The half ain't been told. The
half ain't been told. Luke chapter 4. The half hasn't
been told. While you're turning, let me
mention a couple of things. Kathleen is doing better. We're
very, very thankful for that. They took one of the big tube
out last week, and she's very encouraged about that. And then
Shirley's brother-in-law, he'd been on dialysis for eight years,
got a kidney disease, and they found a kidney for him yesterday.
And he went through surgery last night and eight years without
a kidney functioning at all. And they gave him a kidney last
night, waiting to see if it'll function. So you all, Remember
them. I tell you what that's a He'd
been going through dialysis for eight years and finally they
Been on the waiting list eight years and finally got a kidney
and we pray that the Lord be pleased to let it work and function
well and So you all remember them and
When you pray Lord have mercy on that family and may they May
his kidney work very well. Boy, I didn't see y'all slip
in here. Did you come in that way? Sneak behind me? I was involved
in that song then, wasn't I? That's what it was. I'm glad
we got some singers here this morning. Okay? Okay. Let's start reading here
in Luke 4, 16. And this talking about, this
is our Lord Jesus Christ. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you
will surely say unto me this proverb, 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.
But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elijah, 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 Elijah sent, say unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him under the brow
of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of
Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished
at his doctrine, for his word was with power." Our gracious Father, our blessed
Father, O our God and our Father, our blessed Redeemer, Father,
we're so taken up with you this morning. We're saying how great
thou art. And oh Lord, we haven't come
close to describing you and acknowledging you the way you really are. We
know that the heaven of heavens can't contain you. We know that
you uphold this world by the word of your power. And we know
that you declared the end from the beginning. And we know, Lord
Jesus Christ, our great God, that beside you there is none
other. And we certainly do behold your glory, behold your glory
in the heavens and see your wondrous handiwork in this creation. And
Lord, we're taken up with you when we see these blessed things
and praise you and bless you and acknowledge that You're the
great and living God. And so, Lord, we come to bless
you and to praise you and to thank you and to worship you
the way you ordained for us and taught us the way to worship
you through your blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you
gave so freely, gave so graciously, gave so wonderfully, and he came
so willingly, so joyfully, to save us from our sin, and to
make us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in your sight.
So Lord, we come to bless you, praise your holy name. Thank
you for this privilege to read your word, to sing hymns that
praise you, to worship with the saints of God, this side of the
grave, this side of eternity. And our Lord, we Pray that you
would cause the gospel to run well here today, cause it to
have power, power in the hearts of men and women. And our blessed
Savior, we ask again for those we mentioned, we pray for Kathleen.
Thank you for what you're doing for her. Thank you for the great
encouragement you give her and continue to strengthen her and
her family. Have mercy on her children and
her husband, Lord, that they might be brought to saving faith
in Christ. And Lord, we pray for Paul and
Karen, Shirley's sister and brother-in-law. Oh God, may you be pleased to
work that out to your glory and their good. May that kidney begin
to work. May he know what it is to have
a working kidney and be able to function again. And oh Lord,
bring glory to yourself in this service as you remember our lost
family children, grandchildren, those we love, in our Lord Jesus'
name. Amen. Amen. So good. Now, look with me back here in
Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus returned to his hometown, there
in verse 16. He came to Nazareth where he
had been brought up. That's where he had been brought
up. And they expected a right to
his blessings. Look what it said there in verse
22 through 24. And all bare him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, You
will surely say unto me this proverb, 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 then he preached unto them God's sovereign election. Look
what he says. Verse 25, But I tell you of a
truth, Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land. But unto none of them, none of
the widows in Israel, not one woman in Israel, not one widow
in Israel was Elijah sent to. There was only one, and that
was in Sarepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers, were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet. Lots and lots of lepers in Israel.
And none of them was cleansed, not one of them. But there was
one who was cleansed, and that was Naaman, a Syrian, who wasn't
an Israelite, who wasn't a Jew. Well, how in the world did they
react? One minute they're saying, oh, they couldn't believe the
gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. And when he
told them about God's sovereign electing grace, that God cleanses
whom He will and where He will. And they all in the synagogue
when they heard these things were filled with wrath. They
really got upset. Went from wondering at His gracious
words with their eyes fast on to Him. And they rose up. And they went and said, you got
to get out of this city. We want you out of Nazareth. We want you out of this city.
