Beloved congregation, the text for this evening is from Luke chapter 5, the verses 12, 13, and 14. I'll read those again. Luke 5, the verses 12, 13, and 14. These words, and it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he charged him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Beloved congregation, there is a song that runs something like this. What can take away or what can wash away my sin? What can make me whole again? Perhaps you know the song and the words. You could say that those words, in a sense, express the words of the leper in our text. You may know that surely in Bible days, leprosy was a dreadful and a much dreaded disease. It was a fatal disease in the end. It disfigured a person. And the only defense against that sickness was quarantine. Sufferers of leprosy were forbidden to approach other people. and they had to on purpose wear ragged clothing or rent clothes and they had to look unkempt and crying when they saw anybody else, unclean, unclean. They had no way of earning a living and they depended on charity and their sickness was defiling. and there was no medicine for it. You may know that surely in those days in the Mideast, they called leprosy, the plague, the plague. They called it the firstborn of death. That's how we read it in the book of Job chapter 18, verse 13. the firstborn of death. It consumed the limbs of a leper. It left him crippled at the brink of death. And we read it in the scriptures that lepers were really the living dead. These people were dying. And yet by the end of this scripture, text for this evening congregation, this leper could answer the question that he might have been thinking of as he went into the city to kneel before the Lord Jesus with the question, what can make me whole again? What can wash away my sin? He could have answered by the end, Jesus. It is Jesus only. Let's look at this passage, Congregation, and see by way of the theme, a man full of leprosy healed by Christ. a man full of leprosy healed by Christ. And we'll look first at the history, and then we'll look at three lessons from this history. First of all, let us consider the history, and let us first of all consider in that history the picture given us here, the picture of the leper. Notice that our text begins with, and behold, no wonder, And there are at least three reasons for this. And behold, for Luke to especially call attention to what is taking place here in this passage. The first reason is that this man comes to Jesus and this man is full of leprosy. Now when you read this in the gospel according to Luke, you may begin to understand why in the Old Testament we read only of two healings with respect to leprosy. The healing of Miriam, Moses' sister, after seven days of leprosy, and the healing of Naaman, the Syrian. to which the Lord Jesus refers in the chapter prior to the one from which our text is taken, Luke chapter four, congregation, verse 27, where Jesus says, there were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha, that's Elisha, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian, because he came to the God of Israel. when a leper was cleansed, that was regarded as a man who was raised from the dead, as having come back from the land of the dead to the land of the living. And the Jewish rabbis, in view of the fact that it was a sickness from which pretty well no one was healed, they were teaching the people that the healing of leprosy was something that God had kept for himself. And they said that lepers would be healed when the Messiah would come. He would redeem Israel from all his iniquities. At any rate, when Luke begins this account and he says, and behold, then he is saying, now pay attention to it. Here is a man full of leprosy, a medical term for the advanced disease by now. This man is in a phase in which his limbs have been consumed. He has nearly crippled at the brink of death. So that's the first reason for and behold, but there is a second reason for this and behold, it's this that we encountered this man in a certain city, our Texas. Very unusual because it was against the law for a leper to come into a city. You can read that in Luke 13 verse 46. You may know that when leprosy broke out, then that leper was not allowed to touch anybody. No one in his family. Right away he had to leave his home and his town. In the Old Testament we read in 2 Kings chapter seven that lepers did have dealings, at least some of them, with other lepers. But those lepers were outcasts. And wrote to anyone who would receive a leper into his home, his home would be declared immediately unclean, contaminated. Try to picture that kind of a life. Some in the congregation know what it is to be alone and to be lonely. They wake up in the morning, nobody says good morning to them. And at night when they go to bed, there's no one who says to them good night. But to be a man full of leprosy, as the man in our text, not to be able to have his wife with her hand touch his feverish forehead, for instance, not to receive any help from his children who ordinarily would surround dad in a sickness. And while wearing these ragged clothes, looking unkempt, And whenever he saw anyone in a distance, he had to cry, unclean, unclean. As a sign of mourning all together, he had to mourn over himself as if he were already dead. This