[0:00] We'll go to Luke 17. Luke 17. Last week we were talking about the ten lepers.! One verse, and how many times does he refer to the grace of God?
[0:48] Three different times. He says we need to be thankful for the grace of God and what he has done. Luke 17 is where we're going to be in just a minute. So we talked about the fact that the importance of being thankful, the importance of showing thanks to others.
[1:06] Everybody appreciates appreciation. None of us are just going to go through life and just do everything everybody wants and just, oh, nobody's thankful, nobody cares, nobody has any gratitude.
[1:18] That's good. I'm fine with that. We all like to have some appreciation and some thankfulness. And we talked about the fact that we're made in the image of God. So you think God might like to be thanked for the things that he does for us?
[1:33] We talked about the fact that, first of all, those lepers had a miserable grief, a miserable grief. Can you imagine having leprosy? And the things that took place there, you know, the disease works from the inside out, we talked about.
[1:50] And the fact that it starts underneath the skin and works its way out through the skin, and it just eats away at the skin, at the bones, at everything that takes place in your body.
[2:02] And it's like just to have a disease like that. Luke 17, look at verses 11 and 12. And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
[2:15] And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. You have leprosy, you stand afar off.
[2:27] You can't be near family and friends. You can't be near other people because it could be caught. It was a contagious thing. And so here they are. They have this leprosy.
[2:38] And then we talked about the fact that there was no known solution. There was an unknown solution. If you go through the Old Testament, you go into the New Testament, you only find one person who was ever healed of leprosy.
[2:55] And that was Naaman. We talked about him earlier in this study about the little girl with no name. Helped Naaman get his healing. You know, to have leprosy.
[3:05] And leprosy is a picture to us of sin. It begins on the inside. It works its way out. And it eventually brings death to all of us. Romans 3.23, for the wages of sin is death.
[3:18] And these men, it said, he stood afar off. And we know from Leviticus, they would have been out there hollering, unclean, unclean. They didn't want people to come near them. Leviticus 13.
[3:28] If you go back and check out that chapter in Leviticus, it talks about the leprosy. And how they determined leprosy. And how the priest did. And the things that they were supposed to do. Because of the leprosy that they had.
[3:41] No solution for it. No cure for it. Just like for sin. There is no cure for sin. Other than redemption.
[3:52] Through Jesus Christ. Same for sin. The only thing that can take care of it is the salvation. That Jesus Christ brought to us. Isaiah 43.11 says this.
[4:04] I, even I, am the Lord. And beside me, there is no Savior. He is the only Savior for us. He is the only way for us to have that forgiveness of sin.
[4:15] Because they had a leprosy. Because of all that. Yes, they had to stand afar off. They had to say they were unclean. They had, the second thing we said, an unequivocal separation.
[4:27] There was no questions about it. They had to separate themselves from others. Can you imagine going through life like that? You have this disease. It's doing this. And with that disease, you can't be around anyone who doesn't have leprosy.
[4:43] Again, family, friends, all those. Again, in Leviticus 13, it talks about that. And again, sin does the same thing. Separates us from God.
[4:53] We looked at Isaiah 59.1 and 2. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. Neither is the ear heavy that it cannot hear. God can hear our prayers. God can hear our asking him for salvation.
[5:07] He can hear, and he can save. He says his hand is not shortened that he cannot save. He can save us. But what happens? Verse 2 says, Our iniquities, our sins, is what keeps us separated from God.
[5:28] And we talked about the fact that we always think that means, you know, in the future. We wind up going to hell. We looked at the fact that no, right now.
[5:42] John 3.18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[5:53] He's condemned already. Verse 36 of John 3. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
[6:04] But the wrath of God abideth on him. So he says, look, the wrath of God's abiding on him. He is condemned already. So those people who are walking around out there who do not know Jesus Christ, they're already on the condemnation.
[6:21] They're under the wrath of God. So we need to be praying for them. Which brings us to the next thing. A mercy sock.
