Now we are continuing our study of the Book of Leviticus, because one way to study Leviticus is to pick out verses that we think have evangelical value, and then to expound on those. But all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that a man of God may be perfect. So really it's essential for us to read all of scripture, including those passages that we find difficult Leviticus is one such book that many of us will find difficult, but we need to see how there can be important lessons drawn out of these chapters in this book too Even if we may not have enough time to look at individual verses, at least we must be able to see how that whole chapter as come together brings us valuable and important lessons pertaining to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Book of Leviticus is about the holiness of God and how his holy people are to worship him and to live before him. As we mentioned a couple of times, he has two main divisions. The first division is from chapter one to chapter 16. It's about the way to God. And then the rest of the chapters from 17 to 27 about walk with God. The first division can be divided into four sections. Chapter one to seven is on the offerings. We look at the different offerings, how they all pointed to Christ. Chapter 8 to 10 is on the priesthood. We saw how the priests were ordained to the ministry. And then chapter 11 to 15 is on purity, purity of the life of God's people as they live before the face of God. Then chapter 16 is on the day of atonement. Our text for this evening is the third part of the section on purity. We've already considered the first two parts. Chapter 11 is on clean and unclean meats. Chapter 12 is on postpartum law. We saw that last time we met on this book. This evening, the Lord helping us, we must consider Chapter 13, which is really the first half of the leprosy law. Chapter 14 will continue on the subject by indicating the purification and cleansing necessary for those who are healed of leprosy. Chapter 13 is a long chapter. we obviously not be able to comment on every verse. Instead, we want to do two things. First, we would like to summarize the chapter briefly. Secondly, we want to draw a few lessons for today. First then, summary of the chapter. First of all, let's note that although this whole chapter is about leprosy law, it is not only about leprosy as we commonly understand it today. Today, when we think of leprosy, we think of what is known as Hansen's disease, which is the infection brought about by the mycobacterium leprae, or mycobacterium lepromatosis. This is a disease that is notorious for causing horrible skin conditions, such that there's deformities in the face, so that there's great furrows in the face, and also the extremities, fingers dropping off, nose dropping off, ears dropping off, because the individuals lose their sensation of pain. So that if they get hurt in the fingers, if you get a cut, today you get a cut, you bind it up and you put medicine. But if you have leprosy, you get a cut. You don't even know that you have a cut. you hold fire in your hand, you wouldn't even know that you have held fire in your hand, your hand is dead and it's still dead left, and so it goes gangrenous, eventually it drops off. So that's the leprosy that we commonly known. Now, no doubt, this specific disease, at least in its early manifestation of it, is included in the leprosy law of our texts. But clearly, it is not the only disease being dealt with in this chapter. We say this because the word translated leprosy, the word zara'ath in Hebrew, actually cover any form of spreading, skin discoloration or flaking, regardless of whether it is in human or in things. In fact, it is used to describe moh, or mildew, in leaden, leather, or woolen material, in verses 47 onwards. Indeed, in chapter 14, verses 34 onwards, it's even used to describe mildew in houses. So we know that this law is not just about skin diseases. But with this in mind, we may notice that there are two main divisions in this chapter. The first division is from verse 1 to 46, which deals with the diagnosis and treatment of what is described as leprosy in humans. The second division, from verse 47 to 59, deals with mildew and mould in leather and in woolen garments. The first division may in turn be divided into six parts corresponding roughly to the paragraph marks that appear in most editions of the King James Version. We say roughly because the first verse, you notice, is actually a preface. And then the last two verses gives the prescription for a positive diagnosis of leprosy. More precisely, after the preface in verse one, we are given six sets of diagnostic test cases for leprosy. It's in verse two to eight, verse nine to 17, verse 18 to 23, verses 24 to 28, verses 29 to 36, and then verse 38 to 44. In each case, we have a description of the symptoms, inspection by the priest, pronouncement of the priest as to whether the person is clean, unclean, or inconclusive. And then there's a prescription by the priest, whether it involves a simple washing of the clothes, or