The Gospel of Luke (#73) August 11, 2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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And it should be part of our Trinity hymnal, I believe. Thank you.

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Please be seated. Well, today's

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New Testament reading is Acts 23. Last week, we considered how the apostle

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Paul was in Jerusalem. He was arrested, threatened, of course. And we read of the turmoil that was taking place because of Paul's arrest there in Jerusalem.

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And Paul, of course, very cleverly, when standing before the Sanhedrin, pitted the

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Sadducees against the Pharisees. We read of that here. And then also in this chapter, we see how the

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Romans moved Paul to the coastal city of Caesarea in order to protect him from being murdered, actually.

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And Paul will spend two years in jail in Caesarea as he anticipates his journey to Rome, that we'll read about later in the book of Acts.

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And so Acts 23. Acts 23.

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And looking intently at the council, Paul said, brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up till this day.

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And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

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Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, yet contrary to the law, you order me to be struck?

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Those who stood by said, would you revile God's high priest? And Paul said,

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I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.

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Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, brothers,

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I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.

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And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided.

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For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the

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Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose and some of the scribes of the

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Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, we find nothing wrong with this man.

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What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring them into the barracks.

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The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome.

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When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed

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Paul. There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed

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Paul. Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near.

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Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.

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So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, Paul, the prisoner, called me and asked me to bring you this young man, as he has something to say to you.

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The tribune took him by the hand and going aside, asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me?

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And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him, but do not be persuaded by them, for more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him.

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And now they are ready, waiting for your consent. So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, tell no one what you have informed me of these things.

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Then he called two of the centurions and said, get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.

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Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor. And he wrote a letter to this effect.

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Claudius Lycius, his excellency, the governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the

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Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a

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Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to the council.

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I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

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And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.

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So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus.

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And on the next day, they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented

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Paul before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said,

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I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive. And he commanded him to be guarded by Herod's Praetorium.

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Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, it's so encouraging to know that your children are always in your hand.

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And we never have any reason to doubt or to fear because you are with us.

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Even in the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, it is your presence that gives us comfort.

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And we rejoice, Lord, that we are comforted by your presence. We rejoice in the

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Holy Spirit, who is our helper, who not only convicts us of our sin, but also assures us that we belong to you.

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And Lord, we ask that now as we open up your word and continue our worship service, as the word of God is preached and proclaimed, we pray,

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Lord, that we would understand it. We pray that we would understand how to apply it to our lives.

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So, Lord, help us to be faithful in all these things. Be with Pastor Lars, give him clarity of mind, clarity of voice.

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We just pray, Lord, that you would be pleased by our preaching of your word today. Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, if you open your Bibles to Luke 17, today we'll give attention to verses 11 through 19.

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You need not roll your eyes because you see 11 pages. You know, I'm thinking about, you know, people that were sending these notes out.

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Now we send them out to 664 addresses every Sunday morning. I know that probably just a few people read them, but many pastors do.

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I think about 125 now, no more than that. Maybe 175 pastors now receive these notes.

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And so I feel like I need to kind of fill it out for them. And we're obviously gonna have to trim it a little bit because of the time.

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So be patient with us. You know, Pastor Jason is so diligent. He'll go word for word through the notes, and I tend to, if I didn't have these before me,

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I'd go all over the place. And so they keep us pretty directed, thankfully. But they are embellished somewhat for readers.

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And so here we are in Luke chapter 17. We're making progress. And here we read that Jesus healed 10 men of leprosy.

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But only one of the 10 returned to give him praise, to give the Lord praise for his work of grace in his life.

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And this one man out of 10 happened to be a Samaritan. And so this is a miracle story of Jesus, interestingly, that is unique to Luke's gospel.

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It's not in the other synoptics of Matthew and Mark. And there are themes in these few verses that are common to Luke's gospel that are reflected here.

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As one noted, not only is this narrative peculiar to Luke, but it also stresses several characteristically

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Lukean themes. What are these? Well, Jerusalem is the goal for Jesus's journey.

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Secondly, Jesus has mercy on social outcasts. Third, he conforms to Jewish norms by requiring that the lepers go for the required priestly declaration of health.

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Faith in healing should bring praise to God. And the grace of God extends beyond Judaism with Samaritans receiving special attention.

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And so these are Lukean themes that are all found here in Luke 17, 11 through 19.

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Let's read the passage. Now it happened as he, Jesus, went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

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Then as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off.

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They lifted up their voices and said, "'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.'

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So when he saw them, he said to them, "'Go, show yourselves to the priests.'

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And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified

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God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a

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Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "'Were there not 10 cleansed?

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"'But where are the nine? "'Were there not any found who returned "'to give glory to God except this foreigner?'

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And he said to him, "'Arise, go your way, your faith has made you well.'"

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Which is a promise of salvation, by the way. Well, as we work through this passage, we'll first attempt to understand the details of the account that we just read.

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And then secondly, we'll address how the physical disease of leprosy portrays the spiritual malady for sin.

