2 Kings 5 is a familiar story. I wondered if the Lord, you know,
we're going through the Old Testament books and trying
to deal with what we thought the Lord may have spoken from
on that road to Emmaus. He mentioned Naaman. The Lord
mentioned Naaman when he went to Nazareth, remember? He said
there were many lepers in the day of Elijah and he saved one,
Naaman, a Syrian. So he perhaps spoke about this. 2 Kings 5, it says verse 1, Naaman
was captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was a great
man, well known, with his master and before his king, an honorable,
before his master. And because by him the Lord had
given deliverance unto Syria. He was a mighty man in valor,
but he was a leper. Naaman was a great man as far
as men are concerned. He was honorable. He was a man
of valor and bravery, and he did great things, but really
he didn't do anything. The Lord did it. So he was well
known, he was famous, he was a man of valor and honorable
and esteemed highly by all, a mighty man, but he was a leper. And the same is true for every
human being by nature. We live in a leper colony, this
world. You know what? Every single human
being, us, our children, all of us, are born in sin. Leprosy, as you know, we've talked
about it many times, it was a disease that the flesh became rotten. and stinking, and vile, and just
obnoxious flesh. You know, that's what God says
about flesh. No matter how it appears to men,
like old Naaman here. Naaman was covered. He had his
garments on, he had his medals on, he had his helmet on, he
had all this covered up. He is leprosy, and so do men
to the young people. You may have a good-looking facade
on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And the heart,
God says about the heart is desperately wicked, leprous. God looked down upon the children
of men to see if there were any that didn't understand. Psalm
14. He said there's none. He said
they're all together become filthy before God. We live in a leper
colony. Mindy and I were watching a movie
the other night and it seemed like it would be a good a good
movie, and it was about an inner-city basketball team, and this coach
was trying to instill some virtue in these hoods, you know. These
proud, rebel young men that thought they were something when they
were nothing. They were vile. And this man
was trying to instill some some virtue in them, trying to get
them to go to school and all this and that and the other.
Well, anyway, in the course of that movie, you know, they would go
out, these boys and girls, and they'd all go out to these parties. And it was just vile, you know. the music playing and it was
evocative and provocative and they're all bumping and grinding
and all that stuff. It reminded me of that ball of
worms that I bought that time, a writhing and wriggling mass
of corruption. That's the world we live in.
That's what's normal. Young people just crawling all
over each other like filthy worms. And that's the way God sees this
planet. Do you want that? And it's no wonder God's gonna
burn this place up. It's filthy. It's filthy. We need washing. Our children
need their minds and hearts washed. No matter how we look to others,
God knows our thoughts, knows our hearts. Well, in verse 2,
the Syrians had captured a nation and people and taken captive
Israel. And they took a little maid,
a little maid captive. So she was in the midst of this,
and she was captive, but she knew the Lord. You know, we're
captives, aren't we? We're here. Now, I want out. I don't want a part of that.
I was in that. The Lord delivered me out of
that. He really did. Such were some
of you, but you're washed. See, I know a lot about what's
going on today because I was right in the thick of it, boys
and girls, men and women. I was right in the thick of it.
Weren't we, brother? And it's a miracle. It's God's
mercy and grace to bring you out of that. Salvation. But I'm still in it. I'm still
bombarded with it. I still see it. I'm still enticed
and tempted by it. I want out. But I'm captive to
this world somewhat. I'm in the flesh. But I know someone, that prophet,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is able to save to the uttermost
those who call upon Him, come nigh unto Him. And she said to
her mistress, verse 3, would God, would God, oh, would God,
oh, if God would, if only God would, He can. It's completely
up to him if he will. If he can, will he. He said, call. He said, ask.
Would God. She said, would God that my Lord,
speaking of Naaman, were with the prophet. She said, the prophet. Apparently, Elijah at this time,
Elijah had gone up a chariot of fire, horses of fire to heaven. And he put his mantle on Elisha.
God has not left himself without a witness in any generation. He has his preacher, true preacher.
