So may the Lord be gracious to
us now for a little while as we turn to his word and meditate
upon it. And there's a similar theme really
to that which was sung in that hymn and in the 17th chapter
of the Gospel of Luke. And we'll read verse 13. The
17th chapter of the Gospel of Luke and reading verse 13. And they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us. Well, this was spoken by ten
lepers. The truth is that every true
believer comes into a position like this and cries out from
their heart in prayer, to the Lord, Jesus, Master, have mercy
on us, because every one of us needs the mercy of the Lord,
and how wonderful it is when God graciously comes and grants
us His mercy and His favour. We read together this chapter
and we're told that Jesus he went up to Jerusalem that he
passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee and as he entered
into a certain village it's not named it's not important but
a certain village they met him ten men that were lepers which
stood afar off of course the law of the land demanded the
lepers didn't come into close contact with the people because
of the contagious disease of leprosy. And in one sense, we
have a situation today where people are not to come into contact
with one another because of the probable contagion of this virus,
which is going around. But the present virus, of course,
is not really anything like a serious as these ten men possessed. They possessed this illness of
leprosy. Leprosy was a very feared illness
in these days in which we read. There is still leprosy in the
land to a small degree here and there but not very much. But
it was a very terrible illness and generally speaking there
was no cure for it. And it often started off in quite
a very modest way, and it spread throughout the body, throughout
the head, into every part, and often parts of the body rotted
and fell off. It was the most terrible disease. And we can imagine here were
these ten lepers, And they were keeping their distance from the
Lord. And they had a great need. They had a great need. They were
ill. They were likely to die very soon. And therefore, they
cried to Jesus. And they cried out aloud. They
lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us. Well, we must believe therefore
that all of them had a measure of faith to believe that the
Lord would come and heal them. And of course they didn't know
how that was going to take place. It's important to realise the
position which occurred and how Jesus spoke. Because when he
saw them, he said unto them, Go, show yourselves unto the
priests. He didn't come and touch them. He only spoke these very, very
simple words, Go, show yourselves unto the priests. And they didn't
demur, they didn't disagree, they didn't expect something
far greater. You may remember in the case
of Naaman the Syrian, when he had leprosy and he came to the
Prophet and he expected the Prophet to come out of his house and
to do some great act to cure him. Instead of that, the Prophet
sent his servant to tell him to go and dip in Jordan seven
times. Well, he wasn't very happy with
that at all. He was very upset. He thought surely he was an important
person and he would receive some important treatment. But as you
may probably remember, his servants convinced him to do what the
Prophet had said. They told him if the Prophet
had told you to do some great thing, you would have done it
and therefore do this simple thing. And of course he did follow
the advice of his servants. He did obey the words of the
Prophet. He went down into Jordan and was addicted those seven
times and was cured of his leprosy. Well this was a very different
situation. as we read off here but these
men and they didn't argue they didn't expect something great
or different they just very simply would see turn around and went
towards the priests and because the Lord has said show yourselves
unto the priests and it came to pass that as they went they
were cleansed you see God had worked God had worked wonderfully,
God had worked very simply. Now the good news is our God
reigns today and our God is the same God that cleansed these
lepers all those years ago. We have of course many accounts
of leprosy in the Word of God and the significance of it is
that leprosy is really a representation of sin. leprosy was to be observed
sin is not so observable because is that which is within us and
is that which is in our heart now then leprosy you see took
hold of the person and became worse and worse until it consumed
the person and that's the same really with mankind. We're all sinners. We're born
with sin. Sin may not seem to be very great,
but you see sin increases. The burden and the weight of
sin increases. We may not always appreciate
it. Most people ignore it. Most people don't realize. But
day after day, hour after hour, moment by moment more sin occurs
and for the majority of mankind that increases until the time
when the Lord calls them from this earth and they enter into
that eternal state of hell and the reason is because of sin
it is because they possess that condition of sin And heaven is
a holy place, there's no sin in heaven, and therefore anyone
who is unforgiven, anyone who still possesses sin, will never
enter into that holy and glorious place. And so how important it
is for us to realize today the contagion of sin, the enormity
of it, and the great need we have to come in a spiritual way,
just like these lepers did, and to come and cry out, Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. We need all of us mercy. and
that mercy can only come through the Lord Jesus Christ now these
lepers they went and it came to pass that as they went they
were cleansed the Lord had cleansed them and there was this one of
those ten lepers only one and one of them when he saw that
he was healed turned back and with a loud voice glorify God. That's a wonderful example for
us today. not in the position of having
leprosy taken from us. It may be sometimes that we do
have illnesses and positions in our lives and we pray unto
God for mercy and He does come and He does heal and He does
cleanse and He does relieve and we should thank God for that
and we should praise God for that just like this man did here
with a loud voice glorified God you know for the most part we're
very backward in praising our God We expect God to do great
things. And when God does great things,
we often tend to move on without really acknowledging that God
has done it. And here this man, and it's worth
noting, you see, with a loud voice, he glorified God. He didn't just think about it
himself and just made a mental note. No, he did far more than
that. Some people seem to think they
can get away with just making a mental note. Well, you see,
this is the blessing for the honour and glory of God to testify. And here was this man, healed
of his leprosy. What a relief. What a blessing.
