Luke chapter 17 verse 11 opens
up this way. And it came to pass as he went
to Jerusalem. Now, this is not the first time
that Luke has stated this, is it? It seems that he would have
us to understand that our Lord Jesus Christ is headed to Jerusalem. And he would have us to understand
that because that that projectory, that objective, that goal of
our Savior is critical to our salvation and his glory. He would have us to know that.
In fact, this here is about the third time, the fourth time,
third time rather, that Luke has made mention of Christ heading
to Jerusalem. And he won't be done. As we move
closer and closer to Jerusalem, he will become even more definitive
about the fact that he has drawn near. He is in Jerusalem. He is at the place called Jerusalem. That's the terminology. So we
are not ignorant as to where our Lord is going in his ministry. But what is remarkable is this,
that as our Lord is making his way, to that place where he must
now give up his life. On the way there, he seems to
always have time to show mercy to sinners. That's what I don't
want you to miss today. That as our master is heading
towards that place where the whole human race will be represented
both by Jews and Gentiles in their hostility towards this
man, He is still showing mercy on the way. He is still demonstrating
benevolence and kindness on the way. That's the title of our
message, showing mercy on the way. Our Lord seems to be able
to accomplish more than one thing at the same time. He's able to
keep his eyes set on the goal while at the same time, Hearing
and meeting needs Isaiah chapter 50 verse 7 puts it like this
and he said his face like a flint You know, when you set your face
like a flint, that means you are fixed. You are immovable. You are resolved. You know what
you want. You know what you desire and
nothing can change you. You and I are seeing the resolve
of our master as he makes his way to Jerusalem. He has to meet
his father in Jerusalem. He has to meet his destiny in
Jerusalem. On his way to Jerusalem, however,
he is still meeting needs, still meeting needs. So the first thing
I wanna call your attention to from which we can draw some lessons
as well is staying on point. Do you have a difficulty in your
life staying on point? Do you struggle sometimes with
maintaining your goals? Do you find that the winds can
blow southwest and shift you off your course sometimes and
that getting back on the course can be very difficult? Have you
ever recognized that sometimes when we set out to achieve what
we think are very important goals, that providence can work in such
a strange way to knock you so far off the course as if you
were never able to get back on in certain contexts? This is
designed to help you and I understand that we're not God, and that
we don't run the show, and that we are called to walk by faith,
and that it's not always given to us to know our destiny. I
was talking with one of our brothers this morning, and he was sharing
with me how he recently got hit by a car. He didn't get hurt,
but he did reflect upon the fact that he didn't get hurt, and
he thanked God. But what he said was, Pastor,
you know, it's so very good that God doesn't let us know everything
that he plans on having to occur in our life. It's so very good
that you and I are not omniscient. Do you know we would be fit to
be tied if we knew everything that was going to happen? Do
you know you'd probably be paralyzed in your spot? You wouldn't be
able to get nothing done You couldn't sleep you couldn't eat
if you know knew every moment of the day what you were about
to go through Because you know troubles are given to us We're
gonna have difficulties now. We already know that as a basic
tenor of life But aren't you thankful that God allows you
to get hit while your mind is on something else? Oh I told
my brother, I said, yeah, Lord, if you hit me, just let me be
doing some hit me from the backside so I can be relaxed about it.
That's God's goodness to us. I don't want to be looking at
that thing when it hits me in the face and it's going to hit
us from time to time. But you must think about the
omnipotence of the savior who for us who are believers is God
in the flesh to be able to stay on point. Now many times the
devil tried to throw him off point. And many times the rulers
tried to throw him off point. And even on some occasions, his
disciples tried to throw him off point. But our master had
a race to run. He had a fight to fight. It was a fight of faith. He had
a course to finish. And we are observing him do just
that now. On his way, however, he is inclined
to go through Samaria and Galilee. Notice what the text says. Now,
as it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, as he was making
his way to Jerusalem, that he passed through Samaria and Galilee. Now, if you knew anything about
the geography, what you would know is that's not real easy
to do. You actually got to go out of
your way a little bit to get to Jerusalem through Galilee
and through Samaria. You have to have a purpose for
going that route. So here is the question that
we might as well ask. Is this one of those must needs
moments for Jesus? You remember when our Lord was
with his disciples in the earlier portion of the gospel of John,
and he told his disciples, I must needs go through what? Samaria. I must needs go through Samaria.
Is this one of those must needs situation? In other words, is
he deterring taking a longer route to Jerusalem through Samaria
and Galilee because he has a purpose to accomplish? Absolutely. In Samaria, Our Lord Jesus Christ
will one more time manifest his redeeming glory for God's honor
and for our edification. There are things therefore for
us to learn, things for us to grasp and ascertain. Point number
two in your outline, messianic mercy on his way. As he takes each step towards
Jerusalem, our Lord Jesus Christ is sure to take opportunity to
let men and women know that this is a very unique period in biblical
history. None like it before, and in a
real sense, none like it afterwards. I've told you before, the fact
that God would assume a human nature, and display the glory
of God in terms of his character and attributes the way Jesus
did is a special privilege for us who read our Bibles with the
utmost of eternal interest. For us to be able to see God
in the flesh acting the way God does is to show us how God is. We very often are considering
God in terms of his abstract attributes and characteristics.
We believe the Bible, and we believe the Bible teach that
our God is immutable. He is unchangeable. Our God is
impeccable. He is holy. He is righteous. Our God is everywhere present.
He's transcendent. Do we not believe that? He's
a perfect being. And yet at the same time, Jesus
Christ, who is the glory of God, has so made it that we can see
God in his passion, in his kindness, in his love, in his care, in
his concern for his people. On this occasion, he's gonna
manifest his glory one more time. What did I mean when I say, is
this one of those must needs moments? This is one of those
moments where the Lord Jesus Christ is inclined to affirm
his messiahship, as he told John in Matthew chapter 11. Remember
when John was put in prison, his cousin, and the Lord Jesus
had just begun to continue to engage in ministry, and John
was raising the question, or his disciples rather, was raising
the question, is this the Messiah, or do we look for somebody else?
