Okay, we're in 2 Kings 5. And
we're going to look at verses 8-14. 8-14 in 2 Kings 5. Now,
just if you remember last week, the king of Judah thought that
the king of the king of Syria was picking
on it, was looking for a fight because Naamim was a leper. The captain, he was very important,
but he was a leper. Verse 1, and then the little
maid says, the one that had been captive, hijacked from her home,
she said, there's a prophet. Would to God that my master knew
that there was a prophet in Israel. He would clear him. He would
clean him of his leprosy. So then they told the king of
Syria, and the Syrian went to the king of Judah. They didn't
get the message right. The little maid said, the prophet,
which is Elisha, which is God is salvation. That's a picture
of Christ. That's where the cleansing would
come from. They got the story wrong, so
then the king of viscerals upset, he's rent his clothes, his garments
in verse 7, now in verse 8, and it was so, when Elisha the man
of God heard that the king of viscerals had rent his clothes,
that he said to the king saying, wherefore hast thou rent thy
clothes? Let him, that is let name him,
come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet
in Israel. So Nahum came with his horses
and with his chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
Remember he's got money gold silver and apparel he's got all
this stuff and he's sitting there or he's on the horse there at
the door of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger would
probably be Gehazi his messenger unto him saying go and Wash in
Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and
thou shall be clean But Nahum was angry, was wroth. He went away and he said, Behold,
I thought that the prophet would surely come out to me and stand
and call on the name of the Lord, his God, strike his hands over
the place and recover the leper. He's not even using his personal
pronoun. He's not saying recover me. You
know, I'm still important. Recover the leper. And far, far rivers of Damascus
better than all the waters of Israel. May I not wash in them
and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. And his servant, this is Nahum's
servant, came near and spake unto him and said, My father,
if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou
not have done it? How much rather then when he
said to thee, wash and be clean? Then Naaman went down and dipped
himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of
a little child, and he was clean." We'll stop there. Bruce, would
you lead us in prayer? I pray that, Father, we come tonight
to worship You. We pray that we do so in a manner
that You be glorified. We come, Lord, to see You in
Your Word and Your messages. Lord, we just know that all things
are set in order when we see you. For you're our Lord and
our God. You're sovereign over all things.
When our hearts and our minds are upon you, all else pretty
well falls in place. Lord, we, if it doesn't, it's
because of ourselves and not of you. Lord, we thank you for
this time. Give you the words we need to
hear. So here's this leper, this mighty
man, humanly speaking. He's a leper. And that's a picture
of us. We think we're something when
we're nothing. And we're still sinful. We're
still like grasshoppers and we think we're lions and tigers
or we think we're something. And the Lord uses this captive
little Jewish maid who was taken from her home Because God's ways
are not our ways and we see this all through this lesson. And
he uses her words to alert the wife of Naamim, the Naamim and
then the king of Syria to go to Israel. But they didn't quite
do what the little maid said. She said, go see this man. And
they went to the king. And the king of Israel showed
his unbelief and complaining nature, oh, he's seeking a quarrel
with me, a quarrel with me in verse 7. So here we come to verse
8. Elisha happens to be in the courtyard
or something. He happens to be there and he
says, what's the matter? And obviously the king tells
him. And this is what he says, let him, that is the leper, Come
now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."
And that first phrase, come now, it just arrested me. Come now. That's what we tell
sinners. Remember in the New Testament,
come see a man that told me everything I did. That woman at the well,
come see a man. Come see the man, never a man,
it says in the New Testament, spake like this man, never a
man healed as this man, never a man died like this man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if we could just, if we could
just put megaphones on the church, if we could just, to Valley and
Hill and Dell, come, come now. Come now. Of all these churches
around here, it's not doing anything. It's not doing anything, because
you're not hearing of THE man, Christ Jesus. You're not hearing. And if they do not hear, Where
there's no vision, the people perish. There's a vision here.
I don't know why he's kept this place together. I don't know
why we haven't grown a whole lot. I don't know why. All these
different things. That's really insignificant. Because when we
hit, like Melinda reminded me, and I'm thankful for that, you
know, we got two people. That's what we got. Where two
or three are gathered together. And what am I supposed to do?
I get discouraged. I get upset. Disappointed, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't matter. What am I supposed
to do? Come now. Come now. Hear the Word of God. I still prepare. I don't prepare
any less. If there's more people, less
people, it doesn't matter to me. I have a calling and I need
to abide within that calling. So that's what I'm going to do.
So come now. That's the first thing that hit
me. Come now. Let Him know. Let Him come to
me. And He shall know that there
is a prophet in Israel. They may have had prophets in
Syria. They may have had prophets in
Nebuchadnezzar's time. They may have had sorcerers,
magicians, all these things. But that's a whole lot different.
