Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 29 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number
29, Hallelujah, God Has Saved Me. Joy, do we do this to I Will
Sing of My Redeemer or Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus? Okay. Okay. ? I was lost and did not know it
? Rushing madly to my end ? But my God who's rich in mercy ?
Would not let me die in sin ? Hallelujah, God has saved me ? Saved me by
his sovereign grace ? Jesus died, the Spirit called me ? I am saved
by sovereign grace ? Chosen by my heavenly Father ? And redeemed
by Jesus' blood ? I am justified, forgiven ? And accepted by my
God ? Hallelujah, God has saved me Save me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me. I am saved by sovereign grace. ? God the Spirit came in power
? Gave me life and set me free ? He revealed my blessed Savior
? And created faith in me ? Hallelujah, God has saved me saved me by
his sovereign grace Jesus died the spirit called me I am saved
by sovereign grace God has saved ? By the power of His grace ? He
will guide, guard and protect me ? Till I see my Savior's face
? Hallelujah, God has saved me Save me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me. I am saved by sovereign grace. Please be seated. Only kind of grace that there
is. sovereign grace. Any grace that's
not sovereign is not grace any more than any God who's not sovereign
is no God. What hope and comfort do we have
in worshiping a God who is sovereign? He's absolute control. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
chapter 5, Psalm 5. Verse 7, but as for me, I will
come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear
will I worship toward thy holy temple. The margin of my Bible rephrases
those last couple of words to the temple of thy holiness. I like that. The temple of thy
holiness, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the temple of God's holiness. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness,
because of mine enemies make thy way straight before my face. Let's pray together. Our gracious, sovereign, glorious
Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for putting
it in our hearts to have a desire to come to this place, to open
your word, to seek your face. Father, thank you for the promise
of your Holy Spirit to open what no man can shut. Lord, open the
windows of heaven, open our hearts, open thy word, open our eyes. Lord, cause us, cause us to see
and to believe and to rest. Lord, we thank you for thy dear
son, who himself is the tabernacle that we look to to find our hope
and our rest and all of our righteousness before the pray that you would bless this
hour. Lord, we pray for this upcoming weekend would provide
for the men that are preaching a message that would glorify
the and edify your people, call out your lost sheep. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 44 from the hardback teminal,
44. Let's all stand together again,
44. ? And can it be that I should gain
? ? An interest in the Savior's blood ? ? Died he for me who
caused his pain ? ? For me who him to death pursued ? Amazing
love, how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? He left his father's throne
above, so free, so infinite his grace. Emptied himself of all
but love, and bled for his own helpless race. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? ? Amazing love, how can it
be ? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? ? No condemnation now I dread
? I am my Lord's and He is mine Alive in him, my living head,
and clothed in righteousness divine. Amazing love, how can
it be that thou, my God, Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Luke chapter 17. Luke 17. And we're going to begin reading
at verse 11 and read down through verse 19. It's been such a blessing to be able to look at
the miracles that are recorded in the Gospels that our Lord
performed And in John chapter 5 verse 25, the Lord Jesus said,
the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. Our Lord performed these miracles
to bear witness to himself. John, as we've been reminded
of often over the last couple of months, concludes his gospel
in chapter 20 by saying, many other signs, and signs and miracles
are interchangeable terms in scriptures. Many other signs
did Jesus that are not recorded in this book, but these have
been recorded in order that you might know. in order that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God, and that believing, you might have life in his name. Here in Luke chapter 17, we have
another of our Lord's miracles, beginning in verse 11. And it came to pass as he went
to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain
village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood
afar off. They were infectious, unclean
lepers. Obviously everybody, they had
the disease, the outward manifestation of it was clear to all. And they
were required by the law to keep a distance from other people.
And so from a distance they saw the Lord and obviously they had
heard of his miracles and cried out to him that he might heal
them. Verse 13, they lifted up their
voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he
saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass that as they
went, they were cleansed. Something very interesting there
about the work of cleansing happening along with the act of obedience. The Lord told them to go and
as they were going they did what he said. They were headed to
the priest to tell him even though there was no outward evidence
that they had yet been made clean and as they were going they were
made clean. May the Lord give to us that
sort of obedient spirit to not look for outward evidences of
reasons to obey God, just obey him, trust him. And one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified
God and fell down on his face at his feet. So now he's clean. He doesn't have to keep a distance.