And they led him unto a brow of a hill, the edge of a hill,
whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong, went from wondering his gracious words to wanting
to kill him. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
And oh, listen. Now, if you don't see salvation
by grace in these verses, you'll never see it at all. Why do we say in priests that
salvation is by grace? Because God says it's by grace.
Because Christ says it's by grace. The Holy Spirit says it's by
grace. And the Scriptures declares it.
It's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth,
but it's of God that showeth mercy. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Paul said, Thanks
be unto God, which called us with a holy calling, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but by his grace, which
he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. And I tell
you what, do you know why we say salvation is by grace? Because
I've experienced salvation by grace. That's why I say salvation. I've experienced salvation by
the grace of God. And I know that man in his nature,
fallen nature, depraved, wretched nature, necessitates salvation
to be by grace. If salvation wasn't of grace,
not one soul on topside of God's earth would possibly ever be
saved. Never be saved. And there's lots
and lots of people and preachers who claim to believe in the doctrine
of God's grace, but they say they don't harp on it. They don't
go to seed on it. What do they mean by that? That
means that, beloved, they really don't believe it. If you believe
it, you're going to tell it. As Brother Henry used to say,
a man can't tell what he don't know no more than he can come
back from where he hasn't been. And that's the way it is, is
preaching the salvation by grace. You can't preach grace if you've
never experienced grace. And I tell you what, and I'm
going to, by God's grace, preach it continually because I love
it. I absolutely love it. I cherish
it. And because it's the truth. It's
the truth. And so these people, they reacted
to our Lord Jesus Christ. One minute they're looking at
Him, ties fastened on Him, wondering at the gracious words come out
of His mouth. Then He told them about how that
God saved one here and one there and passed by everybody else
in all of Israel. You fellas think you're entitled
to my grace here in Nazareth? You think you're entitled to
me to heal you and do something for you? You think you're privileged
and that you're gonna get something because I've come from this town?
And he said the prophet's not accepted in his own country and
sure enough, they got angry at him and they took him outside
of town and wanted to throw him over a cliff, wanted to throw
him over a hill. And the natural man and the religious
man's reaction to the sovereignty of God in election, to me, proves
that it's true. They hate it, they despise it,
they reject it. The natural man just fights it
tooth and nail. And I tell you, the man who knows
that all he is, all he has, and ever will be is by the grace
of God, he can't preach it too much to him. And you can't preach
it too much to me. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by what? By His grace. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let's look at the sovereignty
of God's grace here in these verses of scripture. And I want
to particularly look at that one where it says, ìIn many lepers,î
verse 27, ìmany lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha
the prophet, and none of them was cleansed save in Naaman the
Syrian.î You see the sovereignty of Godís grace here? The healing
of Naaman teaches clearly the freeness of Godís grace. And
I tell you, we'll go over there and look at that in a minute.
In my mind, the freeness and sovereignty of grace are the
same. When you talk about free grace, then you have to acknowledge
that it's sovereign grace. If it's free, then it only goes
to those who God chooses to give it freely to. Being justified
freely by His grace. So if God's grace is free, then
it's necessary that it has to be sovereign. Because he doesn't,
it's a fact he doesn't give it to everybody and they got upset.
