Let's turn in our text this morning
to Luke 17 and read before we ask the Lord to meet with us
again Luke 17 11 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 ten men that were lepers, which stood
afar off. And 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 priests.
And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. 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, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the
nine? There are not found that return
to give glory to God save this stranger. And he said unto him,
arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Let's pray. Lord, thank you again for your
precious word. May we come, Lord, this morning
in our hearts to hear, may we be attentive,
may we apply our hearts unto your wisdom, the wisdom of your
gospel. which is Christ Jesus our Lord,
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
May we rejoice in and worship him alone in his name. Amen.
It came to pass as he went to Jerusalem. Now we know why he
was going. to Jerusalem. In Mark 10.33 it
says that He said to His disciples, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem
and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes and they shall condemn Him to death and shall deliver
Him to the Gentiles. So He went deliberately to Jerusalem
to cause that to happen, to bring that to pass. Listen to the words
that Luke recorded from this same conversation with his disciples
in Luke 18 31. Then he took him unto him the
12 and said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem and all
things that are written by the prophets concerning the son of
man shall be accomplished. Everything that God said would
happen. and revealed concerning his eternal
purpose of grace in redeeming his elect by the blood of his
son. All of that is going to be accomplished. We're headed
to Jerusalem. So we see in our text where he's
going and why. He's going to accomplish everything.
Do you think about it now? All things that are written are
going to be accomplished. What's written? Everything. Everything everything worth accomplishing
is going to be accomplished To finish the work that the father
gave him to do to redeem his elect to fulfill all of God's
purpose of grace Toward his sheep by the sacrifice of himself He's
going to decide everything It's all going to be accomplished.
It's all going to be finished. It's all going to be perfected
and who lives and who dies, who's condemned and who is damned forever,
but also who is blessed forever in the presence and favor of
God. Everything that matters is going to be decided at Calvary. And when all of the triumph of
his cross is fully realized and when all of his business is conducted
and brought to an end, there are many who will have been passed
by. And some We'll have an eternal
interest in that covenant where of the Lord Jesus spoke when
he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. His blood
is the blood of the everlasting covenant. There are some included
in that covenant and some not. Some are represented by the nature
of that blood and redeemed by the power of that blood and regenerated
through the preaching and revelation of that blood. And others are
condemned by it. Everything is accomplished At
Calvary Some will be counted guilty of that blood and get
what they deserve but on the way To wrap up his divine and
glorious business on this earth and you think about the magnitude
of that Why he came what he came to do. He's about to go do it.
He's about to go wrap it up. He's been doing it He fixed to
go finish it And he takes a path on his way there through the
midst of Samaria and Galilee. And there's a leper over that
way and the Lord will not conclude his business on this earth without
crossing paths with that leper. Without revealing himself to
that man. Without saying to him, you're
saved. Because of your faith, you're
saved. That's what he said now. Are we saved because of our faith?
If you have faith because he gave it to you, you're saved
because of your faith. If he's the cause of your faith,
then your faith is the cause of him saving you. Now he's just not going to save
you apart from it, is he? He gives faith, by grace are
you saved through faith. And you didn't come up with that,
it was his gift. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Your faith saved you, that's
what we're gonna see now. We sang that song, because thy
promise I believe, you'll receive me, and I've flinched at that,
and I've said, well, that may not have been the right way to
say that. Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of people, Would
think when the Lord said your faith has saved me that that's
not the right way to say that Wait a minute faith doesn't save
God saves in his electing grace and by the blood the blood saved.
Yeah, that's true But also faith in that blood it's through faith
it's by his grace through faith He's not going he's going there
to wrap it up in me in Jerusalem He's going to wrap up his business
on this earth and what a business it was. If you have any hope,
it's because of what he did. But before he's going to wrap
it up, he's got to cross paths with this poor leper. Aren't
you glad that the Lord didn't wrap up his business of saving
sinners by the preaching of his gospel? Aren't you glad he did
not fulfill all of the triumph of his cross in this world and
then burn this world up without first passing through College
Grove, Tennessee? Or wherever you were when he
met you on your road to hell. I am forever grateful that he
passed through the midst of New Caney, Texas on his way to the
final fulfillment of his purpose of grace in this world. Thank
you, Lord, for not passing us by. Can we say that when we see
this story? There's ten lepers there, but
one of them, he can't finish his business without crossing
paths with that man. Thank you, God, for not passing
us by. Now the Samaritans in Samaria and the Jews in Galilee
had no dealings with one another. It's interesting that these two
cities are mentioned because they hated one another. They
wouldn't have anything to do with one another, the Samaritans
and the Jews. But bless God, Christ had something
to do with both. He'll have something to do with
you when nobody else will. He is our peace who hath made
both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments containing ordinances, for to
make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God." He reconciles sinners
that won't have anything to do with one another to each other,
and he reconciles both of them to God. in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. That's what we're talking about
this morning, the cross. That's why he was going to Jerusalem,
the cross. And on his way there, he picked
up a passenger. I'm so glad that he does that. and came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to them that were not, for through
him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Listen
to Colossians 3.10, and have put on the new man which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and
in all. Galatians 3 28 there's neither
Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free.
