0:00 Let's take a look at uh the memory verses. Please repeat after me. Last week we had a promise. Habacook 3:E 19. The Lord God is my strength 0:16 and he made my feet like hind's feet. And today we have a command from uh Isaiah 30:15. In repentance and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. 0:43 A beautiful word. Let's uh repeat once again. Isaiah 30:15. In repentance and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. Amen. 1:03 This morning we are very happy we can hear God's word from brother Suresh first and then brother John Paulo. That's you. Good morning, brothers and sisters. 1:33 So the word on my heart uh something that the Lord has been speaking to me for some weeks now um is recognize spiritual leprosy and be cleansed. This is something the Lord spoke to me. 1:52 Uh when I went through a phase where I really felt uh an insensitivity uh a lack of ability to hear the voice of the Lord and a sense of powerless in my life and and the Lord uh brought these things to me. 2:11 Last week we heard a message that began with Proverbs uh 5:1. We can quickly turn there. It talks about someone who is groaning at his final end when his flesh and body are consumed. 2:31 And that's how we think about leprosy. It's a consuming corruption. And my flesh and my body are consumed. And what's the problem? It says in verse 12, Proverbs 5:12, how you say, "How I have hated instruction and my heart spurned 2:51 reproof." I hated instruction. My heart spurned reproof. I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to to instruction. and and because of that I'm groaning at the end when my flesh and my body are 3:10 consumed. If we think about the Bible and the picture of leprosy, it uh belongs in a category of its own. Uh we don't have to turn there, but you can just uh remember these words Jesus spoke in Matthew 10:8. He said 3:27 uh heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers. He didn't say heal the lepers. He said cleanse the lepers. So there's a a distinct category, you know, and leprosy is a picture of of a spiritual illness. 3:44 Uh there is a growing lack of sensitivity to sin and a powerless to do anything about it. I was uh encouraged, challenged to read Exodus chapter 4 and and think about 4:02 what it says. It uh gives us a picture of the human condition, the human heart. So the context there is that God is sending Moses to deliver his people. 4:21 And we would have heard this before. Pharaoh is a picture of, you know, Satan who's the prince of this world. And Egypt is a picture of this world's system. God's people were slaves to the power and influence of of the world. And Moses 4:37 was given three signs. And these three signs show us the condition and the danger of of mankind. So we know these things. We have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And if you look at Exodus 4, the first 4:54 sign, uh, Exodus 4:4, the first sign was Moses's staff. And that staff is a picture of of weakness, of dependence. 5:11 And the Lord said, "Throw it down." And when we forsake that that sense of weakness that dependence it's a picture of dependence on God. When we you know throw away that dependence then Satan is very near. When we forsake our dependence on the 5:31 Lord Satan Satan is very near. But the Lord told him to take up that staff once again. Choose dependence. Choose to be weak. And he picked up the staff and it and it turned he picked up you know the snake by the tail. It became a staff 5:44 again in and in his hand. And then in verse 9, I'm going to the third of the, you know, three signs that he gave. We see that he poured out the water of the Nile and it became blood on the dry ground. And you know, this is a picture of the 6:04 attractive things that we thirst for, the values of this world. But the values of this world are based on exploitation. and competition. It's like a river of blood. What this world teaches you is that you push others down and you go up. 6:23 And and it's a river that flows through this world's system. And uh in contrast to that, we see that there's a river that flows from the throne of God, which is the Holy Spirit, a picture of the Holy Spirit. It's a life of love. 6:41 That river flows through the kingdom of the god of of god and and through his church. I believe all of us have tasted of of that river. It's a different spirit entirely. And uh you know just like the Nile would flood every year. There are seasons as 6:59 we heard last week in our life when Satan especially floods. He's always trying to do that, but he's flooding this world with his messages uh of violence, sexual impurity, greed, fear. You know, all of us have these devices 7:17 in our pockets, on our desks. And he sense this into our homes. And uh brothers and sisters, I was specially challenged just to say this in passing. Uh do not give your children 7:34 unsupervised access to devices. It's it's like if we you know see a river of blood and we say, "Yeah, let's jump in and bathe." You know, that's that's the equivalent of doing that. Satan wants to dilute your dependence on 7:52 him. He wants to flood your heart and mind with godliness, with these messages that this way of living, this way of thinking, this way of talking is okay. You know, I know I know that there are crocodiles in in the Nile, right? 8:06 No, if you know there's a crocodile in a river, you won't go and swim there. You won't tell your children, you know, let's jump in. Yeah, these three things are related to each other. But I really wanted to focus on on the third on the second in this order 8:20 in verse 6 and 7. The second sign where uh Moses is asked to put his hand on his heart or put it you know in the NSB it says inside the fold of your robe but in other translations yeah uh it says put it your hand into your bosom. 