Let us turn to God's Word in
the Gospel according to St. Luke. In Luke chapter 5 and reading
verses 12, 13 and 14. 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. Here in Luke chapter 5 verses
12 13 and 14 we read of Christ and the leper and I want this morning to try to say something
further with regards to the mystery of this disease, the mystery
of leprosy. The incident of course is not
only recorded in Luke, but we find it also at the beginning
of Matthew chapter 8, and then again we have the record of it
at the end of Mark chapter 1. It's recorded then in all of
these synoptic gospels. And that threefold account is
not without some significance. when we remember the words of
the Lord Jesus when he said in the mouth of two or three witnesses
every word may be established. And then again the preacher in
Ecclesiastes tells us a threefold cord is not easily broken. We have a threefold record then
in particular of this incident. And also later here In Luke's
Gospel in chapter 17 and verses 12 to 19 we read of those ten
lepers whom the Lord cleansed from their leprosy and
of the ten it was but one. who returned to him to return
thanks. In the course of his ministry
we see Christ amongst other things ministering to these who were
very much outcast in society. Considering then something of
the mystery of leprosy I want to divide what I say now into
some three parts. First of all to look at the significance
of the disease then secondly to say something with regards
to the symptoms whereby it was to be discerned and then last
of all to consider the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the Saviour of sinners. First of all then the significance
of the disease of leprosy What do we read here? In verse 14,
having healed the man, Christ says he was to tell no man. 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. With regards to leprosy we see
quite clearly in the Old Testament in that passage that we read
in Leviticus chapter 13 that those who had symptoms that appeared
to indicate leprosy they were not sent to a physician but they
were rather to go to the priest. There in Leviticus 13 at verse
9, when the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be
brought unto the priest. In fact, there at the beginning
of that portion that we read in Leviticus 13, Verse 2, When
a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab,
or bright spot, and it shall be in the skin of his flesh,
like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron
the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests. And the priests
shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh. And when the
hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight
be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy
and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean
surely this is not without some significance this is a strange
disease it's not any normal type of disease because these laws
with regards to leprosy are all repeated what we have there in
Leviticus 13 is again underlined later in the book of Deuteronomy. And remember, the very title
of that book, Deuteronomy, literally means the second law. It's a
retelling of the law of God. Of course there in Deuteronomy
5 we have the repetition of the Ten Commandments that were first
given at Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 10. And again, in Deuteronomy,
we have mentioned of what was to be done, where there was the
indication that a person had some sort of leprous condition.
Deuteronomy 24, 8, it says, take heed, take heed, it says, in the plague
of leprosy, that thou observe diligently and do according to
all that the priests, the Levites, shall tell thee, as I commanded
them, so shall ye observe to do." Now it's underlined that
they are to follow the instruction, the direction, the teachings
of the priests, the Levites, with regards to this disease. And so, it seems to indicate
to us at least that there is some spiritual significance with
regards to leprosy. It's likened unto sin, or sin
is likened unto leprosy. Again, think of the words that
we have in Isaiah chapter 1, where God is speaking through
his prophet to the children of Israel concerning their sinful
condition. from the sole of the foot even
under the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. That's the condition of Israel
there as Isaiah begins his ministry. How the nation is likened unto
Sodom and Gomorrah even worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and they're
full of these awful putrefying source, similar to some leprous
condition. And David, when David comes to
make his confessions before God, remember the language that we
find David using, There in the 38th Psalm, as he laments his
sad plight, he says, There is no sourness in my flesh because
of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because
of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head as an heavy burden that too heavy for me. My wounds
stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. My loins are
filled with a loathsome disease. There is no soundness in my flesh."
What is he lamenting? He's lamenting his sin. He says
later in that psalm, I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry
for my sin. And so, these various scriptures
indicate to us that there is something very significant with
regards to this particular disease amongst all other diseases that
we read of here in Holy Scripture. And some even suggest that when
Job was so sorely afflicted that he had some sort of leprous condition,
or remember he was covered with sore boils from the soles of
his feet even to the crown of his head and he goes and he sits
alone amongst the ashes and he takes a pot shirt and he scrapes
his body because he's covered with this loathsome disease.
