Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. Let's thank
our Lord. Our Father, we thank you again this
evening. and do so in the only way accepted
by you in the name of our precious Savior who is the way, truth,
and life. Lord Jesus, thank you that we
can in you approach the very throne of grace accepted in you,
the beloved. Lord, we ask tonight, would you
help us to worship? Speak to our hearts. Thank you
for this evening, for Christ's sake. Amen. I'd like to deal this evening
with verses 11 to 19. This is the story about our precious
Lord, who is going to heal ten lepers. And verse 11 of Luke
17 says, And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that
he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Now, our Lord is on His way to
Jerusalem. He is going to go to Jerusalem
now for the last time. He is going to go to finish the
work that was given him by the Father. The Father had sent His
Son who in that eternal covenant of grace had stood everlastingly
as the surety of the sheep. Here's the one who's agreed.
I'll answer. I'm going to redeem the elect
of God. John 6.39 says, and this is the
Father's will. I read this verse of Scripture
a while ago and I thought, here's the point. It'd be a message
right here. This is the Father's will. The Father has a will. God has a purpose. This is the
Father's will which has sent me. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
surety of God's sheep, was sent according to the will of Almighty
God. And this is the purpose of Almighty
God, that of all which He has given me, the Father has an elect. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
here on purpose, and He's coming to save God's elect. Of all which he has given me,
here it is. He is successful. That I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. The Father
has a will. He has sent the Son to accomplish
His will. He has a chosen people that He
is going to call out of darkness and save them. And He is going
to absolutely not fail. Well, going to Jerusalem. He's going to lay down His life
for His people, for His sheep. He's going to shed His blood.
He's going to be made sin. And in their stead, in their
place, being made what they are, He did not hang on that tree
completely alienated from their sin. Their sin. He bore their
iniquity. The Scripture says, in his own
body. I mean, it was personal. Psalm 40 even says, speaking
of our Lord, he said, mine iniquities, which had taken hold of me. So this is personal. He is going
sinless. He had personally no sin. But I'm telling you, he was hanging
there, made what they are. That's a great mystery. Who can
explain that? But we set forth and we declare
that these things are so. But I want you to notice something.
It came to pass as he went through Jerusalem that he passed through
the midst of Samaria and Galilee. He just walked through. He didn't
say that he stopped. He didn't say he preached there. He just walked through. Almighty God can walk through
a lot of places until He is pleased to raise up a church where His
gospel can be preached. Almighty God chooses where His
gospel is going to be preached. And where His gospel is preached,
it is the gospel of God's sovereign, saving, electing, Grace. It's the message where God Almighty
is in control. And man's not. He just passed
right on through. Samaria and Galilee. Now, as
he was going through Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem,
he came across a very pitiful sight. Verse 12 says, he entered
into a certain village. It wasn't Samaria. It wasn't
Galilee. Scripture doesn't say where it
was. But it was a certain village. It was a village that he, from
before the foundation of the world, had been ordained, predestinated. This destination had been determined
by God Almighty. And he entered into this certain
village, and there, the Scripture says, met him ten men that were
lepers, which stood afar off. Now here's a picture now of all
mankind. Here's the Savior of sinners. He has come to a certain place,
a certain place that he knew, certain places Father knew, certain
places the Spirit of God knew, God Almighty, Jehovah knew this
place. And there were ten men there,
and all of them had leprosy. Now, you know leprosy in the
Old Testament is a type. It's a picture of sin. These men stood far off. That was according to the law. when a leper was declared unclean
by the priest. The priest would put him out
of the camp and stay away. But here's a picture of separation. Isaiah 59-2 says, your iniquities. What separated us from God? Your
iniquities. Sin. Separated between you and
your God and your sins. have hid his face from you that
he will not hear." Sin has corrupted every part
of our being. That's what we mean when we say
total depravity. Someone would say, well, I'm
not as bad as I could be. Well, the only reason that it
doesn't manifest itself is because of the restraining grace of God.
