Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 17 and reading from
text verse 18. There are not found that return
to give glory to God save this stranger. And what is upon my
spirit is the returning to give glory to God. The context of our text is when
our Lord was pleased to heal ten lepers that came to Him. We read from verse 13, They,
those lepers, lifted up their voice 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. Ten healed. Ten received the answer to their
petition, as they cried, Master have mercy on us. But only one
returned to give glory to God. And what is joined to this is,
verse 16, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him
thanks. Giving thanks and giving glory
to God, they, in one sense, are the same thing. In another, it
is not, because we may give thanks, but in a special way, it is right
that we give glory and praise and honour unto the Lord. In front of our chapel here we
have the verse, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into
his courts with praise. Psalm 100 verse 4 and 5 we have
at the front of the chapel and it's a good thing. When we're
coming into the house of God, we're coming in with thanksgiving
and with praise. We are giving glory unto the
Lord. As could be expected in the book
of Psalms, there are many, many Psalms that speak of thanksgiving,
that speak of praise and glory to the Lord. Psalm 69, which
is a beautiful psalm foretelling the sufferings and death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In that psalm, we read in verse
30, I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify
him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord
better than an ox or bullet that hath horns or hooves and it is
really acceptable, a blessing to God where we come with thanksgiving
and praise. If we go further on to Psalm
95, we have in the second verse of that psalm, let us come before
his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalms. And of course, Psalm 100 that
we mentioned. And as you come to the last psalms,
they are psalms, all of them, of praise unto the Lord. Psalm 147, verse 7, sing unto
the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the heart. and
to our God. And in this it gives an instance,
who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for
the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, he giveth
to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. Now, how many of us, when we
look at the clouds, when we see the rain, When we see the grass
growing, when we see the beasts have their food and the ravens,
do we give praise? Do we give thanks? Or do we just
take it for granted? Because it is given so constantly
that we do not give glory to God for those things. Well, that
is not what the psalmist did. He gave praise. He gave thanks. and glory to God in that way. Paul writing to the Philippians,
be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving make known your requests unto God. If we are then to return to give
glory to God, I believe there is three things that are necessary
and I want to put them as our headings this evening. The first
is remembering. The second is returning. And the third is giving glory
unto God. The first one is remembering. what to remember. The first thing I'd mention is
prayer. When we have prayed for something,
when we have asked the Lord, when we have supplicated Him
for something, then we are to remember what we have prayed.
We are to remember, especially when that prayer is answered,
that this is something that we've asked for. Hannah was very clear
when she returned, and we read of her coming to Eli. For this
child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition that
I asked of him. very mindful of her prayer, very
mindful of where she was and who was observing her, and she
is then joining the thanksgiving and glory and praise unto prayer. Now God is a prayer giving, a
prayer hearing and answering God. And not only for the thing
that we receive, the benefit that we receive, gets himself
glory, but to the fact that it is that he has heard and that
he has answered those prayers. So that is the first thing, if
we are to give glory to God, we are to remember our prayers. and that we are to watch in the
same. We are exhorted of that in Paul's
epistle to the Colossians, that we don't just pray, but we watch. With the case of Elijah, when
already his prayer had been answered and the fire had come down from
heaven on Mount Carmel and the altar and the sacrifice had been
consumed, but their famine was still there, the rain was still
withheld. So then he goes, he looks towards
the sea and he prays, he puts his head between his knees, he
sends his servant though to look, to watch where the answer is
likely to come, the cloud is likely to arise from the sea
as the vapors are rising from the water. and seven times, go
again seven times. The servant says there's nothing. Then at last, he reports that
there is a little cloud like a man's hand arising out of the
sea. And immediately, Elijah knows
that that prayer is answered. He says to Ahab to get himself
down before the rain stop him. And very, very quickly, there
comes the heavens black with rain clouds and the rain coming. But there was a prayer and a
watching, watching and expecting for the answer. So we are to
remember, remember to pray, remember to watch in our prayers, Remember
what we have prayed and remember then that where an answer is,
there is to be returning thanksgiving and glory. Another thing to remember
is what we were or what we are. When we think of ourselves as
lost and ruined in the fall, when we think of ourselves dead
in trespasses and sins, and yet being quickened to be given life,
to even be brought to pray and to seek the face of the Lord. And there's to be a remembering
that we deserve nothing at all at the Lord's hands. David, when
He was told great things concerning his house to come. He says, Who
am I? And what is my house? Thou hast
brought me hither. Thou hast said these great things
and is greatly humbled. He is mindful of who he is. He's not coming before the Lord,
