Turn to Leviticus chapter 14, Leviticus 14, starting at verse 33. Read quickly 10 verses.
The Bible reads in Leviticus 14, starting at verse 33.
The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When ye become of the land of Canaan,
which I give you for possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in the house of the land of your possession,
and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying,
It seemeth to me there is, as it were, a plague in the house.
Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go in to see the plague,
that all that is in the house be not made unclean.
And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house, and he shall look on the plague,
and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house from hollow straits,
greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall,
then the priest shall go out of the house, to the door of the house, and shove the house seven days.
The priest shall come again in the seventh day, and shall look, and behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house,
then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is,
and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city,
and he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about,
and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place.
They shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones,
and he shall take other mortar, and shall clasp the house.
Let's open the Word of the Earth.
Thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. I just ask for a night of blessing with your spirit.
I just pray that I'll be able to preach your words with clarity,
and I just pray the law of attendance will be your word.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now, the Bible's telling us here how to deal with the threatening leprosy in a house.
There's also a lot of symbolism here that God's shown us.
The priest here symbolizes the pastor, okay?
And the plague or the leprosy symbolizes worldliness or sin in our lives.
So look here at verse number 35.
It says,
And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying,
It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house.
So basically this person looks at it and says,
I think I might have a problem in my house.
And it says then in verse number 36,
Then the priest shall command that they empty the house.
See, when the pastor sees a problem, he's going to preach on it.
A good pastor's going to do that.
The Bible says the pastor ought to cry aloud,
Spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
And show by the people their transgressions in the house of Jacob their sins.
And don't be mad at the preacher that steps on your toe every once in a while.
Don't be mad at the preacher that preaches.
Yes, worldliness.
It tells you to get that music and the movies and the worldliness out of your life.
There's a reason why he's doing that.
Look later on in verse number 36.
It says that all that is in the house be not made unclean.
You see, a lot of people think they can keep pockets of sin in their lives
and it's not going to spread and infest the other areas of their life.
You may think I can just listen to a little bit of rock music,
a little bit of country, or just watch some of these DVDs or some of this television.
Many people have gone down that path and it destroys their entire life.
You see, if you don't get that worldliness out,
and that's why the preacher's going to command that you empty your house,
command you to get that worldliness out,
because otherwise all the house is going to be unclean.
You can't keep sin in your life.
It's going to destroy your life.
Then we go on to verse number 37.
He shall look on the plague and behold,
if the plague be in the walls of the house with all those drapes,
greenish or reddish, which is inside or low in the wall,
then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house
and shut up the house seven days.
Bible says here that the priest is going to shut up the house seven days.
Basically what I see here is the preacher isn't going to preach on the same topic every single week.
Every week he shouldn't be preaching against the television.
Now often, definitely, we put some of the helpers in these days,
but basically he shuts up the house seven days and he's going to come back.
When you have new members at a church, you've got to preach on the same topic.
We also have to be further edified by these things.
If the preacher preaches against divorce one time and then 20 years later he comes back,
that's not right. He's going to have to go back to the same topic sometimes.
So he shuts up the house seven days and then it says,
and the priest shall come again the seventh day
and shall look and behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house.
So the preacher preaches on this and all of a sudden he looks.
Is the sin still there? Are we still having this problem that we need to preach on again?
And then it says in the next verse,
then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is.
So basically the preacher sees this is a real problem.
Once again he's going to command. He's going to preach hard.
We need to get that sin out of your life.
He's going to remove the stones out of that place.
We need to remove that sin, that worldliness, out of our lives.
And then it says that they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city.
When I think of an unclean place, I think of a trash can.
That's a good place to put your music.
That's a good place to put your hella-vision, is the trash can.
That is a great symbolism right there with an unclean place.
But it also says, without the city.
You see a lot of people they say, well I'm going to get rid of my worldly music,
but they still keep it in their house. I'm just not going to listen to it.
Or I'm just not going to watch the hella-vision.
I'm going to be able to control it.
Now does that work in any area?
I mean when people go on a diet and they say, well I'm just going to buy a bunch of Oreos.
And for years they just put them right in front of me.
And I'm just not going to eat them.
