The name of the message tonight
is Swift Judgment. Swift Judgment. As I was reading
this today, the Lord, as he often does, lit up a portion of this
scripture that I've read multiple times but never saw. And I'm
going to share that with you tonight, along with the rest
of the message, but It has such a bearing on the message as well,
because not only did Gehazi lie and was deceitful, but we're
going to see he used the Lord's name and attached it to his wickedness. And as I was thinking about this
after that had been revealed, I thought how often people say
they're doing things in the name of the Lord, when they're obviously not, and
how they're profaning the very name of God. I couldn't help but think about
the situation that occurred with us a few years back and how God's name was profaned by those who removed themselves
from the assembly. Because really, that's what they
did. And it didn't strike me until
I saw this passage and Zane has been telling me and it's so true
that we bring shame upon the very name of God when situations
like that occur. That's all I'm going to say about
that. But marvel with me tonight that
not only is Gehazi's sin revealed, that's
greed and covetousness, we are going to see that he profanes
the Word of God, the name of God, by saying a simple statement. And when we get there, I'll show
it to you guys. It's quite clear. Although I
never saw it until today. Isn't that amazing how the Lord
does that for us? Right when we need. I heard about
building the wall, right? We're building the wall. You
guys know what that means. We're not going to let all these
other things in this world get going to us, religious or not
religious. We're going to just keep building
the wall, aren't we? Keep the gospel going out, Lord willing,
from here. That's what we're going to do. Now a lot of people
in our day, they do not fear God. They outright say that too, that
they don't believe in God. That they think he's a fictional
character. But when they die, they find
out that God is very real. And he is no one to be trifled
with. He is no one to despise. And men have vaulted themselves
up so high that they have brought God down. But beloved, I'm here to preach
God way up here and us way down there. Because if it wasn't for the
mercy and grace of God, we'd still be lost. The scripture
says in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. I personally, and I believe you
too, can actually, we can say that was true of us before the
Lord saved us. We did not desire to know about
who the one true living God was. We may have despised the people
of God to our shame. But God was always there with
us because we were his sheep and we did not know it. And with
loving cords, at the appointed time, he drew us to him. But
before that, his eye was ever upon us. And you know what? It's never left us. His eye of love has been upon
us. from eternity, the moment we
were born into this world, conceived in the womb, his eyes were upon
us. His eyes were upon us in the
fact that he knew us before we even were, choosing us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now we know that now,
don't we? But the scripture there says,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and instruction. Now this fear of the Lord is
not a fear of hell. It's not a fear of punishment. It's not a fear of damnation,
which is those are the effects that the law can have upon us.
When we first find out by the Holy Spirit of God that we've
broken all of God's laws, and we see ourselves as wretched
and no hope before God. But the fear spoken of in Proverbs
1.7 brings forth the knowledge of God as our father, a loving
father, a father who's not like our earthly father. A father who continuously and
always has shown us grace. There has never been a time for
we who are the people of God, before we were saved and after
when God hasn't shown us grace and mercy. We just didn't want to have anything
to do with it. But you remember that fellow
that married the prostitute? We were talking about that the
other day, weren't we? He'd send her gifts. Hosea would send her
gifts. He'd send her gifts, and she
thought it was from her lovers. Yeah, just call me Gomer, that's
right. And Gomer thought, well, these are from my lovers. The
whole time it was Hosea sending her gifts. That's what the Lord
did for us before we were saved. Ever watching over us? Isn't
that amazing? Even when we were off on our
own. My oh my. So this fear, this
speaks of reverent fear. To reverence our great God. Now
we know who he is. We know that he's holy. We know that he's righteous. We know that his judgment is
sure and it's swift. We didn't know that before. We
know now that he sent his son to die for our sins. These are
some things now we know and we adore our great God because of
these wondrous things. And through the knowledge of
who God is, again we learn of his forgiving love. We learn that it arises from his will and purpose. that God's grace is not just
given here and there, that it's given according to his will and
purpose. I talked to a fellow this week, and he told me flat
out that God's done everything he can, and he's made it possible
for us to be saved, and it just, if we exercise our will, and
I said, well, you know what that does? That means God's not God. He said, what do you mean? If
He's all-powerful, which He is, and He's all-sovereign, which
He is, and not a sparrow falls to the ground, which is true,
then I'm saved by His grace and mercy according to His will and
purpose. I've been made willing. And I
told them, I said, I don't disagree man has a will. It's just tied
to our nature. And when we're born into this
world, we have a dead nature. So what do we do? We just sin.
