1 TITLE: God's Grace Declared by the Leper TEXT: Luke 17:17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? Sermon Outline 1. DEMANDED! A. Their Defiled Condition B. Their Desperate Cry C. Their Divine Cleansing 2. DECLARED! A. A Public Expression of Gratitude B. A Personal Expression of Gratitude 3. DESPISED! A. A Thoughtless Heart B. A Thankless Heart Since November 26, 1941, the fourth Thursday in November has been observed as a national day of Thanksgiving. Why we as a nation celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November is an interesting story. Way back, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed two national days of thanksgiving. One was on August 6, to honor Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The second was on November 26, the last Thursday of the month, to celebrate a year "filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies."
2 Lincoln didn't intend to make Thanksgiving an annual event, but when General Sherman captured Atlanta in September 1864, the president proclaimed the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving for the second year in a row. After Lincoln was assassinated, succeeding presidents turned it into a tradition in his honor. By the late 1890's, the last Thursday in November was celebrated as Thanksgiving by nearly every state in the Union. What is interesting is that the move from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday finds its roots going back to 1939. You see, Thanksgiving was as much the start of the Christmas shopping season, as it was a holiday, in its own right. In 1939, retailers, still trying to dig their way out of the Great Depression, were worried since there were five Thursdays in that November instead of four. That meant there would only be 20 shopping days until Christmas. In the spring of 1939, the National Retail Dry Goods Association lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving back one Thursday, arguing that it would boost retail sales as much as 10%. Roosevelt agreed, and announced the change during the summer. In short, the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November is so that you can have more days to shop for Christmas. Then Black Friday came along to really entice us to shop. I would like to say, that for the believer, Thanksgiving should not just be one day each year, but every day of the year. Thanksgiving should not have anything to do with how many days we can shop for Christmas, but because God has been so good to each of us. Today, I want us to look at, not only this Bible story, but the question Jesus asked in Luke 17:17, "Where are the nine?" It is a question that addresses the issue of thanksgiving and whether or not we are grateful for the Lord's grace and mercy experienced in our life. Follow me as we look at the story. First notice with me: 1. Grace that was DEMANDED! In Luke 17:11-19 we have the story of ten lepers. Jesus is passing through Samaria and as He entered into a certain village, 10 lepers meet him. The greatest need of these lepers was the grace of God. The grace of God was demanded because of Their DEFILED CONDITION Verse 12 tells us these 10 men were lepers. In the New Testament, there is no disease regarded with more terror and pity than leprosy. You find that leprosy in the Bible is
3 always taken as a symbol of sin. Leprosy represents the corruption of sin, and speaks to us of its activity and progress. Leprosy was the most terrible disease in the day of Jesus; it was greatly feared. It was disfiguring and sometimes fatal. 1. The leper himself was considered utterly unclean physically and spiritually. He could not approach within six feet of any person including family members. "His clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, 'Unclean, unclean' " (Leviticus 13:45). 2. He was judged to be dead the living dead. He had to wear a black garment so he could be recognized as from among the dead. 3. He was banished as an outcast, totally ostracized from society earthly and heavenly. "All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be" (Leviticus 13:46). He could not live within the walls of any city; his dwelling had to be outside the city gates. 4. He was thought to be polluted, incurable by any human means whatsoever. Leprosy could be cured by God and His power alone. So, Jesus proved His Messiahship and deity by healing the leper. Imagine the anguish and heart-break of the leper, being completely cut off from family and friends and society. Imagine the emotional and mental pain. Let me remind you that there are other recorded instances of lepers being healed Luke 7:22; Matthew 8:1; Matthew 10:8; Matthew 11:5; Mark 1:40; Verse 12 tells us that these lepers met Jesus but "stood afar off." Leviticus 13 describes how leper was brought to the priest and pronounced unclean. He was then ordered to dwell outside the camp so that he would not come into contact with another person and spread the disease. As we saw from that verse in Leviticus, when anyone came near he would cry "unclean!!" to warn others that he was a leper. A leper had to live in isolation. These 10 lepers met Jesus, but kept a certain distance as was commanded by law. That's why they "stood afar off." Again, leprosy in the Bible represents sin. It reminds us of how we were once separated from God. Furthermore, the progression of leprosy reminds us of how sin destroys our lives and the pitiful condition it leaves us in. Before God saved us, we were all spiritual lepers! We lived in a condition in which there was no human cure.
