Christ Cleanses the Leper

You would take your Bibles and turn if you would to Mark chapter one. Been preaching through Mark chapter one for the past few weeks. Ministry of John the Baptist moving into the ministry of Jesus Christ. This morning, we're going to look at verses 40 through 45 as we finish up Mark chapter one. Last week, we looked at Christ's authority on Earth.

His authority in regards to the scripture which are his words. So, no wonder that he preached them with such greater authority than others. His authority over sickness. His authority over men. We are going to now look at verses 40 through 45 concerning a particular miracle of Jesus Christ.

The cleansing of a leper. Mark 140 through 45. There came a leper to him beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and say it unto him, I will. Be thou clean.

And as soon as he had spoken immediately, the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed. And he straightly charged him and forthwith sent him away and say it unto him, see thou say nothing to anyone but go thy way and show thyself to the priest and offer thy cleansing, offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. But he went out and began to publish it much and ablaze abroad the matter in so much that Jesus could no more openly enter the city but was without in the in desert places and they came to him from every quarter. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, we thank you for this day that you have given us to worship, to praise your name, to feast upon your word.

Lord, we pray the Holy Spirit would move in our hearts today. We pray Lord most of all, if there's one here that's never trusted Christ as savior, that they would recognize that to you and come to you for forgiveness, for cleansing that only you have to give. Lord, we pray that you would be honored and exalted in all that said and done in this place today and that you would conform each and everyone of us more to the image of your son, Jesus Christ and we thank you for him. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. The cleansing of the leper. Keyword in this passage, one of the keywords in this passage is the word cleansing. The word cleansing. You see, it is said that Jesus healed all kinds of illness and all kinds of disease and all kinds of sickness but when it comes to the illness, the disease of leprosy, it often says not that he healed the leper but that he want.

Amen. But that he cleansed him but that he cleansed him. Cleansed him of a terrible blight and a stain upon his person that no one else could cleanse him of. We're going to use that as scripture does to talk this morning also about another terrible stain upon humanity and that is the stain of sin that only Jesus can cleanse. Several years ago, I won't tell you how many years ago but Kate and I were in college at Bob Jones University before I met her.

I think it was like her freshman year and she had this pretty white dress that that she had gotten recently and was wearing and she was sitting down to eat with her cousin. Wasn't her cousin? Her name is Shannon Hoddinger. No, it's she always makes fun of me when I it's Haddinger but it looks like Hoddinger to me. Anyway, so her and her cousin were sitting in the in the dining hall and they were eating and they have those red squirt ketchup things, you know, like you see in restaurants and her cousin decided that she was going to scare her and pretend that she was going to squirt ketchup on her nice new pretty white dress.

But her cousin goofed and instead of scaring her that she was going to she accidentally hit the bottle the wrong way and squirted ketchup on her pretty white dress and that stain never completely came out of her pretty white dress. She had a ketchup stain in it though faded and didn't make for the nicest thing to be wearing out with the stain on it that you couldn't get out no matter how hard she tried. There's a stain upon humanity called sin. No matter how hard you try to get it out, it's in deep. You can't cleanse it yourself.

Leprosy was a terrible plague upon humanity as well. Leprosy today is in most cases, a curable ailment. It also goes by another name that leaves me at the moment but it is caused by a bacteria or virus that they now can treat but back in biblical times, there was no cure for leprosy. Once you became a leper, you were doomed and there was nothing that you could do about it. So, we meet a man here in this passage that is a leper.

And there's nothing that he can do to fix it. There's nothing that any other person, doctor, physician could do to fix it. It was a terminal illness. Man suffers from terminal spiritual illness called sin. You can go to a doctor all you want.

He can't fix it. He can't cleanse you of it. A matter of fact, no human being but Jesus Christ, can. The terminal ailment of leprosy not only made one sick and eventually would take your life but it also made one ceremonially unclean. It caused you to be a spiritual outcast.

