Alright, so last week was a bleak presentation of what sin looks like, at least from God's point of view. And all of that obviously was a shadow to kind of teach us about the depth of why His atonement was necessary. So chapter 14 is going to move us into that.

So chapter 13 was a bleak reminder of the devastating effects of leprosy, again ultimately pointing to sin, and for the individual and his friends. Leviticus 14 is going to be filled with reminders of hope, talking about restoration, how the healed individual is restored back into the community. So these two chapters, chapter 13 and 14, gives us a greater revelation of God's holiness and His mercy in redemption.

So you can kind of, in a nutshell, you can see chapter 13 as the law and chapter 14 as the grace, even though they're both talking about Mosaic law and how to deal with leprosy. But ultimately chapter 13 is about identifying and to see this disease and how hideous it is and how to identify it to make this sin utterly sinful, chapter 13.

And so chapter 14 is bringing us to how to restore once you identify that possibly that there is, God has healed them and that He's able to be restored back into the community. And so these are all instructions on what procedures to take to bring them back into the community.

You know what's interesting was this week, as I was doing devotions through various passages, you know, one of the things that really stood out to me is in 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, he starts a letter by saying, "Grace, mercy, and peace." John used that same introduction, "Grace, mercy, and peace." In other parts, Paul introduces the letters by saying, "Grace and peace to you." But in those three particular letters, it says, "Grace, mercy, and peace." And even this morning I was meditating on that, you know, like grace and peace is typically what we understand the gospel to be.

So Jews spent, you know, hundreds of years like introducing themselves and seeking the peace of God, shalom of God. And then Christ comes and He brings this peace, not by the law, but by grace. But the addition of the word mercy, you know, I think it's crucial that if we're never at a point where we require God's mercy, we won't really understand His grace.

Meaning, if we've never been desperate to overcome our sin, if we've never been desperate because you see the depth of our sin and it's completely beyond our help, if we've never come to that point, grace is just going to feel like a Christmas gift. You didn't deserve it, you didn't earn it, but somebody gave it to you.

And we get that every single year. Somebody is gracious to us and they give us something we didn't deserve. But the grace that Christ points to is much deeper than just a Christmas gift. Just He gave you a gift that you didn't deserve. It was the whole point of the Mosaic Law was to bring us to a point where we were desperate for Him.

Right? And that was the whole point of chapter 13. Imagine if you or somebody you knew was diagnosed with this skin disease, how devastating the news would have been. And if that person was sent out of the gate and he couldn't even be around you, because if you were around him, you would become unclean.

So as soon as he was diagnosed, it was no different than being diagnosed for death. In fact, if you consider what chapter 13 says, it would have been easier to just die than to go outside of the camp and live the way a leopard would have had to live.

So chapter 14 brings us, once the devastating news has been given, chapter 14 brings us to the restoration of that. And again, it's a clear presentation of where the Mosaic Law brings us to recognize the depth of our sin. And then when the gospel comes, when we say that Christ saved us by His grace, that this mercy, again, not just simply a Christmas gift, something that we didn't deserve, but how does somebody live when you are a recipient of mercy?

And we're going to be talking about that later. And I think, again, the challenge that we have in living our Christian lives, and especially if you've been a Christian for a while, that we know it's grace mentally, but maybe we have a tendency to drift from what it is that we've really been saved from.

And so therefore, the response that we give to God becomes just a routine thing that we say. But it is not a celebration. Our worship is not a celebration. It is not a thanking and running to Him. So again, chapter 13 and 14, again, is a clear message of what God had embedded into the gospel message about the condemnation of sin and what it looks like to be delivered from that.

So that's chapter 13 and chapter 14. God prescribed no treatment for the cure of leprosy here. So He's not describing in chapter 14, this is how to cure this man or a woman. So what we see in chapter 14 is how to recognize when God healed this person. So He's not doing anything to cure him.

He doesn't say to wash and make sure he's isolated and put certain kind of medicine on him. The priest is sent out simply to identify if a healing took place. So the affected individual was at the mercy of God to heal him. The chapter explains how the priests and the Israelites could recognize healed skin so that the formerly afflicted individuals could resume worship in the community.