But apparently there was only one. That's right. That's true. Elijah said that
himself. Lord, I'm the only one. Wasn't
Elijah, was it? And the Lord said, no. No, you're
not. But you think you are. And where
you are, you're the only one. The last year was only one, and
she said, would God master that Naaman was with the prophet.
There's only one. And if she were, if she could
just, if he could just go where he is, he would, he'll deliver
him from that leprosy. There's only one. And if only. He could go where he is and hear
him, and the Lord would heal him through the prophet. You know, she was a witness,
and that's what we are. That's what we are. We've been
called to be witnesses under our Lord. We've been called to
tell others where we found mercy and grace and salvation. They're
not going to be healed. They're not going to be saved
unless they hear the gospel. That prophet, the Lord Jesus
Christ, Elisha represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's not
everywhere. I'm not being proud or presumptuous,
but I've been here a long time now, and I haven't with Brother
Stephen, a long time, and listened to these people all around us,
these so-called preachers. And I've been in on it, I've
heard it, I look at their signs, their billboards and all that.
The truth is just not anywhere, is it? I see mostly blasphemy. and people laughing and mocking
and playing games and mocking God. God's not mocked. But He
has His true creatures. He has a few places here and
there where the gospel is, the truth is, the only truth, the
way, the truth, the life where people can be saved if only,
would God, that our neighbors and our Spouses would be, go
where the Lord Jesus Christ really is. When's the last time you've talked
to somebody? When's the last time you've brought
somebody to hear the Gospel? And not when we say, unless they
hear it, this Gospel. Is that right? This is the Gospel. There is no other. Oh, good God. He's able to say it. They've
got to hear this gospel. Someone went in and told Laman
that the king of Syria, his boss, Laman's boss who he worked for,
the king of Syria, wanted him to be healed too. He gave him
ten talents of silver, silver and gold, and changes of raiment,
and sent him to the king of Israel. Okay? He gave him silver and
gold and a new covering, and sent him to the highest man in
the land. Go to him. Wrong person. That's not what she said. There's
one person that can heal nailing. And there's only one person that
can heal those who need saving. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't go to man. We don't go to this place or
that place. We go where Christ is, where
the gospel is. Doesn't matter how great the
person is. Doesn't matter how famous the person is. God's prophet
was a man living pretty much in obscurity. God's people knew
him. But the rest of Israel had nothing
to do with him. They had nothing to do with him.
Elijah, remember, was the prophet in Israel. And there were 850
false prophets. And he went up against them,
remember? He started preaching on that in 1 Kings 18. Really? Only one prophet against
800? Really? And the percentage is
much higher now, or less now. It's a fact. Our Lord said in
the last days, many false prophets have gone out. Many. And our Lord said, warned. He
said in Matthew 7, many will say unto me in that day, Lord,
Lord, we preach to you in the name of Jesus. Jesus this, Jesus
that. That's not His name. Martin used
to say, Jesus doesn't save, the Lord Jesus saves. If He's just
a man, He can't save anybody. Salvation is of the Lord. And
the fear of the Lord is beginning to... How do I know there's so
many false prophets? Because they just call it in
Jesus. And they're asking people what they're going to do with
Jesus. And they're trying to get people to accept Jesus and
let Jesus in their heart. That's a false gospel. Nobody
is saved under that. They've got a false refuge. And
I'm not mad at you, but I just hate it. I hate it for people.
They're butchering souls. If people are saved, the first
thing they're going to hear is the Lord on His throne. Bow! Here's the old Naaman King. Look
at me. Aren't you glad to see me? I come to church. Surely
God's glad to see me. No, He's not. What's He need
with a leper? There's a million others just
like you. Worms. What's the Lord need with worms? That's what men are telling people.
