have inquired about my pastor's
wife, Lynn. She did have her surgery the
other day, and she's off the ventilator. She's doing quite
well, and everything's looking up right now. So everybody's
doing well, and they appreciate and cover your prayers. And everyone
in Lexington sends their well wishes and their love and their
thoughts to you. Everybody wanted to tell you they said hi. They
said hi. Go to verse 12. That's where
we're going to take our text from today, 2 Corinthians 1, verse
12. Paul speaks and he says this,
he says, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world
and more abundantly to you were. Now, Paul begins by saying this.
He says, our rejoicing is this. And he uses that word, our. He's
talking about a group of people. He says, me and you, we're together
in this thing. And that group of people is believers. Sinners,
for their only hope is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
all they got. That's what he's addressing here. And he's saying
to those people, we have something to rejoice in. And that word
rejoicing is interesting. It does mean rejoicing in the
sense of being happy, being glad. It also means this, it means
what you boast in. It means what you're proud of. It means what
you feel good about. And this rejoicing he's talking
about, this isn't based on circumstances. This doesn't change with the
happenings of the day. This is rejoicing that we can
always have. Now the question I have this
morning is this, this rejoicing Paul is speaking of, what is
it that every believer can rejoice in? Even in the deepest and the
darkest of times, in the darkest of trials, What is the reason
for our rejoicing? What can we feel good about?
I want to take just a few minutes this morning to look at what
Paul said about this, and he says a lot about it in Romans chapter
five. So turn over there real quick. Romans chapter five, and if you
look at verse one, Paul says this, he says, therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think we need to stop
there for a second and define something. Whose faith? He says
we're justified by faith. Whose faith? Is he talking about
my faith? No, absolutely not. My faith is the gift of God.
Folks, faith is never the cause of justification. Faith is the
effect of justification. God in his mercy, God in His
electing love, He comes to a man, and by the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, He justifies that man. He makes him whole
before God. And you know what the effect of that is? Every
single time, that man believes on Christ. It's not the cause,
it's the effect. Then whose faith are we justified
by? The faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The faithfulness
of Him doing exactly what His Father sent Him to this earth
to do, which is die for His people, and put away their sins, and
make them completely and utterly acceptable unto God. And here's
the rejoicing. This is the first thing Paul
gives us. He goes, you rejoice, you have peace with God. Now,
I want you to consider the gravity of that for a moment. Right now,
if all your hope is in Christ alone, you have true peace with
God. The reason for God's anger towards
you has been removed, your sin. It's as far as the East is from
the West, it does not exist. And right now, You have true
peace with God. And now the command is this,
to every sinner in need of mercy, be reconciled to God. God's not
angry at you. There's no reason for the anger.
It's been removed. He's taken his weapons, he's
put them up in the armory. Now you be reconciled to God. You
put down your weapons too. And you come to Christ and you
believe on him. That's the first reason. Now look at verse two. Paul says, by whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. He says, rejoice in this, brethren,
you have access to grace. God is a God of absolute and
perfect justice. He cannot sweep sin under the
carpet. When he sees sin on a man, all
he can do is punish that man, that's it. But because your sins
have been removed, there is nothing that keeps God from being gracious
to you. He can shower you with His grace.
He can give unto you abundantly at no cost to His perfect sense
of justice because His justice isn't offended in any way, shape,
or form. It's free. Take it. Here's a second one
right here. We rejoice in the glory of God.
We rejoice that Jesus Christ is going to get all the glory
and our salvation for two reasons. Number one, He deserves it. Isn't
that what we want? He's going to get all the glory
because He deserves it, because He did all the work There's another
motive there, folks, so there's one more. Here's the other reason
we rejoice in this. Who gets the glory? The one who
does all the work. And folks, if 99% of the glory
was supposed to go to Christ, but there was 1% of the glory
that was reserved for me, that means there was 1% of the work
that was supposed to be done by me. And whatever that 1% is,
I couldn't do it. Whatever it may be, fill in the
blank, I can't do it. That means I wouldn't be saved.