Remember that. I mean, there's not a person
sitting in this room today that's not capable of doing any most
heinous thing you'd ever thought of. You say, I never would do
that. Don't, don't kid yourself. Been watching the news lately
and somebody said, my son would never do that. You know, I know
this, my son would have never done that. I'm going to tell
you something right here. You're looking at somebody that, that
would have done it and probably did it. You know, I'm telling
you. Don't tell me. If my mama was
sitting here, she would tell you. Don't put anything past
Marvin. I mean it. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Ten men bound together with one
misery. They're lepers. Reminds me of
Naomi. 2 Kings 5. There was Naaman. Boy, he gave
all kinds of glorious things. He was captain of the host of
the Syrian army. And by him, the Lord had given
deliverance to Syria. And he was just on and on and
on. But he was a leper. It just kind
of nullifies everything. He was a leper. He was a walking
These were lepers. Leprosy, if we were to describe,
if we just sit here and start describing the characteristics
of leprosy, I mean, it's nauseating. I mean, it's a rotting of the
flesh. It's just, you know, I was reading,
I was just reading about it. Your horse, you know, it just
affects your speech. It just, bloodshot, just, your
skin is just, oozing pussy sores from the crown of our head to
the sole of our foot. Leprosy. Sinful leprosy. All unclean. Head to toe. In and out. And the Scripture
says in verse 12, as he entered into a certain village, there
met him Ten men that were lepers which stood afar off." Now that
word right there, they met Him, it actually means they went there
to meet Him. Obviously, they had heard that
He was coming by. I don't know. The word means
to go to meet. They met Him. It wasn't like
they just happened to be standing there. There were ten men all congregating together, off to
the side, watching for him, kind of looking. And obviously they'd
heard. They'd heard that this man had
healed lepers. I mean, that would be some news
that probably would travel pretty quickly. That there was a man
that they had heard about. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. And they heard that He was going,
heard that He was coming. But the Word means they went
to meet. They were watching for Him. He
was the only hope they had. There was no cure. As a picture
of sin, there's no cure for leprosy. There's no cure for sin in this
world. This world has no cure for sin. How do you cure the plague of
sin? There is no cure as far as this
world is concerned. If there is any hope for a sinner,
it is going to have to be apart from the sinner. I can tell you
that right now. That leper, if he was suspected
of having leprosy, he was sent to the priest, The priest was
the one that made the decision whether that's leprosy or whether
it's not leprosy. And if it was found to be leprosy,
the priest would declare him to be unclean. Leviticus 13.2
and Numbers 5.12 says they put him out. But in that pitiful
and seemingly hopeless state, There was a cry for mercy. Verse
13 says they, all of them, and they lifted up their voices and
said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Now these lepers knew,
at least from observation, from testimony of others, No one that
they knew of, no one, there was no record of any other, other
than the Lord Jesus, the Jesus of Nazareth, the one they'd heard
of, had ever healed a leper. But he had. And they cried unto
one who could heal if he chose to do so. Matthew 8-2, it says,
And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. That passage of Scripture comes
back to my heart often, whether praying for myself, praying for
others, whether it's physical, spiritual often, praying that
God have mercy. Lord, thank you for allowing
this assembly to be here. It's 60 years. Lord, if you will, you can make
the hearers clean spiritually, if you will. Calling out, Lord,
if you will. These men lifted up their voices,
and this is what the Scripture says. They called Him Jesus,
Savior. And they called Him Master, which
is Christ, the God. That's what the word is. Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us. And that cry set forth Something
that's very, very important. I want you to turn, hold your
place right there, Luke, and turn to Matthew 23, 9 and 10. I want you to understand Matthew
23, 9 and 10, and listen to the words of our Lord. Matthew 23, 9, and call no man
your father upon the earth. For one is your father, which
is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters,
for one is your master, even Christ. Don't call anybody father. Our Lord said that. Don't call
anybody Father. You've got one Father in heaven. Don't call anybody Master. You've
got one Master. Listen to this, John 13, 13.
You call me Master. That is instructor, teacher,
doctor. You call me Master and Lord.
Supreme in authority and the controller. And you say, well,
for so I am. Nobody else. I'm going to tell
you something. Just don't call anybody Father. Their cry was one that could
only be directed to one that was the Master, the Controller,
the Savior. He is the Priest. He is the Priest. And what He
did, when they called back in Luke 17, they lifted up their
voices and they said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. And the Scripture says, and when,
verse 14, he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves
unto the priest. Go show yourselves unto the priest.
I'll read the latter part of it in just a second. The Lord had been at times pleased
to touch a leper. Heal him right there. He could
have done that. He's the Lord. He's the great physician. But when he told them, go show
yourself to the priest. Now, obviously they've already
been to the priest and been declared lepers because they're standing
afar off. They're crying out. They've separated
themselves. So they've already seen the priest
one time. The only other time you'd go to see the priest again
was to see whether or not you had been made clean from the
leprosy. Now these men are lepers, and
they are possessors of leprosy. But as he sent them to go see
the priest, one thing that I saw for sure He knows He's going to heal them.
And what He's doing is, He is proving Himself according to
God's will and God's purpose to be who He says He is. I'll
read this to you, Acts 2. Verse 22, you men of Israel hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you as ye yourselves also know. He's going to heal them.
