Brethren if you will let's turn
to 2nd Kings chapter 5 2nd Kings chapter 5 This is a story of lamb and the
leper being cleansed He wasn't real happy about it in the beginning
and he had to go down If God's gonna save somebody
here he's going to bring you down and From all the intellect,
and the knowing, and the experience, and the doing, and the we think,
and the everything else. If God's gonna save somebody
and make them whole, he's gonna have to bring them down. And
they're gonna do so willingly. Because his people are gonna
be willing in the day of his power. There's some things I know about
this story. Here in 2 Kings 5, the story about Nahum and the
leper. I know this story is important. 2 Kings chapter 5. I know this story is important.
Our Lord devoted a whole chapter in His Word just to talk about
this leper, this Gentile leper named Naaman. And He referred
to it in Luke 4. He said, there's a whole mess
of lepers in Israel in that day. God healed one of them. That
was a Gentile. That made some people really
mad about that. He preached from this. This is
a good place for us to learn. Don't you want to learn something? Have we been taught anything?
I want to learn of the Lord. I do. I know this is important. I know it's true. I know that
this leper is gonna be healed by going in this river, but I
know also that that River Jordan, this isn't about telling people
to go get down in that particular river. That river has no power
in and of itself to cure any leprosy. I know that. I know
it. But I also know Naaman could
have never been healed of his leprosy if he didn't go down
that river. This has to happen. This is vital. This isn't life and death. This
is eternal life and death. And we ought not play with God's
word. God of the Bible kills people. It's important. I pray he'll
make us pay attention, give us ears. Who was this man Naaman?
Who was he? Well, he was respected. He was
well known. He was mighty. He was honorable. He's a good guy. He kept his
word, as far as men are considered. People liked him. He was respected. And the Lord used this man to
deliver Syria. But he hadn't been made to bow
to Christ yet, just because he's a good fellow, just because maybe
he read his Bible every day, and he went to church 17 times
a week, and he did all these good little churchy things, and
he had to write doctrines lined up. He didn't know Christ yet.
He hadn't been brought down. He thought he was fine. Might
have had a little problem or two. I've always been fine. I like me. It's gonna start sounding familiar
if God's worked in us yet. You little lords, you'll see
this as familiar. That's all of us, wouldn't it?
We was fine. I mean, we had a couple tweaks
that needed to be made, but. Look here in verse one. 2 Kings
5, verse one. Now Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, he was the head general, was a great
man with his master. His king thought so, and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was
also a mighty man in valor, a leper, a leper, but he was, as in italics,
a leper, a leper. This was a great man. The Lord
had used this man to deliver a whole nation. Great man. Many medals. He had a whole mess
of medals. Great wealth. He wasn't hurting
for money. He was honorable. As a good general,
but a leper. This man, he thought he was a
general that happened to be a leper. He was a leper that happened
to be a general. God ought to teach us that. You know, this
is every one of us. This is every child born of Adam. We may appear to be honorable.
We may appear to man's eye to do good things. We may have a
nice job. We may be a father or a mother.
Well, they got children, they ain't too bad. What's some things
we respect in this nation? Firefighters. Maybe they're a veteran. pretty
young lady one time that thought all people in the military are
just good upstanding men. Then she married one of them.
She found out that wasn't the case. They're just like everybody
else. Probably more ornery. Maybe there's
a police officer. We admire those things, right?
A teacher. But every one of us, A-double-L-all,
we have a disease. We have leprosy, that picture's
sin. That's everybody. That's those sweet little old
people that we like so much and them sweet little babies we love
so much. Everybody's a sinner. We're lepers. We're spiritual lepers. Leprosy
was an outward disease. It's a picture of sin. And you
know, we try to do the same thing that Naaman did. We try to cover
it up. We want to put makeup on it. We want to put perfume
on it so it doesn't smell. But no matter how much we cover
it, no matter how much we make up, pretend, that's what that
is, how much we cover it up with smell, it's there, it's real,
and it's deadly, and people need to know about it. You're gonna meet a holy God
one day, and you'll either meet him in your robes or his robes,
and that day might be today. Damon thought, you know, if I
could just get rid of this leprosy, if I could go back to the way
things were, everything would be great. I got this one little
hiccup, and if I could get that one little hiccup fixed, I'd
go back to life on Easy Street, buddy. I got the world by the
tail on a downhill pool. Easy Street, isn't it? The scriptures
say, that's my job. You know that
I don't make stuff up. You know, I don't want nothing
from you. I don't want to be in charge. I just want you to
know what God's word says. And the Lord's, that's the title
of my message. We're met where we rebel. And whenever we come
to things in scripture, there's going to be a man come to us
and tell us this is what this says. We're either going to bow
or rebel. It's going to be one of the two.
