Evidence of Saving Faith (Luke 17:11-19) | Pastor Peter Kim

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

For more information, visit www.fema.org Thank you. Thank you.

good morning church family happy lord's day i hope and pray that we've come before our god to magnify his name we want to sing this first song this first hymn oh four thousand tons Oh, for a thousand times to sing My great Redeemer's praise The glories of my God and King The triumphs of His praise My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth, the breath, the honors of Thine.

Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows see. Tis missing in the sinners' ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of hand to sin, he sets the prisoners free. It's black and pink, the fowl is blue, it is blood of ill for me. Let's sing together, he speaks.

He speaks and listens to His voice, through life the dead receive. The humble, broken heart's reach voice, the humble for belief. Glory to God and praise and love be ever, ever again. My saints below and saints above, the church in earth and earth. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. all right welcome to bring community church first of all as we announced last week our kimco lot is open but those of you who are parking there the families with small children when we say small we're talking about you have to use the the thing to to come okay or if you're a senior if you're 60 and over you can you know that the parking is open for you but because they're doing construction over there so just be mindful if there's construction equipment don't park near the construction equipment and then they have two roll-up doors where they're coming in and out where they the lot of the construction is happening so please do not park in front of there or near there so that the cars can come in and out if they need to and then we are reserving a few spots so if there's a the owners or the people who are managing that are happen to come while we're having service we want to give them enough room so they can park their cars there.

So try to avoid that. I think our parking team has put some cones out there so that that can happen. But if it hasn't, but please be mindful of that. And I know I don't need to say this, but just in case, they do have a EV charger there that you must not use, okay? And I know I shouldn't have to say that, but there was some mistake made in the past. So please do not use that. So stay away from it. If there's a lot where the charging station is, so please do not park there, okay? Now, having said that, this coming Saturday, we have All Church Cleaning Day. I am told that they are in need of quite a few more people, so if you are able to come anytime after 9 o'clock, they'll give you information about what they need, so please sign up for that, and that's happening this coming Saturday at 9 a.m.

Newcomers Welcome Lunch, August 16th at 1 p.m. at the Youth Chapel. This is after the third service, so if you are a newcomer at the church and you want some more information, you want to meet some of the welcome team members and some of the leaders in our church uh that welcome welcome lunch is is for you so to let them know so they can prepare the lunch and uh and so that you can enjoy the presentation that's happening and then finally as you're walking in you saw our lunch uh group that's tabish out there that's a our vine youth groups fundraising lunch and so uh we're those of you who are members we're going to be attending our members meeting at two o'clock please stick around and eat that and then try to come in right at two o'clock but it is open to everyone else so after second service and third service that lunch fundraiser is happening it's a cane bbq plates for ten dollars for adults and five dollars for children that's what i'm told okay so after this service even if you're not going to be able to stay you can just grab it to go and eat it at home if you want but that's happening after this service and third service okay all right let me pray for the offering and after our praise time our brother Caleb is going to be coming up and giving his testimony to be baptized this morning all right let's pray Heavenly Father we want to praise you and thank you for your constant grace and love

that you pour upon us Lord as we are prone to wander prone to be entangled with civilian affairs help us lord god to truly fix our eyes upon christ that all that we do this morning lord would be a pleasing sacrifice to you i pray father that you lift up our eyes to know where our help ultimately comes from that our joy that our hope may be placed in christ in christ alone i pray that you will bless the offering that we give that we would give as an act of worship thankfulness and that it would be given joyfully and may be multiplied for the sake of your kingdom In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Thank you.

Brothers and sisters, why don't we stand together? And while you're standing, why don't we say hello to a couple people. Introduce yourself. They're new. Thank you. How has the sinner been forgiven? How has the rabble been made clean Or blinded eyes and made to see How have the orphans been adopted Aided your love and ran from grace The spies that rejected all your ways How wonderful the Father's love The Father's love for us That He would send His only Son To come and rescue us And He that saved us Called us flameless Guides us now and will sustain us Oh, how wonderful the Father loves.

Your mercy, your mercy clouds our eyes with kindness. Your grace is colored all we see, and you have promised not to leave. If we really give your spirit to us who can, so we can be sure we're sons of God, and rest in the hope of what's to come. How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us, that He has sent His only Son to come and rescue us. And He has saved us, called us blameless, guides us, now will sustain us. Oh, how wonderful the Father is. We're suffering. We're suffering. We fill our lives with confidence. We're heirs of Christ.

So we cry, I'm a father. His sufferings may fill our lives. We're comforted, where airs would crash. So we cry, I'm a father. How wonderful the father's love, the father's love for us. And that he would send his only son to come and rescue us. One more time, how wonderful. How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us. And that he would send his only son to come and rescue us. Yes, see. And he has saved us, called us blameless, guides us now and will sustain us. Oh, how wonderful the Father I'm not alone.