That's why the Lord said, you must be born again. You have
to be. Now, now we can make some choices,
can't we? Guided by the Holy Spirit of
God, right? Do you have to read your Bible
or do you get to? Do you have to pray or do you get
to? You want to, don't you? And you get to. Do you have to
come to church and listen to the gospel? You want to. We want
to. Do we want to be around God's
people, like we were talking about, and how sweet the fellowship
is, and how we can grow in grace, and the knowledge, and the truth
of the Lord Jesus Christ? We want to. We desire that. And we thank God for it, don't
we? Now, I'm setting this up this way because we're going
to see Gehazi. He's been with Elijah. He's seen
all kinds of things. And yet we're going to see his
true character come out. His true character. He's a natural
man. He's a natural man. So this reverence that Proverbs
1, 7 speaks of, it's a reverent fear, a reverent devotion. And
it comes out in external and internal devotion. Both. And it includes all our worship,
whether it's internal in our hearts or whether it's external
while we're singing and praising God amongst the people of God.
It's a reverent awe of who God is and the fact that he's had
mercy upon us, which leaves us in awe, doesn't it? Well, tonight
we're going to see swift judgment upon Naaman upon sin, as Naaman
the leper is cleansed from all his leprosy. But Gehazi is cursed,
and judgment falls upon him for his sin. Let's look at 2 Kings
chapter 5. We'll read verses 15 to 19 first.
We're going to look at different sections here. The first section
is verses 15 to 19. says of Naaman. And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him.
And he said, Behold, now I know. Now he knows something now. Look
at this. He's confessing with his mouth,
isn't he? He's confessing something we're going to see about the
one true God. He says, Behold, now I know that there is no God
in all the earth, but in Israel. Look at that. He's learned something,
hasn't he? He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, beloved. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, as the Lord liveth,
before whom I stand, I will receive none. This is Elijah. And he
urged him to take it, but he refused. Naaman urged him to
take it, but Elijah said, no, I don't want that. I don't do
these things for money. And Naaman said, shall there
not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burden
of the earth? For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord. So he's assuming that Gehazi
is a believer, right? Because he's Elijah's servant. We're going to find out, though,
that Gehazi reminds us of somebody we know in the New Testament. Judas Iscariot, yeah? Exactly,
Dave. One who betrayed our Lord for
thirty pieces of silver. In this thing the Lord pardoned
thy servant that when my master goeth into the house of Rimen,
now here Naaman is concerned that when he goes in to the House
of Rimmen, which is the idol that the Syrians worshipped, that when he bows himself down
to help his king, that he'd be doing wrong. But listen to what
Elijah says, because Elijah knows he's been changed. Elijah knows
now that he's a born-again, blood-washed believer. Look at this, he says,
In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master
goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth
on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when
I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy
servant in this thing." And look what Elijah said. Now, what does
God say to us in Christ? Peace. Look at this. And he said unto him, go in peace.
Go in peace. arises a picture of a born-again
blood-washed believer. Go in peace. So he departed from
him a little way. Now look in awe at the great
work of regeneration that the Lord's wrought upon Naaman the
Syrian. Look at verse 15. This is a former
idol worshiper and in an instant he's been changed. I was talking
to that same fellow about he doesn't believe that the Old
Testament saints were filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So it's like some preacher friends
of mine say, when you get it wrong on the fall, you get it
wrong on it all. He believes that, and this is
just from talking to him, and I'm just gonna explain it here
for a second. He believes that when man fell, everything fell
but his will. And I just opened up Ephesians
2 and said, you know, you're dead. This is a corpse. Can a
corpse exercise his will? Nope. So we went through that
way. And then we came up with the
Holy Spirit. And I said, well, how did Abraham
believe? Abraham was an idol worshiper one second, right? He came out of land to earth.
He is an idol worshiper. And then it says he believed
God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. I said, how
did he believe? And he wouldn't get on that.
Well, we know how he believes. He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, right? And he believes, and it's counted to him for righteousness.
Nahum, or Naaman. Naaman. He's an idol worshiper
when he comes, right? He comes from Syria. He's a total
idol worshiper. He blows up at Elijah when he
tells him to go dip in the Jordan. Well, I got rivers back in Syria
I can dip myself into. And the servant says, just go.
