Well good morning and welcome
to our continuing study in the book of Luke. We're in chapter
4 again and we're continuing our lesson on Sovereign Mercy. This will be Sovereign Mercy
part 2 and it deals with Luke chapter 4 verse 23 through 30
and we'll read those and we know that the Lord had been in this
synagogue and They brought him the scroll of Isaiah. When he opened the book, he found
the place where it was written. He read that scripture that described
himself, that talked about his work, his mission, his coming
to take the place of his people to pay their sin penalty. So
he closed the book. And they were all fascinated
that, oh wow, he knows that scripture and he read it graciously. But isn't this Joseph's son?
And they were, remember they were expecting something else. They were expecting someone in royal robes, and they were
expecting somebody that looked like a scholar or a messiah or
a rabbi or something. And they said, this is Joseph's
son, the carpenter guy. And he said unto them in verse
23, you will surely say unto me this proverb. When Jesus said,
you will surely say unto me, that means that as we noted in our Wednesday
night class from our pastor from Hebrews 4.13, that all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
He could see what was going on with him. He didn't need for
them to tell him anything. Anyway, he said, You will surely
say unto me this proper, Physician, heal thyself whatsoever we have
heard done in Capernaum do also here in thy country. And he said,
verily, I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
And he certainly was not accepted in his own country, rejected
of men. And verse 25, but I tell you
of a truth. I read that scripture a minute
ago. Now here's some relative application of truth concerning
myself. He said, I tell you of a truth.
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow." And when we went through that section last time about
him sending the prophet Elijah to a widow woman and all the
things that transpired to arrange that meeting where the Lord sent
the Gospel to a person. And now we come to the other
side where the Lord brings a person to the Gospel. Instead of sending
the Gospel to them, He brings them to the Gospel. Verse 27,
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet,
And none of them was clan-saving name in the Syrian, another Gentile.
And these folks, these people in the synagogue, where this
narrative of this gospel takes place, where they were exposed
in their desire to see some miracles and signs. not that they might
believe in Christ, but merely for the notoriety of the show
of it. And all hearts and minds were
as an open book to him, and he saw their motives. And they particularly
didn't like the part where he wouldn't do a miracle in their
land, but he told them of a place, a Gentile place, where a miracle
did take place. In fact, this is the second one.
But it's so typical of what we find in the Gospels, that that
does not suffice in creating a believing heart. Saying of
miracles, just as it didn't do it in the Old Testament, Moses'
days coming out of Egypt, they saw many miracles and signs and
wonders, and yet most of them died in the desert. They wouldn't enter into the
rest. Excuse me. So, in John chapter 6 verse 26,
Jesus answered them and said, Verily I say unto you, seek me
not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. So even though he did a miracle
of feeding 5,000 people, They didn't really see the miracle. They just wanted the free thing
out of it. He says, you have seen me, yet
you believe not, John 6, 36. And most did not really see his
actions as miracles and proof of who and what he was, but only
as what we might think of more as entertainment. Oh, that was
novel. That was interesting. Did you
see that? And the most telling part of
this, verse 23 and 24, is that he was rejected in his own land,
even though he had done so many miracles. All those miracles
that you did over in Capernaum, do some here, do some here. And yet, though he had done so
many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. John
12, 37. And in fact, the opposite thing
we find is true here that in verse 28, and all they in the
synagogue that a minute ago were saying, Oh, what gracious words
are coming out of his mouth. But now that he says the truth
of the sovereignty of sovereign mercy, uh, They were filled with
wrath and they rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him
to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they
might cast him down headlong. They didn't like the sovereign
aspect of mercy and that sovereign mercy is our focal point here
in these two lessons. The words, the term sovereign
indicates an absolute power, right, and might to do something. And no one doubted the sovereignty
of a king in his land. And we have many examples in
the Old Testament where the king wrote something and it was not
revocable. It was unalterable. And when we talk about mercy,
we're talking about compassion either for a situation or to
forgive an offense. Many times the Lord had compassion
on someone that had an illness, or they were lame, or they were
blind, or they had some difficulty, and He had compassion on them.