He's gonna get 100% of the glory because he did 100% of the work. Now what's the end state of that?
Folks, it's done. There is nothing left for you
and me to do. We simply rest and we trust Christ.
That's it. Now look down at verse three.
This is an interesting one. Paul says, and not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also. That's odd. That seems out of
place. He's talking about trial and
tribulation and the darkness that sometimes comes to us in
this world that the Lord sends. He says we glory in tribulation.
Does that mean that tribulation feels good? That we enjoy it? No, it's painful. The things
the Lord sends for the purpose of causing us to cling tighter
to the Lord Jesus Christ, loss, sickness, financial problems,
family problems, all these things that are very painful, they don't
feel good. But Paul says here, we glory in those tribulations.
He doesn't mean they feel good, we don't enjoy them. What he
means is the end state of that, it's good, it's for our good.
Now go on reading. He says, and not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Now here's
the life cycle of the believer right here. Relative peace, that's
our baseline. I say relative peace because
we are sinful men and women living in a sinful world. So there's
always a problem. Relative peace, that's our baseline.
And then what happens? The Lord sends tribulation. He
sends a trial. He sends tribulation for the
purpose that we might be made to wait on the Lord, that's patience. At trial and that tribulation,
you can't get yourself out of it. You're in a deep, dark place,
and you're causing to do nothing but wait on the Lord to comfort
you and to deliver you, causing you to draw tighter to Christ.
And then what happens? What does He do every single
time in one way, shape, or form or another? He comforts and He
delivers. And He promises to do that every
single time. Let me read you this. It's 2 Corinthians 1, 3,
and 4. It says, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who
comforteth us in all our tribulation. Folks, that's not just a comment,
that's a promise. Every single time he delivers, he comforts
in some way, shape, or form, and then the cycle starts all
over again. Relative peace, tribulation, patience. Along the way, what
does that make? Experience. You have an experience
of the Lord delivering you. Tribulation, patience, deliverance,
baseline. You get an experience of the
Lord delivering you in your trials. You know what that breeds? Hope.
And the hope is this. If he thinks of me, this insignificant
speck of dust in this grand creation he has made, and he lovingly
and caringly thinks of my needs, and he is faithful every single
time to comfort and deliver me in these lesser trials in this
life. If he thinks on me and his people, how much more faithful
is he in having taken care of my greatest need, and that is
my salvation. Infinitely more faithful. So
we glory in that tribulation because it draws us closer to
Christ. Now turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter one. Paul's got some more to say about this. 1 Corinthians 1, and look at
verse 26. Paul says, for you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, God hath chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught the things that are. Now I love that passage of scripture
because that word chosen is in there. Who chooses? And we thank
Him for this. God in His absolute sovereignty
has chosen a people. He did it before the world ever
began. And those people must be saved according to the purpose
and will of God. The question is, who's chosen?
Who is it? And He names some things here.
Number one, they're base people. You know what that means? It
means of no noble name and no noble reputation. What name can
every believer answer to? It's not a noble name. It's of
no noble reputation. You know what that name is? Jacob.
Jacob. You remember Jacob and Esau,
they were in their mother's womb. In the positioning there, where
was Jacob? He was on the bottom. Well, that's who the Lord chooses,
the people at the bottom. Sinners. No hope, save for themselves.
And then he had one strength. There was one thing. As they
were pulling Esau out of that womb, Jacob didn't have the strength
to get out. He just clung onto the heel of his brother. And
when Esau came out, Jacob came out, and folks, that's a basic
one right there. We're at the bottom, but this is our hope.