There's neither male nor female For you all are one in Christ
Jesus And then verse 12 in our text
as he entered into a certain village there met him ten men
that were lepers which stood afar off Leprosy is an instructive
analogy of To picture our sinfulness before God, we see it often in
the scriptures. It's dealt with and described
and used of God to teach us concerning our sin. Leprosy was a horrible,
horrible disease. It was incurable at the time. And that causes us to ask this
question, who then can be saved? Who can cure the incurable? Well,
with men it's impossible. That's why it's called incurable.
But with God, all things are possible. It was loathsome. It was corruption in the blood
that caused the rotting of the flesh and things would fall off
and it was just a corruption that was visible and disgusting. And likewise, our sin makes us
loathsome to God. And we're corrupt and it's a
disease that affects the whole body. The Lord describes our
spiritual condition this way in Isaiah 1 5. He's not saying
the whole nation of Israel was a bunch of lepers, but he is
saying they're all a bunch of spiritual lepers. Listen to how
he describes them. And this is his elect. Why should
you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick. And the whole heart is faint.
The whole head is sick. That is, our thoughts and judgments
and will are corrupt. And the whole heart is faint.
Our passions and desires are foul and rotten. From the sole
of the foot, even unto the head, there's no soundness in it but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. You can't do anything
about it. And lepers also were legally
banished from the society of God's people. You couldn't even
come into town now. Under the old covenant to picture
our legal guilt and how that under God's law we have no place
among his people by nature. By nature we're the children
of wrath. This is why in our text they stood afar off. It
doesn't just say that just incidentally that they stood afar off because
the law required that. They couldn't even have society
with people who weren't lepers. They knew
that. Think of it spiritually speaking.
We must get to Christ. Our only hope is to get to Christ.
And the law says we can't even come near Him. That's true spiritually,
isn't it? We've got to get to Christ. How
are you going to do that? He can't even look at you without
putting you in hell. How are you going to come to Him? What is the remedy to that? He's
gonna have to come where you are, that's what. He's got to
come where you are and do something for you. Verse 13, and they lifted
up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy. And here
they are standing far off now, because the law, they couldn't
even come near him, but they cried out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And that's a good saying, isn't
it? They came to the right place for the right thing, didn't they?
Now this passage of scripture, though, among other things, shows
us the difference between one of those lepers and the other
nine. And what emphasizes the difference between them is all
the similarities between them. If you can just single out one
difference, then all of your attention goes to that difference,
doesn't it? That's how our Lord's teaching here. They were the
same in every way, except one. And so, since there's just one
difference, that difference shines, doesn't it? Wow, look at that.
They just look like they all look the same until we see this. And so, here they are the same.
By this means, our Lord teaches us something about salvation
now. These men all had respect under the law. They didn't just
disregard the law and just come waltzing up to him. Don't presume
upon the grace of God. You remember when Simon Peter
said, there comes the Lord on the water, and Simon said, Lord,
here I come. No, he didn't, did he? He said,
Lord, bid me come to you. That's what we just sang, isn't
it? Isn't it amazing how the Lord works things out? Lord,
I don't have any plea except you bid me come to you. And so they're standing far off
now. And they're crying out. And they had deference to the
law. They had respect unto the law.