And also, it means to forgive an offense. To have mercy on
someone is not to give them what they deserve. but to hold that
back and instead extend compassion to them. And God has the absolute
right to do that to whom He wishes, where He wishes, what time He
wishes, in any aspect of it that you can think of. And when He
tells them about these two characters from the Old Testament, this
widow from Zarephath and this Naaman the Syrian from another
Gentile land, they rejected that. Uh... But rejection by his own
people was not a novel idea or concept to the Lord, and in fact
was known, expected, and accounted for in the sovereign covenant
of grace. He would have compassion on his
people. He would have mercy on his people. Jesus came to save
his people from their sins. The fact that most people rejected
him in their natural condition was not new. The effects of the
fall would allow for no other outcome in natural man, and unless
they're overcome by divine sovereignty, it proves to be 100% fatal, both
physically and spiritually. So the reply of the Lord to them,
we find, as we always find, are not superficial, but spiritual,
and all the time we find them on many levels, always deeper
than we know or understand. This is not just, oh, here's
a thing about Elias and here's a thing about Elisha. There's
so many things if you went back, as these people were no doubt,
aware of these things, these narratives from first and second
kings. They probably knew them quite
well. He brings them out and they don't
like it. So, We have these two examples
he gives in regards for them wishing to do a work in their
land. Many, many widows in verse 25
and 26 with Elijah. And during the time of drought
and famine, the same rejection of God was prevalent in the land
back when Elijah was. Remember he said, I'm the only
one, and they seek to kill me. Jezebel was trying to run around
and kill off all the prophets of the land in those days. Some were in hiding. There was
a time of drought and famine. that God had brought by His Word,
and God only sent Elijah to Sarepta, or Zarephath in the Old Testament
name, a city of Sidon, a Gentile city which had no expectation. of grace, and in fact did not
deserve mercy or grace. And in that condition we find
all men are in from birth. And yet the Lord sovereignly
had mercy there, sending Elijah there. And many lepers were in
Israel in the time of Elisha, verse 27. In a time where a deadly and dreaded disease was prevalent.
Again, God exercised sovereign mercy in another land to another
Gentile person. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have
compassion." Nahum, and we're going to go back and read a little
bit about him. He was an enemy to Israel. He was the commander
of the Syrian army that came down and pillaged them from time
to time, so not one that you would expect.
would qualify for meritorious grace by God. Paul quotes that in Romans 9.15,
For he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
I'll be sovereign in that. So then, and he amplifies it
by saying, it's absolutely not of him that willeth nor him that
runneth, but God that showeth mercy. And that quote from Exodus
33, 19. as the Lord spoke to Moses. So
we have many different levels of spiritual truths laid before
us. We have the effects of sin and the fall, most notably in
the rejection of God and His Messiah. In Syria they had worship Ramon
and they worship Baal and all these false idols. The effects
of the fall on nature are exhibited here. There was a drought, there
was famine, there was starvation. the effects of sin in diseases
which had their origins in the fall that were fatal. This name
in the leper, it was a fatal disease, most of the kinds that
they had. The extremities of you would
just sort of rot off and finally you would just die. And there
was no cure for it, no human cure. Another spiritual truth that
we come across besides the effects of sin and the fall are the effects
and application of grace according to the sovereign mercy of God. And again, we turn to Romans
9.11 where it's written, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, before they had done a single thing,
before they were even born, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth."
God had set His love on one and not on the other. Of course,
he's talking about that from Malachi there and Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved, even though
Jacob was a stinker, a scoundrel, a ne'er-do-well. God loved him before he even
was born and did any of those things. And he met him. and took care
of the problem according to his sovereign mercy. In both cases
here in Luke, we see there was really no expectation of grace
naturally occurring or deserved. Naaman was a Syrian. They were
enemies of Israel. In neither case, There existed in a country that
claimed God as their God. In fact, the opposite was true. Remember when we read about the
widow woman, she says, your God. not my God, not our God, she
said, your God. And she says, I'm just going
to eat this little morsel of me and my son and eat this little
morsel and then we'll be out of food, out of money, out of
anything, then we'll just die. And Naaman, he was a Syrian that
worshipped other gods. And as we said before, in one
case we see God supplying a man to bring the gospel to one of
his elect, that widow. And in the other case, we see
God directing the steps of a man to the place where the gospel
was, the leper of Syria, Naaman. And as we find in both cases,
God worked all things together for good to them according to
his sovereign purposes in saving every one of his elect. And Jew,
Gentile, every kindred, tongue, nation, tribe, he has his people,
people of other folds, he said, that he must bring with him.