Sometimes we have that question, don't we? Is Jesus really the
one? You can be honest, you have that
question sometimes. Is he really the Messiah? See,
life and its circumstances will bring you to that point of question,
won't it? If you're really honest, you
and I ask the question quite frequently, are we being duped
or is this really God? The struggle is not so much whether
or not Christ has given us sufficient evidence to affirm his deity,
the struggle is that we actually have in our own human makeup
certain ideas about God that are not true. And then we also
have these notions about God in terms of his character and
attributes that we expect that God does not do. Sometimes God
throws us for a loop, doesn't he? You remember what Isaiah
said in another portion of the scripture. My thoughts are not
your thoughts. And my ways are not your ways.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways above
your ways. Now, if you grasp that particular
truth in Isaiah 55, here's what you realize. When you go to thinking
about God in your own natural mind, you have to be careful
to work within the parameters of that reality. My thoughts
are not naturally going to be the way God thinks. Let me share
something with you as we get ready to work through this, what
I consider a magnificent testimony. Sometimes we are more righteous
than God. Sometimes we are more severe
than God. Sometimes we expect God to come
down and split the earth and swallow up all those bad people
over there, right now. And if he doesn't, well, there
is no God, right? I mean, that's how we act. And
all that means is that those communicable attributes that
God has given us like justice and righteousness and holiness,
they're out of kilter. That means they need calibrating.
Because we get really severe about the way God is. The very
people that we think God should punish and destroy because they're
so evil and they're so wicked and they're so vile, He seems
to give them freedom all day long. And then He does something
on the other end that just absolutely blows our fuses as well. He'll
show mercy. He'll behave in a manner of benevolence
and kindness. which will have us scratching
our head, like David said in Psalm 71. When I considered this,
I almost transgressed. My feet almost slipped. How is
it that the wicked are prospering as a green bay tree, spreading
their wings? It seems like God is approving
them in everything that they do. Here I am trying to pray,
read, and keep my head right, and the ungodly just prospering
all over the place. Which God am I serving? Is that
true? Well, that doesn't mean you and
I are just as jacked up as David, that's all. And listen, David
was king. He was king. He had a lot going
on, much more than me. And he still struggled through
how God acts. If you want to get a handle on
how God acts, you must make Christ your thesis. If you want to get
a handle on how God acts, your thesis, must be Christ. Christ is the revelation of the
invisible God. To the degree that we are careless
about our exploring, investigating, coming to know, deeply interested
in, profoundly considerate of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. To that degree, we will know how God is. This is why
he said in John chapter 14, if you have seen me, You've seen
the Father. No one comes unto the Father
apart from me. And no one has seen God at any
time. Seen, comprehended, perceived,
grasped, apprehended, got a true understanding of God apart from
Christ. What am I saying? We are highly
privileged for God to have manifested himself in the flesh and walked
with us for those 37 odd years and displayed his glory. the alacrity of his kindness
and his goodness to the human race. He didn't have to go through
Samaria. Samaria was a group of what we
would call hybrid religionists. They had a little of paganism
and a little of Judaism, and they kind of fabricated their
own system of religion, kind of like we do today. They were
rooted in traditions, they were rooted in paganism, but they
had a little bit of knowledge about Messiah. Just a little
tad. Kind of like we are today. And
our Lord made it plain back in John 4, they didn't know what
they were worshiping. Kind of like we are today. You
know not what you worship. The Samaritan woman really thought
she had her doctrine right, her understanding right. But this
one seed was left in their theology upon which God was able to do
something with that people. You know what that seed is? The
coming of the Messiah. They knew Messiah was coming.
That's a critically important doctrine. Do you believe he's
coming back? That reality will help your ethic,
it will help your morals, it will help your choices, it will
help your values if you really believe Christ is coming back.
And look how good he is. Did he not bless that Samaritan
town? Did he not bless that woman who
was really profoundly thirsty in her soul for something more
than she was going through in her repetitive seeking and drinking
from the fountain that only caused her to thirst again and again?
Our Lord Jesus goes to Jerusalem by way of Samaria and by way
of Galilee and the text tells us that he entered into a certain
village. See, our Lord loved going through
the hood, too. That's what those villages... Listen, the villages
was nothing but hoods, okay? He didn't do the outskirts stuff.
You know how the politicians go the outskirts? They got their
big entourage and all of the black Yukons with their pistols. They go on the outskirts. Our
Master went straight through the villages. He just went straight
through Hunter's Point. He just went straight through
Brookdale Village, straight through West Oakland, straight, straight
through where everybody could see him. I'm talking about all
the thugs, all the crooks, straight through the middle of San Francisco,
straight through. You know, all of those places
our Lord was to be seen. He was to be visibly manifested
to all kinds of people, not just a certain class or constituency,
not just a certain race, not just a certain wealth spectrum
of society. He was to be seen by all kinds
of people. And I'll tell you why. Because those who see him
will manifest whether or not they need him when they see him. Those who see him will manifest
whether or not they need him when they see him. Messianic
mercy on the way. What is he doing? He's gonna
pass through Samaria. He's gonna go through Samaria
He's gonna affirm work that only he could do John said tell us
whether you're the Christ. He says don't open eyes of the
blind Don't I heal the sick don't I raise the dead don't I watch
this now cleanse the leopards I Here he is on his way to Jerusalem. One more time, he's getting ready
to do a magnificent miracle, ladies and gentlemen, that had
never been done heretofore before, with the exception of one occasion,
which we must tie together. See, when God does miracles,
he does miracles very much unlike the alleged miracles that you
hear talked about in church today. When he does miracles, his miracles
are incontrovertible. You cannot argue with what he
does. When he does them, he does them in such a way, watch this
now, that they actually create scandal. That's how legitimate
they are. Well, hold on for a second. Let's
just learn a few things. I've got you for another 45 minutes
anyway. You see, this is the reason why I don't pay any attention
to the false prophets. You may. And I know, you know,
some of us have the propensity. We have this predilection towards
the phenomena because we like to think we're close to God or
more spiritual because we have a natural inclination to believe
that every time somebody lays their hands on somebody, folks
get healed. See, somehow we think that believing that healing takes
place makes me a believer in God. No. Believing that healing
takes place doesn't make you a believer in God. It just makes
you vulnerable to a false prophet a false teacher Let me help you
if real healings took place I'm talking real healings two things. It wouldn't matter whether you
believed or not Are you hearing me if a real healing took place
it wouldn't matter whether you believe it or not because the
healing would speak for itself Part of the manipulation in a
lot of this psychobabble religion where signs and wonders are the
feature is that unless you really believe, God won't do anything. And if you really affirm that
you believe, give us some more money, then God will show up
and work. You see the scam? Let me help
you understand something. When Christ did miracles, he
didn't ask anybody to believe. He did miracles just because
it was a need to be met. In fact, what's beautiful about
what I'm reading in our account, which I've been meditating upon,
is the way our Lord did so many different kinds of miracles.