Was it some sort of leprosy? And then when he comes to the
leper being delivered and being cleansed. It's interesting the
various rituals that are to be observed. We have the cleansing
of the leper in the chapter following where we read. We read Leviticus
13 and then in the next chapter we read of the cleansing of the
leper. And there in verse 4 of Leviticus
14, the priest is the one who commands that the man who is
to be cleansed is to take two birds alive and clean and cedar
wood and scarlet and hyssop. Interesting that there's that
reference to hyssop. It was a herb, a bushy sort of
herb, and it was taken, it was used for scattering, taking some
liquid and scattering upon a person. Remember how David prays in his
great penitential psalm, purge me with hyssop, he says, and
I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And there with the cleansing
of the leper, one of those birds that was to be taken was to be
slain, and the blood was to be caught in an earthen vessel,
and that blood was to be taken, and by the hyssop it was to be
sprinkled upon the man. It speaks of the application
then of his cleansing. And it's that very language that
we find David also using there in his great penitential psalm,
purge me. Purge me with hyssop as if he
were some sort of leper who needed to be cleansed. Now, I've said
that there seems to be this association, this connection between leprosy
and sin but in a sense it's not just a type of sin in general
we know that all our sinners all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God there is not a just man upon the earth
who doeth good and sinneth not all are born dead in trespasses
and in sins But are all really lepers? Though all are sinners
in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. New life
from Him we must receive, before for sin we rightly grieve. We have time to sing those words
of the hymn 89. It has been well observed that
sin itself is of the creature, but the sense of sin comes from
God. All are sinners, yes, but how
few have that sense of sin. And surely there is that sense
in which we have to recognize that the leper is one who has
an awareness, he's conscious of what he is. He feels his sinnership. David does that there in Psalm
38. He's so much aware of the reality
of what he is as a sinner before a holy God. And it is not the
same even in this fifth chapter of Luke with regards to the experience
of Peter when the Lord at the beginning of this chapter performs
that remarkable miracle. They've been toiling at their
fishing all through the night and it's been a fruitless toil. They caught nothing. But then
the Lord tells them to thrust out and to to cast the nets, and they will
take a great draught of fishes. And they do obey that command
of the Lord, although they had such a fruitless night in their
fishing. And when they take in this remarkable
draught of fishes, what do we read concerning Peter? Here at
verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he
was astonished, and all that were with him at the draught
of the fishes that they had taken. Oh, the Lord had shown something
of His greatness, something of His glory. He'd revealed something
of His Godhead to them. And this is what overwhelms Peter. He feels himself to be a sinful
man. It's when we have that sense
of God, His greatness, His glory, His righteousness, His holiness,
that we can say that we understand the real significance of what
this disease is that we read of so much here in Holy Scripture. the significance of the disease,
and it's not some ordinary disease. In Scripture, it is clearly associated
with sin, and that person who has been brought to a sense of
his sinnership. But what of the symptoms? What
of the symptoms? There are marks, and there are
symptoms. And the priest, as we saw in
that 13th chapter of Leviticus, is to examine the man closely.
to see that these are real signs of leprosy. And the interesting
thing is, when we think of the type that leprosy is, the interesting
thing is that the symptoms are not always that
striking. They're not always that profound. They might be small symptoms.
they might well be very small symptoms. As we see there, at
the beginning of that 13th chapter, and the second verse, it might
just be a rising or a swelling, it might be a scab or some small
eruption in the skin, it might just be a bright spot. And doesn't it tell us something
with regards to the way in which the Lord might deal with his
people? Initially their sense of their sinnership, their conviction
might not be a great, deep, profound thing. All we know that sin is
a very subtle thing. Satan is a cunning and a crafty
foe. The heart, we're told, is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? But
the Lord searches the heart. Sin so subtle, sin so insidious
a thing, and that's what the priest is doing in his examination
of this man. Again, it has been observed that
man knows the beginning of sin, but who can broke the bounds
thereof? Or the beginning might be very
small, But what of the latter end? Where
will sin lead? The guy in the psalmist cries
out, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret sins. Oh, how subtle it is! And how
careful the priest has to be then when he's examining the
leper. So it is when he comes to God
and the dealings of God with his sinful people. is a very
striking verse that we find in the opening chapter of the epistle
of James I often think of those words where he in one verse seems
to be able to deal with sin from its very beginning from its conception
to its bitter end when lust hath conceived he says it bringeth
forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death
conception and death in one and the same verse how awful sin
is and as I say when it comes to the Lord's dealings it might
be that the symptoms in us are barely to be seen not real deep conviction
and yet something of that awareness of sin And the strange thing
is when we read that chapter, I don't know whether you observe,
but I always find it a strange statement that we have there
in verse 13 of Leviticus 13. Because when the man is altogether
covered, he is pronounced clean. The priest shall consider and
behold if the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, He shall pronounce
him clean, that hath the plague. It is all turned white, he is
clean. How can we understand that? What
does that mean? Well, does it not remind us it's when we're
brought to that complete and utter end of ourselves? The Lord has to bring us there,
that we're all overseen. All the beginnings might be very
small, barely perceptible. And that's how it is so often
in the experiences of the Lord's people. When the Lord begins
with us, we see it in the Gospels, I think in some measure, when
the sinner is awakened, what does he say? What must I do? What must I do to be saved? Surely
there's something to be done. But there's nothing to be done.