shaving, or quarantine for seven days, kept in the temple area, and a re-inspection after the seven days. So you can read the details of each case. We're not going into details of how the priest came to their diagnosis. It includes the color of the lesion, burned or itch, whether it is sunken, whether it is protruding, swollen, whether it is weeping or scaly, whether there is hair or no hair, what color is the hair that grows on it, etc. But the test cases are concluded with versus 45 to 46, which gives us the prescription for those who are confirmed to be having leprosy or a skin infection. and therefore declared unclean. Verse 45 reads, and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone without the camp shall his habitation be. The leper, in other words, is banished from the camp and is required to live outside the perimeter of the dwelling of Ezra. And he is responsible for warning others of his condition by crying, unclean, unclean, whenever he encounters anyone. This is the first part of the chapter. The second part, from verses 47 to 59, is about, as I mentioned, Mildew and Moe affecting garments. Here are three case studies, verses 47 to 52, verses 53 to 55, and verses 56 to 57. Like the case of skin disease, the article affected is to be presented to the priest. The priest will isolate the item for seven days and then re-inspect it before deciding whether it should be destroyed completely or whether only the affected part is to be cut out or whether the item need to be washed or burned, et cetera. The last two verses give us the treatment for clean or unclean artichokes, as well as a summary for this section on the treatment of leprous artichokes. If you follow the reading carefully, I wonder if you have noticed that much more care is to be taken before pronouncing persons to be unclean compared to pronouncing articles to be unclean. Atticus are quickly pronounced to be unclean. Persons, it seems to be, they need to be tested and quarantined, wait again, and only when they are very sure, when the priest is very sure he is leprous, then he is pronounced to be unclean. It is almost like the person is given the benefit of the doubt, whereas Atticus are not given the benefit of the doubt. And we can understand why man is created in an image of God. But in any case, what may we learn from this chapter? With the Lord helping us, we're going to consider three lessons. Firstly, let us praise God for his wisdom and preservation of his people for Christ's sake. We saw in our study of the previous chapter that the postpartum law is founded mostly upon ceremonial and theological rationales rather than sanitary and medical reasons. Part of it, of course, there's the medical reasons, but very little. It's only the number of days and so on. The rest of it is theological, ceremonial. When we study Chapter 13 on leprosy law, however, we cannot but help notice that the basis of the law is not only ceremonial. We see this from the intricate details for diagnosis given by the priest, which includes whether the lesion is sunken or protruding, weepy or dry, light or dark-coloured, etc. We see this also from the prescription appointed, which includes quarantine, isolation, washing, burning in the case of garments, et cetera. Indeed, we notice a person is pronounced unclean only when he's deemed to be infectious. If he's not, he's pronounced as unclean. Now this clearly indicates, does it not, that part of the reason for the leprosy law is for the containment of disease. You see, Israel as a nation was way ahead of the world in her management of communicable diseases because of the leprosy law. In the 14th century, a pandemic known as Black Death killed perhaps 200 million people in Asia and Europe. One wonders if the effect of the disease could have been mitigated had the principles laid down in this and other hygiene chapters in the Old Testament had been observed. It is interesting to note that some of the Jews in Europe who followed these principles quite strictly were so little affected by the plague that others assumed that the Jews were the cause of the plague. In fact, they assumed that the Jews controlled the plague. This resulted in massive persecution of the Jews in many places in Europe in the 14th century. You check it in Wikipedia, you see it. Wikipedia reports that in February 1349, the citizens of Strasbourg murdered 2,000 Jews. In August 1349, the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were annihilated. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed. These massacres eventually died out in Western Europe, only to continue on in Eastern Europe. This is from Wikipedia. is perhaps because of leprosy law and other laws that had sanitary and health benefits that the Jewish people could prosper as a healthy race, perhaps the most intelligent populace in the ancient world. Have you not noticed that the Jewish captives were given top spots amongst the wise people of Babylon and Middle Persia? Even ancient people recognized many of the Jews were very wise because they kept, according to God's law, even today, some of the most intelligent people in the world are Jews. You can search it out, how many Nobel Prize winners in various categories are Jews, a big proportion. But why was a Jewish nation favored by God to have such laws given to them? Well, this nation was favored by God. Really, for Christ's sake. Israel was the covenant people of God. And the Messiah is the Savior of the world, will be born of her. So let us pause and praise God when we come to a passage like this. How the Lord actually preserve His people using His laws. They were designed to keep them strong, healthy, until the coming of Messiah. They were God's people preserved for that purpose. But now secondly, Let us deal seriously with the leprosy of sin. When we come to a passage like that, we see how those people were given to deal very seriously in regards to their skin diseases. What should we do? Well, of course, one thing is we've got to deal seriously with skin diseases and not look at it and just forget about it, right? You could get yourself into a lot of trouble. Your skin start rotting. It's all right, small thing. But more than that, we ought to consider the theological and ceremonial aspect of this law. Indeed, although this law is not only theological and ceremonial, we must not neglect it, that there is indeed a theological dimension. One clue that there is a theological dimension is that the religious teachers of Israel, the priests, were involved in the diagnosis and prescription for leprosy, isn't it? Although it's not explicitly stated in the scriptures, we can hardly miss the implicit connection between sin and leprosy in the scripture. Miriam was struck with leprosy because of her sin against Moses. Naaman was healed of his leprosy and was converted to true religion. And of course, Gehazi had the leprosy because he sinned against God in covetousness. And in the New Testament, 10 lepers were healed. One came back and thanked the Lord, indicating that he was truly converted. We read the passage and we get a sense that that's the only one who was really converted. The Lord's compassion toward lepers and his ability to heal them in the New Testament points us to his compassion toward sinners and his power to heal sinners. Now there are many similarities between sin and leprosy. We can list six of them. Firstly, leprosy is a disease that begins within rather than merely from a surface infection. The lesions that the priests are required to examine are just symptoms of a deeper problem, even a bacteria infection that affects the whole person. So is sin. It begins with the heart. We sin because we are sinners. We do not become sinners because something outside make us sinners. We sin in words and deeds which are visible to others because of a sinful heart that results in sinful thoughts. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies, says the Lord. So that's the first similarity. It begins from within. Secondly, leprosy is a loathsome disease that eats away at a person. Left untreated, leprosy and other infectious skin diseases begin to disfigure the person, makes him miserable, makes him unpleasant to be with. It is said that a leper might not notice his own aroma, but may find the smell of other lepers repulsive. So is sin. Sin affects the whole person and makes him abominable to God and repulsive to others. Solomon is surely right when he says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. In Proverbs 15, 8, indeed he also says the thought of foolishness is sin and a scorner is an abomination to men. That's in Proverbs 24, 9. Yes, sin is repulsive not only to God, but also to fellow men. So it's leprosy. Thirdly, leprosy numbs a person so that he feels less and less pain. This is why pictures of those who suffer leprosy often show them without their fingers, because they cannot feel pain when their fingers are cut or when their fingers are burned, as I mentioned, so they become gangreous and drop off. So with sin, it is no secret that sin numbs or desensitizes. The first time a child consciously tells a lie, he will feel ill at ease if he has been taught from young that Lying is sin, but if he does it again, he will feel less discomfort. And if he continues doing so, he will cast aside his conscience and become a habitual liar. Same goes with an adult, isn't it? First time you go to a website that you shouldn't visit and see those images, you feel repulsed. But if you continue that, after a while, you'll be numb to it. and you sin more and more. No professing believer becomes a hardened backslider overnight. He becomes one when he allows the leprosy of sin to destroy him and numb him from inside out. So that's a third similarity. Fourthly, leprosy is infectious. This is why the priests prescribe quarantine if it's not sure, and isolation when it's sure there is leprosy. Leprosy might not be as infectious as, say, Ebola, but it is infectious. So it's sin. It may not be so infectious as when you're in proximity with a sinner that you suddenly become sinful doing all the same thing. But it is infectious, make no mistake