He runs right up to the Lord, falls at the Lord's feet and
worships him. Giving him thanks. And he was
a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were
there not 10 cleansed and where are the nine? They are not found that return
to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto them,
unto him arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Nine of the 10 lepers saw the miracle that our Lord
performed only in their bodies. One of them experienced a miracle
of grace in his heart. I've titled this message, Glorifying
God, The Real Miracle. Glorifying God, The Real Miracle. The scripture speaks of us in
our unconverted state as being ungodly. Ungodly. And We've looked at that word
before. It's actually the word worship
with the Greek alpha in front of it which reverses the meaning
of the word. Much like in our English language,
you put an A in front of a word and it turns the meaning upside
down. Same thing in Greek. The word
ungodly literally translated means unable to worship. Unable to worship. And that's
where we are in our unconverted condition. We're unable to come
to the presence of God and worship. What we need is a miracle of
grace in the heart. That's what this man, the real
miracle was not the healing of their leprosy. The real miracle
was this one man's ability to come into the presence of the
Lord Jesus and worship him and glorify him. That's the miracle
that you and I need and we're always in need of that. Oh, we
feel ourselves prone to wander, don't we? Prone to leave the
God that we love and always in need of a miracle of grace. Truth is, just like the inability
to worship is our natural state as being ungodly, We are never
more godly than when we worship God. People think, well, that's
a godly man. And generally what they're referring
to is some outward evidences of behavior and holiness or whatever. But there's never a time when
we act more like God. than when we are brought to worship
him. Let me show you that. John chapter
17. To worship is to glorify. The one man of the 10 that was
healed turned and came back and glorified
God and fell at the feet of the Lord Jesus giving thanks and
worshiping him. What is worship? It is to glorify
God. Now here's our Lord's high priestly
prayer in John 17 where he's interceding on our behalf to
our Heavenly Father and he says in verse 4, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was." What was God doing for all of
eternity before the angels were created, before the stars were
made, before man was created? What was God doing? Lord tells
us right there. The father was glorifying the
son. The son was glorifying the father and they were fully content,
fully, I don't even know what word to use in glorifying themselves. Never are we more godly than
when we are made through a miracle of grace
in the heart to glorify God, to worship him. There's not a
more godly act that a man can do. These miracles all throughout
scripture, these outward miracles of the flesh were performed for the purpose of giving evidence of the words
that were spoken being the Word of God. We see it in the life
of Moses. Moses said, how will they know? How will they know that the message
that I'm speaking is from God? And the Lord performed through
Moses miracles. The plagues in Egypt, the water
from the rock, the manna from heaven, the quail, all the different
things that God did through the hand of Moses in order to confirm
him as the one who was bringing the word of God. We see that
in the prophets. We see it particularly in Elijah. And in Elisha, we see it in the
apostles. The Lord gave to the original
apostles certain powers to perform signs and wonders, to perform
physical miracles, to the point that even Peter's shadow cast
on someone that was sick healed them. What was the Lord doing? He was
giving testimony. These are the two witnesses,
the word of God and the signs and miracles that confirmed the
word of God to show that this is from God. Why don't we have these kind
of miracles performed today? I know there are folks that pretend
to be performing miracles. We had a lady come here one time
and she assured me that she knew someone that was missing an arm
and they all got around her and prayed for her and she grew a
new arm. Now, do I believe that God could do that? Absolutely.
Do I believe that he did? Absolutely not. The Lord doesn't have to do that. We have the testimony of his
word now. We have the presence of his spirit.
We compare scripture to scripture and that which is spiritual to
that which is spiritual and God confirms by the Holy Spirit a
spirit of worship in our hearts enabling us to believe God and
to and to glorify him. They that are after the flesh
what they just mind the things of the flesh the fleshly man
needs to see something and the Lord warns us about that he said
a wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign but no sign
will be given to it except for the sign of Jonah speaking of
his death burial and resurrection. Well what Evidence do we have
of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? We
weren't there. And the Lord's not performing
miracles now to confirm his word. We have the spirit of God and
we have the word of God. And the miracle now, the miracle,
the real miracle that God's performing, the miracle that you and I need
cannot be seen with the natural eye. It is a miracle of grace
that God does in the heart. We know that faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Hebrews chapter 11, it is the
evidence of things not seen. What's the evidence of faith? What's the evidence of faith
in the believer's life? How do I know if I have truth-saving
faith? Faith glorifies God. Faith worships God. We don't look for some sort of
outward evidence for the assurance of our salvation. We search the scriptures. We know that these things testify
of Christ and by the Spirit of God and the Word of God we're
brought in our hearts to a spirit of worship God. That's what the
Lord Jesus said when he talked to that woman at the well in
John chapter 4. When she wanted to talk about
where to worship and how to worship, and the Lord said, they that
worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. They must worship him by the
power of the Holy Spirit, taking the truth of the gospel and causing
us to glorify God from our hearts. To give to him all the glory.
