Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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And now, Lord, we do
come to a word, recognizing indeed,
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God, that this is your word
and God, what I will read to
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your people here in a moment is
the very words of God. How privileged
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we are to have the words of
God. What a joy it is,
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Lord, and help us to be
more filled with the desire to read it
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and study it and memorize it and
learn it, Lord, for there is,
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it is indeed meet for our souls. It is life to our bones,
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God, and we thank you for
it. We thank you that you
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have endowed us with such a gift
that we should have it. Forgive us
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for our neglect, Lord, when
we neglect that, we should we should
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never neglect it. Forgive us for
that. But now, this morning,
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we are going to read it,
Lord, and we pray indeed that you
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would enlighten it to us, that
you would help my words to be faithful
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to the text, that you would
keep me from error and, Lord,
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that I may indeed lift up your
son and the message of the Gospel.
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And I ask your blessing upon it
in Jesus name. Amen. We had
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a long call to worship. We
have a short text, so it makes
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up for each other. So,
Luke Chapter Five. As we continue on
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in the gospel of Luke, I
will get there, and then also you
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and again Um. We're just reading
a few verses, beginning with verse twelve
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and going through Verse Sixteen. But
here is God's word. While he Christ
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was in one of the cities,
there came a man full of leprosy and
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when he saw Jesus, he fell
on his feet and begged fell on his
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face and begged him, Lord,
if you will, you can make me
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clean. And Jesus stretched out his
hand and touched him, saying I will
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beat out clean, and immediately the
leprosy left him and he charged him to
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tell no one, but go and
show yourself to the priest and make an
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offering for your cleansing, as Moses
commanded, for a proof to them.
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But now, even more the report
about him when abroad and Greg crawls gathered
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to hear him and to be healed
of their infirmities, but he would withdraw
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to desolate places and pray. That's
all, and the reading of God's Word
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Please be seated. Up to this
point the gospel of Luke, Luke has
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been trying to show us how our
Lord is Master and Victor over everything that
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he meets. He has faced the
temptations of the enemy and he has emerged
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victorious. He faces a demon who
has possessed a man and conquers the demon.
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He faces a high fever in the
home of Simon with his mother in
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law, and he is victorious over
that. He shows himself, in the
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miraculous catch of fish, to be
a victor over all of nature. And
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so now in our story this morning, Jesus faces what in that day was
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considered to be one of the most
impossible and means to conquer, that of
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leprosy. Re Read in the Gospel
of John that the blind man said it
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has never been heard from the beginning
of the world that anyone has healed a
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man born blind. That's how amazing
that healing was. But leprosy is somewhat
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similar. Now it is true that
there could be those that would recover from
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leprosy, but it was considered a
very terrible disease and very difficult. No
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no one could heal it. It
could heal of itself, but no one
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had the power in that day,
in that day, to heal it.
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And so we find, especially in
the advanced state that this man has,
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this leprosy, that it just was
not dealt with by anyone else. Even
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the Apostles who went forward after Christ
were never told that they cleansed the lepers
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in the book of acts, although
I can certainly believe that they did,
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but we're not told about that.
So again, it is a short passage
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but it's full of meaning and so
I want to try to bring that out
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to you this morning. It concerns, as I said already, a man
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who is a leper. Now,
in the description or the concept of leprosy
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and exactly what leprosy was, there
is ambiguity. Today we're not exactly sure
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what the disease was, but most
of the writers that I used for my
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studies believed that this was a disease
was called Hanson's disease and Um it's identified
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because of a man that discovered it, or found it what it was,
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Dr Gerhard Hanson, and that's who
the disease was named after, as I
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mentioned. But he was the very
first person in history to identify bacteria as
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a causative element or agent of a
human disease, and so doing he actually
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proved that leprosy, or Hanson's disease, was not a hereditary disease, but
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was actually a contagious disease. Dr
Paul Brand, who came later, discovered
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what seemed to be the main effect
of this disease, is numbness of affected
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areas of the skin, which in
turn leads to other effects. If you're
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numb in your extremities, there's things
you don't think about. Sometimes it's easy.
