[0:00] Luke 17. Luke 17. Got a few more weeks on the more than a name at verse 11.
[0:31] It says, 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 far off.
[0:47] 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.
[0:58] 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.
[1:13] And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the other nine? And there is not found the return to give glory to God, save this stranger.
[1:28] And he said unto him, Arise, and go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for our time together this morning, Lord.
[1:40] We thank you that we can come before you, and Lord, we can give thanks. We can thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We can thank you for the fact that he took our sins on himself, that he went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, that he rose again, claiming victory over death and hell and all of that.
[2:01] And Lord, that he ascended back into heaven where he's sitting at the right hand. And Father, he's making intercession for us every day. Lord, we just thank you for all that Christ has done for us. Lord, we thank you for the way you meet our needs every day, the heart that keeps beating, the lungs that keep taking in breath.
[2:17] Lord, you're just meeting us in every way. And Lord, you're taking care of other things in our lives as well. Lord, as we talk today about being thankful, as we talk later about the fact that you are in control, you rule, Lord, help us to be thankful that we have your protection, your sovereignty over us.
[2:39] Lord, make this a great day in your house today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, the title, No Names and No Thanks.
[2:53] The what? You had the wrong one? Okay. All right. You want my phone? Can you bring it up from there?
[3:05] Okay. If you can't, that's fine. So, No Names and No Thanks. Luke 17, 11 through 19. Okay.
[3:19] As a child of God, when should we be thankful? On November 20-something? That's our day for being thankful?
[3:31] No. We should be. We should be thankful all the time. God has done so much and God is doing so much and God is taking care of us every day and meeting our needs every day.
[3:42] It should be a constant expression that we have day after day after day. If you've noticed when I pray, a lot of times I will pray, thank you for this and thank you for that and thank you for, God, you're meeting needs.
[3:57] You're taking care of us. So, thank you for doing that. The Apostle Paul, ever since he was on that road to Damascus, he never forgot that God found him on that road to Damascus and God changed his life that day on the road to Damascus.
[4:15] Matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 15.10, 1 Corinthians 15.10, he wrote this, but by the grace of God, I am what I am.
[4:27] Stop right there. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul says, my life was changed. My life was different when Jesus came in. You know Paul's story.
[4:38] You know what he had been doing before that road to Damascus experience. He had been killing people for being Christians. Now he is one. He says, look, by the grace of God, I am what I am.
[4:49] And, his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. I learned from what God did. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.
[5:04] He says, God's grace changed me. God's grace is still with me. God's grace is helping me day by day to live the life that God wants me to live. I am so thankful because of him.
[5:17] I am what I am. Do you thank God for who you are? Do you thank God for what he has done in your life and changed you? You ever hear somebody kind of complaining about things and they'll go, well, praise the Lord.
[5:36] Kind of say it with an attitude. You ever hear people do that once in a while? Think about that for a second. That comes from an ungrateful heart. They're not thankful for what God has done.
[5:48] You know, they're actually probably frustrated and a little upset because they don't think God's doing what they think he should do, so they verbalize it with kind of a sarcastic tone. And actually, if you think about it, what does the Bible say in the Ten Commandments?
[6:07] Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, it says this, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
[6:19] And if somebody says it like that, well, praise the Lord, aren't they kind of taking God's name in vain? The attitude that we have, are we truly thankful for what God has done for us?
[6:34] something goes wrong in your life. Are you learning from it? Are you allowing God to use it to teach you things?
[6:46] We should have an attitude of gratefulness. Choose to be grateful and express it to God and let him work in and through the situation that you're in.
[6:57] Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, it says this, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.
[7:11] He says that God would be able to work in your life, that God would be able to show the riches of his glory to you by you being strengthened, by you having the spirit work on your inner man, by you coming to the point where you're like, God, thank you for everything that's taken place in my life because you are molding me and you are shaping me and you're taking me in a direction and you're getting me ready for things that you have for me.
[7:40] Lord, help me to be grateful for all that you have done. You know, letting people know that you're thankful, letting God know that you're thankful is such an important thing.
[7:53] There's a story about a young man. He was an organist in a large church in Texas and as the organist, you know, he played for all the services.
[8:05] Now, one thing about this man, he was blind. So he gets up there and he's got the music memorized and things and stuff and he's playing the organ and doing things and so many people in the congregation are touched by what he does but he can't see the expression on their faces.
[8:23] He can't see what they're doing and stuff and so he plays and he plays and he plays and, you know, as the people listen, they're moved by it.
