Turn with me to Luke 17. Luke 17. Today we're going to look at the healing of the 10 lepers by the Lord Jesus Christ, and this was no doubt an extraordinary miracle, a wonderful act of Almighty God to heal these men. And if you're familiar with this account, as many of us are, you'll remember that all 10 were healed, but only one returned and glorified the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so what is our Lord teaching us by nine of these lepers going on to show themselves to the priest, as Christ told them to do, while only one, One of the 10 returned to Christ and glorified Him. Well, I'll say it briefly here. For one thing, it does teach us the purpose of the law and the giving of the law. And the second thing that we'll see is that the healing of the one shows us the glory, the exceeding glory of Christ over. the law. The law had a glory, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, how much more glorious is Christ. by which the veil of the heart is removed in grace. And then we also see a real life example of what a whole salvation looks like. In that one returning, we see a picture not just of a healing in the flesh, but a whole salvation given to this one man in distinguishing grace. as opposed to a picture of what we see in just carnal religion. There's a picture there that we'll see.

Now, I titled this message, Healed or Whole? Healed or Whole? And so the question is, are we content with a mere cleansing of the flesh? Is that all that we're looking for in religion? Just some religion to clean up and make pretty the outside of the flesh? Or do we need a greater salvation, a whole, complete salvation which only God can do? And so that's what we're looking at here today.

So beginning in verse 11, we're told that it came to pass as Christ went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And so this would be our Lord's final journey to Jerusalem where he would accomplish that work which the Father sent him to do. Our Savior came into the world robed in flesh like unto his brethren to accomplish redemption, to purchase his brethren that were sold into slavery with his own precious blood. He redeemed us. He purchased us and brought us out of death into life in and by himself. And he willingly did this. He looked forward to doing this. In Isaiah 50, it actually records something of what our Lord was thinking, the joy with which he went. And it says in Isaiah 50, verse five through seven, he says, the Lord hath opened mine ear. The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. Our Lord knew exactly why he was here, why the Father sent him, and he knew what he would accomplish for his people.

He says there in verse six, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. These are all things which were done to him when he was betrayed, on the night in which he was betrayed and turned over to the high priest and they turned him over to the Gentiles, the Pilate and the Gentiles, those were things done to him in that betrayal and condemning to death via crucifixion. And then he says, the Lord God will help me. Therefore, I shall not be confounded. I'm not confused about this. Therefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Our Lord was now, with his face set like a flint, going to Jerusalem. He's going to Jerusalem. He knows I'm not going to be ashamed, I'm not going to be left in the grave to rot and corrupt like the way of all flesh, but I shall be raised from the dead by the almighty power of God and I shall have accomplished that work which the Father sent me to do.

And so knowing that he must go to Jerusalem now, we're told that he passed through Samaria, and Galilee. And verse 12 says, he entered into a certain village, which is a word often used to signify or denote the purpose of God, the gracious purpose of God, very often signaling the gracious intent and purpose of God for someone. And there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And verse 16 tells us that one of them was a Samaritan. One of them was a Samaritan.

Now, to begin, there's two things that we can draw from this. And the first one, I'll say, is not the main lesson. That's not the main lesson of what this is teaching us, but it is worthy of our notice. It is worthy for us to take note. It's that the only reason, like why is it that a Samaritan is joined together with these Jews. What's going on here? Well, the only reason why this Samaritan was with these Jews and these Jews was with this Samaritan is because they were all lepers. Every one of them was a leper. Otherwise, in their mutual pride and hatred for one another, they'd have nothing to do with one another. They wouldn't be together in a body like this. They wouldn't be able to get along.

If you remember in John 4, when Christ went to the woman at the well and asked her for a drink, she said, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest a drink of me, seeing as I am a Samaritan? And then we're told, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. They wouldn't be together. And so the point here is that there's only one reason why that body was together. All were lepers. All were lepers. And that's what we see where there's peace and harmony in a body of believers. All are sinners saved by grace. None are better than the other. We all know what we are. We're all sinners in this flesh. saved by his grace. And what we are is given to us and done in us by the giving, the grace, and the spirit of God. And that's why we assemble together and can dwell with one another, because no one's better than the other one.

There was no un-leprous fellas hanging out with these guys. If you weren't a leper, you didn't spend any time with these people. You don't want to be around them, right? They're all lepers. Disgusting. I don't want to be around you guys. And so we didn't see that there. And so it is with believers. Believers who are sinner-saved dwell with one another. And if you're not still a sinner-saved, you want no part of being with the body of Christ. You don't want to be with them. They're lepers. They're disgusting to you.

