That's got to be my favorite
hymn of the book. Fitty in the last verse talks
about prone to wander. David wrote Psalm 119, 175 verses,
and the last verse he says, turn me, turn me, O Lord. I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. Seek Thy servant. Turn us again. Luke 17. Turn us to give glory
unto Thee. This is the title. One was turned
to glorify God. One out of ten. One out of ten
turned to glorify God. All healed by the mercy and grace
of God. One gave God all the glory. There are many lepers when our
Lord walked the earth. Many. Stories after story of
our Lord healing lepers. Why is that? Because there are
so many. Why? Because that's now. Everybody is a leper. They have this deadly disease
called sin. I know, here we go again. We have one message to a dying
world, really. And this came up in the course
of our studies. So relevant. Our Lord healed
so many that had leprosy. He didn't heal everybody that
had leprosy. He could have, but they were surrounded by lepers
everywhere. He healed some. One place it says, He healed
them that had need of healing. There are ten of these men, cried,
Jesus help us, heal us, and He healed all of them. All of them
that asked, He healed them. He healed them that had need
and all who knew and all who needed were healed. Now isn't
that a good picture? Many stories, many. You've heard
many sermons. Because it's such a picture of
this disease, this deadly disease. Men have it and don't know it.
That's how leprosy starts, you know. It starts on the inside
and no visible signs on the outside, like our little children that
are born. And we look at them, they're born, and you think,
I admit, I think, how can that little thing be full of sin? Well, it's not full yet, but
it has the full propensity. And if left alone, if it lives
long enough, it's going to break out into full-blown leprosy. We're born, we're conceived in
sin, we're brought forth from the world speaking lies, and
Adam, all die. By one man's disobedience, sin
came into the world, and so death, death by sin, both spiritual
and physical. Sin. So this is a needful message,
isn't it? This is the one thing needful.
Healing from this deadly disease. Good news. I got wonderful news. Let me just say it right up front,
okay? A bomb might drop. Wouldn't that be wonderful? There's
mercy for the poor and needy. For every sin-sick soul, every
poor and needy sinner on the face of the earth, no matter
what they've done, who they are, black, white, young, old, rich,
poor, it doesn't matter, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord, Lord, save me from my sin. He will. He will. All who have need of healing,
need the mercy of the Lord, Call upon Him, turn us, all who turn,
all who have been turned, and turn to the Lord and fall at
His feet like this one man. All who fall at His feet are
going to be made holy, holy, holy, holy. All right, let's
look at the story. Verse 11, it came to pass as
he went to Jerusalem. I'll stop right there. Back in
chapter 13 it says he was journeying toward Jerusalem. His whole life
he came to this earth to go to Jerusalem. To go to a cross outside
the camp, outside of Jerusalem. But he came from heaven to this
leper colony. He who is spotless, pure, holy,
spotless Son of the Most High God, the Holy One of Israel,
left the holy heaven, the holy angels, the holy saints to come
to this leper colony. And I've read, some of you have
read too, how that there were missionaries years ago who wanted
to witness to the lepers in the leper colony. And you know what
they did? They went, you can't minister without going among
them. And so they did. They went into
this leper colony and they became lepers. But they preached to
them. That's what our Lord did. Isn't
it? That's what our Lord did. He
came to this leper colony. He left the holy, spotless, sinless
heaven and God, the holy God, to come to this leper colony.
This evil world, the scriptures call it, to save, not try to
save everybody, but to save some. And nobody wanted him, and nobody
knew him, and nobody asked for him, and nobody knew they needed
saving. He had to convince them of that.
He had to show them. And how did he save his people
from this leprosy? He became a leper. He was made
sin. He left heaven for one reason,
to come to this leper colony, to go to Jerusalem, outside of
camp, because scripture says so, and burn the bodies of the
lambs and the bullocks outside the camp. Take it outside and
burn that camp like an outcast. Our Lord was a burnt offering.
He was crucified on Calvary's tree. A holy God killed Him for
the sins of all His people. All the sins of God's people
were laid on Him. He was laid sin for them. He became a leper and God put
away leprosy in Christ. How? Burned Him. He burned Him. You may forget, you may have
forgotten this, but in 65 and 66, there was a plague, the
Black Plague, the bubonic plague hit Europe really hard. It devastated London, England.
A quarter of the population died. A quarter of the population died
from the Black Plague. It was everywhere. Well, you know what happened?
And you know, the 1600s was a decadent time, just The Lord set a fire in London,
England, and it wiped out half the city. Most of the buildings
in that city were burned down. Most people lost their homes.