[6:32] They came there. They heard Jesus was coming into town. They came there asking for his mercy upon them. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you that we have salvation through Jesus Christ.
[6:47] When we come and ask for forgiveness of sin, you are more than willing to forgive us. You've already paid the penalty for it.
[6:58] Lord, pray that you would help us to understand all that you have done. And Lord, that we might be grateful for all that you have done. We might be thankful.
[7:09] Lord, that we would understand that our life would be totally different if it wasn't for Jesus Christ and what he's done to us. The condemnation, the wrath, everything that we would face.
[7:23] But because of Jesus Christ, because of our coming to him and accepting him, asking for his mercy like these men did, we have salvation. And it makes all the difference in the world.
[7:35] Lord, help us as we continue to study about these men and what went on in their lives. Lord, help us to grow, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. A mercy sought. We don't have to live separated from God because of God's mercy.
[7:52] Not now. Not for eternity. We should be extremely thankful for everything he has done. When you think of his mercy, Lamentation 322.
[8:06] Lamentation 322. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. It's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.
[8:18] You know, we're all born sinners. Why didn't God just wipe us all out now? I mean, you look at the world, the way it's going. You look at all of the things that are against God and his word and everything.
[8:32] Why didn't he just wipe us all out? Because of his mercy. He says, the Lord's mercies are not consumed. We're not consumed. Psalm 103.8.
[8:44] Psalm 103.8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. God has abundant mercy to show to us.
[8:56] He has long suffering toward us. He is willing to wait and give us the opportunity to come to him. And here's these lepers. Jesus comes into the city.
[9:08] They hear that Jesus is there. And they come, and they're looking for mercy. Look at verse 13. Luke 17, verse 13. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
[9:24] You know, I get thinking about it. My mind goes in weird ways sometimes. There's 10 of them. Were they all hollering that out?
[9:35] Lord, be merciful. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus, Master. Or did they kind of get together and say, okay, we want to make sure he hears us, so we're all going to do this together at one time.
[9:48] So all 10 of them at one time. Jesus, Master, be merciful to us, on us. Make sure that he can hear. No problem.
[9:59] I don't know. It's just one of those weird thoughts I have every once in a while. It's like, I wonder how it worked. What did they do? Anyways, they knew one thing. They knew that Jesus was to be honored, and they knew that they needed to recognize him for who he is.
[10:15] So an honored recognition. An honored recognition. See, these 10 men are soon going to have something to be extremely thankful for. And they saw Jesus coming into their village.
[10:28] They understood who he was. They called out his name. They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
[10:40] You think about that. How do we get relief from sin? When Jesus came to this earth, when he was born, Matthew 121 says this, And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
[11:01] Jesus, save me. Jesus, Master, save me. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us, they cried out. Same thing we as sinners have to do.
[11:14] We have to come to him looking for his forgiveness. Remember in John 13, 13. John 13, 13. He called me Master and Lord.
[11:26] And you say, well, for so I am. You call me Master and Lord. That's who he is. He is the Master.
[11:37] He is the Lord. He is the one we go to for forgiveness. He is the one we go to for healing. He is the one we go to for help. He is our Master and Lord.
[11:47] These men call Jesus Master. You think about it. No one is going to come to Jesus and get salvation until they recognize him as Master.
[12:00] As I have mentioned many times, we try to, here is our life and we are going to bring Jesus in next to it.
[12:11] He is going to walk alongside us. And he does. But we are bringing him in and adding him to our life. And instead of letting him take over our life, let him be Master. Because in our arrogance, I have got my life under control, but I will take Jesus as an addition.
[12:30] He can help me with some things I have not quite got handled. We think we are self-sufficient. I will do this and I will have salvation. I will say this and I will have salvation.
[12:41] I will walk this way and I will have salvation. Until we recognize Jesus as Master. He takes over. He has full control.
[12:54] That's when the miracle of salvation takes place. When we realize we cannot do it on ourselves. We need Jesus, Master, to save us from our sins. 2 John 1.7.