You know, on some occasions, the Lord will see a person in
a need, and he will touch that person, laying hands on them,
and they are healed. But on other occasions, you know
what he'll say to that person? Go down to the river and wash.
and you'll be healed by that. On other occasions, our Lord
will heal somebody and you know what he'll say? Don't you tell
nobody a thing. On other occasions, he'll say,
listen, go back home and let everybody know what God did for
you. Sometimes our Lord would heal
people because they requested it. At other times, he would
heal people because that was his job to do. The request was
not even there Are you hearing me? The blind man in John 9,
a wonderful picture of what it means to be born again and to
have your eyes open and to have the scales fall from your eyes
and you to see the glory of God and see the sham and scam of
religion. That blind man was, he was paying
his own attention, minding his own business. Our Lord went that
way with his disciples and he told that man after he had spit
on the ground and made some mud pies, you know, that's the stuff
that would have ran you off, right? You blind and God's going
to heal you, but he's going to spit in some mud first and stick
it in your eyes. See, we're getting ready to find
out how serious you need healing, right? And then he told the brother
to go down to the pool, Salome, and wash. First, the man is blind. Then he got mud pies on his eyes.
And he still got to walk blind with mud pies on his eyes down
to the river. And what's the message teaching?
that faith is humbling when faith becomes the vehicle by which
God does something powerful in your life. But we also learn
that Christ will do these miracles in spite of what people say or
in spite of their desire. Why? Because he came to demonstrate
that he was the only one in the world that could do what he did. He was God. When God does miracles,
when he does miracles, Two things occur. All sorts of ideas in
our minds start to fall apart because we don't really know
how to reference these type of divine acts. We don't have reference
points for it. Then the second thing is scandal breaks out.
In false religion, there are no scandals because there are
no miracles. They're just lies. On this occasion,
our Lord passes through. He passes through, and the text
tells us, verse 12, and there met him 10 men that were, what? Which stood afar off, verse 13,
and they lifted up their voice and said, Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us. Now, there are a couple of lessons
for us to lay down as we consider this. First of all, these are
10 lepers. This is a group of men. This
is a group of lepers. Some of them might've been men,
some of them may have been men and women. We don't know, but
this is 10 lepers, 10 individuals, 10 human beings with the same
problem. The first problem is they've
been exiled, cut off. They are a colony on the outside
of the community. That means they are stigmatized. Are you with me? Do you think
the master of mercy is heading that way? Because they are exiled,
stigmatized, a colony of sick folk who don't have the right
to hang around with anybody but sick folk. Do you think they
need mercy? A colony of exiled sick folk. These people are diseased. They
are afflicted. And in fact, if you were to contemplate
the horrid, horrid disease of leprosy, as it is in the Middle
East, as it is in the Far East, as it is in parts of Africa,
parts of India, and the Middle East, as we know, because they
haven't quite contained it as they could, although they're
doing a really good job today. When you had leprosy, particularly
at that time, you were under a sentence of death. You were
dying. And guess what? Everybody knew
it. You were under a sentence of death and that death was physical,
it was psychological, it was emotional, in many cases it was
spiritual, but it was certainly social. Now why was it all these
things? Because you didn't have the privilege
when you were sick with this disease to be part of the common
community. You were exiled. You were set
apart. And every day you woke up with
the reality that you are a miserable, diseased human on your way to
death. And everybody around you was
in the same condition. Everybody around you was in the
same condition. Leprosy is a horrible, horrible, horrible disease. Now watch this, ladies and gentlemen.
Leprosy is one of the most prominent types in the scripture of the
condition of the whole human race. Stay with me for a moment. Leprosy, the disease that rots
the skin because it's in the blood system and it deadens the
nerve endings and it destroys the digits on our body and ultimately
it eats up the whole body. Leprosy is a type of sin. Sin is a contaminating disease
in our soul. It's a leprosy in our soul. The whole human race, according
to the scriptures, is a leper colony. The whole human race,
the whole human race, according to the scriptures, is exiled. We have been, as it were, cast
out. We're learning this in the gospel
and sexuality that God when sin enters into the equation The
first thing that God does is establishes a barrier between
us and sin Your sins have separated between you and your God. Are
you with me? If you are unsaved if you've not been born again
If you've not been redeemed by the blood and regenerated as
we shall see you are part of a leper colony the whole human
race Has been separated from God It's over here as its own
group, its own group of miserable, wretched, diseased, sick sinners. Now, because there is a twofold
part to our salvation, for those of us who've actually been born
again, for those of you who are saints, don't feel too good about
this. You're still in that colony too. You and I both in that,
we're still dying too. Am I telling the truth? We are
still suffering too psychologically emotionally spiritually, although
we are on the mend And yet we can as it were we can cross over
into that colony Of sick folk as well as enter into the community
that has been sanctified. We can cross back and forth Oh
the mercy of god Do you understand that if you and I in our? uh state of redemption were to
be completely exiled from the rest of the human race who are
in their sinful condition, a pre-grace condition. Do you know how proud
you would be to be over here and them over there? And you're
saying to yourself, I feel so sorry for those poor saps. But
the reality is, is that leprosy still affects all of us. We're still struggling with the
contamination of our fallen nature. See, our fallen nature, though
it has been arrested by the grace of God, and though it has been
nailed to the cross of Christ, it's still with us, right? Oh,
wretched man that I am. See, believers talk like that.