Our efforts stand, no legacy survive. Unless the Lord does raise the house, in vain its builders strive. To you boast tomorrow's game. Tell me, what is your life? Amidst that banished ships have done, All glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ. His rule and reign will ever stay. All glory be to Christ.

His will be done. His kingdom come on earth. As Isabel, who is Himself our daily bread, praise Him, the Lord of Loving Water. The living water satisfy the thirsty without price We'll take a cup of kindness yet All glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will ever stay Honorary to Christ.

When on the day the great I am The faithful and the true The Lamb who was born, sin and slain Is making all things Behold our God Behold our God Shall live with us And be our steadfast light And we shall let His people be All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our King Our glory be to Christ His will and reign will ever sing Our glory be to Christ Our glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will ever sing All glory be to Christ Amen.

Hi, my name is Caleb, and I'm 18 years old, and this is my testimony. I grew up in a Christian home and was always exposed to the Bible and never doubted what was in it. I knew that God created the world and believed that he sent his son Jesus to die for us, but I was satisfied with just knowing the facts. I never had a desire to truly accept Christ into my life and devote myself to him. All my life, everywhere I went, I was the good kid who always did the right thing and pleased people. If anything went wrong, I would just get past it by putting a smile on my face. However, in my heart, I was deceptive and prideful. I went to a Catholic high school where my lacrosse team was part of a huge party culture.

I never participated, but the more I stayed away from the temptation, the more I felt I was okay spiritually. I compared myself to my teammates and convinced myself I was better than them because I thought staying away from sin was good enough. I judged others and had so much pride and deception in my heart. Thankfully, at the time I started high school, we started attending Berean. I was blessed to be surrounded by other kids and staff where I felt comfortable and connected, but I still saw church as a weekly event that I went to because my parents went. Eventually, it turned into less of a chore, but still a social event for myself and not a time and place to grow closer to God. It wasn't until the end of my junior year that I started to hang out more with some of the guys in the youth group.

As I grew closer to them, I started to see how their faith had transformed them and how God was at the center of their lives. This inspired me to seek God more and be more intentional with my time in and outside of church. For the first time, I started reading scripture to learn about God. The theme of my senior year youth group winter retreat was captivated by his love. Pastor Mark explained the different aspects of God's love for us. He didn't just list how God's love is sacrificial, pursuing, fatherly, eternal, and victorious. He also put into perspective how undeserving we are of his love and how we sin against our creator. It wasn't until then that I realized that God actively pursued me through all the times I had rejected him and that I had to humbly receive this love.

I had to admit that I was a sinner and that there was nothing I could do to save myself. The only answer was Christ. I also realized the urgency of the matter when during retreat, Isaiah shared that we are all just one accident away from going to hell if we aren't saved. He told us that we never know if we're going to wake up the next day, and I realized that there may not be a time to come to God later. I had to ask myself whether I was going to heaven or hell at that moment. Since then, my heart has desired to grow closer to him. Church isn't a chore or a time just for friends. It's a time and place to grow and worship him and learn more about who he is to me and not just what he is. Outside of church, I have a greater desire to keep growing in his word.

My sins carry a different kind of weight, and I just don't go through the motions in prayer anymore. I know that my good behavior or anything I do can't save me. I have to repent and turn to God and turn away from sin. While I know I will still sin and be tempted by the world, I know that I need to follow Christ who is my Lord and Savior, as Romans 8.37 says, but in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Thank you. - Caleb, do you understand when you go into the water, you're being united to Christ's death, and then when you're coming out, you're being united to his resurrected life. And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hold on, you didn't get to go home.

I don't know. His dad, Andrew, wanted to make sure that every part of his body is underwater. He didn't want not even his finger be dry when it come out. Just in case. All right. Wow. Thank you for that very encouraging testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 17, we'll be reading from verse 11 through 19. Luke chapter 17, verse 11 through 19. Reading out of the NASV. While he was on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met him, and they raised their voices saying jesus master have mercy on us when he saw them he said to them go and show yourselves to the priests and as they were going they were cleansed now one of them when he saw that he had been healed turned back glorifying god with a loud voice and he fell on his face at his feet giving thanks to him and he was a samaritan then jesus answered and said were there not ten cleansed but the nine where are they was no one found who returned to give glory to god except this foreigner and he said to him stand up and go your faith has made you well let's pray father we pray that your word that you have ordained would cause us lord god to see clearly who you are and what you have called us to i pray that your word would speak to us teach us illuminate us disciple us and change us in jesus name we pray amen you know years ago you know we were coming in out of china we were doing a lot of work there

and one year in the winter time i was taking one of our team members who was going to go over there and stay there for for a while i think for about six months to a year and the team that was already there kept on telling me you need to come to make sure that you don't miss the beginning of the spring festival which is the new year and they said you have to come and watch the fireworks and And I said, well, how great can it be? I live by Disneyland. You know, we see it every year. And they said, no, you got to come see them. They were hyping it up so much. And then I was like, you know, nothing ever really lives up to the hype. You know, so, but we made plans. We got there and I was just so tired that day.