We cling to Christ, and our hope is this, and when He comes in
His Father's presence, and He has full acceptance with God,
and He has full love with God, and He has all the praise that
God could ever have for anything, and when He comes in His Father's
presence, and He has perfect acceptance with the Father, we're
clinging onto this shield. We're coming in Him. And in Him,
we stand before the Father, and in Him, we're perfect. We lack
absolutely nothing. That's our hope. We're of no
noble name, no noble reputation. We're a bunch of Jacobs. That's
who we are. He says, I've chosen the weak things. Romans 5, 6,
one of my favorite scriptures. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Who is God? He's sovereign, absolutely
sovereign over everyone and everything at all times. Who is God? He's omniscient. He knows all
things. He's planned all things. He's omnipotent. He has all power.
He's merciful and He's gracious and He's long-suffering and He's
forbearing at absolutely no expense to His perfect justice and His
perfect holiness. He won't accept sin. That's God
right there. And you know what? I'm nothing
like Him in and of myself. I have no control. I'm not holy
in and of myself. I'm a sinner. I'm not all wise. I'm a fool. These are the things
the Lord has chosen. And he says right there, he says,
I've chosen the foolish things of the world. Because that's
how the world's going to view us. The fool. You mean to tell
me that you think you'll be saved completely and utterly based
on the work and the merits of somebody else, and what you do
is excluded? Yes. Emphatically, yes. They say you're a fool. That's
what the book says. But go on reading here. Look
at verse 29. That no flesh should glory in
his presence, but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, he that rejoiceth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now Paul's saying this because
we rejoice in this, we rejoice in being in Christ. Because folks,
if we're in Christ, I mean, Christ is in us. And he has made unto
us all these things that are listed here. Number one, wisdom.
Christ is our wisdom. Now I want you to think about
this for a second. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can
illustrate properly how the Lord has done salvation, how he has
worked it out. There's nothing that compares
to it. He takes a man who is truly guilty. That man committed
the crime. That man is guilty of the crime.
That man deserves punishment. And he makes that man to be what
he was not before. He makes him innocent to where
he never did the crime, to where he does not deserve punishment.
And there's nothing in this world that compares to. You take our
criminal justice system. If a man has committed a crime
and we find him guilty, we can punish him. It doesn't take the
crime away. It doesn't undo the wrong. It
doesn't take away his guilt. He's just a guilty man who's
being punished. We can take that same man, and we can be merciful
to him. He committed the crime. He deserves punishment. And we
just show him mercy. There's no justice in that. It
doesn't take away the crime. It doesn't exonerate him of his
guilt. This is the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of
God in salvation, that through his work, he actually takes a
guilty man, and he truly makes that man innocent in Christ. Only this man, this is the wisdom
of God, he is the wisdom of God, only this man could take the
sins of his people and he could put it in himself. Nothing compares
to that. The Old Testament gives us the illustration of the scapegoat.
A high priest he'd bring in and he'd put his hand on the scapegoat
and he'd slaughter one and the other one would be led away to
a far country by a fit man, never to be seen again. And that's
a good illustration, but it still doesn't tell the whole story.
This man, Christ Jesus, took the sins of his people out of
them and put them in himself and bore our sins in his body.
And he died perfectly. He died unto success. Every other
man's death is a failure. It's a testimony to his failure
that he was a sinner. This man died unto success. He
was so successful that the Father raised him from the dead because
he did exactly what he said he'd do. He said, I'm going to put
these sins away. I'm going to honor my Father. My Father is
going to be satisfied with my sacrifice. And when the Father
was satisfied, he said, I can't keep him dead anymore. He has
to come back from the dead. It's only just. It's only right.
His death was a success. He's the wisdom of God. He's
our righteousness. He's our perfect obedience before
God. And I like this. The wording
here is beautiful. He says He is our righteousness.
He doesn't say His righteousness is imputed to us, which it is.
Doesn't say His righteousness is imparted to us, which it is.
It says this, that He truly is our righteousness. You know what
that means? That means whatever He did, I really did. I have
such a union with Him. Every believer has such a union
with Him When He walked the paths of righteousness and He obeyed
His Father perfectly and He obeyed the law perfectly, that's me. That's you. When God looks at
you right now in His perfect, holy justice, He sees a man who's
never done anything wrong and always done that which is right.