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It's a metaphor, a living metaphor, leprosy, for certain aspects or nature of sin.

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And then thirdly, we'll consider somewhat briefly what this passage reveals to us regarding the nature of saving faith.

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For although all 10 men had faith, only the Samaritan had saving faith, interestingly, as we'll see.

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And so let's attempt to understand the details of Luke's account. The episode opens with another reference of our

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Lord's journey to Jerusalem. This is the third, actually, in this travel narrative. We read, now, it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

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His journey began back in Luke 9 .51, which reads, now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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Notice that they are now on the border between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee was in the north, then

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Samaria in the Judea south of Samaria. Jesus, at this point, was probably traveling eastward along the border, southern border of Galilee, which would have been on his left, and Samaria on his right, that would be south of them, probably heading eastward toward the

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Jordan River Valley. Jesus had traveled about 30 miles in eight chapters of Luke's gospel.

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The travel narrative has a substantial portion of Luke's gospel dedicated to its exposition.

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And so about 2 1⁄3 of their journey still lie ahead of them. They could complete their journey to Jerusalem in only a few days if they had a mind to do so, but it would seem that our

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Lord is going back and forth and visiting a number of villages on his way.

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Now, actually, the journey, or Luke's travel narrative, as it's commonly called, is as much theological as it is geographical or biographical.

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And so each reference to the journey is to bring the reader of the gospel back to the fact that the

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Lord Jesus's primary mission was to suffer, die, and be raised the third day, and that this must be accomplished in Jerusalem.

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And every time you read a reference to this journey to Jerusalem, that's what's being emphasized by the

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Holy Spirit through the pen of Luke. And so here we're reminded again of Christ's impending death, stressing the urgency to respond to him while there was still time.

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The time was short. And that gives an impetus and a power in Jesus's words, pressing on people to, you need to make the decision now, because the time is short.

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Well, we read in verse 12, and as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off.

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Luke does not identify the village by name or reveal whether the village was in Galilee or Samaria.

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It must have bordered the two regions. And it was while he was entering the village that the 10 lepers had called out to him.

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They did not wait until the Lord had settled and rested from his journey, his travel, to recover from the weariness of his journey, but they met him as he entered the village.

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We see our Lord did not disappoint or forestall them. He directed his attention to these men who were calling on him from a distance.

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And we can probably assume that there were numbers of people around Jesus as he was entering this village.

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These 10 men were ones who stood afar off, for that was the law and the custom of the day for lepers.

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The law of God has stipulated their separation from the community in which they had lived. Leviticus makes it clear.

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Now the leper on whom the sore is, this is after he's inspected and identified by the priest as having leprosy, his clothes shall be torn, his head bare, he shall cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean, he shall be unclean.

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All the days he has this sore, he shall be unclean. He is unclean and shall dwell alone.

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His dwelling shall be outside the camp, outside the community of the

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Jewish people. And so these men stood afar off. And I understood,

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I read that the leper was to remain at least 100 paces from those without leprosy.

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So they were some distance away. Now we considered leprosy in some detail when we examined the story of Jesus healing a man full of leprosy back in Luke chapter five.

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The word leprosy is used in the Bible to describe several conditions of illnesses ranging from skin disorders caused by microorganisms to rashes caused by nerve disorders.

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And so leprosy, biblically speaking, could be classified into one or two categories.

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Either nerve disorder, when the nerves cease to function, the body becomes desensitized to pain, and as a result, burns, injuries, infections go undetected leading to maiming and deformity.

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Last week I sent out the email from Pastor Prem in India, a number of photographs, and one of them showed some hands of some lepers that had come for free food distribution.

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And the one man's hands, they were just nubs, no fingers, no thumbs, and was receiving food.

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Leprosy is still a problem in many parts of the third world. Leprosy was a disease that rendered one permanently unclean in the eyes of the covenant community of ancient

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Israel. And again, this disease continues to be prevalent today.

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To be ceremonially unclean in ancient Israel was to be cut off, barred from gathering with the people of God or participating in the public worship with the people of God.

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The leper regarded himself really as died spiritually, and the community treated him as though he died.

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The leper was alienated from the community and his family. He was without hope. He was physically set apart from the people of God, having to live in a place where other lepers live, leper colonies.

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At the first sign of a skin rash, a person knew precisely the steps to be taken. It's spelled out clearly in the

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Old Testament law in Luke 13 and 14. The individual who suspected he might have the disease would go to a priest for inspection.

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And it wasn't necessarily at the temple in Jerusalem. Priests lived throughout the land, so they would find a priest in any community who had the authority to do the inspection, physical inspection.

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And the priest would diagnose the condition. If the man's condition was not fully discernible, then the priest would prescribe a temporary quarantine for seven days, and then he would inspect him again.

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And even then, after the seven days, if uncertain, a second seven -day quarantine was imposed.

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But once there was no longer any doubt, the priest would pronounce judgment. Steps were taken at once for the permanent separation of the leprous person from his family and community.