They're leprous right now. And he tells them, you go show
yourselves to the priest. He's going to declare His deity,
because when they get there, the priests are going to see
that these men are clean. How did you get this way? How was
it that you were made clean? And they're going to tell Him. I'm just thinking through this
scenario. You go show yourselves to the
priests. They're not clean yet. You go. And here's the Lord,
commanding according to perfect obedience to His laws. What did
the law require that a leper would do? The law required that
a leper would go see the priest. And here's the Lord. He's not
bypassing the law. He commanded them according to
the law. Go show yourselves to the priest. This is the Master. And Almighty
God in human flesh was doing always those things that pleased
Him, pleased His Father. Oh, but what power and mercy
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master. What mercy would
it have been if they had shown themselves to the priest and
the leprosy was still there? Here is truly Jehovah Rapha,
the Lord that healeth. This is the Master. This is the One that heals sinners. He commanded them to go show
themselves to the priest before they were actually healed. He is going to heal them. He
is going to heal them in His way. That's power. John 17 says, And thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. This is power. Go show yourself
to the priest. And the scripture says, verse
14, latter part, And it came to pass that as they went, they
were cleansed. Now, I amused on that for just
a minute. And it just, I mean, just reflecting,
just reflecting for a moment on beholding or realizing that
that disease is not there. There's no way to describe how
someone feels when you realize that for right now, at least,
that there's no disease there. I'm sure that they could not
believe it, not until you've sat and formerly known that there
was, and then all of a sudden a doctor says, it's not there. Not there. You don't know. You don't know
what to think. You don't know how to be thankful. You don't know. The Scripture
says, as they went, all of a sudden, There may not have been any fingers
there. I mean, leprosy rots your body. And all of a sudden, there was no leprosy. It was
gone. Those ten lepers, were clean. They were clean. The Scripture says they were
cleansed. The Lord had sovereignly healed
ten lepers, all of them, but something miraculous happened. The Scripture says in verse 15,
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. Something marvelous had just
happened. The Lord had healed ten lepers. But the Scripture says, and I'll
just jump to the last part, and I'll come back. The last part
of verse 19, where we're going to end. Verse 19 says, And He
said unto him, That one arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. Ten of them were cleansed. That
word there means that they were healed physically. One of them
was saved. The word holds there means saved. Thy faith has saved you. Now what was the evidence of
salvation? What was the evidence that that
cured leper had a saving sense, knowledge, of who the Lord Jesus
Christ was. Well, back in verse 15, one of
them, when he saw that he was healed, he saw that he was physically
healed. That's what he saw. He was physically
healed just like the other ten. But the Scripture says he turned
back. I tell you what he did. He was
going to see the priest. He was going in obedience to
the Lord's command. And he was going to the law. And when he saw that he was healed
physically, there was something in that man that the other nine
didn't have. This man had a new heart. This man had been born from above
and he turned from going to the law that could only pronounce
him clean physically. And he came and went to the fulfiller
of the law. The law was his schoolmaster.
He would go into the law in a new heart and he turned and went
back to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was going to the shadow. And
by the grace of God, the Spirit of God, that put a new heart,
a new spirit, a new mind in that man, and he went and turned from
the shadow and went to the fulfiller of the shadow. He went to the Lord Himself. And the Scripture says he turned
back and with a loud voice, he glorified God. Who do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? The disciples said, well, some
of them say you're Jeremiah, some of them say Elijah, some
of the other prophets. He said, who do you say I am? Peter said, you're the Christ.
When he said Christ, this is what he said. You're God Almighty. You're the fullness of the Godhead
in human flesh. You're the sustainer. You're
the author. You're the finisher. You're God. The Scripture says,
He turned back and with a loud voice, He honored and praised
and glorified. You healed me. Not only physically,
but you have healed me spiritually. You've made me whole. And He
wasn't ashamed. The Scripture says he cried with
a loud voice, glorifying, praising, honoring God Almighty. That priest could only pronounce
Him clean physically. But he stood now before the great
physician, the healer of sinners, the one who gives life and life
eternal. This body is going to die. But
I'm telling you, he that believeth on me shall never die. That means this physical body,
oh this physical body right here that you're looking at, it's
going to die. But this flesh, it's going to be changed. It's
going to be changed. I can't explain it. I don't know
what it's going to be, but I can tell you this. Job said, in my
flesh, I'm going to see God. I'm going to see the Lord with
these eyes. Something's going to happen.
This corruptible is going to put on incorruption. This mortal
is going to put on immortality. It's going to be changed. That which is flesh is flesh.