Just listen to what the man of God said. And he did it. And he comes out clean, white
as snow. And how do we know that he's a child of God? Listen to
this statement again. Listen to this. He's born again.
And look at this proclamation. Where's this, the scripture says,
where's this proclamation coming from, right? The scripture says
that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh,
right? That's what the scripture says. Look at this, with that
in mind. And he, verse 15, and he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company. Now he's going to
say this in front of all his company. They're all a bunch
of idol worshippers. Now they must be in awe over what happened.
I would imagine. They'd be in awe. And you know
Naaman's going to give God all the glory for the rest of his
life. Anybody ask him, what happened to your leprosy? Well God, the
God of Israel healed me. The one true God. How do we know
that? Because he just lets it be known.
Look at this. He and all his company came and
stood before him, that's before Elijah, and he said, behold,
now I know, oh my, he's been taught of God, that there is
no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now therefore I pray
that you take a blessing of thy servant. Beloved, not only was
the leprosy of his skin taken away, but the leprosy and unbelief
of his soul of his soul has been taken away.
And we see that at once, at once he's convinced that God, the
God of Israel, Jehovah, is the one true living God. Who taught him that? God the
Holy Spirit gave him faith, didn't he? To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And notice that the latter part
is verse 15, how Naaman's heart was affected and desiring now
for Elijah to take this blessing, as he called it, not to pay for
the cure now, no, but out of love for the one true living
God. Turn if you would to Romans, Romans chapter 10. So what do
we see here before us in this text? Well, we see the effects,
the blessed effects of a regenerated heart. The blessed effects of
a regenerated heart. And we all can testify, all God's
born-again, blood-washed children can testify to this truth. To
this truth. Now remember, he was an idol
worshipper, he probably profaned God's name, he probably hated
the people of Israel and the nation of Israel, and the God
of Israel. And now, now he's changed, hasn't
he? He's changed. Now he's saying
there's no other God but Jehovah. There's none. Look at this in
Romans chapter 10. Oh, the blessed effects of a
changed heart. Real conversion of the soul to God is what we
see and hear in Naaman. Look at this, Romans 10, verses
9 to 17. Thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
What did he do? He said, there's only one true
God. He did it in front of all the soldiers, didn't he? He confessed
to Elijah that there's only one true living God. Look at this. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt believe in thine heart
that God has raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Look at that. Look at that. Not maybe, if you make a decision.
Right? Not God's done all he can do,
the rest is up to you. Thou shalt be saved. all according to the mercy and
grace of God, and all according to the perfect, complete, finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. What did Naaman say? Well, he
confessed that there's only one true God in all the earth. He goes from worshiping idols
to proclaiming there's only one true living God. Is that not
what we did? I used to serve the idol self. And then I had a god of my imagination
in Catholicism. Now, now I proclaim the one true
living God. Now I proclaim that salvation
is only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no
other way to come unto the Father but by him. For what sayeth, for the scripture
saith, whosoever shall believe on him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever will, let him come.
Let him come, right? We don't put no barriers up.
We know that if you come, you're one of God's elect. Whosoever
will, let him come. Shall not be ashamed, for there
is no difference between Jew and the Greek. In Christ, there's
no difference between Jew and Gentile, none at all. Naaman's
a Gentile. He's one of the despised ones
by Israel. And he, before, despised Israel
himself. And now he loves the God. of
Israel. He loves the God of the Bible
now. He's not ashamed, is he? He's not ashamed. He's confessing
that Jehovah is God in front of all those men. And you know
they're going to go back and talk about it. Oh, he don't care. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord is over all,
is rich unto all that call upon me." Oh, he's rich. He's rich
in forgiveness, isn't he? All our sins forgiven, washed
clean by the precious blood of Christ. He's rich in love, isn't
he? He's loved us from before the
foundation of the world. He's rich in mercy. Oh, mercy
to cover all my sins, past, present, and future. Oh, I'm so rich.