And then the second thing is that it shows us that our Lord is indeed the Savior of all men. All men, meaning all kinds of men, not every man. In Adam all die, in Christ, all in Christ shall be made alive. And so there's Jews and Gentiles. There's rich and poor. There's educated and uneducated. There's those that are slaves and those that are free. There's men and women. Christ is the Savior of all. There's not one Savior on this part of the world and another Savior for those of the other part of the world. There is one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. If you are saved, if you are received of God, it is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He's the Savior. He is the Savior. All others are idle, false, lying gods.

Now, these lepers stood far off, and that's because the disease of leprosy that these men had was a spreading disease. It was infectious. You could get sick being near or touching these guys. You would get sick with that same filthy, vile, repulsive disease that these guys had.

Now, I can't say from this account what type of leprosy they had. We know today they speak of leprosy. I was looking at a Vines Bible dictionary and it said it was psoriasis. That scaly, hard skin there that people get there. But we know that in these times there was a much, much, much more severe form of leprosy that rotted out the cartilage of your nose, your ears, that they would sink and fall off. People would lose fingers, arms, toes. feet. It was really a corrupting disease, and according to the scriptures, it was repulsive.

I know people, we probably all know people that have lost even just as much as a finger, and how that hurts I mean, if you lose something through an accident, you beat yourself up over that. Like, it bothers you. Just the thought of, I can't believe I did that and now I don't have this finger, it bothers you. Could you imagine having a disease that's just dropping things off of you as you go? Like, it would really, really just destroy you with them and without.

And so once you had this disease, when you were diagnosed with it, you were unclean. You had to leave the city. Get out. You can't stay here anymore. You've got to go. Where am I going to go? I don't care. You've got to go. And there might be a colony somewhere that you could go join up with others like you. And that's how horrifying this disease is to the body. It not only destroyed you, but it was infectious, and you could destroy others. You could destroy others with that same thing.

Now, leprosy gives us an illustration of sin. It is an illustration of sin because of the corruption, the rotting, the devouring death that would fester and contaminate and destroy, just like sin. It destroys. And so sin is the cause of our separation from God. Your sins have separated you from God. Our sins have done that, and it's infected our whole nature, and there's only one who can heal it. God. God is the only one that could heal leprosy, and God is the only one that can heal our sin, can put away our sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Only God does it.

And so it was incurable. If you had leprosy, you did not go to a doctor. Isn't that amazing? If you had leprosy, you didn't go to a doctor. If you had leprosy, you went to the priest. You went to the priest. It was something that was assessed by the law. And that's another way in which it is like sin, an illustration of sin. You don't go to the doctor. They went to the law to be assessed, whether or not, is this leprosy? Yes or no. Is this sin? Yes or no. They went to the law there.

In fact, I'm going to read a few verses from Leviticus 13. I'm not reading all the chapters and every verse on leprosy here, but in Leviticus 13, verses two and three, just to give you a sense of this, it says, when a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest. And he has to go to a priest or unto one of his sons the priests. And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh, and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy, and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean." A doctor didn't say it, a priest said, you're unclean, you're unclean. And so just as leprosy is a disease that makes a person unclean, so it is with sin, right? And the law looks upon your deeds, your actions, right? And the law determines, is that sin or not? Is that sin or not? And if it's sin, if the law sees sin in you, it says you're unclean. You're unclean. You're a sinner.

And that tells us something about the nature and the use of the law, which we read of in Romans 3, 19 and 20. Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Unclean, unclean, we're all leprous with sin. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Because that's not why the law was given. By the knowledge, by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And so the priest by the law could assess, it could pronounce whether it's leprosy or not, whether it's sin or not. It can say it, it could say that's unjust, that's unrighteous, that's sin, that's iniquity, that's a trespass, that's a transgression, right? It could say all those things and the priest by the law could assess whether leprosy, whether it was leprosy or not, whether you're unclean or you're clear, you're clean, right? But the law gave no remedy for the leprosy. All the law could do is say, you're unclean, but it couldn't cure you. It couldn't fix you. It couldn't make it good or make it go away. Only God could heal the leprosy. Only God could heal the leprosy.

Well, so it is that the law makes no man righteous who's a sinner. What the law does is tell you that you are a sinner, but it cannot cure you. It cannot make you better. By practicing the law and picking it up doesn't cure what already is. You're already a filthy sinner, condemned to die in your sin. Only God can make the sinner righteous. Only God can make the sinner righteous, in which he did that by the precious blood of the Lamb.