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One can well imagine the anxiety of, say, a husband and father waiting, watching, and the anxiety of his wife and children as to the fate of the father, hoping and praying.

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For again, this disease had far -reaching consequences. Upon the declaration of leprosy, the man would be removed from his family, and he was sent to dwell among other leopards.

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But again, the most severe and feared consequence was to be cut off from the people of God. He was refused entrance into the temple, and in his mind cut off from the covenant and the hope of salvation.

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He would have seen himself as estranged from God. Being estranged from God's people.

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And so he experienced alienation, shame, isolation, hopelessness. And he was to tear his clothing, cover his face, declare himself loudly whenever he came around anybody as unclean.

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And in this way, he acknowledged and signified that he was as a dead man, one who would defile all others with whom he came in contact.

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H. Marshall, a commentator on the Greek text of Luke's gospel, wrote concerning this disease.

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Again, these were his words in the context of the Luke 5 episode, The Man Full of Leprosy. The term leprosy in the

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Bible does not mean the disease commonly so called today Hansen's bacillus. But covered a wide variety of skin diseases, including some which were obviously regarded as highly contagious and incurable, while others were capable of cure.

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It is therefore impossible to say precisely what diseases meant in the present passage.

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And some scholars think that a disease of nervous origin may be meant, that's the man in Luke 5, full of leprosy.

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In any case, the plight of a person suspected of a leprosy was grave. He was sequestered from normal society.

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And if cured, could be restored to it only after examination by the priest and the offering of sacrifice.

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To the rabbis, the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising a person from the dead.

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I'm gonna mention Naaman the Syrian a little bit later.

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And he was off there toward Damascus and a slave, Israeli slave girl.

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Oh, only if my master were in Israel. There's a prophet there who cleansed him of his leprosy.

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And so the king, who really liked Naaman, his officer, you know, sent a note to the king of Israel.

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I'm sending my man to get healed of leprosy here. And of course the king of Israel thought that the king of Syria was picking a fight with him, a war.

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Who am I? Am I God that I can cleanse a leper? It was understood that only

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God could truly bring about the healing of a leper. And so these 10 men were lepers.

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Now, these 10 men, therefore, were alienated from normal, healthy society, but they had banded together.

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We read that 10 men who were lepers, there was a camaraderie between these men.

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They had the same affliction. There was a brotherhood there. No doubt they had varied degrees of the disease among them, but they ran with one another.

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And they seemed to have agreed together to come to Jesus. No doubt they had learned of the healing power that Jesus brought to bear upon all who came to him in their need.

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And perhaps they had heard of other lepers who had been cleansed by Jesus. And so they had agreed together to come as close as they dared to appeal to Jesus to heal them.

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But they stood afar off and called out to him. So we read in verse 13, they lifted up their voices and said,

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Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Suffering causes people to seek out the

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Lord, or it should. It's a great motivating factor, suffering.

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And the Lord will often, in his love and providence, bring great hardship or suffering that will result in the soul seeking the

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Lord. Because we're so sinful, we wouldn't do so otherwise. The psalmist confessed this.

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This is what brought him to faith. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

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Affliction brought him to his senses. It's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

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The word of God is open and understandable more to the person who is suffering and looks to God for help and guidance.

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I know, oh Lord, that your judgments are right, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. And as Christians, when we're afflicted, it's because of God's faithfulness to us in Christ that he's doing this.

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These 10 men were alienated from family. They were outcasts of society. They were separated from all that had been dear to them.

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Their disease had isolated them. They were not allowed close proximity to anyone except for others with the same condition.

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And here we see them standing at a distance, calling to our Lord. Why is it that people do not come to Jesus for help until the point of desperation reveals how far they are from God?

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It's because we're sinners, right? Bible says we're God -haters apart from the grace of God.

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That's what sin does. Sometimes people fail to come to church to hear the word of God because they feel themselves distanced from both

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God and God's people. But desperation may move them to come, even if they seem to remain at a distance from others.

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They call out to Jesus. Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Interestingly, the

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Greek word for master, epistata is the Greek word translated master here, is only recorded in Luke's gospel on the lips of disciples.

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And here you have these 10 lepers referring to Jesus as master.

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They treated these 10 men, regarded and treated Jesus with regard and with dignity. No doubt there's a matter of motivation.

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They wanted to be healed by him, but no doubt. They knew that if God were to intervene and cleanse them of their leprosy, it would only take place if this master showed them mercy.

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They knew that he was in charge, in control. That itself reveals a measure of faith on their part, doesn't it?

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And then we read in verse 14 that Jesus responded to their request. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests.

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In other words, be inspected. And so our Lord is moved by the request of suffering people.

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He's a compassionate savior. And as the heavenly father is merciful and compassionate and moved by the suffering of people, so our

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Lord Jesus was. But our Lord's instruction to these men must have been initially puzzling.

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Jesus said, go show yourself to the priests, even while they were still leopards.

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When people are hurting enough, they may then seek and respond to biblical instruction. After all, what other choice they have.

