unrighteousness that is contagious! Because of a lack of feeling, sin causes a person to wound themselves with horrible wounds in the spirit that affect the person's entire being. Sin eventually breaks up the skin of "self-righteousness" and reveals the filth and disease by which a person is really infected. The spiritual lips and mouth of sinful person are affected with depression and unfulfillment and just as the children of Israel avoided partaking of anything that even looked like it might carry the disease, so should we realize that sin is such a serious infection that we should resist even the form of evil in our lives.

The only one who could heal leprosy then was God, and when a person was healed by God, there was a process of cleansing that they were commanded to undertake. When you realize that all of us are afflicted with spiritual leprosy before we come to God, then the cleansing of the leper becomes very important to study to teach us about what we must do today. This sermon was triggered by a question that I was looking up the answer to this week on the internet. I felt quickened to preach about leprosy and I decided to research the disease on the internet. I found out that today there is a cure for natural leprosy. It is called MDT for "multi-drug treatment" and researchers have found that there are three different drugs that if they are all injected will heal and over a period of time cure leprosy. One article on one site really stuck with me though. It was entitled "Leprosy remains rampant despite cheap cure available." The article was about the fact that so many people in the world did not realize that there was a simple and efficient cure for leprosy and so thousands of people die each year from the disease because of ignorance of the cure!

When you realize that leprosy represents sin, then that article hits extremely close to home in the spirit too! Jesus Christ has already paid the price for sin on Calvary and the cure to sin and it's effects are free and easily obtained. But despite the cure that is available, leprosy remains rampant and people still live their lives bound by addictions and habits and generational curses and reaping the effects of sinful behavior. Even worse, many born-again Christians tend to gloss the leprosy of sin into something that is not a big deal and try to live with just a 'little leprosy' in their lives. It is not the will of God for us to live like lepers and to be stuck in depression, lack of victory, despondency, guilt, and all of the other side effects of spiritual leprosy. There is a cure available and a plan to follow: why choose to live in leprosy?!

The cleansing process of the leper is found in Leviticus 14. I want to outline it for you in this message:

1. The cleansed leper had to present himself to the priest after the priest had gone outside the camp. Until the priest went outside the camp, there was no chance for the leper to be cleansed. The leper then had to meet the priest where he was outside of the camp.

This, of course, represents Jesus Christ whom the Bible says is our High Priest who was taken outside the gates of the city and died on Calvary "outside the camp" so that we could have the opportunity of being cleansed from leprosy. The only way the cleansing process will begin is if you will meet Jesus at Calvary and ask Him to do a work in your life!

2. The leper then was to take two birds, we know that they were doves because they were the only birds used in sacrifices, and give them to the priest. He also brought a small piece of cedar wood, a piece of scarlet (red) cloth and a piece of hyssop, which was a long plant with small leaves used for the application of blood.

3. The priest then had to go to a place of running water, not a pond or lake where the water might be stagnant or impure, and place some of the "living water" in a pot. There over the "living water" one of the birds was killed, and the blood of the bird was allowed to flow into the pot with the water.

4. The priest then took the cedar board and placed the live bird upon the end of the board with it's tail hanging slightly off one end. He placed the piece of hyssop alongside the tail and then bound the bird, still alive, to the board with a piece of red cloth.

5. Holding the cedar board as a sort of handle, the priest then dipped the live bird's tail and the hyssop branch into the bloody water created by the bird that was killed. The blood was sprinkled upon the leper seven times and pronounced "clean."

6. The live bird was then untied from the board, and still bearing the blood of the sacrifice, was let loose in a field while the priest and the leper watched. This bird going back to his flock, symbolized the leper's release from the hold of the disease and his ability to return to his family.

7. The leper then had to wash his clothes and shave off all of the hair on his body, the head, eyebrows, toe hair, everything. He then washed his flesh completely before putting on his cleansed clothes and returning to his home.

That seems a strange process to force a person to go through. Why didn't God just require a normal sacrifice like other situations? Could it be that the law in Leviticus 14 was to teach us about the cure for spiritual leprosy, sin?

We too, must approach Jesus Christ our High Priest at Calvary in the spirit. You cannot be saved unless you believe in Him and understand that He died for you. You cannot be saved unless you make the first effort to approach Him where He went outside the camp.