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Perhaps something falls into the fire and
you just reach into the fire because
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you have no pain sensors, no
warning system to alert you. UH,
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said in some parts of the world
that rats would gnaw off extremities of leopards
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because or those enhanced this disease because
they couldn't feel it because they were absolutely
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numb. People could actually pour scalding
water on themselves not knowing it and could
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be damaged with burns and all of
these things and many other things could happen,
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and so Dr Brand described the disease
as a painless hell. Now we
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don't know that every case of leprosy
in the Bible, or indeed we can't
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prove that any case. Perhaps is
this Hanson's disease? We don't know for
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sure and there are differences in that. But uh, the lepers life,
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we can say was not very good. Uh, it involved a lot of
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isolation. They were usually reduced to
begging because they weren't supposed to come into
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the areas where people were as far
as normal things, so they had to
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beg for their food. They couldn't
work, they didn't have ways to work
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and often they would live together in
bands, as we see in other places
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in the Bible. Josephs, the
early historian at the time of Christ,
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describes lepers has dead men. We
would describe him in our lingo as dead
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men walking, because that's what they
were. Michael Wilcox Rights, the leper
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was not just ill, he was
outcast. He had not simply lost his
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health, he lost his family,
his friends, his home, his livelihood.
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No one would, indeed no one
was allowed, to associate with him.
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This story is actually found in all
of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew,
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mark and Luke, but all we
have described in Matthew and mark is that
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he's a leper. Ah, but
our writer was a doctor, Dr Luke,
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and Dr Luke says he wasn't just
a leper, he was actually full
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of leprosy. Now what does that
mean exactly? We don't know, but
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I think at the least we can
say is that he had an advanced case
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of leprosy. Something about him knew
what we caused luke to know where the
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apostles of this man has been a
leper for quite a while and has been
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very seriously affected by it. In
verse twelve, Jesus is in one of
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the cities, but it doesn't specify
what city is in. It has been
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suggested that, since the lepers rarely
came into town, that Jesus was in
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fact that the outskirts of a city. When this happens chronologically? When this
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happened we don't know, but it
appears from comparing the three gospels. Sometimes
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between Jesus giving a sermon on the
Mount we find in Matthew five through seven,
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and the calling of the twelve apostles, that would seem to be the
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right time. And again we have
a word here in verse twelve that the
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e S v UH totally omits.
I don't know why they do this and
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Um, I love the S V
but there's times I just don't quite understand
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it. And it's the word I
mentioned before that they omit, and that
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is the word behold. And you
might say, well, it's not necessary,
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but luke uses the word to tell
us that something extraordinary is about to
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happen or is happening at that time. And what is extraordinary? Well,
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the healing itself will be extraordinary,
but what is also extraordinary is that the
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leper is coming into the presence of
Jesus. And because Leviticus says of a
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leper he shall remain in unclean as
long as he has a disease. He's
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unclean. He shall live alone,
his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
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Later in Luke will read about ten
leopards who come to Jesus, but it
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tells us they stood at a distance
to ask him. This man comes up
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to Jesus and he learns. We
learned when the lepers saw Jesus, he
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fell on his face. Now that
represents both worship, as we do that
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when we kneel, but also uh
worship, but also reverence for God and
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humility. All of these things.
And Matthew's account simply says the man knelt
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before him. Mark said the man
was imploring him kneeling, but Luke says
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he also fell on his face.
This is a great way to come to
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the Lord when we have needs.
It's good to come to him and humility
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and recognize our position as we come
to him and not coming, as I
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used to believe in my days and
the word of faith movement, that you
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come demanding God to do something.
It's not a good way to do things
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at all. And he actually begs
Jesus as he comes before him, and
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he doesn't just call Jesus master or
Sir, which we have encountered already in
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this book, but he actually uses
a Greek word, Curios, which means
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Lord and is the word often used
in the Greek translation of the Old Testament
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scriptures to refer to God, Yahweh. So the Hebrew word Yahweh the Greek
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often translates as Curios. So he
comes to the Lord and he uses the
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word curious. Now what did he
understand? I don't know for sure,
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but it is indeed a tell him
thing. And then we have to note
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carefully the way he words his request. He says, Lord, if you
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will you can make me clean.
He has complete faith in Jesus that Jesus
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can indeed rid him of this disease. He knows Jesus has the ability and
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the power to do it. But
he just isn't sure if Jesus is willing
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to do that. I'll come back
to that in a little bit. Let's
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look at versus thirteen to fourteen.