There ain't no right and offense. Now this is what this says. And
if you think you're right and I think I'm right, one of us
is going to die and go to hell. At best, one of us is going to
die. Scripture said, there is none
good. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
They might know a bunch of scripture. I saw a man whipping some people,
people working out at a gym, and told them, started quoting
Paul right in the Corinthians. And he said, that's sinful, and
lasciviousness, and adulteries, and fornications. And he said,
they didn't stop that. And I said, kept going. It says,
in such were some of you. That's the context. He's talking
to believers, wasn't he? Wouldn't he? There's none that
seeketh after God. Well, I was looking for him and
I found him. No, you didn't. He found you. He wasn't the last
one. I hear this coming out of people's
mouths and I worry for their souls. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've everyone turned to our own way and our sins is what
separated us from God. We can blame Adam for it. We
did it. We did it. But God's able to save to the
uttermost and he delights to show mercy. We're gonna see that
here, double. Mac Pila, Naaman gets it multiple
times. Lord's generous to him. How's
this mighty man gonna be made whole? This one that's a leper,
he's gonna have to go down. He's gonna have to be humbled.
And whenever he is, he will willfully repent. He'll cry out to God
and willfully and earnestly beg for mercy. How's he gonna learn
these things? How can he know? How's he gonna
hear this to believe it? Somebody's gonna have to tell
him. Somebody's gonna tell him where the Lord is preached in
truth. Naaman and any other sinner saved by God's grace is gonna
have to be pointed to Christ. Now is that a fancy job? Are
we gonna have the most distinguished among us do this thing? Are we
gonna have the most experienced, the most learned believers? Is
that their task? God used an unnamed servant girl. Look at verse two. And the Syrians
had gone out by companies and brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid, a little girl. And she waited
on Naaman's wife. She was just a servant there
helping his wife. And she said under her mattress, would God,
my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria. I wish that
the Lord would let my master Naaman go to where God's prophet
was. for he would recover him of his
leprosy. This girl knew of Elisha. I don't know if she knew him,
but she knew of him. And she knew that was God's man
sent to God's people in that place. And she said, go see him. She told her mistress, just another
servant, and talking to her, they was probably down there
washing clothes or something. And she said, Naaman could be recovered.
But for that to happen, he's gonna have to be under the gospel. And the Lord's gonna have to
be pleased to do so. And that's his only hope. But
it's a sure hope. If he needs mercy, if he needs
a true covering, that's his only place he's gonna get it. It says
at the end of verse four, for he would, for he would. Willing to show mercy. Look at
verse four. And one went in and told his
Lord saying, Thus and thus it said the maid that is of the
land of Israel. That's a little maid girl down
there taking care of your wife. And you know what I heard her
say? You have to go down there to Israel. There's some fellow
down there that can fix you. Word traveled to Naaman and his
king and good news was published. That's what that is. Somebody
told him in person, in person. And the king of Syria said, verse
five, go to, Go! I will send a letter unto the
king of Israel. I'll do my part. I'm gonna help
you out, buddy. I'd love to see you not have leprosy. And I,
being a king, am going to write a letter to my peer, a man like
me. I know how this thing works.
Another king, the king of Israel. I'll write to the king. You go
to him. I'll write a letter for you.
And he departed. and took with him 10 talents
of silver and 6,000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of raiment."
Whole mess of clothes. Why'd he take those? He's gonna
trade them so his covering would be right, right? He started out
wrong. He talked with this king, they
come up with a plan, and they executed the plan, and it was
a terrible plan. He started out bad. He was taking
all his silver and gold and fine clothes to trade that for healing. He was gonna go to God's prophet
and say, I'm gonna help you out. You help me out. That ain't gonna
fly. That ain't gonna fly. You can't
buy the healing of your sin. You can't earn it, you can't
merit it, and you can't trade nothing for it. Peter said, for
as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver or gold, from the vain conversations received
by tradition of your fathers. What your sweet little grandma
and grandpa told you, how God loves good little boys and girls,
and they go to heaven, that's a lie, and it's a damnable heresy. God's gonna have to send somebody
to tell people that, and he's gonna have to make them believe
it, because that's what his word says. You weren't redeemed with
those things in the way we always did it that way. Well, that's
how we did it. Who cares how you did it? How's
God do it? Not silver, not gold, not credible things, but with
the precious blood of Christ. That's what we were redeemed
with. Ten changes of Raymond. Naaman wanted to be healed outwardly.