We got there and then I fell asleep. And about 11 o'clock at night, they woke me up and said, hey, come out. Because the fireworks about to start. I said, okay, you're going to wake me up so that I can watch fireworks. I can watch literally every day down the street, but just to entertain them, I got up, and then around 1130, the fireworks started, and oh my gosh, some of you who may have experienced it know exactly what I'm talking about, maybe you were in China, I'm not sure if they do that in Taiwan, but basically, the whole city, and you can imagine, there's millions and millions of people, it seemed like almost every person is out, and in China, there are no regulations, right? They don't have other freedoms, but they have freedom when it comes to fireworks, right? So they, I mean, they, you can literally like light everything you see in Disneyland. You can just buy it off the street. And then when they do the fireworks, it's not firecrackers. It's literally dynamite, you know, and, and, you know, and people get seriously hurt because of this. And I remember this one time we're seeing this, I can't believe that they're allowing this to happen this can't be safe and sure enough as the fireworks go you can see fire starting everywhere right and then you have security guards walking around with fire extinguisher just extinguish it's like everyday part of life right we're all freaking out and uh so after all this

was over was how can this be safe right and i was asking the the locals there it's like it's not safe they say if you go to the emergency room uh especially in the beginning of the spring festival see people are coming in in the middle of the night with their fingers torn off with their eyes poked out i mean it is dangerous but like you see you know buildings burning down i said why is the government allowing this to happen this is not safe right and then they told me that the government actually stopped it for a while for several years they said because it was just way too dangerous and the reason why they started allowing it to happen is because the chinese believe superstitiously the reason why they do fireworks is that it's supposed to ward off bad luck right and so it's out of superstitious reasons that the louder the noise that the family makes the more blessings supposed to come into their home so when they stopped it for a while they said that every bad thing that happened if they didn't get a job or the child didn't go to the school that they wanted they would say it's because of you and they were starting to resent the government So the government basically said, well, are you going to blow off your finger, poke out your eyes?

That's up to you now. So out of pressure, the government allowed it to happen, which is interesting to me because, you know, this is a communist country, and they teach since they're little kids that there is no God. So this is an atheistic culture. So I asked them, do you actually believe that? And they said, no, no, no, we're atheists. They said, then why do you believe that this is somehow going to bring blessings? and he said, just in case, right, just in case, so even though they don't believe in any gods, and that's how they were trained since they were little, and they said, but just in case, superstition, that this is something that they've had in their culture for thousands of years, and they said, just in case, that there is something to it, we don't want to, we don't want to miss out on it, right, and this is the reason why I shared the story, I mean, obviously, we had 4th of July celebration recently, but an atheistic communist country was demanding that they have fireworks and just crazy fireworks out of superstition, just in case.

The topic of conversation today in the text that we're looking at is what does genuine faith look like so many people come to church out of superstition they've never fully committed their life to Christ they were raised in the church and and they hear things like once they've always saved and so you know I came from a Christian home you know I grew up in the church I raised my hand when they told me to come and so for all kinds of reasons they come but they never really met christ so they hold on to a form of godliness but because they don't know the power they are committed to church but never fully committed to christ what is the evidence of genuine saving faith how many people attend church today just in case if this is right just in case i want to have insurance if i die just in case heaven and hell is real i don't want to go to hell I want to go to heaven just in case so they hold on and do absolute necessity but beyond that they never fully give their life to Christ so they their focus of their attention in Christianity is the church do I like the people what do I get out of this but they've never understood what it means to pick up their cross they don't know the joy and the sacrifice when paul says that he was willing and he's desiring to suffer so that he may fellowship with christ these are just words but it's never their personal testimony so the question that we asked this morning is what is saving faith what does that tangibly look like not just theologically

but in the life of a person in order to understand this we have to understand i i believe the whole reason why this particular miracle is placed where it is in Luke's gospel, Jesus is about two months away from going to the cross. And it's written in the context, remember, in the previous two chapters where Jesus is now focusing his attention to prepare his disciples not only for the cross but after the cross because he's going to commission them for the gospel ministry. And he's warning them that the first opposition is going to come from the religious leaders. It's the synagogue leaders. It's the Pharisees. It's the Sadducees. They're the ones who are going to come persecute you. He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.

It's all hypocrites. It's all surface, but they don't really know God. He warns them about coveting. He warns them about the way they live, how to deal with sin. So all of this is in the context of preparing his disciples to the gospel ministry.