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Perhaps they had exhausted all other options. The Lord and his providence brings them to the place that they recognize their condition is so bad, so hopeless, that only

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God can remedy them. And so they respond to him and they do his bidding as we all should do with no questions asked.

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But sometimes the Lord's instruction doesn't make sense to us. There are those who seek counsel from God's people as to what

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God's words say, but when they hear it, when they hear God's word, hear God's counsel, because it doesn't make sense to them, they fail to follow through.

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But this was not the case with these men, for they followed the Lord's instruction, even though it may have seemed to be illogical, perhaps even nonsensical to them.

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Were lepers and were to go be inspected by the priests? What good is that gonna do?

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So they were to go to the priest to get checked out as to whether they had leprosy. And here they were, unclean due to their disease, and yet they were to go to the priest out of obedience.

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So at the bidding of the Lord, these men acted. And all 10 of them did so.

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So the Lord was really requiring an act of faith by them. They were to obey him because he indeed was their master.

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They would do what he had directed them to do. Matthew Henry commented on this. He surmised regarding these men, and the lesson for us, for you and me.

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Note, those that expect Christ's favors must take them in his way and method.

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Some of these lepers perhaps would be ready to quarrel with the prescription. Let him either cure or say that he will not and not send us to the priest on a fool's errand.

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But overruled by the rest, they all went to the priest. As the ceremonial law was yet in force,

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Christ took care that it should be observed and the reputation of it kept up and due honor paid to the priest and things pertaining to their function.

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But probably Jesus had here a further design, which was to have the priest judgment of and testimony to the perfectness of the cure so that the priest might be awakened and others by him to inquire after one that had such a commanding power over bodily diseases.

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It would have been a good witnesses to the Jewish priests. Faith is often to be exercised by the

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Lord's people in the face of what may seem to be unreasonable and even nonsensical instruction and guidance from the

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Lord. When we hesitate or refuse to continue in humble submission and obedience because we cannot see or conceive that taking such a course of action will work or turn out for the better, we really show forth our absence of faith and the presence of unbelief.

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The scriptures tell us for we walk by faith, not by sight, but often we choose to walk by sight and not by faith.

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And yet the scriptures are clear, but without faith it's impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that he is, that God is

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God and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so this word of Jesus to these men, although it must have been puzzling, maybe even unsettling, must have kindled within them a measure of hope.

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And so they acted. Perhaps they thought, what was there to lose? Consider what we might gain.

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And here we mentioned Naaman the Syrian. Remember him? He was a Gentile and he too had leprosy.

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He lived and served his king in Syria. A young Jewish slave girl in his household named

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Naaman's wife of a prophet in Israel who could cure leprosy. And so Naaman went to Israel and sought out

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Elisha. And Elisha would not so much as come out of his house to meet this man. That's not how you treat a commanding officer of an army that can wipe out your nation.

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But he did, Elisha did send his servant out, Gehazi, with instructions for Naaman to go wash in the

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Jordan River seven times. And Naaman, of course, was indignant initially. I could have washed in the

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Amana or the Farpar Rivers of Damascus. They're far greater than the Jordan. But a servant convinced him, would you not have been willing to do some great feat had he asked you?

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Why don't you go down to the Jordan, do what he told you? What do you have to lose? And he did so and was remarkably healed.

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And so he, a Syrian, okay, Naaman was thankful, as was the

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Samaritan in the account before us. And Naaman returned to Elisha and expressed his gratefulness and commitment to serve the

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God of Israel, even when he was no longer a pagan. He was no longer a worshiper of other gods, but of the true

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God of Israel. And so God would have us act in faith. We're to exercise obedience to his word, even if it does not seem to make sense to us, or when we do not see how the action will result in any good change or benefit received by us.

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You do it because this is what the word of God instructs you to do. And when we act in direct obedience to God's word, then we will see

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God work in our lives and our relationships in ways we could not have imagined.

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We read that these men were healed of their leprosy as they were going to the priest to be inspected by them.

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Verse 14b, and so it was as they went, they were cleansed. Take note that it was in their way of obedience, born of faith, that the

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Lord brought his healing power to bear upon them. It was obedience in faith.

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One of the reasons Paul wrote to the church at Rome is to produce an obedience of faith in them.

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He mentioned in Romans one, he also mentioned at the end of his letter, I wrote this in order to lead you to obedience in faith.

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Matthew Henry wrote, observe, then we may expect God to meet us with mercy when we're found in the way of duty.

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If we do what we can, then God will not be wanting to do that for us which we cannot.

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We're to act in obedience to his word, and that's an act of faith.

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There's no merit in obeying. It's a demonstration that we truly believe his word.

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And we've seen people get their problems straightened out because they obeyed the Lord. In some way, they had faith enough to see what

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God was telling them was right, and they followed his word and experienced blessing or relief from their difficulty.

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This is the way the Lord works in our lives. But sadly and quite amazingly, only one of these men returned to Jesus to thank him for his mercy and grace bestowed upon him.