thinking that the Lord is a debtor to him and that he's only received
from the Lord. What was his due? No, he has
the expression of being unworthy. And so there's a remembering
of what we were, what we are. Then there is a remembering of
the state we were in before prayer was answered, when we were crying
unto the Lord. I often feel that Satan is very
careful to rob the Lord of His glory and praise. If we prayed
for something and then it's given, Satan will say, it would have
happened anyway, and causes us to forget what it was before
that prayer was answered. When we think of some of those
in the scripture, When we think of the woman with the issue of
blood, for 12 years she had tried to get rid of that, to be cleansed,
to be healed, and she could not. And then as she touches the hem
of her Lord's garment, then immediately she is healed. She would creep
away. She would try not to give glory
to God, but she had to return, she had to give glory. But she
had to be convinced of this too, that she couldn't change that,
she couldn't deliver herself. And in that situation, if we've
been given healing, to remember what it was when we were ill,
Remember what it was before prayer was answered. If we've lost something
years ago, when for many years I'd lost my passport and we did
not want to get another one, we wanted the Lord to be seen
to answer our prayers and the timing is wonderful when he showed
where that was and we found that passport. But it is easy to think,
well, why didn't we find it before? It was only in this place. And yet to think what it was,
and the impossibility of the situation before it was found,
and then it makes the thanksgiving and glory to be real. But very often, Satan will make
us think, well it's not such a great thing anyway. It's like
what is said in the Proverbs where there is a man going to
buy something and he says it's nought, it's nought. So he gets
it for a cheaper price and then he goes away and boasts. And
we can be like that, or Satan can be, when we have an answer
to prayer. He says, not, it's not, it's
nothing, would have happened anyway, just a natural thing,
it's not the Lord. And then we don't give the Lord
praise and he goes away, gleeful and happy that he's robbed the
Lord of his praise and glory. So we do well to, and I trust
I've done it many times, to think, but what if this prayer hadn't
have been answered? What if I was still in the position
praying? What if it was never answered?
What if I was in that situation? And then it makes the blessing
even more. When we turn the clock back,
we bring ourselves and imagine that it had not been answered. We need to do that. We need to
remember the trouble that we are in, the anguish, the need,
Our inability. We have to remember what God
has done. We read in that psalm of what
he has done and does in creation. But when we think of the gospels
and the accounts of his birth, especially of his death, his
sufferings, his resurrection, we are to remember what the Lord
has done, that this should be always a cause of glory and thanksgiving. The Lord has seen to it in the
ordinances of his house, in baptism, those that are the subject of
the new birth, those who have been dead and then raised again
to newness of life, they show forth that by being buried with
him by baptism into death and risen again in newness of life
they give glory to God through his own ordinance and his own
way and through obedience and then as often as the church gathers
around the Lord's table they also It is a service of remembrance. Our first point here, if there
is to be glory unto God, there must be remembrance. The Holy
Spirit is the remembrancer to bring to our remembrance what
He has said unto us, but the ordinance itself. This do in
remembrance of me. As oft as ye eat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death, till he come. You do show and give glory to
God what he hath accomplished at Calvary. This was spoken at
the Mount of Transfiguration when the disciples saw the Lord's
glory, heard what he was speaking with Moses and Elias of his decease,
which he should accomplish Calvary at Jerusalem and he has accomplished
it, he has done it. In the gospel we rehearse this,
we preach as Paul preached, Jesus Christ and him crucified and
we give him the honour and the glory as the only name given
among men whereby we must be saved. The remembering is a vital
thing and is very easy for us to Just forget. And how long? How long do we
give thanks? If we've been plucked as a bran
from the burning, if we've been given grace, if we've been put
amongst these children, do we just give thanks when that happens
or when we join the church? Or do we have that always in
mind? Like the hemrider says, why was
I made? to hear his voice and enter while
his room, while millions make a wretched choice, rather starve
than come. And he speaks of the sweet mercy
and grace of God that constrained us, pressed us in, that worked
in our hearts. We sung of it in our middle hymn,
76. That glory to God they ne'er
shall rove, beyond the limits of His love. There is an appointed
time when we can look back and we realise that the Lord has
blessed us with this. How often do we remember to give
glory and give thanks for what we are and what the Lord has
done for us. May we be helped then in this
first point of remembering. The second thing that is necessary
if we're to give glory to God is a returning. That is a stop. It's so easy to be like these
nine lepers, they were healed, and to go on and to enjoy their
health, their strength, their healing, to go on to the priest
and show themselves to the priest. Many times it might be the answer
to prayer. There is something that we're
doing, and it's easy, instead of returning to give thanks,
just to go on, enjoy what we've got, and forget, put off the
thanksgiving. But what about returning? What
does it mean? How do we return? What we said
of remembering is prayer. And where we have asked for something
in prayer, then we go back to prayer with thanksgiving. Prayer is the way that we ask.
