Sermon #125 Luke
Sermons
Title: Cleansed,
But Not Healed
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Subject: Ten Lepers Healed
Date: Sunday Evening — June 6, 2004
Tape # Y-25a
Readings: Rex
Bartley and James Jordan
Introduction:
Have you just been cleansed, or have you been healed? Have you merely been changed, or have you been made whole?
During the days of our Lord’s earthly ministry, there were many who
enjoyed the temporal, outward benefits of his works who never knew him. Many
who touched him never touched him. Many who drank the wine at the marriage
feast in Cana of Galilee never tasted the wine of his grace. Many ate the
loaves and fishes who never tasted the bread of life. And there were multitudes
who knew the power of his word to heal their bodies who never knew the power of
his grace in he healing of their souls. We have one glaring example of this in
the passage before us tonight ― Luke 17:11-19.
(Luke
17:11-19) “And it came to pass, as he
went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
(12) And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that
were lepers, which stood afar off: (13) And they lifted up their voices,
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. (14) And when he saw them,
he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to
pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. (15) And one of them, when
he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
(16) And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and
he was a Samaritan. (17) And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine? (18) There are not found that
returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. (19) And he said unto
him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
How many there are, like
those nine lepers who want no more from Christ than power to correct their
woes. Because that is all they seek, that is all they get. I have known many
who in times of great danger, or great difficulty, or because they have brought
upon themselves great misery, pray, profess faith in Christ, join the church,
and become very religious (at least for a while). Their lives have been
radically reformed. They have made great changes. Their troubles were healed.
And once they got what they wanted, like the nine lepers in this passage, they
“are not found.” They were cleansed, but only outwardly. They were
cleansed, but not healed. There is a difference.
Then there are others, like
the one leper who “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a
loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at Christ’s feet,
giving him thanks.” There are many, many lessons for our souls in this
passage. May God the Holy Spirit be our Teacher and seal to our hearts the
things revealed in these ten lepers.
Luke
17:11-19
Verse 11 ― “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he
passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”
The
Lord Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time. He was going there
for the blessed purpose of laying down his life in the room and stead of his
sinful people, to finish the work for which he had come into this world of sin
and woe. There he would lay down his life for his sheep. There he would pour
out his life’s blood unto death, bearing our sin in his on body on the cursed
tree. There, he would suffer all the horrid wrath of God as our Substitute, all
unmitigated fury of divine justice to the full satisfaction of justice, until
at last he would cry, “It is finished!” He was going to Jerusalem to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
As
he made his way to the place of sacrifice, “he passed through the midst of
Samaria and Galilee.” Much speculation has been made about this, but the
simple fact is that the nearest way to get from Galilee to Jerusalem was by
going through Samaria. And our ever faithful Savior had an appointment at
Jerusalem that he must now keep, an appointment with God’s offended justice, an
appointment of grace and redemption for us, and an appointment of death for
him. His time had now come. His hour was now at hand. And the Lord Jesus would
not turn back. ― “Having loved his own which were in the world, he
loved us to the end!”
· Isaiah 50:5-7
Verse 12 ― “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off.”
We
are told in verse 16 that one of these lepers was a Samaritan. I find that interesting.
The Samaritans and Jews despised one another. Normally, they would never be
seen in company with one another. But affliction and misery, poverty and need
often make men friends who in times of health and prosperity despise one
another because of stupid prejudice. If misery will cause lost men to put aside
such proud strife and division, how shameful it is when those who profess to
know the grace of God cannot put away social, racial, and class distinctions!
On
the outskirts of one of the villages ten leprous men were gathered to meet the
Son of God, united in a community of deadly misery. They were far off, because
they dare not approach, since their approach was pollution, and they were
obliged to warn away all who would come near them by the shameful,
heart-rendering cry, “Unclean! Unclean!”
No
doubt these ten lepers had heard that the Lord Jesus was passing their way. Why
else would they have come to meet him? They had heard his fame, how that he had
healed other lepers. So they came to the Son of God, desiring that he might
heal them.
