One reason why many people are not saved is that they do not realize the horror of sin. Similarly, many saved Christians are not living for God because they have forgotten the horror of the sin from which they were saved. Therefore, the most important realization for both the saved and the unsaved is to understand the horror of sin.
We are seeing why, at the beginning of his revelation in Genesis, God uses the picture of leprosy to make us realize the horror of our sin. Isaiah says that from head to toe, not one part is healthy; all are infected and damaged by leprosy. Sin has permeated our whole being, like ink saturating a whole glass. We are born unclean in sin. Not only are we fully leprous, but everything we do is sinful. Everything comes from impure, selfish motives and a sinful heart. We constantly break God’s law, and everything we touch is unclean and defiled before God. Romans 3:12 says, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Their “throat is an open grave” (Romans 3:13). What a horrible sight and smell. They may hide their heart, but when they open their mouth, it reveals a bitter, unclean, rotting, and smelling heart. “With their tongues they deceive; the venom of asps is under their lips” (Romans 3:13). “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness” (Romans 3:14). What a picture! Ephesians 2 shows those who were “dead in trespasses and sins,” a sad condition of being controlled by the devil. As a leper is an awful, hateful sight with rotted flesh, unbound, untreated, and dying, a picture of death itself, so every sinner is hateful to God.
Why don’t people realize that? If they did, they would run to the Savior. Our pride and love of sin blind us and refuse to believe God, who alone knows our true condition. The god of this world blinds people in many ways. False religion blinds people with an external show and external morality. People see others who are worse than themselves. Some of you may see friends who are drug addicts and do bad things and think you are righteous in comparison. We always see people worse than ourselves in the world and take comfort that we are better, but that is a very false standard. We should measure ourselves not by looking at others, but by the law of God because that is what God will use to judge us.
Only when a man sees himself in the mirror of God’s holy law in its purity does he see how leprous he is. That is why our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, used God’s law to strip away all our outward covering and make us see our leprosy by showing heart sins of lust as adultery and anger as murder. After his sermon, in Matthew 7:28, “the crowds were amazed at his teaching.” This is very interesting. The first miracle he does in chapter 8 is healing a leper. In Matthew 8:2, “a man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.'” Verse 3: “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.” Verse 4: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'” It is interesting that in Acts 6:7, when the apostles preached, “Many of the priests also believed.” I wonder if, while they were doing all these two-bird rituals for leprosy, they saw how Jesus wonderfully fulfilled all that.
In our study of Leviticus, we have seen the horrible plague of leprosy, and we saw leprosy not only affecting our body, but our garments and houses. We can see how sin, like soul leprosy, can affect our soul, and we become so unbearable to see ourselves. It can spread even to our outward behavior and affect others, making us unbearable to them, and it can even bring down and destroy our houses fully if we don’t do something.
We saw the wonderful cleansing of the leper in the two-bird ritual. How the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are depicted in those two birds, and also the cleansing of the leper is depicted there. Just as the priest goes out of the camp to meet the healed leper, our Lord Jesus Christ came out of God’s holy place to the defiled leper colony of this world. Just as the first bird depicts the leper’s horrible condition, the cutting off of life, family, and community, it will die. So the first bird’s head is turned under fresh, running water. Its blood drops along with the clear, living water; two streams now meet in the pot—blood and water! A “heavenly” being (like a bird) dying in an “earthen vessel” depicts a divine person dying in the earthen vessel of a human body.
As you see fresh water and blood flowing, it should remind us that to save us, our Lord Jesus poured out himself. As fresh, living, running water, his life was poured out in perfect obedience, an unsinning life to fulfill all righteousness for us, and then the blood reminds us how he poured out himself to satisfy the demands of the broken law, even unto death. So now, by the river of that life and death, water and blood, we sinful lepers are cleansed.