There were many, many lepers in Israel. Lots of lepers in
Israel. But God didn't send Elisha to
not one of them. Not one leper in Israel was cleansed. But there was a heathen man over
here, a heathen soldier, a false worship of an idol god, That's
the one that God chose to cleanse. You know, people say, whosoever
will. Well, I don't have no problem with that. And I'll tell you
why. John 6.37 says this, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me shall not no wise cast out. Grace is universal. Yet, it doesn't
save all men universally. Does it? It's universal, it saves
people from every tribe, kindred, nation, and people. And grace
saves whosoever He will. You know, and grace goes all
over this world. All over this world and has been
since God ever manifested grace. and saves out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, tongue, and people on the face of this earth. And it was sovereign grace that
saved Naaman. Now let's look over there. Look
over in 2 Kings chapter 5. Let's look in 2 Kings chapter
5 together. Let's go over here and look about
Naaman. See what the Lord says about Naaman. 2 Kings chapter
5. And let's see what he has to
say about how he saved Naaman. He was a heathen, he was an idolater,
he worshipped a god named Rimen, and he was a sworn enemy to Israel. He was like Saul of Tarsus. Saul
of Tarsus hated the Lord Jesus Christ, despised the Lord Jesus
Christ, hated his people, and held them to jail. And I tell
you, he lived far, and this heathen man lived far from the prophet
Elijah. But God, but God meant to heal
this leper and save his sin, blackened soul. Now look what
it says. Now Nahum, in captain of the host of the king of Syria,
was a great man with his master and honorable because by him,
the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. And he also was a
mighty man in valor, but he had one thing wrong with him. He
is like that rich young ruler, yet lackest thou one thing, he
was a leper. With all of his attainments,
with all of his honor, with all of his glory, he was a leper. And leprosy was a disease that
was incurable and all through the scriptures it always mentioned
being like sin. And look, oh, what happens to
Elisha here. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and brought away captive out of the land of Israel
little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. And we see the
sovereignty of God's grace in Naaman's experience because of
all the other lepers that was passed over. You know, if Elisha
is going to heal lepers, surely, surely he had healed those in
Israel first. There were many of them. And
they said, physician, heal thyself. And to pass by Jews, For a foreigner? For a worshipper of a strange
god, a leper, an enemy of God? And ain't that what Paul told
us in Ephesians 12, that we were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenant of God? Without God,
without Christ, and without hope in this world, you that are far
off, had he not brought nigh, Why did it do this? Why did God
pass by all them lepers and heal this one? Why did God pass all
these Jews and all these privileged people who they thought they
were and go heal this heathen idolater of his leprosy? Why did He do that? Well, I'll
tell you what our Master said. I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes, for
even so it seemed good in thy sight." And I tell you, beloved,
no one, no one has the right to God's mercy. No one has the
right to the grace of God. If they do, it ceases to be grace,
it ceases to be mercy. Just suppose, just suppose salvation
was only for those who had pious parents. What if salvation for
only those who had parents that were believers and pious parents? Or for some who had good morals?
Would that be the right thing for God to do, to be a respect
of persons? Just because somebody lived a
good life, for God to say, I'll save that one, and I'll pass
by all the rest of them? Well, he's got the best parents
in the world, so I believe I'll save him too, on the condition
of what his parents are like. Would that be right for God to
be like that? To be a respect of persons? Of
course not. We know he couldn't be like that,
but I know this, if a soul's gonna be saved, if a man or woman's
gonna be saved, they're gonna be saved entirely of the grace
of God, from Alpha to Omega. Peter said it like this, they
got together one time after he went and preached to Cornelius,
that Gentile, that Roman centurion, And he preached to them, the
door was open there to the Gentiles. And he came back and all the
Jews, they got, oh, said, Peter, you've went to Gentiles and preached
unto Gentiles. Said, oh, you're unclean, you've
really done something awful. This is the most horrible thing.
And we know that unless a man keep the law of Moses and circumcised,
he can't be saved. Well, they had a great argument
about it. Finally, you know what Peter
stood up and said? He said, we believe that we shall be saved
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, us Jews, us apostles,
shall be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as
they, even as Cornelius and them Gentiles that I went and preached
to. If anybody's gonna be saved, Peter said, it's gonna be by
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm saved as an apostle, I'll
be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If Cornelius
is saved, he's gonna be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If my children's gonna be saved,
they're gonna be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if anybody in this building's gonna be saved, they're gonna
be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, huh? Oh, men would have God bow down
to their altar of their respectability and their goodness, their morality,
their self-righteousness, to bow down to their altar of their
works and good worth, bow down to their regular church
attendance, bow down to the fact that they're a good Calvinist, Oh, God ain't gonna bow to nobody,
no, no, no. They're like the Pharisees who
said, stand afar off from yourself. I'm holier than you are. But
oh, beloved, every soul, every soul that is saved or ever will
be saved will be saved by the sovereign, free grace of God. There's no other way. God seeks
sinners. God seeks sinners, real sinners. I mean bonafide sinners. Unless
the man of self-esteem, and the man of self-respect, and the
man of good morals, and the man who likes his own way, He'll
let him go on his own way. He says this, He said, He'd leave
men, because they received not the love of the truth, that He
would send them a strong delusion. that they might believe a lie
and be damned. But you know what the next verse
says? But thanks be unto God who hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the
truth. See there? Believe a lie and
be damned. But thanks be unto God for you,
brother. I know you've read this in a
bulletin somewhere or something, people put it out before. But
there was this man, this powerful man that came and the king told
him, said there was a bunch of prisoners and they was in a French
galley and they had to row the boat, row the ship. And he said, you can go down
into that galley and I'll let you choose one man to set free. One man to set free out of all
those men down there. Well, he went down there and
began to question all those different men. And what are you doing here? I was framed. They charged me
with something that I really didn't do. And he went to everyone,
and what did you do? Well, I didn't do anything. I really didn't. And they went
to all of them, and all of them was innocent. And he finally
come to a fellow, and that fellow said, what are you doing here?
