In Luke 17, one through 19, our Lord teaches on offenses and forgiveness, prayer and humility, and the 10 lepers are cleansed, only one being grateful. Hear now the word of Almighty God, inspired by His Spirit, profitable for us. Luke 17, starting at verse one. Then said He unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if he had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto the sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet? And will not rather say unto him, make ready, wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten 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 priests. 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 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? There 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. Thus far the reading of God's inspired word from the gospel of Luke chapter 17, verses one through 19. May the Lord add his blessing to it. And now to the consideration of its teaching. Verses 1 through 4, Christ teaches his disciples to beware of giving offense and the duty of forgiveness. The same topic, perhaps the same discourse, is covered in Matthew 18, verses 6 through 10, and the same chapter 15 through 35 at great length, also discussed in Mark 9, verses 42 through 48. Now notice here. He says in verse three, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. The parallel passage, Matthew 18, verse 15. If thy brother shall trespass against thee, what does he say? Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. That's what it means to rebuke. It means you go to a person and you tell them privately, here is the thing that you have done wrong. Here's how you've sinned against me. tell it to him alone between the two of you. This word rebuke means to bring a person's price up, bring up the charge. What is it? What is the transgression? What exactly is the offense? Now it's important to understand that offenses can be given and offenses can be taken. Sometimes they are given then taken, meaning someone gives offense by sinning against another person or encouraging their sins to stumble them so that they don't walk in God's way. Sometimes people take offense and none is given. The Pharisees took offense at Christ. Did he give them any offense? No. He didn't stumble them from walking in God's ways. He never did. But they took offense. So we must be careful when we hear this word, I'm offended. Well, that doesn't mean anybody offended you. It might mean that you took offense that wasn't given. These are legitimate offenses our Lord refers to. He says it's impossible, but that they will come. And here's how you deal with it. rebuke him if he trespasses. That's an actual sin. And note verse four. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day. Now this is very likely the grounds on which Peter asked his question, do you recall? If my brother sin against me, shall I forgive him till seven times? Is that it? Because you said earlier that if he comes to me seven times, I'm to forgive him. And there our Lord expands upon it to show us that because God's forgiveness is boundless, so ours ought to be to one another. But here, notice, seven times a day. And seven times in a day, turn again to thee, saying, I repent. What should you do? Well, you know, I have a list here of how many times you've already done this. And I think that three is the max I'll give you today. So now I'm going to lay into you. I'm going to rake you over the coals. I'm going to remind you of how wicked you are. Wait, is that in there? No. Forgive him, he says. Do not hold it against him. Do not hold that sense of I have been wronged. Matthew Poole comments on this. that which it requireth is the laying aside of all malice or desire of revenge upon our neighbor in a case wherein our own name or honor is concerned. Now he points out this doesn't mean that civil courts stop. We don't press charges for murder. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about the inner affection of the mind and its expression to your brother where you say, no, I will not forgive. Let us learn to forgive sins, even as we have been forgiven. This is perhaps one of the most frequently dealt with topics in the New Testament, forgiveness. Because we have been forgiven much, we are to love much. We're actually in one of our petitions of basic daily prayer to say what? Forgive us our debts. How? as we forgive our debtors. It's built into our prayer life. It's built into our conscience. It's built into the gospel. We must be willing to forgive as we have been forgiven. We must let the realities of the gospel sink in. How great my debts are to the Lord, and how great His forgiveness of my debts, and therefore, how can I choke my fellow servant for the few cents he owes me? Christ then encourages his disciples to pray for the increase of their faith and encourages them unto humility, verses five through 10. Verses 5 and 6 are covered in Matthew 17, 19 through 21, and Mark 9, 28 and 29. Now the apostles hear this thing about forgiving seven times, and I can't take my fellow servant by the throat, and they're thinking this through, and they're starting to realize, wow, I don't believe enough, do I? They realize their infirmity. They realize how hard and burdensome this sounds to the natural man, to themselves in their old nature. Fulgentius comments, overladen mortality is permitted to be wearied with the burden of its own infirmity. We are mortals. and to hear about forgiveness to others is just too much to bear sometimes. We're burdened down and wearied by view of our own infirmity, and then he