Thank you. I sometimes envy people who have
never heard these old, familiar stories before. But the Lord can make those of
us who have heard them many times, can make it good news, brand
new. This is a wonderful story, a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Elisha represents, and how
God saves sinners that are brought to him, believing him and confessing
him. Naaman, it says in verse 1, was
captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was a great man
before men. He was an honorable man. That means he was a moral man. As far as men go, this man stood
above the rest. He was a great man. He was a noble man, a moral man. A mighty man, it says, says,
by him the Lord. You see, what do we have that
we have not received? By the grace of God, that is
the gift of God, we are what we are. Scripture says, let not
the mighty man boast in his might. No flesh, he said, should glory but in the Lord. This man was
great because God made him that way. The Lord made him whom he
was. Promotion cometh not from here
or there, but cometh from the Lord. The Lord raised this man
up and he was moral before men. It says he was a mighty man. But look at verse 1. He was a
mighty man in valor, victorious, conquering, but he was a leper. That means he's a dying man. no matter what he had accomplished,
no matter how mighty he seemed to be, no matter how great he
seemed to be to men, he had something in him that he was going to die
from. Leprosy. Leprosy. Leprosy in those days was always
fatal, always. There was no cure. It was a disease
that started on the inside, like all diseases really, but it did
not manifest itself, that is, it was not immediately revealed
until it had progressed a long way. It started in the blood. on the inside, and then it began
to show up in little ways. A little scaly skin here, a little
bit there. Places here and there that could
be covered up by clothing. Naaman was captain and he wore
a big uniform. All his uniform, helmet and everything.
So his leprosy was hidden to most people. Not to Galen. Not
to Galen. And this leprosy finally began
to show up until it couldn't be covered up anymore. Leprosy. And it would literally corrupt
the flesh until you just were just like Isaiah 1 says this
about man by nature. It says, from the sole of the feet
to the top of the head, there's no soundness in us, nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying. sores that have not been bound
up or mollified with ointment. That's what God sees in all human
beings by nature. Oh, no, we're not that bad. David,
God said, I was conceived in sin, didn't I? In sin did my
mother conceive me. He said, we're brought forth
from the womb, speaking lies. This leprosy represents sin,
how that every man, every woman, every child is born dead in trespasses
and sin. I didn't say that. John Calvin
didn't say that. God said that. And the only hope
for a layman is our only hope that God will do something for
us, do something for our children. And this leprosy called sin doesn't
start showing up at first in our little children. But you
tell me, do you teach them to lie? You've got to do everything you
can to keep them from it. Why? Scripture says we're born
that way. And unless God does something
for us, this thing called sin, it will so corrupt us, we'll
be so corrupted, like God said, no sound of sin. Corrupt. That's a picture. This thing
of leprosy starts on the inside. When our little children are
born, we think, you know, especially grandparents, when their grandchildren
are born, they think, well, this child really is special. But
eventually, it will come out. You had one called Sophie that
got that Stoniker blood in him, you know. Marvin comes out. No, that's me coming out. They say she looks like me, and
I say she acts like me. But it doesn't matter. It's going
to come out. Unless God Almighty... Salvation
is of the Lord, not an act of human will. It's a miracle of
God's grace. Unless God Almighty takes us
and our children and washes us in the blood of the Lamb, we're
going to die from our sins. Unless God Almighty quickens
us by His grace, us and our children, we're going to die in our sin. And we can cover it up. And men,
we do that. They wear the facade. They wear
the garments of morality. And you know, he's a good man. Yeah, the Scripture says he's
none good, not one. Doesn't it? That's what God said. God doesn't see, His man sees.
The man that's on the outward camp, he looks like a good fellow.