And you know what happened? The plague ended. So the plague was destroyed by
fire. And our Lord came down here and
became sin for us and went to the cross and made sin for us
and God burnt His body and put away sin. There's no trace of
it. Well, so He went to Jerusalem.
Now, verse 11 says, He passed through the midst of Samaria
and Galilee and He entered into a certain village. He passed
through. He always was passing through, wasn't He? He came here
and He passed through. He didn't stay but 33 years.
Oh, did he not walk wisely and redeem the time? Every person,
every place he went was in the direction of saving his people. Every word out of his mouth was
for the glory of God to save his people. No idle words with
him. No chit-chat, no time to chit-chat.
No, no, no. Walked with God, did he? And
walked in the direction of saving his people. Oh, it passed through
them. A certain village, what mercy,
this little village of Rocky Mount, Virginia. You know, in
1980 and 80s, 85, when I first came here, I got directions from
Ed Perry from, I was up in the mountains, and even today, if
you follow your GPS, you're coming on 81, don't follow your GPS.
And don't ask Ed for directions. He'll send you to Shooting Creek.
And you'll get on Shooting Creek, and you think, I'm in Central
America. I've missed my turn. I'm in Africa. Rocky Mountain, where is that?
And I got here, and I thought, where is this place? I got on
Main Street, or downtown Franklin Street. I got in a zigzag, zigzag,
zigzag. What is this place? This little village, brothers
and sisters, why did the Lord come here? Just thought about that. And He brought
many of you from far away places. Big cities. Birmingham. California. Brought you from
Mars. New York. to Rocky Mountain, Virginia.
Why? Because the gospel's here. Because God's got a people here.
He's got lepers that He's calling out. Oh, just a remnant, just one
out of ten people maybe. That's why He came to this place.
There was a leper. He's going to turn. He's going
to turn him. Well, there met Him, verse 12,
ten men that were lepers. All of them. They were all lepers
and they all stood afar off. They were all lepers and they
were all afar off. Have you ever heard that before? That's Romans 5 and Ephesians
2, isn't it? You that were afar off, they
were all lepers. I told John, I love it when I
have so many Scriptures I want to read and not enough time.
I've got to pick something. I wanted to read Ephesians 2
for the Scripture reading. Remember, brothers and sisters,
that you in time past were Gentiles at the time you were without
Christ, aliens, strangers from the covenant of promise, no hope
without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who
sometime were far off made nigh by the blood of Christ. He's our peace. He went on to
say he came and preached peace to you that were far off rebels. Peace. You didn't want peace. You didn't ask for peace. He
came to make peace. He came to break down that enmity
in you. He came to show you you need
peace and you can't make it, and I'm going to make it for
you. You're a rebel. A leper. They were afar off and
they were all lepers. Oh, brothers and sisters, isn't
that all of us, huh? Isn't that all of us? And Adam
all died, all made sin, all lepers, without God, without Christ,
but God. Verse 13. Before I go on, let
me say this. Everyone is afar from God. Scripture, the song says, and
dead in trespass and sin. Once far from God and dead in
sin. No light, no light I see. Every
one of us were strangers to the covenant, strangers to the gospel.
No hope without God in the world. Lepers didn't know it, didn't
want saving. You know, people don't think
they need saving and people don't want saving. Here's the greatest
proof that people are without God, that people hate God, Romans
3 says. Hate God. That's strong language,
isn't it? Well, that's what the Scripture
says. Hate God. The strongest proof, the greatest proof, evidence
that men and women and young people hate God is they'll do
anything. They'll go anywhere but come
and sit and listen to the Word of God. Just for a little bit. Just come and sit, and that's
all we're doing. Just listen to a man, read God's
Word, make some comments on it, sing some songs, thanksgiving
and praise to the God. That's what we ought to be doing,
shouldn't it? That's what all flesh ought to be doing. Thanking
God, because by the grace of God we all... are what we are,
have what... Shouldn't we be? Shouldn't all
flesh be gathered today and giving thanks to God? That's not much,
is it? Compared to... But to get people
to do that, they'd rather do anything with that. Anything. I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything.
I'm not going to church with you. That's the ultimate proof
of man's hatred of God. Far off. Adam and Eve, when they
sinned in the garden, before they sinned, God was their life,
their all, their love. They loved it when they heard
the voice of the Son of God come walking in the garden. They loved
it. Adam would say to Eve, Honey,
it's the Lord God. Let's go meet with the Lord.
Honey, yes, I'm coming. And when they sinned, They all
went and hid, and they heard His voice, and they were running
from Him. Don't want Him. Don't want Him.