Jeremiah 23, they're saying to them that despise me. That's
what God said. They're saying to them that despise
me. No evil shall befall you. God
has a wonderful plan for your life. He loves you so much. He
wants to save you if you'll let Him. That's not God. Nobody's
saved by that. They're damned by that. They're
going to go right in the face of God someday. thinking they're
all right and going to be shocked to hear him say, depart from
me, you worker of iniquity. Imagine the look on Billy Graham's
face when he saw him as he is. Well, he went to the wrong place
and he took the wrong thing. We're not redeemed with silver
and gold. of corruptible things, or our
vain conversation. We're not saved by changing our
habits or changing our arraignment. We need to change our arraignment
all right. We need to cover it all right, but we can't produce
it. And people get religious, don't
they? And Isaiah said, Isaiah 64, 6, he said, all our righteousnesses
are filthy, ragged, minstrels' cloths. That's what God said. That's what God says about what
man makes up and covers himself in and the religion of mankind. That's what God says. It's a
minstrel's cloth. Isn't that gross? It's not as
gross as the way God sees this planet. We need washing. I mean washing. We need to strip
and be dipped, like old man. Well, here he came. Verse 8, Elisha, the man of God,
heard, and here's what he told him. Let him come to me. Let him come to me. He'll know. He'll come to me. He'll know there's a prophet
in Israel. Does this sound familiar? Let him come unto me. Go nowhere
else. There is none other, nor the
prophet, none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved. Christ said, Come unto me, all
you that labor and every laden, I will give you rent. Let him
come to me. Bring him. There's a man crying for you.
Bring him to me. If people are brought to Christ,
if they do come to Christ, if they see His glory, if they hear
His voice, they're going to know that there's a God, one God,
and one Lord, and one Savior, one way, and one truth, and one
life. They're going to know the salvations of the Lord. Well, so Nehemiah came, verse
9, he came with his horses and his chariot, and stood. I think he's on his horse, in
his chariot, standing in his chariot, standing in his chariot,
outside the prophet's door. And there he stood, yeah, with
all his medals on, his helmets and all that, and all his finery
and everything. He's all covered up. And people,
probably when he's going, he's coming into Israel there, and
all the people see him and think, oh, look, there's Laman. Ooh,
Laman. Who was it? You and I talking
about all these famous people today, all these rock stars and
music stars and sports celebrities and all that. They ain't worth
crossing the street for. They wouldn't give you the time
of day. You know that? Man glories in man. Man bows
to and makes idols of rotten creatures, mankind, and nobody's
got any use for the King of kings and Lord of lords. People go
see a filthy, vile rock star and they wouldn't come see the
Lord Jesus Christ for nothing. Right there is depravity. You
want to know what depravity is? They idolize a vulture. and had no use for the spotless
Holy Son of the Most High God. Go hear noise. It won't come
hear the good news. Don't need it. Old Nehemiah,
he's a leper, but apparently he doesn't think he's that bad.
You know, he must not... Well, I got a few spots here
and there. Do you remember the story in Leviticus 13? The only
ones that were healed were the ones that recovered from head
to toe. If you just had a few spots, the priest kept saying,
you're unclaimed, unclaimed, unclaimed. But if some fellow
was coming, he's dying, he knows he's dying. He knows that if
somebody doesn't cleanse me, I'm dead. And he said, the one
that said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. From the top of
my head to the bottom of my feet, there's no soundness in my flesh.
I am a leper. You know what lepers were supposed
to do back then? They were supposed to be separate from the people
and cry, unclean, unclean. You know what everybody that
says unclean will hear? Everybody that knows that, that
feels that, that smells themselves, the Lord will bring them to Christ
and He will say, and He's the only one that can, He will pronounce
you clean. If we confess our sins, He that
saith he hath no sin is called God a liar, and he's lying to
himself, he's fooling himself, and he that does, He's just and able to deliver
us from all unrighteousness. Yes, and the blood of Jesus Christ. God's Son cleanses us. He really
does. Like I told you, you're looking
at one of those writhing, wriggling, massive worm. Here I am now, clothed and in
my right mind. I was out of my mind, young people,
out of my mind. blindly following my generation
into the pit. And I thought I was something. They were here again with his
horses and chariots. Why do the scriptures talk so much about
horses and chariots? That's all they had back then.
