Luke 17, verse 12. And as he
entered, it's talking about the Lord Jesus. And as he entered into a certain
village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood
afar off. And they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw
them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw
that he was cleansed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified
God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the
nine? They are not found that returned
to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him,
arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. We've read here about 10 men
who were lepers. The awful disease of leprosy
in the Bible, as you know, is a picture of sin in that humanly
speaking, there is no cure for it. And the specific number 10 here,
that there were 10 of these lepers, 10 is completeness, totality. When you get to 11, you're starting
over. So really, 10 is all there is.
10 plus 1 is 11. So the 10 lepers here speak of
the whole of Adam's race being plagued with sin, being infected
by and plagued with this awful disease of the leprosy of sin. And whether you go to the heart
of Africa, or the streets of London, or New York City, or
right here in Hendersonville, every alley, every side street,
every country dwelling, in every valley and on every mountain,
every individual in the world, every man, woman, boy, and girl
is infected with the leprosy of sin. No child, and this is contrary
to a lot of people's doctrine, but children growing up don't
decide to be sinners. We're born sinners. What they
do is they manifest themselves as sinners. It becomes evident
they are sinners and we all are. We all are. You and I and everybody
else, we can't stress that enough. I was talking to a preacher this
morning, and you're not going to believe this. About 6.30 in
a restaurant, he came in. And I was trying to study a little,
and he came over and sat down. Women started. And he started
talking about sin and things he thinks is awful, things he
don't do. And he said he and his wife were
talking one day, and he said, now I know I sin, but he said,
I don't sin willfully. And she said, well, you don't
do nothing. How do you sin? You don't do nothing. How do
you sin? And he said, listen now. He said,
well, I don't rightly know, I said, I just ask the Lord every day
to forgive me of my sins, I guess just out of habit. I confess to you, it is hard
for me to comprehend a man in Henderson County, 74 years old, lived here all of
his life, been carrying a Bible, and preaching and pastoring churches
for 50 years, that's gotten a more sense than that when it comes
to talking about sin. That baffles me. That baffles
me. Many of you know this man. There's
a lot more. Don't really think he's a sinner. But this 10 represents all. are lepers. All have sinned,
Paul said, Romans 3.23, and come short of the glory of God. But now the Lord Jesus knows
exactly where to go and find sinners, don't He? Those whom He has convinced that
they are sinners and has made them ready and willing
to cry to Him when He gets there. He knows where they are. Notice it said here it was a
certain village. The smallness or the insignificance
of the place means nothing to Him. It's a
nameless city. It's nameless to us. The name's
not even given, yet the Lord Jesus went there. He knows where
He's at and He knows who's there. So this is a no-name place. And
we might say that he delights to go to no-name sinners. That's
who our Lord is. It's the helpless and the hurting
and the hungry that he's come seeking. Now, this path Jesus
took in meeting these 10 lepers here, it was no coincidence. It was on purpose. He knew they
were there. And he passed that way. He passed that way. There's a
prophetic word in Isaiah 65, 1. I am found of them that sought
me not. These men weren't looking for
a Savior. But they needed one. And when the ten couldn't come
to Jesus, he came to them. That's the order. The plight of lepers in Bible
times, and still is, was awful. They were pronounced unclean. And the cry of a leper with his
shame-covered lip was to be unclean, unclean, warning people not infected
with the disease, not to come near him. He had, he was legally
bound to cry out his condition at the approach of any other
person. Leviticus 13.45, and the leper
in whom the plague is, He shall put a covering over his upper
lip and shall cry, unclean, unclean, clean people, uninfected people. He was not to allow to get near
him lest they be infected of the disease. So that's the true
condition. And that's what's required of
you and I in crying to the Lord. is our true condition, unclean,
unclean, not worthy, helpless, needy. So often we feel like, and maybe
even be foolish enough to pray like, Lord, I need just a little
assistance here. I've got it 95% of the way, but
I need you to bump in that nickel for me to make it over the hump.
No. The attitude should be, and it
was with these men, Lord, without you, I perish. I have nothing to bring to the
table. I have no bargaining chips with
God. And we don't. All our righteousness,
Isaiah said, are as filthy rags. So these lepers were one in their
defilement. There is something about suffering
that brings people to lay aside their prejudices and lay down
their pride and just identify with each other in suffering.
That's what God's children are supposed to do. That's what we're
supposed to do. We're in this world together.