They had respect unto Christ, calling Him Master. And many
do who don't know Him. They all had a dire need. And
this need, this disease, pictures sin and therefore shows us here
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
they all cry for mercy, and that's exactly what they need, and we
need from God, from His Son. We need mercy. We don't need
what's coming to us. You don't want what's coming
to you from God. You need His mercy. But you know, words mean
different things to different people. When religion talks about
grace, they're not talking about the same thing we are when we
say the word grace. And it's evident the longer you
listen to them. To them, grace is God giving
us a shot. God gave us another chance to
do the right thing. Boy, that God is naive, isn't
he? We ain't never done the right thing, but here you are with
another chance. If you just choose me this time
instead of yourself, it's gonna be good. Well, guess what? It
ain't gonna be good because we ain't ever chosen God and we
ain't fixing to. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in the sight of God. It doesn't happen that way. Sinners
are not saved like that. They're saved by His grace through
faith in Christ. To us, grace is salvation. It's God just saying, I want
to save you, so I'm going to save you. That's His grace. It's
not God doing all He can and leaving salvation up to the sinner.
It's God doing all, period. It's salvation is of the Lord. So these nine lepers, they cried
for mercy, but to nine of them, mercy was just being able to
get on with their lives. This is a real inconvenience,
to put it lightly. I can't even associate with anybody.
I had to quit my job. I can't even have time with my
family. I'm afraid I'm going to infect
them. Mercy to nine of them was just getting on with their life.
That's not mercy. That's not the mercy of God that
we need. It was all about their benefit and their blessing. And that may well have been the
case with all ten of them at this point in the text when they're
crying for mercy. It may well have been. I don't
know when the Lord saved this man, but I know He saved him. to religious lost people the
mercy of Christ is him just blessing their lives you know and heaven
is just more that to them ah but true mercy is the cry of
the guilty condemned sinner who knows that God ought to put him
in hell and the only way that ain't gonna happen is if he has
mercy the only way God can be God and
have mercy It's by Christ and that's why this man Getting on with his life meant
getting to Christ God's Son The true mercy beggar doesn't
want to get on with their lives they want him That's what this
man did he needed he went to Christ Verse 14, and when he
saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they
went, they were cleansed. And that's according to the law.
Under old covenant law, this was the requirement. When one
had leprosy, they would show themselves ever so often as the
disease progressed. And sometimes it would come to
a place where it would go away on its own. It was incurable.
But there was either a disease that looked like leprosy that
they thought, oh no, I'm leprous. But then they would find out
later that it wasn't that way. But the one that decided that,
the one that knew what to look for and made that call was the
priest. Show yourself unto the priest.
And he would pronounce you unclean, or he would pronounce you clean.
And that's, of course, a beautiful picture of Christ. The only one
that can judge me clean is the one that I've sinned against.
If he says you're not guilty, the one that we've offended says
that we're not guilty, then we're not guilty. Who can say I'm guilty if the
only one I ever did anything wrong to says that you haven't
done anything wrong? How are you going to condemn
me now? So that priest would look for
certain signs in their condition and the priest would make a judgment
and a declaration that defined the very life of that person.
He couldn't go back into the society of the people of God
until that priest said, you're clean. And so the Lord says here, go
show yourself to the priest. And still up to this point, there's
no difference in these 10 that we can see. You may have wondered
at one time or another if the Lord Jesus Christ saved everybody
that he healed physically in the scriptures. I've thought
about that before, but here in our text, our Lord cleansed all
10 of these lepers. It didn't just happen by magic
as they were going, you know, on their way. He healed them. But he only said this to one
of them, thy faith hath made thee whole. Just one. The Lord gave healing virtue
unto 10 men that day, but he only gave saving virtue to one
of them. And he is, of course, that saving
virtue he gives himself. And one of them, verse 15, when
he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified
God. All of them knew that they were
healed. You can't be healed of leprosy and not know it. One
minute you're rotting from the inside out and the next minute
you're not. They all knew that they were
healed. But to one of them, that meant one thing. It caused him to have one desire,
one goal, one object that the others didn't have. The one who healed him. The nine
saw that they were healed in the sense that now I can go back
home. Now I can get my old job back maybe. Or get one like it
or one better. We can be part of society now.
And you know, just a little bonus here, I'm not disgusting anymore.
I don't make myself and everybody else sick when they look at me.
That's what they, we're healed. That's kind of a big deal. I'm
not contagious anymore. I'm not going to be the death
of those that I love if I go near them. That's a big deal. But one saw that he was healed
in this sense. He healed me. That's a whole
other outlook in it. Somebody healed me and I know
who it was. I got a pretty good idea who
it was. That's a whole different outlook in it. I'm healed. I'm healed. Look what he did. He saw healing as something somebody
did for him. And he was thankful. He saw how that he was healed,
by whom he was healed. And now there's a difference.