Scripture says a horse is a vain thing for safety. But horses
and chariots, back then they had chariots. It's not much different
than a... I had a 55 Chevy. Yeah, I did. You ain't never had one, have
you? Big deal. I like that George Strait song. He said, I got a car. He's going
to impress that girl. You know what? I got a car. Whoa. I remember thinking, you know,
didn't we, Steven? We'd ride around in our cars. We'd think,
boy, I am something. Look at me. I got this. Good one, Mark. Mark was a gearhead. I got a Malibu. Woo, really. Big deal. You know, those things
that I was enamored with, I was totally taken with. I was proud.
People are proud of it. Young people are proud of it.
Old people are proud of it. You see these old people riding
their Harleys. They live to ride, ride to live,
and they're going to die riding. And they're going to die without
Christ. You got people in their, you
know, these classic cars. It's their life. And it was mine. But God. Now, you know how I look at them
now? I might say that's pretty, but I might say it's just a hug
of metal. It's going to rust. Moths and
rust are going to corrupt. Thieves are going to break through
and steal. It's nothing. It's vanity. A horse is a vain
thing for safety, and a car is a vain thing to be proud of.
My, my. Everybody's got one. You know,
if you look down on this world, you ever been in an airplane?
You look down on this world and see it as it is. The finest,
you know, you travel over the ocean, you see all these multi-million
dollar mansions, they're on sand. They're built on the sand. What's it going to take? Top
of that, one big wave. You see all these horses, you
can't distinguish the triple crown winner from a mule. You
can't distinguish them. They all look the same. They
are. Worthless. Vanity. And man takes security in, takes
pride in all his inventions. Scriptures talk a lot about inventions. They provoke God with all their
inventions. They need saving. Well, Elisha,
verse 10, sent a messenger. He didn't even come out of the
house. He did not come out of the house. He stayed in the house. Here came Naaman, a leper, outside,
and he's standing there in his chariot. He's waiting on him,
the prophet, to come to him. He didn't come to him. Those men, those Greeks, came
and said, Sirs, we would see Jesus. They didn't see him. He
didn't give them an audience. Now, if you want to come and
you want to sit at the feet of the Master, the Lord, this is
what Philip and all of them found out. They said, Master, where
do you dwell? Andrew, that's what they said,
Master, where do you dwell? He said, come sit here. Naaman
thought, he's going to be glad to see me. He sent a message, you know,
and, you know, Naaman saw this little fellow, and we don't know
his name. He doesn't say his name, because it's not important. He's not the messenger, he's
nothing. He's just a voice. And so he came out, this messenger,
what did he look like? Probably not much. And he came
out with a message, a simple message, one thing. He came out
and told Naaman one thing. Look at verse 10, and this is
what Elisha told him to say. Go, tell him to go and wash in
the Jordan seven times, and his flesh will come again clean,
come again today and now shall be clean. Tell him to go down
into that old red river and wash. Seven times, keep going down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down in the muddy Red River
Jordan. Get down. Take all your clothes
off. Take your medals off. Take everything
off that you're covered with, everything you're proud of, and
go down. and get in that muddy, muddy
water like a tadpole, like the worm that you are. And you know what? If you do
that, if the Lord will break your heart, if the Lord will
show you that you really are a leper, if the Lord will show
you that there really is one way, if He does, you know what
will happen if you do? You'll come clean. You'll come
up out of there like a newborn person. You know, it's still the message.
It's still the message. Neyman didn't like that. I'm
not that bad. I don't need to get it down. He said, I thought, look at it,
verse 11, Neyman was rough and went away. He said, I thought,
I thought he'd come after me. I thought he'd be glad to see
me. I thought he'd come out and wave his hand over and go through
some ceremony and all that that wouldn't humiliate me. And strike
a call on the name of the Lord, His God. I thought he'd call on His God,
Naomi. You're going to call on your
God. He's your God, too. You just
don't know it. And you're going to call on your God. High thought. Isn't that what's
wrong with man? High thought. There's an old
black preacher who preached a message one time, the title of it was,
It Ain't Like You Thought It Was. God ain't like man thinks
he is. Jesus Christ is not like men
think he is. Man's not like he thinks he is.