[8:33] When they're in sorrow, they're uplifted by it. There are times when he's playing and tears are coming down their face and, but he doesn't know any of that because he can't see it.
[8:44] One morning, it's announced that this would be his last service. He would not be playing anymore and basically, he had given up because he didn't think anybody cared.
[8:58] He didn't think it mattered to anybody and so he was going to get done. After the service, there was a woman that came up to him and she said, I'm sorry, you're not going to be playing for us any longer.
[9:09] I've enjoyed your music so much. It helped me greatly. It soothed and comforted me when I was in sorrow. I've thought many times I would tell you what an inspiration I've received through your music.
[9:20] Thank you for it. Young man's eyes filled with tears. He said, Oh, why didn't you tell me sooner?
[9:34] He said, I needed comfort and inspiration too. You know, be willing to tell people when they have done something for you that's helpful. When they've done something that has uplifted you and encouraged you and tell people that they've done that.
[9:52] So often, we're just kind of like, eh, they know. No, they know. I can tell you as a pastor, you know, there's some people who come up and they tell me. but there's a lot of times that I do things and I do things and I do things and does it make a difference to anybody?
[10:11] Does it help anybody? And we shouldn't do it for the reason, for wanting recognition. We shouldn't do it for self-glory and stuff but it does help to know that somebody actually is getting something from it.
[10:24] You know, when you do things, you want people to kind of like, thank you for doing that. That was such a help. Right.
[10:38] Yeah. Yeah, you do it for the Lord but it does help when somebody says, thank you. Yeah. Well, people come out and they do, and when they do say, you know, oh, that was a great sermon.
[10:52] Well, thank you, praise the Lord. That's, you know, God gave me the message and stuff but it does help to know that somebody's getting something out of it. Yeah. Great. Getting back to taking the Lord and staying in vain.
[11:05] Okay. You can put words together but if they're just words for the sake of words and the verse to what's inside of you that makes you say this, that is when something's in vain and the verse to just saying the word.
[11:26] Yeah. So, yeah, some people just, they'll say things. Yeah, you do it out of a heart of gratitude, a heart of love. It may never come true what you say. Yeah.
[11:36] If you feel it, it's not in vain. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's the way you say it. Huh? It's the way you say it. Hmm. Talked about that a lot lately. Okay. It's the way you say it.
[11:48] You know, think about this one for a second. We're made in the image of God. Okay? We're made in the image of God.
[12:00] Do I look like God? No. But I'm made in his image. In fact, I have emotions, I have feelings, I have character, I have things that God would have because he made me that way.
[12:12] So, the way we feel about some things might be the way God feels about some things. And let me ask you, how many times have you prayed for things and God has answered those prayers, have you gone back and thanked him for it?
[12:30] We kind of treat him the same way, don't we, a lot of times. We pray for things, God answers that prayer and we're like, well, okay, what's next? You know, that's God's job anyway, so, okay.
[12:42] No. Do we thank him? Absolutely. No. It might be. No. Yep. And do we thank him for that? Yeah.
[12:52] Do we thank him for that? God knows. God has a plan. Margaret? I've learned a long time ago that if I thank God before I receive something or don't receive something, I can see more clearly his answer.
[13:12] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Be thankful before you get the answer. God, whichever way you go with this, I know you're doing what's best for me. Yeah. There's always a reason.
[13:22] Yeah. So, do we thank God? Are we thankful when he answers our prayers? So, back to our passage of scripture.
[13:33] Here's these guys. They're coming to Jesus. Jesus came to town. They know he's there. And they are in miserable grief. Miserable grief.
[13:45] Why would they be in such grief? Why would they be so miserable? They're lepers. They're lepers. You know, we understand that you have to have gratitude, but these guys are lepers.
[13:57] Look at verse 11 and 12 again. 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.
[14:15] They have leprosy. And Jesus is about to give them a solution to their problem.
[14:26] One that they weren't expecting. An unknown solution to their problem. You know, think back earlier in this series of lessons. we talked about a little servant girl who was a servant to Naaman.
[14:40] Naaman had leprosy. And this little girl, remember, she got him to go and see Elijah and be healed of it. Leprosy is a disease that works from the inside out.
[14:53] We talked about this. It goes, starts underneath the skin and works its way out and it eats basically the skin and the things that go with it.
[15:04] and just a terrible, terrible disease. And the Bible uses leprosy as a picture of sin. Where does sin start? In the heart. And it works its way out.
[15:18] And he says, look, leprosy is just like sin. It's going to consume you. It's going to just take over everything until eventually you die. What does Romans 6.23 say?
[15:29] The wages of sin is death. You continue living in sin and sin takes over your life and something doesn't happen miraculous, you're going to die because of sin.
[15:42] There's no remedy for it. The only remedy for sin is redemption through Jesus Christ. These men were lepers. The only way that they're going to have any relief from that leprosy is going to be a miracle by Jesus.
[15:59] Notice it says they stood far off. Part of having leprosy, you could not go near people. You had to announce yourself as you were coming near people.
[16:09] unclean, unclean, so people would not come near you. Leviticus, everybody's favorite book. Dana's favorite book.
[16:20] Everybody else, nah. Leviticus, you read the laws and things there. Leviticus chapter 13, verse 24 and 25. Leviticus 13, 24 and 25.
[16:34] Or if there be any flesh in the skin whereof there is hot burning and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish or white, then the priest shall look upon it and behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white and it be in sight deeper than the skin, it is a leprosy broken out of the burning.
[17:01] Therefore, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is the plague of leprosy. It was a process that they had to go through in order to determine if they had leprosy.
[17:12] They had to go to the priest. You'd think you'd go to the doctor, but they didn't have many doctors back then. They'd go to the priest and the priest would check out what they had going on. And the priest determined if they were a leper, there was no hope.
[17:24] You're done. You might as well just pack it in now because some cuckoo is going to try to teach you something else. when the priest announced that, basically, you knew your life was over.
[17:44] You think about it. Moses' sister, Miriam, got leprosy from God. He did it to her as a punishment. He said, you're going to have leprosy.
[17:56] But he said, you're only going to have it for seven days. And then after that, she was healed. Numbers chapter 12, if you ever want to read about that. The only other case of leprosy where somebody was healed of it in the whole Old Testament was Naaman.
[18:13] Right? The one leper that was thankful and recognized Jesus as the one that did it, the other is the other priest that they had no reason to thank you.
[18:25] Almost. When I get there, we'll talk about... I didn't believe no reason. Yeah, no. He's the only one that was thankful. Yeah, he was the only one that was thankful. You're right. So Naaman is the only one in history who had ever been healed of leprosy.
[18:41] So when you're told you got leprosy, it was done. It was over. It's just like there's no solution for sin other than a miracle performed by God, Jesus Christ, and that is salvation.
[18:55] salvation is a miracle. You know, we tend to forget that. You know, I believe in Jesus Christ, I accept him as my Savior, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. No, salvation is a miracle.
[19:08] The fact that you can be forgiven of your sins, the fact that you can have been cleansed, and Jesus took them all on him, and he took them away, you do not have to pay for your sin.
[19:21] You do not have to die because of your sin. All of that happened because God loves us, and God cares about us, and God is the only one who can do that.
[19:35] Isaiah 43, 11. Isaiah 43, 11. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. He is the only Savior.
[19:47] He is the only one who can cleanse us from our sin. Acts 4, 12. Acts 4, 12 says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
[20:05] One name that brings salvation. That is a miracle of God. Only one can give us salvation. We can't do it ourselves. We can't earn it.
[20:16] We can't buy it. Nobody else can give it to us. Jesus Christ and him alone. So we need a miracle. These guys needed a miracle. In the meantime, oh, Margaret?
[20:29] Well, the Samaritan who went back and thanked Jesus got two miracles. The first one was that Jesus recognized the Samaritan and allowed him to be blessed as well as the other nine.
[20:45] And then when he returned and thanked Jesus for that, he got totally whole. He was made whole. He was made whole not just physically.
[20:57] Yep. So we'll get there. You guys are running with me on this, running ahead of me on the stories there. So yeah, where was I going?
[21:10] Unequivocal separation. These guys came, but you notice it says they stood afar off. They had to be separated from everybody else.
[21:21] They could not get near. Remember, that's why they did not live with their families. That's why they could not come near other people. That's why they shouted unclean. They could not be near people. They had to be separated from them. And these didn't have any hope, like I said, because of the history.
[21:36] One man has been healed. Nobody else had been. They stood afar off because they had to. That was the law that they had to do. Leviticus chapter 13, verse 45.
[21:49] Leviticus 13, 45. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare, and he shall put on a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry unclean, unclean.
[22:06] He says, if you're a leper, this is how you're going to dress. This is how you're going to look. This is what you're going to do. So that people know that you're a leper, so they will not come near to you.
[22:17] You have to be separated from them. Just like these men were separated from the people of their society, sin separates us from God.