about it. The apostle Paul says, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Be not deceived, evil communication corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15.33. Let us not underestimate the corrupting power of sin. Your company does matter. So that's the fourth thing. Fifthly, leprosy is rarely an immediate cause of death, even though lepers have been found to be three or four times more likely to die than non-leper due to its indirect effects. Sin, on the other hand, is the immediate cause of spiritual death. For the wages of sin is death. And while it is true that sin rarely is the immediate cause of physical death, like leprosy, sin has a tendency to shorten life. Think of the fifth commandment. Think of how those who honor their parents are promised long life as much as should serve God's glory and their own good. And we know that sin does have a tendency to lead to shortened life. Think of substance abuse and all these things. Or a robber, someone who go against the law, tendency to end his life early. But sixthly, the leper could not heal himself. nor was there any natural remedy. So is sin. Of course, today, there are medicine that could treat leprosy in its initial stages, but in ancient times, leprosy was considered an incurable disease. This is why lepers were exiled from the camp. Sinners, likewise, cannot cure themselves, nor is there anything they could do which could cure them. As the Ethiopian cannot change the skin of the leopard he spots, so a leper could not heal himself. So a sinner could not remove his guilt or his sin. The people of old were taught to take leprosy seriously. This is why there are two long chapters in the law of God to deal with it. Therefore, as sin so closely resembles leprosy, let us take sin seriously. Let us remember, firstly, that sin begins in the heart rather than from the outside. Let us guard our heart, for out of it are the issues of life. Let us remember, secondly, how sin makes us loathsome before men and abominable to God. God is too holy than to behold evil. Even leprosy is unclean in his sight, for it is blood in his creation. How much more sin, which is rebellion against God. But let us remember thirdly, how sin numbs, so that we are emboldened to sin more freely each time we allow ourselves to sin. Let us remember fourthly that sin is infectious. Not only should we be careful with the company we keep, but we must be careful that our sin do not infect others, especially our younger ones. Parents, take note. Your decision in regards to the Lord's Day will have influence on your children. Your decision in regards to the use of entertainment will have influence on your children. You are a leper. and you'll be passing your leprosy to your children when you do it without thinking. But let us remember, fifthly, that death is the wages of sin, and unless sin is repented of, the sinner is tempting God to judge him swiftly and irrevocably. Finally, let us remember that a sinner cannot save himself. Nothing he does can save himself from sin, for all his righteousness are futile acts in the sight of God. But what hope then have we? For we are all sinners. We must take sin seriously. And yet we are helpless to help ourselves in our sin. Well, this leads us to our final lesson. Namely, let us seek Christ. who alone is able to deal with the leprosy of sin. We know that a sinner cannot deal with his own sin, even as a leper cannot deal with his own leprosy. In fact, in this whole chapter, we are confronted with a striking reality that not only were lepers helpless to help themselves, but the priests were also helpless. Do you notice that? You see, the task of the priest did not include healing the lepers. They were only required to examine and pronounce whether the person with a suspicious lesion is a leper and therefore should be isolated. But this helplessness is, I believe, divinely appointed. It is divinely appointed that leprosy might serve as a type of sin It was to remind God's people of the pervasiveness, odiousness, infectiousness, precariousness, and stubbornness of sin. It is also to remind God's people that God alone can deal with sin by supernatural and divine intervention. We think of how Naaman came to seek healing from Elisha. Elisha's name, by the way, means God is my salvation. The fact that Naaman's story is so often preached evangelistically is because we instantly recognize that it's designed to teach about salvation from sin. But Naaman was not the only one who was healed. We think of Miriam, who needed to be healed when you're struck with leprosy by the Lord for opposing Moses. And we think of the Israelites who were healed after they were sent out of the camp. We know that there were instances of these because in the very next chapter, Leviticus 14, is about purification of lepers who were healed. We read in Leviticus 14, verse two to verse three, this shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the priest and the priest shall go forth out of the camp and the priest shall look and behold if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, et