It's the difference between the gospel and a false gospel. Oh,
may we invite sinners, friends, neighbors, parents. Come now. and know that there is a prophet,
the prophet, like he says in Deuteronomy, the prophet, the
man whom God has chosen, Emmanuel, God with us. So the first thing
I see is we unashamedly and unbashfully declare unto you that there is
only one who saves, one who quickens, one who calls like this prophet. in or of Israel, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we declare. He'll
know that there's a prophet. He makes a separation between
the precious and the vile. He does that. We don't. But we
speak of the precious one because he has revealed himself to us.
So the first thing I see is we're unashamed, unbashful about it. Oh, tell me what you, yeah, I
see that, I see that, but that's not the God I know. That's not
the Christ I know. You made a decision? Well, you
may make a decision, unmake that decision. Salvation's in your
hands. If Naaman was to be healed, he
must go to one man, one man, one truth, one good news teller,
and of course Christ is the good news himself. that there is a prophet in Israel. So we say, well, who are you? Who are you to say that I don't
know the truth? What do they say, how is your
God different than our God? There's a big difference. There's
a big difference. You say you have free will. You
say you can decide or undecide whether you want to follow Jesus.
You could say, you said Jesus dies for everybody. You say He
calls everybody. Well, I don't know that. I don't
know that Jesus. He doesn't try to do anything.
He's sovereign, ruling, reigning Lord. So that's the first thing
I see. We unashamedly declare unto you,
unto all who will hear, that there's one who has healing and
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9, here we go, natural
man, or I said self-made man. Secondly, verse 9, so Nahum came
with his horses, his chariots, and stood at the door of the
house of Elijah. Now it doesn't say that he had his money with
him, but I'm assuming that he had all this with him. He came
with it all. Self-made man. This is natural man. Nahum came
in all his supposed glory, all his achievements, all of his
self-worth, all of his self-importance, not knowing, turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 2, not knowing that he was but a
natural man. born of woman, born a sinner.
He didn't know that the natural man receives not the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, which he'll
show forth in his actions. Well, this is foolish, because
God requires humility, and we think we can come as we are,
high, haughty, and proud. Neither can he know them. He
can't know them because they are spiritually discerned. Psalms
39. Psalms 39 puts it a little bit
more bluntly. I like how it's stated here.
Psalms 39. And verse 5, Behold, thou hast
made my days as a hand breath, and mine ages as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man Every man,
every boy, every woman, every girl at their best state is altogether
vanity. That's a shotgun blast. That's scattered. That hits everybody.
Man in his best state is altogether vanity. Nahum did know it, but God will
not be bought with silver, gold, or apparel. God will not be bartered
with, coerced, swayed. No, salvation is not in our worth
or our merit or our goodness, as if we had any. We think we're
so important to warrant God's nod of approval. I'm somebody... You need to come out to see me.
He's standing there at his house. Verse 10. Well, here we go again. God's ways are not our ways.
Sometimes even the believer needs to be reminded of this. We need
to be continually reminded of this. Verse 10. And Elisha sent
a messenger unto Naaman, saying, Go and worship the Lord seven
times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and you'll be
clean. God will not, so to speak, be
put in a box. And that's what Nehemiah, I thought
this, I thought he was gonna do this, I thought he was gonna
do that. I've seen it on TV, I've seen these televangelists,
this is how God works. No, not necessarily. Not necessarily,
he uses the truth, the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe, and we're gonna come to him owing naught of salvation
of ourselves. just recipients. Obviously, we
know water cannot redeem or cleanse the sinner. He says, go into
Jordan and wash seven times and you'll come out clean. Obviously,
we know that would be works. But what is He saying? What is
this song showing us? Simply three things. That this
is a pure miracle and no man was involved other than the sinner. Okay, there wasn't anybody helping.
Elisha didn't go down and say, you know, take him, hold his
nose. He didn't do anything. Man was not in mouth. This shows
that it's a miracle performed by God alone with no human taint
upon it. Secondly, I believe it shows
that God will not and must be obeyed simply at His Word. Elisha said, to do this, do it. Believe and repent. You and your
whole household. Believest thou that the Lord
can do this? Yea, Lord, I believe. Believe
us. Secondly, we must be, God must
be and will be obeyed simply from His Word. A lot of times
when He's behind those clouds, we can't see Him. He sees us.
He sees everything. He knows everything. I'm the
present. But when we don't see, if all's we have is this, this
is good enough. Because it tells of Him. It describes
Him. Thirdly, and lastly, the flesh,
we, will always be humbled. There's no pride allowed in the
Kingdom of Grace, okay? Go and wash. This is a humbling
act. Go and wash. So we're not going
to come to God. We do come, that song says, come
as, you know, just as I am. Yes, but that's not claiming
any merits or any worth or that we're worth saving or that we
deserve salvation. That's what that means. But when
we come to Him, we're going to be like that high priest when
he had to go into the Holy of Holies. There was no tear until
the Lord rose from the rent and twang. He had to get down on
his knees and crawl underneath there. And that's how we approach
God. Okay, verse 11, our sinful nature,
or here we go, the sinful normal response to free grace or the
gospel. This is the man's normal response.