You look up here on the screen, Leviticus chapter 13 verses forty five and forty six in the law says, and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, his head bare, he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone without the camp shall be shall his habitation be. If it were indeed leprosy, it would not get better.

Sometimes, there were several tests reading Leviticus that they had to do, wait seven days, wait seven days, so forth and so on to test to see if it was actually leprosy. Sometimes, other things appeared to be leprosy but eventually, they healed and were not. But if someone was found to be a leper, not only did they have to suffer physically but they had to suffer as an outcast of their people. They had to shave their head. They had to put on particular clothes.

They had to cry when they were in the presence of anybody unclean, unclean, unclean so that nobody would come near them and catch their leprosy. And they had to dwell or live away from the rest of their people. They couldn't come to worship at the temple. They couldn't take part in the sacrifices and the worship that took place in Israel in the temple of Jehovah God. They were spiritual outcast.

Very sad condition for an Israelite to find himself in. So is the sad condition that we as human beings find ourselves in. You see, the Bible says, apart from Christ, there is no cure for sin. The ailment that defiles and plagues our soul and separates us from who? And separates us from God.

We too are spiritual outcast and unlike leprosy which wasn't the person's fault that caught it, sin is also our responsibility. And we are to blame. For we are rebels against the God who created us. And only the God who created us has the remedy to change who we are inside. And to reconcile us to himself.

The Bible says, Isaiah sixty four six, but we are all as and what's that next word? Unclean thing. Remember, why did the leper have to cry? Unclean. Unclean.

We are all, not just lepers, we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. Wouldn't want to hand somebody a filthy rag. And we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities or sins like the wind have taken us away. Isaiah fifty nine two, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you. That's Isaiah talking to the nation of Israel but such is the case of every human being that has not been redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ.

They are separated from God by their sin. They are spiritual outcast and so we're each and everyone of us before we came to Jesus Christ. The stain goes deep. Romans three twenty three, for all have what? Sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous. No, not one. The wages of sin is death. Romans six twenty three. The stain goes deep.

You can wash your hands like Pilate did. At Jesus's trial but you cannot wash sin away. You can get dunked in a baptismal pool. A thousand times and you cannot wash sin away. Only the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from sin.

Back a few years ago, we were doing some cleaning and stuff in the kitchen, in the fellowship hall and there was a big bucket of oil that somebody had used to cook something on one of those you know cooker fish cooker things and unbeknownst to me, there was a little hole in the bottom of the big jug of oil and I took and I set it in the fellowship hall on the floor right to the right of where you come in the door. Well, a couple hours later I come in there and I pick up the thing and guess what? There's a stain of oil on the floor that big. Brother Al probably remembers it. We tried and tried and tried to get that stain up off the floor.

We clean it and we go, Oh good, it's gone. And then two days later we come back and Oh great, it's back. You wash it again. It's gone. No, it's back.

He gushed it. Gone. Back. Nothing he can do about it. He kept washing it, kept cleaning it, it kept coming back.

The stain went what? Stain went deep. And no matter how much we cleaned it, the stain always came back. You know, the world offers all kinds of remedies for sin. But the stain will always what?

The stain will always come back. Because the stain of sin and humanity goes deep. For for how many centuries have we been crying peace? And yet once again in The Middle East, we're on the verge of what? War.

Why haven't we learned? Because we're sinners. And the stain of sin. Runs deep. So, we see a man here with a problem of leprosy and we see all humanity with the problem of sin.

We see also here a man of faith and humility. A leper. A humble leper. A leper of faith approaches Jesus Christ in verse 40. It says, there came a leper to him beseeching him.

That's asking or pleading with him and kneeling down to him in humility and saying unto him, if thou will, thou canst make me clean. Let's take a few minutes and let's look at this leper. First thing we learn here is he humbly approached Christ. He humbly approached Jesus Christ. He didn't approach Christ with you owe me.

He didn't approach Christ with I deserve it. He didn't approach Christ with you need to do this for me. He approached Christ humbly. Beseeching, asking, pleading with him. Proverbs three thirty four, this is from the text for the service this evening as well from Proverbs three.

