Friday, November 27, 2015
1TH 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
2CO 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
Those in the ancient world who was suspected of having the disease was banished from society.
For all those reasons, Leviticus Chapters 13-14 gives special instructions concerning the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy.
This wasn't what the leprosy did to those who had it, it was what those who had it did to the leprosy.
Rip their clothes. Shave themselves bald. Cover their mouth with a thick raunchy unkempt mustache. Yell out; "Unclean, Unclean" -- "I'm unclean, I'm unclean."
Leprosy represented sin and as lepers, which is analogous to sinners, discovered that they had it they also were told that they would also have humiliate themselves, which is what sin does to us, according to GAL 6:7.
Bad enough others despised the leper and the priests had to announce that he was unclean but even the leper himself despised himself and had to announce to every passer-by, "Hey, I'm unclean, I'm unclean."
He would rather think about others and what they were going through then to become occupied and involved with His own needs and desires.
You couldn't even find this place that He was walking through described in the Bible or for that matter on a map.
Their only uniting characteristic is the foul disease that had cast them out of society.
This is one of the main reasons why many have problems and do not receive the desires of their heart, they refuse to obey the Lord's commands to go in a certain direction.
Will he heal them right then and there?
At first glance, you might think that the Lord was simply putting them off.
You might even conclude by going by sight that He didn’t intend to heal them at all.
You might infer that the Lord meant to impress upon them the hopelessness of their condition.
The Lord fully intended to heal them and (this is critical), He intended to do it in keeping with the demands of the Law of Moses.
MAT 5:17, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."
After many years (15-20 in most cases) the infection was gone and the person—bearing the ravaging marks of the disease—might re-enter society.)
"as they were going, they were cleansed" or they were healed as they went. --- Not before. Not after.
By sight, they still had not looked healed!
Go show WHAT to the priest? They were still lepers.
They didn’t have anything to show the priests proof that they didn't have leprosy any longer.
MAT 19:26b "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
LUK 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Sometimes it takes just one more step before we see God come through.
It seems that many quit right when they are on the verge of victory.
Beware of the curse of a lack of faith resulting in ungratefulness and forgetfulness.
They were healed as they went. Not before. Not after - But in the act of going they were healed.
Because their act of going was an act of faith.
Our faith moves mountains when our faith moves us.
When Jesus said, “Go show the priest” he was really saying, “Act as if you are already healed.”
As he went, the healing took place.
As you go forward and believe the word of God and the promises of God, you will be healed or you will be blessed.
What comes first, the believing or the receiving?
The world or the carnal believer says if I receive what I ask and see the proof then I will believe like Thomas.
The spiritual believer says I believe and therefore receives, because believing comes before receiving.
MAT 21:22 "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."
MAR 11:23-24, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.
MAR 11:24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.
Do you believe the word that the Lord speaks and then start off back in the plan of God again?
When our faith-shaky though it may be-finally moves us to action, God honors it and the answers begin to come.
Faith is belief acting on one's trust in what the Lord says or one's trust in the word of God, Bible doctrine.
So many of us are trapped by the curse of lack of faith resulting in ungratefulness, forgetfulness, and then a lack of thanksgiving.
It’s the view that says trusting God means letting him do it all.
Trusting God does not equal doing nothing.
The ten lepers were healed as they went. Our faith moves mountains when our faith moves us.
The main message behind this passage is the Shocking Revelation of the lack of thanksgiving.
Ten were healed and only one came back to give thanks.
As Ecc 3 would say there's a time to shout and a time to be soft.
EPH 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Jesus was a Jew and the Jews thought Samaritans were half-breed traitors.
To make matters worse, he is a Samaritan leper.
What this story really means is that those who should have been most grateful weren’t. And the one man who shouldn’t have come back, did.
First, it is a picture of the abundant grace of God.
Second, it is a picture of prevalent ingratitude. Nine out ten people will probably forget every blessing they ever receive.
Third, it is a picture of unexpected grace. Grateful hearts often pop up where you least expect them.
The answer is, they got what they wanted and left.
Maybe the Lord is saying, just like a pivot is in the minority, perhaps 90% of those whom the Lord blesses forget the author of their blessings -- the Blessor!
The Lord performed a mighty miracle for them and they said, “Thanks, Lord, I can take it from here.”
We have so little sense of what God has done for us. Often we don’t love the Lord very much or feel grateful for His blessings.
1. Gratitude is the highest duty of the believer and the supreme virtue, the fountain from which all other blessings flow.
2. Ingratitude is the leprosy of the soul. It eats away on the inside, destroys our happiness, cripples our joy, withers our compassion, paralyzes our praise and renders us numb to all the blessings of God.
When I realize the goodness of God and what God has done for me and even you personally, then (and only then) am I free to go forward in obedience to God.
When finally we understand that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights above, JAM 1:17, and I see that life itself comes gift-wrapped from God.
When we know-really know-that all of life is a grace … then do we begin to praise.
When finally we learn that we were all born lepers; then it finally breaks through that only by the grace of God do we have anything valuable at all.
What was Duty is now Privilege.
What was Law is now Grace.
What was Demanded is now Volunteered.
What was Forced is now Free.
What was Drudgery is now Joy.
What was Taken for Granted is now Offered Up in Praise to God.
Ten men were healed that day, but only one came back to give praise and thanks.
Are you living with the nine or with the one?
Too many of God's people us take their blessings for granted while complaining about their duties.
Praise is a choice. A thankful heart is an obligation.
The one who returned to give thanks chose not to forget what the Lord had done for him.
The secret of a thankful heart is a conscious choice not to forget what God has done for you.