The title of the message is Electing,
Humbling, and Saving Grace. This is a familiar story we just
read. Elisha the prophet tells Naaman,
the leper, you have to go dip yourself in the River Jordan
seven times to be cleansed of your leprosy. Later on, we read
about John the Baptist coming. He baptized in the River Jordan.
And people think that somehow that makes that River Jordan
very special. You know, they want water from it. I saw one
time little vials of water they were selling, supposed to come
from the Jordan River. I'm very serious. I think it
came from somebody's tap. Look at that. I don't know. I bet people
bought it. People want to go over there,
you know, be baptized in the River Jordan. They think there's
something special about that river. Now, I hope you remember
this. Now, that's idolatry. That's
all that is, is idolatry. There isn't anything special
about the water of the River Jordan. No more special than
the water comes out of your tap at home. That's so, but let me
ask you this question. Nothing special about the River
Jordan. But would Naaman have been cleansed of his leprosy
if he didn't go wash in the River Jordan? No, he would not have. Now this story is not given to
us to exalt the River Jordan. This story is given to exalt
the Lord Jesus Christ. to exalt God's electing, humbling,
saving grace. And I pray the Lord will do for
us this morning what he did for Naaman many years ago, that he'll
humble us. He'll humble us in his presence
and save us by his grace. Now hold your finger there, look
over in Luke chapter four. In our Lord's very first public
message, He very clearly set forth God's sovereignty in salvation. He used two illustrations of
God's sovereignty in salvation. We looked at one of them last
week, that widow woman during that time of famine the Lord
sent Elijah to and he fed her all those two years there. The
other example he used in his first public message to illustrate
God's sovereignty in salvation is Naaman the leper. Luke 4,
I'll turn to Acts, it's Luke 4, just a minute. Luke 4, verse 27. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
saving Nahum and Assyrian. And when all they in the synagogue
heard, when they heard these things, they 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. Now you see here, man by nature
hates a sovereign God, they hate it. Naaman the Syrian hated it,
and the Jews hated it, both Jew and Gentile, no matter where
you come from, by nature, you hate the sovereign God. But you
know every sinner that God saves, the first thing he does is humbles
them. He's going to make them bow before
him. Naaman is going to wash in the
river Jordan, or he's going to die a leper. And you and I are
going to bow to God's sovereign right to do with us as He will,
or we're going to die in our sins and spend eternity in hell.
One or the other. Now when God saves sinners, you
know, we may as well be humbled. Because when God saves sinners,
He saves the worst sinners. Every sinner God saves will tell
you, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst one. At this time
of Elisha's ministry, God passed by every Jewish leper who was
alive at the time. Passed by every one of them.
And he healed a Gentile. Sent his prophet to heal Gentiles.
But now, it wasn't just any Gentile. I mean, a Gentile is bad enough,
but not just any Gentile. A Syrian Gentile, who was the
arch enemy of Israel. And not just any enemy now, but
the enemy that had just recently conquered and humiliated Israel. And to make it even worse, not
just any Syrian, but the general who was in charge of the whole
operation. Defeating, conquering, humiliating Israel. That's the
very man God saved. That's the man God cleansed.
This story is given to us to teach us God has mercy on whom
he will, and whom he will, he hardens. Now the Jews hated that. The Lord told them that. They
understood what he was saying. And they were going to try to
throw him off the cliff. But sinners love that story. They
love that truth that God has mercy on whom he will, because
that gives hope to me. That gives hope to a sinner like
me. God's sovereign grace to the guilty gives hope to sinners. And I want us to look this morning,
learn a few lessons from Naaman. The first one is this. Naaman
was a commendable man, but he was a leper. Verse one in second
Kings chapter five. Now, Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, an honorable,
because by him, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And Naaman was an honorable man.
He had done many good and gracious things. Naaman was a successful
man. By him, the Lord had allowed
Syria to conquer Israel. Naaman was a, he's a man's man. He's a valor, man of war, warrior
of valor. Just he's got a chest full of
medals. He's the one sitting in the float,
you know, leading the prey, waving to everybody. This is an honorable
man. But something was wrong. Something was so wrong. It made
everything else wrong too. Naaman was a leper. Now, so far,
Naaman had been able to hide that from everybody. He wore
his general's outfit, he had his hat pulled down, his collar
pulled up. He was wearing probably gloves
or something, carrying his stick. He was able to hide it from everybody,
but he was still a leper. Even though he hid it from men,
he knew he was a leper. Naaman was a mighty man. but
he was a leper. His disease made it where the
lowest slave in Syria would not have traded places with man.