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Verses 15 and 16, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned with a loud voice, glorified

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God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. Well, not long before, this man would not dare approach anyone, yet alone

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Jesus, they stood afar off. But not now. Now he burst in upon Jesus, close enough to fall at his feet to give him glory.

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No longer estranged, this man's first intrusion among non -leprous people was one of coming directly to Jesus to express his thanksgiving, his gratefulness for what the

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Lord had done for him. And this man's actions are a good lesson for us, how we ought to be very grateful and express our praise and thanksgiving to God when he recovers us from an illness that we may have endured.

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It was an act of God's mercy that brought us recovery from any and every illness.

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Mercy, by definition, is God giving people freely what they don't deserve. Mercy is not earned, not warranted, not deserved, not obtained.

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It can be forfeited, but there's nothing you can do to obtain mercy except come to Jesus, and God has promised mercy in him.

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And so God does so, he extends mercy, although we are unworthy and undeserving to the, you know, of the least of his favors.

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We must not ever think, therefore, that there's something about us that moved God to have and show mercy to us.

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It originated in the good pleasure and will of God. Here you see the goodness of God.

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And again, it's not a payment that he enabled you to recover from whatever it is that you were enduring.

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It was his mercy extended to you because he's a good and gracious God. He did not need to bestow mercy upon you, but he purposed that he would do so.

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And again, not only are we not more deserving than others and therefore do not deserve his mercy, no one does, but we were perhaps even less deserving than others to whom

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God chose to show mercy. He could have rightly left you in your sin to your just, eternal condemnation and been just in doing so.

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And so mercy is a sovereign act of God toward those on whom he has set his love, whom he chose to show mercy and save them from their sin.

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As John Gill once wrote, the mercy of God arises from the goodness of his nature, from his special love to his people and from his sovereign will and pleasure, who as he loves whom he pleases and is gracious to whom he will be gracious, so he has mercy on whom he will have mercy.

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If God's extended mercy to you or whenever he's extended mercy to you, it was a manifestation of his goodness that he purposed to show you.

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And then in verses 17 and 18, we read of our Lord's reaction to this man returning to him to give him thanks.

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So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine?

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Were there not any found or returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

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So Jesus gave forth a question in respecting the other nine who had been healed of leprosy.

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And we might ask, where are all those whom the Lord has blessed with his mercy in this life?

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There's not one person living who's not benefited from a multitude of God's mercies toward him.

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But where is the thanksgiving which is only a right and proper response for God's favor that he showed and bestowed?

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Perhaps the Lord has graciously answered their prayers. He's brought healing and recovery from serious sickness, answered prayer, and bringing home loved ones safely has helped them get out of financial or legal problems.

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But where are those people in whom God showed his mercy? Have they returned to him, devoting themselves fully to him?

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No, their petitions lasted as long as their problems. But when their problems were solved, they went on their own way.

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But not this man, not this Samaritan. One of the greatest sins of fallen humanity is unthankfulness to God for the mercy and kindness that he has shown and bestowed, for which he has not received the least regard or acknowledgement or grateful praise.

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The consequence of failing to give thanksgiving to God is sinful ignorance and darkness of understanding regarding God.

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And Paul expressed that in Romans 1. Because although they knew God in creation, his power, his wisdom, it's evident every day, every night, the creation shouts out the glory of God.

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Although they knew God in this manner, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful.

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Everyone in this world should be a thankful person to God. And not thanksgiving where you're just appreciative of the good things that's happening to you, but you're thankful to God because he is the one that bestowed these things.

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But rather, Paul says, because they were not thankful, they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

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Their understanding of things diminished because they had failed to give glory to God.

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But then we read that our Lord declared the bestowal of salvation upon this one who had returned to thank and praise him for his merciful and gracious dealings with him, verse 19a.

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And he said to him, arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. And this is above and beyond the faith of the nine.

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This man received much more than the other nine. All 10 were healed of their leprosy, but this one alone is declared to have been given salvation through his faith in Jesus Christ.

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John Calvin wrote of this man, the word save is restricted by some commentators to the cleanness of flesh.

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In other words, they're saying when Jesus made this pronouncement, it was with regard to leprosy. Calvin argues, no, it can't be.

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All right, but if this be the case, since Christ commends the lively faith of this Samaritan, it may be asked, how were the other nine saved?

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In other words, it has to be more than just physical healing of leprosy. For all of them, without exception, obtained the same cure.

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We must therefore arrive at the conclusion that Christ is here pronounced a different estimate of the gift of God from that which is usually pronounced by ungodly men.

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Namely, it was a token or pledge of God's fatherly love. The nine lepers were cured, but as they wickedly effaced the remembrance of the grace of God, the cure itself is debased and contaminated by their ingratitude so they do not derive from it the advantage which they sought.

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And lastly, by this word, Christ has informed us in what manner we lawfully enjoy favors.

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Hence, we infer that he included the eternal salvation of the soul along with the temporal gift of healing of leprosy.