8:38 So put it, you know, on your heart next to your chest. And uh when he pulled it out, it was lepous. It was covered with leprosy. Uh brothers and sisters, this gesture of putting my hand on my heart is very common place. Like we do it all the time 8:58 when we want to show that we are sincere and when we want to show that we are zealous. You know, automatically we say, "Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm here. I'm the one. I'm the man. No, I mean it. Uh I was I was thinking about Peter when 9:16 he was saying, "Lord, I will not leave you. I'm willing to die for you." I can imagine he put his hand on his heart. No. Yeah. No matter if everybody else dies, if everybody else runs away, I I will I will give up my life for you. and he was 9:33 100% sincere and he was 100% zealous and he knew himself and he had walked with the Lord but at that point of time there was a corruption that was affecting him and he was not sensitive to the voice of the Lord and he could not understand 9:52 what Jesus was telling him and that Jesus was warning him and there was a leprosy there And brothers and sisters, the best of what we have to offer, our sincerity, our zeal, our experience is corrupted. 10:12 There is a problem there. And we have to listen and take to heart humbly the words of the Lord and recognize our condition. Yeah. Leprosy is the external manifestation of uh an infection. It's an infection of the heart. We can look 10:31 at Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah 17 verse 9. This is a verse we should all be familiar with. Says, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can 10:48 understand it? Who can diagnose the depths of the condition of the human heart?" He's not talking about a particular person or group of sinful people. No, he's talking about you and me, brothers and sisters. He's talking about the human heart. 11:06 He's saying his heart, my heart, your heart. It's Yeah. And and I looked up some translations uh for you know that verse. It says exceedingly corrupt, most 11:22 deceitful, desperately wicked, beyond human cure. All of these things are true of of the human heart. And and this is what leprosy, you know, is a picture of, right? It there's an infection and it's it's in the it's in 11:41 the blood, it's in the heart, and it's it's pumped out through through the body. And uh I mean just thinking about the disease itself. We know that not everybody gets affected. I mean it's much less of a problem today than it 11:52 was. Uh because there is a natural immunity that many of us have or should have in a spiritual sense. It's it's the fear of God, right? The fear of God actually prevents you from depending on yourself. Just gives you an understanding of how 12:11 things really are. That there is the great I am. He's the one who made us. Yeah. And all of this is here in Jeremiah 17. It says uh in um verse 7 and 8. Blessed is the man. This was a memory verse for us recently. Blessed is the man who trusts in the 12:29 Lord. That's the remedy. That's the antidote. And whose trust is the Lord who trusts in the Lord to such an extent that he says there is nothing else I can trust in. No, the Lord is my trust. What will he be like? Like a tree planted by 12:46 the water. It's a picture of the life of the Holy Spirit extends its roots by a stream. He will be fruitful. He will not be anxious. And then again in verse 5, it says in contrast 17 uh uh Jeremiah 17:5, "Cursed 13:04 is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord." Yeah. And it says that he will be like like a thorny bush, a bush in the desert. Yeah. This is a picture of of resentment 13:23 and complaint where we are not sensitive to God. We're sensitive to other things that don't matter. I was thinking about Peter, you know, when he spoke to Jesus. It's it's easy to imagine that there was a there was a complaint. There was a 13:39 resentment in his heart. He was saying, "Jesus, you're you're saying that about me like about me, Peter? Like I'm I'm going to forsake you. and and he was not sensitive to the voice of the Lord. He didn't recognize his own his own condition. 13:58 Uh how does leprosy attract uh attack the body? I looked these things up. It's easy to do this nowadays. Uh so it's actually, you know, a very deceptive disease in a sense because what it attacks is the white blood cells. So the 14:14 white blood cells inside our body are designed to identify you know infection and it sort of surrounds them or captures them right and the white blood cells do that for the leprosy bacteria as well but the leprosy bacteria is 14:30 designed to flourish inside a white blood cell and you know for those of us who don't have that immunity it flourishes there inside the white blood cell Um, and this is a picture of 14:49 you and I when we know that something is wrong, we know that something is wrong but we go on doing it anyway and we continue like that. And uh Paul describes this state of 15:05 affairs in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 18 onwards. He says, "I know that nothing good 15:26 dwells in me that is in my flesh." Oh, what a precious word this is uh to us brothers and sisters. It's good for us to remember this. Our fundamental human condition does not change. There is nothing good that dwells in me 15:39 that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. The good I want to do, I don't do. I practice the very evil thing that I do not want. He says, "This is my condition. I know it's