That's what the Pharisees looked like, and Christ said they're
full of extortion. They're like whited sepulchers. Salvation is everywhere. He gets
glory. Who can help a man like Nehemiah? Only one. Well, there was this
little maid in the providence of God. The Syrians had gone
out and brought captive out of the land of Israel. Israel had
been taken captive and they brought a little maid in and she worked
for Naaman's wife. This young woman or young girl
taken captive in God's sovereign purpose and providence God moves
in mysterious ways, doesn't He? Don't you know when she was taken
captive, she thought, oh my, I've got to leave my whole family. Why is the Lord doing this? See, all things work together
according to God's purpose, His saving purpose for His glory
and for His people. We're all instruments of His
purpose and His will. God worketh all things after
the counsel of His will. And none can stay His hand. And
she thought, I don't want to work for this Egyptian. I don't want to work this job. It's a lowly, menial job. A difficult
job. She felt like a slave. She was
a slave. The Lord used her to save somebody. I wish we could think of our
jobs like that. I wish I could. She said to Nalen's wife, verse
3, Would God, my Lord, they called men that back then, small l-o-r-d,
that means sir, mister. They were respectful. Would God,
if God were willing, that my Lord were with the prophet that
is in Samaria, he would recover him of his leprosy." See, this
young woman knew God, knew the God of Israel. Her language said so. She didn't say, if Naaman
was willing and would accept God, if Naaman would just make
Jesus Lord, oh no. God's people don't talk like
that. She said, would God that He would
put Him where the prophet is. Not many, there's one. Where
is it? One place, Samaria. Would that
God, if God is willing, Lord willing. That's the language
of those that know God. It is God that worketh all things.
They're not looking to and calling on men to do things for God.
They're calling on God to do things for man. Would God? If God is willing, He's able. But this man won't be healed
unless God is willing. And if God would put this man,
my boss, if she would put him where the prophet is, He didn't say one of many. And
that day there was one prophet. They say that's an error. It's
the Bible. One. And he's in a particular
place. He would be healed. Now, God uses, who hath despised a
day of small things, the Scripture says. God uses little insignificant
people, nothings and nobodies, to bring the naught things out.
You see your calling, 1 Corinthians 2. You see your calling, brethren.
Not many wise, not many mighty. Not many noble to call. But God
hath chosen. God hath chosen. The weak thing. The base thing. Things that are
nothing. I'm sure this little maid thought,
I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody. But I do know this. I know this much. She wasn't
a preacher. She's a witness. And all she
said was, if God is willing, and put him under the prophet,
he'll be healed. There's a young lady who grew
up with me at 13th Street in Ashland years ago, Todd Nyberg's
sister, Susan. They're married, a young man
named Emrick, Susan Emrick. And very outspoken, as you can
imagine, being from the family of Nybert. But she, in God's purpose, had her marry
this man who took her away from her church, down to Florida to
work a job. And she thought, why am I here? And she went looking for some
place to worship and she found a place with this fellow named
Greg Elmquist preaching. He was an Arminian. He didn't
know the gospel. He was a typical free will Arminian
preacher. Didn't know God. Didn't know
the gospel. Didn't know Christ. Went and sold. Not went and any
sold. Didn't know God. Didn't know
the gospel. She went over there. and talk to him about, I know
somebody who will come down here and preach to you. My brother
will come down here. If you let him come down here,
he'll preach the gospel. And the story is a long one,
but you know Greg, don't you? He's preached here many times.
You know the people of that church, don't you? You know how that
came about? One little maid. More witness. God used her. Why am I? Why am I? Well, it says in verse 4, 1 went
in and told his Lord, went in and told Naaman, somebody overheard
this. Someone overheard this maid,
and he went in to Naaman and said, Thus and thus said the
maid that is of the land of Israel. And so Naaman heard this. And
he's going to go. I told you the story of my father-in-law. He was talking to a fellow about
the gospel one time. He was talking to this fellow
about the gospel. You remember him, don't you?
Loud. You can't be in the same room and not hear him. He's just
boisterous, you know. He was talking to the fellow,
and that fellow didn't hear or didn't believe anything he was
saying. And he went on his way. Lo and behold, there was somebody
else in the room. And that fellow, was it 15 years
later? 15 or 20 years later, showed
up at 13th Street. And Ed saw him and said, well,
Earl, what are you doing here? He said, I heard you talking
to that fellow that day. And that stuck with me for twenty
years. God said, my word will not return
void. From the preacher? My word will not return void. From a maiden? No flesh is not glory. That's
amazing. Somebody overheard her and went
in to Naomi, and the king of Syria heard this too, and he
said, Go, I'll send a letter, verse 5, unto the king of Israel.
Send a letter. You know, people send their letter
to change churches. Couldn't help but think about
that. I get requests from people who hate this and go somewhere
else and send us her letter. And I say, we don't have a letter.