That's proof in them. Yeah, but verse 13, they all
lifted up their voices, though, verse 13, and said, Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us. They all lifted up their voice. They were all lepers and knew
it. They all had this sickness, and
they knew it. They were in trouble. They had
some pains, they had some suffering in the flesh, and so they all
of them lifted up and said, Jesus. And all men and women and young
people, when they get in trouble, they get in trouble, they have
trouble with the flesh. And sin is the reason, sin is
the cause of all our troubles. And everyone at some point in
time is going to call on God when they get in trouble. Everyone.
Without exception. You hear people all the time.
Oh God. Back in 2001 when those jets, when the Lord sent those
jets to tear down the towers. The Lord did that. And people
everywhere were saying what they do now. Oh my God. Everywhere. On the news, they were interviewing
people. Oh my God. Oh my God. One Catholic priest,
a Catholic priest said this. He was being interviewed. He
said, well, it's good because I hear everybody everywhere calling
on the Lord, calling on God. That's not calling on God. You
haven't called on God and you get in trouble. Everybody does
that. And they get afraid. Everybody does that. That's not
calling on the name of the Lord. Many cry Jesus. When I was in
my early 20s, the Lord had already dealt with me, been dealing with
me, dealt with me, and I believe revealed Himself to me. I had
some old friends that I still was in contact with. And one
of my best friends as a boy, His father died, and I liked
the man a lot. I was over at this boy's house
all the time. He had two brothers and a sister,
four of them, four of us. And I liked him. And Boone, Boone
was his name, Boone, Booney, we called him, one of my best
friends, bosom buddies. And his dad died when he was
in his early 20s, me too. And I went to the funeral. And
we're sitting in a little room in the back and, of course, he
and his brother and everybody's just distraught and they're in
trouble and all that. And I started talking to him about the gospel,
about death and dying and why. And he agreed with everything
I said. You know, he's so serious. Yeah,
you're right. He's agreeing with everything I said. As my dad said, and I'll say
it too, I've never seen anybody lastingly affected by a funeral.
It just doesn't happen that way. Because everybody gets serious
and everybody starts thinking about God when trouble happens,
whatever it may be. But when the trouble is over, no sooner is the body buried
in the ground and the dirt put over top of the casket and men
go on their way forget me and go on their way. Well, my friend died a horrible death. Drugs and guns died. That should have been me. It
could have been me. We're the same. But God did what? Turned me. Turned me. Verse 14, it says, When He saw
them, He said unto these ten lepers, Go, show yourselves unto
the priest. And it came to pass that as they went, they were
planned. Go, show yourself unto the priest. He saw them. He saw
them. Our Lord sees everything and
everyone. Do you know that? His eyes behold,
His eyelids try the sons of men. The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro throughout all the earth. He that made the eye, doesn't
He see? The ear, doesn't He hear? Absolutely. Everything. Every
idle word. Every deed. Every sin. He sees it all. That causes fear
in God's people. But since the world doesn't believe
Him, it doesn't bother them. They don't believe Him. But He
saw them. And He looked on them with pity.
And He looked on them with mercy. And He told them, go show yourselves
to the priest. And they did, and they were all
healed. All ten of them. And the Lord in mercy, Psalm
145 says, the Lord is gracious. He's good to all that call upon
Him. His tender mercies are over all His work. Doesn't it say
that in Psalm 145? His tender mercies are over all His work.
You know that if anybody is healed, The Lord does it? That's right. With or without means, it's not
the means, it's the Lord. He might use it, He might not.
And that's a test to see who's going to get the glory. Okay? So many have used the means,
He didn't heal them. Brothers and sisters, we prayed.
He didn't do it, did He? But He did. Made them whole. Thank God for them. The means
weren't effectual. Thank God for them. After a while,
my sister said, I'm not taking any more treatment. I'm not taking
any more chemo. I'm not taking any more. I'm not taking any
more. What did the Lord do? Made her whole. No more sin,
no more suffering, no more sorrow. Who did it? The Lord did it.
Healed her. If anybody's healed of anything,
This is why I detest to see things like this. This and such and
such save lives. Seatbelts save lives. Salvations
of the Lord. The Lord killeth. The Lord saveth. The Lord maketh alive. The Lord
maketh rich. The Lord maketh poor. Give glory
where it's due. If not, He'll send strong delusions. See? He healed them all. He said,
go to the priest and show yourself and do this. And Leviticus 13
talks about that. Well, they went. They went to
the priest. And on the way, they were cleansed.
It was a miracle. It was a miracle. All ten of
them. Miracle. They headed to the priest
to do what was required of them according to the law. And you
know, many people get religion. They get in trouble and they
get religion, they go to the priest. You have a few in here that went
to the priest, didn't you? Didn't you, Catherine? Went to
the priest. Mike, confessed your sin. Man, the Lord sure brought
you out of darkness, didn't He? Do you know how many millions
are still confessing to a man? Now, they went to the priest.