The living bird, dipped in the blood of the slain bird and then released, symbolizes Christ’s resurrection and ascension. He rose again, bearing the marks of His death, carrying the power of His atoning blood to heaven to apply and set us free from the bondage of sin. The cedar wood, like teakwood, is rot and decay resistant, and symbolizes strength and durability. Jesus’ body did not see decay (Acts 2:27). The scarlet thread represents the precious blood that ties our redemption. Hyssop is the instrument of applying purification. The seven sprinklings signify a complete, perfect cleansing. Through Christ’s one sacrifice, we are perfectly and eternally cleansed. So we see his cleansing.
Today, we will see two things:
- Acceptance of the ex-leper in the temple on the eighth day.
- Worship of the ex-leper.
Acceptance of the Ex-Leper in the Temple on the Eighth Day
We see his acceptance into the temple on the eighth day in verses 8 and 11. Verse 8 says: “He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days.” Verse 9 says: “But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows—all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.”
You see, after the two-bird ritual, the individual was allowed to go into the camp. But he wasn’t allowed to go into his own tent and, most importantly, he wasn’t allowed to go into the tent of the living God. For seven days, he could roam around the camp, but not into his own tent, nor into the tent of the living God. And only on the eighth day was he admitted into his own tent and the tent of God.
Consider, then, this eighth-day admission. When else have we heard of the eighth day in the book of Leviticus? It was in Leviticus chapter 12 when on the eighth day we noted that a boy child was to be circumcised. And we said the unclean boy child would come and receive the circumcision, a cutting away of the flesh which in the New Testament emblematizes new birth. In the same way we see here, God is told to shave his head, beard, and eyebrows on the seventh day, wash thoroughly, and enter the temple on the eighth day. What does this show? Again, this is the washing of regeneration. He gets a new heart. Why would God make them do these important things on the eighth day, which is not their Sabbath?
The seventh-day Sabbath was celebrating the old and first creation. God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh day. Christ fulfilled all these types and rose again on the eighth day as the inauguration of a new creation. So the eighth day was clearly pointing to the coming new creation and the start of the Christian Sabbath. I showed that the eighth day is a rich theme in these Old Testament types. The seventh day is Saturday for them, the eighth is Sunday. You see, the Christian Sabbath was changed from the seventh day, Saturday, to the eighth day, Sunday, which was not merely haphazard. There were rich Old Testament roots and theological relevance. The eighth day, Sunday, is the day of new creation by the resurrection of Christ. The Old Testament pointed that all those who are newborn were circumcised and admitted into the temple on the eighth day, pointing to the fulfillment of all those who will be born again, united with Christ’s resurrection day, and as new creatures, enter the temple and gather on the eighth day. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.”
Just as every Jewish baby boy is circumcised and admitted into the temple on the eighth day, so we see every leper was considered unclean and dead. He was banished from the holy congregation. But now, he is alive again, like a new birth. Like a newborn baby, 2 Kings 5:14, talking about Namaan’s healing, says “His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.” Now as a born-again man, he is allowed to come inside the temple on the eighth day to present himself before the Lord. From the death of leprosy, he is beginning a new life, entering the camp and temple of God. Notice the cleansed person washes clothes, shaves all hair (head, beard, eyebrows), and bathes in water on the first and seventh days before entering the temple on the eighth day. This complete washing and entrance on the eighth day depicts the washing of regeneration and the necessity of new birth. Who is allowed into the new covenant community of God’s people? Only those who have been regenerated. Only those who have been given a new heart, circumcised not merely in the flesh, but in the heart. For a leper to enter the temple of God and commune with God, not only do his sins have to be forgiven, but his heart needs to change by regeneration.
Though all this happens at once when Christ saves us, we have to realize there is a big distinction in different aspects. Forgiveness and justification are two sides of a coin: one negative, to forgive our sins, and one positive, to impart righteousness. Both may be two sides of the same coin. But there is a difference between justification and regeneration. Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin, but regeneration delivers us from the power of sin. Justification legally admits us into God’s presence, but regeneration experientially and enjoyably admits us into God’s fellowship. There is a difference. Let me give an example.