wrong, but I'm I'm not power. I 15:59 don't have the power to to do it." And uh brothers and sisters, there is hope for us because we know what happened to Paul and we know his example and we know that the story doesn't end there. Um 16:18 but you know if we think about the leprosy bacteria and how it how it operates uh it you know after it multiplies inside these white blood cells and it travels through the body through the blood then it attacks what it does is it 16:32 it attacks the lining of a nerve cell. Okay. So we have nerve cells all the cells of our body are connected to the brain. Uh and the nerve cells they're like electrical wires that send signals you know back and forth. That's how we 16:46 are sensitive. Uh in the spiritual body we can think of that's how we are connected to the Lord. That's how how we're sensitive to his voice. But this leprosy bacteria attacks the lining of the nerve cells. Okay. And the picture 16:59 that I got it's it's like you know taking off the insulation on an electrical wire. Then what happens? You have a short circuit. It's not that the you know electricity goes away. It's there, but it's it's all messed up. 17:12 Um, it's and and the leprosy bacteria needs needs a certain temperature. So, it uh it flourishes, you know, in the cooler parts of the body. It doesn't attack the internal organs. It can't, you know, things that are close to the 17:27 heart where the temperature is hot can't attack there. It attacks the cooler parts of the body and it attacks this this insulation. And I'm not sensitive to what God cares about. And I can be really sensitive about other things. You 17:40 know Jesus said this about the Pharisees Pharisees. You you swallow camels and you strain at gnats. And uh brothers and sisters, I say these things because I have gone through it and I know what this feels like. You know, we can be weighed down with burden 17:57 of guilt and shame about something that really doesn't matter to the Lord and we're missing the things that that he wants to to speak to us. Um yeah in in Isaiah chapter 6 we can turn there briefly. I want to come back to Isaiah 6 a little 18:16 later in my message but we see a description of this verses 9 to 10. Isaiah sent to send a me speak a message to the people. He said go and tell these people keep on 18:34 listening but do not perceive. Keep on looking but do not understand. Yeah we know that you know if leprosy continues in our body it affects our hearing. It affects our sight. We can go blind. We can go deaf and all of this 18:49 takes time. But the condition that he's talking about here is that we keep on hearing. We don't stop hearing. We don't lose an interest in hearing but we have stopped understanding. It stopped touching us. It stopped changing us. We've stopped 19:08 perceiving the glory, the majesty, the purpose of the Lord. And he says why has this happened? Says because the hearts of these people are insensitive. Your heart has become dull. There's an infection there. 19:26 And that's why you go on hearing. And this can happen to us, brothers and sisters. But I praise God that it didn't happen to Apostle Paul. He wasn't willing to continue like that. He didn't say, "Oh, my flesh is like this. I'm 19:39 just going to live like this." No. He cried out to God. He said, "Wretched man that I am, who will save me from the body of this death? Who will save me from this lepous flesh, this heart condition that is insensitive to your voice?" 19:55 And something happened. And he says, "Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus my Lord." Something glorious happened. And and what happens after that in Romans chapter 8, he talks about life in 20:12 the Holy Spirit. He says, "What the law could not do, being powerless, weak in the flesh, Christ did." And if you walk by the spirit, if you live under the the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you can be changed. You can be 20:30 transformed. These things will not stay the same. There's a way out. I want to turn to 2 Chronicles. There's a story there about a king 20:52 called Uzziah. I recognized myself in this story. Yeah. It says King Uzziah was helped mightily by the Lord. He was only 16 years old when he came to 21:11 the throne. Can imagine that he had a keen sense of his weakness, his inability. And if you read 2 Chronicles chapter 26, you know, you can see that he was helped by the Lord mightily, marvelously in 21:30 many areas. It uh talks about Yeah. It it talks about uh architecture, the buildings he built, inventions, agriculture, defense. I'm thinking about some 16, 17, 18 year olds in our midst 21:49 right now. You're wondering what to do, you know, how to get through your exam, what branch to take up. Uh, you know, the Lord can marvelously help you in any of these fields. Uh, whether you choose to do architecture or inventions or or 22:08 write uh whatever it is, the Lord can marvelously help you. And I I wanted to recognize that for my own part I have been marvelously helped by the Lord. I think many of us will testify that you know not that we've become some 22:25 great people in the world but without a doubt like I have been marvelously helped by the Lord in day-to-day affairs just in understanding uh he's given me a glorious life. He saved me. He's helped me from, you know, he's he's changed me from where I was 22:43 and he's done these wonderful things. And u and it says uh this is in verse 5. It says he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah. I thought that was uh interesting coincidence. Zechariah 23:02 uh brother Zach's name and says who had understanding through the vision of God. If you read