man comes into the city to Jesus. That's the third reason for Luke to say, and behold, After all, he was sequestered from normal society life, not allowed to go to the temple. Perhaps when wandering through the fields, he at the times of the great festival saw the people traveling to Jerusalem. Perhaps he heard them singing the songs of Zion with joy and gladness in my soul. I hear the call to prayer. Let us go up to God's own house. He was not allowed to go to God's own house where the Lord delights to dwell as Psalm 132 puts it. And if he heard them sing to those who dwell in brotherhood, the Lord his blessing sends, he crowns them with the crown of life that never ends. He was not allowed to go to that place where the blood of atonement flowed, where the altar smoked and where God spoke and said, I will remember your sins no more. And the man was not allowed to be in the temple either at that moment and then the priest would come out of the holy place and he would raise his hands and he would say to the people, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. On the contrary, this man was to have no communion with God who would bless in grace. No kind face of God shining upon him and accompanying him on his dark way of life, of death, of dying. You think of that congregation that for a leper there was no communion with God who is of purer eyes than to behold the impurity of a leper. Far from God, he had to just wander about in areas where there were no people. He could sing, why hast thou cast me off? God of my life, oh, when shall I come and behold thy face? With humanly speaking, the answer was never again. And as I said, the ragged or the rent clothes of this leper were telling something. They were a sign of his sorrow for the broken communion with God, ultimately caused by sin. And now the consequence of sin, bringing about separation between God and us and our neighbor. And if a leper was cleansed, then according to the law of Moses, he had to go to the temple to bring an offering. And then if he would be healed, he was not to go to the temple to bring an offering of thanksgiving. As in the case of other sicknesses, but he had to go to the temple and he had to bring a guilt offering. A guilt offering. And in that guilt offering, the priest had to make atonement. for the healed leper on account of his leprosy. According to Leviticus 14, two live birds to be brought for the healed leper. And then one of those two birds was killed over a clay pot with fresh water in it. And then the blood would drip from this bird just killed. into that water and then that red water by now mixed with blood you see. That bird was dipped in there seven times and then the live bird was let go after some time. the picture of just as the man had been restored to health, he could see then that bird flap its wings and fly away, and then he might know that he really was like that bird cleansed by blood and water, released from his uncleanness, his illness, and he was now free to go and move again. But before he could return to the camp of Israel, he had to shave his head, wash his clothes, bathe himself, and then he was clean enough in order to take the steps towards returning to the community. And then he knew he was not just physically cleansed, but he also was ceremonially clean as well. Now imagine for a moment, congregation, that you would be that man, that I would be that man. And that you would have to say and that I would have to say, I have no one who helps me. I have no God because he has cast me off from before his eyes. And as I said in the Old Testament, there are only two clear instances of healings from leprosy. Only death, only death would put an end to this dreadful suffering. And somebody who would die as a leper in the Old Testament, Without that guilt offering having been brought, he would die as a man who had been cast out from before the eyes of the Lord, the God of Israel. Could such a person still be saved? Would he not be cast forever from the presence of God? That's the picture tonight. Now let's listen to the prayer of this leper. And notice how he addresses Jesus. He says, Lord. That means he has heard about the Lord. How? It must have blown over, as it were, to this man living in isolation. He must have heard the message, a great prophet is risen up among us. He must have heard of Jesus in chapter four of Luke, that Christ had been in the synagogue in Nazareth, and he had read there from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah about the acceptable year of the Lord that it had come. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, Jesus had said in the synagogue. And this man full of leprosy had heard that, had understood, this man must be the Messiah. And he was drawn to Jesus by the glad tidings he must have heard somehow. And there was this moment that when Jesus was in that city, he just had to go to Jesus, drawn to Jesus by the cords of love of God the Father. Why has he come now to Jesus? He says it in these words. Thou canst make me clean. There the man lays bare all his heart, you might say. See him lying there on his face a little distance from the Lord Jesus. And look, the physician pictures his leper as a poor wretch with his clothes rent. and his feet being bare because a leper was not allowed to have sandals on his feet. And perhaps this man had a cloth over his face to cover the holes that had begun in his head. His disease is in the final phase. He has come into the city, he doesn't have much He doesn't have much longer to live on this earth. And he doesn't make just a general comment to the Lord Jesus, thou canst make such a one, an unclean one, thou canst make him clean. But he says, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. That's his prayer. And take note that this man is not merely asking for healing. He doesn't say if thou wilt thou canst heal me, but he says if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. Whereby the communion with God can be restored in his life. And the gates of the temple can be opened to him again, and he can enter into the reconciled relationship with the God of all grace, whereby his kindly face will shine also upon this man. And he's asking Jesus for the most important thing. He says, Lord, make me clean. Make me clean. He knows Jesus is able. Thou canst make me clean. He's convinced. Thou has the power to make me clean. What a faith this man expresses, congregation, in these words. According to this gospel of Luke, he's the first leper that has come to the Lord Jesus, and he has not ever seen the Lord Jesus cleansing a leper. Yet he says, thou canst, thou art able. The only thing is, what if he is not willing? Doesn't say that. But he says, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. If thou wilt, I'm not a hopeless case. If thou wilt not, I have no more hope. Would Jesus be willing? That was his prayer. Now look at the proclamation of Jesus in response. Jesus says, I will be thou clean. I will, he says in the Greek, that's just one word, not two words. And be thou clean is also one word in the Greek. So the Lord uses two words. And what he does, he reaches out his hand, that's Jesus' pure hand, you might say, and he touches the impure flesh of this man. This man who is full of leprosy, but Jesus is full of compassion and full of power, full of willingness. full of ability and we read immediately the leprosy departed from this leper. Must have been evident to all the people around there. And of course to the leper, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, this man was cleansed, changed, healed. And then Jesus charged him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Congregation, this is the history. Now let's go to our second point, the lessons from this history. And the first lesson is Christ's compassionate heart, Christ's compassionate heart. because this miracle gives insight into what is in the heart of the Lord Jesus. Before him, there was this leper stretched out with his face down. And at that moment, we see the heart of Christ opens and he says to him, I will, touching him, be thou clean. Now, congregation, there is a lesson here for all who struggle with sin and the consequence of sin. Here is a man full of leprosy, I repeat, who comes to Jesus. And he knows that if he will not make me clean, I will die. I will perish forever. And in this man who comes to Jesus, God gives a living demonstration of the seriousness of sin and the consequence of sin, death. The Lord uses this leper as a living example of how man is attacked by the disease of sin and cast out of the communion with God. and man unless he is cleansed by Christ. And then I say at the same time, congregation, there is an application for you and for me. Because in this passage, the Lord says to you and me, is this not a picture of you? Does it not look familiar to you, this picture? This is you. this issue, this I am congregation. By sin the Bible says we are all lepers. Don't we read it in Isaiah the prophet in chapter one verse six, lepers from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no clean spot in us anywhere. And we too are at the point of death. At the point of death. I've been thinking, congregation, anyone who in Israel discovered a spot of leprosy in his body one day, I mean, for the first time, a white spot, that he was just shocked, dumbfounded. The best I can compare it is to one day you feel in your body a lump somewhere, some growth somewhere, What now? And maybe you do what a leopard does at first. He covers it up. Nobody will see it. This can't be. And you kind of cover it up so that others won't see it. But you know what it is because you have heard about others. You've seen maybe in a medical dictionary or journal. And you know the seriousness of what's happened to you. And you are just shocked. You kept it to yourself. You didn't tell your wife or your husband. Congregation, when God puts this picture before your, in my eyes for the first time in your life, then you see it as my picture in the sight of God. And when that is happening to you, you are shocked. And I hope that you can say, I know of that. The word of God was opened to me and brought home to me. And I started to see myself as a sinner before God. I was shocked. I recognized I am sick with sin and it made me weep before God. Maybe at first you try to hide it, ignore it or excuse yourself. Didn't work. My dear friend, this is the reality of your life, of my life. What is it? Leprous on account of sin. And the Lord who makes known to Jacob his iniquity and to Israel his perverseness, he says, that's what you are in my