Morning, everybody. You want
to turn to your text. It's 2 Corinthians chapter 1.
2 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll
take our text from verse 12. This is Paul speaking to the Corinthians. Pay attention, if you would,
to the first four words here. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12. Paul says, for our rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly,
to you. Now the verse opens with those
four words, Paul says, our rejoicing is this. He's going to identify
something here. And that word rejoicing, if you
look up what it means, it means this, it means what you glory
in, or what you boast in, or what you enjoy. What every believer
enjoys, what they feel good about. We could all use something to
feel good about, couldn't we? So here's the question. We'll start
off with this. Even in the darkest hour, in
the deepest bit of despair, what is it that we can rejoice in,
that every believer can rejoice in, glory in, and feel good about? Let's find out. Turn over to
Romans chapter 5. Paul has a whole lot to say on
this topic, but he spends a fair amount of time in Romans chapter
5 using this word, the same root word, rejoice. And through the
epistles, he has lots to say about it. We'll look at many
of them this morning, but I want to start in Romans 5. Just pick up in
verse 1. We'll see four reasons right
here through our reading why every believer has cause to rejoice. Look at verse 1. Paul opens with
this. He says, therefore, being justified
by faith. I think we have to stop there
for a second. Whose faith? Whose faith am I justified by?
Is it mine? Because if it is, we have a problem. Faith is not
the cause of justification. It never will be. Faith is the
effects of justification. God justifies His man freely
by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know what the
effects are? Every single time without fail, that man believes.
The Lord gives him a heart full of faith and he believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. The faith of the believer is
the effect, it is not the cause. This is the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, being justified by
the faithfulness of Christ can say just that. But here, here's
the rejoicing. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the first cause every
believer has to rejoice. Right now, if you're looking
to Christ alone, you truly have peace with God. You are justified
completely and fully by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there truly is between you, the sinner, right now, and between
God himself, the one who judges all and sees all, absolute and
total peace. There is no war. Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare it's accomplished,
it's over with. Now the next one, go to verse
two. Paul says, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Two things there. Number one,
rejoice that you have access to grace. Now God is just. He's absolutely just. When he
sees sin, there is only one thing he can do. He can punish that
one who he sees that sin upon. That's all he can do. But this,
because we are justified by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we now have free access to grace. free, unmerited, saving
favor. When the Father looks at all
God's people, He sees this, people I can be gracious to, people
I can give to, people I can save, and He does it in this manner.
He doesn't lift up the carpet and sweep anything under. He
doesn't say, I'm just going to forget about their sins, I'm just going
to overlook them. He can't. He is a just God. He looks at
them and says they are perfect because that's exactly what they
are. And he says, I will be gracious right now if you're justified
by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe
in Christ, this is the case for you right here. Here's the other
thing. He says, rejoice that Christ
gets all the glory in your salvation. There's two things we can rejoice
in that. Number one, we rejoice that he gets all the glory in
our salvation because first, he deserves it. He deserves every
bit of it. Is that what you want? You want Christ to get all the
glory in your salvation, because I'm good with that. That's what
I want. But here's the greater thing. This is the greater rejoicing
right here. If he gets all the glory in my
salvation, you know what that means? That means he's done all
the work. The glory goes to the one who
does the work, the one who accomplishes the task, the one who does. And if there was any glory saved
up for me that I could have, that would mean there was something
I had to do, that man had to do, and I couldn't do that thing,
whatever it could be. But because the Lord Jesus Christ
gets all the glory in my salvation, that means he did all the work,
and there's nothing left for me to do. Now look at the next
one. Look at verse 3. This one's slightly
odd. Paul says, and not only so, but
we glory, that's that same word as rejoice, in tribulations also,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. Now that seems odd. It seems
almost out of place. Paul says we glory in tribulations. Does that mean in trial, in tribulation,
we feel good about it? That it doesn't hurt? that we
don't experience sorrow and pain and devastation. No, we experience
all those things. Trials are exactly what they
are. They're trials and they're painful and they're uncomfortable,
but they're purposeful. They're very, very purposeful.
And this is the cycle of the believer, the life cycle of the
believer. We have relative peace, and I say relative because we're
sinners, and we live in a sinful world, and there's always some
sort of trouble going on, but we live in relative peace. Then
the Lord sends trouble. He sends trial, tribulation.
