 So let's begin our study here in Luke chapter 17 by reading verses 11 through 19. We're gonna only look at those verses this evening. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. And it's a story that we see Jesus cleansing lepers from a horrible disease called leprosy. So we'll begin in verse 11, read to verse 19 and get into our study. Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse 11. Luke writes, it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned in with a loud voice, glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. He was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner? And he said to him, arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Now as we begin here in verse 11, it's just a simple aside. He's given us a geographic location as well as the description of the journey that Jesus is on. When he says in verse 11, it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And so notice how he says he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Galilee is the northern region of Israel. If you had a map of California and you divided it into three sections, southern, central, and northern California, well, you can do the same thing with the map of Israel. When you look at the nation of Israel and you see it on the map, you'll see that it has the sea on the left side of it on the western border. And so very much like we have our Pacific Ocean, they have the sea there. And so you can actually look at the map of Israel, dividing it into three sections. And if you do so, then you have the north, the center, and the south. You'll know that the north is a region called Galilee. And the center would be a region called Samaria. Then you have the southern section of it that is normally called Judah. And so as you look at a map of Israel, you'll have an idea of what's taking place here. Jesus Christ is in the north. And as he's in the north, he's now making his way south. He's going to the city of Jerusalem. Now it's described in a simple way. It says he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. That gives to us a simple idea as to what he's doing. What he's done is he's left from a region there around the sea of Galilee to the north and he's now traveling south. As he's traveling south from the sea of Galilee, you travel about 15 miles and you enter into a city there called Bet-Shan. In Bet-Shan, it's an ancient city we were there just last week. When you go into that city there, he would from Bet-Shan go off to the east and cross the Jordan River. And as he crossed the Jordan River, he would proceed south. And what he was doing is he was bypassing Samaria. And he did so in order to avoid confrontation. He didn't want to have a problem with the Samaritans. Now, Luke has been recording Jesus' journey down south to Jerusalem since chapter nine. And in chapter nine, he says, if you want to turn your Bibles briefly there, I'll develop your introduction by turning you to Luke chapter nine for a moment, verses 51 through 56. He is giving to us a reason that Jesus would take this detour and the reason as you're turning there is because there's great hostility, a great hostility between the Jews and Samaritans. It was a great hostility that is difficult for us to understand even in our day, unless perhaps you would be thinking in terms of a radical Muslim and a radical Zionist, a radical Muslim who believes in the destruction of Israel and a radical Zionist who'll lay his life down for the perpetuity of Israel and you might have something similar. The Samaritans and the Jews had no dealings. John, when he was writing concerning that in John chapter four, verse nine, simply said that. John in his gospel said, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In order to clarify for his Gentile readers that there was a tremendous antagonism between Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans had nothing to do with the Jews and the Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans. The Jew would not sit down to eat a meal with one. He would not drink out of the same cup or the same well. He would not borrow anything from them. He had no commercial dealings with them. There was a tremendous amount of hostility and Jesus has already been dealing with this in chapter nine. Now from chapter nine, verse 51 through 56, we read, 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 and sent messengers before his face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did? Do you want us to make them into crispy critters? I mean, it's something we would like to do. We have no problem doing that at all. But he turned and rebuked them and he said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them, they went to another village. And so there is this longstanding disagreement, hostility between Jews and Samaritans. Luke has already alluded to this and Jesus has been proceeding to Jerusalem. And now as he's proceeding to Jerusalem, he's leaving the region of Galilee, passing through Samaria, but he goes about, Shann crosses over the Jordan and proceeds south in order that he might enter into Jerusalem in another way. So as this is taking place back in Luke chapter 17, at verse 12, it says, he entered a certain village and there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. So Jesus is on the eastern side of the Jordan