sight. Don't we see this in David's life, for example, after his sin with Bathsheba and seeing to it that Uriah was killed? When David's eyes were opened, what did he see? His uncleanness. And the prophet Nathan pointed his finger at him, he said, thou art the man. And then in brokenness, he confessed his sin. And he pled for mercy before the face of God, like the leper. Wash me, make me pure within. Cleanse, oh cleanse me from my sin. Take a picture, take a look at this picture in the scriptures congregation. It's a needful picture. It's a needful picture for you and for me. It's needful that our eyes are open to the seriousness of our sin and the consequences. And God's saying to you and me, that's who you are and how you are. And when that happens, then you pray with David, God be merciful to me. And you pray for the Holy Spirit. Also for that work of the Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, if this is thy way with me, that thou open my eyes to this, uncover me more to my sin sickness. And maybe you think to yourself, Pastor, I know, and I know the shock of that in my life as well. When I discovered my leprosy, and I have to say, unclean I am, unclean I am, cast out from before God's presence and communion. I've come to loathe myself on account of my uncleanness. But then also take a look at Christ's heart. full of compassion. And that's what this leper was after. That's what was his prayer. If thou wilt, if thou wilt. He wants to know the willingness of the Savior with respect to him and his case. His whole life is telling the story that he's unclean, cast out, and he'll die that way. But this is the Messiah. In his heart, there is compassion. Now perhaps you are truly troubled by your sin today. And you see yourself in this leper full of leprosy. You see it, there is not even an inch in my life without the stain of uncleanness. But this is the gospel of glad tidings. What is it? Jesus is in this city. That's the message that leper must have heard. That's why he went to the city, and he drew near, and then fell on his face. And then he prayed, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And the Greek puts it in this way, that he didn't just say it once, but he kept on saying it. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. What a wonderful prayer, congregation, because it is really a prayer of faith worked by the Holy Spirit in the heart of this leper, this unclean man. And I say that especially with regard to those who are spiritually afflicted. or standing far off when it comes to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I say a wonderful prayer, this is congregation, because consider how this prayer has come about from this man's lips. He has come into this city. Now this man will have known that he was taking a great risk. Humanly speaking, he knew that they could stone him to death for it. Because that was the punishment prescribed for lepers who would come into society. And he will have a reason to himself. I have to go to Jesus. I may be stoned, but I have to go to Jesus, else I will die. He's my only hope. So the man was driven on by his dire distress. And my dear brother and sister, if you see your need of Jesus, and you're driven on by a sense of your need, then you cannot stay away from Jesus. You have to go to him, to his compassionate heart, opened up in the gospel. I said this was a prayer of faith. You could call it, here you see the activity of his faith, in which this man is expressing that Jesus is able to cleanse him. But now there is also the submission of his faith. The submission of his faith. Of his faith. For he says, Lord, if thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. If thou wilt not, I will not protest. Thou art just in thy willingness. That's what he is saying. Now do you sense his humility in this regard? There he is with his rent clothes. They tell of his rent heart. Unclean, he must have called, unclean. Lord, if thou wilt, if thou wilt not, I have no right to it. I confess I am unworthy. Why wouldst thou look upon a wretch like me? And yet, if thou wilt, Now congregation, if you think of it, this is the greatest problem to many at this very point. Would the Lord be willing? Now I know you can also talk about it in a sinful way. And we have to discern at this point. Sometimes you encounter that also in church that certain persons are suspicious of God. And they talk, what if God is not willing? And then they talk in such a way that they say, I am willing, but I don't know if God is willing. Now that's a wrong approach, congregation. Then you display the seriousness of your leprosy. But there are also other people who in uprightness of heart, they say, Lord, are thou willing? They look at themselves and they see in themselves no ground as to why the Lord would listen to their prayer. And so sometimes you talk with them and you say, but are you in need of cleansing? Or they say, I'm in great need. Do you believe that the Lord is able to cleanse you? Oh yes he is, they say, because he is the mighty, he is the almighty savior. And they're convicted, it sounds. They're convicted of his power to help. He's able to help. They pray for a new heart in their life and for cleansing and they know the Lord is able to do it in their life. They pray for the atonement of their sins and