David had a son, Absalom. He killed another of David’s sons, Amnon, and he was banished. After Joab pleaded, David decided to forgive his crime, but said he cannot come to my palace or see my face. David’s idea may have been that I will forgive his crime, but until his heart changes and he realizes his crime, he cannot come to me and enjoy my fellowship. His arrogance should change to humility, his rebellion to submission. Until that happens, though I forgave him, the son must still keep his distance. He cannot have my fellowship. In the same way, a man cannot have true access and enjoy fellowship with God by merely claiming, “My sins have been forgiven. I am justified.” His heart has to change by having a circumcised heart, a sensitive heart that realizes his great crime against God and loves God with a repented heart.
This is actually an inseparable evidence of true salvation. The evidence that someone is justified and saved from the penalty of sins is that they will be delivered from the power of sin. What is the evidence of the man who was a thief, that his sins have actually been forgiven? It is that he no longer steals, but rather that he works with his hands so that he will be able to provide for himself and for others. The fact that he has been delivered from the penalty of sin is manifested by his life, that he has been delivered from the power of his sin. A man breaking God’s law by dishonoring his parents, not listening to them, and bringing a bad name for them before the world, the evidence he is saved is that he will start obeying his parents.
Think why those seven days, he is allowed to move around the camp, not to enter even his tent or temple. Why should he be around people? So that people can watch him. He has been ceremonially cleansed, but for seven days, the whole camp will watch if the power of leprosy is truly broken in this man. In the same way, people complain, “Oh, we are so legalistic in our membership process.” No, we are biblical. If there would be someone who comes among us and says, “I have been justified,” is it not appropriate for the people of God to make sure that the man who claims he has been delivered from the penalty of sin in his life manifests that he has been delivered from the power of his sin? That the stronghold of the disease of sin has indeed been broken. He no longer has leprosy or is spreading leprosy; otherwise, the whole church will be infected. So they were careful about physical leprosy. But when we do it spiritually, they say we are legalists. So we see not only cleansing but also the eighth-day admission which symbolizes the regeneration of the leper. Now he is cleansed, forgiven, regenerated, and adopted into the family of God. Next we see his worship.
Worship of the Ex-Leper
Note the five elements of the ex-leper’s worship. There are four groups of activities in worship: Presentation, Offerings, Blood Smearings, and Oil Anointing.
First, Presentation. Verse 11 says he is “Presented before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”
Second, the priest gives different offerings. Verse 12: “And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord.” Verse 13: “Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place.”
Third, Blood Smearings. It is the smearing of blood on the strategic body parts. Read with me, for example, in verse 14: “The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.”
Fourth, Oil Anointing. Verse 15: “And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.” Verse 16: “Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord.” Verse 17: “And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering.” Verse 18: “The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord.”
What does all this whole ritual indicate? We keep scratching our head, saying again, “Why these boring tables?” No other normal Jew is told to do this. When you go back and re-read, do you know the only other person who has to perform all these rituals? The closest parallel to this ceremony in the book of Leviticus is the priestly ordination in chapters 8 and 9. When a man is dedicated, consecrated to serve God fully, ordained into that very high office, as Aaron and his sons were able to serve in the Tabernacle of the Living God? Remember his elaborate, grand dress, and then there were long rituals, a maze of rituals we saw. Only he has been made to go through all this.
You can see exact copies of those rituals here: the list of different offerings (guilt, wave, sin, and burnt offerings), and then the same smearing of blood on the right ear, right thumb, and right toe on strategic body parts, and the anointing of oil that were anointed back in Leviticus 8:23 and 8:24.
Question: Why are these priestly rituals done to the leper? He is not going to serve as a priest inside the tabernacle. Why all this for him?
Because only the leper, who knows the horror of his gruesome state in the leper colony, experiencing a living hell, cut off from family, people of God, and the temple of God, and dying a slow death, when God provides glorious deliverance from his wretched condemnation and leprosy, he has been delivered. God expects the heart of a cleansed, re-admitted leper to be filled with so much gratitude to God for his grace. If he has any sense of gratitude, he should commit all his remaining life, his energy, his powers, and his strength to serving the living God with the same commitment as a priest.