other translations uh in in the margin it says through the fear of God. Yeah. There was a man Zechariah a godly man who had understanding through 23:19 the vision of God through through the fear of God. And it says as long as he sought the Lord God prospered him. This is talking about Uzziah. And he he had regard for this man. And after he become became strong verse 16 2616 when he became strong his heart 23:38 was so proud he acted corruptly. Yeah. To my mind there was an infection that was building up inside of him. And it's not that he became disinterested in spiritual things. He didn't say oh no I don't need God anymore or like there's 23:55 no God you know that can also happen if if we go along this path but he said no I don't need these priests like I'll I'll perform the sacrifice myself and he went outside his boundary and and there was a an anger and a 24:13 resentment he had you know and it says in verse 17 that there was a priest called Aariah and there were 80 men priests of the Lord along with him and they were valiant men. The Holy Spirit is inspired to describe them as valiant 24:28 men. They didn't care what the you know king thought and felt. They said no we have to do our job. We have to stop this man from destroying himself. And uh yeah anger was you know burning in his heart, resentment and it erupted 24:46 in the form of leprosy on his forehead. Yeah, brothers and sisters, I was thinking about what brother Ishodas shared. You know, he was encouraging the young people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and he pointed uh in passing to a passage in Luke 25:06 chapter 7. He said he was talking about the Pharisees who has who had rejected God's purpose for them. No, God had a plan and purpose. He worked marvelously in Uziah's life and there was a place that God wanted him to 25:25 keep and maintain, stay within his boundary. Uh but it says the Pharisees rejected God's purpose for themselves uh not being baptized by the baptism of John and brother was talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and he said 25:43 what are what happens you know when you go that way he says you are like children you're not able to make spiritual progress you're not able to come to spiritual maturity and they are full of complaints and resentment we can see them saying you know on one 26:00 hand they say oh you're too strict you know we are singing a song and you're not dancing what is this joy of the lord is missing on the other hand they're saying no you're not strict enough the standards have fallen you are playing a 26:14 durge over here you're not mourning oh brothers and sisters I have you know Aariah was not the same as Zechariah he didn't write scripture he didn't have the same visions of the lord but he was doing his job and uh I have no doubt 26:30 like it's on each of us as elders and on on on each of us to examine ourselves and say Lord am I fulfilling your plan and purpose for me and am I staying within my boundary and I do I imagine I'm something because you've helped me 26:50 marvelously all these years and let let me recognize you know my my true condition. We can contrast the example of Jesus. He's our example in all things. We can turn there. Hebrews chapter 5 27:15 it says Hebrews chapter 5 verse 5 Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest he didn't take that 27:33 place he didn't raise his hand or grab it. No, at the proper time he was exalted by the Lord. But it says we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. 27:49 There is a diagnosis and a cure for this problem, for this lepous heart. Yeah. It says we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, the son of God. This is Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. Let us hold fast our confession. 28:08 Hold fast the confession of my wretchedness, my inability, my sin, my great need. And hold fast the confession that Jesus is enough. He's sufficient to meet my every need. As as I was coming up, I was thinking it's a wonderful place to stand here 28:27 where I have these three verses, you know, behind me. Uh I can do nothing without Jesus. I can do all things in Christ Jesus. And Lord, you have been merciful to me. Yeah. And it says about Jesus, in the days 28:45 that he shared in the likeness of our sinful flesh, he cried out and he was heard because of his godly fear. And that's the attitude I need to have. Looking unto Jesus, he cried out. He 29:02 said, "Lord, save me from this this condition that goes independent that is not sensitive to your voice." And he was heard because of his godly fear. Yeah. In Isaiah chapter 6, I want to go back 29:22 there because it says uh that it was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the vision of the Lord. We sing this many times, but just to take it to heart once more. Lord, you and you alone deserve to be on the 29:39 throne. You know, we know that Uzziah even though he was a leper, he he called his son and his son was still young, but his son was carrying out affairs. He continued to stay on the throne. But in the year of his death, Isaiah saw the 29:53 Lord. The train of his robe filled the temple. He saw the glory of the Lord. The angels were saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord." And Isaiah saw his own corruption in an instant. He said, "Woe is me. I am an unclean 30:09 man. My lips are unclean." Yeah. You know, we know in the verses before that he was saying, "Woe to this person and to that person." God had called him as a prophet, but he saw his own condition, his wretched condition. 