they know that the Lord is able to atone for them. They pray for forgiveness and they know the Lord is able to forgive them all their sins. And they know of their besetting sins prevailing from day to day. but they know that the Lord is able to overcome those as well. But sometimes in a pastoral setting, they say, but pastor or elder, would the Lord be willing to forgive my sin? I mean, not only others, but would he be willing to grant me the forgiveness of sins? and grant me life everlasting by grace. And then you can explore that and say, do you believe he is able? Yeah. Do you believe he is willing? Don't know. What do you think? Do you think that God's ability to cleanse you is greater than his willingness to cleanse you? You agree there is no limit to his power. Would there be a limit to his willingness? And there are some in our midst who struggle with this congregation. At least they say they are not indifferent or cold in this struggle. And as I say, it can be a question of unbelief, to put it like that. But you can also wrestle with a question like this. Now listen to what the Lord Jesus says. The man says to Jesus, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now, do you know the difference between the question of faith? Lord, would thou be willing to cleanse me? And the question of unbelief that says, would God be willing to cleanse me? The person who asks it in faith, he longs for the Lord. Longs for communion with the Lord. And he says, that's my greatest need. Because I know by my sin I've lost the communion with God. I lost God himself. And then you say to them, do you doubt the willingness of the Savior? And they think, no, no. I don't doubt the willingness of the Savior, but I look at myself and then I say, why would the Lord want to cleanse me and return me to communion with him? Is it unbelief or is it faith? You see, there are those who Talk about this. And they keep on sitting where they are sitting. And they say, I'm unclean. But they don't go into the city where Jesus is. They don't fall upon their face before the Lord, and they don't say to the Lord, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now, you know, if you will not go out to him and humble yourself before him, then all your talk is a talk in which you are not sincere. You don't really mean it, even though you say you mean it. But while you say you mean it, you are in the meantime content with your uncleanness. Congregation, the compassionate heart of the Lord Jesus is open to all who come to Jesus for cleansing, like this leper. That's what our text reveals to us, that the heart of Christ is open to everyone who, driven on by his need, flees to Jesus Christ for refuge and comfort. And I may proclaim it this night to all who are truly wrestling with this question. Lord, if thou wilt, if thou wilt not, I would be without hope. Oh God, I need thee to cleanse me. And then tonight I say congregation, with such a willing Lord we have to do. Such a willing Lord to cleanse us from our uncleanness. And the Lord says in this service tonight, come to me and I will make you clean. And when you think of it, that's what Christ already said from eternity in the Council of Peace, when he stood before the face of his Father. And when the Father said, my son, those sinners that I have chosen must also be cleansed. Will you do so? And then Jesus already then said, Father, yes, I will. So that first of all, Christ's compassionate heart. But let's go on to consider Christ's powerful hand. Also clearly shown in our text, he lays his hand upon this leper. And in this, the Lord Jesus manifests his compassion to this man who has been shunned No one has touched him since the year that he became a leper. But here is this merciful high priest, Jesus the Savior. It's his joy to cleanse this man. And when he puts his hand on this leper, that's the joy of his heart. That's written in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53, verse 10, where it says that he will manifest the Father's good pleasure, which shall prosper, it says, in his hand. Now think of that. So with Jesus, there is a compassionate heart that can ultimately save this man. He's able to do it. Will he do it? God has laid help upon him that is mighty, and he touches him. There's a wretched man. And by touching him, Jesus makes himself one with this man. And by touching him, he defiles himself. If a priest from Jerusalem would see Jesus doing this at this moment, he would chase Jesus out of the city. and cast them out as an outcast. But this hand of Jesus is the hand of the willing high priest who touches this leper and he says, I will, that's what I've come for. Do you see my will and my power? But for this Christ is defiled. That's also in Isaiah 53. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and you could translate it, our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. That's the gospel that Christ takes upon himself here. His people's sins and the consequences. of sins, and he bears them. That is, he bears them away. That's his will. That's his will. For Christ's cleanness to be put upon this leper, and for this leper's uncleanness to be put upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his will. That's how he is able to make him clean. An unclean man that way is made clean. So the powerful hand of Christ. But thirdly, Christ's instructive lips. Because here we see that Christ opens his lips and he instructs this man that he just cleansed. And already his cleansing was instructive. We saw a moment ago, but Jesus gives the man also instruction for the future. because his testimony has to reach others. He says, go and show yourself to the priests. And a little later, as it were, you could think of this man walking towards Jerusalem to go to the priests. No doubt with a psalm in his heart. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Jerusalem within thy courts, I'll praise Jehovah's name, and with a spirit lowly, pay all my vows, O Zion, fair and holy. But you know, not only this man goes to Jerusalem, Jesus also goes to Jerusalem, the Bible says, with the words of Isaiah 53 in his heart. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. And we hear him sing. Oh, we know that in the night of his betrayal, he also sang Psalm 116, did he not? But Jesus also must have sung Psalm 69, verse eight, I am become a stranger unto my brethren. And when Jesus goes to the priest in Jerusalem, they sent him out of the city, outside the gate, outside to communion with God. And on the cross, that cruel cross, Jesus cries out the wretchedness of the leper, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? That's how our Lord Jesus is. He is willing. Do you see this man that was cleansed by this priest, Jesus? And I say to unclean ones in our midst, he is willing. He redeems. His blood cleanses from all sin. What an instruction for this evening. Oh, sinners, we have such a willing Savior who loves to cleanse. He said it, I said a moment ago, already in eternity. And he repeats it tonight, January 24, 2010. And he says, it's good that you have come to me. For I am in the city. And he says, I will. And he puts forth his right hand upon you. And he says, be thou clean. Congregation, this man, this leper, he'll cleanse now. He, as it were, is showing himself in this text. Because he had to go for a testimony, remember? And he says to you and me, what does he say to you and me? Do you know what he says? He says, such a compassionate high priest is Jesus. He is willing. And if he wills, and if you do not go out to him, if you do not fall down before him, and do not say, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean, Then in the end, he will say to you, outside, go away, for ye would not. And then you will die in your uncleanness. Jesus said to this man, go show yourself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing. as Moses also commanded for a testimony unto them, for a testimony unto them, that is for a testimony to the priests in first instance. But the priests would not come out to Jesus. They were offended at Jesus, and they said, crucify him, away with him. This also applies to those persons in church who will not come to this Savior, who will sit through a service, but are offended at the preaching of sin and of grace, because that preaching, when brought home to their conscience, tells them, repent, you must change, your life must be changed. You are no longer to think yourself as being up there and others down there, thinking of yourselves as better. But you must know yourself to be on the way to perdition. You think you are whole and you don't see your need of the physician. But my friend, what a mistake on your part. This is how you are in need, Jesus. And this evening, the Savior makes himself free or God, I could say, makes himself free from everyone who is offended at this gospel. Here is the compassionate heart of Jesus. Here is the powerful hand of Jesus. Here are the instructive lips of Jesus. Is he not altogether lovely to you? Who can take away your sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Who can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. But if you will not accept this testimony, this instruction, then ultimately you are saying that you will not come to him in order to be cleansed by him. Well, that proves how unclean you are, how far away you are, how foolish on account of sin and an enemy of the salvation that is in Jesus. Oh, fall down before Jesus, not easy to do. No, then your eyes are opened, then your heart is broken, then you come to stand before God as guilty. But then the Lord is also there. and he's willing to cleanse you. He calls you this night. You may be thought, I don't need to hear this, I am clean. But have you not resisted him? Perhaps someone who has resisted him already for so long wonders this night, would he still be willing to cleanse me? The leper says, He heals the brokenhearted ones. Amen. Let us pray. What a willing and an able savior thou art, oh Jesus, oh Lord. Precious gospel. Precious savior. that a leper was privileged to come to thee, and that thou wert pleased to put thy hand on him and bear his defilement, even unto death on the curse. But thou art the perfect Savior, and all that come to thee In truth, in thee a ready, a willing, an able Savior find. Have us live humbly, holily, through thee and for thy praise, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Enable thou us to our various tasks, also the difficult tasks for this week of which we know already so far beyond us. If Thou art willing, Thou canst enable us. For Thou art this Savior. Amen.