He says He's our sanctification. He's the reason first for our
sanctification. What does that mean, sanctification? It means
to take something common and ordinary and to set it apart
and make it holy. And if you wanted one word in
the scripture that describes the totality of salvation in
a whole, in a nutshell. That word does it right there.
Why were we set apart? Why were we chosen by God? It's
for this reason, because he chose Christ. God said, he's my first
elect. Christ is my first elect. That's
who I'm choosing. And you know what? Because we're
in him, it was a package deal. When he got Christ, he got all
the rest of us too. He's the reason for our sanctification.
But folks, he is our sanctification. He is our holiness. beautiful
scripture right here Hebrews 2 11 for both he that sanctified
and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he
is not ashamed to call us brethren right now folks as Christ is
holy and he is blameless and he is unapprovable and he is
accepted before his father and he is perfect That's exactly
as we are right now in Him. That's the truth. He is our sanctification. You think of a baby inside his
mother's belly. That umbilical cord connects
the two, and everything that runs through that mother runs through
that baby. As long as Christ is holy, and He always is and
always will be, as long as Christ is righteous, as long as Christ
is accepted by His Father, we are too. As He is, so are we
in this world presently, right now, even though our experience
is the polar opposite. And he's our redemption. Redemption
means a ransom paid. Now, who held us at ransom? God's law and God's holy justice.
This is what Paul said. Remember, we're talking about
things to rejoice in. In Galatians 6, 14, he said, but God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Paul says, I'm gonna rejoice,
I'm gonna glory in one place, and that's the cross, because
that's where the ransom demand was paid, and it was paid in
full. Now, turn over 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. Of all the things Paul said he
rejoiced in, I found this most mysterious and most beautiful.
2 Corinthians 12 and look at verse
1. Paul says, It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in
Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot
tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such
in one caught up into the third heaven, and I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth.
How that he was caught up in a paradise and heard unspeakable
words which is not lawful for man to utter. Now Paul had an
unusual experience. The Lord taught him the gospel
directly. He brought him up into the third heaven either in the
body or out of the body, Paul didn't even know. But he taught
him the gospel directly. And what Paul's getting at here
is this. He says the temptation here is this, is to glory. To
think, I'm special, right? The Lord did this special thing
for me, I must be special. But look at what he says here
in verse five, he says, Of such in one will I glory. He says,
I'm not gonna glory in that experience. He goes, you know who I'm gonna
glory in? The one who I was taught of while I was there. I'm gonna
glory in Christ. But look what else he says. Yet
of myself, I will not glory but in mine infirmities, in my sinful
delusions. Now that seems odd, doesn't it?
Paul says, I'm gonna glory, I'm gonna rejoice, in my sinful pollutions. Does that mean Paul was proud
of his sin? That he was happy about it? God forbid. What does he mean? Paul's saying
this, he goes, I'm gonna glory in this, that God revealed to
me that I would sinner because the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners. of whom I'm chief. And Paul says
this, he goes, I'm gonna glory in this, I'm thankful for this,
that God revealed to me that I truly am a sinner. That there's
nothing I can bring before him that he'd accept. That every
breath I breathe, every action I take, every thought I think,
it's enmity against God. It's wicked because of what lies
in this heart right here, who I am and what I am. He says,
I'm thankful the Lord revealed that to me because Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. And he did exactly what he came
to do. Now go back to your text. It's 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12. Paul says, for our rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience. Now this is what
Paul's saying here. He goes, our conscience bears
witness that what we rejoice in, what we hope in, that it's
good, that it's good. My conscience agrees that what
I rejoice in, it's good, it's right. Now, I want to talk about
the conscience for a moment. I want to turn to your scripture.
It's Hebrews chapter 9. Turn over there. Hebrews chapter 9 and look at
verse 11. We're talking about the believer's conscience here. But Christ being come, and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
that tabernacle was his body. That's Christ being made man.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in, I love this word, once into the holy place. Having obtained eternal redemption
for us, For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works? Now here's what Paul's saying.