Prayer is the way also that we do give glory to God and give
thanks. We read of that with Hannah in
1 Samuel 2, where she does give glory and honor to God. In that
praise to God, she's not mentioning Samuel, she has testified of
that to Eli, and that was a vital ingredient, that she did return
to Jerusalem, she did return even to the man that mistook
her first, thought she was drunken, did return to him, and she didn't
have to, You might say, yes, she did because of the honour
and glory of God, and Elkanah was very clear she could stay
and suckle the child and wean him, but that vow must be performed. Remember, the rule in Israel
was that as a husband, he had the right where his wife made
a vow, if he didn't agree with it, he could immediately disannul
it. But when he held his peace, he
sealed it, he strengthened that vow. And so he wanted to make
sure that she fulfilled that vow. And yet he knew about it,
she knew about it, but Eli didn't. Eli, he had said, the Lord grant
thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. He didn't know
what she'd asked. He didn't know the promise, the
vow that she'd made, but she returned back to him and that
she told him. And she made him aware of what
God had done in answer to her prayer and in what he had said. The Lord grant thee thy petition. She's coming back to him and
saying the Lord has granted me the petition. As you have said,
how strengthening we read that there he worshipped the Lord. And I believe that was dear Eli
in response to this. What a wonderful thing that this
woman comes back and in all the sorrows and the things that he
had concerning his son's wicked ways, this token for good, this
that God had heard his prayer and blessing upon Hannah, And
so she returns. And it was necessary for her
to give glory to God, not just in her house, but in a public
way, before the very man that had saw her in trouble, in anguish
and bitterness of spirit, that she go to him and go to that
place and return there. And this has an answer in many
ways. You know, we don't just come
back to prayer, we come back sometimes to places and to a
people, people that have seen us in distress, a people that
have seen us in trouble, and we come back to them, we return
to give glory to God. We return in worship. and there are many ways that
it is a proper place to come, to the house of God, to come
to brethren, to come to a church meeting, to come to a prayer
meeting, where public prayer may have been made for a particular
individual or something, and that then in that same In a public
way, glory and thanksgiving and praise is had to the Lord. Without the returning to those
places, there's not the same glory, there's not the same effect. The witnesses who witness the
trouble then can witness the praise, the deliverance, the
answer. And so may we be not like the
nine, but like the one here that returned. And we may ask ourselves,
have we some returning to do? Have we a people to go to and
to speak to them of what the Lord has done? and the answers
that he's given, and to give glory to God in their presence,
and to let them know what the Lord has done. There's this aspect,
this what is in our text, in which the Lord said, there are
not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger. who just go on headlong, keep
on going, and that they never have to stop, and they never
have to return, and return to the throne of grace, or return
to the house of God, or return to the people of God, return
to a place, and make it known what the Lord has done. Or may we have that aspect, in
our giving glory to God. Then of course the last point
is the giving glory to God. And it is giving, as we have
said, giving glory to God through our prayers, through what we
speak to those round about us, it is giving glory to God in
praise, unto his name. And when we are giving glory
to God, may we have a right attitude. The world, you know, they have
this attitude, well, and they speak in a very flippant way
of the Lord hearing or the Lord answering prayer. But wherever
it is real and sincere, the prayer has been and also the thanks,
remembering who we are and who God is. If we give glory to God,
we read that in his temple everyone does speak of his glory and God
is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints to be
had in reverence of all them that are about him. The Lord
deliver us from a worldly, flippant way of speaking of the Eternal
God and thinking to give glory to Him, but not treating Him
as He truly is to be feared, the Great, the Eternal, Merciful
God, God before whom we must all stand at last, the God-made
Heaven and Earth. our prayers and our giving glory,
not just in a word, but in our attitude, in how we convey to
others that we do fear the Lord, we do lift Him up upon a high
throne and speak great things of Him and view Him as the great
God. That gives glory to God. It doesn't
give glory to God if to those round about us see us in a light
flippant way treating the Lord as if He is less than He is. When we have those examples in
the scripture. We have the case here where our
text is. We have the case with Hannah
that we read in our reading, how she returned and how she
gave praise. And what is really, to me, remarkable
on her is that though it is very clear in what she says to Eli,
how the Lord has answered her prayer, for this child I pray. But then, as she comes before
the Lord, it is in prayer, the same way as she asked, but you
see where her heart is. My heart rejoiceth, not in Samuel,
not in the gift, that is being given, but the giver rejoiceth
in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord,