Believers talk like that. These men in Luke chapter 17
are men who are, however, highly privileged. What do you mean?
Unlike our world, the men in Luke 17 know that they have a
problem. See, our world does not believe
it's a leper colony. Our present world does not believe
it's in a state of sin. Our world does not believe it's
under the wrath of God. Our world does not believe that
it is sick and contaminated and defiled and corrected in its
morals, in its ethics, in its thinking. Am I telling the truth?
Our world does not see that it's under a sentence of death. Our
world, in fact, thinks that it's all right. In fact, our world
is so bad. Watch this. Are you ready? It
has made God to be the leper. Get thou away from us. We are
holier than you, God. Are you hearing me? This is where
we are today. We will not have this man in
our presence. We will not have God's word in
our presence. We will not have God's truth
in our world. We don't want God. Isn't that
a profound way to look at it? Here we are, the wretches that
we are, and we're telling God to get out. The men in our text are blessed
because they feel their sin. Now, we know this because when
the master passes by, guess what the text says? Look over at verse
13. And they lifted up their voices
and they said, Jesus! When was the last time you heard
a school system say that? Or the Congress say that? or
the judiciary say that, or our military system say that, or
the executive branch say that, or the psychological institution
say that, or the medical institution say that. When was the last time
you heard any of the formidable institutions of our world that
are alleged to be healers cry out, Jesus! Master. Do you see it? See, these brothers
are blessed. You know why they're blessed?
Because they know they got a problem. You are halfway home when you
know you got a problem. This is why we call this a sinner's
gospel. It's a gospel for people who have problems. It's not a
gospel for those of you who don't. The gospel is not for the righteous.
It's for the unrighteous. The gospel is not for the healed.
It's for the sick. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
See, when I said earlier, is this one of those must needs
moments? Yes, it is. Our master was doing something
in the excursion of his preaching ministry that blew the other
doctors away. I'm talking about those miserable
physicians called elders and Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes. Because our master went through
communities that the Judaistic construct and system said, don't
go. You don't get to hang out with
sick folk. You don't touch dead folk. You
don't come near defiled folk. You don't do that. But that's
all our Master did. It was shaking up the disciples
too. In Mark chapter 2 and in Luke
chapter 5, you don't have to go there, but as the disciples
of John the Baptist were watching the disciples of Jesus, They
wondered why Jesus' disciples didn't pattern themselves after
John's disciples. Because John's disciples were
more austere, they were more monastic, they were more withdrawn,
they were like John. who grew up in the wilderness,
basically eating tree bark and raisins, which is not the kind
of diet I like. I don't care how much I need
to get to God, I'm still eating steak and rice, and then I'm
gonna pray and thank God for it and get close to God through
the steak and the rice and not the tree bark and the shrubs. I think tree bark and shrubs
are for animals. I know I'm created in the image
of God, but anyhow, John the Baptist was eating locust. wild
locusts and honey and I guess that's a diet for some people.
I understand there's protein in that. My wife has been teaching
me this kind of stuff and I realize if I have to eat it, I will eat
it. But if I have to, if I don't have to, I won't. But when the
Lord's disciples come along, I'm talking about God in the
flesh, You know what? John's disciples were saying,
well, how is it that every time I turn around, Jesus and his
disciples are at banquets and at feasts, eating steak, eating
hamburger and hot dogs. What's this all about? What's
this all about? And our Lord Jesus Christ is
demonstrating in his ministry the joy that comes with knowing
the Lord. The feast that comes with knowing
Christ. The celebration that comes with
knowing the true and the living God. Now watch this. And the
bounty that naturally flows from the God of the universe, the
God of all grace, when you know Him. See, if I'm hanging out
with God, why do I need to eat tree bark? I want you to think
about that for a moment. Even Moses could get down better
than that. At least he could get us eating
fried chicken and hot biscuits. Remember that? As we made our
way through the wilderness, hot biscuits in the morning, fried
chicken in the evening, quail from the east wind, as much as
we wanted. That's Moses. And we had the
master with us. We could have a spread. And we
ought to, because the bridegroom is with us. But then they asked
him other questions like, why are you eating and drinking with
publicans and sinners? Again, this is the ethic that
we have to be careful to observe in the life of our master because
we are more prone to be like the Pharisees and the disciples
of John the Baptist than the disciples of Christ. We are more
prone to want to isolate ourselves and separate ourselves and call
them sinners rather than us sinners. and him the only holy one. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? And so our master gave this proverb.
This is one of the early parables that he gave his disciples. And
he said, fellas, you better get this because this is the way
it works. No one takes new wine and places
it in old wine skins. To do so is an incongruency that
will result in calamity because they are incompatible. The nature
of this new wine requires new wineskin because new wineskin
can stretch with the expansion of the wine and both are preserved. He was telling his disciples
earlier on, take a good look at me, fellas, and see how I
do ministry. because this is just how it will
be done by my church. You're going to go where the
sinners are. You're going to be amongst them as one that needs
Christ just as bad as they do. You're going to manifest the
glory of God in the message of redemption to needy souls and
telling them they need Christ and you need Christ and we need
Christ together. You're not going to make a distinction
between you and them. You're going to tell them we
all are in a mess. We all in trouble. You're going
to learn the ethic that the Apostle Paul said. I became all things
to all men that if by any means I could win some. That's powerful. Are you hearing me? Is that powerful?
See, because some people I don't want to be like. There are categories of people,
I'm talking groups of people. that I don't particularly care
to be like. We all got different cultures.
I like some of your cultures, but some of y'all cultures I
don't like. But if I'm gonna win you to Christ, I gotta transcend
the boundaries of my own prejudice and be able to be with you in
your place, in your spot to help you see your need. If I'm headed
to Jerusalem, I gotta pass through Samaria. I gotta pass through
Galilee. I gotta go to the hood. Are you
hearing me? I've got to reconstruct my language.