River and while he's entering an unnamed village, village 10 lepers approach him with a request. Now it would seem that they have heard of Jesus Christ. They have heard of the works that he has been performing and he's been performing many works including the cleansing of lepers. Luke had told us in chapter five verses 12 and 13, it happened when he was in a certain city that behold a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Then he put out his hand and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed. Immediately the leprosy left him, he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest to make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear and be healed by him of their infirmity. So it would seem that these lepers have heard that Jesus Christ is a miracle working rabbi who has the ability to cleanse you from leprosy and so as Jesus has entered into this unnamed village, there are 10 men who are lepers who see him and begin crying out to him and I want you to notice verse 12 how it says that they stood afar off and they cried out to him. Leprosy during the time of Christ was the most feared disease in the ancient world. Leprosy was incurable. A writer by the name of Alice Heisinger wrote a book that he titled, Unclean, Unclean. And Heisinger in his book describes leprosy in this way. Leprosy generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body, numbness follows, soon the skin in such spots loses its original color, it gets to be thick, glossy and scaly. As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin especially around the eyes and ears begins to bunch with deep furrows between the swellings so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed, toes are affected similarly, eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time, one can see the person in this pitiable condition is a leper. By a touch of the finger, one can also feel it, one can even smell it, for the leper emits a very unpleasant odor. These men were lepers. Of the 61 defilements in ancient Judaism, leprosy is second only to the touching of a dead body. And God actually gave commands concerning this disease, specific commands in the Old Testament. And you would see those commands listed for you in the Old Testament book of Leviticus in chapter 13. In Leviticus 13 verses 45 and 46, it says a person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out unclean, unclean. As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone, he must live outside the camp. That was what the law stated concerning leprosy. Leprosy was also regarded as moral because it was a symbol of sin. And because leprosy was a symbol of sin, lepers were rejected. Because in scripture, leprosy is a graphic illustration of sin. Like sin, it infects the entire person, is ugly, corrupting, contaminating, alienating, and is incurable outside of a touch from God. The rabbis during the time of Christ knew that no prayer, no offering, no ritual could cleanse a leper. And yet, these lepers cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ. These lepers who are the outcasts of society, these lepers who are to live alone, they are isolated. They're the kinds of people that nobody can have fellowship with. These people see Jesus Christ and begin to cry out to him. And they take a chance by calling out to Jesus. You see, during that day, a Pharisee or a very hyper orthodox or extremely religious in practice person, if they saw a leper, they might pick up a stone and throw it in the direction of the leper. They wanted nothing to do with these people, nothing at all. Because it was a symbol of sin. And because it was infectious, it was dangerous. And people didn't want to be around them, would not have anything to do with them. They were isolated completely. Here comes Jesus into this village, an unnamed village. And as he enters into the village, these 10 lepers, the only conversation they're gonna have, the only quote unquote fellowship that they're gonna have is gonna be with other lepers. These 10 lepers see the Lord Jesus Christ and they begin to cry out to him. Now they know that they can be rejected, but their condition moves them so that they step out and they actually ask for help from the Lord Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly they had heard that he had done so for others. So why not ask him to do the same for them? James tells us in chapter four, verse two, you do not have because you do not ask. And there are a lot of people who are in spiritual leprosy who do not receive because they simply don't cry out and ask for help, they don't ask for mercy. Sin makes a separation, it's destructive, it destroys your life. And yet instead of crying out to Christ, we have a tendency of hanging around with other sinners and getting worse at it. Yet these people here, they see the Lord Jesus Christ, they have heard that he doesn't reject you, they have heard that he has compassion for you, they have heard that he has power to do something that nobody else can do. And they cry out to him. I think that's the wisest thing you can do guys, is to realize your condition is incurable, to realize that there's nothing you can do except get worse. You can't get any better. You know, sometimes people will say, well you outgrow sin, you never outgrow sin. You don't mature past it. You refine