Surely, he that is the Lord scorneth the scorners but he give it grace unto the what? Unto the lowly. He give it grace unto the lowly. He lifts up the humble. He lifts up the lowly.

He shows mercy and grace upon those who will come before him humbly. Matthew chapter five verse three. Blessed are the poor and what? Spirit. Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The passage isn't talking about blessed are the poor in material possessions. The passage is talking about those who are poor in spirit. What does that mean? That means those who recognize that they're sinners. Those who will come to God humbly, not expecting, not demanding, but humbly asking Did God do for them in his mercy What they do not deserve but what they so desperate desperately needs.

We see that this man approached Christ and Christ invites us to do the same. Matthew eleven twenty eight, come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Jesus spoke in that day to the crowds to whom he ministered and he speaks to his word and his spirit to us today. He says, come unto me. Come unto me.

How sad it is that people are looking. They know they have a need but sad to say the devil's got them looking in all the wrong places. All the wrong places. And Jesus is crying, come unto me. Crying from the cross of Calvary.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they're do. Crying from the right hand of the father in heaven. Come unto me. I will give you rest. I can cure you.

I can cleanse you. I can make you clean. I can forgive Come unto me. John chapter six thirty five and thirty seven. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now, Jesus wasn't talking about physically. He was talking about spiritually. Spiritually, we are deprived in our sin and we are depraved and we desperately need spiritual nourishment to make us alive unto God and unto eternal life and the only one that has to give that.

Is Jesus Christ and so he says, come on to me. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and he that cometh to me, I will what? No wise. No wise cast out. Jesus said, if you'll come to me, I will receive you.

But you must come. You say, why doesn't God come to me? He already has. Jesus left heaven's glory humbled himself became obedient unto death even the death of the cross for you. Jesus has already come to you.

He's already extended the invitation. He he made the way for the invitation. The way that you could be saved as he died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the dead. He has already come to you. He's come to you through his word that's being preached this morning.

He's come to you through his spirit that's convicting your heart and the heart of others around us. God has already come to us. He says, now, will you take my hand? Behold, I stand at the door and what? Knock.

Knock. Will you open? And will you let me in? You're sick with a terrible ailment In days of old, you didn't have to go to the doctor's office. The doctors came to you.

How sad would it be for the doctor to come and knock on your door? You knowing that you're going to die with what the cure the doctor carries in his bag. But you won't open it. How silly would that be? And how sad would that be?

And yet, God extends his hand out to a lost and dying world and there be many today and maybe someone in here that is yet to what? To open the door. And to let him in. This man came humbly and approached the Lord. He approached him beseeching him.

That means he he asked. Matthew seven seven says, ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you. God says, all you have to do is what?

Ask. All you have to do is ask. If you would ask, God will answer. That's true in the case of salvation. For the sinner who comes to God and who asks will what?

Will receive the gift of eternal life, the forgiveness of their sins. If they will but ask. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be what? Saved. Shall be saved.

It's true also of the Christian who knows the Lord. How many things are going on in your life today? How many things in the life of your family? How many things in the life of your friends? Some things that you can't fix, some sins that you can't seem to get victory over.

What does God say to you, Christian? He says, what? He says, ask. Ask. All you have to do is ask.

James four two says this, you lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you have not because you what? Ask. Ask not. You have not because you ask not. How many things in our life do we struggle with day in and day out?

That we could see answers to, that we could see victory if we would just come to the Lord and trust him and ask. You see, you have to get to a certain point it seems like to where you start to realize that you know, it's out of my power. And I have to trust him. You see, prayer really shouldn't be the last thing we do. It should be the what?

The first thing we do but in reality, often times, it's the last thing we do and how sad it is that sometimes even Christians is the thing they don't do. And our loving heavenly father says, would you just ask? James one five says, if any man lack wisdom, let him what? Ask of God that giveth all men liberally, bountifully, and abraideth not, does not hold back and it will be given unto him Ask Ask Christian you're struggling today with something. You have a need.