4 Grace was not only demanded because of their defiled condition, but Their DESPERATE CRY We read in verse 13, "And they lifted up their voices, and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." These 10 lepers were in a helpless and hopeless condition. The dreadful disease of leprosy was eating away at their body every day. I can see them in their hideous condition, some with no fingers and toes, with nothing but nubs for hands and feet. I have been to two leper colonies in my life and this is their condition. I see the others with disfigured faces and bodies. They were 10 lepers that were shunned and discarded by society, the refuse of humanity. They, in their terrible and tragic condition, cry out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." How well I remember that blessed day when I cried to the Lord for mercy. I was but 12 years old at the time, but my case of spiritual leprosy was still very real. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit that it was my sin that placed Jesus on the cross. The Holy Spirit personalized that verse in the Bible in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. It became to me For Glenn you have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Even at age 12, I was a hopeless and helpless sinner that was in terrible shape. But I cried out to Jesus to have mercy on me. It is possible that some of you were not in the worse stages of leprosy. Leprosy starts with a white spot or patches on the skin. But in time develops into putrefying sores that eat away parts of the body. You may have only been in the white spot stage. You may not have been in as bad a condition as others. Maybe saved as a child, you didn t have years of sin to deal with. You may have been a good person, but nonetheless, you were a leper and you needed mercy. The only difference between you and the person whose life is wrecked by sin is the stage of spiritual leprosy. In either case, you are a spiritual leper and need mercy. Thirdly notice: C. Their DIVINE CLEANSING We read in verse 14, "And when He (Jesus) saw them, He said unto them, "Go shew yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed."
5 Under Mosaic Law, if a leper had reason to believe that by some miracle he had been cleansed, the priest would go to the leper to examine him. He did not first go to the priest. If the priest upon examination determined that he was cured, then he would take two birds. * One would one be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. *The priest would then take a piece of hyssop and dip it into the blood of the bird that had been killed and sprinkle that blood upon the leper seven times. *Then the living bird would be dipped into the blood of the bird that had been killed and let loose. *Then the priest would pronounce him clean. In the case of the ten lepers, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they went they were cleansed. That is, they were healed of their leprosy. They took Jesus at His word and were cleansed. Like those ten lepers, when we cried to Jesus for mercy, He cleansed us. As I said earlier, I knelt at the altar a helpless and hopeless leper. Someone, a man by the name of Robert Benton, showed me Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I took God at His word, and blessed be His name, He gave me mercy and cleansed me from my sin. Oh, happy day, Oh happy day When Jesus washed my sins away. It s wrong to fail to thank God. Psalm 103:2 says Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, Psalm 106:1 says Give thanks to the LORD, When God sends benefits into our lives and we fail to thank Him for them, we re insulting Him. The Scriptures again and again call us to give thanks. And think of His greatest blessing. To know that God sent His Son to rescue your soul from hell and to fail to say Thank You with your lips and life is the greatest insult possible.