We're all in this mess together. We're all subject, apart from
the grace of God, to be nothing but troublemakers ourselves,
every last one of us. We all need God's mercy. And
we all need compassion and forgiveness and caring and patience. So these are suffering together.
And we need not forget that our adversary is the devil, not each
other. The devil gets in us sometimes
and we act like the devil sometimes. We hurt one another sometimes,
but to get back to the basic, we're all one in our suffering
with this awful disease of leprosy called sin. Then we understand that these
lepers were separated from society. Notice verse 12 says they stood
afar off. And we find this law of separation
in the Old Testament, Leviticus 13, 46. All the days wherein
the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone without
the camp shall his habitation be. A leper had no place in society
to live among other people. He's left alone. And that's the
condition of every one of us by nature outside the camp. Far off from God. But when Jesus passes your way,
you're no longer far off, thank God. Listen to this, Ephesians
2.13, But now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off
Why? Because of sin, because of this
leprosy. But he said, you are now made
nigh by the blood of Christ. He makes the difference. He makes
the difference. Now let's look at the leper's
prayer here in verse 13, if you're following along with me. Verse
13, what they prayed. And they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Now, this wasn't
one or two of them did this, but all ten of them lifted up
their voices. The cry was unanimous. It's not
some sinners who need a Savior, but all of us need the cleansing
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only was it a unanimous cry,
but it was a cry of wisdom because of what they cried. They cried
for mercy. Jesus, master, have mercy on
us. They never complained of the
unfairness of their condition. They never said, Jesus, master,
I'd like a word with you. I know people that live a whole
lot sorrier than I do, and they don't have leprosy. No, none
of that. None of that. This 10 is all
there is. And so they're not protesting
at the courthouse. They're not, they're not protesting
the mistreatment of other men. They just cried to the Lord Jesus. And they simply owned up to and
acknowledged their helpless condition and their cry for mercy. Can I say something today? You
will never get God's help as long as you, in your prayer,
feel like, I don't deserve the shape I'm in. I'm not nearly as bad as some
people I know. God will not hear you comparing
yourself and your good points with somebody
else's bad points. God's not interested in that.
We're all bad. He approves his children in Christ. That's all. That's all. We need but realize and pray,
Lord, I am unclean. I am vile. I do not deserve anything good
from you. But for Christ's sake, who is
worthy, I plead his righteousness. Over my predicament, that's the
way we should pray now in verse 14. And when he saw them. He said of them, Go show yourselves
unto the priest. That was the order of the law.
That was the Old Testament order. And Jesus never bypassed that.
It's in effect here until he dies, is risen, day of Pentecost. But Jesus never bypassed that. Listen to Leviticus 14.2. This
shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.
He shall be brought unto the priest. What these lepers didn't know
was that the order, the Old Testament order was being fulfilled in
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were in the company of our
great high priest, the Lord Jesus himself. So in this word of command,
go show yourselves unto the priest. Jesus was simply saying to them
hear my words and obey my voice Here and obey Here and obey. I'll tell you something folks.
You don't need to come to church to hear the preacher Way going
church, I'm gonna go hear the preacher, uh-uh You better have
a heart to hear God speak to your heart I'm going to go see how many
is there, what's going on, or if so-and-so is there. None of those are worth going
to church for. It's not my brother and my sister,
but it's me, O Lord. I need to hear from you about
my wretched condition and my wicked heart. When it comes your time to die,
it's not going to be about brother or sister or this and that and
the other, what they did or didn't do who's right or who's wrong.
Why? No, it's going to be, I'm going
to face God. That's the issue. That's the
issue. So Jesus is saying, hear me and
obey me. Is that not exactly what he said
his children do in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Now we notice these lepers never
discussed whether they ought to believe and obey. They never even dissected Jesus
words, looking for political correctness. They just went. They never debated, reckoned
it'll work. They just went. This is so simple
and yet it's so needful. You've got to won't deliver it.