And you know what we have to do? We're stuck in a place where
all we can do is patiently wait on the Lord to comfort us and
deliver us. And you know what happens? He
does that. Every single time, in one way,
shape, form, or another, every single time he sends the tribulation,
he always sends the comfort. He always delivers. And I want
to give you the evidence of that real quick. I'm going to read
this to you. This is 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4. It says, blessed
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in,
don't miss this word, all our tribulation. That's not a statement
of fact, folks. That's a promise. Every single
time, He comforts. And then what happens? We have
relative peace. And then you know what happens
next? A trial starts all over again. And you live in that life
cycle, and you live there long enough, in that patient life
cycle, awaiting on the Lord. You know what that builds? It
builds experience. We build an experience of the Lord delivering
us in those trials and comforting us during those trials. You know
what that builds? Hope. And the hope is this. that if he thinks of me, this
insignificant speck of dust in this grand universe he's made,
if he lovingly and caringly thinks of me, and he knows my troubles
and he knows my sufferings, and he's seen fit to think of me
and lovingly care for me during those tribulations, and he's
given thought to that, how much greater thought has he given
to my greatest need? And that is my salvation. Patience
and experience and hope. That's what Paul's talking about
there. That's why he says we glory in tribulation. It causes
us to grip to the Lord Jesus Christ even tighter. Now, turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. We're staying with this theme.
What can the believer rejoice in? In this passage, we'll see
one thing, but I want to look at some of the things Paul has
to say here, because I find them beautiful. But look at verse 26, 1 Corinthians
1, 26. Paul says, for you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen,
I love that word, the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and
things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and the things
which are not to bring to naught things that are. And I love that
passage of scripture right there because that tells us plainly
who chooses. God has chosen. He uses that word over and over
and over. He's chosen. He's chosen a people. He chose
a people before time began. He chose them unto salvation.
Those people are, must be, and will be saved. But who are those
people? He tells us right here. He says
they're base. Base. You know what that word
means? I looked it up. Here's what it means. It means
of no noble name and no noble reputation. It means to be a
sinner. That's what it's talking about.
You know what name every believer answers to? I thought about this.
This is the name every believer can answer to. It's Jacob. Jacob. I thought about Jacob. You have
Jacob and Esau. They're in the womb. You know
where Jacob was? He was the bottom. He was the last. The last one.
He gets his name, Jacob. It means heel holder. Because
when Esau, that old brother, when he came out of that womb,
Jacob latched onto his heel, and he came out right behind
Esau. And folks, that's every believer. We're at the bottom.
A sinner, nothing more. The chief of sinners. But we
latch onto Christ, and this is our hope, that when he goes to
his father, and he has full acceptance before his father, and he has
full love with his father, everything God has, he gives to his son,
that we have that too. Clinging to Christ, actually
being in him. He says they're base. He says
they're weak. This is Romans 5, 6. Paul said, For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Who did he die for? Those without
strength and the ungodly. The polar opposite of who God
is. He's sovereign. He's in control. I'm not. He's
holy. He's blameless. I'm not. I'm
filthy. I'm wicked. He's omniscient. He knows all
things. I know nothing. I'm foolish and weak. Can't come up with
the goods. Can't please God. Can't come
up with the work that God would be pleased with. Can't perform
the basic functions of spiritual life. Can't believe. Can't repent.
That's who Christ died for. Those who can't. The weak and
the ungodly. And he says, the foolish. And
that's exactly what the world will label us. The foolish. You
tell me you believe that you will be saved completely and
utterly based on the merits of someone else and all your works
are completely and utterly excluded. 100% yes. And the world will
say you are a fool because this world is all built, everything
around us is built on this. You got to earn it. You've got
to do something. And in this world, that's true.
You've got to earn it. And in the things of God, the
only way you exclude yourself from Christ is by trying to earn
it. Go on in the reading. Look at
verse 29. Paul says that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
that's that same word, rejoice, let him glory, or rejoice, in
the Lord. Now folks, we rejoice in this,
every believer rejoices in this, that we are in the Lord, we are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if we are in Him, that
means He's in us. And that means He has made unto
us all these things that Paul talks about here. He's made unto
this first wisdom. Why don't you consider this for
a minute. I'm going to try to say it right,
but these are high things. The way the Lord designed salvation,
His manner by which He does this, it is uncomparable to anything
in the human realm. He takes a man who is truly guilty. A man who has truly committed
the crime and is truly deserving punishment. He takes that man
and he makes him to be what he was not. He makes him innocent.
To where he is not guilty. To where he never committed the
crime. To where he does not deserve punishment. And there is nothing
in this world that compares to that. Absolutely nothing. If
a man is guilty, if a man has committed the crime, even if
we punish that man, it doesn't undo the wrong. We can't rewrite
history. We can't make the wrong go away.
We can punish them, but we can't undo the wrong. Nothing else
in this world compares. But yet, this is the wisdom of
God. Christ is the wisdom of God. Job asked this question.
He said, how then can man be justified with God? Because I'm
looking around and I can't find any way in this world it's possible.
In human terms, there's no possible way. But with Christ, He is the
answer to that question. He is the wisdom of God. He is
our wisdom. Only he could do this. Only he
could take the sins of his people and he could actually lift it
off of them and make them his own. Nobody else could do that.
Nobody else could die successfully. Unto success. Every other man
dies and it's simply a testimony that he was a sinner. That's
it. It tells that he was a failure. That's all. When this man died,
he died unto success, completely and utterly putting away the
sins of all his people. That's why God raised him from
the dead. Only this man could live a perfect life, perfect
obedience to God, and make that righteousness the very righteousness
of his people. Nobody else could do this. There's
no other way. But yet, the wisdom of God is
Jesus Christ. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. We talked about this. The very obedience of Jesus Christ
actually is the obedience of all his people. And we looked
at this, I think it was last Tuesday night, but it was Hebrews
7. Abraham, after he went and he
delivered Lot, he went and he went to Melchizedek. And he paid
tithes to Melchizedek of everything he spoiled. And it says in that
scripture there that Levi, Abraham's son, that he paid tithes in Abraham. Levi was not born yet. But he
was in the loins of his father, and it says this, that Levi paid
tithes. It's the same with every believer.
Folks, everything Christ has done, we truly have done. That's
real. Only he could do this. He's our
wisdom, he's our righteousness, he's our sanctification. Number
one, he's the reason for our sanctification. Why is the believer
chosen? Why were you chosen? because
the Lord chose Christ. God the Father, in eternal election,
he had one elect. He had a first elect, and it
was Christ. He chose Christ. And when he chose Christ, he
set apart all God's elect, because every believer has always shared
a union with the Lord Jesus Christ. God chose him. And when he chose
him, he got all of us with him. It was a package deal. But not
only that, He is our sanctification. Listen to scripture, this is
Hebrews 2.11. It says, for both He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not
ashamed to call them brethren. See a baby in a mother's womb.
That baby's part of the mother. That umbilical cord runs and
everything that flows through the mother flows through that
child. Same thing with Christ. Is He holy right now? Is he righteous
right now? Is he sinless right now? Is he
seated to the right hand of his father right now? Folks, as he
is, so are we in this world. Don't ask me to explain it. But
it's true. It's absolutely true. And he's
our redemption. The word redeemed, it means to
pay a ransom. pay ransom. Who held us at ransom? God's justice and God's holy
law. They demanded punishment. They
demanded ransom. They demanded that the debt would
be paid. And this is what Paul said. Remember,
we're talking about what the believer rejoices in, what he
glories in. He said this in Galatians 6.14. He said, but God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Paul says, there's one thing
I'm to glory in. the cross, because that's exactly where my ransom
was paid. The debt was paid in full by Christ, and now there
are no debtors that are knocking at our door. That means there's
nothing left to do. That means there's no works left
to perform. Truly, Christ did it all. Let's look at a little more.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 12. Remember, we're talking about
what the believer rejoices in. 2 Corinthians 12, pick up in verse
1. Paul's going to talk a little bit about his experience here.
He says, It is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory. I
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in
Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot
tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such
an one caught up in the third heaven, and I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God
knoweth, how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable
words which is not lawful for a man to utter." Now, Paul's
talking about his experience here. He had a very unusual experience.
He was taught the gospel directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says, I don't know if I was in the body or I was out of the
body, I have no idea, but I know God himself taught me the gospel.
This was a very unusual experience. And what he's getting at here
is this, he's like, if this had happened to a man, just like
me, he goes, the natural tendency would be this, to glory in it.
You say, listen, I had this very special experience, I must be
special, and to glory in that. But look what Paul says, look
at verse five. Paul says, of such in one will I glory. You know what he's saying there?
He said, I'm gonna glory in somebody, but it's not in me. I'm gonna
glory in the one of whom I was taught. I'm gonna glory in Christ.
But go on and hear what he says. Yet of myself I will not glory,
but in mine infirmities, my sinful pollutions. Now that seems odd. What does he mean by that? Does
that mean that we glory in our sin? We're proud of it? We boast
in it? Heaven forbid. Absolutely not. What's he talking
about? He's not saying I boast in my
sin. He's saying I glory in this fact that the Lord revealed to
me that I'm a sinner. Because Christ came to save sinners. We don't glory in our sin. We
hate our sin. We don't relish in it. We don't
boast in it. But folks, aren't you thankful that the Lord saw
fit to teach you that you were a sinner? And it's for this reason,
because the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save
sinners. And if you fit that category,
you're somebody he came into this world to save. All right,
go back to your text. 2 Corinthians 1 again. Keep a marker there if you will,
we're going to go back to it a couple of times. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12 again. Paul says, for our rejoicing
is this, everything we just talked about. He says the testimony
of our conscience. Now what does he mean by that?
What Paul's saying there is the believer's conscience, it agrees
with his rejoicing. It agrees that it is a good rejoicing,
that the believer has a good hope, a good rejoicing, and a
good glory. His conscience agrees with it.