cetera. So there were lepers who were healed. But how were they healed? while they were healed entirely by the power and intervention of God. So were the cases during the days of the Lord's ministry. The Lord summarized his own ministry to John the Baptist in the words, the blind receive their sight, the lame walks, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. What is the purpose of this healing work of the Lord? Were they designed to attract people to the ministry of the Lord? No. We are told on a number of occasions that the Lord withdrew Himself from the people when they started coming to Him in droves. He was never interested in crowd size. So why did the Lord Jesus heal? He healed to show that He is the Son of God and that He alone is able to deliver them from sin. He came to save His people from their sin. As leprosy typifies sin so graphically, we may say that Christ came in order to deliver his people out of spiritual leprosy. And take note, how did he deliver them out of leprosy? By being exiled out of the camp. He was crucified outside Jerusalem, outside the camp. He was counted as an unclean thing, cursed of God. He who knew no sin must make sin in order that he may clean his people of their sin. Beloved brethren and children, no one else can deliver you from sin. Seek Christ, Christ alone. He alone can deliver you from sin and the horrific effects of sin. Now I'm acutely aware that what I've just said is unlikely to move any one of us to do anything if you're just listening casually. When we consider the similarity between sin and leprosy, you might find it interesting. You might even have an intrigue that sin is indeed a lot like leprosy. So many points of comparison. But I think that is very likely. Many of us entertain the notion only with intellectual interest. Why? Because while a person with leprosy has some physical symptoms which can feel, which affects him, which can see and can smell and can show to the priest, person with sin does not have the symptoms. In fact, unless the Holy Spirit open his eyes, the sinner will not see his sin. Yes, he's unclean, odious to God because of his sin, but he does not realize it. So this evening is essential for us to hear the Word of God. as the Israelites of old submitted to the pronouncement of the priest to know whether they indeed had leprosy or not. So I call upon you to submit to the pronouncement of the Word of God, to know whether you have sinned or not. What does the word of God say? It says in 1 John 1, verse 8 and 10, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. There you have it. You have sinned. You are a spiritual leper. I have sinned. I'm a sinner. I'm a spiritual leper. Like the leper, there's no way for us to get rid of our own sin. but as one who can deal with our sin. John says, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Jesus alone can deal with our sin. He came as our great high priest to offer himself as the propitiation for our sin. Not only as that propitiation. Propitiation, of course, is a sacrifice to turn away God's wrath. The Lord did not only offer himself as the propitiation, he offered himself as the leper! to be dealt with outside the camp. The lepers of the old covenant had to go to the priest to get a diagnosis of whether they had leprosy. But tonight, we have already been given a diagnosis. We all have been infected with spiritual leprosy. But thank God that we have that great high priest. who can deal with our leprosy, unlike the priest of the old covenant. And he could deal with our leprosy because he took on our leprosy as the compassionate great high priest. Instead of calling for lepers to be isolated from society, he touched lepers, healed them by taking their leprosy on himself. And he brings them into his family. into the palace of God. Today, he is still doing so. Some of us, by the grace of God, have already gone to him and have our leprosy dealt with. We are covered with his righteousness, so the remnant of leprosy that affects us is not odious in the sight of God. but He's continuing to work in us, to heal us completely. In the day of our glorification, we will be completely rid of our leprosy. Some of us have already gone to Him, therefore we can enter into the palace of God. Some of us have not gone to Him. Brethren, friends, children, have you gone to Him to have your leprosy dealt with? Unless you go to him, you will die as a spiritual leper. You'll be eternally separated from God, who is too holy than to behold evil. So beloved brethren, thank and praise God for his wisdom and preservation of his people of old for Christ's sake. But more than that, thank God that he has opened your eyes to the seriousness of the leprous condition that has affected all of us. But let us turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus and to know that he and he alone can save us from our leprosy of sin. And let us thank him and leave our life with gratitude. And friends, children, any one of us who continue to walk in sin, go to Christ. He alone can heal you. Amen. Let us pray.