He's a leper. Now leprosy in scripture is given
to us as a picture of sin. Leprosy is not a disease of the
skin. Leprosy is an internal disease. It's a disease of the
blood. Leprosy kills its victims from the inside out. They called
leprosy the living death. You know, that's sin. It's such
a good description of sin. Sin's not an outward problem.
Sin's not what we do. The real problem of sin is an
inward problem. It's a problem with the blood
because sin is a heart problem. And sin's a living death. I mean,
you know, we're all here, you know, breathing and we're alive
physically. But dead spiritually, aren't
we? And no matter how high up we
may rise in this earth, no matter how rich we may become, no matter
how successful we may become, no matter how good people think
we are, there's still a but always attached to it. But we're a sinner. But we're dying of sin. In all
men and women, boys and girls, we're sinners. We're guilty.
Sin is killing us. And we might think, and this
is what we do think, we think, I'm not as bad as him. I saw
this thing on the news about whatever anniversary this is
of the Manson killings. And people look at that nut job
and think, I'm not as bad as him. I don't know if that's saying
much. You might not be outwardly, but
you're still a sinner. You're still a sinner. Other
lepers might have looked, maybe they might have looked at other
lepers and thought, I'm not as bad as him. I'm not as bad as
that guy that lived in the leper colony for however many years.
Well, that might be, but you're still a leper. You're going to
look that bad for too long because no matter who you are, all you
are is a sinner. It's like Naaman, it didn't matter
whatever else he's done, he's a leper. And really that's all
that matters. No matter what else we've done, what is really
true, all that matters is this, we're sinners. That's all that
matters before God. Naaman was not a great man who
just happened to be a leper. Naaman was a leper who just happened
to be a great man. You and I are not great people
that just happened to be sinners. No, we're sinners that just happened
to be great people or ordinary people, common people, rich people,
poor people, whatever else you want to attach to it. All that
matters is we're sinners. Everything else, the distinction
we want to put between us and the rest of the flesh, it doesn't
matter. We're sinners and sin is damning us. Here's the second
point. Naaman found out there's healing
to be had. Look at verse two. And Assyrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel little Mae, and she waited on Naaman's
wife. And she said unto her mistress,
would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for
he would recover him of his leprosy. Now here we begin to see God's
electing grace. How'd that girl, wind up in Naaman's
house. Huh? It's God's electing grace. God had chosen Naaman and Naaman's
going to hear. There is a cure. There's a cure
to be had, healing to be had. And God allowed Naaman. All this
destruction, I don't know how big this war was, all these companies
went out, but I know the reason all that happened was to bring
that little girl to Naaman's house. That's why all this happened.
Now she's brought into Naaman's house. She can see behind the
curtain. She sees what nobody else has
seen just yet. Naaman's a leper. She saw it.
She never would have seen that if she hadn't been brought to
his house. She was brought there according to God's purpose. And
God put in this slave girl's heart a soft spot for her master. That's why I say, Naino's a good
guy. I mean, these people who are
underneath him, under his authority, they seemed all like him. They
want the best for him. God put a soft spot in this girl's
heart and she told somebody, I know where there's healing
for my master. I'm afraid if somebody captured me and they
had leprosy, I'd think, good, if I had the cure, I'd hide it.
That's not what she did. This is God's providence. She
said, I know where you can be healed. Now that's not luck. That's God's providence. God's
electing grace for Nahum and his controlling this thing, bringing
this girl to his house so he'd hear there's healing to be had.