Letter? I'll send you a letter. She's
free to go. But you don't have a letter? My, my. Do we need
letters, Paul said, of commendation from you? No. Well, this fellow
did and he sent a letter and he departed, verse 5, and he
took with him, he sent with Nalum, ten talents of silver. This is
a lot of money. Six thousand pieces of gold. Back then it was very heavy and
coins or whatever had to be put in chests. Ten changes of raiment,
clothing. He's all this had to be put on
pack horses. Mac had several pack horses,
you know, put all this on. And he's going to take and he's
going to buy his cleansing with corruptible things, silver
and gold, what he heard. What he heard. This will do it.
And we'll buy this cleansing. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel. He took it. And this is a picture of men and women, people in their
ignorance, by the millions, who try to buy God Almighty's favor. People get in trouble, you know.
That's mostly when they call on God, when they get in trouble,
get sick, or somebody dies, or they lose something. And then
they strike a bargain with God. Lord, I'll do this if you'll
do that. I promise from here on out that I'll lift this and
that." That doesn't work. As soon as the trial, the storm
is over, they go right back to where they were. There's one
thing that will send somebody to the Lord Jesus Christ for
saving their soul, and that's as they realize they're a dying
leper and there's one person that can get rid of them. And
Peter said, you know, he wrote to the believers, he said, you
know that we're not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold. Do you know that Catholics all
over still pay what they call indulgences? Do you think this
was an old archaic practice? It's been around for thousands
of years and it's still around. That they pay money. They pay
money to the so-called church, to the priests and all that,
to pray for their dead loved ones to get them out of this
place they call purgatory. If they pay enough money, if
you're rich enough, you can spare them so many years of suffering
until finally you can pay their way into heaven. People, I promise
you, ask them. It still goes on. But even in
Southern Baptists, I tithe I've been tithing for years.
I've been going to church all my life. I've never missed it. I've got all these Sunday schools.
Like Naaman and all his armor. I've done this, I've done that.
Surely God is pleased with you. No, you're not redeemed. Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's according
to His mercy He has saved. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold received from our vain conversation
or life received from tradition. No matter what men, who they
are, tell us, nobody's redeemed but by one way, and that's by
the precious blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll
get into heaven for one reason. Christ died for us. We're going to get the glory.
We're going to be counted worthy of heaven in favor with God. God is well pleased with us,
not because of what we've done on this earth, but because of
what Jesus Christ did on this earth for us. He gets the glory. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. No, no. Let my soul be washed in the
blood of the Lamb. Period. Let me be found in Him. Well, there he came. These ten
changes of Raymond. You know, it's kind of like people
who bring their... Scripture says our righteousnesses
are like filthy rags. Isaiah 64 says it. This whatever man works up, this
religious facade, this covering, this robe that he thinks got
everybody fooled. It does have everybody but God.
And you know what God calls it? Filthy rags. Look up what that
really means. Look up what that really means.
Filthy rags. Ten changes. He thought, well, if one doesn't
work, I'll try another one. I'll try another one. I'll try
another one. People turn over a new leaf, don't they? Turn
over a new leaf. The other side is just as bad.
They won't do it. One robe alone will cover you. One raiment is without seam,
without spot, and without blemish before God Almighty. It's very
significant that they tried to rend that garment that was on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and God wouldn't let them. Why? That's
a picture of the righteousness that we must be clothed in and
covered with before God Almighty. Well, he brought changes around.
I'll change my way. That won't do it either. You'll
go right back to something else. You'll try this and you'll try
that. But he came to the King of Israel, and the King of Israel,
Ripped his clothes. The king of Israel ripped his
clothes and said, why are you coming to me? Don't come to me. I can't. I'm not God. I can't
save you. The king of Israel is a picture
of every gospel preacher. He has made us kings and priests. Royal priesthood. Scripture said. Not a priest, it was all said,
but you know what that meant. This King of Israel represents
every gospel preacher who people come to them and they say, I
can't save anybody. I'm no soul winner. I can't save myself. Don't come
to me. Paul the apostle said, I'm the
chief of sinners. Paul was the chief apostle. Yet
he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I need to be saved like anybody
needs to be saved, and that's one way, by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Don't come to me.
I can't save you. Well, I'll tell you who can and
who doesn't. Someone overheard this. Verse
8, Elisha, the man of God, he heard the king of Israel rent
his clothes. So he sent to the king and said, don't rent your
clothes. Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to
me. And he'll know, he shall know
that there is a prophet in Israel. Let him come to me. Does this
sound familiar? He sent word to the king who
had ripped his clothes, who saw who is sufficient for these things.