That's where the Lord was gonna meet him. He knew he was a leper and he
had the pride of outward appearance. The successful career was accomplished.
He was married, had a family, he was a leper. He had the girl,
he won the battles, he made rank, he earned respect, but he was
ugly on the outside. He was a leper. He wanted the
new outside garments, outside skin. That's what he wanted.
What he really needed was a robe of righteousness. That's what
he needed. And he brought the wrong payment, and he went to
the wrong person. Look here in verse six. And he
brought the letter to the king of Israel. Remember his king
wrote a letter to the other king? Well, he took that letter and
he took it to the king of Israel, saying, now, when this letter
has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. He goes,
I'll just go to the man in charge, I'll go to the boss. The king
said go, didn't he? Why did Naaman go to the king
and not the prophet? He was told by his king. His
buddy told him. They liked each other, didn't
they? He said, well, I'll tell you what we ought to do. What's
that? That's the blind leading the blind. God teach us these
things. We've sat around in our living
rooms and come up with real good plans how we're going to do everything,
and that ain't God's way. It was the way we always did
it. One king would write a letter,
put a seal on it, take that ring and put it in that wax and that
way they knew it hadn't been opened for your eyes only. It
seemed fine. That's the way it's always been
done. I tell you what Solomon said, there's a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You're going to die doing it your way. But I think, I think
this is how it ought to be done. You go read 1 Corinthians 11,
19. You go really read Galatians 5, 20 and 2 Peter 2, 1. All those talk about heresies.
Do you know what that word translated is? A personal choice or opinion. It's what I think. Well, that's
not something that's grave and you're saying that little spacemen
are coming out and you gotta kiss a goat to be saved or something
crazy. You gotta make a pilgrimage to
Mecca or something. That's a heresy, yeah. And what
you think's a heresy? God says so, go read his word.
That's your opinion, that's what we think. Well, I think, I've
always done it this way, I think so. In order of those verses I gave
you, there must be heresies among you. That's it's going to happen. And all that's the work of the
flesh. And this is going to happen behind people's backs suddenly.
He was going to sneak in real gently, real sweet too. And when
the prophet ain't there, the prophet ain't listening and say,
you know, you know, I just, we know we do it this way. Here's
what I think, you know, I've always thought that. God says
that to Harris and they're sneaking in and they got itching ears
and they heap to them teachers. You got a teacher. Naaman was
given one teacher, Elisha, and he was trying to find anybody
else he could talk to until he found him a guest that sorted
it his way. No, you're going to go through
God's man. That's the way you think, not the way God thinks.
All them false teachers, they're going to bring their opinions,
what they think. And so he showed up to the king of Israel. So
this way we've come up with, thanks be to God, the king of
Israel knew better. Look at verse seven. And it came to pass when
the king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes. He tore his clothes off and said,
am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send
to me to recover the man of leprosy? Why in the world are you coming
to me? I can't heal him. I'm not God. I'm not the one
sent. I'm here to just rule this country. Talk about respecting those,
the particular man sent to that place in that region at that
time. That king got it, didn't he? He said, that ain't my bit. I'm scanning my lane. I do my
governing stuff. You're going to talk to that
fella. What are you talking to me for? Are you wanting to go to
war? Is this a trick? It was absurd to him. Look at
the end of that verse. He said, wherefore consider,
I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. Are you
doing this on purpose? Don't you know better? Some of
the things that natural man comes up with when the Lord puts a
new creation in somebody and they believe God, all those things
seem so absurd. Like, are you picking a fight?
Are you nuts? They ain't, that's what they
did. They think they're fine. Me and a brother was talking
last week, and I said, you know, you can't be mad at somebody
if they're dead. And it's like talking to a rock, you know,
there's no life in them. I can't be upset with that, but I tell
you what, I get as close to that rock as I can and I yell, live! Hear what God has to say, surrender! Go unto the king when I help
you. He had to go to the prophet. Now, Elisha was not the prophet,
the capital P prophet. He's only the prophet in that
day. That's all he was. He's just a picture of Christ.