And by degrees the Lord brings his people to understand that
there's nothing that we have to do, everything is done. there's
nothing that we can do we have to learn something of that awful
doctrine of sin and our total depravity our complete and utter
inability we cannot do anything we're so impotent, we're dead
in trespasses and in sins and it's when the Lord has brought
us to that and we're at the very end of ourselves It's like that
sin you see is all covered over. And when he's all covered over,
when he's complete, then he's clean. How strange are the Lord's
ways with his people. And so we see it there with regards
to the leper and the way in which the Lord instructs and directs those priests
with regards to what they are to do in examining. There might
be small signs, but ultimately all the leper is brought to that
spot where he is utterly unclean and he's cut off. Ultimately
cut off from any hope at all. When we came to the end of that
reading, those last two verses that we read, 45 and 46. His clothes rent, his head bare,
the covering upon his upper lip, and he cries unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague
shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he is unclean. He shall
dwell at home, without the camp shall his habitation be. They might be small signs initially,
but there are those marks and they're not spurious. They might
be small but they're very real. What were they? What were those
marks that the priest was to examine the leper and seek to
discern in that man? Again, going back to that portion
that we read, there in the second, rather the third verse. The priest shall look on the
plague in the skin of the flesh, and when the hair in the plague
is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin
of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy. And the priest shall
look on him and pronounce him unclean. Two things that we see
there with regards to what the priest is to examine the man
for. The plague has to be deeper than
the skin. Oh, it's not superficial, you
see. It might be small, it might be almost insignificant, just
a spot, but it is deeper than the skin. There's a depth there. And how important that is, how
important is that faith, that saving faith, that is of course
the great antidote to sin, that faith that centers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. True faith, we're told, is the
life of God, deep in the heart it lies. It lives, it labors
under load, though damned it never dies. Oh, it's deep in
the heart, that saving faith. It has to reach to the very heart
of the man, just as that plague of leprosy is deeper than the
skin. But then also, there, there's another sign that he looks for.
He looks that the hair is turned white. In other words, the hair
is perishing from its very roots. That's what he's observing. And
what is the hair? Well, remember in 1 Corinthians
11, it's spoken of as the woman's glory. The hair is her glory,
and that's the reason, of course, why, or one of the reasons why
the woman must cover her head when it comes to the worship
of God. And we can think of Absalom. Absalom's hair was very much
his glory. We're told he would pull it every
year. And in the time of his rebellion
against his father David, it was his hair that was ultimately
his undoing, because he was caught by his hair in the branches of
some tree, and Joab there killed him. And that rebellion against
David was brought to an end. And so when we think, you see,
of hair as that that is a glory, well, all of that glory must
be brought to nought. The hair turned white, the perishing
of proud self. These are the sort of symptoms
that the priest is to examine the person concerning. Is it
deeper than the skin? Is the hair turned white? And
then again there, in verse 8 of that 13th chapter in Leviticus,
he examines and he sees that it's a disease that's spreading.
He looks at the person, if there's some uncertainty, the person
is separated for 7 days, and then the priest would examine
again on the 7th day, and it might be necessary to separate
him for another 7 days. And he is constantly examining
the man, and if the disease is spreading, then he pronounces
him to be unclean. It is a leprous condition. What
does this spreading mean? Well, again, doesn't the Lord
have to deal with us by degrees? Or we become ever more and more
aware of our complete and utter inability to do anything that
is pleasing to God. There's no growth in any conscious
goodness as we grow in Christ. Our growth in Christ is associated
with a growth in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. We come to understand more and
more our complete and our utter dependence upon Him as we grow
in Christ. And then besides this disease
being one that is spreading, we also read there of the raw
flesh, the raw flesh that might appear where one had that leprous
condition. Verse 14 of that 13th chapter,
When raw flesh appeareth in him, He shall be unclean. The priest
shall see the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean. For the raw
flesh is unclean, it is a leprosy, it says. All raw flesh. How the sinner is so conscious
of his sin. It's a raw thing with him. He
has a conscience. And that conscience feels his
sin and he grieves over it. There's pain, there's anguish
over his sins. We sing those words sometimes
to cease in smarts but slightly to own with lip confession is
easier still but all to fail. Cuts deep beyond expression. There are those symptoms in.