my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in
thy salvation. And look at this language, so
far from being a flippant language, there is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. She is speaking in the fear of
the Lord and exalting the Lord, lifting Him up on high. The gift that God had given led
her to God and led her to think high thoughts of God. That's the thing to really make
us to think, isn't it? When the Lord answers our prayers
and appears for us, does it make us think higher of God than we
did before? Does it put praise to the Lord,
to God and for Him, and to glorify Him, glorifying His name, lifting
Him up and extolling the Lord. That is what Hannah did. Then we think of the case of
Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat, godly king of Judah,
He had those of the children of Moab, Mount Seir, come against
him. You can read it in 2 Chronicles
chapter 20. And he comes before the Lord
and he stands and he prays and makes intercession to the Lord. He says in verse 12, O our God,
wilt thou not judge them We have no might against this great company
that cometh against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes
are upon thee. And then we read that the word
of the Lord came to a prophet, Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah,
and told them that they should not need to fight in that battle,
the Lord would fight for them, and that they were to see the
salvation of the Lord. And they did. They went toward
the wilderness, and they saw the Lord put every man's sword
against each other, and all they needed to do was to go and take
the spoil. They believed what the Lord had
said through his servant. They went out singing praises,
but then they came back after The Lord had blessed them. They
returned. We read that in verse 27. Then
they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat
in the forefront of them to go again to Jerusalem. Why again? What did they go? They went before,
gathering as a great multitude, to pray in their affliction,
in their need. and put the Lord in remembrance
of what had been said when Solomon dedicated that temple to now
they come back to Jerusalem to go again to Jerusalem with joy
for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies and
they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the
house of the Lord. and the fear of God was on all
the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the
Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. And so, in what God
had done, God got to himself glory and praise, and his people
were the forefront of doing that, of showing forth his praise. We think of later on in the Gospel,
according to Luke, where our text is, after our Lord had been
crucified and slain, risen again, and then ascended up into heaven. And may we remember this one
sacrifice for sin. That is all that is needed. It
is Christ that died, yet rather risen again. The Lord hath accomplished
that. substitutionary offering for
his people, that wrath, ending sacrifice at Calvary, the shedding
of blood, without which there is no remission. The Lord had
accomplished that. He'd done it. He'd done what
he came to do upon the earth. And he leads his people out at
the end of chapter 24, the end of the Gospel according to Luke.
He led them out as far as to Bethany. He lifted up His hands
and blessed them, came to pass while He blessed them, He was
parted from them and carried up into heaven. Now this is what
they did. And they worshipped Him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple
praising and blessing God. Amen. You think, Where they had
their Lord taken from them, taken up into heaven, would they have
joy? They had, because they understood
what He'd done, what He'd accomplished, and where He'd gone, and that
He was the living Saviour, appearing in the presence of God for them. And again, what a witness, what
a witness. Here are those at Jerusalem that
had seen those disciples sad, They'd seen them distressed. You think of Mary, why weepest
thou, whom seekest thou, weeping at the grave. You think of those
perplexed on the way to Emmaus. And yet now, they see these same
disciples in the temple with great joy and praising and glorifying
God. What a witness, what glory to
God. What a testimony to what they
believed and what God had done. And so you find with the apostles
also, in the Acts of the Apostles, that they always gave glory to
God. When miracles were done through
their hands, they always gave glory that it was done in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they were held by the council
of the Jews, when they were let go, they went back to their own
people and they prayed and they worshipped and they gave praise
and glory unto God. May we be followers of them that
always show forth God's praise and find in our daily lives finding
answers to prayer, finding what he has recorded in his word and
done, finding the creation, those things to return and to give
glory to God over. These are but foretastes here
below, but in heaven it will be to give glory to his name
and to praise him forever and forever. May we be of those who
learn the first notes here below, that don't just learn to give
thanks even, but in the thanksgiving to glorify God, to speak well
of him, to praise him before men, to show forth his praise
especially before those who have seen our distress and trouble
and need. They've seen our sorrow, May
they see our joy, may they see our gladness and glorifying our
God. May we be like this one, returning
to give glory to God. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.