That's what he is. Moses said, God's going to raise
up a prophet, and him you shall hear. And he's going to speak
my words, and everyone that hears my prophet's going to be blessed.
And those that hear not my prophet, he said, I'll require of them.
Oh, you got a balance that's owed. This word came and I sent
my messengers to you and you would not hear. That's what,
it's burning my heart. Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. Woe unto those people that hear the gospel preached
and won't bow to it. That don't find him adorable,
that don't kiss the son. Lord's gonna be angry. I wanna
warn people. Everybody's comforted, I hope
they're disturbed. And all those that shook up by
that, hey, he's on his throne, calm down. I want you to be comforted. The Lord has to do that. Who
is that prophet that Moses was talking about? That's Christ
the prophet, isn't he? And all of his under shepherds are just
ambassadors. They just tell you what the message is. It's his.
They just tell you what he says, the remembrancers. That's it. That's all Elisha was. The Lord
gave him a word, didn't he? Nehemiah went to the wrong place.
He took the wrong stuff. He didn't go to the prophet.
Billions of people in our day, they're going to the wrong place
with the wrong payment to the wrong people. All over. It breaks my heart. It does. And they think what they're doing
is right, because that's what they always did, or that's what everybody
else does. The word says, go to Christ. His word says, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. It's a person we come to. People say they come to the doctrines
of grace. I hope they just don't know how to talk yet. I didn't
come to the doctrines of grace and was saved. I came to Christ
and was saved. And then once I know him, I got them doctrines
straight. I didn't come to him through those doctrines. I came
to doctrines by Christ. Just the ability to explain it.
We'll get to that at the end. Word finally made it to Elisha,
verse eight. And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard
the king of Israel had rent his clothes. He had sent that king
saying, wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? What's wrong with
you? Why are you so upset over this? You know the Lord did this.
Let him come to me now. That ain't your problem, you
just send him to me. And he shall know that there's a prophet in
Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot.
Is that what it says in your Bible? Look with me, read verse
nine. And Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and
stood at the door of the house of Elisha. What did we look at
the other day? They come right up to it, they
made it to the parking lot and they wouldn't come inside. Isn't
that what that lame man was at the gate? Yeah, right? Is that us? Have we ever come
all the way up to the door and not went inside? Have we ever
come up that gate of refuge, that city of refuge to the gate
and not went into Christ? That's what this leader did.
And he came with all his implements of war, didn't he? And all his
men, horses and chariots. He's finally at the right place.
He's finally found the right person. This is the man of God.
But his attitude was wrong. His attitude was wrong. He stood
at the door, but he wouldn't go in. He brought all his men,
he brought his implements of power and war and pageantry,
and he stood at the door waiting to be treated like he was somebody.
His way. His way of doing things. Well,
he's gonna be greeted. There's protocol when you deal
with generals. If you break that protocol, it's like dealing with
the Queen of England or something, King of England. There's rules you have
to go through in the military. His way is to be greeted and
to be praised and someone doing something for him. He wasn't
gonna go nowhere. He wasn't gonna do nothing. It
was gonna come to him. And he's gonna do it his way. He's gonna
be, you know what? We're just so happy to have you
here. Oh, look at all the money he's
gonna bring to help build this place up. Oh, they're just good,
I tell ya. Well, thankful to have old Naaman
here. That's what he's used to. That's what every place underneath
the sun is, hanging out roses and all this other nonsense.
What's the Lord's way? He's gonna have to sit down and
he's gonna have to wait and he's gonna have to listen for what
God's prophet had to say. He's in an unappealing shack.
He's on a profit salary. He can't afford nothing too fancy.
And that big old general wasn't going to go in that little rundown
place. But you're going to have to sit out there and you're going
to have to wait from the word that God gives his prophet for
that day for that hour. You can't pick and choose. You
can't have a smorgasbord to go eat from. You're going to have
to take what God gives you. Mankind don't like that. Natural man,
the unregenerate man don't like that. They say, I want to pick
and choose. It's gonna be my way. This ain't Burger King.