So in other words, there was no cure for this, at least not prescribed in the Mosaic law. He's not saying like, if this happens, make sure you follow these procedures and this is going to help him to get to be restored. When somebody had leprosy, all they could do is wait to die.

So they were probably, I'm guessing if you were a leper in the Jewish community, that I would think from morning to evening that you were praying. That's all you could do because you can't even evangelize. You can't tell other people about God because you can't even get near them.

So I would think that all they thought about from morning till night is that God would have mercy and answer their prayer and bring healing. So chapter 14 is the answer to this desperate person's prayer that if they believe that God cured them from this disease, then they would call the priest.

So again, Jeremiah 13, 23 says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil." So again, this is a clear picture to us that a sinner cannot will himself to stop sinning. Because if sin is originating from our heart, if murder is hatred, if adultery is the lust in our hearts, how do you stop lusting?

How do you just say, "I'm not going to be bitter anymore," and just disappear? So when we recognize the sin that is embedded in us, the only remedy to that is God himself. He's the only one who can actually change it. So we were talking about that this morning, or actually I was having a conversation with Pastor Mark today about discipleship.

And if we're not careful, we think that if we apply certain type of discipleship to everybody that there's going to be the same result from so many people. The way to raise leaders is to put them through this program. And if they're exposed to a certain type of material, that certain number of leaders are going to just come out of that.

Discipleship doesn't work. The people just don't change like that. It's an act of God. The scripture clearly says that we can plant, you can water, but only God's the one who can make somebody grow. So number two, there is no treatment for sin outside of Christ. There's no lasting change.

There's no answer for sin outside of Christ. We're completely dependent on his mercy. And that's what this disease ultimately shows us. It says, "If the one who has declared to have leprosy believes that he had been healed of the disease, the priest could be summoned to go outside the camp." He doesn't walk into the camp because he's not allowed until he is declared to be clean.

So the priest would go outside where he is to meet him. So the diseased person had to stay not to contaminate those inside the camp, to carefully examine if that was the case. So again, we see a clear picture of the gospel in Hebrews 13, 11 says, "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp." And then he calls us that Jesus Christ was crucified outside the camp, that we ought to go also outside the camp.

So it's a picture of Christ coming for those who have been shunned outside the camp to come and rescue us. And that's the picture of the priest here in chapter 14, right? Somebody who is condemned by this disease, again, ultimately pointing to sin, that the priest representing Christ would come to get us outside the camp.

So again, every part of this obviously is a clear presentation of the gospel. But Leviticus is such a detailed, meticulous, pointing... I mean, you can see so clearly how it points to Christ and what he has done for us. He doesn't just say he loved us, he describes it.

He doesn't just say we've sinned, he describes these sins. He doesn't just say he's atoned for our sins, he describes how he atoned for it, what he atoned for, right? He doesn't just say, you know, sin is missing the mark, he describes the ugliness of sin, the effect of sin.

Effects on ourselves, effect on our houses, it affects on our children, our neighbors. And all of this is for a reason, right? And that's one of the discussion questions I'm already telling you. One of the discussion questions that I have for today, if everything that he has done in the Old Testament, so everything that we're talking about and we're going to talk about is a shadow of what was to come.

He described the shadow in such detail, right? Every part of this so that an Israelite who, like, it was in their food, it was in their annual ceremony, it was in the daily sacrifices, it was in their religion, it was in their worship, it was even described in their clothing, where they lived, their housing, how they bathe, how they wash, how they interacted.

So every part of Israel's life, there was embedding of a certain part of the gospel in their culture. All for what purpose? Obviously it points to the cross, we know that. But he could have easily just said, you have sin and Christ is going to come to deliver you from that sin.

But he doesn't just leave it there, right? He doesn't just point to the cross. He is concerned about every single detailed aspect of what is taking place in the cross. What's the purpose of that? The ultimate goal of it is when the cross comes, one, that you can understand the depth of what it is, and second, it's to have a proper response, right?