The dove in scripture represents the spirit. When the people around John's baptizing place saw Jesus get baptized, they saw a visible anointing of the spirit that flew "like as a dove" upon Him. The water mixed with the blood represents baptism of both the water and the Spirit. The cedar wood was chosen because it did not rot and was a wood used for stable and sturdy construction. The word here for "cedar" in the original Hebrew literally means "sure rooted." Scarlet was the color of blood and hyssop was always used for the application of the blood and became known as a symbol for repentance, mercy, and forgiveness. For example, when David repented of his adultery in Psalms 51, he cried out:

Is it any accident when the crowd stood staring at Peter on the Day of Pentecost after his powerful sermon and they were convicted of their sins and asked what they had to do to make things right with God that of all the things that he could have said, he chose "Repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus, and receiving the Holy Ghost?" To some religions that seems a crazy mix of commands. But God knew something that even Peter didn't know at the time. Those people were infected with spiritual leprosy, and for the leper to be cleansed, they had to have certain things to come together in their life. He said repent: go to the high priest, Jesus Christ and take Hyssop. Go to living water and take it and mix it with the blood of a sacrifice. Water Baptism.... {the story of Naaman, dipping in the Jordan River }

All of this is held together by something stable and sure rooted enough to be a foundation upon which you can build: the cedar represented the Word of God. It will never rot; it will never pass away. You can build upon it and if you do so you will never fall. Jesus said that those who do not obey His word are like those who build upon the sand.... But those who build upon His Word are like those who build upon a rock... You must apply the blood (represented by that scarlet ribbon) around the Word of God. You must apply it exactly how the Word has commanded.

And there are two doves here: your human spirit, and the Holy Spirit. Your human spirit begins the process dead and bound. It begins dormant and desiring to be free, just as that little bird bound to the cedar, it is also bound to the Word of God, and that Word says that the spiritual death of Adam passed upon every man so that all men are born sinners and plagued with spiritual leprosy and with a spirit that is dead and not in close communion with God. But get the other dove involved: Because of it's blood, the dove that was bound up and tied down can be freed. When you receive the Holy Ghost your dormant and bound spirit is regenerated and released to a new life and a new freedom! It is set free, and still bearing the marks of the blood that freed it, you can soar to new heights in your relationship with God that you never ever dreamed of!

You see, these steps commanded by Peter aren't optional and arbitrary, but they are absolutely essential to the cleansing of the leprosy of sin. But the cure has been found to the leprosy of sin and it involves a "three part" command of the Word of God: Repentance, Water Baptism, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost! ...

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At this point the leper was pronounced "clean." He had been cured from the dreaded disease of leprosy. But notice that there were several other things that he was commanded to do.

1. He washed his clothes - He had to change the conditions of his garments. In the Book of Revelation, we find that the saints that make into eternal life wear white robes "washed in the blood of the Lamb" and that their " clean and white robes" are the "righteousness of saints" (Revelation 19:8). In other words, their outsides bear the mark of the inward cleansing! When we are cleansed from leprosy, we must also conform our outside, the way that we act, talk, walk, dress, appear, and live to match the inward cleansing that has taken place! If we don't, then some of the leprosy on our garments may find it's way back into our souls...

2. He shaved off all of his hair - The hair is dead skin cells, therefore the leper shaved it all off because somewhere in it was a remnant of the past leprosy and he wanted to sever all contact with his past condition! We too must separate ourselves from anything in our past, be it close friends, a lifestyle, or habit that might carry the sinfulness from which God has forgiven us!

3. He washed his flesh that had been cleansed thoroughly - Not only did he rid himself of the parts of the body that were lifeless and carried the disease, but he also scrubbed his living flesh on the outside to make sure that every last trace of the disease was gone. There are things that you may have done before you came to God that are not sinful in themselves, but, if not scrubbed according to the "washing" of the Word of God and not put in a proper place, they can become a carrier of sin once again. For example, maybe you liked to play golf before you came to God, but now you must scrub through the washing of the word and put the things of God as priority over the golf lest something innocent and healthy as golf become a place for sinful infection to build and grow.

4. He left the leper colony and returned into living inside the walls of the camp.

After the cleansing process, the leper had to stop living like a leper and responding like a leper and hanging out with lepers! He had to leave a life of "barely making it by" and "scrounging just to survive on trash" mentality and go back to an active life of worshipping the Lord and offering sacrifices at His house.

{The one who came back to Jesus with praise and worship after the cleansing was made whole! This is a type of the Holy Ghost and a lifestyle of praise and worship to Jesus, will make whole the wounds that years of sin had caused!}

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Our other text, Jesus healed a leper and commanded him to go "shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded thee." Jesus commanded this because they were still living under law, so the man needed to go meet the priest and follow the process that we have studied tonight from Leviticus 14. The interesting point is that Jesus said that the man needed to do the process of the cleansing of leprosy "for a testimony unto them." In other words, by this man's actions, it would testify to the priest, himself, what he should do.

Nicodemus was a religious man who came to Jesus by night in John chapter 3, and despite his religiosity, he was still born a leper of sin. Jesus cut to the chase in verse 1-8 of that chapter and told him "you must be born of the water and of the Spirit if you want to enter into the kingdom of God." Why did Jesus choose those words of "entering into the kingdom of God?" Could it be that Jesus realized that Nicodemus was a spiritual leper standing outside the true camp of God's mercy and for him to enter in, he needed to be cleansed through the water and the Spirit just as the law had commanded!? The cleansing of the leper is very important in our lives, because it is from others seeing the cleansing in our lives, that they receive a testimony of what God can do for them as well!