He's talking about the Old Testament economy of worship. And what
he's saying is this. He's saying all those sacrifices, all those
feasts, all those rituals, they never put away one sin. That's
why they had to be repeated. Over and over and over again,
the sacrifices had to happen, the feasts had to happen. They
always had to be repeated because they never put away sin, not
one. But this man, he entered in once. Christ himself stepped into the
holy presence of God once, bearing the sins of his people, and he
offered himself once. And he obtained what the scripture
says is eternal redemption. Redemption without beginning
and redemption without end. That means the salvation is forever. He did it once, folks. That means
he was successful with what he did. Here's the point about the
conscience. When the Lord reveals this to
a man, that this is his only hope, that Christ stepped in
once bearing his sins into the holiness of God and suffered
once for him, that that is his salvation. Christ in him alone
is salvation when he sees that his conscience is purged of dead
works. Now, what's a dead work? It's
any work that can't produce life. And concerning man, that's every
work. That's every thought, that's every deed, that's every motive,
that's everything. And here's what happens to the
conscience when the Lord reveals Christ to you, this, your conscience
becomes purged from dead works. The idea of taking something
from me and bringing it to God and saying, you should save me
because I, becomes completely unconscionable. Your conscience
won't allow it. It says, that's not right. God can't accept that. The only
thing God will accept is Christ. That's it. Now, turn over to
1 Peter chapter three. We're gonna read some more about the
conscience. 1 Peter 3, and look at verse 18. For Christ also hath, there it
is again, once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached into
the spirits in prison. Now, let's just stop there for
a second. Have you ever read that and thought, what in the world
does that mean? Does that mean that when the Lord Jesus Christ
was sacrificed, he went into hell and he preached to people
down there? No. What is this? He preached
to the spirits in prison. It's the hope. We have this hope
that that's what's going on right now, that God right now is speaking
to us, that he's giving us a message right now, and he's speaking
to the spirits in prison. Well, that's the sinner in bondage
to the law, in bondage to his own sin, but that's our hope.
Right now, the Lord's delivering us a message, and it's to the
spirits in prison. That's the sinner. That's me
and you. But go on reading, look at verse 20. Which sometime were
disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls,
were saved by water. And you know what? When the Lord
speaks, this is the message. It's always the same message.
It's the same message that Noah had. There's safety in one place. There's safety in Christ. That's
it. That was Noah's message. There's one place of safety,
it's in the ark. God's coming through and a storm's coming
and he's going to wipe everybody out. We're going to get exactly
what we deserve. But there's one place of safety,
one place of security, the ark, getting them both. You know how
many people went in? Eight people. You know how many people that
ark was prepared for? Eight people. You know how many people made
it through the flood and that ark delivered them safe and sound on the shores?
Eight people. That's who it delivered. There's
safety in one place in the ark. Christ. Now Peter's going to
give us an antitype here. Look at verse 21. The like figure
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. Now he's going to
explain what he means here. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh. Baptism, water baptism never
saved anybody. But the answer, remember we're talking about
the conscience, the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now he's given an antitype
here. Before, the ark was the type
of Christ. And now, the water is the type
of Christ. Baptism. Now what does baptism represent?
We stand above that water. We're confessing when Jesus Christ
lived, that's when I lived. We're confessing when we go under
that water, when Jesus Christ died. My hope is this, he was
bearing me. He was bearing my sins. That's
when I was punished, that's when I died. We come out of that water,
we're confessing this. My hope is this, when he was
resurrected, signifying that all the sin of everyone he died
for was put away. I was resurrected blameless in
him. That's my hope, is in Christ. Now, the conscience, the conscience,
how does this affect the conscience? It clears the conscience. Knowing
that the Lord Jesus Christ has put away my sin, as far as the
east is from the west, it gives us a clear conscience. We have
nothing to feel bad about. Now you look to yourself, you're
gonna find things to feel bad about. You look to Christ, your conscience
be clean, because there's absolutely nothing to feel bad about, because
Christ put it away. Folks, it's not there. That's
the reality of it. Now go back to your text again.