To have a proper response. That because he was so meticulous in preparation for the coming of Christ, that our response to the cross should not be, Christ loves me and died for me and has a wonderful plan for my life. What else do you have? The whole purpose of it is everything pointed to Christ and everything points back to Christ.

So every single detail, the things that you understand, the things that you don't understand, every part of this is to soften your hearts to prepare you for Christ, right? And the reason why I'm sharing this now is chapter 13 and 14 in particular, in chapter 15, you can easily get lost in all the details and think like, oh, just skim over this.

But you know that there's a meaning, there's meaning behind it. You know there's reasons why this is here, right? God didn't give you all these clear pictures of the cross and then he went to these passages and he's kind of like, you know, these things are just details you don't really need to know, right?

So you could understand the cross, but the effects of why he put this here, you're going to completely miss if you just skim over it, right? Because the intent of why chapter 13, chapter 14, chapter 15 is in the Bible, if ultimately is to prepare us to come to the cross and see an aspect of the cross that you would not have understood if you didn't have this are going to be missed.

And so a superficial preparation for the cross is going to lead to a superficial understanding, a superficial understanding leads to superficial application. Okay? So again, all of this is to encourage you to do your best to pay attention to the details. What you understand, what you don't understand, but there's a purpose behind all of it.

Okay? If the priest determines that the person was healed of the leprosy, then he would take two live clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet yarn and hyssop to prepare the man to reenter the camp. So he has this ritual that he needs to perform for that person or that person needs to go through.

And so the outline I have here, A, one bird is killed over the fresh water in an earthen vessel, B, a spring of hyssop and a branch of cedar were tied to a live bird and scarlet wool yarn, C, the priest dipped the hyssop, cedar, in the tail of the bird in the blood of and water.

Then he used a brush to sprinkle the blood on the person's or house seven times and declared them to be clean. Then the living bird was released in an open field. This is basically a summary of what was commanded for them to do. And I think I'm just going to show you a real quick picture so that you can get an idea of what happened.

Okay. So this is what they did basically. So everything, I'll turn it back if you haven't filled out the space. Okay. I'll give you time to fill that out. But this is just to kind of give you a visual picture to help you understand what was taking place. He took two birds, one was killed, the other one was tied to hyssop and with a red yarn and then the scarlet on the bottom, which was the red dye, which I'm going to be explaining later, but this is basically, and this is what they took and dipped it into the blood of the first bird.

And then they would take this and basically wipe it on the individual and sprinkle it on it seven times. So let me just go back. If you haven't filled it out, you can fill that out. But that gives you a visual picture of what it is exactly that God told them to do.

Not done? All right. So hyssop was also used in the first Passover to paint the door. So this is not the first time that this is used. In Jewish ceremonies, it represented cleansing. Whenever you see the word hyssop, it was used to describe some types of cleansing. The word used for scarlet literally means the scarlet stuff that comes out of a worm.

So it was pretty disgusting. And that's how they would get the scarlet dye. And the dye was commonly used in ceremonial items, most likely referencing blood. But it also brings to mind sin, which like blood, draws attention to itself in a cry for healing. So it symbolized sin, and not just any kind of sin, but it kind of visually pictured the disgusting nature of sin, considering where scarlet came from.

In Isaiah 118, we see that verse, it says, "Come now, let us reason together." Says the Lord, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." So again, so the Bible uses the idea of this scarlet dye, this red dye, that came from basically the blood of a worm, and he's describing that as sin.

Kind of like in the New Testament, it says, you know, a man who repents and goes back to his sin, he says it's like a dog returning back to what? His vomit, right? So the Bible is giving a visual picture of how disgusting sin is. It seems so attractive when we're tempted, but in God's eyes, it's basically like scarlet, it's like vomit, right?

And so that's the picture that is given to us in the Scripture. Cedar is a branch of juniper bush, which is known for its medicinal properties. In the Jewish tradition, it symbolizes human pride. So other parts of Scripture, when it talks about cedar, oftentimes it's referencing human pride. So God is using all these different symbols that he's used all throughout different parts of Scripture to describe this, again, all of this ceremony ultimately pointing to the cross.