Salvation's not like man thinks it is. Salvation's like God says
it is. God is like God says he is. Jesus
Christ is like the scripture says he is. And man is exactly
what God says he is. A nothing and a nobody. A worm. A maggot. And God doesn't need
him. And nobody deserves a chance to be saved. Nobody. Not even
our children. Is that right? Oh, he went away. Mad. I love, oh, Brother Barnard used
to say, preach in such a way. And he did, Barnard. People hated
him. One time, he'd been beaten up
many times. Many times. Back in the 40s,
50s. He'd been beaten up and run out
of town. Threatened, his life threatened. He said, preach. He told my preacher,
when my dad first heard the gospel, you know, dad was one of those,
it tickled your ears, Armenian preacher. Telling everybody God
loves you and all that. But God sent an evangelist. God
sent a preacher named Rock Barter. Tore up that religious playhouse.
A thousand members in Powder Baptist Church. And dad was a
young, upcoming Saul of Tarsus, you know. And God, broke his
heart, split that church right down the middle, and Barnard
told this young preacher now who's going to start trying to
preach the truth, he said, preach in such a way, preach so clearly,
preach God so high on the throne, and Christ as the sovereign Christ,
and man so low in the dirt, preach in such a way that people will
get mad. Nobody ever loved the truth when
they first heard it back then, except publicans in Ireland.
Preach in such a way that men will get mad, sad, or glad. You know what? If God has mercy,
somebody gets mad. Most people do. If God has mercy
on that person, you know what they'll get after that? Sad.
They'll get sad. This is what happened to Nahum
when he went away and they told him if he told you to do some
great thing, wouldn't you have done it? You're a leper. There's one way. He said there's one way. You
have to come down on a strip before everybody. Let everybody
see what you really are. And get down in that red river. Why was everybody baptizing the
Jordan? Because it was always overflowing
its banks. It was running a red river. It was red, running red
with mud all the time. Why? Why is there a red sea? Why did all of God's people pass
through a red sea? Because it represents the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What destroyed the Egyptians
saved the Jews. It was a wall of them. They went
through on dry ground. How? Under the blood. On dry ground. Red River. And old Naaman said,
well, Firepower Baptist Church wouldn't make me do that. Abbott
the Mess of the Church, hey, well, that's a pretty little
place, nice little place. That preacher down there didn't
tell me I had to do that. He was glad to see me. I went,
are you a leper? Yeah, I still am. Now get down. Strip and dip. You know, by doing that, before
everybody, he's confessing. He's stripping and everybody's
seeing him now. They all beheld him, stripping
those medals and all that off. They all beheld him as he walked
down that bank. Maybe he slipped and fell. And
he's just humiliated, you know. He's a leper. He's going to die. Is pride worth dying for? As he goes down, he strips and
everybody goes, what? We thought he was a great man.
He's just like us. The service, he's just like us.
And he says, I know it. And I've been covering all this
time and covered it. I'm a leper. Came back up with muddy water
in his ears. He went down. He came back up. He went down again. I'm not clean. He kept dipping. He said, I need
to keep dipping. You know, the seven times. Why
seven times? Because the work of Christ is
a perfect work. Patients have a perfect work.
And you know, if the Lord saves us and our children, it's going
to be a continual humiliating process. A humbling process.
All our lives, the Lord is bringing us down. Down. And if the Lord doesn't
bring you down, Now, his soul was in danger. And we're
going to be down until, and Naaman dipped seven times until finally,
brother, sister, until finally Joseph, he had mud in his ears,
in his eyes, in his mouth. He could taste the filth all
around him. He just felt like a filthy, filthy
person. He could taste it. He was so
filthy, he could taste it. He could smell that old river
mud. You ever been over, buddy? It's awful. It's filthy. After
seven times, he came up and he thought, I'm just filthy. Now you're clean. Now, would God bring us and our children
to see ourselves as we are? Because if He does, we're going
to come up. He's going to bring us up out
of the mire, out of this river, out of this cesspool, out of
this slime pit called planet Earth.
and present as holy and unblameable and unapprovable. God said, God
do it for them and for us. Ask Him to, would you? It's all
in one hope.