二月二十六日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/02/0226.mp3″]
经文: 察看全身的肉,若长满了大痲疯,就要定那患灾病的为洁净,全身都变为白,他乃洁净了。(利未记十三:13)
这项规定看来似乎奇怪,却包含智慧。根据痲疯病人的外表症状可以证明患者的肉体组织是否痊愈。今晚,让我们来明白这功课中的不平凡规则。我们也都如痲疯病患,因此可以将痲疯病患的律例应用在自己身上。当人看到自己完全失丧、灭亡,被罪的污秽掩盖时,才会否认自以为义的一切,并能在主面前承认自己的罪,然后藉着耶稣的宝血和上帝的恩典,成了洁净。隐藏的、不自觉的、未认的罪都是真正的痲疯病。但是当人看到和感到自已的罪,并将之置于死地时,主必以怜悯的眼光注视着忧伤的心灵。没有比自以为义更为致命的,也没有比悔改更能教人充满希望的了。完全的真理是我们必须承认自己是有罪的。圣灵若在我们里面作工,使我们知罪,我们的嘴唇就会毫无困难地即时承认自己的罪。这节经文带给真正觉醒的罪人何等大的安慰啊!令他们忧伤沮丧的环境立时就转为充满希望的预兆。建造所必须的第一件事是挖掘根基,同样地,对罪的彻底觉醒是恩典在人心中最起始的工作。可怜患痲疯的罪人啊,就是这样,带着罪身来到主前吧!
Evening, February 26
Scripture: “Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.”(Leviticus 13:13)
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This evening it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and in no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then he is clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy; but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its deathblow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are “nothing else but sin,” for no confession short of this will be the whole truth; and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment -it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to truly awakened sinners: the very circumstance which so grievously discouraged them is here turned into a sign and symptom of a hopeful state! Stripping comes before clothing; digging out the foundation is the first thing in building-and a thorough sense of sin is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart. O thou poor leprous sinner, utterly destitute of a sound spot, take heart from the text, and come as thou art to Jesus-
“For let our debts be what they may, however great or small, As soon as we have nought to pay, our Lord forgives us all. ’Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large:
While we can call one mite our own, we have no full discharge.”