You have a friend. You have a a burden on your heart Would you take it to the Lord? Ask. He'll give you peace that passes all understanding. If you'll but ask.

This man humbly approached Christ. He asked to be healed. Not only did he ask but he also believed. He also believed that Christ had the power to do what he was asking. It doesn't do any good to ask if you don't what?

You don't believe. How many people are going to wake up in hell? They prayed a prayer but they didn't want. They didn't believe. You know, I I'm I'm sad to say, I don't know how many doors in my ministry I have knocked on.

And I have talked to people who said they were Christians. I've talked to people that that they didn't go to church. They they didn't live for Christ. They didn't read their Bible. There was seemingly little to no fruit in their life and they had no interest in it.

However, when I asked them, do you know you're saved? And they said, yeah, maybe. I hope so and then I say, well, have you received Christ to say, oh yeah, I did that when I was five, when I was 10, when I was 15. Some preacher prayed the sinner's prayer and I prayed it with them and I'm saved. They have no interest in living for the Lord.

Is that a problem? Is there a contradiction there? Yes, there is. Now, praise the Lord. I'm not the judge.

I only look on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart and I don't know always who's saved and who's not and I've been surprised on both accounts. But you know something? There's many a person that's going to wake up in hell someday. Some preacher said, hey, just just read the words of this prayer off this page and you'll go to heaven but they didn't really what?

They didn't really get saved. They didn't really believe. They really weren't coming to Christ in faith. They were just reading words off of a page. They were just repeating words of a prayer.

And they weren't saved You have to believe. You have to have faith Not in the sinner's prayer written on the back of the track but you have to have faith in Jesus Christ who you are calling upon in prayer to save you from your sins. For salvation is not in the formula of a prayer, salvation is in the faith in a person. And his work on Calvary's cross, Jesus Christ. You must believe John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish have everlasting life.

Believe it in him, in what in him? In him that he died for you, that he will save you, that he will come again and receive you unto himself. Believe in him and you should not perish but have what? Everlasting life. For he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

How many people are sitting in churches today going through the motions? They're not saved. You must believe. You must believe in Jesus. Acts sixteen thirty and thirty one, Philippian jailer asked Peter Paul and Silas, this question, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Believe and thou shalt be saved. Salvation is by faith, by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. It says in Hebrews eleven six, without faith, it is what? Impossible to please him.

Without faith, it's impossible to know him. Without faith, it is impossible to be saved and cleansed by him. Without faith, Christian, it's impossible for us to serve him. Sometimes, the fact is we just don't trust him So, we don't listen We must grow in our faith We must walk by faith and not by psych. Then, we can please him We can bring honor to him We can bring glory to his name We can rest in his blessing but we we have to do it in faith We have to come to him in faith The leper came to Christ in faith I read, I quoted part of this already.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally, abrade it not and it shall be given him but let him ask in what? Faith. Let him ask in faith. How many times have you prayed? And you prayed for God to do this or you prayed for God to do that but down deep, you didn't want.

You didn't believe that he was going to do it. You didn't believe that he was even able to do it. Oh, you said, I know better. I know with God all things are possible but really really we didn't believe it. Jesus said, believe it.

Believe it Let him ask in faith not unwavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. This leper we're reading about that he received something of the Lord Yes, he did. Why? Because he had faith.

He said, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He says, I know you can. I know you can. I believe you can. I'm laying myself before you.

I'm asking you in faith and humility. Please, please, if thou wilt, thou canst make. Thou canst make me clean. Now, the The leper said, if thou wilt, he wasn't sure that it was God's will but he knew God could. There are some things that we don't know if they're God's will.

But we know if it is, he won. He is able. There are other things that we know are his will. For instance, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should what? Come to repentance.

So, if you come to Christ in faith as a lost sinner and you cast yourself before his feet and you cry out to him, Lord, save me, what's he going to do? He's going to save me. He's going to save you. You can count because he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So, then, we conclude this morning with Christ's response.