I've got to break it down. I've got to be able to come where
you are because that's the nature of the gospel. You can't come
to me. You're a leper colony. You've
been exiled. You've been abandoned. You've
been cut off. God's over here. We're over there. The only people that can come
to you are people that are like you. And like him, are you hearing
what I'm saying? This is what's taking place in
our account. And our Lord has chosen to instruct his disciples
one more time on this new wine ministry. As he passes through,
Luke would have us to contemplate this being almost a happenstance. Not that it was. There's no such
thing as coincidences with God. Is that right? God knows from
the beginning what he's going to do, when he's going to do
it, and how he's going to do it. We call it omniscience. And
because he's all-powerful, omnipotent, sovereign, nothing ever hinders
God from doing a thing precisely the way he wants to do it. So
for those of you who are still holding the vocabulary, God can't,
throw that out. because you're talking about
the wrong God, particularly when we're talking about methodology
and approach and objective and purposes. Now, God can't lie
and God can't change and God can't fail. You can hold those
three kids and God can't deny himself. That's a fourth one.
See, God cannot deny who he is. But if you and I are holding
God up and stopping God and hindering God and making God mad and frustrating
God and God's trying to save you, but God can't, you got the
wrong God. Am I making some sense? Your
God is no bigger than you. And in fact, what you did was
turn this thing around. This is called reverse theology.
You are really the God and he's a servant. Because until you
give him permission to save you, you can't be saved. But the reality is, is God saves
whom he wants to save. And God heals whom he wants to
heal. And God calls whom he wants to call. And the other thing
I love about God, he does it in all kind of ways. I told you
earlier, God will touch you and sometimes he won't. God will
speak to you and sometimes he won't. He'll just bless you.
Sometimes God will give you instructions to do weird things. And then
other times he won't. God acts in all of these variable
ways using the same method. It's all the same grace. It's
all the same salvation. It's all the same redemption,
but it's in these manifold ways by which we might know it's God
doing it. See, cause we love to turn things
into methodologies too. Am I telling it true? We love
to turn things into methodology, but I'm glad Luke wrote faithfully. Cause in the fifth chapter of
Luke, you know, Jesus healed another leper. Go there, I want
you to see this before we develop this. In the fifth chapter of
Luke, another leper was healed. In Luke chapter 5, we're going
to consider verse 12 and 13. This was a single leper at this
time. Here we are in verse 12. And it came to pass, when he
was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy. who seen Jesus fell on his face
and besought him saying, Lord, now watch this, if you will,
you can make me clean. Do you see that? If you will,
you can make, now do you know this leper came the right way?
Watch this now, you don't command God to do anything. You know,
you religious folk who the word of faith is you folks who are
bigger than God, tell God what to do. You're not telling my
God what to do. When you come to my God, listen
to me, you're going to ask. That's what you do with majesty.
That's what you do with sovereignty. You ask permission. Even the
devil asks for permission. Who do you think you are? Of
course, that's a bad translation in Isaiah, but that's another
story. Listen to this leper. He falls on his face. He beseeches
him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And watch
this saint, he put forth his hand and did what? See, see it? Sometimes he did it this way,
sometimes he did it that way, sometimes he did it the other
way. And notice what he says, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him. Watch this saint, and he charged
him to tell no man. But go and show yourself to the
priest and offer for thy cleansing according to according as moses
had commanded for a testimony Unto them going back to our text
see our lord was always available for needs For needs If a sinner
needs christ, he will find him The only reason you won't find
christ Is because you don't need him He will always be found by
those who need him, but those who need him must come right. In our text, it's apparent to
me that these brothers knew two things. The 10 here in chapter
17. The first thing they knew is
that they had a problem. Am I telling the truth? And the
second thing they knew is that the only one that could solve
their problem was the man that was passing by. the man that
was passing by. Week in and week out, month in
and month out, the Lord Jesus Christ passes by in the preaching
of the gospel, in the teaching of the word of God, in the exposition
of scripture. He manifests himself through
his word. This is what Titus chapter one
says. He manifests himself through
preaching. Week in and week out, People see our Lord, as it were,
audibly passing through. But just as it was in this case,
so it is today. Very few people say, Jesus! Master! You know why? Because very few people see their
need. Very few people really believe
that they are desperately damned, doomed, hell bound sinners. Now they may say that they're
sinners, because we're cultural Christians, but they're not the
sinners of scripture. They may say that they're sinners
and that life ain't going quite well and they made a few bad
decisions. But they're not the sinner that the scripture says
they are. See the sinner that the scripture says we are, are
helpless sinners. The sinners that the scripture
says you and I are, are hopeless sinners. We are cursed sinners. We are sinners under the, here
it is again, wrath of God. Long ago, this was the kind of
preaching you heard in America. You don't hear this preaching
anymore. We have a gospel today that does
not tell men what their real condition is. We have a gospel
today that placates and accommodate men's false notions of themselves. As a consequence, men are never
experiencing the blessing of healing. Remember what Jesus
says? I didn't come for the whole or
the well. I came for the sick. Until men
see their sickness. And you know what the Bible tells
me? The only way you and I are gonna see ourselves the way God
sees us is if two things happen. Watch this. First and foremost
the law of God is pressed upon our conscience By the teaching
of the Word of God Romans 3 20 says the law Condemns sin and
by it we have a knowledge of our sinfulness By the works of
the law no flesh shall be justified in God's sight But by that law
is the knowledge of sin. So now watch this if we get rid
of the law book of God You know what people will think they're
not sinners This is why people don't like to hear the word preached
or taught not in seriousness But if you are gonna ever be
prepared to meet Christ the first biblical truth that must penetrate
your being Some a sinner and I'm the kind of sinner that God
says I am in fact if you ever come to that realization that
that you are a sinner through and through, that over all of
the years that you have labored to get right with God, that you
have labored to depict yourself as this nice person, you have
labored to win the favor of people and the favor of God, you've
done all kinds of good works, whatever they may be, but yet
you are persuaded today that all that you've ever done only
increased your guilt before God. Can I help you? You're on your
way home, brother. You're on your way home, sister.