Last week, I called you “fellow lepers.” Now I call you as “fellow ex-lepers.” If you have any sense of the horror of the soul leprosy of sin, how you were born a leper, head to toe all leprous, everything that comes from you is impure, everything we touch is unclean, you lived constantly breaking God’s law, and you were defiled before God. As a leper is an awful, hateful sight with rotted flesh, unbound, untreated, and dying, a picture of death itself, you were so hateful to God. “Dead in trespasses and sins,” as Ephesians 2 says, “wallowing in your own leprous lusts and gutters.”
But I ask you, fellow cleansed, regenerated, adopted lepers, what inspiration and enthusiasm does the wonderfully restored leper know that we don’t know? Isn’t it even an argument from the lesser to the greater? Isn’t his restoration much less of a restoration than our restoration as eternal lepers and sinners? He may die and be delivered from his body’s leprosy. But oh, who could deliver us from eternal leprosy that is stuck like a spot on a leopard?
If you have any sense of your former condition, my fellow cleansed lepers, nobody has to tell you. You will have all the zeal and energy as a cleansed leper to serve God with all of your heart, mind, and strength. How inspired; how filled with enthusiasm he will be to serve the living God, much more than all other normal Jews. Can we learn how to worship God with the four elements of the ex-leper’s worship?
First, presentation. Verse 11 says he is “Presented before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” Think of the leper with tears in his eyes. These ears, hands, and legs should have rotted and been covered with blood and pus, but now, by an impossible, gracious miracle of God, all of that has disappeared, and they are healthy. “I should have died in a grave for lepers, but here I am sitting in the temple of God, pronounced clean. So I present myself as a sacrifice to God.” Can you see him standing there with tears?
Does this presentation remind us of Paul’s words? In Romans, after telling us for 11 chapters about our leprous condition in sin and what God has done, what does he tell us? Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
If you have any sense of God’s mercies shown to you, if you have any reasonable sense, you will do that. As cleansed lepers, we are obligated to give every ounce of energy to our Savior, who, in a way, became a leper to cleanse our leprosy.
What is the second aspect of the trespass offering, the wave offering, the sin offering, and the burnt offering in a holy place? The cleansed leper should never dare approach God with any arrogance of his own purity or self-righteousness, but always through the Lamb of God. That is the right way to approach. Doesn’t the writer of Hebrews call us in 10:19-22: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” No other way. It is by only one perfect sacrifice alone that I, as a cleansed leper, will always come with a broken and contrite heart.
There is a fine flour offering of a grain offering. Remember it is the giving of our labor of our hands and ourselves to God. Do you think he will grumble and struggle to tithe to God? No. So the leper, now in gratitude, offers the labor of his hands to God not grudgingly, but as Paul says, he will cheerfully.
Blood Smearings: It is the smearing of blood on the strategic body parts: the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. What does this mean? Just as for the priest, the symbolism was that this is a cleansed, consecrated man who should devote the strength of his ears to hearing God’s word, the strength of his hands to perform works of righteousness, and his legs to walk in God’s ways. The right thumb and big toe indicated the strength of the hands and feet. You know that if you cut the thumb and big toe, the strength in the hands and legs is gone. In Judges 1:6, Adonai-bezek in Judges, they wanted to make a man helpless, so they took off his thumbs so he could no longer grasp things, and they cut off his big toes so he hobbled around with much instability. So we see then that the big toe and the thumb involved physical strength that is depicted in the touching of these lobes. It was done to the priest, indicating that as High Priest, Aaron was to be a man whose life was to be dedicated to the Lord’s service in all of his faculties, with all of his strength. His life was to be given to serve God.
Think of the leper with tears in his eyes. These ears, hands, and legs should have rotted with blood and pus, but today they are healthy, so I give them to God. “I should have died in a grave for lepers, but here I am sitting in the temple of God, pronounced clean.” I devote my bloodstained ears, hands, and legs to God.