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The Samaritan was saved by his faith. How? Certainly not because he was cured of leprosy, for it was likewise obtained by the rest, but because he was admitted into the number of the children of God and received from his hand a pledge of fatherly kindness.

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This man had put faith in Jesus, and as a result, he was saved.

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So we can conclude from our account that one can be healed by God and still not be saved.

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Here, 90 % of those who were healed remained unsaved. Now, they all had faith.

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Let others focus on physical healing. We will be content and rejoice in spiritual wholeness conferred upon us.

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By the grace of God, through faith alone in Jesus Christ. There is a faith that can receive things from God and not be saving faith.

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Paul said, though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not love,

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I am nothing. The nine had a pretty significant measure of faith.

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They went to the priest to get checked out, but they were nothing because they were without love to Jesus and for Jesus.

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That's the bottom line. The word of Luke regarding this man was that he was a

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Samaritan, verse 16. The other nine were presumably

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Jews, although it doesn't specifically say that, but we can assume that was the case. Here is a man without the privileges and yet he responded in such a faith that resulted in salvation.

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It's a veiled rebuke of the Judaism of the day. We could have gone off half the message today on that.

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All right? The stage of being set in Luke's gospel for the rejection of the Jewish people who crucified their

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Messiah, but the opening of the gospel to the world, the Gentile world, first the Samaritans and then the

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Gentiles, and Luke, of course, plays that out in the book of Acts. We didn't have time to get into that.

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It may be that this man would not have been received by Jewish priests anyway, when you think about it. What's a Samaritan doing, going to find a

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Jewish priest to be inspected by? He wasn't a Jew. I wonder what this man was thinking as he was going with the nine to find a

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Jewish priest to inspect them. What am I doing with these guys? I'm going to look silly as a

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Samaritan presenting myself to a Jewish priest. I'm gonna return to Jesus and thank him for my cleansing.

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He knew who had wrought it. Well, let's now consider the physical disease of leprosy as it portrays the spiritual nature and characteristics of sin.

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And frankly, it was with some difficulty to limit with what we dealt with already to the physical disease and symptoms of leprosy.

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For as we read of this physical disease and its cure by the Lord Jesus, we cannot help to see the spiritual portrayal of sin reflected by this physical infirmity.

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Sin is spiritual leprosy. Leprosy is the type, sin is the anti -type set forth in Scripture.

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Now, as Christians in the Reformed tradition, when we consider the matter of sin, we often do so with respect to sin as warning

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God's just condemnation for having transgressed his laws. When we think of sin, we usually think in those terms.

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We're lawbreakers, we deserve damnation, and therefore we need pardon, the pardon of God.

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And that certainly is true, it's biblical. But the nature and result of sin is not limited to a matter of lawlessness and the need to receive forgiveness from a just and holy

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God. As important and foundational as that is, we need pardon.

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We need something more, we need to be purified. The biblical doctrine of justification addresses this aspect of sin.

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You're guilty and you need forgiveness and you need righteousness to stand on the day of judgment.

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As Paul wrote in Romans 3, I'm not gonna read that, we're probably all familiar with it, all right, where God forgives us through our justification, believing on Christ who died for our sins and because of his life, the gift of righteousness is credited to us through faith alone.

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But realize again, our sin is not set forth in Scripture as simply or only a matter of lawbreaking for which we must obtain forgiveness of our sins through faith in Christ.

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The Bible sets forth sin as a foul, unclean matter, a polluting, defiling, debasing thing that characterizes us all.

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And so we're in our guilt of sin, needs God's pardon and the credited gift of righteousness, the pollution of our sin needs

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God's cleansing and purifying and washing. And if you look at the word cleansing in the

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New Testament, you'll find most of the time, it's not speaking about forgiveness of sin, it's talking about being cleansed from sin itself as a defiling, polluted thing.

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Leprosy is a metaphor, more of the uncleanness and wretchedness of sin rather than it is of the guilt and condemnation of sin.

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Salvation is not only the promise of forgiveness of sins, but it also entails the promise of cleansing from sin.

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These lepers needed to be cleansed. And one can see the similarity, the effects of leprosy in ancient

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Israel and the effects of unchecked sin in the people of the world. As leprosy under the old covenant resulted in alienation and physical separation from both

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God and God's people, so sin is the cause of spiritual alienation from God and often from God's people.

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It's uncleanness. Sin breaks fellowship, separates family and friends.

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Sin affects one's entire person. A person living in sin will generally separate himself from the people of God.

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He sees that he's different from them. He doesn't like their company. He doesn't desire to be among them.

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He feels at home rather among other sinners who are the same state as he. The lepers collected together, didn't they?

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And sinners tend to gravitate together. These 10 lepers ran together because they had this common infirmity.

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Sin sinners do the same. Even the most gross and vile sinful practices will often result in its participants banding and conspiring together to make allowance and opportunity to indulge in their sin.

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And you read about what's going on with the child exploitation and whatnot.

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It's hard to fathom people communicating with one another and working together to facilitate such wretched wickedness, but this is what sinners do.