Now Naaman heard, this is my third point, this is what we
do, this is the flesh, this is the wisdom of the flesh. He heard
there's healing to be had to a good prophet. And Naaman went
to the wrong person, went to the wrong place, to the wrong
person, look at verse four. And one went in and told his
Lord saying, thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. And the king of Syria said, go
to, go and I'll send a letter unto the king of Israel. He departed
and took with him ten towns of silver and six thousand pieces
of gold and ten changes of raiment. He brought the letter to the
king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter has come unto thee,
behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to
pass, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he rent
his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive, that
this man does sin unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel
against me." They even heard there was healing, but he went
to the wrong person, didn't he? He heard there's healing to be
had with the prophet. Now, Elisha, the prophet's a
picture of Christ, that prophet. Christ is the one. There's healing
to be had for your sin. It's with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ can heal your sin-sick soul. Now you go to Christ. I mean, without delay, you go
to Christ to be healed of your sin sickness. That's the message
Naaman heard, but he didn't go to the prophet, did he? Naaman
went to the arm of the flesh. He went to these two kings, the
powerful men. That's where he went first. And
those kings are powerful, but they can't help Naaman. The arm
of the flesh can't help him. And the king of Israel knew it.
He said, I'm not God. I don't have the control over
this. I can't do anything for him. And my friend, that's why
I tell you, go to Christ. Don't go to the arm of the flesh
for your sin problem. Don't go to great men to help
you figure things out. No, you go to Christ. Go to Him alone. The arm of the
flesh is what got us in this mess in the first place, isn't
it? Don't go to the arm of the flesh. Go to Christ. Don't go to religion. Go to Christ. Don't go to the priest. A man
dressing up with his collar on backwards, sitting in a little
box with a curtain, can't help you. You go to Christ. Don't
go to Mary. Mary needed a Savior just like
you do. Go to Christ. Don't go to the law and think,
well, I'll keep a few laws and God will be more happy with me
because I've kept a few laws. No, the law can't help you. All
the law can do is show you your inability to keep the law. All
the law can do is show you the depth of your sickness. Go to
Christ for cleansing. Don't go to religious ceremonies.
Ceremonies don't save. It's Christ that saves. Go to
the Savior. Don't go to the doctrines. We
want messages that are doctrinally sound, but don't go to the doctrines
to find salvation because doctrines don't save. Christ saves. Go to Christ. You don't get to
Christ by going to Right Doctrine. You go to Christ. When you see
Him, when you see everything in the light of His glory, everything
else will be made obvious. The Right Doctrine will be made
obvious if you just see Christ. Go to Him. Everything else will
take care of itself. Don't go to the waters of baptism.
This morning, in Cottageville, West Virginia, that little congregation,
Mike Walker is baptizing four people God's grace. But those people aren't going
to those waters of baptism in order to be saved. No, they're
doing that because God's already saved them. Christ has saved
them. They want to confess sin. That's what they're doing. Not
to be saved, not to be cleansed, but because I've already been
cleansed of my sin. Sinner. You'll never be saved
until you go to Christ. Now I'm telling you, without
delay, flee to him. He'll cleanse you of your sin.
Just like Naaman, if he'd just go to the prophet, he'd be cleansed
of his leprosy. Well, Naaman went to the wrong
person, and fourthly, he took all the wrong things with him.
He took gold and silver and a letter. And that's the way people want
to come, think they'll be saved. I'm going to join the church.
I'm going to give a bunch of money. I got here in my pocket
a letter from the place I used to go. I got a letter, a recommendation
from a worm. We don't join God's church by
what we do. We don't join God's church by
recommendation from another worm. We join God's church, and His
church is His body. This is a local church, but it's
just part of the whole body of Christ. You don't join the body
of Christ by anything but God's grace. God saves by His grace,
and by His grace, He puts His people in His body where He sees
fit. That's how we join God's church.
So when we come to Christ, how do we come? Completely empty-handed. You can't buy salvation. Leave
your gold and silver at home. You can't impress God by a recommendation
from another worm. Leave your recommendation at
home. You can't bribe God into saving you. You can't impress
Him anyway. Salvation's a free gift. So you
come to Him empty-handed. If God's gonna save you, that's
the only way He will. You have to be empty-handed,
get rid of all the rest of that stuff. The only thing that commends
you to God is your utter need of Him. You come to Him empty-handed,
asking Him to fill you. Come to Christ empty. That's
not what Naaman, he brought all the wrong things with him. Then
fifthly, finally, Naaman did go to the right place, didn't
he? But he came with the wrong attitude. Look at verse 8. And
it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king
of Israel had rent his clothes, they sent to the king, saying,
Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to
me, and he'll know there's a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses and his chariot, and he stood at the door of the house
of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash
in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee,
and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and he
went away and said, Behold, I thought," Boy, that's a problem, I thought.