Again, Paul, continuing to tell us to offer ourselves, tells us in Romans 12:2: now, if you realize what God has done for you, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” If you have any sense of your former condition, my fellow cleansed lepers, nobody has to tell you. You will have all the zeal and energy as a cleansed leper to serve God with all of your heart, mind, and strength.
What does this mean? As a true worshiper, first, devote your bloodstained ears to hearing and reading God’s word. You don’t come to church and allow your mind to go around the world, or not sleep properly and sleep here. No, you come with a prepared heart. Devote your ears to discern the good will of God. Oh, how much when we see ears were full of leprosy, only loved to hear the filth of the world, a mind was demon-possessed and tortured. Like Saul, to calm that mind, we kept hearing the demonic songs of the world. We kept giving our ears to the lies of the devil and the world and hated God’s good word. Now God has cleansed my mind to hear. My ears are dedicated to hear and grasp God’s good and perfect will.
Once you grasp your good and acceptable, perfect will, these hands, which were full of leprosy in actions, are now cleansed to do God’s will. And these leprous legs should have walked in the path of the devil and the world and rotted in hell, but now these cleansed, bloodstained hands and legs are dedicated to do his will and to walk in his ways. Ears, hands, and legs talk about our actions, walk, lifestyle, and direction of life. All should be to do God’s good will. All his right side should be given to God, meaning all his strength should be given to God. That is the call of God when he cleanses a leper, pointing in these rituals.
Not only presentation, offerings, and blood smearings on the ears, thumb, and toes, but fourthly, Oil Anointing. We see oil put on the same three locations: ear, thumb, and toe. Verse 18: “The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed.” If you read the whole chapter, oil is given a very high profile. It is mentioned twelve times in the passage. Now, what is oil? Oil in the Old Testament is a symbol for the joy produced by the Holy Spirit. It was a joyous anointing of the Holy Spirit to serve Christ with joy and gratitude. It’s a symbol for gladness and thanksgiving. Like it says in Psalm 45:7, “The King has been anointed with the oil of joy.” And isn’t that what this whole occasion is marinated in? Great joy. This whole occasion is dripping with a theme of joyous gratitude to God. The leper is filled with joy because now he has access into the presence of God.
Someone with tears told me, “Boy, imagine what it would have been like for a leper in that condition to have been healed. I can’t even imagine the kind of thankfulness and joy that would have been in his heart.” What words would you use to describe it? How about rhapsody? An effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling. How about euphoria? Good words for what he experienced. There was thankfulness. There was gratitude. There was deep indebtedness. That’s the enduring thankfulness.
Again, fellow cleansed leprous sinners, having been cleansed, above all, brethren, we must be a colony of enduringly thankful people. Above all. All of our thinking, all of our relationships, all of our activities ought to be marinated and soaked in this gratitude and joy. Again, ex-lepers, if you know your former condition, what you deserve, and what God has done for you, you will be like 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 5:20: “giving thanks always and for everything to God.” Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
It is this overflowing gratitude of ex-lepers through which God builds his kingdom. It is oil-smooth, voluntary service to Christ, not like grudging Pharisees. It is like the woman who broke costly perfume and wiped his feet. See Paul’s way of pouring his costly perfume to Christ.
Paul, as a cleansed leper, with gratitude says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ constrains us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, that they who should live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.” What does “the love of Christ constrains us” mean? If you know what Christ has done for you, you cannot keep quiet in his service. You will not live for yourself, but for him who died. He explains how it constrains him in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28: “I am a more zealous laborer, more beaten, more often in prisons, and often in danger of death. Five times I received forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a day and a night in the open sea. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers.” “I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” Why, Paul? Because as a cleansed leper, the love of Christ constrains me. What was he doing when he was absorbing all these blows? He was spreading the name of his Savior across the world, serving his master with all of his heart and strength and soul. Paul! What is it that inspired you to enlist all of your faculties in serving the cause of the kingdom? “I was a leper, and I was cleansed. And therefore, the love of Christ constrains me to enlist every strength of mine to his service. My ears are bloodstained to hear only his word, my hands in blood to do his will, and my legs to walk in his ways and service.”