6 But also, it s wrong to fail to give to God. That, of course, is what God in His Word tells us to do with our income. In the Old Testament, the Lord commanded His people to give Him a tithe of all their increase, ten percent (see Malachi 3:8-12). Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. In the New Testament there is no stated percentage, (the tithe is assumed) but rather exhortations to give generously and cheerfully (2 Cor 9:7). Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. So, when God blesses us and we refuse to give the first portion of that blessing back to Him, we re revealing something about the condition of our hearts. Giving is a way to show the Giver that He means more to us than His gifts. Not giving reveals there s something else more important to us. But then also, it s wrong to fail to share with the needy. In the Old Testament, God told the Israelites not to harvest their crops in the corners of their fields. Why not? They were to leave the corner crops behind for the poor. Don t miss this. When we receive God s abundant provisions, He doesn t want us to keep it all for ourselves. He blesses us so we can bless others who have needs. Here s where the problem lies. Because of our sin bent, our natural response to God s blessings received isn t to thank Him, and isn t to give back to Him, and isn t to share with the needy. It s to stockpile. A. W. Tozer put it this way in his book, I Talk Back to the Devil: Money often comes between men and God. Someone has said that you can take two small ten-cent pieces, just two dimes, and shut out the view of a panoramic landscape. Go to the mountains and just hold two coins closely in front of your eyes--the mountains are still there, but you cannot see them at all because there is a dime shutting off the vision in each eye. The issue isn t the amount of money. Just a little bit of money given the wrong place in your life can obscure your view of God and others. I love the story of Prince Edward's visit to a veteran's hospital.
7 In 1934, a British magazine told of when the heir to the British throne visited a small hospital where 36 hopelessly injured and disfigured veterans of the First World War were tended. He stopped at each cot, shook hands with each veteran, and spoke of words of encouragement. As he was being led to the exit, he mentioned to the head nurse that he had only met 29 men and it was his understanding there were 36 patients at the hospital. The nurse explained that the other seven were so shockingly disfigured that for the sake of his own feelings he had not been taken to see them. The prince insisted that he see them and he was taken to see them. He again shook hands with each man and thanked them for the sacrifice they had made for their country and assured them it would never be forgotten. He then turned to the head nurse and said, "But I've only seen six men. Where is the seventh?" He was informed that no one was allowed to see him. Blind, maimed, dismembered, he was the most hideously disfigured of them all. The nurse pleaded with the prince, "Please don't ask to see him." But the prince could not be dissuaded and the nurse reluctantly led him into a darkened room. When the royal visitor stepped into the room and saw the man, he suddenly stopped and just stood there. He stood there and what he saw was a white face and drawn lips, looking down at what had once been a fine man, but was now a horror to look upon. Then the prince began to weep and with loving impulse, walked over, bent down and reverently kissed the cheeks of that broken war hero. Friend, I want you to know that one day, there was one who stooped far, far lower, and kissed a far, far worse ugliness. It was not the physical disfigurement of a broken hero whose brokenness called forth reverent gratitude, but the leprous, evil ugliness of hopeless and helpless sinners. He looked down, came down, and reached down and showed us mercy! Glory be to His name! Not only do I want you to see what was sought by the ten lepers, but secondly notice with me: Grace that was DECLARED! We read in verses 15-16, "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan."
8 You can only imagine how excited these ten lepers must have been when all of a sudden, they were cleansed and healed. But we see one of the lepers, after he was healed, coming back to Jesus. We see him returning to declare and express his gratitude for what the grace of God had done for him. Notice this one leper. First notice: A PUBLIC Expression of His Gratitude Verse 15 tells us that as he was returning, with a "loud voice" he "glorified God." Now, think with me about that statement for a moment. I love this statement. It implies 2 things. First, this leper praised God audibly. The Bible says that he glorified God. That is just another way of saying that he was praising the Lord. His praise was more than just something he felt on the inside. His praise was articulated. What he felt was expressed in words. Furthermore, he praised God visibly. We're told that he "glorified God" with a "loud" voice. The word indicates that his praise was more than raising his voice a bit. He shouted out his praises. Get the picture, we see him out in public, coming down the road, praising God at the top of His voice. Everybody around him knew that something had happened to him. I'm sure everyone could see him praising God. It is certain; everyone heard him praising God audibly, and everyone saw him praising God visibly. I think about how it ought to be every time we come to church. The Bible says, in 2 Corinthians 3: 17, that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." I understand that not everyone is a shouter, a weeper, a clapper, or an 'AMEN-er,' but if the Spirit of God is at work, then there should be liberty to worship, and express yourself however you feel led to do so. I know that not everyone likes "emotional" services. Someone might say, "Well, preacher I don't know about all of this emotion. It might get out of hand." In my experience, when God shows up that is exactly what happens. He takes it out of the hands of men and puts it into the hands of the Holy Spirit. I'll be honest with you; I'd rather try to tone down a fanatic than to resurrect a corpse. If your fear of what someone might think is what keeps you from expressing yourself in worship to God, then you have never gained a true recognition of who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done for you.
9 When you see Him, and you see what His grace has done for you, you won't give a rip what someone might say, think or do. You should never be inhibited about clapping your hands for the Bible says in Psalm 47:1, "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph." You should never be inhibited to lift your hands for the Bible says in Psalm 134:2, "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord." You should never be inhibited to shout for the Bible says in Psalm 32:11, "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." You should never be inhibited about coming to the altar for the Bible says in Psalm 95:6, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." You ought to and you should never be inhibited about saying "Amen" for the Bible says in Psalm 106:48, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord." You should never be inhibited about testifying for the Bible says in Psalm 107:2, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Our Sunday services around here ought to be a Sunday celebration. It s not just December 2 that should be Celebration Sunday but every time we gather it is a CELEBRATION. Our services are to be a public gathering of people, who were once spiritual lepers, but one day met the Lord Jesus Christ, cried out to Him for mercy and were wonderfully and marvelously cleansed and changed. When we gather here on Sunday we have something to celebrate. We have a reason to glorify God, even glorify Him with a loud voice. If there is any place where we ought to give praise to God it is in His house. Like the one leper in Luke 17, we should publicly give praise to God and glorify His name. Secondly, notice that: B. A PERSONAL Expression of His Gratitude
10 We read in verse 16 that he "fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks." He shouted all the way back and when he got to Jesus; he fell on his face at his feet and gave Him thanks. I can see him at the feet of Jesus, tears streaming down his face, over and over again thanking Jesus for what He had done for him. We who are saved have so much for which to be thankful. We could never thank the Lord enough for loving us, saving us, cleansing us, and changing us. If I spent everwaking moment on my knees, I could never thank the Lord enough for saving my poor hell-bound, hell-deserving soul. How His grace ought to cause us to get on our faces and tell the Lord how much we love Him and how thankful we are that He saved us. We would still be spiritual lepers if He had not saved us. That's enough to give thanks for the rest of our lives. Finally, I want you to think with me of: 3. Grace that was DESPISED! In verse 17 we find a most interesting, yet tragic question. It is a question Jesus never should have had to ask. Jesus said to the one leper that came back to give Him thanks, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" Jesus had healed all ten of the lepers, but only one of the ten came back to personally thank Him for what He had done. That's why He said in verse 18, "There are not any found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." Jesus asked, "But where are the nine?" Why did they not come back like the one to give glory to God? He had done the same for them as the one, but why did they not do as the one? What do we see in the actions and absence of the nine lepers? We see that, to them, the grace of God was despised. And the grace of God was despised because they possessed: A. A THOUGHTLESS Heart I am sure they were just as excited as the one about being healed, but they did not stop and think that it was because of Jesus they were healed. They got so caught up in the gift that they forgot the Giver. Too often we are the same way, especially here in America. We have so much that we tend to take things for granted.
11 We re not worrying about where tomorrow s meal will come from, or that our water is safe to drink, or if we ll have warm clothing, or a dry place to sleep. If we re worrying about anything, it s probably described in the following prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep I pray my Rolex to keep I pray my stocks are on the rise And that my analyst is wise That all the wine I sip is white And that my hot tub's watertight That racquetball won't get too tough That all my sushi's fresh enough I pray my cell phone still works That my career won't lose its perks My microwave won't radiate My condo won't depreciate I pray my health club doesn't close And that my money market grows If I go broke before I wake I pray my Mercedes they won't take. Jesus asks in verse 17, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" It seems, from that question, that while Jesus thought about the lepers, the lepers never thought about Jesus. How easy it is for us to forget what God has done for us. It is so easy when a person has been saved for a while and involved in the Church to lose sight of what they used to be and how God saved them and changed their life. The Psalmist said in Psalm 103:2, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." God help us to never forget that we what we used to be before God saved us. May we never forget our lost condition. May we never forget that we were spiritual lepers that had no hope. May we never forget that blessed hour when we met Jesus and cried out to Him for mercy. May we never forget that we are what we are, who we are, and where we are all because of the amazing grace of God.