To God's people, to all that call upon Him, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let it on. Shall be, not maybe,
shall be saved. And our prayer is that God will
give you faith to call upon Him if you don't know Him. As this
message goes out, we pray that, don't we? Oh God, oh God, Savior
of us sheep, give them faith to believe on you. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on him of whom you have not heard? If you've never heard
of him, how are you going to believe in him? that every one of God's sheep
will have the message of God's free and sovereign grace sent
to them and they will hear it. Isn't that wonderful? Spurgeon
used to say, when you get in the pulpit, and this is not thinking
of ourselves, he said, when you get in the pulpit, believe that
God's going to do something with that message. He's going to use it. He's going to use it for his
glory. To some it'll be a saver unto life, and to some it'll
be a saver unto death. But he's going to use it. He's
always going to use it. It doesn't matter how we preachers
stumble around in our speech. It doesn't matter at all. God's
going to use that message. He's going to use that word.
When you're preaching the one true gospel, you're going to use it.
And how shall they believe on him whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. See, this fellow the other day was telling me
Christ died for everybody, made the opportunity for everybody
to be saved. He's so mixed up, so wrong. I said, you claim to
believe in the Bible, But the things I've shown you about being
dead and your will being bound, you don't believe it. So your
argument's not with me, it's with God. Right? See, our argument wasn't with
the preacher when he was preaching to us. It was our rebel hearts,
our proud rebel hearts. And God, in his mercy, beloved,
oh, in that time of love, came and said, you're mine. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. And with loving cords I've drawn
you. I sent my son to die for you
and 2,000 years ago he redeemed you. And we're regenerated just like
that, right? And how can I preach the gospel
except I've been saved, right? And how can I preach the gospel
except I've been sent? That's what that verse is bringing
out, right? Oh my. God uses clay pots with holes
in them, which is we preachers, to speak to other clay pots with
holes in them about the wonderful one who patches us all up. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. My. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word
of God. And the Holy Spirit takes the preaching of the gospel,
and he just uses that. He uses that and he regenerates
the soul and gives them faith to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we're never the same again, are we? We spend the rest of the days
praise in our great God and Savior. I've been going around the house.
I was listening to Travis there and I've been going around the
house the last couple days going, magnify the Lord. Oh, let us
magnify the Lord. Let us praise his mighty name. It's true. We're to magnify him,
aren't we? When we start thinking about
our salvation in him, when we start thinking that he shed his
precious blood for us, when we start thinking that he sent the
Holy Spirit to us to regenerate us, to comfort us, when we think
that he left the glories and splendors of heaven for us, when
we think that right now he's seated at the right hand of the
Father interceding for us, and when we think that one day we're
going to be in his presence, how can we not but cry out, O
God, be magnified. Oh Lord be magnified. Let God
be magnified. My oh my. So we see with Naaman, a picture
of a believer being washed in the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and born again by the Holy Spirit of God and confessing
that there's only one true God. Now let's read verses 20 to 24
and we see that Gehazi disobeys Elijah and seeks gain in the
gifts that Naaman was going to give to Elijah. And we will see
in this passage Gehazi's greed manifested. This is in all of
us, beloved. This is in all of us. And then
in the latter parts of this chapter, we will see God's swift judgment
upon sin. His swift judgment upon sin. Let's read verses 20 to 24. And
in verse 20, is the thing I told you about
that I've never seen before till today. Note, as we read this, that Gehazi
says, but as the Lord liveth, and I'm gonna tell you what that
means later on, in him saying that and attaching it to his
wicked works, he's profaning the name of God, beloved. He's
profaning the name of God. But as I, the servant of Elijah,
the man of God, said, behold, my master hath spared Naaman,
the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he bought.
But as the Lord liveth, he says, so now he's going to attach this
wonderful statement here, which speaks of God's completeness.
to his wicked works. He says, I will run after him
and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running
after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, just
means he jumped down from the chariot, and said, is all well? And he said, all is well. My
master has sent me. There's lie number one. Elijah
didn't send him. Elijah told him not to go. Elijah
didn't want to receive anything, did he? He's like, I don't want
any of this. My master has sent me saying,
behold, even now, there come from me, from Mount Ephraim,
two young men of the sons of the prophets. There's law number
two. He's saying, well, these two fellows, they're two sons
of the prophets. Isn't that amazing? He got two
guys with him. But they're not sons of the prophets,
they're just somebody he hired to act like the sons of the prophets
or to play the part of the sons of the prophets. But they ain't
sons of the prophets, I'll tell you that. Look at this. Behold, even now
there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the
sons of the prophets. Give them, I pray thee, a talon
of silver and two changes of garments." So he's saying, my
master doesn't need it, but these two sons of the prophets here,
just give them each a talon of silver. in the change of remnant. You
know, I went online and found out how much a talent of silver
is. It's anywhere between 75 and 100 pounds of silver. Pounds,
not ounces. Pounds. Pounds of silver. It comes out to about $46,000,
our currency, which in biblical time, they're a millionaire. That's more money than you guys
could probably spend in a lifetime. Oh, see, he's planned this. He's
schemed this up, hasn't he? And then, like I said, he says,
as the Lord liveth, he's attached God to this wicked, wicked work
here. And Naaman said, be content.
