Now, if you take your Bibles, turn if you would to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17 and we're going to read verses 11 through 19. So, Luke 17 and verses 11 through 19. We're going to talk today for a few minutes about lepers and sinners. Lepers and sinners.

Luke chapter 17. Beginning in verse 11. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, that is Jesus, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee and as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers which stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us and when he saw them, he said unto them, go, show yourselves unto the priest and it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God and he fell down on his face at his feet giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan and Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? They are not found that return to give glory to God, save the stranger.

And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we continue. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to gather here and to look into your word. The precious word of God that you've given us that we might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, our savior. We thank you Lord for it is a powerful word.

As the sword of the spirit that changes hearts and lives. That saves men's souls. And that works in our heart. We thank you Lord for the opportunity to share it with those that are here and those that are watching and we pray Lord that the holy spirit would take it and use it in our lives today. We pray Lord for some that might be watching, who have yet to receive your gift of eternal life and forgiveness of their sins and we pray that today, you would help them to understand and give them faith to believe.

In Jesus name, we do pray, amen. To start with today, this message is one about salvation and gratitude. Salvation and gratitude. Though Christ did heal multitudes of people of many illnesses and God has the power to heal and protect us from any disease or danger today. To labor on the temporal is to miss the real point of the passage in Christ's ministry and work.

Have you ever tuned your TV to one of the Christian stations and saw an auditorium just packed with people there to be healed. Sadly, most of those people are missing the boat. Just like many did in Jesus day. Let me explain. Salvation is not about the healing of physical illness.

Though God can and does often heal but salvation is about the healing of a spiritual malady. Something far more terrible called sin. Turn if you would. Hold your place in Luke 17. Turn if you would to Mark chapter two.

Mark chapter two. In Mark chapter two we read a story. An actual event that took place in Jesus Christ ministry. There was a man who was so sick that he was bedridden. He couldn't get up and walk and so his friends got a cot, put him on the cot, carried him to Jesus so he could be healed.

When they got there, the crowd was so tightly packed that they couldn't get to Jesus in the house. So they went up on top of the roof and they dug through the roof and they lowered him down. When they lowered him down in front of Jesus we see this in verse five. It says, when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son, what? Thy be forgiven thee.

Now I don't know if his friends found that odd because they came to bring him to be to be healed. I know that the Pharisees it says here in verse seven they thought in their minds why doth this man thus speak blasphemies for who can forgive sins but God only. Jesus didn't say be healed at least not to start with. Jesus said your sins are forgiven. Why?

To make a point. Verse nine. He said in verse nine, whether is it is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive what? Sins.

He say it to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. You see, it wasn't just about the physical healing. Jesus wanted them to understand that he had the power to forgive sins and this man had a greater need than being healed from his physical disease. He needed spiritual healing also that only Jesus could give. Jesus came, it says, to seek and to save that which was lost, not just sick.

To offer forgiveness for sin. Christ's miracles of healing were meant to point men to their spiritual sickness. The root of the problem. Sin. Of which Jesus only has the power to heal them.

By grace through faith in him. To miss the point would be like a man going to the doctor and having gangrene in his leg said just sew me up. So many today see only the wound and not the what? The infection of sin. One needs to treat the inside problem first and then the outside will eventually what?

Heal. Christ came not only to sew up wounds in men but to thoroughly cleanse them. This miracle of healing of the 10 lepers is a valuable picture of the way of salvation for the soul which will one day result in the redemption of the body in the presence of the Lord. I have five quick points today. Five not three but five.

Hang on I'll get through them quickly. Back to Luke chapter 17. Let's look at our five points. Number one, these men came to the right conclusion concerning their condition. They came number one to the right conclusion concerning their condition.

Their plea here in verse 13 demonstrates that they were in desperate need. Look in verse 13 it says, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master have mercy on us. Their plea demonstrated that they understood how desperate their situation was. They had leprosy. Leprosy was a terminal illness in their day without a cure.

And so they were identified by their problem. They were called what? Lepers. We on the other hand have a problem called sin. A spiritual illness we are all born with without a human cure.