that must be looked for and the priest makes his examination
and he has to be very careful, he has to be sure that the symptoms
are there as he deals with those who come to him. It's such a
significant disease in the Old Testament. It's interesting that
we have all that detail In that lengthy 13th chapter we only
read parts of the chapter. But now instruction is given
to the priest with regards to how they are to examine the person
and what they are to be looking for. God, you see, when he comes
to us by his Spirit in his Word, does he not cause that Word,
as it were, to enter into our souls and to reveal to us something
of what we are? Does he not expose to us our
real condition, our sin? As I said, sometimes they might
seem to us to be such small and insignificant things. Maybe because
our beginning is so small, we wonder whether we've ever had
a real beginning. But we're not to misjudge. Although
thy beginning was small, it says, yet thy latter end shall greatly
increase. The Lord will show us, He will
teach us by degrees. It's always that way. It's line
upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept. It's here a little, it's there
a little. We're not to despise small beginnings. The important
thing is that we have those beginnings that are real and genuine. And
they're not spurious. They're the spiritual marks of
the grace of God. But turning from the disease,
turning as it were from the leper and considering what we're told
here concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. In this passage that
we're considering in the Gospel, we're told that this man came
and he was 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. In the account that we have in
Mark, I said at the beginning we have this particular incident,
this ministry of the Lord Jesus recorded not only here in Luke,
but also in the other synoptic Gospels, it's in Matthew and
it's also in Mark. And there, at the end of Mark
1, Mark 1 41, we're told, Jesus moved with compassion. Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth his hand and touched him and said unto him, I will. Be thou clean. Oh, the Lord Jesus is that one
who is compassionate towards sinners. He came not to call
the righteous, but He came to call sinners to repentance. He
says, the whole have no need of the physician but they that
are sick. And here, of course, we have
one who is sick, sick with this terrible disease of leprosy. And he needs to know cleansing. He needs to know deliverance from his fearful
condition. And Christ is that one who is
able to minister to him. O the Lord Jesus, Christ is that
one who is truly God. Isn't that the confession that
Peter has made previously? Depart from me, he says, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord. Who is this Lord? Well, Peter
confesses Him. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. He is the Holy One of Israel.
He is that One of eyes too pure to behold iniquity. And as God,
He is able. Oh, nothing is impossible with
God. and nothing is impossible with Him who is God manifest
in the flesh and so when this man comes with
his request if thou wilt thou canst make
me clean he says at the end of verse 12 what a remarkable acknowledgement
it is from the leper oh he looks to the Lord Jesus Christ with
that spirit of expectation if thou wilt thou canst make me
clean he knows that the Lord Jesus Christ can do it because
of who he is but the question is will the
Lord Jesus Christ do it if thou wilt he says and the Lord is
willing to cleanse the sinner because he has come as that one
who is the savior of sinners and he will receive all those
who come to God by him. As I say, this leper is one who
was so utterly cast out and cut off. All remember those words
that we have at the end of the portion that we read there in
Leviticus 13 verses 45 and 46. We referred to them just now. how the man is to be put outside
the camp of Israel he's an outcast in Israel and he's to cover his
lip while his very breath is noxious and he's constantly to
cry as he wanders about unclean, unclean The disease, you see,
was a contagious disease. That's why they put them outside
the camp. And here is a man who is so full
of this disease, he's full of leprosy. And as I said, in a
sense, that's indicative of some hope, is it not? He can do nothing
to help himself. He has to look to the Lord Jesus,
he has to look to the compassion of the Lord Jesus. And here is the comfort where
sin abounds. Where sin abounds, Christ doth
so much more abound. Oh, there is hope, you see, for
the greatest of sinners. Remember how the Apostle reminds
the Corinthians of that, that cosmopolitan city. It was full
of all manner of wickedness, Corinth. and the gospel came
to Corinth and sinners were saved in Corinth I know
it was a church that in many ways was full of problems and
there was even a despising of the Apostle Paul they went after
false teachers but there was a remarkable work of grace accomplished
in many souls there in that city and Paul reminds them of that
There in 1 Corinthians 6.9 he says, Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. He draws forth, as it were, this
tremendous catalogue of terrible sins. And then he says these
words in verse 9, verse 11. And such were some of you. Or they were those sort of sinners
in Corinth. Such were some of you but your
wash but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Oh, where
sin abounds, grace does so much more abound. That is the sinner's
comfort. That is the blessed hope of the
Gospel. There was hope for this man. And where was that hope? It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does Christ do? He put
forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean,
and immediately the leprosy departed from him. Oh, there is immediate
cleansing at the touch of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that touch
doesn't bring any contagion to the Lord Jesus Christ. it brings
