the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then 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 and with a loud voice glorified God and fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And 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. Well, we have begun last week. a short series of readings from the law on the topic of thankfulness, and today we again approach this topic. Verse 11 tells us that Jesus was traveling between Samaria and Galilee when he came upon this group of men or people who were infected with leprosy, and there were 10 of them. 10 lepers, and apparently these lepers knew who Jesus was because they were able to see him from a distance. They were able to recognize him, and when they did, they immediately began to cry out to him, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And by asking for mercy, they were asking Jesus to heal them. They knew that Jesus was able to heal, that he could heal even a disease like leprosy, and so they were calling upon him to be their healer. And Jesus responded by telling them to go and show themselves to the priests. Now, the priests, according to Leviticus 13, were the people who could discern whether a person had been healed of a skin disease. And so this is not a strange instruction for Jesus to tell them to go show themselves to the priests. That's what would have been expected when somebody was healed of leprosy. What's strange about this instruction is that when Jesus said that, these lepers were not healed of leprosy. He told them to go and to show themselves to the priests before they were healed. This would be an act of faith on their part. That would be a response of faith for them to proceed with the expectation that when they got to the priest they would be healed while they look upon themselves and they still see themselves with open sores and all the other manifestations of leprosy. And this tells us something about the lepers. Not only did they recognize Jesus from a distance and call out to him to be healed, but when he told them to go show themselves to the priest while they still had their open and festering sores on their bodies, they did. They were obedient to him. And as these 10 lepers were on their way to the priest, verse 14 says they experienced the supernatural miracle of healing. All 10 of them, their skin was cleared up, Their sores were gone. They had sensation in parts of their body that they didn't have sensation just moments before. All 10 of them understood that Jesus had miraculously answered their request. He healed them of leprosy. But then something unexpected happens. Verse 15 tells us that one of the lepers turned around and returned to Jesus in order to express his thankfulness. And I say this is unexpected, not because it's unexpected that one would return to give thanks to Jesus, but what's unexpected is that all 10 of them did not return to give thanks to Jesus. Verse 15, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And how did Jesus respond to this 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 as foreigner? Now Jesus' response indicates that all 10 lepers should have returned to Jesus in order to express their thankfulness to him. That would have been the right thing to do. But what this account illustrates is a distinction between being thankful in one's heart and expressing thankfulness to those who deserve it. That's the distinction that this account is making. Being thankful in one's heart and expressing that thankfulness to those who deserve it. You know, it's not a matter of speculation. We can know just by knowing human nature that all 10 of the lepers were thankful in their heart. These are men who believed in Jesus, they believed in him at least to the degree that they knew he can heal, and they knew that he would heal them even when they were en route, before they saw the healing. And so they were men that experienced the healing of Christ, and they were thankful in their hearts for the healing that they had received. And you know that each one of them was not just thankful, but delighted to be healed, that they were able to return to their families, that now they were able to be reintegrated with society. And so the point here is not that the other nine lepers were ungrateful, they were grateful. You can imagine that they were exceedingly grateful, yet they did not make the effort to express their gratitude, and this is what Jesus reproves them for. Now brothers and sisters, we've received a multitude of gifts and blessings from God, and he gives them to us every day. His blessings are new every morning. And we have a responsibility to receive these gifts and blessings with thankfulness in our hearts. But it's not sufficient to just be thankful to God in our hearts. The Lord requires that we make the effort to express our gratitude and thankfulness to him as well. And we can express our gratitude by praying prayers of thanksgiving. We can express our gratitude by singing songs of thanksgiving. We can express our gratitude by falling down on our faces and with a loud voice, as the Samaritan did. Glorify God for his goodness and his mercy to us. James 1, verses 16 and 17 says, do not be deceived, my brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. Are you thankful in your heart for the good and perfect gifts that you've received from the Father of lights? And if you are thankful in your heart, have you made it a regular practice of expressing your thankfulness to the Father of lights? where the Holy Spirit has borne witness to you of your sin in these matters, or if the Holy Spirit has borne witness to you of sin in any other matter. Remember that God is gracious. He is a loving God. He is a compassionate God. He pardons and forgives all who truly repent of their sins while trusting in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. And so, repentance includes confession, so we confess our sins to the Lord, and this is an opportune time, having heard His law, having had the law exposed to us, any deficiencies in our own moral character, that this would be an appropriate time to come to the Lord in the prayer of confession. And so, let's spend some time in silence, where you can confess to the Lord privately, and after a short time of silence, I'll lead us in corporate confession as well. Let's pray.