30:26 And there was an answer to the problem. You know, there was a a call that was brought from the throne of God. Uh and and that that is a picture of of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the power, the burning fire of the Holy Spirit. 30:44 Yeah. Brothers and sisters, this I I was seeing that when when they crucify Jesus on the cross, they put a crown of thorns on his head. And ultimately in our heart we have to decide in which direction we're going to go. Are we going to go 30:56 towards a crown of thorns or are we going to go towards saying Lord Jesus you alone deserve to be on the throne and I want to abdicate. I want to recognize my own condition, my own weakness. 31:12 I want to look at Luke chapter 18. Jesus pointed this person out as an example of faith. What does true faith look like? He asks the question, you know, will the 31:30 son of man find faith on the earth? And then he tells the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee was praying to himself. He didn't know that he had lost his connection with God. He wasn't hearing God. He wasn't talking to God. He was 31:48 insensitive. He had problems with the fact that there was a you know tax collector over there. But the tax collector was beating his breast saying, "God be 32:04 merciful to me the sinner." What struck me about this is it wasn't a sin that he had a problem with. So see, it's easy for us to imagine, oh, he's a tax collector. He must have done something wrong. Then he came and said sorry. 32:23 You know where it where we especially fool ourselves is we imagine that oh he did something wrong and he's coming and saying sorry and the next week he's planning to do the same thing. That's not the picture that we see over 32:35 here. This man who you know knows he's doing things wrong and wants to continue doing them. He's not going to come and stand like this and listen to what he's saying. There may be sin. I'm not saying there's no sin, but he's saying the 32:51 problem is Lord, I am a sinner. That's the problem. Be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner. I have to go back to this office again and I have to be surrounded by this, you 33:09 know, mammon of corruption and I have to be surrounded by all these people who do things in certain ways and speak in certain ways and it's so easy for me to just rely on myself. Lord, be merciful to me the sinner. And and he was beating his chest. It's 33:29 the same gesture. His hand was on his heart, but his spirit was so different. said, "Lord, I'm the lepous man." I want to close with Leviticus where it talks about the leper in the Old Testament. It gives us a glorious 33:46 picture there. Leviticus chapter 13 and 14. The tax collector went away justified. 34:11 Jesus didn't leave the story, you know, without an ending. We know the ending. He went away justified. And in Leviticus 13:E3, encourage you to listen to brother Zach's teaching on these things. Uh brothers and sisters, I don't want to go 34:31 into it in detail, but I remembered some things and it encouraged me. So it talks about, you know, testing for leprosy. When somebody recognizes the marks of leprosy and it's not merely something on the surface, but there seems to be a deeper problem and 34:48 it's an infection that's spreading. And then there comes a point in time where the priest shall look and if the leprosy has covered all of his body from head to toe, if it has covered all of his body, then 35:07 he is clean. You know, it seems it seems a it seems a paradoxical thing. The rest of the thing is talking about it says again again he's unclean. He's unclean. He's unclean. But if the leprosy covers him from head to toe and he recognizes that 35:26 there is nothing good in this flesh, then he's clean. And and in Leviticus chapter 14, he gives us a wonderful very very accurate picture of of the cleansing. 35:43 Uh and it talks about two birds. Leviticus chapter 14, you can look at, you know, verses 4 to to 6 7 talks about two birds. A dead bird that is slain over running water. Again, a picture of the Holy 36:01 Spirit. and a live bird that is dipped in the blood of this dead bird along with hissup. Hup is a picture of faith along with scarlet thread. Scarlet thread is just a picture of of the Lord's redemption. You know, 36:19 throughout our lives, every area of our life, there is a scarlet thread. The Lord is able to cleanse us. every part, every aspect of our history. And uh cedar wood is a picture of the nature, the corrupt, the incorruptible 36:33 nature of Jesus Christ. And and and Jesus uh and and this you know there is there is such a clear picture. There is a bird that is slain many many many years ago that is slain and there is another bird that is set free. We see a 36:49 picture of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And and this is how the leper can be cleansed. And it says that you shall apply the blood all the way from the top to the bottom. It says the right earlobe, the right finger uh nail and 37:06 and the and the left toe. The blood is applied and then there is oil that is applied on top of the blood on the right uh sorry yeah right earlobe and the right hand and the and right toe. So we need the blood, the blood of 37:22 Jesus, the the work of the Holy Spirit, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And and what really challenged me is is actually a verse in uh 17, Leviticus 14 verse uh 18. It says um 37:40 that after that the remaining oil shall be poured out on the head o of of the of the cleansed leper. So there is you know some oil that's taken that's put on top of uh I'm 37:57 struggling to find the verse but but uh yeah verse 18. The rest of the oil that is in the priest's palm, he shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed. Brothers and sisters, this is the life that the Lord wants us to live. It's 38:11 such a clear picture. There is the blood of Jesus. There is the initial sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit by which we are born again. But the desire of the Lord is that the oil should be poured out on our head. We should live 38:25 under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And there's no other way that we can be set free. But there is an abundance of life, victorious life, resurrection life that is pointed to us in the scripture. We praise the Lord. We'll sing a song. 38:43 After that, we want to hear from brother Polo. Yeah. Brothers and sisters, this is a a 39:52 wonderful picture of what happens when Jesus comes into our life. says, "The tempter's power is broken. The tears are wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory for all is changed when Jesus comes to stay." And talks about a blind person. 40:09 It talks about a leper. Uh let's let's sing this song based on what we heard today in faith. once sat alone 40:28 beside the highway begging. His eyes were blind the light he could not see. He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows. 40:46 Then Jesus came and b his darkness flee. When Jesus comes, the tempter's bar is broken. When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped 41:05 away. He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory. For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay. 41:22 From home and friends, evil spirits drove him among the domes. He dwelt in misery. He cut himself 41:39 as demons possessed him. Then Jesus came and set the captives free. When Jesus comes, the tempter's bar is broken. 41:58 When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away. He takes the bomb and fills the heart with glory. For all is changed when Jesus comes to 42:17 stay. >> Unclean, unclean, the lepers cried in torment. The death, the dumb in helplessness to him. 42:34 The fever raised, disease had ripped his victim. And Jesus came and cast out every fear. Join us brothers and sisters. When Jesus comes, 42:50 the ters bar is broken. When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory. 43:09 For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay. >> Sing the last verse. >> Last verse. So many today have found the Savior able. 43:27 They could not conquer passion lost and sin. Their broken hearts had left them sad and lonely. Then Jesus came and dwelt himself 43:45 within. When Jesus comes, the death is far as broken. When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away. 44:02 He takes the doom and fills the life with glory. For all is changed when Jesus comes to save. Brother Paul. 44:39 Thank God for what we heard this morning. Praise God that we have the diagnosis and the cure in the word of God. and and in what we heard this morning heard about an insensitivity to hear God, insensitivity to sin, a hardening 44:57 of heart and um desensitized conscience. Now the problem with the leprosy is it spreads doesn't stay small. It spreads over time. And one of the things that we read in 45:16 Leviticus 13 is immediate isolation. Isolation from God and his people and loss of sensitivity. People who have leprosy, they lose the sensitivity. And um perhaps today most of us don't 45:38 see leprosy that common. In my village, I saw old lady who had leprosy. All the fingers are not there or dis de disformed the toes and fingers because over the years because of the 45:55 loss of sensitivity and to pain that the fingers were all disformed and that could very well happen if I go on that route and don't repent if I don't take this seriously and say Lord I come to you for cure I seem to have this 46:15 loss of sensitivity in this area, that area perhaps whatever area that God showed to me. Lord, I have this loss of sensitivity if there is no cry like we heard if I don't go to God for cure. And the good thing is that God says the 46:33 whole chapter about cleansing, how the leprosy can be cleansed in Leviticus 14. As I was thinking the after God instituted the laws around leprosy, the first person to got leprosy was, you know, in the same family um Miriam. 46:52 Numbers 12, he tells us the seriousness of the sin and I can lose my sensitivity towards this particular area that's mentioned there. 47:11 And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses about whom Moses had married. And she they asked, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has the has he not spoken through us as well?" 47:29 And we read there, "The Lord heard it. The Lord hears you know my perhaps not my external audible voice against what I say against authority but even inside my heart authority at home 47:46 or the spiritual authority in the church or the authority it's there even something in the heart the cry in the heart or you know um agitation in the heart. The Lord hears 48:05 and immediately Lord called them out. In verse eight, we read there verse eight, the last part. Why then were you not afraid? Same thing. The cure for the leprosy or the antibiot or the immunity that we heard this morning 48:25 against leprosy is the fear of God. And God God asked the same thing. You lost the fear. How come you are not afraid to speak against my servant, young people and teens to speak against authority at home? 48:43 It shows the lack of fear of God. The Lord hears and it's an insensitive heart. There is no sensitivity that I'm speaking against authority. I'm speaking against my parents. I'm speaking against the authority that God has placed us in this church. 