For the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Be sure your sin will find you out. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. It is appointed unto man once to die but after this the judgment.

You see we have a problem that brings judgment upon all of us called sin that doesn't have a human cure. So God identifies us by our problem. They were lepers, we are what? We're sinners. Leprosy throughout scripture is symbolic of sin.

Thus the need for them not just to be healed but if you look in verse 14 and in verse 17 it says uses the word cleansed. Now, in reference to many other illnesses, it uses the word healed but here, cleansed. Why? Because leprosy is symbolic of sin and their leprosy made them unclean. So does the sinner of whom we are told in Isaiah 60 four:six that their righteousness or good works are as what?

Filthy rags. For the sinner also needs to be cleansed. Cleansed of his sin. We are defiled through and through by sin with no way of cleansing ourselves. We are without hope apart from whose help?

Apart from God's help as these men were. So they came to the Lord sensing their desperate situation. Leprosy was a disease which made one also an outcast. Thus they stood what? They stood afar off.

Right now, because of the contagion that is in the world, we are social distancing. Why? So that we don't catch what somebody else might possibly have. These lepers, though leprosy was not nearly as contagious as the coronavirus, were outcasts who had to cry unclean, unclean when they came into the presence of other people so people would not get too close to them. Thus, they were outcast from society.

Thus, the need to go show oneself to the priest so they could be declared ceremonially clean and rejoin society and worship at the temple. So, also sin makes us also an outcast from God. Sin makes impossible any relationship with a holy God who cannot stand sin. Our sin is an abomination to him. That word abomination means nauseating.

He cannot stand the presence of it. Isaiah fifty nine two says this about sinners. It says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you. Does God hear or we might say, does God heed everyone's prayer? No.

Because he doesn't heed necessarily the prayers of those who reject his son and refuse to bow before him in faith. Though as we see here, he does hear the prayers of even sinners who come to him in humility and faith. Faith. Leprosy was also a disease that leveled the playing field. Usually, Jews and Samaritans didn't what?

They didn't associate. They didn't hang out together but they did hear. What was it that they had in common that leveled the playing field? It was leprosy. But sin does the same thing.

Jew, Greek, rich, poor, black, white, all are in what? Sin. We all have the same problem. We are all in the same desperate situation. Romans three:nine says, what then?

Are we better than they? No. And no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. Such is the case with men today.

All have sinned and all are what? Sinners. These men came to Christ understanding their condition. The only way people can come to be saved is understanding their desperate condition and that is sin. Number two, they came to the right person.

They came to the right person. They came to Jesus Christ. The only one who could heal. For no one else had power. There was no cure in their day for leprosy.

There was no doctor they could go to, no hospital, no clinic that could heal them of their leprosy but they believed that Jesus could and so they came to the right person. Jesus Christ is also the only one that can save a sinner from hell and from sin. John fourteen six, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. John three sixteen and eighteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already. Acts four twelve, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is only one person that could heal these men of their leprosy and there's only one person who can heal and cleanse, can save us from sin. And that is Jesus Christ.

You know, many sadly recognize the problem but they go to the wrong place, the wrong person for the solution. There are many that go to false religions that teach good works or have you bowing before idols. Idols that are powerless and good works that can't save anyone. Some people see they have a problem. They might go to a psychiatrist.

They might seek higher education. They might look for their solution in drugs or in alcohol. And though some of these things, like proper medications for a particular illness or higher education to learn a certain trade or psychiatrists to deal with a mental issue. Though some of them have their place and purpose, none of those can save the soul from sin. Only Jesus Christ can.

So, we see they came to the right person with their problem and they came with the right plea. They came with the right plea. What was their plea? Verse 13 again? They said, have mercy on us.

That was their plea. Have mercy on us. For it is not the duty of God to make us whole. For we do not deserve his mercy. We do not deserve salvation.

It is of his mercy and grace that we are not consumed. It is of his mercy and grace that we have this wondrous opportunity as did these men. Titus three five says, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy, he saved us. Ephesians two eight, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Lamentations three twenty two says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.

If we got what we deserved, we wouldn't be on our way to heaven. But God in his mercy offers to us that which we cannot earn. And that which we cannot attain any other way. But through faith in Jesus Christ. So, they cried out to Lord, have mercy on us.