While the meaning of the birds aren't directly explained, their symbolism seems pretty clear, because if you've read it, you know, it says that you have two birds, and you kill one, and the other one ultimately after it dips its blood and sprinkle, and then it is released. So what does that sound like to you?

Day of Atonement, right? So that's exactly, when we get to chapter 16, we'll talk about that more in detail. And there's a lot of details in the Day of Atonement that most people don't understand, that we're going to be talking about by the time we get there, but it seems like a very similar, at least symbolism-wise, right?

So sacrifice of one bird and the release of the other one represented the largest sacrifice given at the Day of Atonement with two goats. So remember what happens? One goat, you bring two goats at the Day of Atonement, you lay your hand on one, representing the sin of Israel, and then the one that symbolizes the sin of Israel is slaughtered.

And then the other one, which is called what kind of goat? Scapegoat, that's where we get the word scapegoat. So the scapegoat is released into the wilderness, representing the sin being cast out or being released, right? And so that's what it seems like that this is symbolizing, even though it doesn't describe it that way.

But one is sacrificed on behalf of the leper, and the other one is released because his sin is sacrificed. Again, pointing and preparing for the Day of Atonement, right? Remember the chiastic form we talked about, that all of it, ultimately, it's going to culminate in chapter 16? So all of this is going to help us to understand the Day of Atonement, okay?

So keep that in mind. So all of these little details is going to help us understand the main thesis of the point that he's trying to get to, right? Before I get to that. So it's kind of similar to how the whole Bible is organized, right? Genesis to Matthew, ultimately culminates to the cross, and then the rest of the New Testament is pointing back to the cross, right?

So that's how Leviticus is. Chapter 15 chapters, ultimately all preparing for the cross, and then chapter 17, 18, all the way to chapter 27, pointing back to the atonement, right? So in 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says, "For our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." And that's the ceremony that is portrayed here for us.

One bird is released because of the sacrifice of the other, which again, clearly points to what Christ did for us. And then after the ritual cleansing, the person will be required to shave all of his hair before he re-enters into the camp. Why do you think God made him do that?

Or her? I think for two obvious reasons. It doesn't spell it out for us for two reasons. One, this was a skin disease, right? So you want to make sure. You want to make sure that the skin disease is clean. I think the other part of it was, and He made him do it twice.

He made him do it initially, and then after seven, eight days, he needed to shave again, right? I think the point of it was, one, is to make sure that the skin disease, that you didn't miss any part of it, that even though the skin that you can see was clean, maybe the other parts of it, even the eyebrows had to be shaved off, right?

Was to make sure that the skin disease was completely clean. I think the other part of it was to show the rest of the community that he was clean, right? Because remember, you probably don't remember, but a long time ago when AIDS was going around and people didn't know anything about AIDS, people were afraid to even sit where the people who had AIDS, you know, who had AIDS.

So again, you know, most of you probably don't remember when Magic Johnson, you know, had this, the HIV, there was a big controversy in the NBA that whether he should be playing or not playing. So can you imagine something like HIV that they didn't know, and it wasn't visual, it was just internal, but somebody who had leprosy coming back into town, even though he was declared to be clean, how people would have treated him, right?

I think they would have been afraid, even though he might have been ceremonially clean, right? I think so part of the reason why was to show everybody that he's been cleaned, right? That he's actually reentering. So once the sacrifices were made for the leprous individual, he would be able to reenter the camp, but he had to wait seven days to be fully cleared and had to sleep outside the tent.

So he had this long process, right? From the moment he's declared to be unclean, they go through the ceremony, making sure, giving seven, eight days to see if this thing comes back, he has to shave it all off. But once he's declared unclean, he's outside of the camp, and majority of them probably just lived in isolation and died.

The few of them who happen to be healed is this elaborate process of reentering back into the camp, right? So again, I'm not going to say it, but I want you to think about what all of this points to in our salvation. It wasn't pointless. It wasn't purposeless. So I want you to think about that.

So every part of this, even if we're not clear, like why did God make them do this? What does this ultimately point to? So he wasn't allowed to go directly into the tent. He had to, even after he entered the camp, he had to stay outside to make sure.