And I'm going to give you the summary of it before we even jump in. I believe that this story is placed where it is because Jesus is trying to train his disciples how to discern true fruit. Because on the surface, it looks like 10 people got healed. 10 people met Christ. 10 people are going to go and become Jesus' witness. And 10 people became Christians. But we know that that's not the case. The point of this is at the end when Jesus says, your faith has made you well. And we'll get into that a little bit, but it's to identify true saving faith. Before we get into it, we need to understand this whole disease and how this kind of builds up to the main point that he's trying to make. What leprosy was.

In today's circles, medically, they call it the Hansen's disease. And the reason why they call it the Hansen's disease is because 1873, Dr. Gerard Hansen found that leprosy was caused by a bacteria that enters into the individual. Now, what's interesting is, again, this happened in 1873. 1873 is not when leprosy came into mankind. But it wasn't until about 150 years ago that a medical doctor found that this was a bacteria coming in and all the symptoms and everything that comes along was because of a medical issue. And the reason why this is important, because up to that point, because they could not understand this hideous disease, they just said, this must be God's curse on you. You must have done something. There must have been something that's going wrong.

This must be some sort of demonic spiritual curse on you. And up to that point, they didn't have any medical explanation for this disease. This was a hideous disease. As I mentioned, it's a bacteria that comes into the body, and there is no symptom for several years. It could be just dormant in your body, and by the time you begin to see the symptoms physically, it's already run its course for several years. The first physical sign is that you begin to see patches on the skin. And the reason why you begin to see patches on the skin is that your nerve starts to get damaged, and your body isn't able to heal itself. Eventually, it begins to spread, and you feel numbness in your hands and your feet, your extremities.

And then the next part of it is it begins to spread all over, and then they begin to have ulcers and wounds. and it just does not heal. Your body is not able to heal. So every little cut, every little injury that you get ends up becoming fatal because your body is not healing itself. Eventually, your fingers and toes begin to fall off. Every injury that you have turns into pus, and it's just, by the time it gets there, that's the picture that you probably think of when we think of leprosy, and by the time you see all of that, it's already run its course. It's at the tail end. eventually their face becomes disfigured. They become blind because it begins to spread all over and it is a slow, hideous, ugly death. But the hardest part of the disease is not the physical pain because they don't feel pain. Because the nerves get damaged early on. What is hideous about this disease is what it does physically what it does socially what it does spiritually you see by the time these symptoms come in they've experienced already years of walking around being identified and people being afraid just just having a horrible reaction just like we do I didn't even want to show you the picture because it's so hideous can you imagine seeing somebody alive that was at the tail end of this disease. So they had to live with this for years and years and years because it was a slow rotting of the flesh. In fact, when you read the scriptures in

Leviticus, it identifies this particular disease. It spends two full chapters to identifying this disease, what to do with them, and how to isolate them, what they can do, can do, what they cannot to. And if by some miracle they feel like this disease is healed somehow, they had an elaborate ritual that they have to go through in order to make sure that they're able to enter back in. So the hardship of this disease was not necessarily physical. It was more social and spiritual. And that's why if you read the scriptures, leprosy is oftentimes, not directly, the lines aren't directly drawn, but leprosy is oftentimes highlighted because it's a physical illustration of the damage of sin. Just like leprosy, sin enters gradually, small. Nobody goes from praising God and going to missions, and then the very next day, or not, you know. Oftentimes, it happens gradually because there's compromises that are taking place, and so the sin comes in.

It begins to have a corrupting effect, and it begins to spread all over, and it begins to have an effect on the community. And we just had a seminar on church discipline, why the Bible is very clear about that, right? This is the temple of God, the spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever destroys the temple, God will destroy him. And so sin comes in, and if it's not dealt with, so it begins to have an effect on the community. And then that person begins to feel isolation. You know, oftentimes people, one of the first effects of sin is that they feel lonely. They feel distant. And sometimes it leads to depression. It didn't come out of nowhere. You had sin that's kind of crept in and you feel distant from God.

You feel distant from other people. And oftentimes when somebody allows that to continue to permeate in their life, one of the first symptoms is, I don't feel connected at church. I don't feel part. And we're doing all of this and there's so many people, but I don't feel connected. In other words, they're setting the foundation for an excuse to withdraw all, because spiritually they've already withdrawn. Eventually it has a numbing effect, because if you allow it to permeate, eventually your conscience becomes seared, and what used to bother you at one point no longer bothers you now. It's beginning to run its course, and it begins to affect your ability to worship. You come to God, you sing the same song, you read the same scripture, but it no longer has any convicting effect, because you've hardened your heart, you've hardened your heart, and eventually the word of God no longer has any impact in your life and then in James chapter 1 14 to 15 when it runs its course it leads to death and so just as the disease is as hideous as you can possibly imagine the reason why God allowed the law to come and to teach us so that sin would become utterly sinful Just as we would have a negative response, a violent response to somebody who physically you can clearly see the effects of this disease was on them, is that God wanted us to see the damaging effects of sin.