And so we have these two cases that he specifically calls attention
to. And we noted the case of drought,
famine, and starvation in the case of the widow of Sidon. And today we're looking at the
circumstances both physical and spiritual regarding Naaman the
Syrian. We're informed that God sovereignly
and graciously chose to cleanse and save Naaman even though he
was not a Jew. Not one physically, but it turns
out he was one by grace spiritually. They are not all of Abraham who
are of Abraham. Note some other things our attention
is called to in the sovereignty of God is revealed here that
Naaman was from an enemy country and that in the habit of raiding
into Israel periodically, which plays, there's an important part
that we're going to find comes into play here because of that,
that God directed them down there and God gave them the victory
down there according to his purpose. People were affected by this, that God in
his sovereign purpose used people to bring Naaman to the gospel. So all things working for good. Although for some of them it
probably didn't seem like that at the time that it was for the
furtherance of the gospel. And surely this must have caused
some grief for some folks, but God meant it for good as Joseph
said in the Old Testament Genesis. This history of Naaman the Syrian
was one well known from 2 Kings chapter 5. You'll turn there,
2 Kings chapter 5. beginning in verse one and we'll
read down through about verse 19 there. Now, Naaman the captain
of the host of the king of Syria. He was a general of the army
of Syria. He was a great man with his master. His master liked him a lot. He thought very highly of him
because he had brought him the victory, it says. He was a great
man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria. And you can go back and read
about that in 1 Kings, if you want to, chapter 21, I think. He was also a mighty man in valor. And then comes the killer part.
But he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies. And remember we said they went
down and periodically they raided into Israel and stole their crops
and cattle and kidnapped people. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy. That girl exhibited
such grace. If somebody were to kidnap my
daughter, or kidnap me, and they had leprosy, I would have said,
yeah, sir, sure right. I wouldn't have probably been
able to drum up that amount of grace to say, here's where you
can get help. And one went in and told his
Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go
to, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six
thousand pieces of gold. 10 changes of Ramans, and he
brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this
letter is come to thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman
my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
Now it wasn't the king that said that this could happen. The maid
said, there is a prophet. would God my Lord were with the
prophet that is in Samaria. She says, I wish my name and
my master was with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would
recover him of his leprosy. And then so this king of Syria,
he sends a letter to the king of Israel, and he really desires
that he would connect him up with this one that could help
him. But it was kind of misunderstood.
And it came to pass, in verse 7, when the king of Israel had
read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God
to kill and to make alive, that this man doth sent unto me to
recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. He thought he was
just trying to come up with some excuse where he might have a
reason to come down and raid in there and conquer them again.
And it came to pass, and it was so,
when Elisha the man of God heard, that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast
thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth, and he went away. And he said, Behold, I thought
he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the
name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place,
and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpara rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash
in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. And his servants came near, and
spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid
thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much
rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean! Then
went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according
to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again, like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned
to the man of God, and he and all his company, and came and
stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know
that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. And now
therefore I pray that you take a blessing of thy servant. But
as he said, as the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive
none. And he urged him to take it,
but he refused. So he tried to pay Elisha for this cure, and
put him in an obligation. Well, you just did it for money,
not for grace kind of a position. But he would not take any money. And Naaman said, Shall there
not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burdened
over earth. For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto the other
gods, but unto the Lord." And then he said, I have a little
problem here because I'm the right-hand man of the king of
Syria, and he's old, and I have to help him around, and he holds
onto my arm. So he says, man, I have to go
back. Here I am connected to the real
God, and now I have to go back to idle land. He said, Pardon
I servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Ramon
to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself
in the house of Ramon, when I bow down myself in the house of Ramon,
the Lord pardon thy servant. He says, my heart won't be in
it. I'm just doing it to help that king because it's my job.
And sometimes in our jobs, we're compelled to do things that go
against our grain of spiritual matters, but we're kind of compelled
to do them. And he said unto him, go in peace.
So he departed from him a little way. So there's just so many things
in this aspects of Naaman the Syrian that are spiritually typical
of most everyone. He was a mighty man of valor,
one whom the Lord had given victory over the king of Israel, and
that was from 1 Kings 22. Naaman was a great man with the
king of Syria. He was honorable and valuable.
And yet, he was afflicted with an incurable, horrible, debilitating
disease, the outcome of which was death. And so spiritually,
Naaman, he's typical of so many, he's well thought of, he's successful,
but fatally afflicted by a disease for which there was no human
cure. And by grace, though Naaman was
valuable, to God Almighty, not because of any merit or good
works, but because God had set his sovereign love on him in
eternity according to his purpose. We read about that kind of sovereign
activity of God in Ephesians chapter 1. We'll read a few verses
from Ephesians 1, 4 through 11. According, as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself." I often wonder if Naaman didn't
say, all these things, you know, we captured that maiden, brought
her back, she brought me a clue on where I might be healed. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. So by grace God had worked all
things together for good for Naaman. Naaman was brought face
to face with his incurable disease, one that he was made to know
was most assuredly fatal. God had arranged for a girl to
be taken captive from Israel, a girl who knew something about
God. And God arranged for this very
girl who knew something to be a slave, a servant in particular
of the wife of Naaman. All these things brought about,
God had directed all of these things together. And I'm sure
that girl thought, Oh no, I'm being hauled away. I'm a slave.