I should mention that when God healed a leper, if God healed a leper, there was a ceremonial cleansing under the law. The healing had already taken place, and there was a ceremonial cleansing by the law that took place after the leprosy was gone, and it was done so using two birds. Two birds, right? And there's, I'm just gonna say a few things on it, and you'll see there's some typology in those two birds. There's some typology there.

And so we're told in Leviticus 14, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, right? If it's healed, right? It says it right there in verse three. Verse two says, he shall be brought unto the priest. You go back to the priest. If it's healed, if God has healed it, you go back to the priest, and it says in Leviticus 14, 4 and 5, 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." And then a little further down it talks about the cleansing of that man's house, what was to occur with the cleansing of that man's house. And it says that the priest would take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet and the living bird, this is down in verse 51, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet. But he shall let go the living bird out of the city, into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.

And so in these things we see some pictures of Christ. We see pictures of our Lord who, the Son of God, came to this world in an earthen vessel, in a body like unto us, and He was slain. He was put to death in that body and shed His blood, gave His life on a wooden cross, and shed his blood to purge us of our sins. When they pierced his side, out flowed water and blood. And he purged us of our sins. And that living bird was dipped in that blood of the slain bird and set free. set free. And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. We see that picture there of what he's done to set us free, to deliver us by the death of Christ.

Surely, Isaiah says, he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken. smitten of God, and afflicted. But he died for us. He died for the sins of his people. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." We're healed by him. That death that he gave delivered us and set us free.

Now, since God alone is able to heal the leper, these men came to the right place. They came to the right place. They lifted up their voices, verse 3, and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. All who ask him for mercy shall receive mercy, just as these lepers asked, and they were healed. They were healed. 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. Now he sent them to the priest, but he healed them in the way. And he healed them in the way so that by going to the priest, they would receive the ceremonial cleansing that was prescribed under the law. Christ sent them away, and as they went, they were cleansed, showing to us the power of God. And that he is God. He didn't even touch them.

There was another one, I think it's in Matthew 8, that he healed a leper, but he touched him, which is also a beautiful picture, that he would even draw near to us. I wouldn't touch a leper, I'd be scared to. But he did. And he removed that disease from them. And he didn't even rebuke the disease. No rebuke, he just said, just go. And show yourselves to the priest. And in there they went, and they were healed. They were healed there. That's the power of God to do that. Only he could do that. He is God. He is God. No one but God can heal the leper.

Now, here's where I believe the Lord is leading his sheep. He's leading us to see the wholeness, the completion of salvation which sinners need, which lepers need, the wholeness of our salvation. Look at verse 15 and 16. 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."

Now, we should be asking, Why did this man turn back instead of going on to the priest? Why didn't he go to the priest for the ceremonial cleansing of the law? And why did the other nine not return to Christ and glorify God? Why did this one man turn back and the others not turn back? And why was Christ pleased with this man who did turn back and he commended him? Why? Didn't he tell them to go to the priest? And this man returned to Christ rather than the law. He turned back to Christ rather than the law.

I think the Lord's showing us something here. He's showing us something very, very important. Verse 17, Christ answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? I healed all 10 of you. Where are the other nine? There's something about the heart being revealed here. They are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger, right? And what he's saying there is those who went on to the priest, right, back to the law for their cleansing, after Christ healed them, after Christ healed them, they went on to the law. right, showing their heart. They went back to the law and were not giving glory to God, but the stranger who returned to Christ was giving glory to God, because Christ, that's exactly what he said. None returned to give glory to God.

In other words, we're just going to go on doing what the law says, and that's going to be our righteousness. That's going to be our righteousness, even though he's the one who heals all, who can do all things, yet we're going to go to the law for our righteousness. But this stranger was moved. He was healed. He had a healing greater than the flesh, a healing in the heart. And so it's a picture of the distinguishing grace of God. to do this work in those whom he will, even taking a stranger, an ignorant person who knows nothing of God, and plucking them out of death, and all were physically healed of the leprosy. Every one of them was physically healed, and having received, though, what they wanted, they got what they were looking for, a cleaning up on the outside, and they were content with that.

They were fine with that kind of religion, and so they went back to their ceremonial show under the law, and they went back to the types, the pictures, and the shadows under the law, even though they had the substance, the fulfillment of all those things standing right there before them. They went back to the shadows and types instead of the substance of things of the Lord himself right there. And we're told in Hebrews 10.1, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. And so that ceremonial cleansing was but a shadow. And nine of them were perfectly content in that. They were happy with that shadow. They didn't care for the substance. of whom that shadow was picturing and spoke of.