So we can see why they were crying out, because they were isolated. and he made it very clear that when this disease comes upon their life they are to be identified, isolated and then they were sent out of the camp meaning that they couldn't see their family if they were married they had to separate from their husband if they had children they couldn't not live in the same house as their children they couldn't come to the temple and so now they are forced to beg and it was a miserable existence Jesus tells them he has compassion on them he tells them to go show themselves to the priest because that's exactly what the scripture tells them to do but what's interesting here is that in the other account in mark chapter 1 in the beginning of his ministry when a leper cries out to him he has compassion on them it says and he actually lays his hands on the leper now you have to understand how scandalous that is because a leper first of all is not supposed to be around anybody everywhere he went he had to cry out unclean unclean so the fact that he was close enough that Jesus was able to lay his hands I could imagine the disciples saying Jesus if you lay hands on him and you become unclean you can't go to the next village you can't heal anybody else and you have to remember that this leper probably for years have never felt anyone's touch he's not he's not allowed to He had to keep his distance from everybody.

But Jesus comes, draws near to him, has compassion, lays his hand. One of the most intimate scenes of God's compassion upon this leper. And as a result, he becomes healed. And one of my favorite verses in the Bible, in Matthew 12, where it says, The Messiah is going to come, and a breeze reed he will not break. And a burning wick he will not extinguish. That people like this leper, like this is the reason why Christ came. But what's interesting about this is that he doesn't do that. He doesn't touch them. They cry out, and he tells the ten to go. Like, go show yourself to the priest. And the scripture tells us that on the way to show themselves, they get healed. So why does he deal with them this way here?

Well, I think for many reasons. You have to understand where we're at in Jesus' ministry. The first healing happens in the beginning of ministry where he's trying to show them who he is, his compassion. This is why he came. This part of his ministry at the tail end, he's about two months away from going to the cross. He's fixed on training his disciples about what needs to happen. So I think first he tells them to go because he was trying to obey the law. The law said that they have to go show themselves to the priest before they can reenter. The other part of it is that needs to happen in order for them to reenter society. Thirdly, I think it was so that the priests who identified this miracle would be a form of witness for him.

They said, yes, we were witnesses of this miracle, and we checked them out, and they were so. But I think the fourth reason is to identify to the disciples what genuine faith looked like. Because on the surface, superficially, they might look at that and say, all ten people came to Christ, all ten people got healed, all ten people. But the punchline in this, he says that only one returned. All ten of them were healed, but only one returned. And then he emphasizes that one that was returning was a Samaritan. That is not just said in passing. There's a reason why he says that. Because this was a foreshadow of the indictment of the nation of Israel. That they had every opportunity. They were given more privilege than any other person, any other nation.

And yet when the Messiah that they've been talking about prophesied in their writing, stood right before them. And even these nine lepers who actually felt and experienced miraculous healing of their body, they did not turn to him. the main point of this text is like these it was only the Samaritan who came back in John chapter 1 in Lebanon says he came to his own those who are his his own did not receive him you notice here he doesn't say they did not recognize him he said they didn't receive him in other words this was a willful rejection and the reason why this is so important to us is that in the church there are many many people who come out of habit or maybe out of superstition just in case so we jump through the hoops to become a member we join small groups we serve and sometimes we'll even sacrifice, holding on to a form of godliness, but they don't know the power. And because they don't know the power, they never fully commit. They commit just enough to be able to get along in the church. They commit just enough so that they can jump through their hoops and become a member and serve and be a part of the church. But their attraction is not to Christ, but to the church there's no other group of people in human history that is more privileged than you and I more access the fact that we are born some of you or many of us are born in the United States live in a free country where we have access to the Bible it's just we're our struggles which

Bible which church which denomination we have more access to theology we have more access to sermons we have more access than any other group of people ever even today go to other nations they don't have the same kind of freedom that we have to be in this and then to stand before God and say I didn't have enough my small group wasn't good enough I didn't have enough leaders the sermons wasn't exactly what I wanted the environment was a certain way and to be able to come before God and say I didn't have enough see this was an indictment against the nation of Israel despite the fact you had prophets you had miracles you had the law you had the festivals and you had miracles of God answering prayer for generation after generation generation and then the son of God stands before you performing miracle after miracle after miracle and then on top of that these nine personally experienced the supernatural power of God, and yet they still did not recognize it. They did not turn to him. The only one returns, and the point of this whole story is only one is saved. Only one is saved. Because the whole thing ends with, in verse 21, or sorry, verse 19, and he said to him, stand up and go, your faith has made you well. The NISB says it's made you well, but the Greek word there is sozo. Sozo is the same word that is used in other parts of the Bible to describe salvation. So some of your other translations will translate it, your faith has saved you.