He says, well, I'm here because I deserve to be here. I done some awful crimes, and
I'm here because I'm supposed to be here. I deserve to be here. I'm here because I'm justly here.
And you know the one that got set free? That one who said,
I'm guilty. Put them oars down. You don't
need to be down here with all these good people, with all these
innocent people. Come on, get up out here. All
these other fellas ain't done nothing wrong. So you're the
ones gonna get set free. And that's the way God is. Until
the man says, I'm guilty. Until he becomes a leper, he
gonna be down there just, he gonna be like, he gonna be like
them fellas in Jonah. They gonna be rowing the boat
and ain't going nowhere. Ain't going nowhere. And oh,
beloved, as long as a man's kicking against God's pricks, he'll never,
ever be saved. Now, there's some unvarying rules
to the grace of God. Some unvarying rules. God saves
whom He will. We know that. God saves whom
He will. And you know what else about
Him? He'll save when He will. He don't save on our schedule.
I don't care, you know, there's folks here that I've prayed for
and prayed for and prayed for. And I pray that God will have
mercy on them, but I tell you what, God saves when He will. Not on our time schedule. Not
on our desires. Not even on our prayers. Though
we're honest about it, sincere about it, and want to see people
convert. But God saves when He will. Whom He will. And when He will. And He'll save how He will. I
say how I will. And yet he has a method. And
he rarely, rarely departs from that method. And that's why we
go back over here and look at Naaman again. The first thing
this man had to do was he had to hear the good news that he
could be healed. And look in verse three. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God, my Lord, with the prophet that is Samaria, for
he would recover him of his leprosy. And what did old Naaman do? And
he went in and told his Lord. One went in and told his Lord,
saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is in the land of Israel.
He had to first, you got to first hear the good news that you can
be healed. That you had to hear that there's a prophet in Israel
who could heal him. And you see, faith cometh by
hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And how beautiful upon
the mountain are the feet of them that publisheth peace, that
bring glad tidings of good things. And you know what the next line
says? That saith unto Israel, thy God reigneth. That's the
good news. The most unlikely messenger is
the one God uses. He used a woman that was taken
prisoner by this man, that served this man's wife. She's just a
maid, a little maid. Scripture says she's just a little
maid. That means that she was nobody. That's what it means,
she was nobody, she was little. Nobody considered her nobody
thought about her nobody cared about her as long as she done
her job, huh? She was a captive, but she has
she was the one with the message And yet he had to go himself
He had to heed the message. He had to go to the prophet and
look down verse 9 here and And oh, that it was imperative they
obey the command he received from the prophet. And Naaman
came, listen to how he came up there now. You talking about
an important man. Naaman came with his horses and
with his chariot and stood at the door of Elisha. Oh my, you
just see this. I mean, he come up with an entourage
Horses and chariot and you know how much he had when he went
that over there Look down here in verse verse five how much
money had with him and He departed took with him ten talents of
silver six thousand pieces of gold in chin changes of raiment. I Mean he went with him He went
with a king's ransom That's what he went with And, oh, and he
got there and look what he says. But then, oh, and he came with
his horses in verse 9 with his chariot and stood at the door
of Elisha. Oh, my. He stood there. And Elisha sent
a messenger unto him. Elisha didn't even get up out
of his chair. That's what people can't understand. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. It don't care who the messenger
is. It's the message that you got to pay attention to. It don't
care who the messenger is. And he sent out a messenger unto
him and said, Go and worship Jordan seven times, and thy flesh
shall come to thee, and thou shalt be cleaned. Oh, my. Oh, boy. He was ordained to be
healed. God's going to heal him. but
he's going to do it God's way. He must go down and war seven
times or he'd remain a leper. It's the blood of Jesus Christ
that cleanses from all sin. It's the blood of Christ that
scripture says that he entered once with his own blood and obtained
eternal redemption for us. It's a plain message, simple
message, and he said go war seven times. What could be plainer?