49:03 That shows the lack of fear of God. And we read there and continue to immediately Miriam was lepous. The leprosy came out. There was leprosy. And that's what it came to me when I was reading this. It it was already there in 49:19 the heart. It was a spiritual leprosy on the heart. Insensitive insensitivity to God. insensitivity to speak against the authority and as a external manifestation the leprosy came out. I need to fight against this leprosy 49:43 and that I can become insensitive in my heart. I can easily speak or have something in my heart not speak out but s have something in my heart against authority. It could be at home or it could be in church, could be workplace. 49:57 Lord, help me to be sensitive in this area. And we read that immediately Moses and Aaron cried out. Moses cried out to the Lord saying, "Lord, heal her, I pray." There was nothing about Miriam that was recorded after this. Perhaps Miriam also 50:14 cried out, "Lord, heal me." And the Lord heard the prayer and healed. She had to stay outside the camp for 7 days in isolation. and God restored her. I want to be careful in this area and that Lord I don't want to give into this 50:29 leprosy. And we heard of Uza who had leprosy and another man got leprosy. We read that in 2 Kings 5, a man named Kihasi from verse 15 onwards, 50:50 the greed and dishonesty led him to a place of leprosy. And we read in verse 20 there that you know he he said in his heart I will run after him. I will run after money and 51:07 take something. I won't let it go. This running after the earthly riches, running after money, running after wealth, this greed. And we read that in verse 21, he pursued after gayasi or or naman. In other 51:26 words, pursued after money. He pursued after and he said I won't leave this this attitude especially in the in the area of money 51:44 the greed and dishonesty he came back and we read that in verse 25 when king Elisa said to him where have you been kiasi and he said your servant went nowhere know this greed and dishonesty together. 52:05 We read in verse 26 that his heart has become insensitive. The prophet asked him, "Did my not did not my heart go with you when you went after that man? when he went after that chariot, when he turned towards you, did my not did ma not my 52:25 heart go with you? No, he has lost his sensitivity. And immediately the prophet said, leprosy of non shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. He went forth from his presence a leper. See the danger there. Again you know 52:45 it's again the manifestation of leprosy outside the condition of the heart he was he was a leper when he was insensitive to what he was doing and God gave him an external leprosy as well and he lived as a leprosy and his 53:02 descendants and something that I heard in the church and I meditating this remembered this and took it seriously for myself you know I I I've heard as um as a young boy hearing brother Zach saying something like this imagine his son his 53:20 son after a few years he comes and ask dad I see a white spot in my hand what is this what would tell him just wanted to apply this for myself as a father that 53:38 my actions my insensitivity to God my insensitivity ity to what the Lord has been telling me and to my teachers like we heard instructions of the teachers can have an impact on my children. What what would kayasi say? Is it my 53:59 sin? It it was my sin my ch child. I went after money. I was not honest. And there you go. You have this leprosy. Perhaps there's no generational curse, but my actions, my 54:17 sin would definitely have an impact on my children. Lord, help me to be serious in this matter. Help me to be sensitive to you. We read there in Leviticus 14:34 onwards, it's not a leprosy that Jesus 54:34 or God warned about a individual. He is talking about leprosy of a house in 34 onwards he talks about the leprosy of the house. It's thinking in again the same light of what we heard. It could apply to my own house. It's not just my ind as an 54:52 individual as a house as a family as a family. My family could be insensitive to God in a certain area. The Lord says if a wall has a patch, destroy the wall. If some area in my life I seem to have you know as a family we are insensitive 55:11 Lord help us to take serious action destroy that wall. Whatever is the area that the Lord is showing that I we have leprosy or I have leprosy as a family. Lord help me to take it seriously. That's what the Lord 55:28 said destroy the wall. And many times the danger that I see is I'm not aware that I have this leprosy. And that's why we read in Leviticus 13, the man should be examined by the priest at least 10, we read there at least 55:47 around 10 to 11 times it talks about let him go to the priest. Let him go to the priest. Let him go go to the priest and the priest will examine. The priest will examine. My heart is deceitful like we heard. Lord, like David cried out, "Search me, 56:03 oh God, know my heart. Try me and see if there is this leprosy in me that an insensitive conscience, a hardening of heart, and know my thoughts, Lord, and see if there is anything hurtful 56:22 in me and lead me in this everlasting way." May we have this cry, brothers and sisters. And I want to have this cry. Lord, search my heart. Search me. Perhaps I'm not aware of this leprosy that is in me. Search my heart. 56:37 You examine my heart. Let I want to go to the Lord, the high priest. He said, go to the priest and let him examine. Go to the priest and let him examine. Lord, I want to come to you daily and judge myself and let you 56:54 examine my heart. We can be cleansed. That's the gospel. We can be cleansed of this leprosy. You know the way that we heard about the way of cleansing. Leviticus 14:14, it talks about that. I want to show that verse. 