Let us open our Bibles today
to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, I'll be reading
verses 11 through 19. And it came to pass, as he went
to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria
and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain
village, there met him ten 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 priest. And
it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And
one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and
with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at
his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering said, were there not ten cleansed, but where are the
nine? There are not found that return
to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him,
arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. This incident
in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is only given to us in
the Gospel of Luke. We're told the time and the place
in verse number 11. The time was when the Lord Jesus
Christ was going to Jerusalem for the last time, for the last
time, for he would be crucified and slain for his people in Jerusalem. And the place is between on the
borders of Samaria and Galilee. I want to mention four things
from these verses and comment upon them. First, he was met
by 10 men, verse 12. As he entered into a certain
village, there met him 10 men. Usually when people meet, they're
fairly close. Close enough to shake hands.
Close enough in some cultures to give an abrazo. But close. But we see that these men that
met the Lord Jesus Christ were not close, they were far off.
Why was that? Because they were lepers. They
were lepers. And this is what God's law commanded
them to do. Only God, think about this this
morning, only God knows how many diseases that mankind is subject
to. Hundreds, if not thousands of
diseases. We do know this, we don't know
the number of diseases, but we do know this. that every disease,
every bodily disease that men suffer from, that they're all
here because Adam introduced sin into this world. Had Adam
never sinned, there never would have been disease. The Lord Jesus
Christ, Adam didn't represent our Savior. Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the seed of the woman. He was separate from sinners,
the apostle Paul tells us in Hebrews. The Lord Jesus Christ
never knew what it was to be sick because he had no sin. But every other person born into
this world of woman knows what it is at times to be sick. How
many sicknesses are there in this world? In our congregation
here this morning, no doubt, If we took the time, we could
talk about all of our problems, infirmities, diseases, and things
we've suffered from, and there'd be many. But God chose one out
of the many thousands. God chose one disease to picture
sin. And that disease was Bible leprosy. Bible leprosy. God shows this
as a picture or as a type of sin. My sin, your sin, the sin
of every person who comes into this world. Leprosy pictures
our sin. In the book of Leviticus, which
is a book, one of the five books in the law, We have two very
long chapters, chapters 13 and 14, which deal with leprosy,
the law of leprosy, how it was to be dealt with. But there are
three parallels in the Bible between Bible leprosy, and I'm
using that term Bible leprosy because I'm not sure if the leprosy
in the world today is the same as it was in Bible times. But I do know this, Bible leprosy
pictures sin. And there are three things about
Bible leprosy that pictures my sin and your sin. And these things
are very, very important. First of all, Bible leprosy was
filthy, was filthy. You say, why was it filthy? Because
the flesh would actually decompose. Members of the body, the fingers,
the nose, ears, things like that, would actually decompose while
the person was alive. You know, in Romans chapter 3,
and the apostle Paul quotes from Psalms 14 verse 3, Paul said,
there's none righteous, no, not one. The Psalmist said it like
this. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. And if you look at that Psalm,
Psalm 14, you have a Bible that has a marginal reading. You will
see a little number before that word filthy. And you look in
your margin and it means stinking, stinking. Bible leprosy pictures
sin because of the stench it put off. Some of you remember
several years ago, we helped a family in our church that had
been flooded. And one of the jobs, after about
a week or a week and a half, I think, after the flood, there
was a freezer. freezer that was closed and it
was my job to take the stuff out of that freezer. Meat that
had been decomposing for days. The awful stench. Now we don't
like to think of ourselves like this, but I'm telling you this
morning, in God's sight, because of our sin, by nature, We are
filthy in God's sight. We're filthy. Each and every
one of us who are born into this world, we are filthy in God's
sight. A second thing about leprosy
that pictures sin, it's spread. It might begin with just a small
spot on your body, but it would spread. It would get larger and
larger. When I was a missionary in Mexico,
I had a film. You know, when we were down there,
a lot of the villages didn't have electricity. And so we could
project a film and get just about everybody in the village to come
out to see the film. And that would give us an opportunity
after the film to preach the gospel. And I had a film one
time on leprosy. I never will forget it, because
the man in the picture show, at least, he saw that little
spot on his leg. And they wore robes, you know.