Now clearly he's not talking about physical healing because the other nine also experienced healing he was identifying that particular miracle of that one person so it's not physical in fact if you read most of the commentaries they will tell you that that's what they believe that he is saying that only he is saved and so the natural question that's going to come up is how can only be he be the only one saved when they were all all were healed well scripture is pretty clear in Matthew 7 21 to 23 Jesus says not everyone who says me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of God and their response to that is wait a minute Jesus didn't we prophesy in your name didn't we cast out demons in your name didn't we heal people in your name in other words how can you say we're not in the kingdom when we're experiencing all these miracles not only were they healed they were actually healing and Jesus says I never knew you in other words you can be at church you can serve you can lead you can even perform miracles because that is not the ultimate sign of saving faith in fact Judas when Jesus was sending out his disciples he says he gave them authority to cast out demons and to heal you think that they went out 12 of them and 11 of them were were healing and then judas like it's not working for me right how come the other 11 are doing all of this but i can't do it no he experienced the same power that they did and we know he wasn't saved

miraculous power and even healing was not the evidence he said your faith has made you well your faith has saved you so what is it about his faith that was tangible where jesus said that you're the one who's saved in luke chapter 17 15 16 says now one of them when he saw that he had been healed turned back glorifying god with a loud voice and he fell on his face at his feet give thanks to him and he was a Samaritan there's several things I want to mention here and I want to first begin by saying the evidence of genuine saving faith started out with them crying out that they recognized their desperate I know it was for their leprosy but there's a desperate crying out to God and and the Bible tells us the book of Romans that's the whole reason why the law was given to make sin utterly sinful is so that they would recognize when Christ came that they would cry out son of God have mercy on me that they would cry out spiritually that they would recognize where they are they are at see until an individual recognizes his desperate need for Christ he'll come to Christ he'll be near Christ he'll admire Christ but he never cries out to God. When the scripture says, seek, knock, and ask. Who seeks, ask, and knock? The one who seeks is the one who recognizes that he is lost. The one who asks is the one that needs answers. The one who knocks is the one who recognizes that he's outside. But if you don't recognize that you're

outside, you don't recognize that you're lost, you don't recognize that you have all the answers already, that you will never seek, ask, and knock. Scripture tells us, he who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And it's not just a calling out because you're singing songs or you're saying the right words. He's talking about an individual who recognizes their pitiful state and that Christ is the only answer. And just like the lepers were crying out from a distance, son of God, have mercy on me. and that is the foundation of repentance. Foundation of repentance isn't simply feeling bad. Foundation of repentance is when he sees his utter desperate need for Christ. That's why the scripture says, he who seeks me will find me if he seeks me with all his heart.

With all his heart. You see, the church is not doing anybody a favor by making the door so wide open that anybody who has even an inkling of interest just come in we accept you just as you are and it seems very loving but we have a church filled with people who are completely deceived coming out of superstition never meeting Christ never repenting never feeling the desperate need for Christ but they're enjoying the church the fellowship the people the church is not doing anybody a favor unless this is all a lie, unless Christ never really resurrected from the dead, that this is all just a placebo, just so that you can have a difficult life with some sort of hope to get you by. But if Christ was really resurrected from the dead, and there really is judgment for those who are not covered by the blood of Christ, then the church is doing a tremendous damage by deceiving people or people who have never fully given their lives to Christ to feel completely secure in Christ says only the one who returns is saved so he cries out to God because he recognizes his desperateness and then it says he returned back he returned back he saw the value of Christ and he returned back see the other nine according to the law they would have to show themselves to the local priest and if the priest confirm it then they would wait seven days and then after the seven days they would have to go all the way to the temple about five six days

journey and then they have to go and confirm it there and then give the sacrifice and after they've given the sacrifice there was a slow process of re-entering into society so when it says that the nine didn't return. Jesus says, there were nine of you. Where are the others? Jesus expected them to come back. That was the reasonable thing to do because Jesus was the source of the healing. But basically, it is saying that the nine of them were so eager because they were desperate to get back in. For years, they've never been touched. Years, they haven't been able to work. They haven't been able to live with their families. They haven't been able to go to the temple. And so even though they experienced this miraculous healing what they desired more than anything else was the world they wanted what everybody else had and that's why in John chapter 6 people wanted to forcefully make Jesus king and remember what Jesus says you come to me not because you know who I am you come to me because you ate and you want more and Jesus says sees right through their superficial faith and he says, I am the bread of life.