And how many in religion today are just like these nine lepers that were healed? We're content with just cleaning up, just go get a little religion and clean up the outside, make it look pretty, make it look nice and presentable and be received by this world. And we think that from that experience, because we've done some fixing and got some things straightened out, that that is salvation, that that is life. And because they do things differently now and look at doing it, they're content with it, but they're not glorying in Christ. Only Christ is the one who heals and gives a whole, complete salvation, but instead men go back to the law and the application of the law and think, this is my righteousness. This is my righteousness now. And so what we're seeing here from this healing, what the Lord did here, is that an outward conformity to religion, it can clean things up, it can make things look good on the outside, and you can have a lot of people impressed with how things have changed, but that's not the whole, complete salvation of Christ. That is not the new birth. We need a new birth. We need a whole salvation. We need something that goes deeper than the flesh. We need something to clean, purge that deep, deep stain that goes all the way to the root of what we are by nature.

And so for those for whom Christ is all, those for whom our Lord has died, he makes them whole, not just by cleaning up the outside, But he gives us a new heart, a new birth, whereby we glory in him. We glory in him. This Samaritan was less than these Jews, and yet he had more than they did. He had all. He had everything. He had the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, yeah, we can put on a show. We can be hypocritical people, but when the Lord makes you to know the plague of our own heart and that nothing can purge this heart, nothing can remove that deep that stain of sin, which is immovable and can't be removed by anything I do, the blood of Christ is able. And that one whom the Lord reveals that, Christ, they love him. And Christ becomes all. And we worship and glory God in worshiping and glorying in Christ. We're saying, Father, you did wonderful in sending your son. You did the one thing that could save us because if you put it on me, I'd have died and gone to hell. If you put anything on me, Lord, I would have been done for. I would have fallen apart like the leper and gone to an eternity in hell, but because you put it all on your son, Lord, There's hope, there's forgiveness, there's life, there's peace with God. You've done everything, Lord. And so we're rejoicing in the Father who spoke the truth to us.

And so, you know, it speaks of what our Lord did in Hebrews 7. In Hebrews 7, verse 14 through 16, we're told that it's evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priesthood. I know in that chapter it also says that there must also be a changing of the priesthood. I remember saying there, it must be a changing, and it has changed. Christ is our priest. Christ is our high priest. We don't, like the law speaks nothing of Melchizedek, and Melchizedek speaks nothing of the law of Moses, right? Christ is our all, brethren. He's everything to us.

For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God, through Christ our priest." That's why we go to him. That's why we glory in him. That's why this man didn't go on to the priests. That law did nothing for him. It was unprofitable to him. But the one who is profitable to him is Christ. And that's why we go to Christ and rejoice in him, who is after the order of Melchizedek, having no beginning and no end. He's our all. He's everything that you and I need. And so that's where we find that peace, that whole salvation. Verse 19 says, And Christ said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And so that's a phrase that our Lord has used often in the Gospels. He used it for everyone whom he loves. And we know that our Lord, according to the sound doctrine, we know that our Lord is the one who accomplishes everything, all our salvation from beginning to end.

And in that life which he gives, he gives all spiritual blessings. are given unto us by our Savior. When He arose from the dead, He gave gifts unto men. He gave gifts to us whereby we know God, whereby we believe God, whereby we worship God in spirit and in truth.

And so, having wrought this salvation in us, He's also given this faith unto us. and having given it to us, it's our faith. He says it's your faith, your faith that's made you whole. That salvation which God has worked in your heart, whereby you believe God has done that. Rejoice in him, be glad in him. Rejoice in him and give him thanks and glorify him in worshiping him in spirit and in truth.

And so the main point here for this is, If you do not glory in Christ for all your salvation, if you're still looking to the law for righteousness, then you may be up here, you've been healed in some things which are profitable for this life only, but you're not whole. You're not whole before God. The outside might be clean. You might have fixed things up with religion, but you're not whole yet.

those who have been made whole by the Savior of sinners, He's given you a new heart, He's given you His Spirit, made you a partaker with the saints in light, having those spiritual gifts, and that faith given to you whereby by that faith you believe, you believe Him, and you know that you're His when Christ is all.

If Christ is in all, then you know I've not yet heard. But if Christ is all, if He's all your righteousness, all your salvation, all your sanctification, if that's how you go to God, Lord, receive me for Christ's sake. Please don't let me stick anything outside of Christ. Let me be found in Christ and His righteousness alone, Lord. Teach me and keep me right there in him.

He says, arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Not thy works, thy faith in Christ hath made thee whole. And thy way, or our way, is Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, he said. And so with Christ as our way, our faith does make us whole. It's a whole salvation, a whole salvation. Amen.