He doesn't know. He just said, well, yeah, be content. Yeah.
Take two talents, one for each of the guys there. And he urged
him and bound two talents of silver in two bags. with two changes of garments,
and laid upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower,
look what he does. Look at what Gehazi does. Look
at verse 24. This is how we know it's all
fake. And when he came to the tower, he took from them, from
their hand, so he takes the two talents of silver, 150 pounds
of silver. 150 pounds of silver. And then he
takes from them the two garments. I bet you those garments were
worth a fortune. Because remember who gave them to Naaman? The
king gave them to him. He came, he took from them from
their hand and bestowed them in the house and he let the man
go and they departed. I imagine he gave him a few coins
probably. You see what he just did? Oh,
my. Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter
1. 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. We're going to see
a portion of scripture here. 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verses
18 to 21. Now the scripture declares that
our salvation cannot be purchased with corruptible things as silver
and gold. Silver and gold won't profit
us. You can be the richest man in the world, but if you don't
have Christ, you have nothing. Nothing. And yet here we can
be the people in this world with nothing in the world, and yet
rich in Christ. Far richer than the richest man
in this world. I'm looking at a bunch of rich
people. rich in spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't
that wonderful? It's truth. Look at this, 1 Peter 1, verses
18 to 21. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, the silver and gold from
your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. That's what redeemed
us. The precious, precious blood of Christ. As a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God. Now, in our text that we just
read, we see Hazi's greed manifest, didn't we? He took it all. Everything
Naaman gave those two men, he took. And that was his plan all
along. And we can see ourselves in this
picture. If we were left dead in trespasses
and sins, we'd be just like him. Just like people say, oh, I'd
never act like those people at the cross. Sure we would have.
Sure we would have. In our natural state, yeah, yeah.
Shaking our fists, oh yeah. We were in Christ, which is a
blessing, but I'll tell you what, we're just like those folks in
our natural state. Oh my, we're just like them.
And we're just like Gehazi in our natural state. It's in all
of us. It's in all of us. But now, praise
be to God, we're born again in the Holy Spirit of God. We don't
think like this. We don't think. I had a friend
of mine, I was working for his builder, and I asked him one
time, these people just took them to the cleaners. And I said,
how do they even think like that? He goes, you don't think that
way, Wayne. He goes, these people, they think that way. And scripture
talks about that. They're conniving things in their
minds all the time. Wickedness. Well, Gehazi was
like that. And think of this, Gehazi has
been long with Elijah. He's seen the miracles performed.
He's seen them with his eyes. He's seen the miracles. He's
heard Elijah's discourses. And he's heard Elijah say, God
will supply all of our needs. He knows that because Jehovah
Jireh, he's the Lord, our provider. and yet he covets the pitiful
things of this world, silver and gold." And this servant of Elijah has
come to us many times as we were reading through the scriptures.
His character is being revealed. This was another thing I didn't
see. Oh my! Think of this, when the woman
of When the Shulamite woman, remember she sought the man of
God and tried to come up and cast herself at his feet? What
did Gehazi do? He came near and thrust her away.
Do you remember that? And Elijah said, let her alone.
Let her alone. Then when the prophet instructed
his servant to go before him and lay a staff in the face of
the child, the Shulamite woman's son, now Elijah could successfully
smite the waters, but it was because the spirit
of Elijah rested upon him. He's born again. But Gehazi,
being devoid of the spirit, bought forth the prophet's staff to
no avail in his hands. Remember? He laid it upon a child,
nothing happened. Listen to what scripture says
in 2 Kings 4.31. And Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff
upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing.
He didn't pray. He just laid the staff. He didn't
pray for the little man. He just laid the staff there.
