Alright, go back to 2 Kings 5
that Brother Sammy read to us. 2 Kings 5, a familiar story to
probably everyone in this room. The story of Naaman. The story of Naaman is the story
of every man, every woman that the Lord saves. There are no
exceptions. Every single person that the Lord saves, He does
this same work to them and continues to do this work. He keeps causing
us to come down and dip and bow the head. It says in verse 1,
he was captain of a host, king of Assyria, a great man with
his master before his master, before men. He was honorable
before others, moral, upright. And by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria. He was a mighty man in valor.
So old Naaman was a great man before men. He was an honorable
man, a moral man, an upright man, highly esteemed among men. But he was a leper. My pastor one time said, there
are many lepers. Some of them just happen to be
great men. But all are lepers. Sin is leprosy. Sin is leprosy. It's a corruption
of flesh. That's what leprosy did. It turned
good flesh into rottenness and corruption to where it was a
stench. It was filthy down to the depth
of your person. And we preach this because this is
where you begin. with sin. We're all born in sin. We're conceived. David said,
in sin did my mother conceive me. Got it from our father Adam. And we come forth from the womb
speaking lies. We begin to manifest that corruption
of the flesh at an early age. We look at these little babies
that are born and they look innocent. No, they're not. At just given
time, they began to show that evil that's in there called sin,
that corruption, that in the flesh is no good thing, until
in given time, the whole flesh, and this is the way leprosy was. It was at first, it was on the
inside, and then it began to manifest itself in little, just
little patches of corrupt flesh. A little tantrum here. A little
envy there. a little angered there, until
finally it breaks out in the whole person, full of wrath and
malice and envy and anger and lust and evil and all of these
things and hatred of God and authority and self-righteousness. It's all sin. And sin, like leprosy,
sin begins within and it begins to show outward signs until the
whole man is corrupt. And the fact of the matter is,
we're all lepers. Some happen to be great men. I had an uncle, my father's brother. that I greatly looked up to.
He reminds me of Neyman. He was tall, dark, and handsome,
6'1". He was a career Army soldier
in the Army, a career man. He went to Naval Academy first
and graduated from there. He was offered a West Point.
Both of those premier military institutes. Became a full-bird
colonel by the time he was 46 years old. Colonel in the Army.
Became a battalion commander in Germany over many, many men.
Served in three wars. Second World War, Korea, and
Vietnam. Highly decorated. He's a leper. And he died a leper. He didn't know what he'd come
to visit, and he didn't know that that was the servant of
God. In fact, one time somebody asked
him if he knew the Lord, and he said, I leave that to my brother. And I looked up to that man. Ah, died a leper. All men are lepers, no matter
how great and mighty they may appear to be before men, they're
lepers before God. Laman, as you know, was a soldier,
so he had it all covered up in it. He had his armor on, his
helmet, his ribbons and medals and all of this that covered
his leprosy. Nobody could see it. It was there.
God saw it. Well, verses 2 through 4, Syrians
had come and brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little
maid. She was a servant, a little maid. Servant to Naaman's wife. The
Lord put this maid in Naaman's house. All the people. He put her there, one who knew
God and knew the servant of God. She said to her mistress, she
saw her master's leprosy, she said to her mistress, she said,
Would God my Lord, that is Naaman, were with the prophet that is
in Samaria, he would recover him of his leprosy. Who hath despised the day of
small things? Do you see your calling, brethren? God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. Things
that are naught to bring, nothing to bring to naught things that
are. God chooses little maids, little
nobodies from nowhere, not mighty men. A few, but not many mighty
men. Listen to the divine irony in
all this. Would you listen? There was once a great man, a
general in the army, George Patton. Do you remember him? George S.