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Leprosy depicts graphically both the nature and the spiritual consequences of sin. And it very aptly describes one who is spiritually dead, as separated from God under his wrath, one who's without hope and without God in the world.

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Every one of us were born into this condition as spiritual lepers and would have remained in this condition if not one by one, we were healed of this condition by our risen

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Lord Jesus. Outside of Christ, there's no hope. Outside of Christ, we are all as this leper separated from God and all hope of salvation.

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And I imagine not all lepers owned up to their condition. I can imagine what might have occurred in a number of people in whom this disease was first detected and spread.

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I can envision a Jewish man who had been born, lived among the people of God.

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He feels himself a part, a certain inheritor of the hope as a member of the covenant people of God, but one day he notices an infirmity, a blemish on his skin.

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And he thinks maybe something's wrong. All is not sound. And he notices a redness beginning to appear, patch of skin, ignores it, perhaps dismisses it as a trifle, he doesn't deal with it properly and thoroughly but before long, he can ignore it no longer.

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Perhaps his condition worsens, he comes to recognize it for what it is. But fearing the consequences, he continues to cover up his condition lest he be found out by others.

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He begins to withdraw socially from the people of God, his countenance has fallen, but in time, his condition became more difficult to cover up for the odor of rotting corruption was becoming noticeable.

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And one day he's out and about, unknown to himself, a small patch appears on his forehead, it was no longer hidden.

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He's noticed by a friend who expressed concern. He's encouraged to go to the priest for inspection, but he declines.

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The friend insists, brings him before the priest for inspection. The priest looking at the forehead, I'm concerned about this, doesn't look good.

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Perhaps it's not leprosy, we'll wait and see, but before you go, let me inspect the rest of your body. And with the opening of his garments, the extent true nature of the problem discovered and with horror at the sight, the priest pronounces him unclean, the man drops his head in shame and sorrow.

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He's immediately sent away from the presence of the people, the presence of God. The scriptures say, he who covers his sins will not prosper but whosoever confesses them shall find mercy.

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Be sure your sin will find you out, is what the scriptures say. But sadly, church attenders follow a similar pattern spiritually.

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They are at one time living among the people of God in full joy and fellowship of their faith, seeing themselves as full participants, fell awares of all the promises of God and Christ, but sin began to appear and it wasn't dealt with but continually indulged.

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And when sin goes untreated, it always spreads, sin doesn't stand still. Rather than deal with the matter promptly, decisively by coming to the

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Lord Jesus for cleansing and deliverance, they indulge themselves and in time, sin becomes a pervasive thing, perhaps hidden from the people of God.

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But the time may come when it's no longer hidden, a discovery is made, news gets around, the person generally imposes perhaps a self -excommunication to the people of God rather than dealing with the matter biblically in repentance and faith.

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That's how we're to always deal with matters and keep a short list, don't let that go on and on and on.

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So what should the believer do? Well, at the slightest sign of corruption, deal with it. Get help from God and solicit the prayers from the people of God.

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Sin does not remain in a stable condition. Sin is defiling and a spreading thing.

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What we allow at first in a small measure soon begins to take hold of our being until our whole self is adversely affected.

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May the Lord have mercy. Sin alienates us from God and God's people. Along with physical leprosy, there are metaphors used in scripture to describe the pollution of sin.

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Again, we're not talking about the guilt of sin, we're talking about the pollution of sin, the uncleanness.

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And Arthur Pink in his classic book, Gleanings from Genesis, I've listed this before.

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He set forth a number of metaphors in scripture with regard to sin. Again, not depicted as guilt, which it certainly is, but uncleanness.

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And so sin is first likened to the scum of a seething pot in which there's a detestable carcass.

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Can you imagine? Second, the blood and pollution of a newborn child before it's washed and clothed.

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That's how Israel was. A dead and rotting body, Romans 7. The noise or smelly stench and poisonous fumes which issue from an open grave.

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The lust of the devil. Putrefied sores, a minstrel's cloth. A canker or gangrene, the dung of filthy creatures.

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The vomit of a dog and the wallowing of a sow in the sinking, should be stinking, mire.

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We're not gonna take the time to consider these. I did list them where each one of these are found in the scriptures and sought to delineate them.

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And again, I put those in mostly for those that will be using these notes for their own study and in their own churches.

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In the middle of page 10, after Arthur Penck set forth these metaphors for sin, he wrote of how little most people regard sin.

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You and I don't regard sin as we truly should right now. Not one of us. Such comparisons that list that he gave show for something of the vileness and horribleness of sin yet in reality is beyond all comparison.

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There's really no metaphor. There is far greater malignity in sin than is commonly supposed even by the majority of church members.

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Men regard it as an infirmity and term it a human frailty or hereditary weakness.