He's a prayerless man. Neither voice nor hearing, wherefore
he went again to meet him and told him, saying, The child is
not awakened. And then in 2 Kings 4.43, we
behold his selfishness and unbelief, when he said, What should I set
this before a hundred men? Remember the loaves? He says,
Am I going to set this before a hundred men? And they're going
to eat? Remember when Elijah prayed? And just like at the
feeding of the 5,000, the loaves were multiplied. But it was Gehazi
who said, what should I set this before in 100 men? Eliza was
counting upon God to multiply those, that food, that food. So we see his character then.
We see Gehazi's character in the scriptures. His conduct tonight
in what we're looking at is consistent with his character. You know, his name means denier. His name means denier. So Gehazi,
being in the prophet's service, seeing his miracles, hearing
his sermons, what can we deduce then? There's no grace in Gehazi's
heart. There's no grace in his heart. Naaman's servants, though
idolaters, were faithful to Naam. Master, go in the water. Just
do what he said. And we see that even though Elijah's
worshiping the one true God, that Gehiza knew nothing about
the grace of God. Gehiza again reminds me of one
who's called the son of perdition, Judas Iscariot, who never was
a sheep of God. Even though he saw the Lord's
miracles, didn't he? He heard the Lord's discourses.
He even went out with the 12 and came back and said, the devils
are subject to us. And what'd the Lord say? Don't
get worked up about that, right? He said, be thankful your names
are written in heaven. My, oh my. So Gehazi, like Jesus
of Skeret, was never born again of the Holy Spirit of God. Listen
to this. And now I am no more in the world, John 17, 11, but
these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep thou through thine own name those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one as we are. And in verse 12, while I was
with them in the world, this is, he's speaking about the apostles,
I kept them in thy name. Those that thou hast given us,
I have kept, and none of them is lost. but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled. He was never one who the father
gave him. He was never given to Christ. He was one of the
apostles. But he was never one of the sheep
of God. And it's true of Gehazi. And note this here, the lying
conduct. Let's go back to 2 Kings 5.20.
Note this. Gehazi, as he daringly calls
upon the Lord's name, in this wicked deed he's about to do,
he says, as the Lord liveth was his expression. Look at this,
verse 20. But Gehazi, the servant of Elijah,
the man of God, said, Behold, my master has spared Naaman,
the Syrian. in not receiving at his hands
that which he bought. But as the Lord liveth, I will
run after him and take somewhat of him." This phrase is one which
the Holy Ghost has marked out in scriptures to bring forth
the self-existence, the sovereignty, and the supremacy of our great
God, beloved, the Lord Jehovah. That's who we meet with this
phrase in scripture. We meet Jehovah. We meet the
Sovereign One, the Supreme One. And it's always spoken either
by the Lord Himself or in the most reverent and respectful
manner by God's servants in reference to Him. It implies that strictly
and properly speaking, none but God Himself can be said to live.
Because you know why? We have no life outside of Him. We have no life outside of God,
do we? Saved and unsaved. We have no life outside of God.
So it's bringing forth his supremacy. It's bringing forth who he is. He's the great God beloved. And it brings forth that all
life finds its existence is derived from him. All life. And now Mark here, what a profane
use of this wonderful statement when Gehazi uses it when he speaks of what he's going
to do. It's tied now to his greed and
sin. See, he's profaning God. This statement, as the Lord liveth,
again, speaks of the distinguishing perfection of Jehovah. He's so far from us. And that's
speaking of Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, and Jehovah
the Holy Spirit, right? The three are one. Now when people
make light of this statement, or when they use our great God's
name as a byword or a curse word, they profane God's holy name. And this is exactly what Gehazi
was doing. And people who say, well, I'm
going to go and do this here in the name of God, and they're
not sent by God. Beloved, they're profaning God's
name. And that's serious business.
That's serious, serious business. I'll tell you. And how deceitful, look at how
deceitful Gehazi is. He brings two men along with
him to act, to act, to play the part of the sons of the prophets. Now let's read verses 22 to 24
again. And he said, all is well, my master has sent me. There's
that lie again. Behold, even now there become
to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the
prophets. Give them, I pray, the Italian, the silver, and
two chains of the government. Well, it's not for me, it's for them.
Oh, how deceitful he's being. And Naaman said, be content,
take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two
talents of silver in bags with two changes of garments. And
he laid them upon two of his servants, and they bared them
before him. When he came to the tower, he
took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house, and
let the man go, and they departed. Again, 100 pounds of silver.