And he said, let him come now to me. Send him to me. You point
him to me. Send him to me. And he'll know. He's going to know there's a
prophet. And I'm the one. Man of God. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me. He said to
his disciples, you couldn't cast them out. Send him to me. He said of Bartimaeus, he's crying.
Bartimaeus is crying. Bring him to me. Come unto me. I'll owe you later. I'm going
to have you later. Don't come to the church. Don't
come to the mourners' men. Don't come to the preacher. Don't
come to the soul wearer. Don't come to the confessional
booth. Don't come to the priest. Christ said, come unto me. I, he is the only one that can
do anything about it. Only one. And if a person does
come, if a person does come to the Lord Jesus Christ, do you
know why they come? Because Jesus Christ said, all
that the Father has given me shall come unto me. Thy people
shall be with me. See, he gets all the glory. All the glory. And everyone,
he said, that seeth the Son and believeth in him, everyone that
comes to Christ knows he's that prophet sent by God, that Redeemer,
that salvation, that blood, that righteousness, the only name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, the
only priest, the only mediator, the only substitute, the only
one God accepts, the only righteousness, the only one. Prophet Christian
King, the only one, way, truth and life, everyone that comes
to Christ will know he's the one. There is no other. He's
Satan. Nobody else. They'll all know
that. Anybody that says otherwise,
I did this, I did that, the preacher did this, I saved under Billy
Graham. Don't know the Lord. Don't know the Lord. No, sir.
To him, give all the prophets witness, and to him, give all
his people witness. To him, gets the glory. It's all about his glory. That's
what salvation is all about. The fellow Elisha said to him,
glad you've come to me. He'll know, and Naaman came,
verse 9, here he came. with his horses, he had all these
pack horses with him, and with his chariot. And he had the finest
chariot money can buy, a Mercedes Benz chariot. He was a rich man. And he stood at the door of the
house of Elijah, that is, he was on his high horse, He didn't get off his horse.
He came riding up in his chariot and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. And I'm quite certain that Elisha's
house was nowhere near the house that Naaman lived in. No palatial
mansion like Naaman lived in. A pretty common, ordinary house
in a subdivision perhaps. And Elisha, he came riding up
with his entourage of people, you know, name them, all his
medals on somebody. He's a leper. He's a nobody. But he thinks
he's somebody. He's a leper. My pastor once
said, you know, many men, they're all lepers, but they
think they're great men. They think they're great men.
God makes many men appear to be great men, but they're all
lepers before God. Here he came, riding up to this
house. His horses, his chariots stood at the door of the house
of this Elisha, and Elisha sent a messenger unto him. Elisha
saw him coming. Heard him coming. Probably blew
a trumpet before. Here we come. Here he comes.
Who? Who's coming to your church?
Elisha. Naaman. Naaman's coming. Oh, Mr. Elisha,
you know who's going to come today? Naaman. Whoa, we can use
his money there. We can build a family life center.
What do we need that for? Oh, but we can use his money.
We don't want his money. He doesn't have anything we need.
We've got what he needs. Oh, but what? God doesn't need
anybody. I told myself a while ago, he'd
say to his servant, we don't need that man. He's not going
to grace our house. Maybe God will be gracious and
let him come in here and worship with us. Maybe God will show
great favor to him. He's not favoring God by coming.
God's favoring him by bringing him. We're not going to acknowledge
him and say, oh, we're so glad to have you. Church can't be
church without you. No, sir! We're not going to bring
God down like that. We're not going to elevate man
and bring God down. We're going to elevate God and
bring man down. Everybody that comes here is going to have to
come down. This is salvation for the meek and the lowly. This
man, when I look, he's just poor and a contrite heart and trembleth
at my Word. This needs to be shouted from
the rooftop, doesn't it? Huh? Everybody needs to hear
this. People think they're doing God
a favor by coming. If we're brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ, if we're brought to the place where the true gospel
is preached, it will be the highest favor of God Almighty to bring
us to here. Even though it's at the house
of a poor little prophet that nobody gives a flip for. That's right. Who's he? Nobody
in Egypt cares for his message. He didn't think he'd see anything
either, but God gave him the message. And Elisha sent his
little servant out there. I don't know who this little
servant was, but he sent him with one message. Look at it.