These
men were lepers. There was something in that living death of leprosy –
recalling as it did the most frightful images of suffering and degradation,
corrupting as it did the very fountains of the life blood of man, distorting
his appearance, making his touch loathsome, slowly incrusting and infecting him
with a plague far more horrible than death itself – which always seems to have
aroused our Lord’s heart with keen and instantaneous compassion.
Leprosy
I
doubt that any of us, having never seen a man in the condition of these men can
imagine the scene before our Lord. Here are ten men who are lepers.
· Their voices are hoarse and
raspy.
· They are covered with sores
and scabs.
· Their faces like chunks of
burned coal, bloated, but hard, cracked, and scabbed.
· Their flesh is rotting on
their bodies.
· Their eyes bloodshot and
burning, their noses sunken because of decaying cartilage, their tongues black,
swollen, and ulcerated, they are dying a miserable death together!
Our Leprosy
Transfer the picture in your mind, to another. You are looking now into a mirror. Oh, what miserable, deplorable objects we are. You see, you and I are all lepers by nature. Leprosy stands before us in Holy Scripture as a vivid picture of sin.
· Leprosy was, according to
Old Testament law, a disease that made a person unclean. He was pronounced
unclean by the priest (the law), put out of the camp of Israel, and isolated
from society.
· Everything the leper touched
was defiled and unclean.
· Leprosy, like sin, is a
spreading disease, corrupting the whole life of a man, until he is destroyed by
it altogether. ― It corrupts the entire human race. ― It is spread
through all our members.
· Sin, like leprosy, has shut
us outside the camp and made us far off from God (Eph. 2:11-12).
· It is, like sin, an
incurable disease, incurable by any earthly, human means.
Lepers
were never sent to a doctor. They were sent to a priest. But all the priest
could do was look at his condition, declare him unclean, and shut him out of
the camp. He could do nothing for him. The whole Levitical law concerning
lepers and leprosy are intended to show us the nature and use of the law. It
identifies our leprosy, concludes that we are lepers, and declares that we are
unclean, but does nothing to change or help our condition. Nothing but the
precious, sin-atoning blood of Christ, nothing but the stripes inflicted upon
him by the whip of God’s holy law and justice can heal us of our disease and
cleanse us of the plague of our hearts.
Cleansing
As
leprosy portrays our sin, the cleansing of a leper under the law portrayed the
healing of our souls by Christ. In order for the leper to be ceremonially
clean, two birds were to be taken clean and alive. Both were both typical of
Christ.
One
of the birds was killed, in an earthen vessel over running water, showing that
Christ must be killed, his blood must be shed for the cleansing of leprous
sinners. The earthen vessel denoted his human nature, his flesh, in which he
was put to death. The running water signified the purifying nature of his
blood, and the continued virtue of it, to cleanse from all sin.
The
other bird, after it was dipped with the cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop in the
blood of the slain bird, was let go alive, typifying the resurrection of Christ
and our resurrection with him, declaring redemption accomplished, acceptance
assured, and sin put away.
Ten
men who were lepers met the Lord Jesus on his way to Calvary. Now, watch this…
Verse 13 ― “And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.”
These
men knew full well that no mere man had ever healed another of leprosy. But
they had heard that this Man had. So they called upon him, the Man who stood
before them in human flesh as God, asking him to have mercy upon them.
· “Jesus!” ―
Jehovah-rophi, God our Healer, Jehovah our Savior.
· “Master!”
· “Have mercy on us!”
Verse 14 ― “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show
yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were
cleansed.”
Do
not miss this. When these lepers begged him to show them mercy, the Lord Jesus
said, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” In the Old Testament law
those who thought they might be lepers were required to go show themselves to
the priests, so that the priests (The Levites ― The Law) could confirm
that they were indeed lepers (Lev. 13:2-3). Obviously, these men had already
been through that procedure. They were already declared to be and identified as
lepers.
Why,
then, did the Lord Jesus command them to go show themselves to the priests
again. You will find the answer in Leviticus 14:2-3. There the leper who was
clean was required to go show himself to the priest (The Levite ― The
Law), not to be made clean, but to be pronounced clean.