Patton. The modern generation probably
doesn't know him, but we knew him, didn't we? A great man,
wasn't he? George Patton. Liberator. Deliverer, wasn't
he? You know who he liberated? Egypt. Isn't that ironic? Egypt. North Africa. Great man. Highly esteemed. Highly esteemed
among men. A deliverer. But he died a leper. The Lord brought him down. He
died in a car wreck. I mean, he had a car wreck, broke
his neck, and was paralyzed from the waist down and died a quadriplegic. That's how the Lord will bring
down the mighty. How are the mighty fallen? They
that exalt themselves, the Lord is able to abase. So that's why
the Lord says, humble yourself. Dip yourself. Dip down now, or
He'll bring you down. He will. Mighty man. Think of
the irony with it. George S. Patton. We have in
our midst a maid named Patton. Who serves our wives and our
children. No doubt this maid means an unmarried
female. It serves her master's wife. Serves her well and serves their
children. And what does she do? Witness. What to God? There's a preacher. If you'll go there, He'll be
cured of his leprosy. Would God that the Lord would
bring more lepers to Christ. Why was this woman put into captivity
and put in this house? Why was she put there? For this
reason. To bear witness. Why are we?
Wherever we are, whoever we work for, whatever place we've been
put in, you know why we're put there? to bear witness to our
bosses and our fellow workers and to serve our fellow man.
How? Tell them the truth. Tell them
the truth. Who's the last person you've
talked to? When have you brought someone to hear the gospel? Would
that God would bring more lepers to Christ. Verses 5 and 6, the
king of Syria His boss said, go and I'll send a letter to
the king of Israel. He departed and took with him
ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold, ten
changes of arraignment. And he brought a letter to the
king of Israel saying, I've sent my servant Naaman that you may
recover him of his leprosy. He sent a letter and I thought
how ironic this is too. And he sent this man to the king
of Israel hoping he could help him out. All right? You know
what? You know when people, people
that go from so-called church to church, they do that. They
get tired of one place and they go to another. They're looking
for something and they don't know. We're looking for a church.
I hear that all the time. We're looking for a church. Well, you
can find one anywhere. They're on every corner. What
are you looking for? We're looking for something for our kids. Well,
there's one down here. You'll find it. No problem. We're
looking for a singles ministry. Well, they have that where there's
lots of singles. I went through the bank drive-thru one time
and was talking to the lady there. And she said, what do you all
have for your singles? I said, same thing for the doubles.
The gospel. That's all we have. If you need
the gospel, come down with us. But anyway, they go here and
there. And you know what they do when
they join this church? They'll join that church. They
get tired of it. They'll quit there and they'll go join another.
And you know what they do when they leave one church and go
to another? You know what they have to legally do to move their
membership? Send a letter. Honestly. That's send a letter. I got a letter one time from
this place, Methodist out here on whatever the name of it is.
I got a letter from them saying, so and so, this was someone who
used to come here and left the gospel. They never did know the
gospel, but they left. And I got a letter from them
saying, so and so wants to move their letter to our church. I couldn't help it. I couldn't
help it. And I wrote them back an official letter with a letterhead
central about it. I said, Be it known unto all
to whom it may concern that so and so, and I put their name
down there, is not a member of the church and is free to join
whatever heresy or idolatrous place she pleases. Signed, the
servant of God. Would you move our letter? Here's
a letter. Can you help him out? No, I can't. No, I can't. But I know who can. And I know who must. This king
is like all of God's prophets and apostles and people. We're
all kings and priests unto God, aren't we? Reign with Him, and
priest, minister about the sanctuary, about the things of God, and
minister to others. We're all kings and priests,
female. Witness unto others. And they come to us, and what
we say is, we can't help you out. We're not God. We can't
save you, but we know who can. We know a place. We know a place. And around here, there's only
one. where there's a servant of God and He'll get rid of your
leprosy. If you really are a leper now,
if you're a leper through and through and a dying man, we know
a man, a man of God, who will get rid of your leprosy. You
go and you need to submit yourself to Him. Now, I'm not talking
about a man, about a preacher. Elisha in this story doesn't
represent a mere preacher. He represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. His servant represents me, a
preacher, you. His servant is the one who was
sent with the message out there, just to repeat what his Lord
and Master Elisha said, that Elisha is the one that got rid
of the leprosy, and Jesus Christ is the healer of leprosy. And
we say to every man, to a man, to a woman, whoever comes to
us, whoever comes here, we can't get rid of your leprosy. There's
only one who can. We're not God. Salvation's not
by decisions, not by the will of man. It's not according to
man. Salvation's of the Lord. And
we preach Him who alone can and must heal lepers. Elisha was the man of God, verse
8. The man. It doesn't say a man,
does it? You know, at this time, he was about the only one. It
was often that way. Often that way you'd find throughout
the land of Israel there'd be just one. A man that stood alone. Elijah stood alone, didn't he?