The Word of God tells me that the first word of the Spirit
of God is to convince us that we are sinners. Sinners! Until the Spirit of
God breaks open your dark dark heart and show you that the only
thing that's inside there is Rebellion against God you are
not ready for a Savior the work of the Holy Ghost prepares a
man a woman by shows that showing them that they are sinners and
then He points you to a glorious Savior as he's doing right here
All this colony of lepers every day commiserating over their
their their misery Are highly blessed this day because the
savior the only one that could save them has shown up He's shown
up and this is how we know god has begun to work with those
lepers when they saw him. They cried out jesus master The
word epistates. That's the word for master here. I've shared this with you earlier
It's a unique Greek term, unlike kurios, which is the general
term for lordship. That word lordship is a term
that already designates the relationship between the disciple and the
master. When you are a disciple of Christ, Christ is your kurios.
But it implies relationship. It implies a knowledge of him
and a mutual correspondence, him teaching you, him ruling
over you. The word epistates means that
he's the master with all power to do whatever he needs to do
in spite of your relationship, you're coming to him as a peasant
who has no right to even request a need. but because he is the
master and he has the ability to deal with your problem, you're
saying, I am a peasant, I don't know you, I have no relationship
with you, I have no grounds to even negotiate with you, but
I'm in trouble and I need you. I know you can fix my problem.
See, that's where they were. And then you know what's beautiful
about this? All these brothers and sisters
in one unanimous utterance said it all together. Jesus master
Did God prepare their hearts? see what Proverbs chapter 16
verse 1 says is the preparation in the heart of man and The answer
of the tongue is from the Lord in other words Christ was passing
through because he had an answer for their problem But he also
was passing through because his father had prepared their heart
This is the reason why we worship every Sunday This is the reason
why we teach every week, why we preach every week, because
every now and then what God does is bring one of you in here,
having prepared your heart to hear the voice of the Son of
God, to close with you to begin to solve your problem with the
propositions of biblical truth. Follow me now. This colony of
lepers teaches us some great lessons. Here it is. This is
a group, an eclectic group of Jews and Gentiles. Isn't that interesting? Jews
and Gentiles. These are normally enemies. Normally
enemies. They're normally adversaries.
They're normally divided by their carnal and superficial distinctions. You guys understand what I'm
talking about? Like I've argued before and told us before, the
three things that get folks is race. We love to stay divided
by race. Like in reality, there's more
than one race. I've told you before, ain't but
one race. It's called the human race. The pigment variations
is God's humorous way of putting us in different parts of the
planet, and the sun blasts down on us a little bit more than
others. But when you cut us, we bleed the same. But we have
this pride of race. And you ought not to have pride
of race. Because from what I understand, there's only a few percentage
differences between us and the baboons. So you really shouldn't
have a pride of race. Are you hearing me? Just a few,
few genetic chromosomal differences between us and the baboons. You
know the people that scratch their butt in the public. You
know. Oh, I'm white. So you're a white
baboon. And I'm black. Race is a delusion. It's a delusion. But these are the categories
that, in our insecurity because of our fallenness, we establish
these categories to make us feel like we are better than other
people. The other category is the pride of face. We've talked about it before,
race and face. You know, it's already a given
that you beautiful people are going to automatically make 20%
more money than we do. Just because you're beautiful.
And we play on that commodity in the world, don't we? I mean,
you know, we don't have like a litany of shows where everybody
is ugly. You know, they all got to be
pretty people. You know, now you know that's
Hollywood, don't you? You know that's Hollywood. You
watch a show where in the room is 20 sisters, all of them fine. Ain't no overweight sisters,
you know, ain't no, you know we got problems with face. And
that creates jealousy and envy and strife and contentions and
debates and hostilities of all kinds, divisions. And then the other one we have
is the big one in religion. It's called pride of what? Grace. That is the biggest oxymoron
you could ever utter. Pride of grace? I'm getting ready to talk about
that. How you gonna be proud of grace? When grace is the only
thing that gives you hope for the glory of God. And it demands
that you make no distinction between yourself and the other
person in order that grace might qualify to help you. But there
we go. What's unique about this colony
of lepers is that Jews and Gentiles, men and women, all are in this
colony together, recognizing they've got one common comprehensive
Damning problem and that's this they are lepers Do you see it? lepers lepers Who in a short
time will experience the mercy of God they cry out in unison
They lift up their voices in unison master. And what do they
say have mercy on us? Now that's how you get saved
You get saved right where you are in your seat by asking God
to be merciful to you. You get saved right where you
are in your seat, realizing that the only thing you can request
is mercy. That the only thing that you
and I can ask for is the mercy of God. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Mercy is all we can ask for. And mercy is undeserving. In other words, listen now, if
you demand God to give you mercy, it's not mercy, it's merit. You earn that. God doesn't have
to give us anything. We're the ones in trouble. God's
sitting on His throne in glory, as happy as can be. His darling
Son has come and manifested all of His beauty and attributes.
And now He presents to you and I a miserable colony of lepers. Come to Christ. Watch this right
where you are without performance and without pretense in your
heart Trust him As your only hope for glory. Are you with
me so far? Without pretense without show. We don't need no religion
up in here. We don't need you coming to the front We don't
need you shouting and waving your hands. Oh, we don't need
none of that Follow me now We don't need none of that Cuz see
if you start doing that See you're gonna go out of here and sin
tonight and get in trouble. You're gonna tear that testimony
up Hello Right where you are In the secret councils of your
own heart in the bowels of your own soul between you and your
maker Talk to God and ask him to have mercy on you. That's
where God meets sinners That's where he meets them. He meets
them in the heart, not at the altar, in the heart. It's with
the heart that a man believes. It's with the heart that he believes. These lepers saw him passing
by, they screamed and shouted and hooped and hollered, Lord
have mercy on us. It wasn't no pretense in that.
Verse 14, and when he saw them, he said unto them, now watch
this, this is our master. When he saw them, he said unto
them, watch this, go show yourselves unto the priest. Isn't that something? See, he didn't tell his disciples
to go gather all of the lepers up and I'm going to heal them.