You've got to be desperate and believe God and trust God and
be willing to let go of where you're at before you get anywhere
else. We all have hangups. and you've got to leave where
you're at to get somewhere else. I've used this several times
through the years about a man stranded in the river, his boat
had overturned and it rained a lot and here he is swiftly
going down, coming up on a set of high falls. And he's struggling
and he grabs hold of a log. Well, when you're in that mess,
you grab hold of anything you can. He grabbed hold of a log
and was floating down. Well, somebody on the bank saw
him and threw a rope and threw it well right to him and he grabbed
the rope. So he has the rope and he has
the log. But he's got to let go of something
in order to go with the other. And in a split second of fear
and confusion, he let go of the rope. He could have let go of the log,
but he let go of the rope and went over the falls and perished. You've got to let go of where
you're at to get somewhere else. And it came to pass as they went. They were cleansed. Oh, the Lord didn't need him
to make it plumb to the priest. No. He didn't even have to tell him
to go, but he told them and they went. And as they went, they were cleansed. You want
to know where the cleansing comes in? In obeying. And one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, just one of them now, turned back and
with a loud voice glorified God. Now this might be the only one
that saw that he was healed. I don't know. But he also saw something else. There was something else took
hold of his mind and heart. They were all cleansed physically, but this one had his eyes opened
spiritually. He saw and he understood that
this man Jesus is superior to the law. He's superior to all my efforts
to keep it. And he understood that what I
need to do is stay with him. can do without going to the priest
who can only pronounce me clean. I need to stay with the one that
I know made me clean. See, see the difference. He went back and with a loud
voice glorified God. fell down on his face at his
feet giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Uh-oh. The Jews had no dealings
with the Samaritans. Probably some of the rest of
these fellows were Jews or most of them. But this one was a Samaritan. There is something about the
common ground of suffering, in this case, leprosy, as I said
earlier, that caused them to put aside any prejudices they
may have had. And these others have long ceased
to be Jews, and he has long ceased to be a Samaritan. They're all
just lepers. That would do us good, wouldn't
it? If we could cease to be some
of the proud titles we claim that supposedly makes us better
than others. No, no. All that's got to go. We're all this lepers. We're
all this sinners. He was a leper. He saw what the
Lord had done. fell at His feet and gave thanks. We are very much vision impaired
in this generation. We don't see God. We think we've been successful. We look at the blessings of God
and say, I've done well. I've got all this for myself. I've worked for it. I deserve
it. And I enjoy good health because
I've took so good care of myself. Well, you ought to do that. But that's not why. It's the
blessings of God. It all comes from Him. He was a Samaritan. Half Jew, half Gentile, not really
accepted by either side. He was a man without a country,
and that's all any man is without Christ. Strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope without God in the world. Jesus answering
said, were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? They
are not found that returned to give glory to God save this stranger."
They had all been touched physically by the power of God. They could all ten get on with
their lives. and enjoy life because of the
goodness of God and the blessing of God. I'm telling you, folks, the reason
you're able to do what you do and live as you live and enjoy
life as you do is due to the goodness and blessings of the
Lord. All 10 of them had that. It rains
on the just and the unjust. There's a verse in the Psalms
that says the Lord is good to all. He's not chosen to save all.
There's many perishing in their sins, but the Lord is good to
all. He is. All 10. But now here's the big question. Are you part of the nine? You're part of the 10, but are
you part of the nine? Is physical healing and material
blessing enough for you? It was enough for nine out of
10. Or are you like this one? brought
to realize that without Christ, you must eventually perish. No
matter how good things look now, regardless of how healthy or
wealthy I may be now, regardless of old or young, without Christ,
you must perish. I'm telling the truth. Have you been brought to bow
to him? Have you committed all that you
are and all that you have to him to live for his honor and
his glory? If you have, that's the greatest
blessing anyone could have in life. And
he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee
whole. The others had a physical touch. This man was made whole. Physical healing is one thing
to be made whole is something else. Jesus asked the crippled man
at the pool of Bethesda, John 5, wilt thou be made whole? That was more than physical.
The woman with the issue of blood, 12 years, Jesus said, thy faith
hath made thee whole. Matthew 15, the demon-possessed
daughter of the Canaanite woman was made whole. Mark 10, blind
Bartimaeus was made whole. Spiritual healing. So the question
this morning, while the world is crumbling around us. Multitudes perishing in their
sins. I would challenge each of you.
To pray in sincerity. Lord. Don't make me like the nine. Don't let me be satisfied with
the very best that this world has. Don't let me be blessed so much
materially and physically that I can't see how much I need you. But Lord make me like the one. who sees more value and a brighter
future in clinging to you than in going my own way in the
world. Oh, blessing of all blessings
to be brought to bow at Jesus' feet. And that's what the one
experienced and the nine didn't. So my priority is, and yours
should be, Lord, don't make me like the nine, make me like the
one. Stand together. Thank you for
your time.