That which is spiritual is spiritual. And there's going to be a difference. And he came back and he glorified
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had heard the voice of the
Master. Why didn't the other nine turn around? They didn't
hear Him. They didn't hear. They didn't hear anything. Their
bodies were healed, but this man was made whole. This man
was saved by the grace of God. And the Scripture says, when
he saw that he was healed, he turned back with a loud voice,
glorified God, and fell down at His feet. He worshipped. He worshipped the Lord. He that shall humble himself
by the grace of God made to be so. You know, it's not a grievous
thing for a believer to have a heart of humility before God. Lord, thank You for Your mercy. Thank You for Your grace. Lord,
thank You that You don't mark iniquity. in your people. Thank you that there is no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus." He humbled himself, fell down,
worshipped the Lord. And the Scripture sets forth
that this leper, this former leper, fell down and worshipped
God and gave Him thanks and thanked Him. God gave thanks. Here's the answer from a question
asked in Psalm 116.12. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? What could I render? What do
I have to render? How would I render it in an honorable
way? Thanks be unto God, the Scripture
gives the answer, of which I am very thankful. Psalm 116, 17.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And will call upon the name of
the Lord. Lord, this is all I've got. And what I have is not worthy
to be noticed myself. I know that. But Lord, this is
all I got. Thank you. Thank you. You know, you open a door for
somebody. You open a door for somebody. Just hold the door
for you. They give you everything they got. Thank you. Thank you. Two little words. Thank you. Offer the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, that according to the scriptures, well-pleasing
Psalm 100 verse 4, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and
into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless
His name. And I'm telling you, a believer
reads those words, and let me tell you what you're thinking.
I don't thank Him like I ought. And we admit that. We don't thank
Him as often as we ought. We admit that. We don't thank
Him as we shall. But I'll tell you this, we do
thank you. You start to think about what you have to be thankful
for, and the list is everlasting. What about that breath of air
you just took? Aren't you thankful that you're
not at this moment on the ground struggling to get a breath of
air? that God Almighty would give you a breath. Thankful that we're here tonight. Thankful that we were allowed
by God, that you had the strength. Got you something to eat. You
got something to wear. We're in a building. I can see you. There is no limit. Thank you that you've given me
a heart for you. I thank you that you'd give me
a heart to want to read these Scriptures. Thank you for the
love that you've given me to love to read these Scriptures.
Thank you for what you've taught me. In everything, 1 Thessalonians
5, 18, in everything, give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Thank you. Fell down on his face and thanked him. What was that
leper going to do for the Lord? What did he have to give to the
Lord? How would he ever repay Him?
For healing his body, but for giving him a new heart? Did he know, I'm going to leave
this world one of these days and I'm going to be with you?
I'm going to see you. And I'm going to be like you.
I'm going to behold you as you are. And as I'm known, I'm going
to know." And who was that formerly rotting leper? He was a Samaritan. That's a Samaritan. One that was reckoned by the
Jews to be a heathen, ignorant, worthless. This is the one right
here that that Pharisee said, I am not as other men are. This
is the other man that that Pharisee said, I am not like him. A stranger. Samaritan, a stranger, a different
one. Verse 17, 18, Jesus answering
that Samaritan fell down at his feet, worshiping him, giving
him thanks. And Jesus answered and said,
Were there not ten cleansed? Well, where are the nine? They
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. Could those words be right? Thy
faith hath made thee whole?" Well, you say, well, I thought
faith was given from above, that all men have not faith. That's
right. That's right. All men have not
faith. That's what Scripture says. Well, why did the Lord say, Thy
faith hath made thee whole? The gifts of God are without
repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ that gave that man faith honored that faith, that which
the Lord had given him. And I'll tell you this, when
he gave it to him, it was his. That's his. That's his faith.
Thy faith. He had no claim to it as far
as originating it with himself. He never did that. But I'm telling
you, he told a woman that had an issue of blood, same thing.
Syrophoenician woman. Remember that came there and
she begged for her daughter. He said, it's not fit that I
should give the children's bread to dogs. He said, great is thy
faith. Be it unto you as you request
it. Thy faith hath made thee whole. by the grace of God, and laying no claim to have originated
it. But Almighty God gives His people
faith. It's theirs. He gives it to them. He gives it to them. And it's
theirs. And He said, Thy faith hath made
thee whole. Don't try to explain that away. Hear the words of the Lord. He
gives it. He honors it. Salvation is all
of grace. He gives His people a heart to
believe Him. And John 3.36 says, He that believeth
on the Son of God hath everlasting life. When Almighty God calls
a spiritual leper to himself, makes him whole,
that leper, spiritual leper, he is going to turn. He is going
to turn from going to the law, going to works, religion, self-righteous
work, going to turn from that. And he's going to the Lord. My
sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. And this is going to be their
attitude toward Him. Thank you. Thank you.