Verse 10. Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. And he left and
went back in the house. There's Nahum up riding, standing
there with his hands folded like this, waiting on Elisha to come
bowing and scraping to him, so glad to see him. And here's this
little servant come by and say, go, there's a muddy river down
here called Jordan, muddy river, get off your high horse, take
all those metals off, Covering off. Get naked. Get
down off your high horse. Down even further than that.
Down in the old muddy water. And keep going down. And keep
going down. And keep going down. Seven times. Until you don't come up until
you're clean. And he left. You know the message hasn't changed?
It hasn't changed. Well, Naaman didn't like it,
did he? Verse 11, Naaman was wroth. He was angry. Who does he think
he is? You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
sent His lowly servants out, apostles, off scouring the earth. They didn't have any credential,
didn't have any education. The Pharisees and the Sadducees
all despised. Who are you? Who do you think
you are? Where do you come off telling us what to do? We're
just messengers. And they were sent with a message
by Christ. You go tell men, come down. But there's one way to
do that. Go tell them. Preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Not he that worketh, he that
believeth. You go tell them that. And it says, Naaman was angry
and he went away. I'm not going to hear that. I
don't like that. And he said, look at verse 11,
this is what everybody says, by nature, I thought. I thought. An old black preacher preached
a message one time entitled, It Ain't Like You Thought It
Was. Psalm 50 says, Thou thoughtest. God said, Thou thoughtest I was
altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove you. I'm not
like man. I thought. Here's what I thought,
Naaman thought. This is what all men think. I
thought he will come out to me. Well, he'll be glad to see me.
He'll come to me. And he'll stand. He'll stand before
me in honor of me. And he'll call on the name of
the Lord his God. No, you're going to have to call
on him, Naomi. He'll call and he'll strike his
hand, wave his hand to some elaborate ceremony. I don't have to take
all my medals off. I don't have to get humiliated
in front of people. I don't want to be embarrassed.
No, no, no, no. He'll come out and he'll tell me how glad he
is to see me and what a good man I am and I can keep my medals
on and they can use me and he'll wave his hand over it and we'll
go home and everything will be alright and I'll continue on
just like I've always done. No sir. There's got to be a change. There's got to be a change. And he said
in verse 12, Are not Abbana and Phar-Phar, rivers of Damascus,
are they better than all the waters of Israel? Isn't that
1st Baptist Freewill Phar-Phar Baptist Church? Isn't that a
better place than this little two-bit place? Huh? You know, Abbana Methodist, look
at it. Look at what all is going on
there. Can't be all those people there and God not be in there.
Can there? That's Noah. Look, isn't this a better place?
Surely God's in there. Look how great it is. It's beautiful. Look what all's going on. Woodhaves
Stubble. Woodhaves Stubble. One old muddy river. One old
muddy river of all places. And you know that river was so
significant, it ran the length of the whole nation of Israel,
so that there's not one person in all Israel that was not confronted
by that old bloody River Jordan. You read the story about the
River Jordan, they were constantly having to go across it. Joshua,
chapter 3 and chapter 4, all the way through, Joshua, back
and forth across that river. It's all significant. And the
blood of Jesus Christ runs through this from cover to cover. And there's not a human being
on the face of God's earth that hadn't heard about it. It's not
confronted with it. And yet men think, do this or
do that. And you can build this and build
that and cover it up and do this and do that, but none of that
will avail for anything. None of that proves that God's
in it. None of that. There's one thing that proves
where God is, where God's prophet is, where salvation is, if a
man stands up every time and starts proclaiming the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. John,
the prophet, was baptizing in the Jordan. and said, Behold
the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. The blood. He'll know. So Naaman came. He
came. His horses and his chariots.
Lysa sent out this messenger and said to him, You go wash
in that muddy river Jordan. And he said, I'm not going to
do it. And he left in a rage. And one of his servants said
to him, You're still a leper. You're still a leper. You reveal
it by your anger against the prophet of God. You hate God's
way. That's what old Brother Scott
used to be so plain, Brother Henry, and he'd tell men like
it is. Oh, he's a nice fellow. He just hates God. I don't hate
God. Men don't hate their conception
of God. I hate the God of the Bible. Naaman, sir, if he'd have told
you to do some great thing, if he'd have told you to scale some
high mountain, if he'd have told you to go out and do some great
victory for him, you'd have done it. He just told you to do one
thing. One thing. And you'll be acclaimed. Our
Lord sent the preachers out with a message. He said, Go into all
the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth that is baptized
shall be saved. Go out there and declare Me. Just declare it. Just preach.