That's what he said. Then Elisha was the man that
was passed to him. But Elisha here represents the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord. The man of God. The God-man. God's elect. God said of him in Isaiah 42,
Behold my servants, mine elect, and whom I delight. He's the
one. You come to Him. Come unto Him. So Elisha, the man of God, verse
8, he heard the king of Israel rent his clothes. And he hears
our prayers. And we pray that the Lord will
send sinners to hear the gospel. And He will. He does in His time. But Elisha sent to the king,
sent word to the king saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy
clothes? Let him come now. to me. And he'll know there's
a prophet in Israel. When this is all over, he'll
know there's one true God and one true prophet. I let him come
to me. Does that sound familiar? Christ
and the last day of that feast. People had gone here and gone
there. All of them were lepers. Trying to get some help, they
found none. And Christ, in that last day
of the great feast, stood up and He said, Ho! If any man thirsts,
let him come unto Me. Come unto Me, all you that labor
in a heavy laden. I will give you rest. I will
give you rest. And you'll know, if you do, that
there's one that did it. That prophet. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Come unto Me. And all who know
and feel and smell their sin, which is leprosy, and their uncleanness,
like that leper who come to Christ and worship Him. People, when we really find out that
we're real sinners, Paul said, When I found out the exceeding
sinfulness of my sin, that's what Laman is going to find out. He doesn't know it yet. He thinks
a few little minor things is going to cleanse him. He thinks
it's just going to be a little ceremony that's going to cleanse
him. You don't know the depth of your depravity, Laman. And one thing it's going to take
to cleanse you fully. But when we get to know and feel
and smell ourselves, our sin, our uncleanness, we come to Christ
like that leper that came down from the mountain in Matthew
8. Remember, the first thing he did was he worshipped Him.
Before he got a thing from our Lord, he worshipped Him. And
he thought, if he doesn't do a thing for me from here on out,
I don't deserve it. But when he asked the Lord, he
said, If you will, you can. What? What is it you need, man? I want to be clean. I've got
one thing I need. I want to be clean. And when we really find out what
we are, we'll want to be cleansed not just from the guilt of sin,
but from the filth of it. Not like Cain who got caught.
Not like Esau who lost everything, but like David who said, wash
me, purge me with hyssop and I'll be clean. Create in me a
clean heart. Thought you had a good heart,
David? I did too. Renew a right spirit within me.
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Now that man is clean. He's clean. Naaman didn't know
the truth about the depths of his disease. He brought money.
Look at verse 5. It says he brought silver and
gold and changed it. You know what that represents,
don't you? Many still do that, many who don't know the depth
of their depravity and sin, who don't really smell themselves
yet, who think they can buy their life back. And they've got a
few faults, they've got a few things wrong with them that you
just need to clean it up a little bit. And they try to redeem themselves,
try to pay for their past crimes. Try to bargain with God, you
know. They get in a little trouble and they join the church and
they come and they think everybody's just going to be happy to see
them. And the false church is. They're all just... And the preacher
runs to greet them, you know. Oh, we couldn't be church without
you. And then they bring their silver
and gold, but Scripture says, you know, brethren, we're not
redeemed with corruptible things, such silver and gold. And he
went on to say, by our vain conversation received by tradition from the
elders. In other words, morality. Somebody
told him, well, if you just clean up your life, change your raiment.