On the eighth day, if during the seven days that he entered back into the camp, that the disease did not come back, and after he went through the ceremony, then the final ceremony is for him to offer up a male lamb without blemish, make two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb to give as a sacrifice to atone for his sins.

So if you read the passage, you'll see that what are the five sacrifices that we talked about in the beginning of the Book of Leviticus? Burnt offering? Grain offering? Sin offering? Guilt offering? And peace offering, okay? Not in that order, but those five offerings. Which offerings were commanded for this person to reenter?

So, sir, say it again. I didn't hear the full part of what you said. Okay. So, every offering except for the peace offering, right? So every offering had to be given in order to be reinstated. So obviously, burnt offering. Burnt offering was the general atonement, right? And what was the grain offering?

In what occasion did they give the grain offering? What? No, the grain offering. Like, what was the occasion? Yeah, burnt offering was given before the grain offering, but what was the occasion that grain offering was given? First fruits, and what did the first fruit represent? It was either you were taking some kind of a vow, or it was an act of dedicating, like lordship, right?

That's where the first fruit comes from. So it was a symbol of dedication. Like this is my whole life belongs to you. I'm giving a portion of it to represent all that I have. So that was the grain offering, right? And what was the sin offering? Unintentional sins, right?

You might have defiled yourself. Maybe, you know, there was a leper, and you ran into them by accident, and as a result, you became unclean. So the sin offering was to restore that. Or you touched something holy that you shouldn't have touched, and so you had to give an offering for that, right?

So that was the sin offering. And then you had the guilt offering. What was the guilt offering for? Some kind of damage that you did, right? You've taken someone else's animal, and you've made it unholy, and as a result of that, they call that reparation, right? So you have to give a fifth of whatever damage you did, and you have to give the offering, and then restore the fifth.

Remember? Right? Peace offering was an offering that you gave as a, what? What's another word for peace offering? Fellowship offering? Thanksgiving offering, right? And so that offering was given a free will offering, meaning it was not mandated. God wanted you to bring it when you were filled with abundance of joy.

Maybe God, you know, healed you. So you would think that of all the offerings, that peace offering would be at the core of this offering, but peace is the only one that's not mentioned here. All the other offerings are given except for the peace offering. Right? Why is that?

If you understand what is taking place, it would only make sense because the Thanksgiving offering, right? Thanksgiving offering was a free will offering, meaning that God wanted the individual, it was not mandated for his atonement. It was given as an act of worship to God. Right? It was an act of worship to God.

So after he gave all of these sacrifices, my guess is peace offering was probably given. That's my guess. If you were basically condemned to die, and then pretty much you came back to life because God healed you, if there was any occasion to give a peace offering, it would have been at this time.

If there was any occasion for the families to get together and celebrate, it was probably this time. Right? And remember what we talked about? What does the peace offering point to? A very significant thing that we do in the church that Christ mandated, what does the peace offering point to in the New Testament?

Communion. Right? It's a communion. So it's to celebrate what Christ has done, and it was meant to be done in the context of the community. Right? It was not meant to be done in isolation. So in order for this individual who was, again, lost in this disease, again, spiritually in his sin, to be restored back, all the other sacrifices needed to be made, except for the peace offering.

The priest then applied the blood from the sacrifice to the right ear, thumb, right hand, and the toe, and the right foot of the former leper, symbolizing sanctification of his hearing, serving, walking by the atoning blood. Where else did you see this? Anybody remember? What other part of the sacrifice did you see the specifics of the right ear, the toe?

What? Consecration of the priest. When they were being ordained to serve at the temple or at the tabernacle, they did the exact same thing. Remember we talked about that? That each part, right, of them being blessed was to prepare them for service. Right? So in order for this individual's cleanse, he doesn't just, the burnt offering obviously atones for his sins, but the specific dabbing of the blood symbolized that they're able to now enter back into society.

Maybe not as a priest, right, but as he comes back into the society, that now he can function. He can walk, he can speak, he can hear. So every part of who he is is restored. Right? The second part of it is the oil. Oil was also applied to the cleansed leopard.