it. You get better at it. You get better at hiding it. If you know anybody who's an alcoholic or perhaps you were an alcoholic at one time before you met Christ, you know that you could hide your alcoholism, at least you did for a while. You were capable of hiding the fact that you were drunk. You were able to do that. I know of people who are weekend drunks. They hold a nine to five, five days a week, Monday through Friday, they go to work. And their coworkers don't know they're drunks. But man, once they leave on Friday, they're drunk from Friday night until Sunday night. And then they're back on Monday morning working and their friends don't know it. But these are weekend drunks. These are people who are able to maintain to a certain degree. Now, the first time you get drunk, people know it. The very first time you get drunk, you might even be the butt of people's jokes. They may even laugh at how silly and stupid you are. That was the case for me. When I first started getting drunk, it was real obvious. I didn't know how to hold my liquor. I didn't want to. As a matter of fact, it was almost a state of symbol for me to be walking around drunk and everything. I didn't have a problem with that at all. I wanted people to know that I was drunk. But you know, after a while, I came to realize that there are people you don't want to know that you're drunk like your parents. And so what I learned to do, I thought, was I learned to hide it. I learned to maintain. I learned to be able to have an appearance of being sober when in reality, I was extremely drunk. Got pulled over more than once when I was extremely drunk and I was able to just talk to the police officer. I looked normal, but inside my heart was pounding because I knew that if he pulled me out of that car and had me do any of those tests, that I would fail them. But you learn how to maintain. You learn how to look like you're okay. But when you're a leper, you can't look like you're okay because it's real obvious because your leprosy is obvious. People see that. And ultimately, sin is that way too because you may think that you are getting away with it. But after a while, the telltale signs of being an alcoholic are there, the ruddy complexion, the puffy face and the slurring of the speech and you don't take care of yourself the way that you used to and you seem to have accidents often and you're bruising easily and what's going on. And it starts showing after a while. It starts showing after a while. And so these people here are a great example, not only of those in need of a touch from God to cleanse them but they're also a great example to us because they needed a touch from Jesus and they went to the right person. There was nobody else that could do that for them. There was nobody else that could cleanse them. There was nobody else that could make them well. Leprosy needs to be cleansed. It isn't necessarily healed though you can use the word healed when it making reference to it. But it is something, the law speaks about it being cleansed and sin is something that needs to be cleansed. We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin you see. And so as leprosy is being presented to us, there are 10 who have it and they are horribly, horribly infected by it. They see Jesus coming into the village. They stand afar off because the law commands that they do and they begin to cry out in verse 13, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And I want you to notice by the way here, they lifted up their voices. They were willing to be identified openly in their crying out to God. There are so many people who say, well, yeah, I'd like to know Jesus and all. These people were willing to be openly identified as those who cried out for help. That's why an open invitation, that's why when we give an invitation, I'll say come forward because I really believe it's the model you find in Christianity of being open about your profession of need and receiving of that healing. And so they began to cry out there and they lifted up their voices and they called to Jesus and called him master and they said, have mercy on us. And so you see that in obedience to Levitical law, remain a distance away as they're calling out to him. And notice again, they're saying have mercy on us. Psalm 103 verses 10 and 11 says, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. And so they're crying out and they're asking for mercy and so notice verse 14, so when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests and so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. He doesn't touch them, he simply commands them to go and show themselves to the priest to reveal that they've been healed. Now in doing so, this is keeping with the law if you keep notes, that's described in Leviticus also in chapter 14. Now what's interesting is they all had leprosy, they all wanted to be cleansed, they all believed that Jesus could cleanse them, they all asked him to cleanse them, they all went to the priests and they were all healed. But notice verse 15, one of them when he saw that he was healed returned and with a loud voice, glorified God and fell down on his face and his feet, giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan. This guy wasn't a quiet person apparently, this guy was pretty loud but I guess there's a good reason for it. I