Just change your raiment. Just change your ways. Turned over a new leaf, didn't
he? And any leaf we wear is a fig
leaf, you know that? And one size better than the
other. If you just change your way, change your arrangement,
that will do it. His flesh, it wasn't on the outside, it was
on the inside. That's where the extortion, corruption,
adulteries and fornication and all that came from the heart,
the heart. And there's only one way a leper
is cleansed. We sang it. Are you washed in
the blood of the Lamb? Now, here he comes. Here he comes
on Naaman. He comes riding up, verse 9. Unlike that woman with the issue,
she crawled in. And Naaman came riding up with
his horses, with his chariot, and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. Here he is, full of pride, a
great man, a mighty man, highly esteemed among men. He's got
it all covered up, doesn't he? Wearing all his medals and all
his adornments, and he looks good to everybody else, but he's
a leper. He's dead. He's dead while he
lived. He's a whited sepulcher. That's
all he is. full of pride, full of the world.
And I tell you what, if the Lord hadn't really done something
to him, he'd have got cleaned up and gone right back to his
old life and thought, glad that's over, now I can go back to doing
what I love. Nope. He's going to be washed,
not just his body, but his mind and his heart. So he came, he
stood at the door of the house of the Elijah. Elisha came and stood. You know,
every sinner that's going to be cleaned will be brought to
the house of God. That's right. They'll be brought
to Christ the Lord. Now, he's standing right now.
He should have been knocking. He's standing up there in his
chariot. He's thinking that Elisha surely will be honored that he's
there. Elisha will acknowledge him that
he's there. A leper? See, he doesn't know
himself, does he? He doesn't know himself. Every
sinner that's clean will be brought to the house of God, to Christ
the door, to hear from the servant of God who will preach. Get down. Now, here's this old proud leper
standing before the door, and Elisha saw him coming. He knew
it was coming. He saw Him standing out there.
He looked. He saw Him. Maybe through the window or whatever.
But you know, the eyes of the Lord are in every place. He sees.
He beholds. He knows. And the foundation
of God standeth sure. It has this seal. The Lord knows
them that are His. And all that the Father giveth
to Christ, they're going to come. And most of them come the wrong
way. Naaman came to the wrong person
first. He came the wrong way with the
wrong attitude. Everything about him was wrong,
wasn't it? He's going to know. He's going to know. Like all
of God's people did. He saved one way. One place. One person. And Elisha saw him
coming and verse 10 says, Elisha sent a messenger unto him. Elisha
didn't go out in person. He's busy. Why should he? This man's a leper. He doesn't
need him. That man doesn't really know
it, but he needs Elisha desperately. What Elisha has is life or death. He didn't know it yet. He sent
this messenger. Elisha sent this messenger out
there. What's his name? Anybody know his name? That's
not important, is it? He's just a voice, see? He's
just a voice. Like John said, I'm just a voice
that cries in the wilderness. And he preached a message to
him. One of the shortest messages ever preached. Twenty words. Twenty words. Only three of them
had two syllables. Eighteen words had one syllable.