It was both the sprinkling on his blood, on the body in general, and then applied to the ear, thumb, and toe just as the blood was. Each of these places on the body was meant to be anointed with oil. So the blood, the cleansing from the blood basically signified atoning, covering his sin with the blood, and oil oftentimes symbolized anointing, dedication.

So this individual who's entering back into the community, not only is his sins covered, but he's anointed now to serve God in the community. Again, I want you to keep asking yourself, what does this point to in the new covenant? Because they all have meaning. So diagnosis of leprosy in a house and cleansing in the house infested with leprosy.

So not only did the cleansing have to take place in the individual, he said the second it had to take place even in the home. So I'm not going to go through all the details of the cleansing of the home, but basically if they see a molding or discoloration and they think that that may have been some kind of infection that was spreading in the home, that the first stage is to identify it, second is to scrape it off, give it some time, and then if that doesn't work and they go through another stage and they scrape more of it off, and if that doesn't work, what were they to do?

Tear down the building, right? Where before, remember chapter 13, if an individual had that, what did they do with the clothes? They burned it. So same thing with the home. If the home that he was to enter back into was infected and then they can't get rid of it, the end result was they had to tear it down.

So the fact that the certain abnormal conditions afflicted houses as well as persons reminded Israelites that their dwelling places as well as their bodies needed to be holy. So in other words, every part of where God's people dwelt also needed to be holy. So that's why when God's presence came in to the community where the core of his presence was obviously at the tabernacle, and in the tabernacle you had the holy of holies, right, where it was concentrated, but anywhere where God dwelt, there had to be wholeness, holiness.

It wasn't just the people. It was the animals, the articles, and even the houses and the clothing. They had to be set apart for God. So if there was any infection or any kind of disease or any sign of some kind of disease in the home, even though the home had to be torn down.

And God presided the same right of purification using two birds, cedars, scarlet strings, and hyssop for the house, for the person. Again, so the same kind of cleansing ritual had to go through even for the house once it's declared to be clean. Obviously he did not require sacrifice for the home because the sacrifices was ultimately pointing to atonement.

So there's no sin involved, right? It needed cleansing, but not atoning. So that part, everything else looks the same except for the sacrifice part. And then finally, chapter 14, 54 to 57 is just a summary of what he says. It's to draw the conclusion to all of this. So again, I want you to emotionally and mentally consider what this individual has gone through from chapter 13 to chapter 14.

I mean, in all practical purposes, he died and came back to life. I mean, think about it emotionally. If the moment they said you had leprosy, kind of like today, if you have stage four cancer, you have some hope. But for the most part, stage four cancer, at the late part of stage four cancer, you knew that there's not a lot of hope, at least not medically.

And so you can have all these experiments done. But imagine if you had leprosy. It wasn't just internal rotting and you're going to have a hard time and you're going to pass. I mean, just it was external. So all the rotting took place and it was seen visually. They said they could actually smell a leper before he was coming into town.

He had to constantly scream, "Unclean, unclean," everywhere he went. And if he even by accident came too close to somebody, by Mosaic law, he could be stoned to death. So you can see why these 10 lepers, when they saw Jesus coming into town, they ran to him and they begged him, "Have mercy on us.

Have mercy on us." And then when Jesus says to go show yourself to the priest, right, he was following the Mosaic law because the only way that they can get restored back is to be confirmed by the priest, by the law. So the nine go and the one come back.

So the only person that gave thanksgiving is that one. The other nine were so eager to be restored, right, they completely forget about like who it is and they forget to thank Jesus and only one comes back. And as a result of that, what does he say? You have been healed, right?

Even though all 10 were healed with leprosy, Jesus says only to that one person, you've been healed. Because ultimately, all of this ultimately points to sin and atonement in the blood of Christ, right? So again, just the depth that God goes through to make what he has done and what he has done for us so crystal clear, right, that we do not just have some superficial elementary understanding of the cross.

And all of this is to point us, it's like, yes, when you read chapter 13, if you read it with the lens of the New Testament, New Covenant, what Jesus says and what Hebrew says, we should read chapter 13 like this is me, right? Go back and read chapter 13 and understand this as your sin.