He'll surely come out to me and stand and call the name of the
Lord his God, strike his hand over the place and recover the
leper. Are not Havana and far, far rivers of Damascus better
than all the rivers of Israel? May I not wash in them and be
clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. Now Naaman did
come, but he came looking for what he thought was the right
way instead of coming to learn God's way, to seek God's way.
Now man's way, don't come looking for man's way. Man's way will
always give some glory to the flesh. Man's way will always
leave some dignity to the flesh, won't it? God's way gives God
all the glory. And God's way leaves the flesh
with no dignity whatsoever. Elisha said, let Naaman come
to me and let him learn there's a prophet in Israel. There's
somebody telling the truth. There's somebody preaching God,
who God is. Now you come and I'll show you
there's a prophet in Israel. I'm telling you there's a prophet
in Israel. The prophet in spiritual history is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the prophet, priest, and
king. He declares who God is. He is
God's way. And before God saves us, that's
what we're going to learn. Christ is all. He's all. And
we are absolutely nothing. That's what we're going to have
to learn. God's going to have to teach us that. Naaman, he comes to
Elisha with all his pomp and all his circumstance. I can just
see Elisha sitting there in his study. And his servant comes
and says, Naaman's out there. And he said, well, go tell him
to wash. Don't you want to come see him? No, just go tell him
to wash. He wouldn't. He'd not even go out and see
him. He'd just send his servant to go out there, you know. Because
Elisha, his business is to teach Naaman, you're nothing. And Christ,
he wouldn't even go see him. Now we're starting to see God's
humbling grace. God's electing grace. God sent
a messenger to Naaman, didn't he? He brought him to the prophet.
Now here's God's humbling grace. Naaman is going to be humble
before the Lord does anything for him. Elisha already showed
him, you're nothing special. You just go to Christ. And part
of this instruction was this, Naaman, you got there to Jordan,
you take off those general's clothes and you strip naked in
front of all your men. and from all those servants,
and from all these conquered Jews that might be around, you
strip naked and show them what you are. You're a leper. You get rid of all those distinguishing
characteristics of your clothing, you strip naked in front of everybody,
and you go dip in that Jordan, that muddy Jordan River, seven
times. Don't go to a nice bathhouse
now. Don't go to some nice lake that's
clear, crystal water. You go to the muddy Jordan, You
strip naked, you show everybody what you are, you're a leper.
And you dip seven times, not just once, seven times. See, Naaman's gonna have to learn
everything he thinks is wrong. This is not the way Naaman thought
this deal was gonna go. Naaman's gonna have to learn
what he thinks is wrong. Naaman thought Elisha would come
out and do some mumbo jumbo, you know, like a Catholic priest
and the whole deal would be taken care of. He thought we'll have
us a nice religious ceremony. He'll stand in a nice place.
He'll put me in a prominent position in front of him. And this is
where he says here, yeah, verse 11, he thought he would strike
his hand over the place. You know what that means? He
thought he'd do some religious motion with his hand. He thought
he'd do something over the place and then I'd be clean. Naaman
thought wrong, didn't he? God's thoughts are not our thoughts. God's ways are not our ways.
God's thoughts and God's ways are much higher than our ways
and our thoughts. And before God's gonna do anything for you
and me, he's gonna humble us the same way he did in the end.
We're gonna have to be humble. Now, young people that grow up
hearing the gospel, you young people, you grow up, you've never
heard anything but the gospel. In your head, you know things
that are true. You know things your friends don't know up here,
and you do. You've been taught those things. If you're halfway
listening, you've been taught those things. You know that don't
do you no good. Now you're gonna have to be humbled.
You have to be humbled. That doesn't do you any good,
what you know up here. It's what God does in here that makes the
difference, doesn't it? We're going to have to be humble.