[13:07] 2 John 1.7. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
[13:20] He says there's all kinds of people. John does. He says there's all kinds of people who are coming in and coming to you and giving you advice and giving you scripture and things. But they're not saying that Jesus has come in the flesh.
[13:33] That's what the Gnostics did. Jesus is a figment of your imagination. He's a thought that you've had. He's a good idea. But he's not a person.
[13:44] That's become more prevalent today in different churches. That, yes, he was a good prophet. Yes, he was murdered or whatever.
[13:55] But he's not the Son of God. He's not the Son of God. Yep. Or a fine. Yep. There's a whole lot of them like that that are doing that today. A whole lot of people are believing that.
[14:06] And maybe not even churches. There's a lot of people who are trying to do it on their own. And they go to these Eastern religions and different things and they're like, oh, yeah, I've got this. I just have to do this and I just have to do that.
[14:16] Jesus, he's just another guy. No. 1 John 2.22. 1 John 2.22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
[14:31] He is an antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. He said, if you deny that Jesus is the Christ, you're lying. You don't understand.
[14:42] You're an antichrist. You're going against what God has given to you. So here's these men. They understand. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
[14:54] And they make a humble request. Have mercy on us. You know, they had no answer for their leprosy. Again, one man, and as far as they know in history, has ever been healed.
[15:09] Naaman. They know no way to get themselves healed. Nothing's going to happen apart from a miracle of God. And so they lift up their voices.
[15:20] Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. How many people see their sinful condition today that way? We got it.
[15:31] We got it under control. They show the best they possibly can. I'm going to be good enough. I'm going to be religious enough to get into heaven. No, you cannot do that. That is not how it works.
[15:44] You can be as religious as you want. And there are people who are very religious. Follow all the... Back here in this time, what were people trying to do?
[15:54] They were trying to follow the law. They were trying to follow, you know, all the rules and regulations that they had come up with. 636 different laws. They're going to keep all those laws and do all the...
[16:05] They couldn't do it. There was no way they were going to keep them all. But they were trying to trust in their own achievement instead of God's atonement.
[16:17] I can do this instead of saying, God has already done it. We talk about Christianity being a religion of done. People say you've got to do, do, do.
[16:28] Christianity says, nope, it's already been done. Jesus took care of it. Already set. So, Paul sees the Jews of his day, and he says to them, Romans chapter 10.
[16:43] Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 4. I'm going to read all these for you. Romans 10, 1 through 4. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
[16:57] Paul says, I'm praying for Israel. I'm praying for the Jewish people. I'm praying that they will be saved. And it's not going to be by keeping all these laws. It's not going to be by circumcision. We just went through the book of Galatians.
[17:08] He says, it's not going to be by all these things. It's going to be by trusting Jesus Christ. Verse 2, he says in Romans 10. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
[17:23] They've got a zeal for God. I'm going to do this for God. I'm going to do that for God. I'm going to do it. But he says, but not according to knowledge. They don't understand the scriptures.
[17:34] They don't understand what Jesus Christ has done for them. They don't understand why he went to the cross. They don't understand. Verse 3. He says, you're trying to do your own thing.
[17:58] You're trying to go your own way. You have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of God and what God has done. See, that's what you need to do is you need to submit to him. Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
[18:12] And he says, no. He says, what they've done is they're trying to do it on their own. They're trying to come up with their own righteousness. Look how good I am. Nope, that doesn't work. Verse 4.
[18:23] For Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Jesus is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
[18:34] No man cometh unto the Father but by me. See, Jesus is the only way, he says, for salvation to be had. The person who's trying to do it all on their own, they're trying to live the life that they think they should live, he says, look, that's not going to do it.
[18:56] You're not going to reach the ear of God. Remember I said, I think it was last week, talking about prayer. How many people today, oh, I pray, I pray all the time. But do you know Jesus?
[19:07] Because if you do not, that prayer is not getting past the ceiling. You have to know Christ. You have to have him living in your life. You have to have him as your Savior in order for those prayers to have any effect whatsoever.
[19:23] Psalm 138.6. He says, though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off.