guess there's a good reason for it. I mean God had done something, God had done something incredible and he wasn't about to be quiet about that, there are a lot of quiet Christians and I don't think there's anything wrong with being a quiet Christian, I'm a quiet person myself, I identify with that but I can tell you there are times when I'm not quiet, I can still remember and this is ancient history for some of you, you weren't even born at this time, but when the Dodgers last won a World Series, you know that Kirk Gibson homerun that you see played over and over again on Sports Center and various of the things that's the greatest hit and I was there, I was there when that happened, I was in the right field box seats, I saw that game, I was sitting there when Gibson came up, when he's hobbling around up there, I saw him when he hit that ball and it traveled past us going up and then it lands in the bleachers there in right field and the entire Dodger Stadium erupts unbelievably, we were all shouting and so loud and so hoarse and I stood there with my hands up going yeah, right, just like everybody else, yeah. And then, I mean it kept going on and on and on for several minutes, so long, then we finally got in the car and we were driving out of the parking lot and there were thousands of people who were still in Dodger Stadium, still screaming and you could hear them as we drove out of the parking lot and drove on down the street, thousands of people screaming at the, because a little white ball guy hit by a little stick over a fence, think about it, think about it, we will scream until we're hoarse over things that don't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter, he gave me joy for that moment but that was what, 20 years ago, I haven't been happy with the Dodgers ever since man, 20 years, 20 years is a long time, it's a long time, it's too long, and I'll be mad at them this year too, I know, they're losers, but anyway, we yell and get excited and it's okay, it's great to be excited and to yell but this guy, now he had something to shout about, he did, this is a man and none of us can really understand this because none of us have suffered like this man, this is a man who knows how long he'd been in this condition, his body wasting away, wasting away, no fellowship, no relationship with other people other than other lepers, the kind of man that couldn't come into a city without having someone throw a rock and I mean, this is a guy that doesn't say whether or not he had leprosy as a married man or as a single man, but this is a man who couldn't approach his wife, he was married, this is a man if he was not married who would never get married, this is a guy if he was unmarried and he'd never gonna have children, he's never gonna have the dreams and his hopes fulfilled, he's never gonna have any of that guys, he's never gonna have any of the things that we take for granted, this guy's never gonna have any of that, he's not gonna have friends, he's not gonna have quiet meals, drinking a cup of coffee, visiting with a friend or watching his grandchildren grow up around him, he's never gonna have any of that, he's not gonna have that, this is not part of his life, he can't even hang around with normal people, this is a guy who hangs around with people whose hands are falling off, whose noses are falling off, literally falling off, this is a man who has cloth around the open wounds because they ooze that he has change and sometimes he just doesn't have the ability to change it, so it cakes on him and he smells in such a way that people can't even get close to me, how difficult is that? I can't imagine what this guy was going through, so when he's walking along the way and he senses strength in his body, and he feels health in his body for the first time and he couldn't take another step away from Jesus, he had to run back to him, he had to run back to him and he wasn't quiet about this at all guys, this is a man and this is how it's described, verse 16, he fell down after with a loud voice, he glorified God, he fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, that is the absolute perfect picture of a sinner who's been saved, that you just, you glorify God, you fall down at his feet and you give him thanks for what he has done, that salvation, you see a lot of times people say, oh I'm a Christian, they've never experienced glorifying God, they wouldn't even think of falling down at his feet, they wouldn't even think about praising him out loud, I questioned somebody's sincerity when they don't have this kind of sense and then I was lost, I was dead, I was putrid in my life and now I've been cleansed, I mean there's just something and it happens when Jesus Christ grabs hold of you in that way, that transforms you and you're not ashamed of it, you're not ashamed of it, you know there are so many people today that I encounter who are, they seem to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they don't want to admit that they're identified with him, not this guy, this guy didn't care about who saw him, he didn't care about what he was doing in public, he didn't care about his dignity, this is a man who couldn't even walk hardly without any pain, this is a guy who's now on his face in front of Jesus Christ, glorifying God and giving him praise and then Luke tells us