But first, I need you to run through the villages and pass
out cards and let everybody know we're going to have a healing
service tonight. We're going to have a healing service. I
got 10 people that need to be healed. So I want everybody to
show up. I want the news. I want the cameras and everybody
because we're going to have a healing service tonight. Let me share
something with you. The God of the Bible heals, but
he doesn't heal in such a way that it brings people to notice
it on a large public level because he's not a megalomaniac. This
is the beauty of Christ manifesting His glory. Very frequently when
He healed, do you know what He did? He would heal somebody in
private and send them down the road. Are you hearing me? Healing
in private. See, healing is between you and
Him. It's between you and Him. And
watch this. He says, go show yourselves unto
the priest. Point number four, the obedience
of faith, essential to salvation. You guys see that in your outline?
The obedience of faith, essential to salvation. Now we gotta work
with this. I want you to get this now. This
is a unique and interesting way in which our Lord negotiates
with these men. They simply said, have mercy.
And he said, go to the priest. There's a huge gap in between
what they're saying and what he's saying, isn't it? A huge
gap. But not really. If you want the
mercy of God, are you ready? Now watch this now. Just do what
he says. Just do what he says. And watch
this. I want you to get this now. They
did it. My goodness. Here they are sick. evidently leprous. Nothing physically
has changed. They said, have mercy on us.
And you know what Jesus said? Go tell the priest I'm having
mercy on you. Do you know they are walking
out of the colony right now? Do you understand what they're
doing? They're creating all kind of scandal. Do you see those
lepers? Here they come. See, because
they're on their way now. They're on their way. Yeah, everybody's
scattered. Oh, what didn't happen? What
is Jesus doing? Keep those lepers contained and
save them contained. Don't let them out among us.
But see, here's the thing. If God saves lepers and send
them out among you, you are more inclined to contaminate them
than them contaminating you. That's profound, isn't it? See,
because they're seeking God for mercy, and they are responding
to Christ's message to go to the priest. But what if on their
way to the priest, some of you hooks and crooks detour them
from their journey? See, the hazard is not on your
part towards them, but on their part towards you, because they're
supposed to go to the priest. What a beautiful, beautiful truth.
What's going on here? Stay with me. I only got a few
more points to go here. What a beautiful truth. If you really
want to be saved, the message of the gospel calls
for you to believe on him whom God has sent. If you really want
to be saved, you must believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Are you hearing me? If you believe
on Christ as Lord, it's gonna be evident by your obedience. Are you hearing me? Go to the
priest. So there are three things in
this statement that we need to mark. Three things we need to
mark. Salvation, salvation is by faith. Apart from works. Are you hearing
me? Hebrews 11 verse 6 says this without faith It is impossible
to please god for he that cometh unto god must believe that he
is a Rewarder of them that do what diligently seek him follow
it now faith is the only way that god will be pleased because
faith is telling you that there is a grace available to you apart
from something you do. Watch this now. These lepers
are told to walk by faith. They're walking out of that colony,
going to the priest. Now, reality, according to the
Levitical code, they weren't supposed to go to the priest.
The priest was supposed to come to them because they are a quarantine
group of Contaminated sinners but they've heard the message
from the master and they are proceeding aren't they and you
know what the text tells me as They went they were what healed
as They went they were healed. We meet people all the time who
so intellectualized the gospel who so work through the propositions
of biblical truth to, as it were, create conundrums and conflicts
and ideas in their head that basically paralyze them from
obedience to Christ. They get caught up in what if,
what that, what, what, what, what about this doctrine? What
about that doctrine? You know what the doctrine that
God calls us to do that manifests our salvation? Believe Him. Believe
God and it's gonna show up in your walk Not one of those lepers
Questioned what Jesus said they started walking and the text
said they were healed three things salvation is by faith alone and
Salvation is through grace alone the reason that it is by faith
is to take your hands off of it and not claim that you get
saved by words and The reason that it is by grace watch this
now is because somebody else Provided everything that was
needed for your salvation It is through faith Because you
can't do nothing to accomplish it. It is by grace because somebody
else did everything necessary it is through faith and is by
grace watch this now and It is manifested in a process called
obedience Did you get that? It is through faith. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be what? Saved. It
is by grace, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. You and I are justified freely
by his grace. We have been redeemed freely
through his blood. We are saved freely by the righteousness
of God in Christ. Grace means somebody else took
care of the bill. Grace means outside of you, someone
else handled all your offenses towards God. Grace means somebody
else dealt with your impossible problem before God. That's what
grace means. Faith means the way that you
obtain this grace is by honoring God and merely believing that
what God said He did, He did. Are you hearing me? Faith destroys
boasting because faith says not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but by his mercy, mercy rather, have he saved us. So these lepers are walking because
the evidence of faith is obedience to the master. Listen, don't
you tell me you believe on the Lord Jesus. And you don't obey
him. I don't believe you. Are you
hearing me? I do not believe you. I do not
believe you have saving faith when you keep living for yourself,
when you keep living for hell, when all the carnal passions
of your fallen nature dictate your choices and your actions.
I do not believe that God gives a kind of faith that does not
glorify him in the context of obedience. I don't know of a
faith that does not do what we're getting ready to see done. Are
you hearing me? So let me go on to describe for
you what saving faith is. Point number five in your outline.
Here's where our Lord is teaching his disciples something profoundly
important as to why God actually saves people and heals people
anyway. He says over in, uh, Verse 15,
and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back
and with a loud voice, glorified God. He fell down on his face
at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Do you
understand the grand distinction that takes place here? Follow
me now. All 10 are headed in the same
direction. They headed to Moses. They get
ready to go tell Moses, that is the priest. You guys can hang
up your robes now because everything that you guys were doing was
pointing to him. Guess what? He's here now. So
you can put your robes down because we don't need no priest anymore.