How plain can you get? How simple can you get? How to
the point can you get? Look at it. Verse 10. Twenty-word
sermon. Elisha sent a messenger, and
this man was to repeat, tell him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan
seven times. And thy flesh shall come again
to thee, and thou shalt be clean." And he went back inside and shut
the door. And Naaman was standing up there
on his high horse, or in his chariot. Can you see him? Like
Maximus, like old Russell Crowe, in that chariot, in that, look
at me. And this fellow, this nobody,
this servant, Not the great prophets, the servants that they looked
down upon with scorn and scoffing and, who's this? I don't know his name. And he came up right in the face
of that great man and said, here's what my master said, go and wash
in the River Jordan. And thy seven times, and thy
flesh shall come again to thee clean, and you'll be clean." He walked in the house. And this man huffed and he puffed,
didn't he? He said he was wroth. He wasn't just angry, he was
furious. Who does he think he is? Doesn't he know who I am? Yes, he does. A leper. You don't know who you are. You don't know who he is. You
wouldn't approach him like that. I'm not talking about this little
servant. Now, I'm talking about Jesus
Christ. And preachers, these false preachers tell men everywhere,
won't you let Jesus, won't you let, oh He wants you so bad.
If this had been an average preacher today, he'd run out to Naaman,
oh Naaman, Mr. Naaman, we've heard of you so
long, we're so glad you're here. His money, he could really help
us with all his money. Oh Naaman, sit right here on
the best seat. Sit right here. Everybody agreed
with Mr. Naaman. That's what they all
done, wasn't it? If the Queen of England came
in here this morning, if Barack Obama, the President of the United
States, came in here this morning, I would be remiss, I mean, I
would be wrong if I would acknowledge him more than you. If I would
give him a chief seat, they need to sit like the rest of us lepers and hear of Him who is worthy
and give all honor and praise and glory to Him. It's obvious
both those persons don't know God in all their pomp and ceremony. It's obvious. And I would tell them exactly
what that servant did. I would tell this to all men,
high or low, rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile. You
need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. You need to come
down. God is holy. God is no respecter
of persons. Before God, God looked down from
heaven to see if there were any that would understand, any that
would seek after God. He says, they've all become,
what? Stinking. Look at that. In their flesh
dwelleth no good thing. He said, the whole earth had
corrupted my way. That's what God said before He
destroyed it by flood. It smells in my nose, in my nostrils,
and I'm going to wash it all away. But God, but Noah, and
now them. Not many wise men, not many mighty,
not many noblers save it somehow. But folks, the fact of the matter
is, we all get puffed up with pride. We all get to this point.
This message is for all of us, preacher and people alike, kings
or paupers, we all get lifted up with pride. Quite often in
the Scriptures, someone would get lifted up with pride. There
was a man that worshipped God, and he got puffed up with a sense
of his own importance. He said he went into the holy
place to offer a sacrifice, and the priest, all 80 of them, said,
you can't do this. This pertains to one person.
You can't do this. He said, who do you think you
are? Do you know who I am? And God made him a leper and cast him out. And he died
that way. Oh, he found mercy at the Lord's
hand, but he died a cast out. Miriam, a woman, stood against
Moses, his older sister, and she thought, I've got something
to say here. The Lord chose me too, Moses.
Who do you think you are? Will you listen to me? And God
said, no, you listen to me. And you know what God did to
her? Turned her into a leper. And he said, should she not be
cast out seven days until she finds out, my man's the man, you're nothing. Oh boy. And we all get puffed
up with pride, don't we? And you know what the Lord's
going to do to all of us when we do that? He's able to abase.