very quietly he was a Samaritan, this is a guy who was outside of the promises of God, this is a guy who wasn't part of Israel, this is a guy who had a religious system that was antagonistic to the truth and yet Jesus Christ still healed him and still did a work in his life. I want you to see that, it says one of them when he saw they was healed returned with a loud voice and glorified God, they were all cleansed but only one of them actually thanked him for such a work, 90% didn't even say thank you, 90%, nine out of 10 didn't even say thank you, that sounds like the 21st century to me, we're living in times that are unbelievably prosperous, but you wouldn't know that if you listen to the news, you wouldn't know that if you listen to what's being said, in order to be elected president you have to say everything's horrible and the funny thing about it is you'll always have somebody agreeing with you. I was at a gas station and a young man probably in his early 20s pulled up in a, it was a Lexus, one of the smaller versions but it was a Lexus, black tinted windows, nice sound system, I know it had nice sound system because he was showing it off, vibrated me, he climbs out of the car and he's wearing a leather jacket, nice slacks, very handsome young man, very, very handsome young man and he's putting his gas in and I can hear the lyrics of the music he's listening to as he's, his head's bumping along with it, he's got me vibrating and the lyrics are saying how bad things are, it was real down, you know him this and I'm that and he's just oh I'm so depressed, I'm so, it's just, the world is just stinks man, it stinks. He's there in a Lexus with a leather jacket dressing nice shoes, I mean handsome kid and I'm thinking you're an idiot, I love you but you're still stupid, I mean come on man, I mean you got money to buy a nice car, put gas in it, wear nice clothes and you're filling your mind with a bunch of negative garbage, a bunch of nonsense, we are living in incredible times right now, incredible times and yet people are like oh it's terrible, it's terrible, you know what, we are so unthankful, we are so unthankful, you have a house to sleep in, you have a bed, you got some blankets, can you take a shower if you want to? Hope you do, but can you? Do you have money to go out and buy a cup of coffee at one of these expensive coffee places man? I'm old enough to remember five cent coffee, 19 cent gas, I'm gonna die any day now, I'm that old. But I can remember it, I can remember it. Can you go out and buy a meal? Can you take a friend out and have a meal? Can you do that? Do you have more than one pair of shoes, you got more than one pair of pants, do you? Do you have a TV set? How many do you have? You got a radio, you got a sound system, and you're poor, huh? And life is bad, isn't it? Got a job? Come on man, we of all people are so unthankful. God just can't do enough for us, can he? He just can't bless us enough, can he? And when something doesn't go our way, who gets blamed? God, how come you let this happen to me? Well, why not you, sucker? Gotta happen to somebody, why not you? Maybe God hates you, no, I don't think so. I'm jet lag, forgive me. I will edit that word, sucker. No, I won't, I don't care. Bottom line, we ought to be thankful. But 90% didn't even say thanks. 90% didn't even say thank you. They just went on their way and did. They went to the priest, they received their cleansing. But this man, he's different. This man fell on his face and he gave Jesus thanks. Psalm 30 verses 11 and 12, you have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. Oh Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And that's what this man is doing in Psalm 107 verses 20 through 22. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. And that's what this man is doing. You see the symbol of death, living death has been removed with just a word received by faith. And that's what happened to us. That's what happened to you. And that's what happened to me when God's word was received by faith. When I heard that evangelist, Arthur Blessed, give an invitation. And he said, if you give your heart to Christ he will cleanse you from all of your sin. He will forgive you and he'll make you brand new. He will change you. And I heard that. And I thought, that's too good to be true. But it was true. It is true. It is true. But that's how we were. We, according to Ephesians chapter two verses one and two, we were dead in transgressions and sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. We at one time were dead in trespasses and since transgressions. We were dead. We were walking dead people. Walking dead people. We had no spiritual life. We were walking in darkness and we enjoyed it. It was the only life we knew. We didn't have a concept of anything that would be better than what we had. We had dreams and aspirations but these were things that were basically really out of reach for most of us. Our dreams were bigger than our abilities. Then we got to the point where we, and I'm speaking as a saved man now, just came to realize that now I was miserable. I had no joy. I had no peace. I didn't know what love was. No relationships was hurtful and harmful to anybody who knew me and those who loved me would get hurt the most by me. Isn't that the way it normally is? Those who loved me the most