But one of them who had discovered that he was healed was compelled
to turn around and go back to the one that healed him. See, this is how I know when
you're saved. Because when you're saved, you
glorify the one who saved you. When you're saved, you come to
the one who saved you. When you're saved, you worship
the one who saved you. When you're saved, you exalt
the one who saved you. When you're saved, you boast
in the one who saved you. With a loud mouth, he glorified
God. He fell to Christ's knees. He
worshiped Christ. See, listen, when you're saved,
you're thankful. When I meet saved folk, you know
what I know at the core of their being? This is thankful people.
Thankfulness is a fruit of grace. God has been good to me. I am
thankful to God, and we don't have a problem telling people
who it is that saved us, do we? See, this is what I'm getting
at. When Christ saw this man come back, he said, okay, here's
another opportunity to teach. Watch what he did. Watch what
he did. He says over here in verse 17,
and Jesus answered and said, were not there 10 cleansed? What
happened to the other nine? Now, why did he raise that question?
Because he expected them to do what this one did. Pastor, what's
the distinction? Are you ready to hear the distinction?
None of them were healed in the flesh. One was healed in the
soul. None of them were touched in
their bodies. One of them was touched in their mind. Nine of
them thought, watch this, I want you to get this down. Nine of
them thought that their healing was a consequence of their doing. They were wrapped up in works.
They were determined to go to the priest because they thought
that by mere obedience they would secure their healing. And they
were all Jews. See, the Jews were locked into
works religion. The one man that was a Samaritan
He got here, he said, man, I didn't do this. He did that and headed
back to the source of his healing, which is the design of the gospel.
Christ heals sinners that sinners may give God the glory. See,
you may go to church and you may get all kinds of emotional
healing and psychological healing and physical affirmation. And
all that can take place on a horizontal level. Church knows how to make
you feel good to get your money. Are you hearing me? But you haven't
been healed until in the depths of your soul the light comes
in and the soul is confirmed in this reality that there is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
That God hath put away my sins by the sacrifice of himself.
that He has freely justified me by His grace, that He has
clothed me in His righteousness, that He has healed me of all
my diseases, that I stand accepted in the Beloved on the grounds
of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And I'm going
to tell everybody that even remotely ask me, who did it? Christ did
it. And He saved me that I might
worship Him all the days of my life. Who can not but worship
a God that saves like this? Who can not but worship? The
distinction then, ladies and gentlemen, is very clear. Nine
were healed in the flesh. One was healed in the spirit.
Nine thought it was by works. The other knew that it was by
grace. Nine thought that all that's required is a physical
manifestation. One realized that God had touched
his soul. Touched his soul! Touched his
everlasting soul. It's so absolutely wonderful.
Now watch what our master does. This is quite one. I'm done here.
Watch this now. He says, we're the nine. There are not found
that return to do what? Give glory to God. Now, why did
our master say this? I want you to get this now. Our
master is now demanding a return on his interest. a return on
his word. I've told you this before. I've
told you this before. Faith has a rate of exchange. Grace has a rate of exchange. Are you hearing me? Our master
is now demanding a result of his work. He's demanding
a response to his grace. They asked him to have mercy.
All they had to do was say he didn't. When God calls you by
grace and he gives you his faith and he saves you by Christ, your
job is to return thanks unto God. See, when God saves you,
it's not for you, it's for his glory. Christ was so, so thankful
that this one Samaritan came back, watch this, to give God
the glory. How selfish we are, should we
come up in the church, get our minds straightened out, Get our
lives straightened out. Become healed as it were through
the ignorance and sinfulness of our wicked ways. Go out of
here and not give God the glory. How carnal you would be. How
sinful you would be. How wicked you would be. And
I'll tell you what else would happen too. And God in his mercy
is demanding that these fellas give that appropriate rate of
exchange I'll tell you what else will happen as we get ready to
wrap this up. Here's what will happen I'll
tell you right now that our sense of healing that those nine men
experienced would not have been permanent You see what what Jesus
would tell folks when he healed them is this There was a lame
man that he had healed And he told him to take up his bed and
go into the temple and testify to the folks in the temple that
you've been healed. The man went in and got into
all kinds of trouble. See, real healing gets you in trouble.
He came out of the temple, ran across Jesus again. Jesus said,
hey, do you know who it is that healed you? He says, I don't
know. He says, I'm the one healed you. Now watch this. Go and sin
no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. Do you know what that
means? Make sure that that healing of
your physical body leads you to Calvary, so that you close
with the God that healed you, so that you might have eternal
life, so that your life might be changed, so that in the rate
of exchange, Him healing you, you give God glory. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? That woman who was caught in
adultery, and we're all adulterers by nature, God healed her in
the person of Christ. You remember what Christ said?
Woman, go and sin no more. Now what that means, go and sin
no more, is stop living for yourself. Stop living with your own ideas.
Stop living as if you are independent. Stop living as if you were God.
Stop living in a life of unbelief. To go and sin no more is to trust
in the God who can put away your sins. That's what that means. So as we close, it's very important
for us to understand the lessons that took place here. True cleansing
will result in a knowledge of God in Christ, which will both
produce an understanding of your salvation and cause you to declare
your salvation to others as being totally of God and exclusively
done by Christ. And it will be manifested in
the public worship of the son of God. In other words, if God
cleanses our souls in the saving of our souls, we will be public
witnesses for God. Is that too much to say? Also,
the psalmist makes it very clear in Psalm 103 verses 1 through
3, what shall I render unto God for all his benefits towards
me? What will I do for this God who's
healed me of my diseases? who's healed me of my transgressions,
who's forgiven me of my iniquities. I'll tell you what I'm going
to do. I'm going to take the cup of salvation and I'm going
to pay my vows and I'm going to call upon the name of the
Lord for the rest of my life. That's what I owe the God who
has chosen to save me. And this is the evidence that
you know him. You are willing to worship him.
Watch it now and tell the whole world. I was a leper. deep in sin, from the soles of
my feet to the crown of my head, putrefying sores, contaminated,
condemned, unable to save myself, rotten and ruined all within. But Christ came by one day, by
his grace, and he healed me. He healed me of all my iniquities
and of all my sins. And I'm going to tell the whole
world, the whole world, Christ is my savior. Amen. Amen. Amen.