In verses thirteen and says Jesus stretched out
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his hand and touched them and touched
him. Now that statement has caused quite
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a bit of controversy through the years
in the church and you might have come
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upon that at some point in your
study of the Scriptures. The question is,
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by touching the leper, isn't Jesus
in effect violating the law of Moses
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levinnicus five three says? Or if
he touches human uncleanness of whatever sort,
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the uncleanness may be with which one
becomes unclean and it is hidden from him
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when he comes to know it and
realizes his guilt. So accordingly, it
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was against the law to touch anything
that was unclean. So isn't Jesus guilty
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then, by touching someone who was
unclean? I think of all the answers,
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I would probably go to John Kelvin
answer. He says in the law
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the touch of the leper was contagious, but as there is such purity in
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Christ, he absorbs all on cleanness
and pollution. He does not contaminate himself
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by touching the leper, nor does
he transgress the law. Others would say
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that the Leper was even clean before
Christ touched him. So often in the
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Bible and the New Testament and the
gospels we find instances where Jesus heals by
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a touch. Remember, in fact, the other way it would be not
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just Jesus healing by a touch but
others being healed by simply touching Jesus.
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Can remember the story of the woman
with the issue of blood and that she
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came and said, if I can
just touch the hem of his garment,
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I will be made whole. And
Uh, that has been used through the
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years by UH supposed faith healers.
Maybe I don't know. Some of you
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that have been back in that world
at some point in your life received a
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little piece of claw in the mail
that the faith healer said, if you
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send him a donation, that cloth
will be a healing cloth and you can
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put it on whatever particular ailment uh
you have. But uh, this is
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they have no call for that.
But but again, um do. Even
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though the woman touches him, it
wasn't just touching Jesus that did it.
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Even though that's what she did,
it wasn't just doing that. Because remember
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when Jesus Said who touched me?
The disciple said, there's people jostling all
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around you, everybody's touching you.
Why would you ask that question? But
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Jesus knew one person had touched him
with faith in their hearts. In fact,
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he'll say to her daughter, thy
faith has made the whole, and
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so we recognize it as the touch
of Jesus in faith, believing in him.
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But more often in the Bible it
is the case that Jesus touches those
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whom he heals. He was four
fifteen, says, in the King James
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Origin. We have not a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
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of our infirmities. And Matt Mark
adds the detail that when he stretched out
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his hand he did it with compassion. We don't know for sure about this.
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I'm speculating a bit, but I
think it's very possible that for ten
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or twenty years the leper had not
felt the touch of a human hand.
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So what a wonderful feeling that must
have been that day when our Lord reached
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out and actually touched him, and
then we have the reply of Jesus to
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the lepers plea. In Greek it
is simply two words. The words are
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fellow, Catharistheti, fellow means I
will, and Casti means be cleansed.
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Two words our Lord otters. We
have a correspondence between our Lord's words and
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the words of the Leper. If
you will, you can make me clean.
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Jesus response. I will be clean
now, immediately, we are told
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the leprosy left him one moment full
of leprosy, the next moment no leprosy
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anywhere to be found. That's the
kind of healing our Lord does. He
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does instantaneous healing. Now I know
there are examples in the Bible, a
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couple at least, of showing them
people that were healed later. The ten
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lepers that were healed on their way
Um is one example of that. Some
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would mention the blind man that Jesus
touches once and then he has to touch
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again, or does touch again.
I shouldn't say he has to, but
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he does it again, and this
has been used also by faith healers through
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the years when they pray for people
and of course of the time nobody's healed.
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So they always tell the Moll it's
like the lepers. You can be
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healed as you leave this building.
And of course then he doesn't have to
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be there to find out they didn't
get healed. So that that is the
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problem there. But normally, I
mean the two times where there's something delayed,
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there's a reason. There's a spiritual
lesson. Jesus is trying to get
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aside, something he's teaching, and
so there's a reason for it. But
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normally the healings of Jesus are instantaneous. They happened right away. Peter's mother
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in law is sick with a great
high fever. Jesus rebukes the fever and
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she gets up and starts serving him
instantaneously. That's the kind of healings our
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Lord does. In verse fourteen we
have a very strange command that the Lord
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gives to the Leper. He says
tell no man. presuably, don't tell
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anybody about the healing that you've just
had. Now, why does our Lord
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say that? There are different speculations
about that part of it. I believe
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my own personal belief, and you
can disagree with me on this. This
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is okay, but but I believe
part of it was that Jesus knew when
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his hour was and the more attention
he drew to himself, the more dangerous
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it was for him in these early
days, and he had to follow his
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father's timetable, and so he didn't
want this going out. And so I
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believe it. It has part of
that. But again it also could be
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that the Lord just didn't want the
leopard to claim to be healed until he'd
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gone to the priest and the priest
had indeed confirmed that he had been healed.