This is you, right? This is the state that we were in and then go back and read chapter 14 and understand this as Christ's atonement for our sins and restoration, right? Because that's what it ultimately is and all of this are like kind of a preview of the big picture coming in the day of atonement, right?

So far, he's given us bits and pieces and then it's going to lead us to chapter 16, who's going to use the clearest picture of Christ crucified is coming up in chapter 16. All for what purpose? So that we may respond in genuine worship, right? So again, as we wrap up and I'm going to, you know, ask you guys to take some time to have discussion in your small group, even the things that I didn't mention, just kind of think to yourself, like, what do you think this ultimately points to?

What are the details here that you might have just skimmed through? Like, what do you think it ultimately points to, right? Because if you're a doctor, we would automatically assume that if we had any medical questions that you're the one that we go to, right? But if we come to you and say, like, what medicine should I take?

He's like, I don't know. If I have a fever, what should I do? I don't know. I wasn't paying attention when that class was taught, right? So if that was the case, after a while, you're going to say, what kind of doctor are you? You're the expert. If you're a lawyer and we have a question about the law and we come to you and say, hey, is this legal to do this?

Like, I don't know. I thought you were a lawyer. I am. But I'm not an expert. If you're not an expert, then who is? So if a Christian isn't an expert of the gospel, then who is? If we don't have the answers to the detailed questions that a non-Christian would ask, who do they go to, right?

So every single Christian should be an expert of why Christ had to come. Why did he have to shed his blood? Why not just snap his finger and forgive? Why all this drama of the cross? Why the blood? Why aren't we saved and to go to heaven? What is this whole process of sanctification for?

What's the purpose of the church? Why are we gathered together? Why did he establish elders here? Why did he give his word? Christians ought to be the experts of this. So there's a reason behind all of this. So even some of this, a lot of stuff you may not understand, but I hope that you study it as if you're a lawyer studying the law, because in essence we are to the world.

Let me read this passage. Ephesians 2, 1-7 says, "And you are dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raises us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." I think chapter 13 and 14 clearly points to this.

So the three questions that I have, how do you think these cleansed lepers felt once they were completely cleared to enter back into community and live a normal life? Do you think your salvation felt anything remotely close to what they might have felt? Why or why not? Okay, so that question is pretty clear.

Now I'm not asking in question one, did you have some charismatic experience? Like I'm not asking that, right? But somebody who was dead and raised to life, you would think that there will be some difference, right? You would think that there would be an obvious difference between dead and being alive, right?

So the question is, how did you see the difference, right? Maybe you didn't fully understand what happened. You know, maybe now you understand it. Maybe at some point you understood it. But at one point the understanding that you were dead and then because of Christ you were made alive, how does that affect you?

Number two, have you ever been punished for something you did not do? How did you feel and what was your reaction? What do you think was the state of mind and heart when Jesus took on himself the punishment he did not deserve? So again, the question is, if the whole point of the atonement is somebody who did not deserve it absorbing the sin for those who deserved it, right?

And of course we look at that and say, man, that's awesome. God's love is so awesome. When was the last time you were punished for something you didn't do? I mean, me being the middle child of three boys, it was a regular thing in my life. At least that's what I thought, right?

Anything happened in our home, it was my fault. At least that's what I thought. So I can, I think very vividly, I have memories of times when it was like, that wasn't me. I didn't do that. He's not crying because of me, right? And I remember saying that often to my parents, especially to my mom.

And never once did I feel good about it. You know, oh, I took it for Philip. No matter how much I loved him, I took it for Philip, you know, or I, you know, I took the punishment. He didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve, but he deserved it, but I feel good about it, right?

How do you think Jesus felt as he was being punished for being righteous and he volunteered, right? So the whole point of our atonement is the innocent, the complete, right, without blemish, without sin, being punished for those who are with defect, with leprosy, with sin, who cheated, the murderers, the tax collectors, the adulterers, the prostitutes, right?

They go free and the righteous is punished because that's what the gospel ultimately is. That's what the atonement points to, and that's what this sacrifice ultimately points to, right? You grew up in the church all your life and we didn't really calculate it in thinking, and we weren't emotionally attached to things that we profess to believe.