There were so many people. And you know the Lord does tell
us to go, seek the Lord. Go where His Word is printed.
Go. Go. You need a high priest. You know that? Every man. You
need a high priest. Which is the only one. You need
an altar, but it's not down here. You need a sacrifice, but it's
not what you do. It's Christ. Many people get religion and
they literally go to priests, they go to the Pope, or Protestant
Pope. And many have life-changing experiences. Many have life-changing experiences,
have miracles, have signs and wonders. They quit this and quit
that. Did you hear old so-and-so's
going to church and he's quit his drinking, he quit beating
his wife, he's quit beating his dog and he's just, it's a miracle. What's happened to old Billy
Bob? He ain't the same man. Wow, what happened? I don't know, just a miracle. Now, that's not salvation. Salvation
is not an experience, not in a life-changing event. It's not
an emotional feeling. It's not something that happens
to you. You don't know what. Something
happened. I don't know what. That was probably bad pizza the
night before. You had indigestion. That's what's
happened. That's that feeling, that warm feeling that's coming
up. Salvation comes. The gospel is
the power of God and salvation. And nobody saved apart from hearing
a holy God on the throne, man dead in sin, and one remedy for
sin, Christ on the cross. Christ said when the Holy Spirit
comes, here's what He's going to do. Here's how the Spirit
of God is going to make lepers clean. He's going to cause them
to look to that serpent of brass hanging on a polter. Christ can
crucify it. He's going to convince of sin
concerning Jesus Christ. Righteousness. You don't have
one. There's only one to be had. And Jesus Christ has it all.
And judgment. There's a judgment to be faced.
And you can't face it. If Christ doesn't face it for
you, you're a goner. Look. Now look. One hope. One
way. One truth. One life. Look. That's how people are saved.
Convicted of sin against God, against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned. What am I going to do? At Acts chapter 2, all of
them were convicted. We've rejected the Son of God.
We've rejected the One in whose hands our breath is. We have
killed the Son of God and now He might kill us. What are we
going to do? Peter said, Repent. Repent. You ever hear that today?
How God loves you. Nothing to repent of. The sign
over here at the wood lawn. Some of you went to wood lawn.
A sign says, remember, Christ died for you. It doesn't say
that in this book. That's to trot underfoot the
blood of the Son of God. That's to cast it out there before
swine and tell them, Jesus died for you. No, He didn't. He died for His sheep. He came
to make an effectual sacrifice for sin forever for His people
and put it away. Don't shout preachers. Open the
windows. That's the worst blasphemy of
Of every blasphemy is to say that Jesus Christ died for everybody
and you make his blood a picture. You accept his blood. God, he
made an offer. He made an attempt. He made a
down payment. You've got to pay the rent. If
you accept the blood of the Son of God, if you accept what Jesus
did for you, God will accept you. God will be so pleased with
you. That's another gospel that's
blasphemed. It's never saved a soul. Nobody's
ever saved that confessed that, that did that. Not one. Here's
salvation. You realize, I'm a leper. God's
holding it. I can't do anything about it.
I'm dying from this sin. and I've rejected God's Son,
will He accept me? Will He have mercy on me? Will
God, the chief of sinners, spare? Would He do that? I don't see
how. I know Christ died for somebody,
but how can it be me? And look at our text. It says in verse 14, it came
to pass they that went, they were cleansed. In verse 15, and
one of them, just one of them, just one out of ten, saw that
he was healed and he turned back. And with a loud voice glorified
God. Where did he turn? Who did he
turn to? Who did he come back to? Jesus
Christ. Says He with a loud voice, Glory
to God! Who's He talking about? That
man standing in front of Him. Jesus Christ. He's the one human. He's the one. Turn back. Woman's been talking with my
wife about, you know, repentance and all that. She's confused
about repentance. You won't be confused if you ever repent.
If God gives you repentance, you won't be confused. This woman
thinks it's up to us to repent, that we have to turn ourselves.
And she brought up the prodigal son, that the prodigal son came
to himself. How? How did he come to himself? The whole world doesn't see themselves
as the eye. The whole world is in the hog
pen. The whole world is in this slime
pit called planet earth. The whole world is in darkness. So were we. How? How did that
prodigal son come to see himself in the hog pen? God showed him
himself. God showed him himself. Just like he did me. One day,
with my buddy, Booney, and all my other cronies. But God, I
love election. Oh, I love the truth of the sovereign
election. One turn, a remnant, a tenth. I was going to read Isaiah 6,
John. That was another one I was going
to read. He talked about a holy God. Isaiah said, I'm a man of
unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. He said a cold. He said, you're
iniquitous, pervert. Lips. He went on to say, you
go blind these people. You go shut their ears. He said,
how long? He said, till the world is no
more. He said, but yet there's a tenth. A tenth shall turn. A remnant
shall be turned unto the Lord, because the Lord turns them.