I want to read it one more time. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12. Paul says, For our rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom. Now we rejoice
in these things. We rejoice in the simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus. You know what that means? That
means the singularity. And we've talked about that.
How many times did he enter into the presence of God bearing the
sins of his people and dying under God's wrath? He did it
once. Once. That's it. The simplicity of
that. He did it once because he did it right the first time.
What's our hope? We have a singular hope. Jesus
Christ died for us. What's our righteousness? We
have a singular righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. That's
it. I want you to think of this singularity, though, and I love
this about the gospel. In this thing of coming to Christ, coming
to him for mercy, coming to him for salvation, there's only one
thing you need to bring. There is only one prerequisite
for coming to Christ. You want to know what it is? Luke 9, 11, and the people, when
they knew it, followed him and he received them and spake unto
them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need of
healing. There's only one prerequisite
for coming to Christ, folks. Having a need. That's it. And
I love this. It doesn't say feeling your need.
Feeling a strong need. Being overburdened with a need.
It doesn't say any of that. He healed them who had need of healing.
That's very simple language. Do you have a need? Do you have
a need of a Savior? to do everything that is necessary
for you to be saved. You have that need? What hinders
you from coming to Christ? There's nothing that stands in
your way. The only prerequisite is need. That's it. And that
brings us up to the second point. Paul says this, he goes, we rejoice
in simplicity but in godly sincerity without fleshly wisdom. When
he says godly sincerity, you know what that means? It talks
about transparency. being translucent, that means
you're not hiding anything. You know what that means, what
he's talking about? When we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, seeking mercy, seeking his grace, don't hide anything.
You come just as you are, sinful, filthy, wretched, wicked, you
come just like that, and you'll be received every single time. You know what I was thinking
about? I was thinking about Naaman. Go over to 2 Kings chapter five,
let's read about this for a minute. Now, if you're unfamiliar with
Naaman, Naaman was a Syrian general. And you look down there in verse
one, it tells you he was an honorable man. He was a mighty man. He
was a great general. Everybody thought he was a great
guy. He was a very powerful man, powerful leader in his country.
He only had one problem, though. He's a leper. And he hears from
a little maid that there's a prophet down in Samaria, down in Israel,
and he can cure lepers. So Naaman's gonna go see him.
Look at verse nine. So Naaman came with his horses and with
his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent messengers 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 went
away, and said, Behold, I fall. He will surely come out to me,
and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike
his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana
and far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of
Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned away
in a rage. Old Naaman's got a problem, doesn't
he? Here's his first problem. He thinks he's not being shown
the appropriate respect. He shows up. He's a big deal. He's in
his chariot. He's got his big garb on. And he thought, Elisha, the
prophet, was going to come out to him. Elijah sends a servant
out to him. Doesn't he know who I am? I'm a big deal. He says
this. It's not glamorous enough for
me. All you want me to do is dip in that old muddy Jordan
Creek seven times? That's it? That's beneath me.
I'm not going to do that. I thought he'd come out. I thought
he'd come out to me. I thought he'd strike his hand
over the place. I thought there'd be thunder and lightning and a big to do.
He wanted something glamorous, just like religion does. Think
about this for a second. Have you ever thought about this?
The most wonderful and mysterious and terrifying and miraculous
thing the Lord does in our time is when he saves a man in his
experience. When sitting in a place just like this, where the gospel
is preached, he makes that message effectual to a man, and he actually
breathes life in that man for the very first time. Consider
this, when that happens, nobody knows it. Not even the man attacking
him. And when the Lord saves you,
one day you just find yourself believing. And you don't know
how long you've been believing. You don't know how long you've
been trusting Christ. You might be able to gauge it down to some
years or something like that, but you don't know the very second
it happened. One second it happened. One day you were sitting in a
place like this and it happened. It was the most amazing and miraculous
thing that God does in our generation. And yet, nobody sees anything. Nobody knows it's actually happening.
