And the reading is on the second
page of your sheets. It is the second book of Kings,
chapter 5, and we're reading the first 14 verses. And this is when Naaman the Syrian
was healed of his leprosy. Now Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master. and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was
also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians
had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's
wife. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for
he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his
lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go
to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with
him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold,
and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto
thee, Behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to
pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he
rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive,
that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so, when
Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast
thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.' So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flares shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought he will surely
come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD
his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the
leper. Are not Abana and Phapa 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 servants 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 saith to thee, Wash, and be clean. Then he went down, and dipped
himself seven times in 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. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word. The word that I want to speak
to you this morning, give you some meditation through the day,
is the words that Naaman said, Behold I thought. Naaman had thoughts as to how
he would actually be healed and he tells us what his thought
was. He will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. That's what he thought,
but the man of God did not do what he thought, and because
he didn't do it in that way, then he went away in a rage. And there's a real lesson to
us because we can be just like Naaman and say, behold, I thought. Well, I want to give you some
thoughts to meditate on through this day. And the first one is
this, Naaman's thoughts were concerning being healed of his
leprosy. But there's much more, and the
scripture speaks of sin as being what is portrayed by leprosy. It makes us unclean. Very often
it is taught in the Word of God that sin is a greater thing than
that of leprosy. And so the first thought is this,
that our thinking ought to be according to the Word of God,
especially regarding the way of salvation. If we are going
to make mistakes as to how we think that we are going to be
saved, often that will be the case because it is our thoughts
that are not governed or guided by the Word of God. So we need
to be very clear how is it a soul is saved. It is through the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, His shed blood, and it is through
the work of the Holy Spirit applying that, quickening a soul into
divine life, giving them the new birth, and giving faith faith
in Christ to trust solely in what He has done, not on what
we have done, not at works lest any man should boast. And so
salvation is of the Lord. It is His work. He has the honour
and glory. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. So whatever
thought we have, about being saved may be according to the
Word of God. Has the Lord given us spiritual
life? Has he given us to know our sin,
to know the Saviour, to have faith and trust in Him? And do
we live a life of faith and prayer, trusting in Him? So may our thoughts
on how we are to be saved be according to the Word of God,
our assurance coming from what God has written. Thou hast said,
and that be our comfort. The second thing to think of
today is to be prepared to be shown when our thoughts about
a matter are not right. Neyman was thinking, well, this
is my thoughts, And when it was proved that they were not right,
then he was very upset. So it's a good thing for us if
we are prepared, where we've been thinking about something,
to have those thoughts changed. We think of Jonathan, King Saul's
son, who said to David, and of course Jonathan didn't live to
know his thoughts were not right, but he said to David, that I
know that thou shalt be king, and I shall be next unto thee."
Well, he was right about David being king, but not right about
himself being next to him, because he would die in the same battle
that his father died in. We think of those two on the
way to Emmaus. When our Lord was crucified,
they said, we trusted it should have been He that should have
redeemed Israel. their thoughts as to what would
happen, how the Lord would redeem Israel, were different than what
actually happened. And they had to do a complete
turnaround and think differently. Now some of you might be here
today and you might have thought the end of your life was going
to be very different than being spent in Pilgrim Home. You might have thought many things
about your families and what would happen. and you've had
to come to realize that actually those thoughts you may have had
for many years were not right and that God in his providence
has shown a different way and hopefully you feel a better way
than what you had thought and that is a good thing to be prepared
to when the Lord shows us that those thoughts we had sometimes
it can be hard because We might think the Lord has shown us what
will happen, that our thoughts are what God said would happen,
and we've had to come to realise it hasn't worked out like that. That hasn't been God's will,
it's been a different way. So may we be prepared to have
our thoughts changed in that way. The next thing I'd bring before
you is to take care of our spirit. You think of Naaman, when his
thoughts weren't followed through, when it wasn't going to be like
that, he got so offended, so angry. May he be kept from being
angry when people don't do things that we think they should do.
The Prophet did things that he he wanted him to do something
different and it's so easy for us you in the home here you think
well my friend here or those here they should be doing this
or they should perhaps help me in the chair or they should do
this and they don't do what you think they should do and that's
where we need to be very careful of our spirit that we don't get
angry like Naaman did so take heed to our spirit. The next thing to think of, when
Naaman was so angry, his servants, those who were around him, they
showed themselves to be peacemakers. So you might have a person that
gets angry here. Don't just blank them and don't
just ignore them. You be a peacemaker. You try
and calm that person down and show them from the words, show
them the right way. You know, his servants reasoned
with him. He said, if the Prophet had told
you to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? He's just
told you a simple thing. Go and wash. Do it. And you see
how effective that simple reasoning with him was. It took away his
anger, he did what was required, and he was healed. So put that
into practice here. that will bring peace and keep
peace in the home and be a blessing to you each together. And let
me remember this just as we close, what our Lord says in Isaiah
55, that my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways
my ways. As the heaven is high above the
earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts. and my way's
higher than yours. And he says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. So maybe think of this passage
today and have some meditation on those thoughts, that our thoughts
be according to the word of God, And that if they are wrong, we
be prepared to be shown that they are wrong and shown a better
way, what God's way is. And then take heed to our spirit. And if another spirit is stirred
up and angry, may we be the peacemaker and speak peace and peace be
maintained in the home here. Lord bless the world. Amen.