to ascribe to him all praise. What a miracle it is for those
who are by nature occupied with themselves and occupied with
the things of this world to be brought to a place of being occupied
with God. That's a miracle. It's a much greater demonstration
of God's power to take a sinner who's self-centered I've told
you all about my phone with the word center. I know I have, I'm
gonna tell you again. You know, your iPhone is supposed
to learn your accent and correct your spelling. And I know it's
happened well over a hundred times where I have been writing
something on my phone and I use the word center. S-I-N-N-E-R
and every single time it translates it C-E-N-T-E-R. And I go in and I change it.
And I've done it over and over and over again and I'm beginning
to wonder if iPhone doesn't have the word center in their vocabulary. But I think it's very appropriate
that it translates the word sinner, center. Because is that not a
good definition of what a sinner is? We're just the center of
our own little universe, aren't we? And for God to take a sinner
who's so self-absorbed, and cause him to do what this man did and
fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus and glorify him and thank
him and worship him, that's a miracle. The real miracle is a work of
grace in the heart enabling us to worship God in the spirit and enabling us to believe the
truth that the Lord has revealed about himself. The real miracle is not the physical
healing that men look for. The real miracle is the ability
to see him, the ability to hear him, the ability to worship him,
the ability to praise him, the ability to glorify him. And nine
of these lepers who were healed didn't know that the only reason
that they were healed was to show us the difference between
physical leprosy and spiritual leprosy. Leprosy is Such a clear picture of our sinful nature. It's a disease
of the blood. It's in the body long before
it manifests itself. Our sin's that way, isn't it? root of our sinful tree only
manifest the fruit of sin more and more as it grows. Leprosy from this point in time,
maybe there's something for it now as a cure but in the biblical
time it was incurable. Apart from a miracle of grace,
there was no way for this disease to be removed. And so it is with
our sin. Our sin's incurable. Apart from
a miracle of grace in the heart. Leprosy is fatal to the body. And so the wages of sin is death.
And if the Lord doesn't perform a miracle of grace in our hearts,
forgiving us of our sin and causing us to worship him, we'll die
in our sin. Leprosy, as I understand, starts
out as a very painful disease, but as it progresses, it attacks
the nervous system. And many of the wounds that lepers
suffer were wounds that they incurred because they didn't
feel the normal pain. They hurt themselves or burn
themselves or cut themselves and not feel it. Not the way
sin is. The more it progresses, the more
it attacks. our feelings and the more numb
we become to it. Oh, that the Lord would not allow
us to have a seared conscience. Leprosy disfigures the body to a point of being grotesque. Oh, if we could see our sin for
what it really is How grotesque it is. We don't want it. Well, the most, the clearest
evidence we have of our sin is the Lord Jesus hanging on Calvary's
cross. When God made him sin, who knew
no sin? And the scripture says that he
was no man. They had beat him to the point to where he didn't
look human. He did not look human. How grotesque
his body was hanging there. Why? Because of sin. He bore
the sins of his people in his body on that tree. And he put
them away by the sacrifice of himself. Once and for all, there's
our hope. Thank God when he is pleased
to give healings to whatever physical ailments we have, but
this is not the real miracle. Leprosy is contagious. Oh, we
so often think that we can send unto ourselves, but it's not
that way. Even when no one else knows about
it, it affects other people. And leprosy barred these men
from being able to worship. They could not come into the
temple. Your sin has separated you from your God. Isn't that
what the Lord told us during the book of Isaiah? That sin's
got to be put away. We've got to have a miracle,
not of a physical healing, but a spiritual healing and the
evidence, the evidence that we've been healed of our sin is seen
in what this one in 10 did. He came back, he fell at the
feet of the Lord Jesus and he worshiped him, glorifying him,
giving him all the praise Believing that there was nothing that he
did to earn that. There was nothing that he did
to obligate the Lord to do that. The Lord did, that's why we sang
sovereign grace. There is no other kind of grace.