12 An ancient proverb goes, "As soon as you have drunk, you turn your back to the spring." May we never turn our back to the spring. May we never be guilty of a thoughtless heart. Or A THANKLESS Heart Again, all ten were healed, but only one came back to give thanks. The nine were healed, but failed to express their gratitude and thankfulness to Jesus. If we would THINK more, we would THANK more. I believe that it's safe to say that because these 9 lepers were thoughtless, they were also thankless. Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night" wrote: I hate ingratitude more in a man, Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness. I believe God feels the same way about ingratitude. After all God has done for us, an ungrateful heart can be nothing less than sin. The very fact that Jesus asked about the nine reveals that is disturbs the heart of God when we fail to give Him thanks. When we think about the 9, we must ask ourselves if we are like them. When was the last time that we knelt before the Lord to thank Him for saving us? So often our prayers are give me, give me, give me. We come before God to roll our Christmas wish list of prayer requests, without ever taking the time to say, "Lord, if you never did another thing for me, I want to stop and thank you for what you have already done." I once heard the story about a construction worker named Johnny. He was working with a crew that working downtown on a building. One day, the pastor of a large church just a few blocks from the construction site, walked into the sanctuary of the church. There sat a construction worker in his dirty clothes and hardhat. The pastor walked up to him asked and if he could help him. The fellow said, "Mister, I ain't never been in church like this. I was raised back up here in the mountains and we didn't have any churches like this. Anyway, Ma and Pa never took me to church. This is my dinner hour and I just wanted to come and see what a church like this looks like." The pastor asked him his name and he said, "My name is Johnny, Sir." The pastor said, "Well, Johnny, you just look around." The pastor told him a little about the church and then Johnny said, "Mister, can you tell me something about your God?" The pastor began to tell him about the Lord. After a little while Johnny looked
13 at his watch and said it was time to get back to work, but wanted to know if he could come back again and talk some more. For several days, during his lunchtime, Johnny came back and talked to the preacher about the Lord. One day Johnny bowed his head and asked the Lord to save him. He asked the preacher, "Do you mind if I come over here during my lunchtime? It only takes me about ten or fifteen minutes to eat, and I would like to just come over and talk to the Lord." The pastor said it would be fine, and for weeks he come by and spend his lunchtime in the church sanctuary. One day, the pastor was in the sanctuary when Johnny came in. He didn't see the pastor. He walked down front, took off his hardhat, and then knelt in the altar. He was an uneducated and unlettered person that didn't know how to pray all those fancy prayers such as, "Thou great Jehovah, Thou who scooped out the valley and piled up the mountains," etc. He got on his knees and began to pray, "Jesus, this is Johnny. Don't want a thing today. Lord, I just wanted to tell you that I love you and thank you for saving me. Lord, you know how much I love you. I can't thank you enough for saving me. Lord, I've got to get back to work now, but thank you again for saving me." Written anonymously on the walls of a medieval castle were the following words: You call me Master and Obey me not. You call me Light and See me not. You call me Way and Walk me not. You call me Life and Desire me not. You call me Wise and Follow me not. You call me Fair and Love me not. You call me Rich and Ask me not. You call me Eternal and Seek me not. You call me Gracious and Thank me not. If I condemn you, Blame me not. All of us who are saved were like the ten. The question before us today is, are we like the one who had a heart of thanksgiving or the nine who went on with their life s way not thanking God.