Christ's response. How did Christ respond to the leper? Look again if you would in verse 41 and Jesus moved with compassion, put his hand, put forth his hand, and touched him and say it unto him, I will. Be thou clean and as soon as he had spoken immediately, the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed. What did Jesus had?

Jesus had compassion. With compassion and love, he answered him. You know, later on, a a beggar would ask Peter at the gate going up to the temple in the beginning of Acts. He said, he wanted money. Peter said, silver and gold have I?

None. None. But what I have, I will give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and what? Walk.

Stand up and walk. You know, Peter gave him something much better that day. So much better that day than money he had compassion Now, don't believe God has given me the gift of healing but God's given me the privilege of prayer God has given me other gifts that I can use in helping other people and he has you too Sometimes, I wonder where our compassion is Sometimes, we become a bit jaded Why did Jesus heal this man? Because he loved him He saw somebody in need and he cared for him He had a heart of compassion. You know, that's what our God is like Matthew seven seven it says, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be open to you.

For everyone that ask it receive it and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be open or what man is there of you whom if his son ask for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you, you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him. You see, I care about my boys. A lot.

But I don't care about them as much as Jesus does. And if we care about our own children enough to give them the things that they need Do you not think that your heavenly father in heaven take care of you Do you not think he cares about you For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know, God doesn't just say I love you. God does what? He demonstrates it.

He demonstrated it by hanging on a cross for your sin. He demonstrates it every day. By not leaving you nor forsaking you. He demonstrates it in answering our prayers. He is a god of compassion.

He says in Matthew eleven twenty, Mark eleven twenty four, therefore, I say unto you what? So, things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Jesus had compassion. He answered in the affirmative. He said, yes, I will.

Be thou clean. And how quickly was the leper cleansed? He was cleansed immediately. You know what happens when you come to Jesus Christ and you cry out to him to save your sin, soul from sin, and to give you eternal life. You know what he does?

He saves you and he cleanses you. He justifies you before his father in heaven. He declares you guiltless. And he does all of it right what? Right then.

He does it He doesn't justify you. Well, you gotta you gotta pray the prayer and then you gotta be baptized and then you gotta take communion. You gotta come to church this often and you gotta hand out this many tracks. Now, I want you to hold out hand out tracks and so does Jesus and I want you to come to church and so does Jesus but you're not earning your way into heaven. You're not earning his justification.

That happened when you poured out your soul to Christ and said, please save me. Justified you. He declared you guiltless before his father in heaven and it is a done deal. He did it immediately just like he healed the leper He told him to go and show himself into the priest in order that he might return to the worship of the Lord. In Leviticus 14, the chapter after the one we read to start the sermon.

Leviticus 13, it told about how the leper had to be cast out but in chapter 14, it gives the process for if per per chance, the leper was found healed. How he could be brought back? You see, God has made a way for us to be cleansed and brought back in. Christ died the just for the unjust that may bring us back to God being put to death in the flesh. Raised again, made alive, quickened by the spirit.

He told him, go show yourself to the priest so you can rejoin your people. Go show yourself to the priest so you recon rejoin the worship of almighty God. You see, when you trust Christ as savior and you're saved, you become his child. And now you can worship and praise him. You can enter into his presence with thanksgiving and you can enter into his courts with praise.

Jesus didn't died just to take you to heaven. Y'all probably getting tired of hearing that but trying to get it through Christ died to change you Starting when Starting the moment you came to him He wants to give you the opportunity to worship and praise him and glorify him here. That's why you're still here, Christian. He wants you to rejoin his worship Live to bring glory to his name. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Could this leper boast in anything he had done? No. It was all God. It was all Jesus. He knew it.

And if you know Christ, you know it too. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on the good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Christ saved you so that you could serve who? So that you could serve him. He saved you so that you could serve him.