And He'll make us know something of our leprosy and bring us down
to the point where we think we're cast out forever. And He ought
to do it, shouldn't He? Thank God. They sent this messenger with
one message, wash. You need to be washed. You know,
the message to all sinners, high or low, is this, it's the blood
that makes the atonement for the soul. The only thing that can cleanse
a vile sinner like us, the only thing that can change a filthy
sinner like us is the plunge in the blood of the Lamb. There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners, Plunge beneath that flood. Lose all their guilty
stains. It's only the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all sin. We need to see
that God made His holy, sinless Son to be sin for us. Us Barabbases. That His soul
was made sin. That the sins we commit, the
sins we committed, the sins we commit, and the sins we shall
commit, Christ had to pay for those. See, Naaman's going to go down
under that muddy water. Why does muddy water sound like
bloody? That's by design. Jordan was known for being muddy
water all the time, always overflowing, flooding. That's a good picture,
isn't it? Filled, muddy water. And he's going to go down under
that water so much that he's filled with that mud. He's got
his ears and his eyes and his mouth and he knows it until he
finally finds out, this is me. I'm a leper through and through
until he's going over his head. I'm drowning in muddy water. And we're going to have to see
somehow, by the grace of God, that it's the blood of God's
Son and nothing else that it takes to cleanse us. Why would
I do this anymore? We ought to drown instead. God
drowned His Son in His own blood. Do we understand that? All the sins we have committed
and ever will commit cost God's Son of His blood. It's not just doctrine. It's
not just, you know, a good song to sing. Are you washed in the
blood? That it took the very blood that
we shed, that soldier that stuck his spear in his side with malice
and wrath and stuck his spear to spit in his face, it took
that to cleanse him. The blood that flowed that day
brought forgiveness to the ones who shed it. Boy, that will cleanse you. Nothing
else will. Go back again, leper, to that
fountain. All the pain and suffering and
punishment Christ endured because of you. And every proud sinner must and
will be brought down. Every sinner saved will know
something of their filth and bow and plunge in that bloody
water, that fountain. Will repent and be baptized.
Now, this is what he told him to do, and this is what our Lord
said to do. You go preach the gospel of Christ
and His blood shed for the remission of sin. You go preach the gospel,
and you tell them all, if they ask you, what shall we do? You
tell them, repent, come down and dip seven times until you've
come clean. Repent and be baptized. Repent
and be baptized. Repent and be baptized. Come
down and dip. Come down and dip. That's the
title, I guess, I tell you. Come down and dip. Strip and
dip. That ought to be the title. Strip,
you got to strip. He went away, verse 11, he went
away. He was angry. I thought, he said, I thought.
Isn't that man's problem? I thought. I swear, I thought. Well, you thought wrong. There
is a way that man thinks is right, but it's all wrong. Even now,
people, if it's anything we come up with, it's wrong. God's will. I thought he would come out to
me and stand, call on the name of his Lord, and go through this
little, you know, wave his hand over the place and sprinkle some
holy water in my face. God's no beggar, nor is his preacher.
Christ is no beggar. He's not standing out at our
heart's door. No, He's not. If anybody's going to be saved,
they're going to have to stand at His door and knock and beg
to come in. That's right. There is only one handle, and
He's got hold of it. You don't have it. We don't have
it. God doesn't need us. Church doesn't need us. But I'm
telling you, we need Him. And we need this place where
the Gospels preach. And as I said, it doesn't matter
who came in here, whether it's the Queen or the President, I
tell them the same thing. You don't have anything we need.
It's all coming down. It's all going to come crashing
down, Mr. President, but I'll tell you
what you need. You need the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul
by His blood. I thought he'd come to me, I
thought. Go through a ceremony. Salvation not by ceremony. He said in verse 12, I have but
none. Are far, far rivers of Damascus
better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in those
places? They're clean, beautiful water,
you know? That's where everybody goes. Everybody goes there. Nobody
washes in the Jordan. Oh yes they do, lepers do. That's
the only ones that'll get in this place. Are not Abba Nunn
Baptist Church? Look how big and how nice and
how beautiful that is. That's a beautiful place. You're
telling me this is the only way? That's exactly right. Firefarer
Methodist? You go to Firefarer, you'll be
far away all right. Rivers are better than all the
waters of Israel. People, they have bigger buildings.