It ain't, you can't have it your way. It's the Lord's way. Nothing's
different nowadays. If God's gonna bless it. Now,
if I'm speaking on behalf of him, according to this word,
I'm either right or I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, don't you listen to me.
run me out of town. If God's gonna bless it, we're
gonna have to first sit down in a pew, and we're gonna have
to listen to what the Lord has to say for a while, and in His
time, by His man, He'll heal and do what He's pleased to do.
Not by listening to 15,000 of them throughout the week. In
the proportion that He gives, You're gonna take the serving
size that the Lord's put out on your plate for that week and
eat it. If we get hungry, well, that's the Lord portioned it
out. Ain't my business, it's his business. I'm gonna have
to bow to him. Elijah knew he wasn't an idiot. He knew Naaman's pride. He knew
his arrogance. And he would not go out to meet
him. He wasn't gonna cater to him.
Everybody else would kowtow to him and kiss their hind end.
I ain't doing it. I was sitting with his little servants. You
go ahead, go talk to him. I thought how handy it was, he had a servant
to help him. Wish I had me a servant. You
go talk to him, I ain't foolin' with you. I got study for this
weekend. Go talk to that big, proud, arrogant general out there.
The prophet knew the man's problem and what needed to happen. The
man needed to be broken. He needed to be brought down, because that's
where mercy's found, is at the feet of Christ, not way up on
your chariot and your horse. Get you down. He knew that, and
this proud, arrogant general had to be brought low, and me
and you ain't no different. God's gonna meet us at our point
of rebellion, and we're gonna have to be brought down to the
feet of Christ so he gets all the glory. We're gonna have to
start thinking, I think, stop being convinced of our way, and
what we think, and what we've always done, and say we're wrong,
and take his side against us. Say the Lord's right. Let him
be true, and every man a liar. or we're going to die and go
to hell in our sins, or we'll meet him in judgment. Bear that
second death. It says in verse 10, and Elisha
sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times,
and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
Go down that river and dip seven times. Get naked in front of
everybody. and go dip yourself in perfection seven times in
completion, thoroughly. Go wash yourself down that river
and you'll be clean. That's all you gotta do. But
Naaman was wroth and went away and said, behold, I thought heresy. Heresy. It's a damnable heresy. I thought he would surely come
out to me and stand, walk out to me like a man, stand up and
call on the name of the Lord, his God. Lord wasn't Naaman's God yet,
was he? He was mad about all this. He said, well, you've got
a God and I just want some favors. That's what mankind wants. We
want ease. Aging is the aggressive pursuit
of comfort. I've learned that the hard way
the last couple months. I'm tired of weed eating. I want
to sit on the couch. Well, guess what? Then I get weaker. And
then I'm getting older. I'm aging. I'm thinking of them
old men that were 600, 700 years old. They were spry, buddy. That's
tough. They weren't wheelchair-bound
and scooting around and barely alive. They was out there chopping
wood. Name was Matt. He said, I wanted
something out of him, just like man does now. We want health,
we want wealth, we want to be out from underneath the law.
Wouldn't you love it if you couldn't get arrested for anything? I
mean, I wasn't speed, right? I thought I'd go to 56 just to
know I can get away with it. Yes, I would. I was a rebel before,
I'm a rebel now. Nobody wants to go to hell. Everybody
wants to go to heaven and see all the people we've missed and
have a good old family reunion. He was mad. He said, I thought
he'd call the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over
the place and recover the leper. I thought, come up here and work
on me. Was Elisha right? Did he know his problem? Wouldn't
he go out there and talk? Yeah. That old prophet synagogue
may know a thing or two. I wonder how old he was when
he was there. I hope he's 23 years old. If he had walked outside, that
general would have said, off. I don't mourn that fella, duh. Why was there contention? Why
was Naaman so mad? Proverbs 13.10 says, only by
pride cometh contention." If there's
ever a rub, if there's ever somebody not getting along, somebody angry
at the way things are going, either against one another or
against providence or against whatever, God says, only by pride. Pride's a source of it. The Lord
hated pride. He listed some things he hated
and he started off with a proud look, didn't he? That's what we think, what we
know, what we are. But the well advised is wisdom.