[19:35] He says he knows the lowly. Those who have humbled themselves, those who see him as master. He says, the proud who said, I can do it all myself. I got it under control. I got it handled. He said, he knoweth them afar off.
[19:48] They don't have a close relationship with him. You know, we talked about the fact that God, be merciful to me, a sinner. It's in Luke 18.
[20:01] See, until we come humbly before the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that we're a sinner, knowing that we cannot go to heaven on our own, knowing that we need his help, doesn't work. John 1.12.
[20:15] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. But as many as received him, to them gave he power.
[20:33] So, they come. They're looking for mercy. They're looking for, seeking for that to be done. Number three, a miracle supplied.
[20:46] A miracle supplied. See, only God could perform the miracle that these men were looking for. Only God could do it. And he did do it for them.
[20:59] First of all, what did he do? He gave them a command of faith. A command of faith. We have to act in faith to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.
[21:10] If we're going to have the salvation from our sins that he wants us to have, we have to come in faith to him. Jesus is going to give these guys a command.
[21:22] And he says, look, you can have your healing, but it comes by faith. Look at verse 14. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest.
[21:36] Stop there. Go show yourselves unto the priest. He could have just said, you're healed. There you go. You're all set. He gave them something to do as an act of faith, showing that they trusted him.
[21:56] Showing that they had put their faith in him in whatever he said. He could have just said, you know, you're all set. I mean, you think about it.
[22:08] Why would they go back to the priest? They've already been to the priest. The priest looked at them and the priest said, you've got leprosy. Go away. Go stay away from everybody else and go off by yourselves and do all that.
[22:21] Why would he send them back to the priest? To test their faith. To test their faith. And the priest is going to go ahead, Fred. Get them back into society.
[22:33] Get them back into society. Because the priest is the one who condemned them. He said, you've got leprosy. So he sends them back to the priest so that the priest can look and say, you don't have leprosy anymore.
[22:58] Say that a little louder. Sorry. It's okay. So I know we're talking about what you command of faith. Is this also like a little way for you to kind of humble the priest to think that that you should not be turned to the land.
[23:14] You should be still teaching you on the other power. You know, in some cases that may be. But in this case with the leprosy, no, he had a command. Those scriptures I mentioned in Leviticus chapter 13, he had a command to do that.
[23:29] So God had given them a command. If they got leprosy, because it could spread. And so, yep. Put them out. But now, oh, honey. He was also recognizing the authority of the priest.
[23:40] He was recognizing the authority of the priest, yep. Because the priests were the only ones who could say you had leprosy or not have leprosy. So he says, okay, go back to the priest. He's sending them back there because the priest was the only one who could testify that, okay, they're healed.
[23:55] It's gone. They don't have this anymore. And no priest has ever seen that. But they're about to. The priest is the only one who could say that their flesh was clean.
[24:09] You know. They could have thought. Go ahead, Fred. The way that's written, it said that they weren't cleansed by the son of the priest. Read that word.
[24:20] Say it all. Actually, it doesn't say that. Read it again. I'm going to get. And it came to God as they went. Okay. As they did what? As they went.
[24:34] Doesn't say they ever got to the priest yet. They're going to. We'll talk about that in just a second. So, they're thinking, we go back to the priest.
[24:45] You know, here we are, we're leopards. We're going to go back to the priest. We're not even going to get through the front door. They're not going to let us in to see the priest. You know. We've already been condemned by the priest. There's no way. You know. We're unclean.
[24:56] There's no way. This is going to make any difference whatsoever. But he was testing their faith. And notice it said there, as they went. As they went.
[25:09] Remember what Jesus said. Bonnie, did you have something? It reminds me a little bit about the village. It had no rain. And they were all praying for rain. And the little boy brought him for all. Yep. Because he was acting in his faith that the rain was going to happen.
[25:22] And Jesus was, okay, you were raining. You go there. You will be quiet. Yep. Yeah. You ever heard that story? They're praying for town.