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will out
harden. Grace belongs to God. And those
who have been recipients of God's free and sovereign grace are
full of thanksgiving and praise and worship when they come before
him, knowing that he gets all the glory. He did it all. You and I will do what men do,
but for the grace of God. Here's part of the miracle of
worship is that the Lord would keep us from manufacturing some
sort of fleshly, uh, worship that would have a form
of godliness but would deny the power thereof. And what the Lord
said? He said they have a form of godliness but they deny the
power thereof. You see, worship is acknowledging
the Lord Jesus and bowing before him like this man did, praising
him and glorifying him for his power. We have the spirit of Moses.
When Moses, in Exodus chapter 34, when the Lord was going to
take the children of Israel away from Mount Sinai, Moses prayed
and said, Lord, if you go not with us, take us not up from
hence. Lord, don't let us take another step if you're not gonna
be with us. Lord, I can't worship you. I'm ungodly. I'm unable to worship. The spirit
of worship's a miracle. It's a miracle. It is the miracle.
It's the greatest miracle of all. And it's a miracle that
we're always in need of. We come to this place. Let us
be reminded. How oftentimes, how oftentimes
we've gone through the motions worship, whether it be public
worship, whether it be private prayer, private devotion, scripture
reading, the seed is plucked away or the seed is choked out, the seed falls on shallow ground,
springs up for a little while and then it fades away. You see,
if that If that worship is to be productive, God's gonna have
to do it. He's gonna have to do a work. Those experiences that we have
in going through the motions of worship without the power
of worship are a constant reminder. To me, I know they are to you.
Lord, you've got to enable me. You've got to do something. Don't leave me to myself. We can sing and preach and pray
and do all the right things assembled together. We can be here in body
and not in spirit. You know you can, you've done
it. I've done it. Sometimes you preach, you feel
like, I just spoke words. The power of God there. Everything
I said was true, but Lord, if you don't bless it, it's gonna
fall on deaf ears. It's not gonna have any. You know, some will read about
this miracle and take these nine that were healed and they'll
say, well, you know, yeah, they weren't saved but they were benefits
of God's benevolence. I've heard people talk about
God has a benevolent love for the reprobate. because the reprobate
breathes God's air and because they enjoy God's gifts that they
come up with terms like common grace or benevolent love or there's
a sense in which God loves everybody. What's the scripture say about
that? Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated. He's angry
with the wicked every day. There's only one reason that
the reprobate gets to breathe God's air. There's only one reason
that the reprobate enjoys healings and whatever else they might
enjoy in this world. There's only one reason for it.
One reason only. You know what it is. God's people
are still here. As soon as the church is taken
from this world, All of those things that this world enjoys
from the hand of God are gonna be taken away. They are here
for God's people. It's the only reason. I mean, you think about it. What if it only rained in your
yard and none of your neighbor's yard? What if you were the only one
that ever got healed from your diseases and no one else did?
You see what I'm saying? The scripture says that the sun
rises on the evil and the good and the rain falls on the just
and the unjust. These things happen in the world.
for one reason and one reason only, the benefit of God's people. As soon as the last of God's
elect is called to faith in Christ and the church is snatched from
this world, oh, there's not gonna be whatever the millennium is
that they say, the thousand year millennium, the seven year millennium,
all that dispensational stuff. They say, well, you know, the
church is going to be snatched away, and then there's going to be
great persecution. And if you weren't a Christian when the
rapture took place, then, you know, you can suffer and die
for the faith in the next seven years, and then you'll be saved. All that is is Baptist purgatory.
That's all that is. It's just a works gospel, a way
to get people, you know, hopeful to get into heaven without Now when the church is taken
away, that's it. No more reason for this world
to exist and it's coming to a fiery end immediately. These nine lepers enjoyed the healing of their
leprosy for the benefit of the one. and for your benefit and my benefit
that we might see the difference that God makes between outward miracles and the real
miracle. The real miracle is worship.
The Holy Spirit must enable us to worship. The Lord told Nicodemus,
the Spirit's like the wind, Nicodemus, he listeth withersoever he wills.