Not give us what we deserve but have mercy. They humbly cried out because number two, they believed he could do something for them. They cried out, have mercy because they believed. I am in Luke chapter 18, there's another story that Jesus told about a publican and a Pharisee and the Pharisee, he looked up to heaven and essentially said something like this, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like that dirty, rotten publican over there. And the publican couldn't lift up his head to heaven but with his head bowed, almost prostrate on the ground, he cried out, Lord, have mercy on me.

A sinner. And Jesus asked the people standing there, Jesus asked them, which one of them went home justified? And the answer is obvious. Not the hypocritical Pharisee who believed in who? Himself.

But the humble sinner who cried out to God for mercy, who realized that he didn't deserve what God had to give. But that God might show him mercy. The Bible says in Romans ten thirteen, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call on him how? In humility and in faith.

Faith in the work of Christ on the cross. Faith in the power of God to save men from sin. Sin. Faith in the love and mercy of God which makes it available to sinners like me. For without faith, it is impossible to please him.

Just like these men believed, had faith that Jesus could do the impossible and cleanse them, deliver them from leprosy, you must have faith he can deliver you from sin. That brings us to point number four. They left with the right response. They left with the right response. Look in verse 14 if you would.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show thyself unto the priest and it came to pass as they went, they were cleansed. Verse 14 again, and when he saw them, he said unto them, go show thyself yourselves under the priest and it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. They had the right response. They believed and they obeyed. Faith without works is what?

Faith without works is dead. Matthew seven twenty one says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. They showed their faith. They demonstrated it by their response to Jesus Christ. For when Jesus Christ said, go, show yourself to the priest, they didn't wait around to watch the leprosy go away, did they?

No, they immediately turned and they went to go to the priest believing that as they went and when they got there, the leprosy would be what? The leprosy would be gone. Now, that that is faith and that faith was demonstrated by their actions. The priest was to examine them to see that they did not have leprosy so they could be restored in their relationship to society and could participate once more in temple worship of the Lord. They believed and followed Christ's orders before they saw results.

Indeed, the Lord asked us to come to him by faith to receive cleansing from sin and eternal life while yet we are what? Sinners. That song we sing in the hymn book, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and as I come to thee, a lamb of and that's a Bismuth, I come. God asked us to come as sinners believing that he can save our soul. It is not enough to say you trust the surgeon to heal you.

You must submit yourself to the skill of the surgeon and allow him to put you to sleep, trusting that when you wake up, you will be what? You will be healed. You will be whole. The same is true of salvation. There's going to be sadly many people that wake up at the judgment seat.

Thinking that they're going to get into heaven. And they're not. Because God will say to them as we read in Matthew seven, I never what? Knew you. I never knew you.

I never knew you. You must come to Christ and receive the salvation that he gives by faith. One must not simply say he believes but cry out to God in faith from his heart, trusting Christ to do what he has promised. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for what? For righteousness.

He acted on faith, and God not only gave him a land, but God saved his soul. And further works will follow. Believe believing children of God will confess him as Lord before men. Believing children of God will follow the Lord in baptism. Believing children of God will seek other believers to worship him with.

Believing children of God will hunger for God's word and desire to obey their Lord and believing children of God will tell others of the goodness of God and of the gospel. These men are a wonderful example of faith. Faith that didn't wait for a sign, but faith that acted upon the object of their faith, Jesus Christ. Wasn't several years ago, I I spent some time trying to disciple a fellow and and help him, an an older fellow I knew to come to Christ and we went, we spent several hours together and he kept saying, I I want a sign. Yeah, I I I think I believe that but I need a sign but I need a sign but I need a sign.

Well, Christ has already given us. God has already given us a sign. We have a risen what? Savior. He's given us his his word.

He's given us his spirit that convicts men of sin. He's given us testimonies of individuals have been saved. Quit asking for signs. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Trust him and then, then, you'll see that God always keeps his what?

He always keeps his word. He always keeps his promises. And then number five, point number five, they left without voicing their gratitude except for one. Look if you would in verse 15 again. Verse fifteen, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God and he fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan and Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed but where are the nine?