And therefore he came with this loud voice and glorified God. What a mercy today. If you and
I are cleansed of our sin, forgiven of our sin if we come to God.
In all our illness and all our filthiness, you know, leprosy
was a very disgusting disease really. It really ate into the
body and it became foul. Well, so does sin. Sin eats into
our soul and becomes foul and we need to be cleansed. as his
leper was cleansed. And if God has come and revealed
to us that he has cleansed us, and how has he cleansed us? He's
only cleansed us through the sin-atoning death of himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if the Lord in his great
mercy has revealed himself unto us, as that great redeemer who
has atoned for our sin. Surely that is great cause for
us to come and glorify his name with a loud voice. You see this
man, this man and he was a samaritan the others were jews he was a
stranger the lord was a jew we would have thought that all the
jews would have automatically turned back but no there was
just this one man this man this samaritan and we're told he fell
down on his face at his feet at the feet of the saviour giving
him thanks and he was a Samaritan. So not only had he glorified
God with a loud voice, he also fell down on his face at the
feet of the Saviour and thanked him, gave thanks for what he'd
done. It is important, isn't it, for
us today to give thanks to God for his mercy. And if he's looked
upon us and caused us to have that good hope that through his
grace our sins are washed away, our sins are forgiven, have we
not great cause to thank our God because it is an eternal
blessing. Naturally, these lepers were
cleansed in their bodies. It was a great blessing. But
those who are cleansed and healed in their souls, it is a greater
blessing, because it is an eternal blessing. And it's something
which we will never lose, because if God has done it, it's done
forever. What a wonderful blessing it
is then to have the evidence of this wonderful favor in our
hearts, in our souls. You see, Jesus turned to this
Samaritan and he said, were there not ten cleansed? Where are the
nine? They are not found. They return
to give glory to God, save this stranger. Well, my friends, there
has not been amongst the nine, let us be amongst the one that
turned to give glory to God and to thank him for his wonderful
mercy and for his wonderful favour in redeeming our souls and that
will only come about if we've been brought to this position
as he was to cry out to our God, Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us. It's a real condition, it's a
real situation, and it's a wonderful favour and evidence of the love
of Christ toward us, causing us to cry unto him, causing us
to seek his mercy. causing us to pray that we might
indeed be blessed. And so this one man, this Samaritan,
he came back and he gave thanks. Jesus said to him, and this is
very wonderful, there he was on the ground, on his face as
it were, before Jesus, bowing down to his great and glorious
Saviour. He couldn't get low enough, could
he? He was right there down on the ground, on his face. And
what did the Lord say? said arise go thy way thy faith
hath made thee whole well we can believe surely on this account
The Lord spoke these words very specifically and very definitely
that he'd already been cleansed in his body, but now the Lord
was graciously cleansing his soul. Thy faith hath made thee
whole. Blessed with living faith to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the day and age in which
we live, we need the same blessed faith to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nowhere else, nowhere else is
there only one glorious saviour and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so may we be blessed with
this faith. It is a gift. It's not something
that you and I can possess naturally. It's something which God comes
and wonderfully gives. And what a mercy it is. And what
a blessing it is that he gives it so that you and I can't claim
our own energy has produced it. We can't claim that our own works
have produced it. required it or earned it. No, it's really only through
the wonderful favour and grace of God. And that's why the Apostle
Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians in the second chapter, in the
eighth verse, I hope it's well known to you all, Because it
tells us this, for by grace are you saved, through faith, God-given
faith. God-given grace, God-given faith.