I am the bread of life. He doesn't say, I will show you the way. I will teach you the right way. He says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am. I am the life. I am. That was the distinction between the one who returned. He realized the gift was not their healing. He realized the gift was not re-entering into society. Yes, he will benefit from all of that, but the real gift was himself. That's why in Psalm 23, when the psalmist says, the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not be in want. In other words, all I need is Christ. That's what he's saying. All I need is God. That even as he leads me through a valley of shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. He says, even if there's an enemy who wants to kill me, as long as I have the shepherd, I have no other need.

he returns because he recognizes the giver over the gift people who are fixated on the gift as soon as as soon as they don't get the gift they go find another channel they come and pray to god come to god sacrifice and they say you know what jesus didn't do it for me i still had marriage problems my kids still rebelled my business still fell apart i still had problem pain bills and he didn't do it for me and so they're gonna they're gonna go look for something else now from now on i'm gonna believe in myself you know we see so many people we have a team going out to korea to to share the gospel with the young people and what is shocking and surprising to me is that they're not falling into atheism you know the rest of society is about 33 percent at least professing christians and then you go to college campus it's three to two percent or sometimes even lower than that.

But you know what we found was they weren't turning to atheism. They're turning to cults. They're turning to cults. Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, they're growing. They're growing exponentially. Everywhere we go to evangelize, we run into a cult. And they are going, hovering over there. If you talk to most of them, their doctrines are ridiculous. I mean, ridiculous. Say, this guy's the Messiah. He can raise people from the dead. Really? You believe that? You actually believe that? And if you talk to them, none of them was convinced by doctrine. None of them fell out because of doctrine. They're not turning over to the cults because they read the scripture and they found that this makes more sense.

In fact, despite the fact, and it sounds ridiculous, majority of them, if you ask them, why did you join the cult? And they said, the people were so kind to me. their community was so loving so they came to church because they loved the community as soon as the community disappoints them they jump to another community because they were never following Christ their attraction to church was never Christ it was the gift that they thought Christ was going to give so many people who come to church out of superstition superficial faith come to Christ because of the gift that they think that Jesus is going to come and Jesus will say the same. You're not coming to me because you know who I am. You're coming because you ate and you want some more.

That's what was happening with them. He said he turned back and then he says he glorified God with a loud voice. He became a worshiper. And that's exactly what the scripture says. Jesus says there's going to come a time where whether you worship in that mountain or this mountain, the form is not what God is looking for. He says he's looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. See, what was lost at the fall is our ability to worship God. That's why in the book of Romans it says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So saving faith is the restoration to the glory of God. And when you're in the presence of God's glory, you become a worshiper. You become a worshiper.

And that's exactly what happens to him. It wasn't the miracle itself. It's the miracle giver that he recognized, and he falls down to worship. He worships, and then it says he fell on his face at his feet. If you remember, the primary word for worship is proskuneo in the New Testament. And that word basically means to prostrate himself. There is a sense of surrender that happens in worship. Worship basically is when you are in the presence of something much more glorious than you, And you naturally surrender. You don't compare. You don't compete. You just surrender. That's what worship ultimately is. So when you go to a baseball game, you go to a soccer game, and it's a little form of worship.

But if they play just like you, if their skill level was just like you, you're not going to go watch them. I'm going to go play basketball in the afternoon. Anybody want to come and watch me? Nobody. Nobody's interested. Worship basically is when you see something beyond you and it causes you to surrender. And that's exactly what happens. He cries out because he sees the need. He returns back. He becomes a worshiper. He falls down on his feet. And then he says, he gives thanks. And that's what a worshiper is. A worshiper is somebody who is filled with thankfulness. That's why grumbling is so detrimental to worship. That every time we open our mouth, We're fixated on things that we're not happy about.

The Son of God died for me, but I didn't get the job. The Son of God died for me, but I don't have enough money. The Son of God died for me, but they forgot my birthday. We fixate so much of our attention on the things that are so trivial in the light of eternal things that we have in Christ. The Son of God died for me. Everything else that we experience in life is trivial compared to that. And that's why we are commanded to give thanks. He doesn't say look for things that you are thankful for. He said, no, you're commanded because he already gave us everything for eternity to give thanks to him. We have enough for eternity to worship him and give thanks. And so when he looked at this, he said, your faith has saved you.

It wasn't simply that he cried out. It was because he recognized Christ, and then he became a thankful worshiper. John Piper says, Saving faith is the receiving of Christ as a treasure. Let me read that again. Saving faith is the receiving of Christ as a treasure. So an individual who doesn't treasure Christ, he doesn't treasure Christ. If that's the central evidence of saving faith. But you don't treasure it. You treasure community. You treasure purpose. You maybe treasure morality. You treasure theology. But you don't treasure Christ. You know how you can tell if somebody loves something or not? Right? Is there a test? Like 10 things. Right? They dress up better. They do their hair. They wear nice clothes.