They have bigger budgets. But they have a lesser God. They've got all the finery. They've
got all the material things that man has to offer. All the entertainment
that people could want. But they're in want of that one
thing needful. And bless God, sons of Jacob,
we have it all right here. And this little brown tabernacle
in the wilderness. The lands of Goshen. Aren't we
blessed? We know who the prophet is. We
know where cleansing is. And I've got to quit. So he came. And verse 13. Servants said to the Prophet,
if the Prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't
you have done it? How much rather then, when he said to them, wash
and be clean? You see, salvation is not something
we do, is it? If he'd tell you to do something,
you'd have done it. And that's what false preachers
tell them, do, do, do. Salvation is not do, it's done. It's not something you do, it's
something that's done to you. And that's what people try to
do, some great thing for God. People, we don't need, we can't
do any great thing for God, but oh, I'll tell you about a great
salvation that's done for us, for lepers, for sinners. So here he came and says finally,
verse 14, then went he down. He got off his horse, his chariot.
Now, you know what he has to do, don't you? Start stripping. And he had all this stuff on,
all his armor, all this covering, and the first thing he's got
to take off is that big helmet. You know,
the helmet. We'd be at war. You remember
the Romans had that big Trojans, you know? It doesn't matter what
they are. This is their real football player. Take off that helmet, you're
vulnerable, aren't you? They took off that helmet. And
you know what's going to have to happen to us? The mind. The mind is going to have to
be brought into captivity to every thought of Christ. We're
going to have to unlearn. The Lord is going to have to
empty our vain heads of all these false notions we have of God.
He's going to have to teach us in our mind. They can't stay
there. You know what's next? This thing he's hiding behind,
he's going to have to expose his heart. Strip, soldier. Strip, leper. Start stripping until in front
of everybody. Maids, men, women. He now knows he's a leper. And
there's one way he can be claimed. And he strips it off. He's exposed
before everybody now. He's well on his way to being
cleansed. I tell you what though, he's already been cleansed and
he doesn't know it. But he exposes himself. Oh my. And then he steps down. He goes
down. The way up is down. He that humbleth
himself will be exalted. It says he dipped himself, not
once, not twice, not thrice, seven times. And notice, he dipped himself.
He stripped himself. He went down, humbled himself,
and he dipped himself. Got under that muddy water. And
that's what our Lord said, you know, repentance is the gift
of God. Yes, it is. And true baptism is for him to
immerse us in Christ. Yes, it is. But he tells us as
a confession before all. You come down, you humble yourself
in the sight of God and all men, or He'll do it for you. And you
dip down, you bow that head, and you go under the water. And you're telling everybody
that sees you, I'm just a leper. And there's one thing that will
cleanse me. The blood of Jesus Christ. So he went down. Maybe
he thought this, and I quit with this. Maybe he thought before
he went under, I don't deserve this. Go down. Dip your head. He came back up. Maybe he said
like Adam. The first man, Adam, said, it's
not my fault, it's that woman. Go down. Dip. Dip. When he came back up, maybe he
thought, this is embarrassing, this is disgusting. No, Naaman,
you're disgusting. You've embarrassed yourself.
Dip. Go down. Again. So you come clean. When he came back out, maybe
he thought, but I'm not as bad as others. Go down. Death. He came back up. Surely there's
another way. Not so humiliated. I'm just humiliated. Do you not yet understand that
Christ was humiliated for you? Death. You don't understand yet, do
you? What you are humiliates Him. Dip. Came back up. Don't you think I've been humbled
enough? Dip. Go down. You haven't learned
anything yet. See, let patience have her perfect
work. Perfection. Seven times. Came back up. But I was a Christian
as a child. I was baptized before. Yeah. Seven times. And he comes back
up the last time. And he says, I know what he said. He says, I'm the man. God be merciful to me. Be sinner. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my sins,
against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in
Thy sight. You're going to be clear when
you speak and right when you judge me, but please wash me,
cleanse me, purge me with hyssop and I will be clean." And somebody
looked at Old Nathan and said, would you look at that? He looks like a baby. He's a baby all over again. Clean. And he wanted to give it all
to Lysha, the servant. He wanted to give it all to him.
You don't need this stuff. And Lysha said, No, Nehemia,
that's not what I didn't want. I never did want your stuff.
I want you to be clean. And that's what our glory is. Stand with me.