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What a blessed
gift. What a glorious gift. May we
all possess this gift. No doubt we are often happy and
pleased when we receive gifts, but this is the great gift. The
gift really of eternal life. It's the gift that God gives,
this gift of faith. And it's not of ourselves, not
of works, lest any man should boast. And he goes on to say,
for we are his workmanship. And this is one of the very clear
evidences of God's work in the soul, giving us faith to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and to come and to call upon his
name and to seek that he would indeed look upon us and have
mercy upon us. And what a wonderful word this
was. Arise, go thy way. Thy faith has made thee whole. He went knowing that God had
blessed him. He went knowing that the Lord
was with him. And he had the wonderful evidence
of that. Well may you and I today, in
the day and age in which we live, in an evil world, realize that
we come and we worship the same great and blessed almighty God. Now in these days, the days of
leprosy, when it was very rampant, and of course it was spoken about
a lot in the Old Testament, and there was a law for leprosy,
and we can read about that in Leviticus, Leviticus 14. It tells
us something about that. And it was spoken to Moses, the
Lord spoke to Moses, and this is the first verse, and the second
verse, and this shall be the law of the leper in the day of
his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the
priest. You see, the law, Jesus spoke to these lepers, that they
should go to the priest. The law was following. The ceremonial
law. He didn't depart from it. He
was still on the earth and he hadn't yet been crucified or
ascended to his father. And therefore he wasn't dispensing
with the law. And the Lord Jesus had told therefore
these lepers to go to the priest. Second verse, he shall be brought
unto the priest and the priest shall go forth out of the camp
and the priest shall look And behold, if a plague of leprosy
be healed in a leper, then shall the priest command to take for
him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedarwood
and scarlet and hyssop. And the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running
water. Now we have here in this account
really, a wonderful picture of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there would have been many
lepers in the history of the world, and especially in these
days of Moses and those that followed. And this ceremony would
have been carried out many, many times. And it directed them really
to the great and glorious Saviour, How many had eyes to observe
it, we know not. But it's good that if you and
I have eyes to observe, in some measure, what it means. There
is no doubt a great depth in these words, far beyond what
you and I may appreciate. But nonetheless, we are told
this, that to take two birds alive and clean, that means as
perfect as possible. and the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running
water. So one of the birds was to be
killed and the blood was to be shed and you will note that it
was to be done in an earthen vessel. It wasn't to be done
in the open. And the significance of this
is, I'm sure, that the blood was not to be spilt. It was not
to be wasted. It was to be contained in this
earthen vessel. And surely it represents this
one bird that was to be killed, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. as he was crucified upon that
cross at Calvary, and he did not shed any blood in vain. Oh, it was precious blood. It
was most valuable blood. It was shed to redeem his people,
and not one of his people should be lost. No, there was blood
sufficient to cleanse all the Church of God. and how wonderful
it is to think of that. So there we have this emblem
of this bird taken, killed, the bloodshed in this earthen vessel. And then the priest tells us,
as for the living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood and
the scarlet and the hyssop and shall dip them and the living
bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running
water. Well, we know, of course, that
cedar wood is a very long-lasting wood. It really gives us the
view of an eternal position. And the scarlet again signifies
the shed blood and the hyssop. And then we're told that she'll
dip them and the living bird in the blood. So we have this
living bird then dipped like this. And what happened then? Did the living bird die? No, the living bird was then
set free, was able to fly up, up to the heavens, but not without
the emblem of blood upon it. My friends, our blessed Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has entered into glory, has entered into
the holy place, not without blood. That, of course, is the blood
of himself, that all cleansing blood. Oh, what a wonderful truth
it is. So when we think of the leprosy,
which was so terrible, and as we think of sin, much more terrible,
And then we think of the picture given to the cleansed leper of
these two birds, signifying and setting forth the death and the
resurrection of the Saviour and the wonderful shed blood. And
then to ponder these things in reference to ourselves. Because
the Word of God tells us so very clearly, without shedding of
blood, there's no remission. Our sins will never be cleansed,
we will never be healed, our sins will always remain, unless
they are washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we have therefore these
accounts recorded in the Word of God. They're very interesting,
naturally, to realise what the Lord did when he was upon the
earth and the power that occurred. You see, all he did was to instruct
these ten lepers to go to the priest. The Lord worked. The power of the Holy Spirit
came upon them and cleansed them. Something which naturally would
have been impossible. You see, there is power with
the Word of God. And there is still power today
with the Word of God. Because where that Word is, there
is power. And where the Lord speaks to
our hearts, there is power. And it has a gracious and glorious
effect upon us. And it's a great mercy if you
and I have had a taste of the power, the cleansing power of
the Word of God speaking into our very hearts. You know, lepers,
you see, in those days when they possessed this terrible illness,
what did they have to do? They had to go about crying out,
unclean, unclean. unclean so that everybody would
know they had this terrible disease well until the lord cleanses
us we're unclean we're unclean how terrible it is if you and
i remain unclean if we remain with no cleansing we pass through
life like that well may such accounts as this come and touch
our hearts and direct us for the great need there is to possess
the wonderful evidence that we are under the blood. It is the most precious theme,
it is the most important theme and what a mercy if you and I
by faith are directed to the cross at Calvary, there to view
the suffering Saviour dying on our behalf and shedding his most
precious blood to atone for our sins. They often said there was
only safety under the blood. There is only safety under the
blood for us today. But if we are under the blood,
our eternal state is secure because Christ has died and rather is
risen again. And so tonight may we have great
cause to praise God that we have such a very simple account as
this. Just a few verses in this account,
in the 17th chapter, but very significant. There are of course
other accounts with regard to lepers, and it's good to read
them, and it's good to be encouraged by them. But may we be encouraged
tonight as we may have come And the Lord knows how we are. He
knows how we stand before God. And He's the only one. You and
I don't know what another one is like in their heart, but God
knows. And what a mercy if we've been
in this position and we cried out, Jesus, Master, have mercy
mercy upon me it says it mercy upon us of course but it becomes
very personal mercy on me and we've heard the Lord said go
and show thyself unto the priest Well, we have to come and confess
our sins, don't we? That's really showing ourselves.
Confessing our sins, not hiding, confessing our sins. And we're
thankful there is that great word. If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness this is the word of god oh then may
the lord give us faith to lay hold of such great and glorious
truths so even tonight we may go on our way rejoicing in the
great and glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
and be thankful to know that still, in the day and age in
which we live, there is forgiveness. There is salvation to be found
in the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Well, may God bless us and help
us to think upon these things.