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Make a mistake. Oh yeah, I've made mistakes. No, it's sin. Scripture calls it an evil thing and bitter, an abominable thing which

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God hates with an infinite hatred. Few people think of it thus rather the majority regard it as a mere trifle, a matter of so little moment that all they have to do is cry in the hour of death,

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Lord pardon me, Lord bless me and all will be eternally well with them. They judge sin by the opinion of the world.

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But what can a world which lieth in wickedness know about God's hatred of sin? It does not matter what the world thinks but it matters a great deal what

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God says about it. Others measure the guilt of sin by what conscience tells them or fails to do.

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But conscience needs informing by the Bible. Many uncivilized tribes have put their girl babies and old people to death and conscience did not chide them.

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A deadened conscience is accompanying multitudes to hell without any voice of warning.

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Tens of thousands of religionists see so little filth in sin that they imagine a few tears will wash away its stain.

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They perceive so little criminality in it that they persuade themselves that a few good works will make reparation for it.

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As leprosy deadened the nerves so that people didn't know when they were being injured that's how they would lose their extremities.

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This is what sin does. We become deadened to its results and its effects.

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And so indeed the Bible sets forth sin as a great evil through these metaphors.

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The law was given so that we might understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

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And you really cannot love and appreciate the Lord Jesus until you see the enormity of sin from which he saved you through his life and death.

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The more you see what you deserve eternal wrath just if you got justice it would be eternal wrath.

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But God in Christ can be just and yet the justifier of sinners through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

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And so let's conclude with just consider briefly what this passage reveals regarding the nature of saving faith.

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All 10 of these lepers had faith. They believed and obeyed the Lord Jesus and the result they were all healed of their leprosy but only the

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Samaritan was eternally saved only he had saving faith. Jesus said to him arise go your way your faith has made you well.

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What did this man reveal about his faith that led the Lord Jesus to declare that it was saving faith?

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This man exhibited love and gratitude toward Jesus Christ for the mercy that he had bestowed upon him.

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When he saw that he was healed returned with a loud voice glorified God and fell down at his feet giving him thanks.

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Love for the Lord Jesus and for his people is the grand mark that the one who claims to have faith in Jesus Christ has true saving faith in Jesus Christ.

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As Paul wrote if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus let him be accursed. Let him be eternally damned.

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Saving faith is accompanied by love for Jesus Christ. If you have no love for Jesus Christ it would be legitimate to question the reality of your faith that you claim to have saved you.

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All these cleansed lepers were going to find a priest to determine if they were truly cleansed of their leprosy and so too we should be able to pass a test of our lives to determine if we've been cleansed from the sin that formerly defiled us.

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A saved man is a changed man a different man than he was before. I wanted to read this quote from Spurgeon when addressing the leper that Jesus cleansed back in Luke chapter five.

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Jesus restored the poor decayed putrefied body of this man and he was cleansed at once.

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To make him quite sure that he was cleansed the Lord Jesus bade him to go to the priest and seek a certificate of health.

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He was so clean that he might be examined by the appointed sanitary authority and come off without suspicion.

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The cure that he had received was a real and radical one and therefore he might go away at once and get the certificate of it.

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If our converts will not bear practical tests they are worth nothing. Let even our enemies judge whether they are not better men and women when

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Jesus has renewed them. If Jesus saves a sinner he does not mind all men testing the change.

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Jesus does not seek display but he seeks examination from those able to judge.

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And our converts will bear the test. Come hither angels, come hither pure intelligences able to observe men in secret.

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Here is a wretch of a sinner who came hither this morning. He seemed first cousin to the devil but the

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Lord Jesus has converted him and changed him. Now look at him ye angels. Look at him at home in his chamber.

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Watch him in private. And so may the Lord enable us to see the true hideousness of sin before the eyes of a holy

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God. But at the same time let us see that God has cleansed from sin all those who have faith in Jesus Christ.

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And as a believer you are to identify yourself with your new life in Christ not with your sin that still plagues your soul.

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Reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. That's over, that's gone. Yes, sin is a plague to me.

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It's a real problem but that's no longer me as Paul could say.

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It's no longer I but it's sin that dwells within me. I'm in Christ and every true believer in Jesus Christ should affirm that and not doubt because that's the promise of God.

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Amen, let's pray. Thank you Father for your word and for these illustrations that are so graphic and clear and unmistakable.

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Help us to take this to heart. Help us Lord Jesus to be far more grateful than this cleansed leper was when he returned and fell at your feet and thank you and praise you for this wonderful work of grace and healing him physically from leprosy.

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Our God you have received us when we fled to you in faith and you've cleansed us from sin.

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Yes, you've pardoned us from sin but you've cleansed us as well of the terrible pollution, the stench our

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God that stood between us and you and yet you've removed it our

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God from us through Jesus Christ and we wait and long for the day our

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God when we will be delivered from this fallen world and our body of sin and we're brought into your presence to be fully and wholly righteous, free from sin and a glorified body fitted and suited for eternity fashioned after the glorious body of you our

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Lord Jesus. Help us to go forth in faith and confidence with great gratefulness and thankfulness for what you've done for us in Jesus Christ in whose name we pray, amen.