In
other words, the Lord Jesus said, “You are clean,” and sent them on their way
to be ceremonially pronounced clean. These men believed his word. They headed
straight to the priests to be pronounced clean.
“And
it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.” ― As they
started to the priests, they looked upon themselves and realized that they were
clean. Their leprosy was gone! ― Healed by the mere sovereign will of the
sovereign Savior!
Verses 15-18 ― “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. And Jesus answering
said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There
are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.”
These
verses are full of instruction. Why did the other nine go on to the priests?
And why did this one Samaritan stranger return to the Lord Jesus, glorifying
God with a loud voice, as he fell down on his face at the Savior’s feet? The
answer should be obvious.
The other nine called the Lord Jesus by his name, Jehovah-Jesus, God our Savior, and acknowledged him as Master, and were cleansed of their leprosy in their bodies; but this man, being both cleansed of his physical leprosy and healed of the leprosy that plagued his heart came back to worship the Lord Jesus as God his Savior. He was not only cleansed of his leprosy, he was made whole.
Now, look at verse 19.
Verse 19 ― “And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath
made thee whole.”
When the nine were cured of
the ailment of their bodies, they had obtained all that they wanted. They
needed and wanted nothing else. But this Samaritan stranger had a experienced
something else. He was healed of his leprosy and grace was poured into his
soul. The nine were content to go on just as the had, living under the yoke of
bondage and ceremonialism. But this man was forever done with Jewish priests,
religious ceremonies, legal sacrifices, and carnal ordinances. He fled away to
the Son of God, the Author and Finisher of his salvation.
Countless multitudes, like
those nine lepers, being healed only outwardly, in their bodies, by a religious
encounter of one kind or another, never know or worship the Son of God. But
poor, wretched sinners, knowing the leprosy of their souls, as soon as they are
made whole by the Lord Jesus, fall at his feet, glorifying God with thankful
hearts. They go no more to the law of carnal commandments, but ever come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, made our Priest forever after the
power of an endless life (Heb. 7:16).
To
all who thus believe on the Son of God, he declares, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith
hath made thee whole.” Did the Lord Jesus actually say that? Surely, not! Oh, but he did,
didn’t he? He did not just say it here; he said it many times.
· In Matthew 9:22 he said to
the woman with an issue of blood who touched him, “Daughter, be of good
comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole.”
· In Mark 10:52 he told
Bartimaeus, whom he had just healed of his blindness, “Thy faith hath made
thee whole.”
· In Luke 7:50 our Savior said
to the woman who was a sinner, who worshipped him as her Savior, “Thy faith
hath saved thee; go in peace.”
· In Luke 18:42 the Master
gave sight to another blind man and said, “Receive thy sight: thy faith hath
saved thee.”
I
know many who would cringe if they heard a preacher say that to any sinner.
They are scared to death that the plain statements of Holy Scripture will
utterly destroy their wonderful system of doctrine. Any system of doctrine that
cannot bear the plain statements of Holy Scripture is a corrupt system and
needs destroying.
Such
statements as this, “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” must never be
explained away, but delightfully embraced. No, faith is not our Savior! We are
saved altogether by the work of God’s omnipotent grace, without our aid. But
there is no salvation without faith in Christ!
Yes,
Christ gives us faith. It is the gift and operation of God the Holy Spirit. But
having wrought faith in us and given it to us, it is our faith. And we receive
all the bounteous blessings of God’s rich, free grace by faith in Christ.
Will you hear me? The Lord God promises eternal salvation to faith in
his dear Son, declaring that all who believe on Christ have everlasting life.
― “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” And every sinner who
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ glorifies God, falling at the feet of his
all-glorious Savior, worshipping him alone as his Savior, with a heart of never
dying, deeply felt gratitude, crying, “By the grace of God I am what I am!
― Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”
Illustration: “Help me! Help me! Somebody,
please, help me!”
(1
Corinthians 6:11) “And such were some of
you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Now, I ask you again ― Have you just been cleansed, or have you been
healed? Have you merely been changed, or have you
been made whole? May the Lord Jesus now make you whole for his own dear name’s
sake.
Amen.