[25:34] Hadn't had rain for a long time. Sort of like here. And so they're going to have a prayer meeting. They're going to get together and pray for rain. So they all get together. One little boy brought an umbrella.
[25:47] Nobody else did. That boy had faith. It's going to rain before we get out of here. So, yep. Anyways, God has said in 2 Peter 3.9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
[26:09] God wants to answer our prayers. He wants us to be saved. He wanted these men to be healed. So, it's our faith that activates that.
[26:20] Our faith has something to do with the process of it all taking place. Romans 3.28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
[26:38] He says, Man is made just as if I'd never sinned. Man is cleansed of his sin by faith without the deeds of the law. The law doesn't matter.
[26:50] What's your faith in? Is your faith in Christ and what he has done for you? Romans 5.1, Romans 5.1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[27:07] We're justified by faith. A couple of verses you know well. Ephesians 2.8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
[27:19] It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith in God and what he has given to us and what he has done for us. Do you have faith that God will do what he says he will do?
[27:31] When they put their faith into action, then the cleansing was found. The cleansing was found. Notice verse 14 again.
[27:44] And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show thyself unto the priest. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. As they went, they were cleansed.
[27:59] Bonnie? Like the woman with the issue of love, she believed that Jesus could heal her, but she needed to touch. She had to take that faith into action.
[28:12] Mm-hmm. She had to touch. You hear what it's coming? You know, when we ask for Jesus to save us, it's an instantaneous thing, isn't it?
[28:26] Boom. Soon as we ask. Spirit comes in, takes over, we're saved. As soon as these men responded in faith, they were cleansed.
[28:40] They didn't have to get to the priest. They just had to start going that direction. Here's what Jesus said. I believe what Jesus said, so therefore, I am going that way.
[28:53] And as they went, it says they were healed. Can you imagine when the Bible talks about Naaman? Naaman in 2 Kings 5.14, it says this.
[29:07] It says, His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He was clean and he knew it. As soon as it happened, he knew it.
[29:20] These men, they turn, they start walking toward the priest, where the priest is, and as they go, it says they were healed. Can you imagine leprosy?
[29:33] Like I said, it eats away at the flesh. It eats away. I mean, people lose fingers and bones by leprosy and stuff. Maybe some of them had done that.
[29:43] Maybe they were missing fingers and things. It says, as they went, they were cleansed. They were healed of the leprosy. They're walking along and it's like, those two fingers are back.
[30:01] How did that happen? I look at it quite differently. I feel that they had the spots, they had the blotches or whatever.
[30:13] And as they went, they saw the blotches start disappearing. But the one that got his body replaced or whatever he had lost was the only one that had gone back to thank Jesus.
[30:29] And it was only after he went back to it. And then his fingers and toes came back. But I don't think the other ones did. I think they did.
[30:40] They went. Huh? That they went. Right. It says, they went and they were cleansed. They were cleansed. But it doesn't say they were made whole.
[30:52] It says the only one who was made whole was them. Wait till we get a little further in. I think that there's another passage concerning the leprosy beside this one.
[31:04] That maybe the one said. We'll get there. We'll get there. It's going to be next week. But we'll get there. Where was I?
[31:19] Yeah. When we trust Jesus in faith, we're immediately cleansed. When we trust Jesus in faith, we're immediately cleansed of our sin, aren't we?
[31:33] So, 1 John 5, 11 and 12. 1 John 5, 11 and 12. And this is the record that God has given unto us eternal life. And this life is in his son.
[31:46] He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God hath not life. If you've got the son, you've got life. If you've turned your life over to Jesus, you've got life.
[31:58] Do we still sin? Yes. But have we turned ourselves over to Jesus? Yes. So are we saved? Yes. So, John, I mean, Romans 10, 13.
[32:13] Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. See, these lepers are a picture of what happens when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. When you put your faith in doing what he told you, obeying his commands, his command is, trust me.
[32:31] And when we do that, we have salvation. Verse 19. Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. The faith made him whole.
[32:46] We'll look at some more next week, because we're out of time and actually over time. So let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time together. Let's put it in.