What could be more simple? and simple faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ in His substitutionary death. Why did our Lord Jesus
Christ die? Why? He had no sin of His own.
He had no guilt of His own. He had no reason to die except
that He took somebody else's sin, somebody else's guilt. And He was the Lamb of God that
God gave of Himself. And so when our Lord Jesus Christ,
He was a substitute for somebody. Substitute, He bore somebody's
sin, He bore somebody's guilt, He bore somebody's wrath. He
received the justice of God for somebody's head. Who was it?
And people stumble over that. Stumble over Christ being a substitute
Never heard such a thing But we got to have we either going
to have a substitute stand in our place before God and bear
our sins in his own body bear our guilt bear our shame and
bear the wrath due our sins or we're going to have to face God
for myself and And that's why so many people
they come and they hear the gospel and they come sitting so proud
like Naaman. There's got to be something powerful
done. There's got to be something great
done. There's got to be some kind of
great experience a man has to go through. Instead of just go to war seven
times, you wait for, that was an experience took place. And
it was when God crucified his son. That's the experience that
God had. When Christ was made to be sin,
who knew no sin, that's the experience God gave. That's the experience
that, that's where sin was put away. There's where justice was
satisfied. There's where wrath was endured.
There's where everything took place that needed to take place
for the sinner took place there. That's the experience that I
look to. I don't even look to the finished
work of Christ. I look to Christ to finish the
work. I'm not looking to any experience
I had. I'm looking to the experience Christ had bearing my sin in
His own body on the tree. He's the one who died. He's the
one who put away sin. He's the one whose blood cleanses
from all sin. Quit waiting around for some
miraculous thing to happen to you from some experience or goosebumps
or somebody to smack you upside the head. It ain't gonna happen.
It ain't gonna happen. It didn't happen to Naaman. Look
what Naaman said in verse 11. Naaman got mad. Naaman got mad
and went away and said, behold, I thought. That's the first thing.
Old Scott Richard told me one time, he said, Donnie Bell said,
that's most men's problem, yours and mine and everybody else.
We think. He said, when we think about ourselves, we're in trouble. And that's the first thing he
did. You know how many times you go through the scriptures
and they said, I thought. I thought, I thought, and that's
what he said, I thought, I said within myself, surely he'll come
out, and listen to what he said, he'll surely come out to me,
he's got to come to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord,
and he'll raise hands on me, and he'll run over that place
where that leprosy is, and I'll be clean. He wanted to stand
outside there and have a big old ceremony. He wanted to say
he wanted to have a great big ceremony. He wanted the preacher
to come out there and say, oh, damn it. Boy, I know you're somebody. And I know you got lots of money,
and I know you got lots of clothes, and I know you got lots of silver,
and you got lots of gold, and you're somebody. I feel so honored
to come out here and deal with you. I feel so honored to come
out here and do something for you. And that's the way most
preachers treat people when they come to a service. We're just
thrilled to death to have you here today. Will the oldest grandma
stand up? Will the youngest mother stand
up? You know, they just faint all
over themselves about people coming to their service. Like
they're doing God an honor. They're doing God a privilege
to show up. It's our privilege to come into
the... God blesses us. Oh, I was glad when they said
unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. I was glad because
God gave me a place to come and worship. I was glad because I
wanted to come. I was glad because when I get
there, I hear the gospel when I get there. And I go there because I need
to go there, that's why I'm glad. But old Naaman said, oh my. And
I tell you, and if they're not praising people, they're praising
some singing group or something. You know, somebody, you know,
this entertainment just took over. And oh my. But I tell you, simple faith
in Christ and all His satisfaction. Oh, God, He satisfied God. It
pleased the Lord to bruise Him. God saw the travail of His soul
and was satisfied. And oh, look to Him as the, of
all, of all the saviors in this world, and there's lots of them.