says, Finding no strength in itself, it may quickly address itself to implore aid and divine assistance. Lord, increase our faith, because I'm not sure I can do what you just said. I'm not sure I can handle that. It doesn't seem like I can. This burden is too great. It's hard to forgive. It's so easy to hold grudges, is it not? to fester that wound that was done to you by that person and to feel bitterness against them and hatred and malice toward them. Lord, increase our faith. Our Lord then illustrates the duty of servants, verses 7 through 10. He speaks of a servant plowing or feeding cattle. This is unique to Luke's gospel. Now plowing and feeding cattle is appropriate to a slave, that's the word servant, doulos, a bond slave, one in chains, one under the yoke. Verse 7, will the master say unto him, by and by, when he is come in from the field, go and sit down to meet? You think he's going to do that? Does that make any sense? No, that's not suited. His station does not mean that his master is going to feed him. It's the other way around. It doesn't matter if he's been out working. His master is not going to say, oh, you've been working hard. Now I'll serve you. That's not how the slave master relationship works. Verse eight, will he not rather say unto him, and this implies a yes answer, yes, he will say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Now this is suitable. This is a suitable conclusion to the master's day. This is a proper relationship between a slave and his master. You serve your master. You serve his interests. You do his bidding. You seek first his interests, then your own. You see? Serve me first, then you may eat. See, the master cares. He's going to let him eat, but he's not going to let him be master over the household. He's a slave. So of course he has to serve his master. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? No. No, he does not. He may commend him as a good and faithful servant, but will he thank him as some thankworthy thing? You've gone above and beyond the call of duty. No, he is not. I trow not, he says. I reckon it not so. I've reasoned this out. My estimation is, no, he's not going to thank him for doing his job. So likewise, our Lord says, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you. Now, let me tell you, there are different what they call grammatical moods in the Greek of the New Testament. Some moods, like the indicative mood, means that the speaker assumes something to be the case. The imperative mood means they assume it's not the case, but they're telling you to make it so. Either to start doing something or stop doing something, the imperative mood. Then there is what we call the subjunctive mood. That is where something is assumed to be hypothetical and possibly not the case. That's what it is here. So likewise, when you shall theoretically have done all those things, were it to be the case that you actually did everything that God commanded you to do, what should you then say? We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. Now this word unprofitable means you are of no use. You make no profit for your master. You are unworthy. You are not deserving of praise nor of thanks. That's what it means to be unprofitable. Should you have actually done everything God commanded you, could you add something to Him? Could you give Him something He didn't first have? No. Matthew Henry comments, God cannot be a gainer by our services, and therefore cannot be made a debtor by them. Let us grant for a moment that the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Virgin herself, and all the saints, Peter and Paul, David, Samson, all the saints of the Old and New Testament, let us take for granted for just one moment that they did everything that was commanded them. Could they have a treasure chest of merits to lay aside for the other people, us miserable sinners and those burning in the flames and fires of purgatory? Could they have some extras to lay aside if they did, in theory, all that was commanded of them? No. Mary, Paul, Peter, David, Abraham, they all would have to say, We are unprofitable. We only did what it was our duty. There's no thanks to us. There's no merit. There's no treasure chest. There's no works of supererogation above and beyond the call of duty by which we can have a treasure chest of merits laid up for the miserable masses in purgatory. It's the most ridiculous doctrine ever. We are unprofitable servants. We cannot make God a gainer by our services and therefore we cannot have merit or debt that God will pay us back. And if, just let this sink in, if on the supposition of perfect obedience you couldn't have any thanks from God, what about us? Have we perfectly obeyed? Have we done all those things which are commanded us? Well, how much less does God owe us thanks that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth, Job 4 and 19. How much less us Here the Lord teaches us that we ought to do those things which the Lord has commanded us, including the duty of forgiving those who sinned against us. And second, that on the supposition we have done all things that he commanded us, we are to look for reward, not of debt, but of grace. Our merit is His mercy. If God promises to reward us, it's only Him crowning His own gifts. That's all it is. Then verses 11 through 19, we have Christ cleansing 10 lepers, one of which is a Samaritan who returns to give thanks. This again is unique to Luke's gospel, nowhere else in the other gospels. Our Lord traveling to Jerusalem, going through Galilee and Samaria. The distant lepers cry out, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus, Master, Eleison, they have old songs they would sing, the Kyrie Eleison, that's where they get it from. Have mercy on us, show pity to us, look on us with grace, look on our miserable condition. In this word, master means our overseer, one of high dignity. You who are high above us, have mercy on us, low down here. And as soon as he saw them, verse 14, he said, go show yourselves unto the priest. Now yet, they don't know that they're cleansed. They don't realize this. They're told to go in their leprous condition, go show yourselves to the priest, go immediately, do it right away. Do it with urgency, with all determination. Reprove those Sadducees, those priests of their unbelief. of their hardness of heart. Convince them that I can cleanse the lepers, I who am God in the flesh." Now notice, as they went, they were cleansed. As soon as they started going, right at the moment that they started heeding Christ's words, they're cleansed. Now, this cleansing was done to them, not by them. They were cleansed. In the very act, who cleansed them? Well, Christ did. And would you be cleansed from the leprosy of your sins? Would you be healed? Would you have mercy rather than wrath and judgment? Go show yourself to that great high priest over the house of God. Turn at his command and you shall be healed in his name by the master's mercy. And one, when he saw that he was healed, as soon as he noted, my flesh is back, it's not leprous, it's not decaying, I'm not going to die of this disease. As soon as he saw it, he turned back and with a loud voice glorified the God, that God. The definite article appears. the one of whom he had begged mercy, the one at whose command he was cleansed. That's the God he came back to give thanks to and to glorify. How do we know that? Well, verse 16 tells us. Look there in your pew Bibles. And fell down on his face at His feet. Accusative, singular, masculine. His. Well, what else is accusative, singular, masculine in the context? The God in the prior verse. He glorified that God and he fell down at that God's feet. That's what it says. That is the construction of this passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God with feet, God in the flesh. None other than our Lord Jesus Christ, the feet of God, He bows before them. God does not let you bow before creatures, not living, not dead, not painted, not statues, no creature you are to bow before or to serve or to worship. And yet he bows before him. He bows at his feet in religious glorification, in giving thanks to him, in blessing his holy name. This is an act of worship. Elsewhere in the New Testament called proskuneo, to behave like a dog, to bow down to your master, to kiss toward him, kiss his ring, kiss his feet. That's what he's doing. He's worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. God in the flesh, God with feet, giving him thanks. Again, him being the God that he glorified. Euchariston. Eucharist, we get this word from it, it means a thanksgiving to God himself. Gratitude to God, Freyberg says, of a thanksgiving prayer, especially at meals, as expressing gratitude generally to thank here again to God incarnate at the feet of God with feet. bowing down to him who cleansed him, the master of mercy, bowing like a dog, bowing low, glorifying that God with a loud voice, even the Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh, oh Jews, he was a Samaritan. An alien from the Commonwealth of Israel. A cursed, half-breed, idolatrous people, whom Jesus says you have no salvation. Did you know that? Jesus told the Samaritans that? We know whom we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. What does that mean for the Samaritans? Not of you. You don't know who you worship. You have no salvation. Here he is, this cursed half-breed Samaritan, with no salvation, now he has it. Now he has salvation. Giving thanks to God in the flesh. Let us imitate this leper. This Samaritan leper. Let us give thanks to the Lord Jesus. Let us praise Him as the true God, the Savior of sinners, the merciful Master, the cleanser of lepers. Glorify Him. Bow before Him. Come down before Him. Were there not ten cleansed? Our Lord asks in verse 17. Yes, it implies the answer. It's a way of saying, ten of you were cleansed. Where are the other nine? Where are those who received my mercy and yet did not come back to render thanks to me? Christ demands it. It's not optional. You can't be cleansed by Christ and wander off and be ungrateful. No, no, no, no, no. Where are they? They ought to be here, in other words. They must be here. The Westminster Annotations comment, not that our Lord did not foresee their ingratitude, but that he might note and declare it unto others then present, to the intent that men might learn to beware of that most ignoble of sins in gratitude. And so here we are warned. Have you received mercy and cleansing at the hands of Christ? Are you unthankful? Will you not return to give thanks? Will you not bow yourself and follow him wherever he commands you to go? Christ gives him words of comfort. Verse 19, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. The word here is sosein, to save. Thy faith hath saved thee. It is the instrument by which you are saved, by which you are delivered, by which you are cleansed, forgiven and reconciled. Believe then on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, he says. Believe upon Christ to the salvation of your souls and be cleansed as the leper was and give thanks together with him. And thus far the exposition of Luke 17 verses 1 through 19.