You can't control him, you can't demand anything from him. You
can't create a set of circumstances that's going to manipulate God
to enable you to worship. You're completely dependent upon
him. Lord, you're sovereign in this
thing of worship. And if you don't freely and sovereignly
and graciously and mercifully perform a miracle of grace in
my heart, I will not be able to worship you. We are the true circumcision,
Paul said in Philippians chapter three. The true circumcision,
the ones who've been circumcised in the heart. Not a circumcision
done in the flesh by the hands of men, but a circumcision done
by the spirit in the heart. Cutting away from the heart any
hope of salvation based on fleshly methods. We are the true circumcision. Worship God in the spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. What
is it to have the heart circumcised, to have no confidence in the
flesh? to worship God in the spirit,
to rejoice in Christ Jesus. A term of me at Colossians 2, Colossians
2. We begin reading in verse 20.
Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ, Colossians 2 verse 20, from the rudiments of the world,
why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which All are to perish
with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Outward means and methods of
trying to worship God. Which things have a show of wisdom. They have an appearance of godliness
to them. will worship. It's not a worship
of God, it's a worship of man's will. I will to do this and to
not do that. I will put myself in it. I will worship God. And humility, a false humility.
And the neglecting of the body. I'll obligate God to meet with
me. Not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh but are of no value against sinful indulgences because
they do not honor God. These things don't honor God,
these things honor men. What is it to worship God? It's
to be stripped of all honor, it's to be stripped of all glory,
it's to give to Him all the glory. So what men do in an attempt
to worship, they're really worshiping themselves. But you, if you have been risen with Christ,
if when Christ raised from the dead you raised in Him, If when
he died, you died with him? Seek those things which are above. Here's the miracle. The miracle
is not what we see on the outward side, on the outside. I mean,
we can clean up the outside of the cup. We can whitewash the
tomb. But God's got to do a work of
grace in the heart. When the heart's changed, everything
gets changed. You see, you can reform the outward appearances
in the eyes of men, and even in your own eyes. We can fool
ourselves. We're thinking, you know, I've
done this, and I haven't done that, and that makes me better.
I'm worshiping God. I'm pleasing God. It's a matter of the heart. That's
what Paul's saying here. This is will worship, taste not,
handle not, touch not. These things don't curb the indulgences
of the flesh because they don't honor God. What honors God? Faith honors God. Setting your
affections on things above where Christ is seated at the right
hand of God set your affections on things above not on the things
of the earth. He's not talking about don't
have an affection for your children or grandchildren or your, you
know, I've got a desire to do this or that and enjoy the things
that God's given you. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about setting the affections of your faith
on things that you can see. You can't see this. Not outwardly. It takes the eye of faith. It takes the Holy Spirit. For
you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. What? Your life is hid. It's hid. It's with Christ and it's in
God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear then we shall also appear with him in glory. And might
I close this message by reminding us that worship is what we're
going to be doing in heaven for all eternity. Pure, unhindered, unencumbered
by sin, perfect worship. How do I know I've worshiped
God in this life? because I've tasted of the heavenly
gift, and that taste has made me want to see him face to face. We know in part, we look through
a glass darkly, but then we'll see him face to face, and we'll
know him even as we are known. The little bit of worship that
God has enabled me by a miracle of sovereign grace in my heart
has caused me to want to worship Him more. I want to know Him
better now and I long for that day when I'll be able to worship
Him like I ought and like I want to, like I want to. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we would be like the nine,
content with the outward evidences of change. We would have a form of godliness. We would go about establishing
our own righteousness. Lord, we need a miracle. One
that cannot be seen. By the eye of flesh, one that
cannot be. Look to. Lord, one that. Causes us. To fall. At your feet. And to worship you. Lord, give us your spirit. Cause
us to glorify Christ. For it's in
his name we pray. Amen. Number 30 on the Sprout Hymnal.
Let's stand together, number 30. ? Glory, glory, I'm forgiven ?
All my sins are washed away ? Christ by his great blood atonement
? All my sin has put away ? Sin imputed to my Savior ? When he
died upon the tree ? As the substitute for sinners ? God will not impute
to me ? Glory, glory, I'm accepted ? Robed in Christ's own righteousness
I'm a child and heir of heaven, saved by God's almighty grace. Christ's obedience to the Father
is imputed now to be. In God's sight I'm pure and holy,
He declares me so to be. ? Glory, glory, I'll not perish
? In Christ's hands I am secure ? He who saved me sure will keep
me ? By God's grace I shall endure This is not a vain presumption. I just take him at his word. Christ has sworn they shall not
perish who believe on me their Lord.