There's lots of them. Preachers are saviors. Priests
are saviors. The Pope's a savior. Man's free will is a saviour. Man's chance is a saviour. Man's inherent power is a saviour. But there's only one saviour
in this universe. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Our Lord says, no man, no man's
coming unto the Father but by Me. But by Me. And, oh, beloved,
it's so simple, men are stumbling over it. And the Naaman, he got
angry, and he said, oh, listen, watch what happens. He was ordained to be healed,
but he's going to have to go dip seven times in that water.
He's going to remain a leper. And look what he said, are not
Abana and Parfar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of
Israel? It's not a question of a river. and how good the water
is, and how clean the water is, or where the water's at. He said,
no, no. May I not worship them and be
clean? No, you can't. No, you can't. You can't go over
there to Damascus and get it done. I don't care how big them
rivers are and how nice they are. So he turned away, and look
what it says here. He went away in rage. In a rage. I'd like to see somebody
leave here in a rage one time. You know, sometimes they do. There has been folks left away
in a rage. At least you know they heard what you said. They
know what you said. He understood what he said. He didn't like it. He didn't
like it. And oh, beloved, listen. And
look what happens. And His service said unto him
in verse 13. And spake unto him, says, My
Father, If the prophet had told you some great thing, wouldest
thou not have done it? And that's what preachers are
doing. Oh, they give people great things to do. How much rather than he saith
to thee, Wash and be clean. Oh, my. Master, oh, listen. If he'd have gave you something
to do, you'd have done it. But listen, all he told you to
do is go down there to Jordan. He said, why in the world would
you get upset with just going down there? Why, you want to
remain a leper? And when he says to you, wash
and be clean, then look what happened. Oh my, and I tell you,
sinners are going to have to come down. They're going to have
to come down like mammoth. Look what it says, then he went
down. Where's Ben going to go down? Come down, Zacchaeus. Come out, Lazarus. Then he went
down. And that's where man's got to
go. He's got to come down. And until he comes down, and
he dipped him seven times in Jordan, according to what the
man of God said, according to the gospel, according to what
the preacher said. And look what happened, and his
flesh came again like unto the flesh of a child. He was a new
creature. And the scripture said, and he
was clean. Oh, listen. Well, I tell you,
beloved, the gate is straight. Our Lord said, straight is the
gate, and narrow is the way. The gate is straight. No room
for anything but a sinner stripped of all. Ain't no room for you
to take anything else in. That gate is so straight, and
that gate is so narrow, that you got to come through there
like Naaman did, stripped naked. but nothing whatsoever. You can't
come in there with anything. The only person allowed through
there is a man and his sin. And when he comes through that
sin, when he comes through there, then the Lord Jesus Christ meets
him there and that sin's gone. You can't, now there's no room
for you in self-righteousness, you or your thoughts, you or
your feelings, you or your experiences. Just room for you. And all sinners got to be stripped
of all. We're saved by sovereign free
grace. We're going to be kept by the
grace of God all the days of our lives. And we'll face God
in eternity because of His grace given us in His Son before the
world ever began. I wouldn't want to face God any
other way, would you? But not only is this grace Savior,
and keep you saved. But I tell you what, it'll enable
you to die like you live. If you live by grace, you can
die by grace. If you live on Christ, you can
die in Christ. You look to Christ here, you'll
look to Christ in eternity. If you look on Him here, you'll
be able to look at Him for all time and eternity. If you see
him by faith here, you'll see him in reality there. Huh? Thou hast promised to forgive
all who in thy son believe. Lord, I know thou cannot lie.
Give me Christ or else I die. May God have mercy and save a
poor sinner today. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for the free grace of God given us in you. Thank you that
salvation is entirely of grace and gives salvation for the worst,
salvation for people who has no ability, no strength, whose
comeliness turned into corruption. It's a salvation for sinners
like ourselves who have nothing to bring, nothing to offer, nothing
to give. And Lord, bless this gospel to
the hearts, the mind, the understanding. Lord, may somebody's voice be
heard today besides mine. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.