Those that will take counsel, those that will take good counsel. Somebody telling you what God
says, that's wisdom. That's true wisdom. Well, what
about my way? Can I just do this at home? Right,
y'all had to get in a car and drive, some of y'all, most of
y'all, a long way to get here. Couldn't we just do this at the
house? Couldn't we Zoom in? Huh? Is that something new? Is wanting to have it our way
and the messages we want to cherry pick throughout the week and
have it in our convenience of our own home and our own pajamas,
is that something new? Look at verse 12. He's mad, remember? He said, I thought he'd come
out and handle me. He said, aren't Abna and Farpar rivers of Damascus? Aren't those rivers where I'm
from? Better than all the waters of Israel? That Jordan's nasty
and muddy and murky. We got clear water back where
I'm from. That's good rivers. Can't I just do it there? May
I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. He was mad, because somebody said, you're going to have to
do it where God says to do it. I promise you, ain't nothing
changed. Now, you telling me? That's exactly what he's telling
you. You got to go to that river. Your rivers ain't going to cut
it. And I thought, too, you know, you could take those rivers and
cut it into anything. Maybe a banner reformed church. Can I go down there? Can I go
to Farpar Orthodox Methodist Church? Can I just do it down
there? That's fine. It's closer to the house. It's
on the way. It's a big, nice building. They kiss up to me
there. They like me real well and tell me all the good things
I do. Can I just do it there? There's some good things there.
It's only a little bit 11. Can I wash down there? Nope. How's this proud general gonna
be advised? The Lord is going to use another
unnamed servant to reason with them. Isn't that gracious? Here's this
rebel. The Lord sent a little servant
girl with good news, sent a king with good news, sent another
servant with good news, and now sent a servant in his own household
with good news. Isn't that gracious? You have
multiple servants of God telling you the same thing over and over. And God didn't just kill you
where you stand in your rebellion. Verse 13, and his servants came
near and spake unto him and said, my father, if a prophet had bid thee to
do some great thing, Wouldest thou not have done it? If he
told you to do something that was great, Tim, I want you to
low crawl from here to Acomba and God will save you for eternity.
We'd get our elbows and knee pads out and get low crawling,
wouldn't we? Well, if he told us something else, conquer a
large city, I'd kick in every door. Save up a lot of money.
Wouldn't you have done that? He said, how much rather then
when he saith thee wash and be clean? Humble yourselves and
believe Christ. Take him at his word. That's
what the word says. End of discussion. End of discussion. What are we going to do? What
do I do about this matter? Well, God says this. Now you
going to buck or you going to bow? And I've heard my pastor
say that, and he had 50 some years of experience at it. I've
had it up to here with the bucking. And my loved ones, and the people
I'm friends with, and the people I encounter on a weekly or biweekly
basis. God says so, I ain't fighting
nobody. Buck or bow, God'll have to do
it. He don't have to do it. Well,
the Lord made him willing. Round four worked on him. Verse 14. Then he went down. Which way did he go up? He went
down. He went down willingly. God made
him willing in the day of his power. And he went down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan. He didn't do eight. He didn't
do six. He did seven as he was told.
He was obedient, made obedient. According to the saying of the
man of God, And his flesh came again unto the flesh, like unto
the flesh of a little child. He was clean. He didn't have
wrinkles. He just had like baby skin, like brand new. It's like
that old outer covering you had was gone, and there was a brand
new covering put on you. You see where I'm going with
this? Anybody? New robes put on him. Brand new. Brand new. Oh, buddy. God saved that leper. And where
did he go? Lord saved him, right then. Where's
the first place he went? He found the closest believer
he could find. Verse 15, and he returned to
the man of God, he and all his company. God, I'd make it special
too. If you have influence over somebody and you command your
household, We're going to hear God preached. We're going to
go down there where God's worshipped, and we're going to hear this
gospel preached. They're either going to buck or bow, and you're
going to have some problems on your hands. Or the Lord's going
to save some folks. But he didn't care. What if them
servants would have quit? What if they got mad at him?
And it says those servants called him father, so he had some of
his own children working for him. Well, if his kids got mad
at him, that Philippian jailer didn't care, it's 2 a.m., so
wake them teenagers up, they're getting preached to. Paul, get
after it, it's your business, not mine. He brought his whole
company with him. He and all his company, and came
and stood before him and said, behold, now, I know that there
is no God in all the earth but in Israel. There's no other gods,
there's no God, there's God. The God of Israel. What's that
mean, the God of Jacob? The one that came to save sinners
like this one. And therefore I pray that you
take a blessing of thy servant. Isn't that something good? He
went right there, he wanted to do something good for Elisha.