Well, no one could see it. And then finally his wife saw
it, and they put some oil on it, some olive oil. And then
before long, his son saw it. And then before long, it was
revealed to everyone in the village that this man had leprosy. And that meant that he had to
be put out of his home, put out of his family, put out of his
village to live alone. Leprosy, it was a spreading disease. And when I think about sin, how
it has spread in man, it doesn't just affect the mind, it does. We come into this world with
a mind that is darkened. The natural man understandeth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And not only is the mind darkened,
but the volition, the will, is set to have my will, not God's
will, but my will, and our affections. That's what the heart is. The
heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, the
prophet Jeremiah tells us. his mind, his affections, and
his will, his volition. Yes, it's spread throughout man.
And man is a depraved being. We use that word total depravity
because sin has affected every part of us. That doesn't mean
that every person is as bad as they could be. You know, as some
people no doubt on a scale, our scale of goodness, some are up
here and some are down here. But total depravity just means
that every part of man, his mind, his will, his affections, all
were affected in the fall. Most people believe that man
comes into this world and he's just kind of like a piece of
white paper, and whatever he writes on it, that's what he
is. No, man comes into this world
as a depraved, fallen individual. He's a leper spiritually. Before God, he is filthy, and
the leprosy is spread throughout his being. And the third thing
about leprosy, it was an incurable disease by man's medicine. The law of God, as I said, there's
two very long chapters that deal with leprosy. But when a person
suspected that he had leprosy, he didn't go to the doctor. The
law didn't send him to the doctor. You go down there to Dr. Smith,
he's an MD, and see if he has some medicine that'll help you.
No, no. No. The leper was sent to the priest.
The priest. And the reason he was sent to
the priest, the priest would examine the spot. And if he saw
that it was leprosy, then he would determine that's leprosy,
that means you're unclean, that means you must move out of the
camp. You cannot participate anymore
in the camp. And not only did they live outside
the camp, outside the village, but they had to cover their lip. And when they approached anyone,
they would have to cry out, unclean. In other words, don't come near
me. These ten men, the scripture
says, they met the Lord afar off. Verse number 12. And as he entered into a certain
village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood
afar off. Oh, what a picture. What a picture. of every one of us as we come
into this world. Far off from God. Far off from God. How are we
gonna get back? We're so far off we can't bring
ourselves back. Only God can come and rescue
us if he's pleased to do so. were far off from God. These
men stood far off. The second thing I point out
to us in verse 13, they all addressed him as master. Jesus, master,
have mercy on us. Robert Hawker gives these comments
on this term master. Though we use this term, We use
this term in several relationships and speak of others as masters.
But he went on to say, but strictly speaking, it belongs to none
but to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, this is what Christ
said, one, one is your master, even Christ. Hawker went on to
say, we should not give this title to the person of God the
Father. We would never speak to God the
Father and call him Master, nor would we speak to God the Holy
Spirit and call him Master, according to Robert Hawker. It seems too
familiar, he said. But I am Jesus. I am Jesus in
our own nature. The Son of God in our own nature,
I in Jesus in our own nature, the heart feels a nearness of
affection and the terms then of master and honored Lord seem
expressive of both duty and love. Everything in Jesus and every
office in Jesus makes this title pleasant. He said to his disciples,
you call me master and Lord. and you say, well, for so I am. Master Jesus, master, have mercy
on us. They called him master as master
over all things. He had already shown himself
to be master over the wind, You remember the time when he and
his disciples were crossing the Lake of Galilee, and a wind came
up, he was asleep in the back part of the boat, the scripture
says, and the disciples thought they were going to all go down
in the sea, be drowned, and they awoke him, and he stood up and
said, be still, be still. Be still. And the wind obeyed
his voice. And there was a great calm, bonanza,
the scripture says in Spanish. He had shown himself master over
the water when he told the servants to fill those six water pots
up with water to the brim and then carried it in, carried in
rather to the master. of the feast, and the master
of the feast said, you've saved the best wine for last. And yes, he had showed himself
master over death, the king of terrors at grim reaper death. Look back here in Luke chapter
11. Luke chapter seven, I'm sorry,
Luke chapter seven. Verse 11. Luke seven, verse 11. And it came to pass the day after
that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples
went with him and much people. Now when he came nigh to the
gate of the city, behold, There was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and much
people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said unto her, weep not. And he came
and touched the bier, and they that bear him stood still. And
he said, young man, Young man, I say unto you, arise. And he that was dead set up and
began to speak. He had already showed himself
master over the wind, over water, over death, over all things. And yes, Jesus, master, even
over an incurable disease like leprosy. Jesus, master. Have mercy on us. We read of
another time when a leper came to the Lord Jesus, earlier in
his ministry, and that leper said to the Lord, Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me whole, clean, thou canst make me clean,
if you will. And the Lord responded, I will
be thou clean. Master, Jesus, have mercy on
us. Well, you notice our Lord, after
they cried and asked for mercy, when he saw them, he said unto
them, go, show yourselves unto the priest. Some believe that
should be just priest, not priest, but go show yourself unto the
priest. Once again, this reminds us that
the Lord Jesus Christ was born under that old covenant, that
old covenant law. And he kept the law perfectly.