But this man wants something glamorous. But he's got another
problem with it. Look at verse 13. And his servants came near
and spake unto him and said, My father, If the prophet had
bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash and be clean? The servant says, now me, here's
the thing. See that mountain over there?
If he would have said, tie your hands behind your back and climb to
the tip of that mountain, if you do that, you'll be healed.
You'd have tried. If he'd have handed you a sword and said,
there's 100 soldiers out there, if you can whip them all, you'll
be healed. You would have tried. If he'd have asked you to do
this great thing, you would have at least tried. But all he's
telling you to do is go dip in the Jordan River, and you won't
do it. You want to know why he wouldn't do it? Because dipping
in that river didn't bring any glory to Naaman. If he would
have climbed the mountain, he could say, all hail Naaman. I
healed myself. I earned my healing. If he would
have whipped the army, he could have said, look what I did. I
earned my healing. I did what I was supposed to do. Salvation
by works. But you tell a man, you don't
do anything. God won't accept anything you
bring. You go dip down in the river. You just believe on Christ.
You trust him. And a man says, that's beneath
me. And the reason it's beneath him,
because there's no glory in it for man. But Naaman belongs to Christ.
That's the Lord going to change his heart. Look at verse 14.
Then went he down, that's always what happens when the Lord saves
a man, 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. Now I want
you to visualize this for a second. Remember, we're talking about
this thing of coming to Christ and being transparent, being translucent,
not hiding anything. I don't know what generals wore
in the Syrian army during that time, but I'm sure it was a big
to-do. You look at our generals and armed forces today. They've
got a big stack of ribbons, finely pressed uniform. They look good.
They look like somebody. They look important. You see
a general walk around and say, that's a man right there. He's important.
I'm sure his name would look the exact same way. But he turns
around and he starts walking back towards that Jordan. And
all of a sudden, that big old hat came off. And all of a sudden,
that robe came off. All them ribbons just down on
the ground. And he strips down, bare naked at the edge of that
Jordan, in front of Elisha, in front of his servants, and most
especially before God, and you couldn't see a big, powerful,
mighty general anymore. The only thing you could see
was a leper. That's it. And he was healed. And this is the point, the point
I'm making through all this. Folks, you come to Christ, you come
just as you are. The fleshly wisdom is this, clean
yourself up. Put on your best robes, put on
your best works, clean yourself up. This is the wisdom of God.
This is godly sincerity. You come just as you are, a filthy
sinner from top of your head to the sole of your foot, and
Christ will receive you, and you'll be healed. Now this is the last thing Paul
said, and I'll just read this to you. He says, for our rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we have had our conversation in the world. That word conversation,
that means conduct. That's what it's talking about.
Now when the Lord does a work of grace in a man's heart, does
it affect his conduct? Absolutely it does. But what
is the true conversation of the believer in this world? How do
we know who the Lord's people are? What is their conversation?
I'm gonna read this to you. It's 1 Peter 1, 17. And if you
call on the Father, who without a respect of persons judges or
courteth to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear. Now when he says pass the time,
that's that same word conversation. The Lord's people, how do they
spend their lives? What is their conversation in
this world when Christ is revealed to them? They spend it in fear.
What kind of fear? Fear the Lord's gonna get me,
that he's gonna change his mind, he's gonna unsave me, and he's
gonna put my sins back to me? Absolutely not. Folks, whatever
God does, he does forever. There is no going back with God.
If you're justified before God, you've always been that way.
Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
So what fear does a believer live in? The fear of the Lord.
And I recognize that has something to do with standing in reverence
of his person, being awe-inspired by his person, But more than
anything, it means this, and this is our conversation in the
world. We are afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. And
if right now, folks, you are afraid to look anywhere but Christ
because you've got nowhere else to look, you have great reason
to rejoice because everything we've said up to this point,
it was all done for you. I'm going to leave you there.