If He doesn't turn them, they won't turn. That's why David
said, turn us again. So he turned David the first
time. He's got to turn us again, and again, and again, and again. Now look, look, no, turn. Yeah, but turn! Don't look there,
look unto me and be saved. One man turned. And with a loud
voice, We just sang that song. Love so amazing, so divine, deserves
song of loudest praise. In a loud voice glorified God.
Look at what He did. He turned with a loud voice,
glorified God. He gave God all the glory. This is how you know somebody
is saved. This is how you know the Lord has had mercy on somebody.
This is how you know the Lord has revealed Himself to a dead
sinner. They give God all the glory. All the glory for their repentance,
all the glory for their understanding, all the glory for their sight,
for their hearing, for their repentance, Conviction of sin
for their salvation. They give God all the glory. That's how you examine doctrines.
That's how you examine the truth as opposed to the false. Which
one gives not some of the glory, but all the glory? Man's choice
of God or God's choice of man. Who gets the glory? The blood
of Jesus Christ shed for every single human being
in man's faith making it effectual? That give God all the glory?
Or the blood of Jesus Christ putting away every single sin
of every one of God's people? And they didn't want anything
to do with it. But God. The Holy Spirit trying
to save people, you know, trying, trying, trying, and men find
somebody finally accepts Him as their personal Savior, does
that give God all the glory? Or a Holy Spirit coming to a rebel,
coming to a rebel that hates God, a thief on a cross to say,
you will believe, you will repent, you're no longer an enemy because
I have chosen you. Now who gets the glory? Breaking
down the end. And look at what he did. It was
very simple. He was turned, turned back, turned
back, and he glorified God, gave God all the glory, and he fell
down on his face at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. giving Him thanks. That's salvation. He was turned, glorified God,
fell at the feet of Jesus Christ, gave Him all the thanks. That's
salvation, John. Oh, God that shined in our hearts
to give the light of the glory of God. Where is it? It's in
the feet. It's in the face and the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, every sinner had God as mercy on them. Shows them their sins. They'll
glorify God. They'll fall at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Giving Him all the thanks for
their salvation. When the Lord rose from the grave,
the first thing He did was show them His hands and His feet. And His feet. And he was a Samaritan. What's
that? A half-breed. He's not Jew, he's
not Gentile. Where is he from? Like some of
you. Like all of us. Yeah. Oh, he was a Samaritan. And our
Lord answered, verse 17, Jesus answered and said, Were there
not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Where are
the others? Why aren't they giving God all
the glory? Because God didn't choose them.
Because they really don't believe the Lord did it, that they had
something to do with it. It was just a miracle, just a
wonder. Where are the nine? Isn't that a good question to
ask? All we're doing here this morning is trying to give God
all the glory. That's all I'm trying to do is
give God all the glory. All I'm trying to do is point men to
Christ. That's it. Not the choir. I have one. Not myself. Gosh,
don't look to me. Trying to just lift up Christ
and Him crucified, and men look. Why don't men look? Why don't
men come? Where are the nine? Where are
the 90 percentile? Where are they? They must not
be lepers. Must not have been lepers. Where
are the nine? And they are not found that return
to give glory to God, save this stranger. See that? And you that
were far off strangers. And he said to him, finally,
arise, go thy way. Where do you think he went? Doesn't
say, does it? Where do you think he went? This
happened many times. Go thy way. You know, 100% of
the time, they followed him. Go thy way. And he said, thy
faith hath made thee whole. He was healed, now he's whole.
What's the difference? Well, the Lord heals every disease. If somebody's healed of any disease,
the Lord did it. Didn't He? With God's people,
He makes whole. Holy. Complete. We're complete
in Him. Here's the will of God. That
everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him, Christ said,
I will raise Him up. Arise. My soul arise, shake off thy
guilty fear. The bleeding sacrifice on thy
behalf appeared. Before the throne thy surety
stand. Our names are written on his
hand. Our names are written on his hand. And in Christ we're
complete. We're whole. We're without sin.
I still feel leprosy rising up. We'll turn back. And you'll see,
you know, you're clean. It's just your feet that wash
you. Whole. Made us whole. All right,
John, let's close.