And that's what the law said concerning lepers. They were
to be sent to the priest. And our Lord obeyed the law perfectly
in every way, every tittle, every dot. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law and the prophets. And he did so. And so the law
said, send the leper to the priest. That's where he sent him. Go
to the priest. Now notice this. He did not cleanse
these men of their leprosy and then send them to the priest. Let's read verse 14. And when
he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass that as they
went, they were cleansed. He did not cleanse them and then
send them to the priest. No, he said, go show yourself
to the priest. And as they went, as they believed
his word, They were cleansed. They were cleansed. And this
serves as a lesson for those who seek some experience. They seek some experience and
then they say, if I could just see something, then I would believe.
No, that's not God's order. Believe and see. A lot of times
people want assurance. They seek assurance and they
think, if I could just have some experience, then I would have
assurance. No. Then you would have assurance
not in Christ, but in your experience. No. Our assurance is in Jesus
Christ, who He is. We're assured that our sins are
forgiven us, that we're saved, that we're children of God, not
by what we feel, but by the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, manifest in the flesh, and he obeyed God's law perfectly,
and died, and paid the price for our sins. That's our assurance. Peter said, we are sure that
the Christ, the Son of God, is sure. They believed, they obeyed,
and then they experienced the cleansing. Third thing, one of the 10 returned
to give God glory. Verses 15 through 18. One of
them. Now here are two things for us
to see about this one who returned. First of all, This man glorified
God, the scripture says, verse 15. One of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified
God and fell down on his face at his feet. This is a testimony,
of course, to our Lord's deity. He turned around to glorify God. He fell at his feet, the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, He is God. He's fully man. He is. And because he's fully man, he
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We have a
great high priest who may be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities because he's man. But he's more than just
man, he's God-man. And this leper recognized that. He returned to glorify God. With a loud voice, he glorified
God and fell down on his face at his feet. And second, I want you to notice the Lord
Jesus took this in gratitude. He took notice of this in gratitude. Where are the nine? Where are
the nine? Ingratitude is a sin. It is a sin like all other sins. It is an evil, a wicked thing. I want you to look back in Psalm
106 with me just a moment. Psalm 106. Some people have a catalog of
sin. And they think of drunkenness,
adultery, murder, lying, and yes, all these things are sin. Sins, I should say. Yes. But
they're sins of the heart. There's that lust in the heart. That covetousness. that ingratitude. These things
are evils as well as those outward things that men are guilty of.