And you could serve others. You could do the good works that he had before ordained that you should walk in them, that you couldn't do before you came to Christ by faith, that you couldn't do before you redeemed, redeemed. But now you can Now, you can. This man he told him, go back to the priest Now, you can serve me Now, you can rejoin the worship of almighty God because you have been cleansed. He told the man to keep his mouth shut.

What happened? Did he keep his mouth shut? No, he didn't. Didn't keep his mouth shut. Have you ever heard, ever soly told you really good news and you just couldn't keep your mouth shut even though you were supposed to?

It's a surprise, don't tell them. You did anyway. Or you just wasn't, you know, you just were supposed to wait a week or two and you just couldn't keep it in. And you just had to what? Tell somebody.

Just had to tell somebody. I think David gets a little perturbed at me at times because some good things that happen in his life, I maybe a little bit too free to share with others but hey, I'm happy when something good has happened in David and Joshua's life. I like good news Now, Jesus said, now, keep it quiet for now. He couldn't keep his mouth shut. He just had to tell somebody and tell somebody else and tell somebody else and pretty soon, Jesus couldn't enter the city anymore because the crowds that met him wanting to be healed.

Wanting to be healed. How about you Christian? Can you keep your mouth shut I'm afraid to say that too many of us are too practiced to keeping our mouth shut When Christ hasn't told us to do so He's told us to open our mouth and tell others about who About Jesus and what he's done. This man he told to keep his mouth shut and he couldn't. He tells us to open ours and so many times we keep it shut.

Now, isn't that sad What are we ashamed of You say, well, I'm not ashamed of anything and why don't we open our mouth more than we do If we're really not ashamed of what we believe and who we serve. We had good news You can be justified You can be forgiven of all your sins. The blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's Cross. If you'll come to him humbly and ask him to save you. He will, if you will believe.

And not only does he justify you but throughout your life as a Christian, he will continue to cleanse you. You see, the justification that happens what? Once. But the cleansing, that's something that happens every day in the life of a child of God. As we walk in the light, we follow him.

We are willing to admit things in our life that aren't right. You know what God does? He cleanses us from all what? Cleanses us from all sin. That he does for us today and tomorrow and the next day.

I I would have showed you but it's kind of hard to do the illustration up here but I've done it before. You could take a bowl of water and you can take and put iodine in the bowl of water and turn it that brownish red color that iodine does and stain it. You can take a little cup of what looks like water but as actually bleach and you can pour the bleach into that big bowl. You know what happens to that iodine? It disappears.

You know, it's what happens when you get saved. The stain of sin what? Disappears. The blood of Jesus Christ washes away sin. We're forgiven.

We're justified. But sad to say, sometimes we still want. We still sin. In James, in first John two, it it says that God doesn't want us to sin. But if we do, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous and you know what happens?

If I take some more iodine and I squirt it in that bowl, you know what happens when it hits that water? It disappears. Because of the bleach that's in it and I can squirt it and squirt it and squirt it and you have to squirt a whole lot to overcome the bleach. It just keeps what? Keeps disappearing.

It won't stick. It won't stick. You know, Christian, it won't stick. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. From all sin.

And you know, not only does God do that for us but God wants to do so much more. If you'll but what? If you'll but ask him. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for your word.

We thank you Lord for the testimony, the illustration of this leper, what you did for him, what you do for all those who come to you by faith, to remove the stain of sin that's in our life, to forgive us, and then cleanse us every each and every day. Lord, we thank you for that and Lord, we pray if there's one here today that's never trusted you, never come before you humbly and cried out in faith, asking you to be Lord and savior. I pray that they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation that they might be saved. But Lord, I pray for us who do know you as savior. Lord, that we would spend more time in prayer, that we would bring our needs before you, that we would remember to ask the one who has all the answers, the one who has all the compassion, the one who is waiting to hear from us.

Lord, that we would believe that you are able. Lord, we would not keep our mouth shut That we would spread abroad the wonders of our God Good news of the gospel and all the wonderful answers of prayer. That you have given to us. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.