Now I was free and with my mom and my dad and my brothers and
my sisters on our farm or whatever they did. And now I've been captured. I'm taken away by people that
are my enemies. Now I'm a slave. And much like we found, you know,
in Babylon, there were a few that went back there and were still attached to God, though,
even though they were taken out of their own country. And so,
no doubt, this was very grievous to the family of that maid having
taken her way captive and enslaved. Remember how miserable? Joseph's father was when they
said, oh, a lion ate him or something. And all we have is this bloody
old raggedy coat of many colors that it's all that's left to
your son. And he was just beside himself
with misery. But God, again, meant it for
good. She said, would God, my Lord,
Naaman, were with the prophet, that is in Samaria. Samaria was
at the time too. Remember the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. So that's another fly in the
ointment for these people in the synagogue. They're saying,
Samaria. We don't like them Samaritans
much. The prophet in Samaria, for he would recover him of his
leprosy. 2 Kings 5.3. Now interestingly
enough, at this point in time, Jesus is reminding those in the
synagogue about this gospel narrative. Back then there was a prophet
of God in Samaria. a place where they would not
remember the woman at the well. She says, the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. That's why I'm out here at this
odd hour by myself, which she didn't know was at the direction
of God. That's from John 4, verse 9. How is it that thou, being
a Jew, askest drink of me, a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans. So some more spiritual truths
then. Someone by grace brought the
good news of hope to Naaman who before had no hope. There had
to be faith and belief given to Naaman by the almighty power
of God or else he would have rejected this out of hand and
continued down his idolatrous path. He still had his old nature
to deal with that God directed his steps to where he needed
to be. And we find that happens. And we've seen many examples
of how God brings people to where they need to be to hear the gospel,
or he brings the gospel to where people are that need to hear
it. And he still had his idea of how
things should go. and how God should operate. There's
always this, well, man is really sovereign and we need to do it
my way and God should recognize my way as being legitimate and
okay. After all, doesn't it all lead
to the same thing? Well, no it doesn't. He couldn't make it happen the
way that he thought it should happen. He said, I thought I
would go there, and this big religious person would come out
in all his finery, and wave his magic wand over my head, and
call down the thunder from on high, and tap me with his wand,
and I pronounce you clean and healed. He said, he didn't even
come out to me. He sent the messenger. I'm an
important man in Syria. I'm the commander of the king's
army. He should have come out himself
and showed some respect to me. But he sent a messenger. Behold, I send my messenger. By grace servants explained to
him the need to do according as the man of God said. God is
sovereign and he says how things will be. And he doesn't accept
anything else. All the many things that sovereign almighty grace
of God overcame for this one sheep. There was a war. He was a commander in the general
of the army in this war. They captured a girl. She brought
him news of the gospel, of the good news. All these things, Naaman being
where he was, Naaman being afflicted by this disease. And at the end,
he said, behold, Now I know. It's almost like what Nebuchadnezzar
said in Babylon. Now I know there is no God in
all the earth but in Israel. And so we must conclude that
God is sovereign. Period. There are no buts. There's no
one more sovereign. There can't be. Sovereign is
such an absolute. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. All those to whom he gave to
the Son in the covenant of grace will come to him. And no man
can come unless the Father which sent me draw him, is what Jesus
said. Naaman wouldn't have come unless
he was drawn. And it wasn't like God showed
up and put a knife in his back and marched him along and said,
get down there or else. He created circumstances that
compelled him to come willingly. My people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. He compelled that girl to be
gracious and say, I know where there's help. not by works of righteousness
that we have done. It is not him that willeth, nor
him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. By his sovereign mercy he hath
saved us. So to these in the synagogue,
when Jesus said, I tell you of a truth, He had many truths to tell them
if they had eyes to see it. But to most of them, they just
recognized, oh, he's talking about Gentile people and miracles
in foreign lands when he won't do one here. And it just made
them angry. They didn't see the grace in
it. They didn't recognize any of the scriptures that said,
I've set thee to be a light unto the Gentiles. So the truth, to
those that Jesus reveals it to, is a blessing. It's a wonderful
thing. And it just tells them, without that, they would just
be hopeless. But when He reveals the truth
of them, He said, the truth shall make you free. John 8, 32. My friends, sovereign mercy and
be free. Thank you for your attention.