We're going to have to be humbled from our sin. We're going to
have to be humbled from our self-righteousness. We're going to have to unlearn
what our parents taught us. Our parents all taught us we're
something special. God's going to have to teach us we're not
anything special. We're just a leper. We're just a sinner.
Naaman was nothing more than a leper. And you and I are nothing
more than sinners. And God's going to have to humble
us. He's going to have to strip us. He's going to have to publicly
strip us. So all those filthy rags that
we're trying to cover up our sin, that's Naaman, he had those
fancy generals clothes, he's using them to cover up his leprosy.
You and I got some rags of righteousness. Some things that are righteous
things that we've done good, you know, and we're trying to
use that to cover up our sin, to cover up how ugly and bad
we are. God's going to have to take those off of us. He's going
to have to strip us naked. And we're going to have to admit
before God, and ourselves, and everybody else, I'm a wretched,
vile sinner. My sin is an ugly, ugly disease
that makes me worthy of nothing but God's wrath. Now God's going
to have to humble us. And He's going to have to bring
us, not to some fancy place, but to the despised Jesus of
Nazareth. The Lord doesn't send his message
to great big religious buildings that impress the flesh and draws
lots of people. God sends his message to humble
places, to humble people, because that's where Christ is going
to be glorified, where the flesh won't be impressed, but God's
people will. And the Lord's got to humble
us. He's got to teach us everything we think is wrong. And I warned
you about this in our lesson this morning. Whatever it is
the natural understanding thinks and understands, you just write
it down, it's wrong. God's got to teach us what we think is
wrong. All our thoughts about who God
is and how God saves sinners, they're wrong. Our marriage promises
you they're wrong. My advice is this. Get rid of
every sentence. Just get this out of your vocabulary. But I thought, or this is my
pet peeve, but I just think. Whatever follows, but I just
think is wrong. I mean, I've never heard anything
true follow the phrase, but I just think. It's always wrong. But
I just think God will save us if we do our best. But I just
think if we're sincere and we give and we're nice people, we're
moral people, I just think God will save us. But I just think
God will be impressed with me. You know, if I go down there
to the priest and, well, that ceremony's impressive, you know,
they got the candles and the music and the people and it's
just, you know, they're speaking a language I don't understand,
you know, but I just think God's impressed with that. Look at
1 Timothy chapter 4. Now, where'd you hear that from?
You might've heard it from your mama, but you didn't hear it
from God. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7. but refuse profane in old wives'
tables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily
exercise profiteth little." Going down all these motions of religion,
that profiteth little. But godliness is profitable unto
all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that
which is to come. See, what's God impressed by? Christ. How you lay hold on Him. Not by religious motion, by faith. By faith. Someone else says,
well, I just think God likes it when we have these solemn
ceremonies. Look at Isaiah chapter 1. Is
that what you think? God's impressed with our religious
ceremonies? Who told you that? I'm telling
you, God didn't tell you that. Isaiah 1 verse 11. Listen to
what God says. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of ram, and the fat of fed beast. And I delight not
in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Will
you come to appear before me? Who hath required this at your
hand, to tread in my courts? Bring no more vain oblations,
incenses, and abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It's iniquity. Even
the solemn meeting, your new moons and your appointed feasts
and my soul hate it. They're trouble unto me and I'm
weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands and your solemn ceremonies, I'll hide my eyes from you. Yea,
when you make many prayers, I will not eager. Your hands are full
of blood. I don't think God's impressed
with our solemn ceremonies, do you? Someone else says, well,
I just think that God's so good that he sent Jesus to die for
everybody, to give everybody a chance to be saved. If they'll
just ask Jesus into their heart, you know. Well, now, who told
you that? Who told you Christ died for
everybody? I can tell you God didn't tell
you that. Look in John chapter 10. Christ died for His sheep. Christ died for His elect and
only His elect. He didn't die for everyone. This
is what our Lord says in John 10, verse 11. I am the good shepherd. Well,
you're right. God is good. I am the good shepherd. And the
good shepherd giveth His life for who? The sheep. God's elect. You know, God's
not very good. If he sent his son to lay down
his life, people are going to go to hell anyway. That's not
good. God sent his son to die for his elect so that those elect
would be saved. Their sins would be washed away.
Well, why doesn't everybody believe on Christ? Everybody's a sinner.
Everybody needs him. Why doesn't every sinner believe
on Christ? Why wouldn't they? Let me tell
you. because Christ didn't die for
them. Look at verse 26 here in John 10. This is what our Lord
said, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. You believe
not because I didn't die for you. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life and they should never perish.
Neither should any man pluck them out of my hand. Well, someone
else says this, but I just think, God wants to save everybody.
He's just waiting to see if somebody will decide to invite Jesus into
his heart. Is that what you think? Who told you that? I didn't tell
you that. Look at Romans chapter nine.
God didn't tell you that. Do we really think God's just
waiting to see what we'll decide? Well, verse 15, Romans 9. For
he said to Moses, I will have mercy in whom I will have mercy.
I have compassion in whom I will have compassion. So then, it's
not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. See, that's what God says. And
our big problem is believing what we think instead of what
God says. Isn't that what got us in this mess in the first
place? God said, Adam, don't eat the fruit of that tree. And
Adam thought he knew a better way than God did. He condemned
us to this whole mess of sin. We need to quit thinking and
start reading God's Word. We need to quit thinking and
just start believing what God says. Come to Christ empty handed. Don't come like Naomi did with
all this pomp and circumstance. You come empty handed. You come
looking for Christ. Don't come looking for doctrines
to improve your point. Come looking for Christ. Don't
come thinking, well, this is the right place. Don't look for
the right place. Look for the person. The doctrine
and the place are not going to save you, but the person will.
You come looking for Christ. He'll save you. Now last in our
text, Naaman, he finally went down. Finally, he went down. Verse 13, 2 Kings chapter 5. And his servants came near and
spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do
some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather
then, when he said to thee this simple thing, just wash and be
clean. Then he went down, he went down. and dipped himself
seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God,
and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean." Now here's old Naaman, he's getting ready
to storm away. The prophet told him of the healing,
didn't he? And he's going to storm away and go back to Syria
and die a leper. And what Naaman's disease would
have kept him from being cleansed, would it? It was pride. And it's not our sin that ever
keeps us from being saved. It's our pride. It's our self-righteousness. Sin is not going to send people
to hell. Self-righteousness is what sends people to hell. And
one of Naaman's servants had a little bit of wisdom and he
stopped Naaman and asked him a question. That's why I say,
Naaman must have been a pretty good guy, that maid. She cared
whether Naaman lived or died. His servants get together. Naaman's
storming off in a rage and they're over here talking. You know,
they're like drawing straws. Do you ever draw the short straw?
I've got to go tell Naaman you're being a fool, you know. But did
he care about Naaman? He went to him and asked him
this question. He said, General, God told you to do some great
thing, some difficult, painful thing in order to be healed.
You'd have done it without even batting an eye, wouldn't you? Why don't
you do this easy, painless thing? Why won't you? I saw God's electing
grace. God sent him a messenger. God
brought him to the prophet. We saw God's humbling grace.
Naaman, you are stripped down naked. Show everybody what you
are. Now here's God's saving grace. Now Naaman stopped. And he went down and he obeyed. He humbled himself before everyone
there. He stripped naked. And he dipped
in the river Jordan seven times. And on that seventh time, he
came up and his skin was like a little child. Just clear, perfect
skin. Now isn't that man? Men are willing
to do anything in order to have salvation. Men will do anything
to have a little bit of peace when they think about this matter,
dying and going to face God in judgment. Man will do anything
except do nothing. Man will do anything except have
Christ do it all. We'll give anything, we'll do
anything, we'll pay anything in order to have eternal life
except be humbled before God and ask Him for mercy. We won't
beg. We'll do anything but beg. We'll
do anything but have Christ save us by Himself. But when God saves
a sinner, God sends His Spirit to him and gives him the message
He's going to make that sinner willing in the day of His power.
He's going to be willing to be humbled. He's going to be willing
to come down. God's way up is by going down. And God's going to make His people
willing to go down. When God saves a sinner, there's
obedience. There's the obedience of faith.
It's not the obedience to the law, it's obedience to faith.
Despite everything I am, I'm obedient. God told me to look
to Christ, I'm looking. God told me to trust Christ,
I'm trusting. Because God gave me a heart that's
willing to be obedient. When God saves a sinner, there's
going to be obedience to follow the Lord and believe in baptism.
It's a public confession of my Savior. The salvation involves
submission. Submission. That's what Paul's
complaint against the kinsmen after the flesh. They won't submit
themselves to the righteousness of Christ. But God saves you,
you will. You gladly submit yourself to
the righteousness of Christ. I don't have any. Oh, I'll gladly
submit myself to Christ. It's all my righteousness. I'll
gladly submit myself to God's way. I'll submit myself to God's
terms of surrender. I'll gladly do it. And God saves
a sinner, there's a new birth. That's what Naaman's flesh becoming
as a little child is a picture of. It's a new birth. See, this
cleansing, it went a whole lot more than skin deep. Naaman comes
up from that water with a different attitude, a different spirit,
doesn't he? And he's got a new heart. He doesn't just have new
skin. That skin's going to still die someday. But there's been
a heart work here. Now, Naaman goes back to the
prophet with a totally different attitude. Now he's not wanting
to impress the prophet. Now he's not wanting to buy healing
from the prophet. He wants to give. Look at verse
15. He returned to the man of God, he and all his company,
and came and stood before him. He said, Behold, now I know there's
no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now, therefore, I
pray that you take a blessing of my servant. But he said, As
the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I'll receive none. And he urged
him to take it, but he refused. Now, Elisha wisely wouldn't take
the money at this time. And here's why this is so wise.
There weren't gonna be any doubt in Naaman's mind, but he didn't
want doubt in anybody's mind. Naaman wasn't healed because
of what he brought to God. Naaman was healed because God
freely cleansed him of his sin. God made him willing. Naaman
had nothing to do with it. This is all of God's grace. And
when there's a new birth, there's a new walk, a walk that follows
Christ. Look here at verse 18. I've looked
and looked and looked at this this week. Naaman says, in this
thing the Lord pardoned my servant. Then when my master goeth into
the house of Rimmon to worship there, he leaneth on my hand
and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow down myself
in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardoned my servant in this thing.
And he said, go in peace. So he departed from him a little
way. Now what's that mean? Well, I
don't really know. To tell you the truth, I don't
really know. I know this. This is what I know. Elisha is
not condemning the sin of idolatry. He is condemning. He's not just
accepting or condoning the sin of idolatry. Not at all. And
Naaman doesn't have any desire to be found in idolatry. He says
at the end of verse 17, For thy servant will henceforth offer
neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but only unto
the Lord. So he's not asking if he can
go participate in idolatry and Elisha's not telling him it's
okay. Maybe Elisha's telling him if your master, you know,
is going to lean on your hand, makes you go to this house of
idolatry, the Lord still give you peace. Maybe he's saying
that. Some of the writers think that's what he's saying. Some
of the writers think that really this in the original was written
in the past tense and Naaman is asking for forgiveness for
the many times he did in the past go to the house of idolatry,
but he won't do that anymore. And I don't know which this means,
to tell you the truth. But I do know Elisha told him, you go
in peace. God forgives you. You go in peace. And I think
this is a good point for us to close on. We're talking this
morning about God's grace. God's electing, humbling, saving
grace. There is a lot of uncertainty
left in the life of every believer. There's just a lot of uncertainty.
There's a lot of things we don't know. And you know what? That's okay. It's okay. You don't have to know all these
things. You just don't have to know them.
I don't have to understand everything there is to know about God and
everything there is to know about all the intricate details of
how God put away my sin in order to have peace. Are you listening
to me? All you have to have is Christ.
You don't have to understand Him, you have to believe Him.
God didn't say understand, God said believe. If you have Christ,
you have peace. Even though you don't understand
everything there is to know about God, you have peace. Now we can
close on that. What grace, what grace if we
have Christ. He is our peace. And I tell you
when you have peace, When God humbles you, and you surrender.
You're just going to have to surrender to him, and you have
peace. But there's going to be peace
on his terms, not ours in all our lives. Christ is our peace.
Let's bow in prayer.