were hurt the most by me because they loved me. And so I got away with a lot of things. But not really because in my heart of hearts I knew I was in need of some help. I needed help. I remember when I had been arrested I was put in jail. Just an overnight thing. My dad came and bailed me out. I remember telling my dad as he was driving me home. I remember telling my dad I'm sick and my dad sent me to a psychologist. I didn't need a psychologist. I needed a savior. I needed forgiveness. I needed help. And the help that I needed was beyond human aid. I mean, the psychologist couldn't convince me there was nothing wrong with me. And I couldn't convince myself that there was nothing wrong with me because inside my heart of hearts I knew there was something terribly wrong with me because I was a miserable kid, a drunk at the age of 20, you know, abuser, you know, couldn't have a relationship, couldn't keep a relationship. Went from a girl to girl. I couldn't keep a relationship. I was a walking dead man, just like you were. But I heard that message, I heard the message. I heard that God is merciful. I heard that, I heard that God forgives and God knows I needed that. And with a small amount of faith and a very large God I simply said God forgive me a sinner and I passed from death into life. Instant transformation, the Bible says if any man be in Christ he's a new creation. All things are passed away, behold. All things are become new, absolutely new, brand new. That's the promise. If I confess my sin, he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That's the promise. And I took God like you did at his word. The way this leper did, as he was walking he felt that he's healed. And he could not resist returning to give glory to God. Fell down at the feet of Jesus Christ. And glorified and thanked the Lord. But what's Jesus's response? Verse 17, Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? Again, I wonder if this is the normal ratio of gratitude. The Bible in Psalm 100 verse four says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. First Chronicles 16 verse 34 says, O give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Paul in 1st Thessalonians 518 says, in everything give thanks, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Were there not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? What happened to the rest of them? And then he says, were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? So the person who returned to give glory to God wasn't even Jewish. Jesus speaks of him as being a foreigner. That word foreigner is an interesting word. It speaks of an alien. Literally it speaks of one from a different tribe. This guy's not even part of the nation of Israel. No one who should have shown thankfulness did not do so. And the one that you wouldn't expect to be grateful was. That's how it worked. You see, as a Samaritan, his theology was not sound. As a Samaritan, he had what we would today call a hybrid faith because the Samaritans were actually not indigenous Jewish people. They had been transported into a region that had Jewish population that was repopulated by foreigners. And it was in the area of Samaria. And so the king of Assyria had invaded and had dispersed the 10 northern tribes and replaced the inhabitants with people from various countries. And when they came and settled in that land, they didn't belong to the nation of Israel. They were outsiders. And when they came, they brought their foreign gods. And they began to suffer because of that. So ultimately what they did is they said, the God of this land is angry at us, sent for one of the people who know the ways of this God to teach us how we're supposed to worship him so that he'll no longer be angry. And so a Jewish person came and basically said, this is how the God of Israel is worshiped. But what they did is they began to combine their religious faith with the faith of Israel. It says in 2nd Kings 17, verse 33, they feared the Lord, yet served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. So they combined their paganism with the Jewish faith, created a hybrid faith, and as a result of that, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They wanted nothing to do with them. As a matter of fact, the most famous story concerning that in John 4 is when the woman of the well, a woman of Samaria came and Jesus said, give me something to drink. And that's why John says, she looks at him and she says, how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink for me, a woman of Samaria? And then John says, for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And as they're speaking, she even says to him, well, you Jews say that you're to worship God in Jerusalem, but we worship him on this mountain, Mount Gerdzim. We worship him here, but you say that he's supposed to be worshiped in Jerusalem. She's tried to start a religious debate with Jesus Christ when he was there ministering to her. He says, you don't even know what you worship. That's how he responded. You know not what you worship. He said, salvation is from the Jews. And he immediately corrected her. But see, the Jews had a religious system that was from God. The Samaritans had a hybrid system. And this guy here didn't even have an understanding, a deep understanding of who Messiah is. He simply knew that he