They are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Only one came back to Christ to say what? To say thank you. Was not necessary for cleansing.

As far as we know, all 10 were still what? All 10 were still cleansed. And so every sinner who comes to Christ in repentance and faith shall be what? Shall be saved. Yet gratitude is the only proper response to salvation and one which should permeate the life of every believer.

First Thessalonians five eighteen, in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Ephesians five twenty, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those two verses give, in everything give thanks, and give thanks always for all things unto God. Even the situation we find ourselves in now?

Yes, even the situation we find ourselves in now. Why? Because we're not alone. Why? Because our God is still on the throne.

Why? Because God has a purpose. And he can use this to draw us closer to him. Give thanks in all things. Colossians one twelve, giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet or fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

In other words, give thanks to God for your salvation. Colossians three seventeen, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks unto God and the father by him. Hebrews thirteen fifteen, by him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. One more, Second Corinthians nine fifteen, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

The only proper response to salvation is thankfulness, is gratitude. Worship of the one who has given us life. How thankful are you? How often do you let Jesus know that you are thankful? Do you like for people to thank you?

Yeah. Why? Well, because you are children of your father which is in heaven and we are made in his image. And you know something? I think our heavenly father likes to hear of our gratitude as well.

Do your works and worship indicate a grateful heart or do they indicate a selfish one? It seems that in general the percentages hold true. How many came back? One out of 10. Few show God the gratitude he deserves by their praise and service to him.

We so quickly become complacent and self centered, particularly in our comfortable life here in The United States Of America. Though maybe this virus is shaking that up a bit. So few go to church, so few live and serve Christ faithfully, so few pray regularly, so few read their Bibles, so few give God the thanks and praise he deserves. While the number of missionaries shrinks year by year, pulpits go empty, and once good churches die, for lack of committed, grateful Christians. This is the state of affairs in The USA today.

And it's not the fault of the lost. It's the fault of the saved. Because we're not showing God the gratitude that he deserves. What blessings we miss out on as did the other nine who just kept on what? Who just kept on walking.

Notice the last thing that Jesus said to the Samaritan who was thankful who came back to worship. Verse 19 again. He said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Jesus gave further assurance to this man, to the one who came back with a grateful heart.

He gave further assurance to him of his cleansing. But more than that, I think Jesus was giving him assurance of not just his physical cleansing, but of his what? But of his spiritual cleansing. Many Christians today are without assurance and peace. Because they have not given God the credit and worship and service out of a heart of gratitude which he deserves.

And I cannot give you that assurance today either. Only God can. Only his spirit. Only his word can. If you will repent and do the first works, as God says to the church at Ephesus in Revelation three.

If you will go to God in prayer, if you will go to God with a thankful and a humble heart, he will restore the joy of your salvation. Or he will show you that you've never truly been saved. So many today are lost in sin and will remain so spiritual lepers. If they do not come to God for the only cure from sin, Jesus Christ. The cure is awaiting you.

If you will receive God's love gift by faith today. You can. Jesus says, come on to me. All you that labor and heavy laden. And I will give you rest.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the demonstration of your power in this passage to heal any disease or illness that you see fit to heal. Thank you Lord also for the demonstration of your power to save men's souls from sin. Thank you for coming to die on a cross for my sins.

Thank you for the empty tomb where we have a risen savior. Thank you Lord for the day that you cleansed my heart from sin, forgave me, and gave me eternal life. Lord, I pray for those who might be under the sound of my voice today who have not yet received Christ as savior. Lord, help them to see how much you love them and what you did for them so they could be saved. That they might call on your name in faith to save them today.

And Lord, I pray for we who are saved, who have been born again by the blood of the lamb, that we would not be so distracted by the things of this life that we forget to say thank you to the one who has given us life. That we forget to demonstrate by our actions, our words, the glory of our God and the thanks that you deserve and the service that you deserve. Lord, I pray that we would be a light and a testimony. The salt and light in this world that we should be. In gratitude for what you have done for us.

In Jesus name. Rather than singing a hymn from the hymnal. I'd like to close. With