Let's never forget that. Our Lord took notice. Ten were
cleansed, one returned. Where are the nine? Where are
the nine? Here in Psalm 106, The psalmist
said, praise ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he
is good, for his mercy endureth forever. The Lord is good. He's good. He's always good. Someone said, they heard a man
say, my son went off to fight in Vietnam. And he came home,
the Lord's good. And my friend pastor said, my
son went off to fight in Vietnam and he didn't come home, but
God is good. God is good all the time, every
time, everywhere. Our experiences do not change
God's goodness. God is good. And as the psalmist said, give
thanks unto the Lord for his goodness. This one man, he turned
around and that's what he's doing, isn't it? Glorifying God, he's
giving thanks unto the Lord for his cleansing. But where are
the nine? Where are the nine, our Lord
asked. If you look further in this Psalm 106, down to verses
six and seven, David said, we have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers
understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the
multitude of thy mercies. They remembered not, they didn't
give thanks for God's mercies. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him. By not remembering, listen,
by not remembering God's mercies, giving thanks unto the Lord for
his mercies, they provoked the Lord, David said, at the sea,
at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, oh, I like that
word. Don't you? Nevertheless, nevertheless,
in spite of us, nevertheless, the Lord saved them for his name's
sake. Why did God save you if he saved
you? For his name's sake. For Christ's
sake. That's the only reason anyone
is saved, for Christ's sake, for who he is and what he's done. How did they provoke the Lord
at the Red Sea? You remember they witnessed those
10 signs in Egypt, frogs, lice, darkness, The water turned to
blood, just one thing after another, until finally God killed the
firstborn in every house where there was no blood of a Passover
lamb. And they get out to the Red Sea,
and Pharaoh's army's coming. They're shot in on both sides
by the mountains, and what did they do? They chided Moses with
these words, because there were no graves in Egypt, Hast thou
taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? In other words, because
of their ingratitude for not remembering, not thanking the
Lord for His mercies which they had witnessed when they came
to another trial, immediately they tempted the Lord. Ingratitude is a sin. It is a
sin which God notices. God's people are and must always
be a thankful people. Murmuring and complaining is
a sin against God. We see that in the nation of
Israel time after time as they were there 40 years in the wilderness. Murmuring, complaining. Yes,
they murmured against Moses, but in actuality they were murmuring
against God. When we complain about the weather,
we're complaining about God. We had that in our bulletin,
that line, really. When you look at the weather,
John Chapman, Brother John Chapman said this. When you look at the
weather, you're looking at God working. It's his weather. One last thing. Fourth, one of
the ten was made whole. Notice that in verse 19, back
in our text. Now all ten were cleansed. All ten were cleansed. But the
Lord Jesus Christ said unto this one man who returned to give
him thanks, Arise, go thy way, thy faith
hath made thee whole. All ten of the men were cleansed,
but is it possible, is it possible that only one was made whole? That his body and soul made whole,
not only in body, not only cleansed from the leprosy, but cleansed
from sin, the filth of sin. You know when salvation is ascribed
to faith, our Lord said, rise, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. It's not this man's faith that
saved him, it's the object of his faith. You know that. Faith didn't die for you. Faith
didn't bleed for us. No, it's the object of our faith. And that's the most, I think
the most important thing about faith What's the object of, who's
the object of your faith? You say, well, I believe. Well,
what are you believing in? Are you believing in your experience?
Are you trusting in something you've done? No, the object of
our faith, Jesus Christ alone, alone. Now I want to close, but
listen to me very, very carefully now. I thought of these scriptures
when I was making these notes and I wrote down that sin is
filthy. Sin is filthy. If I could just
see myself before God, you could see yourself today before God. Filthy. By nature, filthy. I wrote down these scriptures.
Job said, if I wash myself with snow water and make my hands
never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine
own clothes will abhor me. There's nothing snow water they
thought was the clearest, the cleanest water on earth. But
snow water won't wash away this filth. not the filth of sin. Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
though they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. Come now. Though our sins are
filthy, yes, come now. unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. Now that's the agent that cleanses
away the filth of sin, the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing else
will do it. The last text, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. Cleanseth. Not just cleansed,
but cleanseth. It's ongoing, isn't it? As we
go through this world, the blood of Jesus Christ is continually
cleansing us, washing us from our defilement. May the Lord,
I want to be like that one leopard, don't you? I want to come back
and praise God. I don't want to be like those
nine that go off I want to be like that one that came back. Bless the Lord. Bless you, oh
God. Amen. All right, let's finish.