Elisha said, I ain't taking nothing, I'm just thankful the Lord saved
you and we'll look at that maybe another time. That's what happened before
the Jordan and what happened after the Jordan. Maybe we'll
look at that Sunday morning. But I just want to talk to you
for a second. The preaching's over and I just want to talk
to you, okay? I pray God would make us understand
this, give us some learning and wisdom and teach us something
out of this. God's going to meet us at our
point of rebellion if we're His. If we're his, if we're not his,
you'll be fine. No worries. It'll be just smooth
sailing and easy Christian living until you wind up at the gates
of hell. But if we're his, he's going to meet us at our point
of rebellion. And that's individual. And we're going to bow. And if
not, we're going to remain godless rebels. It's one or the other. It's one or the other. Naaman,
he was concerned about outward looks and he was proud and he
thought of himself. What happened to him? He had
to get clean naked and go down to a nasty river in God's safety. That rich young ruler, what was
his point of rebellion? His money. The Lord didn't say
you had to get old and you had to lose your power. He said,
go sell everything you have and follow me. And he went away sad. You know, it wouldn't matter
if he went away happy or mad or angry or... He went away. He left. It don't matter how
he left. He rebelled. But did everybody have to sell
off everything they have? No! Abraham had 318 man servants. Solomon, whoo! Loaded. Job, greatest man of the East.
Joseph of Arimathea. He had a hewn out of stone brand
new sepulcher to be laid in. He's wealthy, 100 pounds of aloe
wasn't cheap. Ain't cheap now, wasn't cheap
then. They didn't have to be met there. The Lord met them
in a different place. After the Lord spoke to his disciples
about John the Baptist, he said, you go tell them everything,
the lame walked, the leopards were healed, blind received their
sight, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Now
go tell them again. I healed a leopard, go tell them one more
time. Go tell them again. He said, he's talked to those
people around there in Luke 7, he turns to them and he said,
what went you out in the wilderness for to see? I bet they were murmuring
about John the Baptist. Oh, he loses faith. He was speaking
concerning John. He said, did you go out in the
wilderness to see a reed shaking in the wind? Some little skinny
fella out there that was a boy that could shave and just bend
over every time you blew on him? What went forth to see? A man
clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously
appareled and live delicately, they're in the king's courts.
That's politicians. My servants ain't like that.
But what went you out to see, a prophet? Is that what you went
to go see? Just like Naaman, what'd you
go out there looking for? You just wanted your leprosy healed.
Was you out there to meet God's prophet? Yea, I say unto you
that I am much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it's written,
Behold, I send a messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
the way before thee. For I say unto you, among those
things, those that are born of women, there's nothing greater
than the prophet of John the Baptist. But he that's least
in the keen of God is greater than he." He said, I'm standing
right in front of you. And all the people that heard
him, the publicans, justified God being baptized with the baptism
of John. Everybody that believed that,
they believed and professed Christ and believers baptism after they
finally heard Christ, who he was. But the Pharisees, they bowed. Those men bowed. But the Pharisees
and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God. That's Christ
talking. That's the counsel of God. His
word. Against themselves. That's all
I want to hear. Being not baptized of Him. They
wouldn't go be baptized. I ain't doing that. They wouldn't
dip it in that river seven times. Well, what would people think?
They'd think I wasn't saved before. Who cares what people think?
These are eternal matters. This is life and death. The Lord
said, be baptized. And that was the point of contention
with these Pharisees. They weren't gonna look like they weren't
the biggest rooster in the henhouse. They wouldn't look like the boss,
didn't they? Herod had to put away his second wife. He would
go and listen to John the Baptist preach a lot until he heard that
he wasn't allowed to have his brother's wife. Then trouble
started. That was his point of contention.
He was fine with everything John was saying until, well, now hold
on now, it's hitting home. That eunuch, he tried teaching
himself while I was reading the scriptures every day. Lord showed
him he had to have a man teach him. That was his point. Poole Silo, that fellas laying
there, lazy, wounded and lazy. And the Lord said, will you be
made whole? You're gonna have to quit taking handouts from
everybody. Ain't nobody gonna bring you snacks three times
a day. You went to walk a little bit, go to work, get a job. That
woman at the well, she was filling her own pot, wasn't she? Lord
dealt with her, she dropped that pot on the ground. She quit filling
herself up. Saul persecuted the church. He
was out to kill the Lord's people and the Lord met him at that
spot. He said, why are you persecuting me? Now go preach to the Gentiles.