Let me ask you about the leper who’s just been delivered, and then his right thumb and his right ear and his right big toe get the touch of blood, committing him to a life of devotion and dedication to God, enlisted in the army of Christ. Do you think, brethren, that such a commitment was a tedious drudgery to the cleansed leper? Oh no, brethren. It was a joyous soaring for him. It was like the bird flying. “This is what I want to do. This is what I delight to do.” And so too it is for the cleansed saint, brethren. All of our faculties in serving our Savior with the oil of joy.
So ex-lepers, God expects from us four groups of activities in worship: Presentation as living sacrifices; coming to him through Christ alone with offerings; blood smearings, our ears, hands, and legs dedicated to doing God’s will; and oil anointing, serving Christ with joy and gratitude. How will the Lord see us when we don’t live like that?
When the Lord was so grieved and pained when he healed ten lepers and only one came to thank him, oh, we should have seen the grief in his face, but his voice was shocked at the ingratitude. Luke 17:17: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?” How the heavens must have been shocked! How his heart must bleed even now when so many of us, cleansed from the horror of soul leprosy, a thousand times worse than physical leprosy, still live with ingratitude, not presenting, worshiping, and living. Some of us among us, I really don’t understand how you can claim you are a saved believer and even join church membership and give excuses to come to services. “Oh, the evening service is so difficult.” Is this a living sacrifice? Aren’t you grieving him every week? We joke, saying, “Ten healed, where are the others in the evening?”
Are you a cleansed leper? Is there blood in your ear? Is your heart dedicated to eagerly listen to God’s word? Sometimes your pastor goes on for a long time. Sometimes it’s intense. Sometimes you have to gird up the loins of your mind. Your right ear, you should use all the strength of your ear to listen carefully, long, and grasp God’s word. But you can listen to every dialogue in stupid ten-hour web series, but for a one-hour sermon, if the sermon is difficult, is there a bloodstain in your right ear? No, you switch off and allow your mind to go around the world. How is your Bible reading at home? “Oh, it’s so difficult to read the Bible daily, so busy with life. So difficult to meditate, so busy with eating, drinking, wearing clothes, working.” Doesn’t that lifestyle show blood in the ear, hands, and feet is missing? If you have blood there, you will use all the strength of your right ear to listen to God’s word daily.
Our right hands, we use them to sacrificially assist His sheep and build His church. If you love me, don’t come weekly once and run away and call yourself a saved leper. Show me with your actions that you love me by serving one of these little ones.
Our right feet, we use them to run in the ways of righteousness, even to run fast and catch up with straying sinners and deliver them by bringing them back into the camp or snatching them by the oil that is poured upon the head. We use all of our intellectual powers to the glory of the living God for the advancement of the kingdom.
Ask your conscience: Is this Christian life, or is this what we are living? How long will we continue in this lukewarm Christianity? Christ says, “I will spew you if you don’t repent.” How did Christ serve and cleanse us? Look at the bird: its head was wrung from its body, and every drop of blood from its soul was poured out to cleanse our soul. He spared nothing for us. Therefore, brethren, we must spare no pains to serve our Savior. We must withhold no energy. We must leave no skill unused. We must bury no opportunity as we labor as priests dedicated to his service.
Fellow leper, could it be that it has been a long time, and you have become a Pharisee, one of the nine lepers? Imagine that one grateful leper, it says in Luke 17:14, “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan.” Oh, may God give us gratitude like him. Can you imagine the furious way he ran back, waving his hands to catch the Savior? Jesus was not in one place. Maybe he kept going to different places until he saw him. Oh, what joy! Waving his hands, screaming, “Lord, I am cleansed,” and falls at his feet. “Thank you, Lord Jesus, thank you!” Oh, some of you come to church like those nine ungrateful lepers, like it’s no big deal. Oh, may we come like the tenth leper and prostrate ourselves before the Lord Jesus every week with gratitude, with a loud voice, with songs in our mouth.
Those of you who still don’t realize your leprous state, if you realize it, just ask him, “Lord Jesus, have mercy,” and he will cleanse you.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 