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And so again, by going to
the priest, the priest's weren't friendly
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to Jesus in these days. So
by going to the priest he was giving
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a testimony to the power of Christ
healing ability. And here was the procedure
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we found of the leper, and
this is important. But, as mentioned,
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the priest shall go out of the
camp and the priest shall look in
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the case of leprous disease is healed
in the leprous person. The priest shall
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command them to take for him,
who is to be cleansed, to live,
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clean birds and Cedar Wood and scarlet
yarn and his hip, and the
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priest shall command them to kill one
of the birds and an earthenware vessel over
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fresh water. He shall take the
live bird with the Cedar would in the
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scarlet yarn and his it and dip
them in the live bird, in the
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blood of the bird that was killed
over the fresh water, and he shall
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sprinkle it seven times on Him who
is to be cleansed of the lepros disease.
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Then he should pronounce him clean and
shall let the living bird go into
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the open field. That would have
been the procedure that the priest would have
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done to the leper when he came
to them. Now there's more, but
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I'm saving that for the end because
I think there's a good application there.
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But it doesn't all happen that first
day. There's more to come and it's
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clear from the Gospel accounts that when
the man does go to the priest,
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he does indeed pass the test of
being free from leprosy. So in versus
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fifteen and sixteen, we find Luke
phrasing diplomatically what mark is much more blunt
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about. Luke says, but now
even more report about him. Went abroad,
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but mark says, speaking of the
Leper, but he went out and
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began to talk freely about it and
spread the news. So Jesus could no
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longer openly enter a town but was
out in desolate places and people were coming
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to him from every quarter. In
other words, the leper disobeyed a direct
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command of Christ. Now I suppose
of all the disobedience one could do,
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we might personally be inclined to forgive
the Leper this indiscretion, this sin,
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because, after all, aren't we
commanded in the Bible to proclaim the works
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of God? We're saying it this
morning, we're saying it in some one,
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oh three. Aren't we commanded to
do that? Aren't we commanded to
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proclaim his greatness on one, oh
five, one, give thanks to the
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Lord, call upon his name,
make known as deeds among the people?
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is now what the Scripture says.
But yet we can't avoid the simple fact
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that God had given a command and
this man disobeyed it. So we cannot
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excuse him. We might be able
to understand it, we can't excuse it.
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But we also note this is a
third time that Luke mentions something going
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out, some kind of report that
goes out about Jesus. Now in all
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three times when Luke mentions that,
the e S V translates the word has
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report, report of him, report
of Jesus in all three cases. But
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what is interesting in the Greek it
is it is three different words, a
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different word each time. The first
word in look for fourteen is the Greek
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word faming, which the King James
translates as fame. We could also say
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a rumor of him when about.
So it's just kind of starting out.
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The second word uh, in Luke
four thirty seven, which again the S
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V translates his report the King James
Against his fame, but it is a
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different word. The word is a
cost, where we get our word for
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echo, and it means now more
of a resounding. The first one was
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was perhaps a faint sound, a
little bit of a rumor, but now
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it is the stronger sound and the
word in our text is a very familiar
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word even the most people who don't
know Greek. It is the word Lagas,
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which means word and uh again.
This is perhaps indicating that not only
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now are people realizing and hearing of
Jesus, but they're beginning to make a
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rational decision about who Christ is.
So in Verse Sixteen, the result is
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Jesus now has to withdraw to a
desert place and even though matthew and mark
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don't mention it. Luke is the
Gospel writer who, more than any other,
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stresses prayer and it tells us.
