The Sin Of Ingratitude Series

This brings me to my second point.

II. The Sin

Second, let’s look at the sin of ingratitude.

To be fair to the nine, I should quote R. C. Sproul, who made this comment about their healing, “The interpretation that I have heard again and again is that although Jesus healed ten lepers, only one of them was grateful. I don’t believe that for one moment” (R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke [Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999], 324).

He goes on to say that they were so overjoyed that they rushed home to their families. That is what most people would have done.

However, Kent Hughes notes:

There is a deadly problem here—God was not the center of their gratitude…. Only the foreigner, the Samaritan, gave praise to God! The other nine were so earthbound, so like the shrewd manager and the rich man of the preceding parables, that they missed the spiritual dimension altogether. Vague gratitude to divinity was not an adequate response to what had happened. Christ wanted their hearts! By failing to glorify God and returning to thank Jesus, they missed the greatest possible moment of their existence (R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, 172).

John Calvin once said, “Ingratitude is very frequently the reason why we are deprived of the light of the gospel, as well as of other divine favors.”

That was the problem with the nine lepers who did not thank God.

Many years ago, a boat was wrecked in a storm on Lake Michigan at Evanston, Illinois.

Students from Northwestern University formed themselves into rescue teams.

One student, Edward Spencer, saved seventeen people from the sinking ship.

When he was carried exhausted to his room, he asked, “Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?”

Years later, R. A. Torrey was talking about this incident at a meeting in Los Angeles, and a man in the audience called out that Edward Spencer was present.

Dr. Torrey invited Spencer to the platform.

An old man with white hair slowly climbed the steps as the applause rang.

Dr. Torrey asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory.

“Only this, sir,” he replied, “of the seventeen people I saved, not one of them thanked me” (Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000], 203–204).

Conclusion

The sin of ingratitude is horrible.

Vance Havner said the following regarding ingratitude:

Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master’s cure and who return not [at other times] to thank Him by presence, prayer, testimony, and support of His church. In fact, the whole Christian life is one big “Thank You,” the living expression of our gratitude to God for His goodness. But we take Him for granted, and what we take for granted, we never take seriously (Vance Havner, The Vance Havner Quote Book in Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 17).

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, said in a sermon he preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London in the late 1800s: