Part of my message today is salvation
by grace. Salvation by grace. Why do we say that salvation
is by grace? Because God said salvation is
by grace. Our Lord Jesus said salvation
is by grace. The Holy Spirit said salvation
is by grace. The Holy Scriptures says salvation
is by grace. Romans 9.16 says, it's not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Paul says that God who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And I say that salvation
is by grace, and I say it because of this, because I've experienced
salvation by grace. I've experienced it. I've tried
salvation my way, to be saved my way by words, by prayers,
by tears, by giving, by dedication, by devotion, by sacrifice. Didn't get anywhere. Just didn't
ever have any peace, never had any comfort, never had any assurance.
But when God called me by His grace, made His grace known to
me, I've experienced the grace of God. And the nature of man,
man's nature, his fallen nature, his inability, his depravity,
his deadness and sin, necessitates that salvation be by grace. It
necessitates it. It must be by grace. Man is so
lost that God's got to find him. So dead that God's got to give
him life. So dead that he don't even know
he's dead until God gives him life. He's so lost he don't know
he's lost till God finds him. He don't know what sin is until
God makes him a sinner. And only God can make a man a
sinner. And many preachers and people claim to believe the doctrine
of grace. But they say they don't harp
on it. I don't know, but I first started learning the grace of
God and began to preach it. I don't know how many people
told me, said, Donny Bell, you're going to go see on that thing
called grace if you ain't careful. Don't, you know, you know, you
got to find something, you know, don't harp on that so much. They
say it's a family secret. Well, the old thing is, the family
didn't know that until somebody tells them. But, oh, beloved, I preach it
continually. And will, by God's blessed grace,
Continue to preach it. Why? Because I love it. I just
love it. Grace is a charming sound that
falls on the believer's ear. Because I love it, I cherish
it. And because it's the truth. It's
the truth. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ here,
what happened was that He came back to His hometown. There in
verse 16, He came back to His hometown. He came to Nazareth
where he had been brought up, and he got up and he read the
scriptures, and he read a prophecy concerning himself. Well, and
they expected that he had a right since he was brought up there,
raised there. He was born in Bethlehem, but
he was raised in Nazareth. And here he was, he was raised
in Nazareth, and because he was raised in Nazareth and he was
there, they expected they had a right to his blessings. They
had heard of all the works that he had done. They had heard the
miracles he had performed, and they heard the things that he
had done, and that's why it says here in verse 22, He said, And
all bear witness and wonder at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth, and say, Saith he, Is not this Joseph's son?
And our Lord said unto him, because He knows what people think, He
said, You'll surely say unto me, You're the physician. You're
the doctor. Heal yourself. Whatever we've
heard done at Capernaum, do here in your own country. Whatever
we've heard done here, heal your own people. Do for your own people. You know, charity begins at home,
you know. That's what they're thinking.
And he said, well, I'll say unto you, a prophet is no prophet
excepted in his country. And so what he'd done is he preached
unto them God's sovereignty in election. God's sovereignty in
dealing with people. And he goes on down here to tell
them, 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 you know Elijah only went to one widow? And God only
saved one widow, and God only provided for one widow. Do you
know that? There's lots of widows, but God
only took care of one. The prophet only went to one.
You want me to do for all of you all here, and you know that
Elijah only went to just one widow out of all the widows that
was in Israel at that time. You know how many starved to
death, but I kept her alive. That's what he's saying here.
And then he goes on down here and says, And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed, saving name and the Syrian. Now, oh my goodness,
you mean to tell me that there was all these lepers in Israel?
And he says, you know, and there's lepers right here in Beth Phasa.
And you want me to heal these lepers, but I'm telling you that
there was a Syrian, wasn't even a Jew, wasn't even an Israelite. And Elisha, and I only saved
him. I only sent that prophet to that
one sick liver. And oh my, how did they react
to it? He preached to them God's sovereign
election, His sovereignty in how He deals with people. His
sovereign grace. Well, how did they react to that?
Verse 28, they all in the synagogue when they heard these things,
they were filled with wrath. Now wait a minute. God don't
have the right to do things like that. That's not fair. And why do you want to tell us
what God has done and you know we want Him to do for us here?
You mean to tell us that God might not do it for us? You mean
to tell us that God might not, that you might not do any works
among us? And they rose up. They said,
I'll tell you what we'll do. You keep preaching that message
and we'll just get shed of you." And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city and led him under a brow of the hill on where that
city was built, that they might throw him down. They were going
to kill him. They intended to kill him. One
minute they wondered at his gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth, full of wonder at him. The next minute, when he
told them about God's sovereign, free grace, they said, Oh my,
this guy's got to die. And oh, listen, he's passing
through the midst of them. Passing through the midst of
them. Oh my, that's how men react to it. The natural man. The religious
man's reaction to the sovereignty of God in election, to me, proves
that it's true. The very fact that men hate it.
Anything that's right and true. If it's new, it's not true. If
it's true, it's not new. And they knew these things. They
read the Bible. They understood these things.
They hadn't read about Elijah and Naaman. They hadn't read
about Elijah and Nawinna and her barrel of meal. They hadn't
read about that. But the natural man, the religious
man's reaction to the sovereignty of God in election, to me, proves
that it's true. But as I said, you know, some
people say, well, they, you know, You don't need to just harp on
grace all the time. What about man's responsibility?
What about man doing something for the Lord? How about man witnessing
for Jesus? But how does one harp on grace? How do you harp on grace? How
do you just go too far on grace? Well, I know this, for the man
who doesn't believe it, like these folks were, salvation by
grace alone, preaching it one time, would be harping on it. Just preaching one time, they'd
be harping on it. But to the man who knows all
that he is, all that he has, all that he ever will be, is
by the grace of God. Preaching in every service would
not be too much. Is that not right? Paul says,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. He said, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb, and what did He
do then? Called me by His grace. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Now let's look here at this healing,
this sovereignty of God's grace here. You know, down there in
verse 27, We're going to just deal with this here. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. None
of them was cleansed save in Naaman the Syrian. Now here's
the sovereignty of God's grace. The healing of Naaman teaches
clearly the freeness of grace. The freeness of grace. And what
I mean by that, here's the Syrian. Now let's just go over there.
Let's go over to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. Let's look at this together,
just a moment. Here's the freeness of grace.
Here's a man. You know, and the freeness of
grace and the sovereignty of grace, to me, is the same thing. People say, well, what about
whosoever will? That's a good question. Whosoever will. Where are you
going to get the will? I believe whosoever will, will
come to Christ. Where are you going to get the
will? Naaman didn't have a will. These people didn't have a will.
When Christ told them about it, the only will they had was to
destroy Christ. And when Pilate delivered them
up to their will, what did they do to Him? They nailed Him to
a tree. So here we are with the freeness of God's grace, and
here's the sovereignty of God's grace. And you have these people
who say, whosoever will. Well, I know who will, and I
know where the will comes from. Our Lord says, you will not come
to me that you might have life. It's not of him that will it.
It's not of works lest any man should boast. And that's why
Lord Jesus Christ said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no price cast out. See, grace is universal. It goes
all over the world. It reaches Syrians as well as
Jews. It reaches blacks as well as
whites. It reaches Asians as well as
Hispanics. It reaches every kindred, tribe,
and tongue, and nation on the face of this earth. And yet it
doesn't save all universally. It doesn't make salvation possible
for whoever will. It makes salvation certain and
sure. Grace does. And look here, first
thing you see about Naaman, he's the captain of the host of the
king of Syria. A great man. Master and honorable. A mighty
man in the dollar. But watch this. But he is a leper. Always something. Everybody talks
about it all day, and they just brag and brag and brag. But the
only thing is, he just happened to be a leper, who was a great
man. But he was a leper. He is a leper. And, oh beloved, and that's what
he was. And so we see the freeness of his grace. But it was sovereign
grace that saved Nathan. He was a heathen. He was an idolater. He worshipped false gods. He
worshipped a god named Raymond. And he was a sworn enemy to Israel. Look what it says down there
in verse 2 here. And the Syrians had gone out
by company and had brought away captives out of the land of Israel.
They went in and invaded Israel. And captured people and brought
out a little maid. He was a sworn enemy to Israel. Oh, you mean to say that's why
these folks got so upset? He's an enemy of Israel. They
attacked Israel. They took people captive from
Israel. Well, Saul of Tarsus was an enemy
of Christ. He hated the Lord Jesus Christ.
He persecuted the church of God. He made havoc of the church.
But look what God done for him. Put him down on the Damascus
road. Put him down in the dust. Put him down until he saw a great
light. Put him down until he cried,
O Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And beloved, when God
gave him sight three days later, made him walk around blind for
three days. And remember, Clay Kirkus here
preached a few years ago, three or four years ago, on the blessing
of blindness? There was one time a man was
blessed for being blind. God blinded him so he could really
see. And oh, beloved, here's a man
who not only did this nail him, show you the freeness of the
grace, and it was sovereign grace that saved Naaman. He lived in
another country. Elijah's over here in Israel,
and way up here in Syria, and he's a long, long, long, long
way from where this prophet's at. How are they going to hook up?
How are they going to connect? How is he going to give this
message to this man? How is he going to save this man? Oh, but
listen, here's how it happens. But God, God meant, God meant
to heal this leper of his leprosy and save his sin, blackened soul. God meant to do that. When he
sets out after one of his sheep, marker down, he's going to find
it. He said, if a man has ninety-nine sheep, one of them be lost, will
he not go into the wilderness? and search for that one lost
sheep till he finds it, and when he hath found it, doth he not
bring it back? Of the sheep which I have with
him on this fold, here is a man who was on the fold of Israel.
Christ showeth us he will bring him to the fold too. And we see the sovereignty of
grace in Naaman's experience because of all the other lepers
that were passed over. But did our Lord say there were
many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha? In Israel? But he said Elisha was only sent
to one. And that was to Naaman, and he
was a Syrian. He wasn't even a Jew. If Elijah's going to heal lepers,
and that's what they said to Cricus, if you're going to do
works, if you're going to heal people, if you're going to save
people, if you're going to do a work, do it among us. We're
your family. We're your friends. We're your
hometown. Well, the first thing that gave him away was saying,
is this not just Joseph's son? Oh, if Elijah's going to heal
lepers, surely he'll heal those in Israel first. There's lots
and lots of them there. That's why it says, position,
heal yourself. Oh, to bypass Jews for a foreigner,
for a worshiper of a strange god, a leper, an enemy of God?
Oh, my. No wonder they got upset. You
keep saying, look with me over here in Ephesians 2.12 just a
moment. Let me show you something. Let me show you something about
ourselves here. Ephesians 2.12. Oh, to pass by
Jews for foreigners. That's why they hated Paul so
much, because he went to Gentiles. He went to heathens. He went
to idolaters. In Ephesians 2.12, look what
it says here, talking about us, that at that time you were without
Christ, like Naomi was. Being aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, like Naaman was, a foreigner. You know, we got all these illegal
immigrants, illegal aliens in this country. And everybody wants
to go back to where you come from. They're aliens. They're not citizens. And we
were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. Strangers from the
covenant, just exactly like Naaman was. Having no hope without God
in this world. Now that's where Naaman was.
But now watch this. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were well off, just like Naaman was well off
from Elisha, were made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now look
down at verse 18. Ephesians 2. For through
him, through Christ, We both have access by one spirit under
the Father. Now listen, now therefore you're
no more strangers and foreigners. No, no more. But we're fellow
citizens with the saints in the house of God. Now what's going
to happen to me? It hasn't happened yet, but it's
going to happen. Now let's go back over to Kings. Oh, beloved,
why did God do this? Why did God, why did Elisha only
have to go to Naaman? Why was God only going to deal
with all them lepers in Israel? All those people. And that's
what they thought. They thought, you know, that's what they said
to Christ. You owe it to us. You owe it to us. You're lived
among us. And if you've got this power,
you've got this ability, you've got these gifts, if you're who
you say you are, start doing something for us. But one thing, the first thing
they didn't say is, we're sick, would you heal us? No. And why did God do this like
this? I'll tell you why. Because it
pleased Him. It pleased Him. And I'll tell
you, folks are going to bow to that, they're going to submit
to that, they're going to rejoice in that or else. You know, our
Lord Jesus says this, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank
Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and has revealed them unto babes. Why does he thank his Father
for that? Because he hid these things from all these people
who've got some wisdom, got some prudence, know how to handle
situations. All these adults, he said, because
you've hid these things from them. And I thank you that you've
done it. I thank you that you've done
it. Why? Even so, it seemed good in your
sight. That's all, it seemed like it
was good in your sight, it pleased you to do it, and that's all
I need to know, is what it pleases you to do, what's good in your
sight, that's all I need to know. And if it was good for you to
save Naomi and pass by every other nigger in this room, that's
alright. If I ain't, if I was a million
widows, and they're all starving to death, and Elijah's only sent
the one to save her out of her little old mill barrel of oil,
That's all right. He could have let her die with
the rest of them if he wanted to. But the fact that he saved
one, what a mercy. The fact that he done it for
one, what a mercy. He could have let them all go.
The fact that he done it for you, what a mercy. He could have
passed you by. He's done passed by my brothers.
He's done passed by my dad. He's done passed by my mother.
He's done passed by all my uncles. He's done passed by my aunts.
So far as I know, he's done nothing for none of my children or grandchildren. And what am I going to say about
it? God, that ain't fair. I'm a preacher. I'm dedicated. I'm committed. I know something
about grace. No, we're not going to do that.
You're God. You can do what you want to,
for who you want to, when you want to. I'm going to kiss your
hand no matter what you do, when you do it, and who you do it
for. That's the way we're going to face it. That's the way I
want Him to be. I love Him that way. And oh, beloved, no one
has the right to mercy and grace, the grace of God. Suppose God
made salvation only for those who had real, real pious parents. Parents have read the Bible to
their children. Prayed with them every day. Made
sure that they didn't see, hear, or do anything or go any place
that would hinder them. Or why does He make salvation
possible for folks who had just really, really, really good morals? Outstanding morals. Never committed
adultery, never lied, never stole, never cheated. Honest as the
day is long. Would that be the right thing
for God to do? And if He'd done that, how long would it take
to find somebody in that condition? We got any good pious parents
in here today? We got any really, really, really
good moral people here today? Or we have some people in here
pretty immoral? Done some pretty immoral things? Well, if that's the way God's
going to make salvation based on those things, who's going
to be saved? Huh? That's a different story,
ain't it, Rick? Huh? My goodness. I'll tell you this. If you or I are going to be saved,
we'll have to be saved by the grace of God. God will have to take us the
way we are. and find us the way we are, find
us where we are, and do for us what we don't even know needs
to be done until he does it. You know, that's why Peter stood
and said, he said, Brethren, I believe that we, us Jews, shall
be saved by the grace of God, even as these Gentiles. God saved
Cornelius, and if we're going to be saved, we're going to be
saved like Cornelius did. God's going to have to do something
for us in grace. And all beloved men would have
God bow down to their altar of respectability, their altar of
goodness, their altar of what they consider to be right, their
altar of their regular church attendance, the altar of their
goodness and morality and honesty and integrity. They want God
to bow down to that. They're like the Pharisee who
said, send afar from me, for I'm holier than thou. But every
soul that is saved will be saved by the sovereign, free grace
of God. God seeks sinners, real sinners,
and He'll let men of self-esteem go on His own way and brag about
their goodness and their self-esteem and just leave them alone. I read a story one day about
a great, great man, Bruno. They gave him permission to go
to a French galley where they put slaves. Men would break the
law. And what they'd do is they'd
put them in ships and they'd make them row ships, put them
down the hole as ships. They were slaves and they were
put in bondage and held in bondage. And he was given the authority
to set free any man he wanted to. He went down to that galley
and down there was all those fellas sitting at the oars, you
know, and he went down in there and he started asking everybody,
he said, what did you do? Oh, I'm innocent. I didn't do
anything. I was railroaded. He went through there and asked
all them people and finally come to one fella and this fella says,
what'd you do? He started telling him what he
had done. Started telling about his guilt,
started telling about his crimes, started telling about a water
slurry man who wasn't getting just exactly what he deserved.
He said, put your oar down, you leave it here. The rest of them
left down there because they was innocent. The only one who
got set free was the guilty. The one who says, I'm guilty,
I've done the crime. I'm here because I justly need
to be here. I've got nothing to plead, I've
got nothing to claim. I'm in here every time I roar,
I know I'm roaring because of my guilt, my crime, my sin, what
I did. And beloved, that's what you'll
do, you'll labor until Christ comes and you say, yes Lord,
I'm guilty, yes Lord, I sinned, yes Lord, it's me. It's not these
other fellas, it's me. And as long as a man's kicking
against God's justice to save whom he will and do something
for him in grace, he'll never be saved. Huh? And now, look,
let me show you something back over here in 2 Kings. Let me
show you some salvations by grace, free grace. God saved David by
sovereign grace. And the unbearing rules of God's
grace. Now, I know and I've told you
that God saves whom He will. He saves them when He will. It's
like he went by that woman at the well, said he must need to
go through some area. Walked eight miles out of his
way. Why's that? Because there was a woman that
nobody knew anything about, who had been married five times,
and was just living with a man at that time. And she turned
out in the middle of the day to get water, and there sat a
Jew on a well. Give me the drink. Well, you're
a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan. We don't have nothing to do with
one another. He said, if you knew, if you knew,
if you knew the gift of God, not the works that you get from
God, not the reward that you get from God, not what God owes
you, but the gift of God. You know what you'd done? You'd
ask Him. And He'll give you a drink of water. He'll save whom He will, when
He will, and He saves them how He will. And yet, He has a method
that He rarely departs from. The first thing about Nehemiah
is that he had to hear the good news. He had to hear the good
news that he could be healed. Now, he was a leper. And he had
to hear the good news that, you know, you can be healed, you
know. He had to hear that there was a prophet in Israel that
could heal him and save him from his leprosy. Ain't that what
it says here in verse 3? 2 Kings 5 verse 3, And she said
unto her mistress, Would God my Lord be with the prophetess
in Samaria? For he would recover him of his
leprosy. And one went in and told his
lord, saying, Thus saith the magus of the land of Israel,
He had to hear about a man that could do it, and had to find
out where he's at. He said, you know you can get
rid of this leprosy. You can be healed of this leprosy.
You can be cleansed from this leprosy. Oh, bless God! Who's going to do it? There's
a prophet over in Israel. There's a prophet over in Israel.
He had to hear that faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word
of God. No wonder it said, How beautiful from the mountain are
the feet of them that publisheth peace, that publisheth glad tidings
of good things. And look who was the messenger. You know who the messenger was?
A little old woman, just a little maid. That's what called her
a little maid. That means that she was insignificant. That don't
mean her stature. Because they talked about them
as being a mighty man, an honorable man, a valorous man. You know,
talking about his position and all that. And when it's talking
about the little maid, that's talking about how insignificant... It's
not talking about her stature. She's only four foot six or something
like that. Talking about her stature. She's nobody. She's a captive. She's a slave.
We brought her out of this. We brought her out of this. Well,
she's napsome who did nothing. She's nobody. She's just... But
that little nobody... That little insignificant nobody
says, you know what? There's a prophet over in Israel
that can heal this man of his leprosy. Oh my, that's what God used. And I'll tell you why. And he
had to accept this message. And you know what? When he heard
this message, here's the thing about it. Though he heard the
message, just like you're hearing the message today. He had to
go, though, for himself. He had to go where the prophet
was. He had to hear the prophet. He had to do exactly what that
maid said. And that's the thing. You know,
the maid couldn't go for him. His service couldn't go for him.
He had to get up and go himself. And you know, I'm telling you,
there's only one place one person can do anything for you, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell you about Him. I can
tell you the condition you're in. I can tell you how far off
you are. I can tell you you're a heathen.
I can tell you you're an idolater. I can tell you you worship false
gods. And I can tell you the man who can heal you and
cleanse you of your leprosy It is, and I tell you, it is the
right hand of God with all power and authority and destiny, but
you've got to be the one to come. Ain't that right? And oh, beloved, it was imperative
that he obey the command he received from the prophet. Look down here
in verse 9. 2 Kings 5, 9. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
He come on over there. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go, wash in Jordan seven times, and your flesh will
come again to you, and thou shalt be clean. Boy, that sure seems
simple enough. Watch what happens now. Oh, my. He was a plain, simple message.
Just go wash seven times. Go wash seven times. And you know, beloved, there's
only one thing that'll wash sins away. That's the blood of Christ. You know, that water in Jordan
never washed his leprosy away. It was the obedience. It was
the fact he's humble. He had to humble himself and
do what he was told to do. He had to become nobody. He had
to come down. He had to take off all them garments.
He had to get down to nothing and get in that water. It wasn't
the water done anything for him. It was obeying what he was told
to do. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. All plain, simple message,
simple faith in Christ. Simple faith in Christ. It's
not hard. One way, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I'm the way. And now you can't be confused
to pray but one way. People want to go someplace and
they pin out all of that quest and they get their GPS's and
they get their garments and all that and they follow the directions
and they get where they want to go. God said the way you get
to me is I've got a man and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. My son, you want to come to me?
Come by Him. You want to speak to me? Speak
to me by Him. You want to worship me? You worship
by Him. You want to wash your sins away?
You come to Him. Ain't that right? You've got
to go seven, dip in that water seven times. Simple faith in
Christ is the substitute, the one who bore your sins in His
own body. The one who satisfied God's justice. The only Savior of sinners in
this world. And it's so simple that men are
stumbling over it. They're all the time trying to
figure out what they need to do. When they just trust Christ. But he wasn't healed until he
humbled himself. Until he was humbled. He was
proud. And look what happened. He resorted
to his own reasoning. Look what he says in verse 11.
But Naaman was wroth, angry, got mad. Just like those folks
over there when they told him. When I was told. He got mad.
And look what happens now. And he said, Behold, I thought
How many times when you hear the preacher preach, you start
thinking, well, I just, you know, I don't know if that's right
or not. I'll tell you what I think about it. And they'll go away,
and she says, you know, I think, how many times people send her
to service, how many times have they left it like that? I don't
know. Oh my, he'll surely come out
and stand and call on the name of the Lord. He wanted a great
big ceremony. He wanted a ritual. He wanted
somebody to touch his head. He wanted an altar to come to.
He wanted some deed to be done. Some great work to be done. Some
ceremony. Let's burn some candles. Let's
get the music right. Let's put the preacher in a robe
and let him speak. You know, let's get this thing
just right. Oh my, we'll get the life way down low. We'll
get the organ going, you know. Oh my. And oh boy. And then he started talking about
rivers. He says, you know, one river is as good as another river.
He said, our better and proper rivers of Damascus, better than
all the waters of Israel, wasn't that a lie? We got better rivers
over where I'm from, said you know. He said, you know, one river is
as good as another river. No, that ain't what God says
there ain't but one river to get into. You know, when there's
one river to get into, you're going to get into the one God
says to. I mean, if it's a mud hole, and God says, get in that
mud hole and water in the mud, you're going to get in that mud
hole and water in the mud. Or you're going to go to hell
clean. Without mud on you. Ain't that
right? That's exactly right. And oh,
listen, he goes on down saying, May I not worship them and be
so he turned and went away in a rage. Oh, he was mad. How many
folks has that happened to? But I tell you what, God ain't
done with him yet, Mr. Gary. God ain't done with him
yet. And all I tell you, a sinner's got to come down. Is that good? Man, he knows my name. Come down. Today. Today. Salvation must
come to your house. I'm going home with you. You're
a son of Abraham. Saul of Tarsus has to come down with all them warrants in his
pocket. Oh, beloved, I'm telling you, got to come down. You see, beloved, the gate is
straight. Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life. Let me tell you something.
There's no room for anything but a sinner stripped of everything. He can't have a righteousness.
He can't have a work. He can't have a thought. He can't
come in with his feelings. He can't come in with his opinions.
He can't come in with anything. It's only narrow enough for you
to come through. Naked and stripped of everything. That's right. You see, we're going to be saved
by sovereign grace. We're going to be kept by the
grace of God. And when we get to eternity, we'll get there
by the grace of God, and we'll see God face to face because
of His grace. Now look what happens down here.
Over here in 2 Kings. Down in verse 14. Then he went down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. He heard it. He done what the
preacher said. He done what the preacher said.
And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child.
And he is clean. Oh, you come to Christ, and that's
exactly what will happen to you. You'll come with leprosy, and
you'll walk away clean. You'll come... Oh, sin had left
a christened stain. He washed it white as snow. And I did. I love grace. I told you salvation
is by grace. Ain't you grateful salvation
is by grace? Now let me tell you something. Did it make you
glad? Or did it make you mad like us?
It has that kind of reaction. Everybody has that kind of reaction.
And don't, don't do like mad. And don't start saying, well,
I think, I think. That's your problem. As old Scott
Richard says, you think too much. He told me that about myself
one time. I said, Scott, I think. He said, that's your whole problem,
David. He said, you think too much. He said, just believe and
rest. And that's what it is. You know, if Christ was standing
here now, and He is, I could fall back on Him and He'd catch
me. And that's what we do with our souls. We fall back on Him.
He catches us. Just fall back on Him and He
catches us. He catches you. Throw yourself at Him. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
God in heaven, in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
O our Savior, our Redeemer, very Lover of our souls, O God, make
your grace real to hearts today. Make your salvation real to a
soul today. Show them the freeness of it,
the fullness of it, the perfection of it, the power of it. Oh God, do for some here what
you did for Naaman. Bring them down to where they
get down and do as you say. Trust you. Believe you. Rest
in you. Cleanse from their sin by you.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.