That's a shortened version. We'll get that next too. right where you want to go care
for my people, for my body. Jacob. I guess Jacob was probably
in pretty good shape because the Lord made him lame. He popped
his head by a socket. Maybe he was a runner. Maybe
he liked jogging every day. Nebuchadnezzar was so wise and
so intellectual, and he built such a great nation, had great
building plans. And he said, look what I dreamed
all this up. And the Lord took his mind from him. What's that
mean for us? Does someone have to be baptized
to be saved? No. No, a thief on a cross is
the first thing we go to, isn't it? He don't have to, but when
it comes up in his word, Lord said, if you don't confess me,
I ain't confess you for the Father. Go get the water. We do it. Willingly,
don't we? Nobody twisted your arm. Willingly. That's what the Lord said, do
it. Here's the Lord's table. Take, eat. It ain't complicated. Well, I want grape juice. You
want to tell that to the Lord? If he showed up and said, take,
drink, this is my blood. Well, you know, I like Welch's. No, thank you. That's wine. That's
his blood, isn't it? Does a person have to be part
of a local assembly to be saved? No. They do not. But when they
come upon this word, and their way of doing things is met with
the word of God, they'll bow. They'll bow. They'll see they
have to. They'll see that's right, and they'll see the benefit of it.
And that's why I haven't experienced that benefit yet, but he says so,
and I believe him. You see the difference? The others
will say, ah, well, that's fine. Does someone have to forgive
others to be saved? No, that's not what's needed. The Lord forgiving us is what's
needed. But when we're met with that in his word, go forgive
as Christ has forgiven you. How can you not? Your heart's
melted. He sent his word out and it melted
them. They didn't sit around and talk
about firestone tires after. They weren't concerned about
whether they was gonna file taxes if it's April 15th or not. Their
hearts were melted. Does the person have to support
the gospel? No. Financially, do they have to
forgive? No. But they will. Do they have to
give? No. But when they read this word
and it burns in them, they'll go pick up another job if they
have to. They'll do whatever it takes to keep this word going
forward. If it's precious to them, if it's precious to them,
but if they think they can get it out of a vending machine,
they don't care for it. It ain't worth 25 cents to them. It has to take place. The Lord
has to meet us in his word at our point of rebellion, and he
has to break us, make us willing, and make us bow. If we're sons
and daughters of his, he's a faithful father, and he will chasten his
children. It's only recorded that name,
and it's happened one time. I got a lot of points of rebellion.
Do you know that? There's so many things I see in this Word,
and I go, oh, why didn't the Lord show me that sooner? Well,
that's what it is. That's the way it's going to
be now. Sorry. If it hurts anybody's feelings,
that's what we're doing. We're going to do it the way the Lord
says. This has to take place. And we'll be made to cry out,
let God be true and every man a liar. Because it's not that
we're just breaking the rules and we're not doing what the
Bible says. We're sinning against God. He has saved us. He's called us with a holy call.
We're in him and I don't want to wound him. His law is lovely. Everything he says in his precepts,
I can't do them, but I want to. But he's right. That's what David's
talking about. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
all the things I do that I think is good. And cleanse me from
my sin, all the things I do that I know is bad. For I acknowledge
my transgressions, my sins ever before me, against thee and thee
only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. Lord, you're right, I'm wrong.
Whatever the point happens to be met at, that's what's gonna
happen. He's right, I'm wrong. You see, if you miss conviction,
you miss repentance. And if you miss repentance, you
miss faith. And if you miss faith, you'll
miss Christ. And if you miss Christ, you miss life eternal. I pray the Lord to send every
one of his children a man to tell them of his word and bring
them down and break their hearts and make them contrite and give
them life and comfort. I do. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word.
Lord, thank you for these pictures of us lepers. That you're so gracious to over
and over again despite ourselves. Thank you for the blessings we
have in Christ and. Washing us in his blood. Father,
forgive us for our rebellion. Keep us as you promised you will,
Lord, and give us a strength to know that and the grace to
understand that the trials you sinned are for our good and your
glory. Thank you for your word. Apply
it to the hearts of your people, Lord, as you see fit. It's because of Christ we ask
these things. Amen. All right, if you will, let's
turn to hymn number 222.