57:11 Leviticus 14:14. The priest shall then take some blood of the guilt offering. And the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear and on the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of his right foot. And we 57:31 continue to read that oil be poured on his head. That's something that was done to the high priest himself in Leviticus 8:23. that that since encouragement to me and to all of us. Leviticus 8 23 Moses slaughtered it and took some of 57:55 its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot. That was something that was done to the high priest himself. And continue to read in verse 30. Moses 58:13 anointed the oil of with oil the head of Aaron the high priest. That's the beauty of the gospel that God can take a leper like me and do to me what he did to the high priest Jesus. That's the beauty of the gospel. But it 58:31 thrills my heart to know Lord if I come to you with honesty and say that heal me of this leprosy and God can do what he did to Jesus and I don't need to die like Guza till the death with leprosy is separated from the house of God separated from people 58:51 no I can be healed I can have this cry like Luke 17:13 like the 10 lepers cried out to Jesus Jesus master have pity on us. I want to have this cry in my heart. Lord, heal me of my leprosy. Heal me of 59:08 my spiritual insensitivity. And what God did to the high priest Jesus, he can do it to me. He can anoint me. He can cleanse me. He can anoint me with Holy Spirit. May God help each of us. Amen. I want to hand over to Vas. 59:37 Amen. Praise God for what we heard and we trust that he'll preserve it in our hearts. Uh and he'll bring it to our to our mind and help us to walk this way. Uh brothers and sisters, brother Jeffrey 59:54 from London CFC has been with us last week and and this week and he'll be going back. So we want to ask him to give us a brief word of greeting and after that we'll have the announcements. dear brothers and sisters, I'm truly 1:00:34 delighted and to be with all of you brothers, sisters and children. Next year will be 40 years since I joined CFC right here in Bangalore in the old building and I truly praise God and treasure all the years that I've 1:00:51 been blessed, challenged and encouraged. I know there's at least 80% here who are quite new but nevertheless uh I'm delighted that you all can be part of the CFC family cuz when I look back truly I praise God. I remember when I 1:01:10 was leaving to go to London in 93, we were having a farewell meeting with a few brothers and one thing I had to mention before I left was I said I was so relaxed in CFC cuz I had no doubt about what was being preached. I felt so 1:01:29 at home like a child secure in the arms of the parents knowing that what CFC is preaching and doing was absolutely wonderful. And that till today I say the same thing. And of course uh I give God all the glory for that. And there's two 1:01:48 verses I just want to share which has been a tremendous blessing for me and of course for you as well is Zechariah chapter 2 verse 5 which is a beautiful promise for the church. For I declares the Lord will be a wall 1:02:07 of fire around her and I will be the glory in her midst. This promise has truly been true for all our churches. I mean there may have been few problems we've had to endure which God allowed but nevertheless the promise stands true 1:02:26 and this the wall of fire and the power of the Holy Spirit around and within the church and of course this promise certainly applies even as individuals for us who are truly walking. And I'm and I always stand by this beautiful 1:02:43 promise at the back. This verse enduring and simple pure devotion to Christ for us who are truly faithful and wholehearted seeking God in humility. This verse is definitely a promise. And the other promise at the end of verse 8, 1:03:03 for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. And this has been another beautiful promise which has been so true all these years that I've known the Lord and of course being part of the church. And of course w finally warm greetings from our church 1:03:23 in London especially from my co- brothers Kiti, Raj and John who passed their greetings to all who know them. Of course Kiti will be end of the month coming to see his mom and I truly praise God that I have the opportunity to come 1:03:37 every year cuz to see Vina's dad and to be part of the church here. So I'm truly thankful for my for the dear elder brothers who've been a tremendous blessing and for giving me the chance to be your every year here and enjoy 1:03:52 fellowship with you. May the Lord continue to bless you and build each of you up for his glory. Thank you. Presenting 1:04:19 the enhanced Bible study with Zach Punin app with its thoughtfully designed interface. The app offers a re-imagined experience to make your Bible study even more convenient. The app features seven Bible studies. 1:04:38 The studies range from foundational truths to intensely practical in-depth studies. Got some burning questions on your mind? Explore the question and answer section where Zach Punan answers over around 1,000 questions on a wide range of 1:04:57 topics. Are you seeking to understand the Bible in a deeper way? The Bible study challenge is a feature that is designed to help you with that. Whether you're interested to deepen your Christian walk or you're someone new to 1:05:15 the faith, the Bible study with Zach Punan app is a perfect companion to help you on this journey.