[22:31] because of the sin in our life, it puts up a barrier. Isaiah 59, 1 and 2. Isaiah 59, 1 and 2.
[22:42] Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot say, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. God can help. God will hear if you ask him for his help.
[22:55] Verse 2. But, but, your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.
[23:11] God says, your sin has separated you from me. Just like their leprosy separated them from their families and from their friends and others. your sin has separated you from me.
[23:26] Jared and I were talking, a conversation he had with a guy this week. And the guy's like, well, I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and Jared's like, you know, you can pray and pray and pray and pray but if you don't know God, it's not going anywhere.
[23:43] If you don't have a relationship with God, it's not going. We talk about people's prayers not getting past the ceiling. They may say the words and if words go out and up but they're not getting to God.
[23:58] If you do not have that relationship with God, God, the first thing he's looking to hear from people, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, I'm a sinner.
[24:11] God be merciful to me, a sinner. God, I'm a sinner. I need salvation. I need you. God will hear that prayer and when you surrender your life to him, he'll hear other prayers but until then, those prayers are going out but they're not going anywhere.
[24:28] Okay, got two of you. Yes? Well, thinking back to the last words, they were set apart if they were together. Yeah.
[24:39] So they did have that in their life of social connection but it was the people with the same malady, the same problem. and today people will hang out with others that are doing the same thing.
[24:54] So it may not be, you know, society acceptable although that's more acceptable than we are but they did still have people with them.
[25:05] It was just that people were in the same boat. people who were in the same boat and basically all had the same prognosis. We're all going to die. And that's, yeah, we're together, we have each other but we're all going to die.
[25:21] So, funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This person prays that God, he doesn't believe.
[25:32] He doesn't, he doesn't believe, but he prays that God will answer a certain prayer and he believes that God has answered that prayer. So did God hear that prayer and he doesn't believe that he's not saved? Did God answer that prayer that he's not saved?
[25:45] I don't think so. I think it's just a matter of that's the way things work out. I don't know, it's for God having, I'm not completely positive on that one. That's why I'm always talking about the prayer that he hears.
[25:58] Because God says, you know, I don't hear, your sin has separated you. So if you're still in sin, but could God use that prayer? He could use it, yeah. He could use it to kind of move you along in a certain direction, yes.
[26:13] It's kind of like all the people that say, oh, my thoughts are with you. Yeah. That's good. How does that do me? And some of them that I know that actually don't really believe in God say they're friends of.
[26:27] Yeah. Yeah. So. Okay. So, our sin separates us from God. Um. Okay.
[26:38] Good.
[27:03] Good. They understand that God, you know, they have to go to God for things. Okay. We often think about the tragedy of someone being separated from God.
[27:20] Because if you say, okay, they're a sinner, they're separated from God, what's going to happen? Well, they're going to die and they're going to go to hell. Yes, that's true. But what about right now?
[27:32] They're still separated from God right now. They still have the wrath of God upon them right now. And it's not what's going to happen later.
[27:43] It's like, what's their life like right now? John chapter 3, verse 18. We all know verse 16. John chapter 3, verse 18.
[27:53] He that believeth on him is not condemned. By he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[28:05] He's condemned already. Forget when he dies and, you know, why is it? He's condemned now. He doesn't have God's blessing upon him now, because he has not believed.
[28:18] John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
[28:30] The wrath of God abideth on him. Now, at this point, right now, think about that. That we can go through life separated from God, not having God's hand of blessing on us, having God's wrath upon us.
[28:47] That's a tough way to live. When we do that. He says, no, you need to give your heart to Christ. You need to give your life to Christ. And you notice there in 36, but the wrath of God abideth.
[29:01] That word abideth. Present tense. Right now. He says that's happening. You know, to live under the wrath of God.
[29:12] You know, to spend eternity on your way to hell, to spend eternity in hell, that's no way to live.
[29:22] That's what these guys, these lepers, they had a death sentence on them. They're still alive. They're walking around. They can shout over to Jesus, oh, Lord, have mercy on us.
[29:33] But they have a death sentence on them now. They know what is coming. They know what they're going to face. And it's not pleasant, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse until they actually do die.
[29:48] Wow. What a way to live. Sinners don't know Jesus Christ, have never asked him to be their savior. What a way to live.
[30:01] They think they're having fun. They think they're doing okay. They think they're doing, you know, great, and life is going on, but no, they don't have the blessing of God on their life.
[30:14] And I'm going to stop there a couple minutes early because I'm ready for the next point, and I'm just going to get started and be done. So we'll stop there. Okay? Okay.