trusted him and he was healed. See, when you get saved, you don't instantly become a master theologian. You get saved and you still carry in some of the craziness and your beliefs that you had before you got saved. You do. When I got saved, I came in with all kinds of crazy ideas about God. So how are those crazy ideas gonna be eradicated? The way they're eradicated is through teaching the word of God, being taught God's word by reading the Bible. And as I, as a young believer, started reading the Bible, I started saying, oh, he doesn't like that. Oh, he likes that. That's how it was. This is when I got saved, if you don't mind, one other quick thing about that. When I got saved, this is what I did. You know, I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and so I went to Mass. I went to Mass because that's where I went to church. But the day I got saved, the follow-up counselors said, to me, you need to go to a church that teaches the word of God. And so I got a Bible and I went to Mass. I hadn't been to Mass in about five years, six years. And I went to Mass and I sat there in church. You know, I was a Catholic, you know, and I sat in church. I waited for the priest to tell me to open the Bible. He never did. And I thought, well, if I'm gonna know God, I ought to be in a place that opens this book. I was a brand new Christian. It means since to me, if I'm gonna know God, I ought to go to a place that's gonna open this book because I sat there with the Bible on my lap and I didn't have to open it up. And so I started thinking about that. And then one day, shortly after, I went to my sister-in-law's house, my brother's house. And as I was sitting there, I saw this, one of those 500 pound family Bibles. And I opened it up to the very back. It was a huge Bible. I opened it up to the back and it had doctrines. And I was waiting there and I thought, well, this is interesting. So this is what I did. I was 20 years old, brand new Christian. And I said, I wonder where these things I was taught are found in Scripture. So I started with the letter A and I looked for the assumption of Mary. It's not found in the Bible. Church tradition. I said, well, if it's a church tradition, I don't need it. And I just started doing that. I looked for penance. Where is it found in Scripture? It wasn't found. Looked for purgatory, didn't find it. Looked for limbo, didn't find it. Looked for all kinds of things that I'd been taught, didn't find it. And it wasn't like this act of rebellion. It wasn't like, I'll show you, I'm mad at you. It was nothing like that. I just was a young guy saying, if it's not here, then why would I believe it? If God didn't say it, then why would I embrace it? It doesn't make sense to me. See, so a lot of this that I had in the past, my religious beliefs were altered. Not because somebody sat down and said, oh, you stupid Catholic. Because if they just said that to me, if it fights on, we're gonna argue. We're gonna argue. Because you shouldn't judge me. What do you know about me? And that's how I was. But when I opened up the word of God, and I started saying, this is what he says, it made sense to me, it still does, that I ought to embrace what he says rather than what man says. It's really that simple. It goes deeper than that, but it's really that simple. That's where it begins. And so this guy coming out of a religious system that is antagonistic to the true faith was still touched by God because God is merciful. And once he grabs hold of you, then he directs your footsteps into truth. He gets you with the truth. He builds you up with the truth. He fills you up with the truth. He guides you with the truth. It all comes from his word. So here he comes to Jesus and Jesus says, this guy's not even part of the tribes of Israel, and yet he has come and has given praise to God. And so God did a work in his life. Psalm 50 verse 23 says, whoever offers praise glorifies me. And to him who orders his conduct a right, I will show the salvation of God. And so he said in verse 19, he said to him, arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. Your faith is not simply this, oh, I've got faith. A lot of people today will talk about their faith. Now this wasn't some nebulous thing. This was a directed faith. What are you saying is your faith in me, your faith in my word. The fact that you've embraced what I said to you and you know who I am, that has saved you. That is what has made you well. You see, faith is only as good as the object that it is placed in. His faith had been placed in Jesus because he knew that Jesus could heal him. And so he received what God had for him. So it's not some nebulous faith. It's a direct faith, a directed faith towards God. It's a directed faith towards Jesus Christ. And that's what Jesus is commending. Not the fact that he has faith, but that his faith was placed in him. That his faith was placed rightly, correctly in Jesus Christ. And that faith in hearing his word and acting on it is what cleansed him and ultimately is what saved him. It's the same kind of thing that happened to you if you're a Christian. You heard God's word, you cried out to him, have mercy on me. God said, I will have mercy on you. You received it and you were saved. Now let's be thankful. Now let's be open. Let's be willing to be identified with Christ. Let's glorify him.