Now we see a difference between the one and the nine. And do you know what made the
difference? Our Lord says it plainly as day
in the text, doesn't he? Your faith. Your faith. But wait a minute. If faith is the cause of salvation,
what's the cause of faith? If faith is the reason for healing,
what's the reason for faith? How come I believe and others
don't? Christ is the first cause of everything. Much less salvation,
much more salvation. He's the first cause of everything.
Your faith has saved you. Who gave you that faith? Christ,
the Savior. whose name means I'm gonna save
all my people from their sin. How does he does it? By giving
faith. By graciously giving faith to
some sinners. Faith, by the way, that looks
to him, comes to him, praises him, worships him, which is what
we see. We see the faith in our Lord's
words, don't we? But we also see it in this man's
actions. Because faith works. Faith without
works is your faith. Faith that works is His faith
that He gave you. Faith was the difference. The
Lord was good to all those leopards, wouldn't you say? But He gave one of them faith
in Him. And faith in Christ is saving faith. Faith was the difference, and
notice what faith did. What does a sinner with faith
do? Verse 15, and one of them, when
he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified
God. Now he's glorifying God with
his voice, but he's also glorifying God with his whole person. How
do you glorify God? Somebody I think at the conference
preached on presenting your whole body a living sacrifice unto
God which just makes sense You know how you do that And
fell down on his face at his feet whose feet God's feet Who
was he glorified? He fell down on his face at God's
feet and giving him thanks. God-giving, God-given saving
faith will always bring you to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's very simple. You want to
know who has faith? Who is it that sits at his feet
hearing his word? You remember Martha and Mary?
Mary hath chosen that good part. Where are you, Mary? I'm sitting
at the feet of the master, hearing what he has to say. She got faith. Christ gave her faith in him. And that'll never be taken away.
When Job lost everything else, he still said, I know that my
Redeemer liveth. That's what faith says. Acknowledging the Lord Jesus
Christ as God, thanking him for his saving mercy. That's his
faith now. Remember Thomas. And when he wasn't with the others,
the Lord met with them and they said, we've seen the Lord. And
Thomas said, I will not believe. Believing is faith. And then
the Lord met with him when Thomas was there. And the Lord said
to Thomas, be not faithless, but believing. The one who said,
let there be light, and there was light, said to a man, be
not faithless, but believing. And you know the next thing that
happened? Thomas fell at his feet and said, my Lord and my
God. That's what this leopard did.
He fell at the feet of God. And said, thank you, thank you
for saving a wretch like me. Both of the thieves that were
crucified with our Lord were railing on Him for a while, according
to Scripture. And then one of them, it says,
gave Him glory and just wanted to be remembered by Him. What
changed? What changed? For a while, they're
both railing on the Lord and mocking Him and making fun of
Him and cursing Him. And then one of them, you remember
what he said? You remember what signifies the
change that was made in his heart? He said to the other thief, don't
you fear God? There's our text again. Give
glory to God. Who's that? There He is right
there. Don't you fear Him? We're getting what we deserve,
but this man hath done nothing amiss. Don't you fear God. He believed
him when everyone else thought the Lord was getting what he
deserved. This thief believed him. Believed
him that he was who he said he was. And that he was doing what
he said he would do. Faith, what a gift. Thy faith
hath saved thee and the other nine their lack of faith That's
why they went on with their lives That's what mercy meant to them.
I just need to get on with my life. Thank you Lord Ephesians 2 8 for by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves? It is the
gift of God Not of works, lest any man should boast. Hebrews
4, 2, For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.
But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. You see the context of that?
The Lord gave us faith to hear His Word and believe on Christ,
who is the Word preached. He's the incarnate Word. He's
the preached Word. Paul said, we preach Christ.
And those that hear that by faith, enter into His realm. They rest
in Christ. They stop going about to establish
their own righteousness. and submit to the righteousness
of God in Christ. They rest in Him. They trust
Him. We which have believed do enter
into His rest. As He said, I have sworn in my wrath that they shall
enter into my rest. Although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Faith gives Him all the glory. Now there's a difference between
the one and the nine. What's the difference? One of
them's giving him the glory that he's glorifying God instead of
getting on with his life. Glorifying God is our lives.
Paul said in all that you do, do it for the glory of God. Faith gives Him all the glory.
He glorified God. And how has God glorified? Again,
He fell down at the feet of Christ and gave Him the praise, gave
Him the credit, gave Him the honor and the glory in saving
Him. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father. To honor God, you honor His Son.