Nahum was wroth, was angry. And I've heard Henry and I've
heard all men, I don't know, all the men that I've ever heard
preached say, if you've never been, well, I haven't hated God,
I'm not angry, then you probably still do. Because this is our
response. This is our response. Naaman
was wroth, angry, mad, mean, ripped up, however we want to
phrase it, and he went away. Well, I'm thankful God had him.
He wouldn't have let him go away because he was one of his chosen
in this story. He wouldn't have let him go away,
but let's let him walk a little bit on his own. He went away
and said, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me the
prophet and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God
and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.
Here's our sinful nature and here's the normal response. But
it's good because something's being heard, right? Something's
being heard. It bothers me when I preach and
I get nothing. Everybody just sits there like
a bump on a log. That's disturbing. It's like in Revelations, the
Laodicean church. Warm? Come on! But at least there's
reaction here. The first thing is he's mad.
He's mad. I'm angry at God. Well, let's
turn to Romans chapter 8. Here's what we are really. I
mean, this is what the Scripture says we are. Romans chapter 8
and verse 7. The carnal mind, Romans 8, verse
7, the carnal mind, that's the natural mind, that's the unbelieving
mind, that's the unregenerate mind, is enmity. And that word
means war. We're not at war with God, we
are war itself against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. We get angry at His truth. Therefore, we're angry at Him.
Then he says, secondly, He goes away. Well, like I said, not
totally. God's catching His fish, or God's
going to catch this sinner. And I bless God for His control
over us to the most infinite detail. Now, when I first heard
it, I got upset. I didn't like it. I have free, moral free agency. No. Bless God for His total dominion
over us, our hearts, our actions, our attitudes. He's sovereign. But he's, I'm not gonna listen
to this guy. I'm mad and I'm gonna go walk away. And then
this is, then as he's leaving, this is what he says, I thought,
there's the problem. I thought, not what God's word
says, not submitting to the word of God, I thought, again, our
ways and our thoughts regarding God's salvation, regarding the
Christ, regarding how God saves sinners is not our ways, it's
God's ways. He'll save whom He will as He
will when He pleases. We have by nature and from birth
incorrect false views of salvation and saving grace. We're born
wrong. He says, I thought, I thought
that He would do this. Basically saying, I know for
certain that I have to do something for God, or that God must act towards me
in a favorable fashion, because that's what I think. But when
the Scripture says, and you don't have to turn to Proverbs 14,
12, we think our way is right, but at the end thereof are the
ways of death. Christ is life, we're death. So I thought, I
thought pomp and circumstance, what's the theme of most churches
in this country today? Pomp and circumstance. I thought
this was what was going to happen. I thought he would put on a great
show, a lot of hoopla, a lot of hollering. No, God will save
in such a way and such a manner as he will get all the glory. That's it. He will get all the
glory, and we will not share in it. Okay, verse 12. I thought
I didn't know there was really much in here, but there is. So
he tells them to go wash. He gets mad, gets angry, puts
in his two cents. In verse 12, and then he says, And far, far rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel, may I not wash in them
and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage." I didn't
look up that word, but we know what rage means. That's what
we hit. That's bust by nature. Okay,
here's our best. Abina, you know what that means?
It means stony. You know what parfar means? It
means haste. Or rushing in haste. So this
is our best. A stony heart. And we're always
rushing without truth or without thinking. In Proverbs, you don't
have to turn there, but 28 verse 20 says about it's not good to
make haste. That passage is 28. But that's
us. Abina? Stony. You're not going
to get anything there. Parfar? Making haste? No. These will never do. Here's the
thing. Just go to the dirty. This is
what I read historically about the River Jordan. Go to the dirty,
unimpressive Jordan. And that word means to descend. I'm not making this up. I looked
these up. To descend. Humble ourselves unto the mighty
hand of God. And the last thing I see is in
verse 12 and 13. I'm sorry, 13 and 14. His servant, Nahum's servant
says, just go. And so he just went. And he was
cleansed. So I say to you, I say to me,
I say to anybody that can hear this, simply obey. Now I know it's the grace of
God that causes us to do so. But the charge still goes out.
The words still go out. You repent, you repent or perish.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply obey. The Gospel message
is the simplicity in Christ. It tells of one God, the God-man. One way, Christ is the door.
One meal, Christ our bread. One baptism, to be buried with
Christ. One Lord, the sovereign King
who sits upon His throne. One, one, one. It's not that
complicated. have made it complicated by partaking
in Adam's sin. Well, I wasn't there. Well, I
heard Henry say, if you don't own up what happened in the garden,
how are you going to own up what happened at Calvary? One. You know, like Spurgeon's
got that one string guitar, just plucking it all the time. Believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you or I shall be saved. Come down, wash, and rise up,
clean every wit. That's still the charge. It's
to do what the prophet said to do. And I know he'll give you
the ability. He has never turned away the
cry for mercy and the cry to be clean. To God be the glory. Nathan, would you close us?