Because I think if we did, we would wrestle more with the meaning of the gospel, right? Instead of asking, why does God allow, you know, bad things to happen to good people, I don't think that's the question that you'd be asking. It's like, why would a good, righteous, holy, perfect God take upon himself sin for the unrighteous?

That's a bigger mystery. I know why bad things happen to people. I know why bad things happen to people, because we make dumb choices, because we're sinners, we're selfish, we're prideful. So I know why there's evil in the world, because I can see the decisions that led us to get there.

So even though we think they're innocent, but nobody, I've never really met anybody innocent. The degree is different, but I've never met anybody who wasn't sinful. I've never met anybody who wasn't prideful, not even my youngest children. So I understand why there's punishment and disasters in the world. It's not that hard to understand.

So why would a perfect God, without blemish, completely holy, take upon the sins of the tax collector, of the proud, of the murderer? That's the mystery. That's the mystery of the cross. So ultimately, everything that we're studying really ultimately points to this, the righteous for the unrighteous, the righteous for the unrighteous, the righteous for the unrighteous.

Number three, why do you think God went through so much trouble in implanting the gospel message so deeply, intricately into every fabric of Israel's daily life? Have you ever prepared anything in your life to this degree? What was it, and why did you do that? So again, the point of why I ask this is to get you to think deeply about, he went through all this trouble, sending his prophets, setting up the tabernacle, all the animals, all the sacrifices, the priesthood, the festivals, all of it, ultimately to give a clear picture of the cross.

So the question behind this is, have you ever prepared anything to that detail? How did you feel after you've done that? I remember, and I'm just going to give you an example of it so you can know what to discuss. I remember years ago, not at this church, but another church when I was the EM pastor, we decided to have a sisters appreciation retreat.

And so I got a bunch of the guys to come up, and the sisters were having their retreat, and we were in the background cooking for them. So for a two-day retreat, we cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we thought that we're going to have this big finale. And so about seven, eight guys stayed up literally all night.

They went to sleep around 12 o'clock. So we stayed up from 12 to 5 in the morning, and we just blew up balloons, like hundreds of balloons. And we didn't sleep till about 5 in the morning, and they all started waking up about 6.30. And so we were excited.

We all, after five hours of blowing balloons, and the room was maybe knee-deep with balloons all over. And so our big surprise was the finale was when they opened the door, they're going to see the balloons. Oh my gosh, I can't believe you guys stayed up all night and blew these balloons.

So they wake up at 6.30 in the morning, and we're all eager, and they open the door, and they look at all the balloons, and they're like, ah, balloons. And then they went back to sleep. And I remember every single one of us was like, oh my gosh, we did this all night for five hours.

We're never doing this again. They didn't appreciate. They didn't realize how much time and effort. My lungs were hurting after five hours. But their response was like, oh, thanks, thanks. It's like, this is so corny. Balloons? That was the response. That made such a-- again, when I think about underappreciating, I always think about that.

I'm just giving you an example. If you put that much time and effort to prepare as a gift to give to somebody, and the recipient of that gift is, thank you, and that's the response that we give, it'd be an understatement to say it's an inappropriate response. That's why in chapter 12, it says, in view of this mercy to offer your body as a living sacrifice, which is your what?

Reasonable act of worship. Reasonable act of response to what God has given. So everything that we've been studying up to this point is an explanation of how he's preparing mankind to meet Christ on the cross. So we shouldn't just skim through this. We shouldn't just look at this kind of nonchalantly.

This is something that we should dig and question. And even if you don't have the answers for it, at least contemplate and think and meditate. Because he put this here for a reason. Let me pray for us and I'll get you guys into your small groups. Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening.

And I pray, Father God, that during our small group time that you would bless our discussion, that it would lead to greater understanding of the cross and what you've done. Lord, as we examine the skin disease, Lord God, that was so devastating, and how it ultimately points to sin and the ugliness and the damage that it does.

Help us to recognize ourselves in this law and also to recognize what it is that we have been given in Christ. I pray that you would help us to be fruitful in our discussion. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.