I mean I've tried that. It doesn't work, does it?
And so we can't do that with sin either.
We can't control sin. We always feel like we can control sin.
Well I'll just keep this little sin in my life and it won't spread.
It always spreads.
You know we always get fooled by it.
We cannot keep it in our life.
We need to throw it into an unclean place without the city.
I remember when I got rid of my worldly music and my worldly DVDs.
I threw them in the trash can.
Not only that, I bundled them up and got rid of them outside.
I didn't even want to tempt myself to crawl back into that garbage.
You know what, you may think that sounds foolish, but a lot of people crawl back into that garbage.
It was the same stuff that they got rid of in the past.
And that's why I think the Bible is showing us here very, very strongly.
But not only that, in verse number 41.
And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about.
You see a lot of times we feel like we got this sin out of our life.
We feel like we got rid of the music.
But here's the thing, do you still have the radio you can listen to in your car?
Do you still have maybe the gym where you have music?
Do you still have the restaurants where you can get the music?
I understand more in the world.
We cannot just fully get it out of our lives.
But if there's something that keeps creeping back in your life, you need to go to an extreme.
If the radio is a problem, you've got to get that out of your life.
I remember when I got rid of my worldly music, I didn't just stop there.
I removed the ability to even listen to my radio from my car.
Because I said, it's too big of a temptation.
I can't handle it.
And so I went to that extra measure.
And if we have a sin that keeps creeping up, get it at the root.
I mean don't just let it keep coming and crawling back in your life over and over again.
And see a good preacher, he's going to cause you to scrape your house round about.
To look for any benefit that's left over.
Because there's a good chance any worldliness you have in your life is probably already spreading in other areas of your life.
Even if you don't realize it.
And see the devil's smart.
You feel like you're strong when you get rid of the music and the DVDs.
You say okay I kicked that habit.
The devil's going to wait until he can devour you.
He's going to wait at the moment when you're weak and you think you've kicked that habit.
And it says they shall pour out the dust they scrape off.
Once again whip out the city into an unclean place.
Then it says in verse number 42.
And they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones.
And you shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house.
It says take other stones and put them in the place of those stones.
You see it's great if you get rid of your worldliness.
But you're still probably driving 30 minutes a day.
You've got to replace it with something.
You've got to put other stones in that place.
Because if you just let yourself have an idle mind.
I mean look what about David when he had 9-1?
At the time kings go forth to battle.
Eventually he commits adultery.
Because he had dead time.
And if we sit in a car for 30 minutes and have dead time.
That's the problem.
Eventually we're probably going to start listening to the radio again.
Or eventually we're just going to let a line wander into foolish thoughts.
The Bible says you get rid of your world intelligence.
That's great but that's probably a couple of hours of your day.
Where you're going to sit around and say well what did I do with my time?
I used to think that myself.
I got rid of it and was like well what do I need to do with my time now?
You've got to replace it with something else.
And see here's the thing.
I remember the first time I got rid of my worldly music.
Like I said I got rid of it for my car as well.
I ended up getting a new car.
And I wasn't even thinking about this.
But I had the radio in my new car.
But I had a CD player.
But eventually my CD player started to skip.
So I couldn't play it anymore.
And so I had a lot of dead time.
And I didn't replace it with other stones.
What ended up happening is that sin crept back in my life.
And it is very frustrating retreading the same ground.
You've gotten rid of the sin and then all of a sudden it comes back in your life.
But see this is what's happening here.
Obviously you guys tell us how to deal with credit.
There's a lot of symbolism in this passage.
And God's showing us if there's a sin that keeps creeping up
you have to go to that extra measure.
Let's not get too confident that we kicked it.
Because I don't know about you but when I first started hearing this preaching
it was completely foreign to me.
And a lot of you might have recently gotten rid of that worldly music.
Those DVDs.
But let me tell you something.
They could creep back.
Satan is going to wait until he can find a time to get them to creep back in your life.
You have to throw them without the place into an unclean city.
Scrape the house ground up.
Get it out of your life and replace those stones with other stones.
Let's close the word of prayer.
Dear heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here tonight.
I've assessed you.
Bless the rest of this time and bless the next preacher.
I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
And we only have one left.
So notice you.