Luke tells us his purpose is to
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go out and to pray, to
commune with his heavenly father. William Hendrickson
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says Jesus gave it, gave us
an example by not allowing anything to stand
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in the way of regular seasons of
prayer, and there's much we could say
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about that, but I'm not going
to deal with that this morning. But
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I do want to make some applications. I look at the Healing Ministry of
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Christ has not only, of course, wonderful as far as physical healing,
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it is, of course, but
I look at it beyond that, I
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think every healing miracle of Christ has
a spiritual application. I believe not only
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was he conquering and showing the power
that he had, but he was also
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trying to teach us something in each
one of the healings, and that I
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would say almost every single one,
if not every single one. I didn't
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look at them all, but but
I have to do with what happens to
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us in regeneration and salvation. The
healing of the blind would transfer over to
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US spiritually that, as Paul tells
us, the God of this world has
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blinded our minds, those that are
in darkness, and so Jesus removes that
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blindness from us when he regenerates us. The raising of the DAD speaks of
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what happens to us in regeneration,
because Paul tells us in e Fesians to
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one, that we were dead in
trespasses and sin. And so the raising
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of the dead speaks of our raising
out of trespasses, out of the death
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of trespasses and sin. And so
leprosy in the Bible has long been looked
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at as a type of sin.
Now, you could say to me,
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and you'd be right. Well pastor
nowhere in the Bible does it ever say
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leprosy is a type of sin.
You would be right. It never says
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it. However, let me quote
G Campbell Morgan here. He says,
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if that be so that it's never
mentioned, it is nonetheless true that the
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common consciousnesses of men and women who
are believed in God for ages, the
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Hebrew expositors and theologians, the Christian
expositors and theologians, have all seen in
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leprosy. Even though the statement is
not made in the Bible. The most
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revealing symbol in the material real of
what sin is in the spiritual and I
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think there's many parallels we could draw
between leprosy and sin and I'm not going
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to go through all of them this
morning, but I want to talk about
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a couple for sure. One parallel
about leprosy and sin is leprosy, like
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sin, affects us in every part
of our body. And he fees,
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excuse me, Isaiah one six,
and we read out of that chapter earlier,
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but we didn't read this verse.
In Verse Six, God describes the
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wickedness of Judah in this way,
from the soul of the foot even to
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the head. There is no soundness
in it but bruises and sores and raw
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wounds. They are not pressed out, out out or bound up or softened
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with oil. Let's the affect of
sin or the effect of leprosy. We're
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not partially Lepros we are as this
man is described. We are full of
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leprosy. We are not a little
bit of a transgressor we are not one
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who just, you know, maybe
just a regulation or two. We are
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entirely sinners. We are, as
it says, dead in trespasses and sin,
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and just has lepers are dead men
walking, so are sinners. Sinners
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are indeed also dead men walking the
wages of sin, the Bible says,
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his death. Living in sin,
like living in leprosy, leaves US outside
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the camp. We are not a
part of the congregation of the Lord when
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we are living in sin and living
without God's regenerating power. And there are
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many other ways. But I want
to mention one more this morning that to
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me is very telling and and you
may not go with me there, but
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nonetheless I'm going to talk about it
for a little bit. And that is
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what I mentioned earlier, that when
the leper went to the priest to have
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the test done to see whether he
is healed of leprosy, we had those
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instructions. That happened on the first
day that he comes, but there are
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instructions for later on as well.
At the end of the first day,
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Sarah Money, the man is to
wash his clothes and shave all the hair
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on his body and bathe himself,
but then he is told to go away
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from the priest and he can live
in a camp, but he has to
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live outside his tent for seven days
and then verse nine of Leviticus Fourteen,
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it says on the seventh day,
followed this carefully, on the Seventh Day
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he shall shave off all his hair
from his head, his beard and his
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eyebrows. He shall shave off all
his hair and then he shall wash his
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clothes and bathe his bathe his body
and water and he shall be clean.
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That is the seventh day. On
the eighth day we read that he has
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to bring three lambs, to Male, one female, both without blemish,
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and some grain and oil. I
won't read the whole text out of Leviticus,
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but you can. And then the
priest would perform several functions, including
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the sacrifice of the lamb and disposal, in the sacrific ficial manner, of
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the grain in the oil, and
then, after all that was done on
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the eighth day, the man would
be pronounced clean. Now I think there's
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several numbers in the Bible that have
importance. One I've told you about before,
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right the number seven. It's very
important. I said, if you
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answer that to most of my questions, you'll be right at the time.