75 was 150 pounds of silver minimum. Again, at today's rate in silver,
for today's rate, $41,592. That's a fortune in biblical
times. He wouldn't have to ever work again. And that's not including the
fine clothes which were given as well. Look at verse 24 again. Gehazi
lied to Elijah then. When he came to the tower, he took them from their hand
and bestowed them in the house. And he went and let the man go,
and they departed. Now look at verse 25. But he
went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto
him, Whence comest thou, Gazi? And he said, Thy servant went
nowhere. Nowhither. I ain't going nowhere. Can we hide anything from God?
Nothing, can we? He sees us in our nakedness.
He sees us in our sin. And now we're going to see in
these next two, three verses here, we're going to see the
swift judgment of God that falls upon Gehazi for the sin of profaning
God's name and lying and tying it with his wicked ways and being
deceitful. Look at verses 25 to 26. But
he went in and stood before his master, and Elijah said unto
him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went
nowhere. And he said unto him, Was not
mine heart with thee when the man turned again from the chariot
to meet thee? Is it time to receive money,
and to receive garments in all of yards, and vineyards, and
sheep, and oxen, and manservants, and maidservants? How'd Elijah find that out? From our great God. The leper
see there a fourth name and shall cleave unto thee and unto thy
seed forever. And he went out from his presence
as white as a leper, as white as snow. Swift judgment. Now we see in verse 26 that from
what Elijah said to Gehazi concerning all the yards and vineyards and
the like that the prophet Not only knew by divine teaching
the sin of Gehazi, but the design that he had in seeking Naaman's
wealth, it being revealed to him. He's probably planning the
scheme to dispose of that money by purchasing things for those
of him and his family. And again, we're reminded of
our Lord's words, looking at this narrative, for what shall
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Nothing. Nothing. And Christians,
although we're not endowed with the extraordinary powers of the
prophets, yet we, by God's grace, we can discern a liar. We can
discern when someone's lying on God, don't we? We can discern
that as God's people. We can say, that man's lying
on God. A friend of mine, he's lying on God. He don't know the
God of the Bible. My oh my. And we are able to
discern. The elect of God are able to
discern by God's grace and mercy when a man's lying to them about
God. Listen to this. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges
all things. Yet he himself is judged of no
man." 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14 and 15. So we see in our text
that Elijah puts his finger on the worst feature of the offense
of Gazai. Is it a time to receive money?
And by doing so he stains the free grace of God. And from the words that follow,
Elijah indicated that he knew what Gehazi's plans were. He
knew that Gehazi was planning to go out and buy vineyards and
stuff and leave his service. And leave his service. Set up
as a farmer. And we see that his punishment,
Gehazi's punishment, was appropriate and it was swift. Now notice
this too. He coveted something of Nahum's,
hadn't he? He coveted that silver and gold, hadn't he? Well, he
got something in Nahum's that he didn't even expect. He got
leprosy. He got leprosy. And that symbolically shows us
that he's just full of sin. Just full of sin. Let's read
verse 27 again. The leprosy, therefore, of Nahum
shall cleave unto thee, and thy seed forever. And he went out
from his presence a leper as wild as snow. My, oh my, that's
swift judgment, isn't it? He thought he was going to get
all that money. He got something from Nahum.
He got his leprosy. Now tonight we've seen God's
swift judgment upon sin. Nahum the leper is cleansed from
all his sin, but Gehazi is cursed, and judgment falls upon him for
his sins. Beloved God, are you not thankful
along with me that God has forgiven us of all our sins in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ? That he was made a curse for
us, that he the sinless one died
is our sin bearer. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.
The sinless one offering himself up is the great sin bearer. And
the scripture says he offered himself up without spot. He's
sinless. Look at that. Isn't that wonderful?
the sinless one dying for sinners, the just one dying for the unjust.
Why? That God might be just, his law
and justice might be upheld, and it was satisfied by Christ
and the justifier of his people. That's you and I, beloved. Isn't
that wonderful? Isn't it so wonderful? Praise
our great God that we are washed in the precious, precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It cleanses us from all our sins. And praise our great God, praise
the Lord Jesus for the complete, perfect, sin-atoning work which
he has done in our room and place, beloved. Again, the just one
dying for the unjust, the sinless one dying for sinners. Glory
be to our great God for saving our souls. What do we say, Dave? Hallelujah. Not already, eh? Oh, my. Brother Brian, can you...