only healing to that particular man. Here we see the virtue and
the efficacy of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
God. He is God manifest in the flesh. His human nature is that holy
thing. Remember at the conception of
the Lord Jesus what the angel says to Mary, that holy thing
that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God, that
holy thing, that human nature that was conceived in her womb,
the womb of a virgin, was without any taint of any sin, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. He could never suffer any disease
in the course of his earthly ministry. The leprosy could not
touch him. His human nature was an immortal
human nature. Why did he die? There was no
seed of death in him because he was free from sin and sin
is the consequence Rather, death is the consequence of sin. He
died, of course, because he suffered death as a substitute. He died
in the room and in the stead of others. He bore that penalty
that was there just desert. That's why he died. Because all
that sin of his people was reckoned and imputed to his account. But here we see him as that one
who can touch the leper. and yet there's no contagion
rather is the is the leper immediately cleansed or there's such virtue
because of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and then there's
that great work that the Lord Jesus Christ came to do as we've
already intimated he comes to be the substitute he comes to
save sinners, to die in the sinner's place to shed that precious blood
for the cleansing of all their sins and you know in chapter
14 of Leviticus where we have the cleansing well I want to
read that chapter when we come together again this evening but
in that 14th chapter where we have the cleansing it's remarkable
the detail that he goes into there are three lambs that are
spoken of there three lambs that were to be taken by the priest
for the cleansing of the leper. They mention there in chapter
14, just turning briefly to that chapter and what it says at verse
10, this is the instruction, that's given to the priest on
the eighth day you shall take two he-lambs without blemish
and one hew-lamb of the first year without blemish and three
tenths deals of fine flour for a meat offering mingled with
oil and one log of oil but there are three lambs one hew-lamb and two he-lambs
Three lambs in total. Again, it's interesting, the
number three. That threefold court. What are
these lambs for? Well, one was a trespass offering,
one was a sin offering, and one was a burnt offering. And it's
all for the ceremonial cleansing of the leper. But it all points
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It all points to the Lord Jesus
Christ. and that great sacrifice for
sins, that fountain open for sin and uncleanness, or that
purging of the conscience from every dead work by that precious
blood, and the hyssop, you see, the application of that precious
blood. And then again, there in that
14th chapter, at verse 4 following, we have another interesting detail
because there were two birds that were also to be taken and one of those birds was to
be killed and it was to be killed over a earthenware vessel the
blood of that dead bird was to be caught in that vessel and
then the hyssop was taken and the blood was to be sprinkled
it was to be sprinkled upon the live bird as well as upon the
leper for his cleansing. None of the blood you see must
fall to the ground, the blood was precious blood really for
cleansing. And as that blood is applied
to the living bird, then the living bird is allowed to go
free. And it's all a picture really of the liberty now that
the leper comes to, he is free, he can again enter into the congregation
he's not an outcast anymore and it all speaks of the great liberty
of the gospel when it comes to that leprous sinner and of course
when we think of that blood that was shed that bird that was killed
and the blood caught in that earthenware vessel. Oh, it reminds
us, does it not, of the truth of a particular redemption. The blood cannot fall to the
ground. The blood cannot be wasted in
that sense. The Lord must accomplish that
glorious end in the salvation of His people. Think of the words
of William Cooper's hymn, Dear Dying Lamb, thy precious blood
shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God
be saved to sin no more. Here then we see a wonderful
picture of the gospel, a wonderful picture of that person who is
brought to a realization of his sinnership, and feels himself
to be so leprous, so unclean, and yet in the Lord Jesus Christ
there is all the fullness of the grace of God, the pardon
of all his sins. We thought then of the leper,
or the leper in his uncleanness, the mystery of leprosy. We need to remember it's not
enough to have a sense of our own leprosy. It's not enough
to know that ours, by nature, is a ruined state. Not enough
just to feel our total depravity and our spiritual impotence.
That alone is not sufficient, is it? We can come to that and
we think, well, there's no good thing in me. And it's a good
confession to make. But now we need to have that
faith view of the Lord Jesus Christ. or to know Him, to know
Him as that One who has the power to sigh, and to know what it
is for the Lord to come to us in that personal way, to touch,
to heal, to sigh. This is what this leper experiences. He comes to Christ and he makes
this bold request. Seeing Jesus, he fell on his
face. Oh, he worshipped Him. He besought
Him. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And what does the Lord do? He
put forth his hand. Or the man did not seek in vain.
He put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou
clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him. Or that we might be those friends
who are able in some measure to enter into the significance
of what the Lord did here, this event that's recorded again and
again for us here in the Gospel. Well, the Lord bless His Word.