How do you know if somebody is in love? there's no litmus test but you can tell I can tell when two people in our church just started dating right everything the guy says is funny it's not funny right and I can tell the way you walk in the way you walk out the way you look at each other you can tell you can just tell you talk to them the way they talk about you know everybody else and they used to be man he was so such a dork and all of a sudden he's so cool because you're looking at him differently is there a litmus test for just find out like if somebody is in love with christ i don't know if there's any kind of litmus test but you can tell right you can tell when they worship god you can tell who they run to when they're sad or lonely and they feel dejected and you could tell when they're studying scripture and the testimony doesn't have to come from a theologian doesn't have to come from a phd doesn't have to go deep into all the other nuances of scripture because he studies so much you can have a child come up and and genuinely say man jesus means so much to me Because that child loves the same God I love.

You don't go to Dodgers, if you're not a Dodgers fan, I'm only Dodgers fans with people who've been Dodgers fans for 30 years. And they understand everything about Dodgers. They know who wears what size shoes, and they know their batting average. They know how they throw the ball. Only those people can I have fellowship with. No. If you have a Dodgers jersey, they might have been a Dodgers fan for 10 minutes.

And if you're around them, there is koinonia. You feel connected. See, what makes us a community is not simply a doctrinal statement. It's not simply because we are at the right church or doing the same activity. It's because we love the same thing. He said, saving faith is receiving a price as a treasure. But you know that statement, it says, God is most glorified when we are the most satisfied in him. That's not original with John Piper. He got that from Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards didn't say it in those words. But this is what Jonathan Edwards says. The saints' affections are not raised because they think God loves them. But they first see that God is lovely. There's so much said in that statement.

The saints' affections are not raised because they think God loves them, but they first see that God is lovely. Think about how much of the gospel is presented. It's like God loves you unconditionally. God loves you. And they say, oh, wow, I feel so special. I feel so special. God loves me unconditionally. And then eventually, when you don't feel that love from the church, I go somewhere else that's going to love me unconditionally. He said true worshipers are not people where their value is lifted up. true worshipers when they saw that Christ is lovely that Christ is worthy and so we forget ourselves we completely forget so it doesn't matter what you think of me it doesn't matter how I look because we're fixated on him that's what true saving faith looks like when we have met Christ when Christ becomes everything not just something that's why when paul says in the light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing jesus christ everything else became rubbish that's the evidence of genuine saving faith and i believe that this is what he was trying to point out to his disciples they were all saved only one returned and became a worshiper that's what genuine faith looks like my prayer for our church it is so easy to be deceived. It is so easy to go through the habit, especially in this country. But do we have genuine faith? When was the last time you cried out to God? Not sought affection from other people, not

seeking community. But God, when you come to worship, what was in your mind? Who I'm going to meet what the fellowship is going to be like did you have in mind that i'm going to seek christ today i'm going to seek christ today and let me read one verse and then we'll wrap up the message this morning psalm 27 4 one thing i have asked from the lord that i shall seek that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord and to meditate in his temple. I pray that that would be our desire and our prayer each time that we meet. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your living word. I pray that you would continue to speak to us, reveal to us the hidden things, Lord God, in our hearts many times that we treasure and we try to hide from everyone else but you know us.

you know father god what we covet you know our deepest sins we thank you father god that despite all that that you persevere with us but help us help us lord god to be worshipers who genuinely worship in spirit and in truth that christ may be adored obeyed and worshiped in this place in In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. The mystery of the cross I cannot come breathe. The agonies of Calvary. You, the perfect Holy One, Christ, your Son, will drink the bitter cup preserved for me.

Your blood, your blood, has washed away my sin. Jesus, thank you. The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank you. Once your enemy, now sit it at your table, Jesus, thank you. By your perfect sacrifice I've been right Your enemy you made your friend Pouring out the riches Yes Your mercy and Your kindness no one knows Your blood Your blood Has washed away My sin Jesus day The Father's crown Completely satisfied Jesus day Once Your enemy Now sit it at your table Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you So I'm a lover of my soul Lover of my soul I want to live for you Lover of my soul And I want to live for you Lover of my soul I want to live for you It's your blood that's washed away my sin

Jesus, thank you The Father's wrath completely satisfied Jesus, your blood in your blood Has washed away my sin Jesus, thank you The Father's wrath, completely satisfied Jesus, thank you Once you're ready to meet I'm sitting at your table Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you as we recite the lord's prayer let's confess christ as our king his kingdom come his will be done our dependence our desire to fight over temptation and to forgive sins and to give glory to god let's pray our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. God sent His love They called Him Jesus He came to love Heal and forgive Heal and die To buy my power An empty grave is there to prove The Savior lives Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because He lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because He lives He will hold me fast He will hold me fast