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Three is a very important number,
of course it's the number of the Trinity.
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Forty is a very important number.
We've already come across at once in
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Luke of the trial or temptation of
Christ, and we have the forty days,
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forty nights of rain in the forty
years in the Wilderness and all those
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scriptures that speak of trial. But
I would say another number that I think
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is important. I try to kind
of walk a middle ground when it comes
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to Biblical numerology, but I do
think there is some interest in it.
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But I don't again, I don't
expect you to have to follow everything I
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say here, but it's interesting that
it seems in the Bible that the number
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eight represents resurrection to us. At
the end of seven days we come to
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the eighth day, and I remember
that because I was a Beatles fan and
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they're saying eight days of week,
so I remember that. But the end
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of seven days we come to the
eighth day, which begins a new week.
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The old week is gone and so
the eighth day becomes a new week
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for us to live. And of
course you know what day our Lord Jesus
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rose. He rose on the first
day of the week, which was also
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the eighth day, and he was
resurrected from the dead. All males were
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commanded to be circumcised on the Eighth
Day, speaking of the Covenant Life that
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God gives. Pentecost, which is
the day the Holy Spirit was given,
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was the eighth day of the seventh
week. And, of course, when
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God wanted to repopulate the Earth by
people that could come out alive, how
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many people did he put into the
Ark? He put eight people in the
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Ark. And also, again,
trying not to go too far, afield,
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but if you do add up the
numerical value of the letters of Jesus
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name and Greek, it equals eight, eight, eight. Well, there's
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more, but that's enough for now. But on the eighth day our hearts
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are circumcised. On the eighth day
we are made new creatures, the day
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of our resurrection. We are cleansed
from our sin on that eighth day,
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just like the leper would be declared
cleansed on the eighth day. So we
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are declared cleansed on that day.
And I want you to notice something different
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here, something that Christ does that
the law cannot do. You See,
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the law fails in a sense when
it comes to leprosy, because what did
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the law do to cleanse leprosy?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. The only thing
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that the law could do was give
a means to test whether or not a
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person actually had leprosy. But what
did Jesus to the Leper see? He
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healed those that were lepers and he
made them totally clean. What does the
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law do in regards to sin?
It points out our sin to us,
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it tells us we're sinful, but
that's it. That's where it ends.
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There's a famous poem attributed to John
Bunyan. Run, John Run. The
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law commands but gives me neither feet
nor hands. Far Better News The Gospel
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brings. It bids me fly,
but gives me wings. The Gospel gives
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us the power to do what the
law could never do. And so we
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see the greatness of Christ. And
I want you to notice again the request
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of the Leper. I said I'd
come back to it. He said,
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Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. That's so typical
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of us when we come to the
Lord with our petitions. I don't think
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very often we really doubt that God
has the power to fulfill that petition that
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we have. We don't come to
God thinking, well, Lord, I
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know this might be a little beyond
you, but no, we know,
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we believe that we accept, that
we believe that, Jeremiah, oh Lord
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God, it is you who have
made the heavens and the Earth, by
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your great power and by your outstretched
star, nothing is too difficult for you.
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But we often doubt that God is
willing to answer our prayers. That's
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our problem. Hebrews Eleven six says
whoever we draw near to God, must
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believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who diligently seek him. That's
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the problem we have, the believing
that God actually rewards us when we come
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to him. Kelvin says that the
request of this man, this is not
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inconsistent with a certainty of faith which
God demands in our prayer, for men
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ought not to expect more than God
promises, and indeed we can do that.
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But our problem often, like the
leper, is I know God can
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do it, but is he willing? Is he willing? But we need
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to trust in God, believe in
his love and His mercy, that he's
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willing to forgive us and decleanse us. Jesus touching the leopard not only speaks
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of the healing of sin, but
it speaks to us of his incarnation.
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It says we see in this story
that Jesus was willing to come in contact
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with unclean flesh in a way.
But again I'm not saying he touched unclean
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flesh, but he who now knows
sin was made to be sin for us
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that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. You See,
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the most amazing thing happens here when
Jesus touches the leper, the exact reversal
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of everything else. We know happens
mothers, when your child comes in from
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playing in the dirt, maybe a
mud once in a while here in Tucson.
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I haven't seen it, but I've
heard about it, but you know.