Verse 17, and Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed,
but where are the nine? We know where they are, don't
they? They're back with their families. They're back at their
job. They're back doing what they always did. And many hear the word of God,
and they say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for all your blessings,
and thank you, you know, that you made me the man I am, gave
me all these things. And they get on with their lives. Where are the nine? There are
not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger. The nine did what they were told
to do, didn't they? They kept the law outwardly.
But what is the true meaning and rightful use of the law? God didn't give his law so that
you could obey it and God would be happy with you. God knows
better than, he knows you better than that. The law is for the
guilty. He gave his law, Paul says in
Romans chapter 3, that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world become guilty before God. What the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth might be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Not to make you righteous,
but to show you that you're not righteous. Why? So you'll look
to Christ for righteousness. Galatians 3.23, but before faith
came, before he gave us faith in his son, we were kept under
the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we
might be justified by faith. justified by looking to Him,
believing in Him, trusting Him, by Him being our righteousness
before God, by Him being our sin offering before God. But
after that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster.
I'm not under the law. I don't stand before God guilty
or innocent based upon His law. Thank God, because we're all
guilty. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But after that faith has come,
I'm not under schoolmaster, I'm under grace. Which is in Christ
Jesus. By faith. Justified by faith. In verse 19, he said unto him,
arise. Go thy way. Isn't that what the
nine did? They went their way. And we do too. We do too. But what's your way? It's the
way of faith. It's believing Christ. It's giving
glory to God. It's acknowledging Him as our
all and in all, just like this man did. Thy faith hath made
thee whole. Can faith save a sinner? Let's
ask that question and answer it one more time. Here's the
answer. Depends on where you got it from. Hebrews 12 to looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith. That word author means
that or he by which something comes to be. My faith in Christ came to be
by Him. He brought it to pass. He gave
it. He authored my faith and He finished my faith. And look,
it's not the Jesus of religion that we look to. It's the one
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and sat down. Why did He sit down? Because
it was done. Because it was finished. Because
he accomplished salvation for his people. He's not standing
up there begging sinners to come. He's sitting down. Just watching them come in. And
as they come, he stands up. He stood up for Stephen, didn't
he? I believe he does that. Sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God. Faith that he authors looks unto
him. Do you hear the language of that?
Looking unto Jesus, the author of our faith, looking to the
one who authored our ability to look. Remember that man in
John nine, do you believe on the son of God? This is a man
that the Lord had just opened the eyes of one that was born
blind. And he asked him this question,
do you believe on the Son of God? And he said, who is he,
Lord, that I might believe on him? And the Lord said, thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that speaketh with thee. You're
looking at the one who gave you eyes. That's what Paul's saying
there in Hebrew, looking unto Jesus, the author of my ability
to look in the first place, my faith, and the finisher of it,
if he lets me go for one second. I'll follow. He got to give it. He got to uphold it. He got to
increase it. He got to finish it. He's got
to keep me looking to him. Faith, God-given, saving faith
looks to Christ, only to Christ, always to Christ, the one who
gave it. Faith is believing. Faith is believe in Christ. Believe
in God. It's not just believe in there
is a God. The devil believes that there is a God. It's not
believe in the existence. It's believe in God. It's when
God says something, you say, truth Lord. Not just with your
mouth, but with your heart. Truth. Concerning myself and
my sin, That's not a popular thing that people just kind of
came up with, you know, that we're by nature completely wretched
and vile and incapable of doing anything about it. The reason
some people believe that is because God said it and gave them faith
to believe it. Nobody else believes that. It's
evident that they don't. It's concerning who He is. He's
God. If He wants to save somebody,
He'll save them. That's what it means to be God. David said,
our God's in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases.
That's who God is. He saves who He wants to save,
and He damns who He wants to damn. It's believing on Christ. It's
believing God concerning His Son, who is the righteousness
of God, wherein we can stand before God a sinner, but standing
in Christ, holy and accepted before God. It's believing on
Christ, the sinner's substitute, that when He shed His precious
blood, He was making atonement for His people. He was saving
his sheep, he was redeeming his elect on Calvary and all of them
are redeemed because he redeemed them. It's believing him as my righteousness
and my sin offering. So what did this man believe?
If he had faith, the other nine didn't, he had faith. What did
he do? He believed Christ. He knew that
Christ had saved him. Where do you see that in the
text? Thank you, Lord. Thank you. For what? For saving
me.