Stand up. Can these bones live? The Lord knows. You just declare
who God is, who Christ is. Just keep preaching Christ crucified. Keep preaching Christ crucified.
Keep preaching Christ crucified. I'll bring my people in. I'll
bring my sheep in. I'll bring lepers in. Everyone
that has need of healing, they'll be healed. And they'll confess
me. And I'll wash away their sin.
Ah, boy. So if you and I hear from the
Lord, it will be through a servant. An ordinary man who will first
tell us, come down, bow, get naked, take off your righteousness,
throw it like Bartimaeus, cast that filthy covering away, what
you've done, who you are, Throw it away, come naked before God,
wash in the blood of the Lamb, not once, not twice. You keep
coming until you realize, until you sing, boasting excluded,
pride I have based. I'm only. Never have been, never
will be anything but a sinner saved by grace. You keep coming
down until the Lord reveals to you His grace. Well, Naaman said, okay. In verse 14, he went down. He
went, took it all off in front of everybody. We don't make baptism
some elaborate ceremony. It's just a plain, ordinary ceremony. Just a plain, ordinary thing
where somebody gets up there and then we take them And, you know, death, we cover
up death, don't we? We embalm the Egyptians that
started that. We embalm them and make them
look like they're not dead. That's the picture of religion. Let's make them look like they're
not dead and cover them up so they don't smell anything. And
let's make this all so, just gloss it over. It's death. When
Christ was crucified, it was horrible. And they had to lay the bodies
in the ground quickly before they started stinking in bed.
In baptism, we take somebody up there, particularly you ladies,
you wear makeup, you look good with all that makeup on. And
fine clothing and all that. You take a person like that,
take them up there, and buddy, it's all coming off. Before everybody. You're going to come up looking
like a wet rat. The hair that you'd glory in, the face, the
side, the clothes, it's all like a wet rat before everybody. You've been humiliated. No, you've
come down. You've been brought down. But
Christ said, we've got to come down in order to come up. Right? He's going to be exalted. He's
got to be a base. He that abases himself, the Lord
will be exalted. Naaman got down, and he went
down. Did you see this? And he took
all his medals off. Oh, man, I won that in Syria. Oh, man. Oh, but I've got this for meritorious
service. Throw it away and name it. This helmet. Oh, this is my safety.
Get rid of it. Took it off until he's standing
naked in front of everybody. And he gets down in that old
muddy river. I don't see how this is going
to do any good. Now everybody sees his leprosy.
And he gets down. I don't see how this could, you
know, just believing. Yes, sir. So he got down. He came back up and said, it's
not gone. Keep going, sir. He got down. Came back up. He's still not
gone. I don't feel a thing. Get down five times. Six times. I bet you the seventh time, he
could only come up on one knee. Clean. He's broken. He's totally broken. And he comes up clean as a baby. Not one spot on him. A baby. Didn't our Lord say,
except you be converted and become as little children. I see people
come in all the time, you know. I know something. I'm somebody.
You know who I am. Yeah, I know who you are. You're
a leper. But what? We're all lepers and
we've all got to come down. I'm a nobody. You're a nobody. There's one somebody. And everybody's
got to come down. Believe on Him. But I've done
it. Throw it away. Throw it away.
Cast it aside. Your decision, your this, your
that, your works, your miracles, throw it away. Just throw it
away. And come to Christ. And you keep
coming. Well, I don't feel anything yet.
You keep listening. Keep bowing. Keep calling. One
of these days, in His good time, you'll be clean. That's the only
thing that matters, isn't it? That's the only thing that matters
from then on? Huh? And His leprosy is gone.
And what did He say? He said, now I know. Now I know.
There's one God. And there's one prophet. That's
the message. That's what all men need. I'm
not going to sacrifice these false lords anymore, these false
gods anymore. I'm not going to do it. There's one God, one gospel,
one way, one truth, one prophet. There's one. I know that now.
I know that now. And he wanted to give Him, give
it all to that preacher. Give it all. Before he's bribing
him. Now, out of love and gratitude,
he thought, I don't need this stuff. Please take this. No,
don't need it. Didn't need it before you came,
don't need it now. Don't need it now. What you've
got now, what you need. Well, I tried. That's it. Bye-bye.