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But when they come in and they're
covered with that dirt of the desert
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all over them and you touch them, they don't become clean, you become
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unclean. That's the normal way things
work. Haggy explains that. He says
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if someone carries holy meeting the fold
of his garment and touches with his full
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of bread or stew or wine or
oil or any kind of food, does
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it become holy? The priest answer
and said no, it wouldn't do it.
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Then Heggy, I said if someone
who is unclean by contact with the
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dead body touches any of these,
does it become unclean? And the priest
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said it does become unclean, because
that's the normal course of events. That's
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how it always works, except when
God is oft and so Christ, who
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is clean, touches the unclean,
but instead of Christ being defiled, the
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leper becomes clean. And that's how
it is. In the incarnation, Jesus,
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the holy one of God, takes
flesh and the end result is that
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the unclean can be made clean.
Have you ever noticed Paul's words and Romans
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Chapter Eight, where he says that
Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh?
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Do you know of those three words, likeness, sinful and flesh?
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If you take out any one of
those words you're a heretic. It changes
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the entire meaning. But Paul says
he didn't say he didn't come in flesh,
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which is the light. He didn't
say the likeness of flesh. He
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came in flesh and he doesn't say
he came in sinful flesh, because he
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didn't become in sinful flesh. And
so we realize that Jesus comes in the
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incarnation. Calvin again says for assuming
our flesh he has granted us more than
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the touch of his hand. He's
brought himself into one and the same body
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with us in order that we should
be flesh of his flesh. He does
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not only stretch out his arm to
us, but he comes down from heaven
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even to the very depths. Yet
he catches no stain thereby, but stays
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home, clears all our dirt away
and pours upon us his own holiness.
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Now, while he could heal the
leper by his word alone, he adds
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the contact of his hand to show
his feeling of compassion. No wonder,
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since he willed to put on our
flesh in order that he might cleanse us
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from all our sins. So the
reaching out of his hand was a sign
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and token of his vast grace and
goodness. Here is the thing which we
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pass over without much impression at an
idle reading, but most certainly ponder with
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much awe when we take it properly, that the son of God, far
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from abhorring contact with the Leper,
actually stretched out his hand to touch his
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uncleanness. What a glorious thing our
Christ, our Savior, is done.
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So. If we're affected with the
leprosy of sin, what do we do?
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The first thing we do is we
recognize our condition. As a leopard,
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did we come to the Lord and
say, Lord, I'm unclean,
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I'm unclean, I have sinned in
so many ways. We recognize who we
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are. The Leopard doesn't come and
say, well, I have a little
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bit of a problem in my big
doll. We say no, I have
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a problem in my entire being,
Lord, I am sinful. We are
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like Paul, who says in Roman, Oh, wretched man that I am.
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When we realize, like the leper, that we are totally sinful,
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we are in a perfect position to
be received by Christ. We recognize at
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that moment that their only hope we
have is in Christ atoning death, in
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his blood, and we will celebrate
to night in the Lord's supper. We
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realize that we're helpless, but by
his blood he can make us whole,
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he can heal us, he who
touched our flesh, can make us clean
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so that we come into his presence
and can say, Lord, I am
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00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:27.800
clean, not of myself but of
the precious blood of Christ, which purifies
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00:37:28.519 --> 00:37:31.960
and cleanses me to stand in your
presence. We bar our heads this morning.
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Lord, we thank you for your
word we thank you for the truth
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of our sinful condition, but you
don't just leave us there. You show
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00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:46.800
us the way out. You tell
us, if we can just humble ourselves
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before you and admit our condition,
that you are willing and ready to receive
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00:37:52.440 --> 00:37:57.760
us and, as you did to
the leper so many years ago, to
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00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:02.960
stretch out your hand to us and
say I will be clean. We thank
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you for so great a salvation that
I'm sure most of us here this morning,
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I've obtained. We thank you God
for that. We give you praise
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for it, and I pray,
if there are any hearing this message who
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00:38:16.119 --> 00:38:21.159
do not know what it means to
be cleansed from their sins, that they
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00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:23.800
may know so this morning by reaching
out to you, Lord, and crying
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00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:29.639
out woe is me, I am
unclean, and Lord, you can touch
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them. We thank you for this, for we prayed in Christ's name. Amen.