Now, what is a good conscience? A good conscience is a clear
conscience that has no guilt. And somebody says, well, I believe
on Christ, but I have a very guilty conscience. I've always
felt guilty about something. Me too. I'm right there with
you. Don't feel bad. I'm not talking about our conscience
as we look to ourselves. If we do that, we'll find all
reasons for our conscience to burn. It should. I'm talking
about our conscience as we look to Christ. Now let's look at
some of these things. Turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse
11. The writer of the Hebrews says,
but Christ being come, and high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building. The tabernacle was his body.
He tabernacled with us. neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in, this is such an
important word, once into the holy place. having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify
it to the purifying the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. Here's a summary of what Paul
is saying there. He's talking about the Old Testament economy
of worship. He's talking about the sacrifices and the feasts
and all the rituals. What he's saying there is none
of them ever took away sins. Never took away one sin. That's
why the priest had to repeat him over and over and over again. But Christ entered in once. He
walked into the holy place. He walked into the presence of
God, bearing the sins of his people. And he offered himself
once. He offered himself once to God
for sin. And this is what he accomplished
through that. The term he uses, the phrase, is eternal salvation. Eternal. Done once. done forever. He's the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. That means every believer, every
child of God has always been safe and secure in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does that have to do
with the conscience? What's the point? When the Lord
reveals this to a man, that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
him offering himself once for God, for his people, that that
is singularly, singularly his salvation, his conscience becomes
purged from dead works. What's a dead work? It's any
work that can't produce life. And concerning man, that's everything. That's every action, that's every
thought, that's every motive, that's every decision, everything
that the natural man would bring toward God and say, you should
save me because I, name it, whatever it is. The conscience is now
purged from dead works. It is inconscionable for the
believer to do that. I don't want the Lord to see
anything I've done. I don't want him to see anything I've thought.
I don't want any of that brought before God. The only thing I
want him to see is Christ. Remember the Passover? Night
of the Passover, what mattered? You were either in the house
with the blood over the door, or you weren't. In that house,
there might have been someone of weak faith and someone of
strong faith. You know what? If he saw the blood, he passed
over. Might be somebody in there who committed a heinous crime
that day and another man who lived a relatively moral life.
What mattered? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. There was one thing God was looking
for. It was blood. That was it. The conscience becomes
purged from dead works. It becomes inconscionable to
try to bring anything we do before God as a recommendation of salvation. Let me give you another one here.
It's 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins. You see that? How that keeps
popping up? How he once suffered. This is an offering that was
made once. It was done once. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, that just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,
by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Now,
let's stop there for just a second. Have you ever read that and wondered
what that means? Does that mean that Christ, after he was crucified,
he went to hell and he preached to people there? No, folks, that's
not what that means. It's very, very simple. Folks,
right there, he went and preached to the spirits in prison. That's
what we hope and pray is going on every time we meet together.
And right now, the Lord is delivering a message. But he has a message
for us. And he's speaking right now. He's speaking to the spirits
in bondage. That's me and you. In bondage
to sin. Can't get out of it. In bondage
to the law. This is what gospel preaching is. It's the Lord speaking
to the spirits in bondage. That's what that means. Now go
on reading. Look at verse 20. Which sometimes we're disobedient.
When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls,
were saved by water. What is the message that is always
preached? No matter what book you're coming from, no matter
what chapter you're coming from, no matter what verse you're coming
from, it's always the same message, the same message Noah had, get
in the boat. There's a storm coming. There's a storm of God's
wrath coming. He's gonna wipe everybody out.
He is a just and a holy God. And there is one place of safety
in the ark, in Christ. That ark was prepared for eight
people. Eight people walked into that ark. God shut the door and
eight people were saved. That door is wide open to any
sinner in need of mercy. Get in the boat. That's the message
every single time. Now, look down here. Look at
verse 21. This is an antitype. The like
figs are weary unto, even baptism doth also now save us. Now, not
the putting away the filth of the flesh. What Paul's saying
there is he's not saying that water baptism actually saves
a man. Saying that's not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh. Here's what he's saying. But the answer of a good conscience,
a clear conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Now, Peter's giving us what's called an anti-type here.
I had to look this up. So before, he gave us an illustration of
the gospel, which was the ark and Noah. The water was the wrath
of God. Christ was the ark. There was
safety in one place, being in the ark, being in Christ. Now
the water represents Christ. And the type is baptism. When the believer confesses Christ
in baptism, what is he confessing? When we stand above the water,
we're saying when he lived, when he lived that perfect and obedient
life, that's my life before God. That's my righteousness before
God. When we go under the water, we're saying, when He died, I
died in Him. My hope is that He died for me,
and I died in Him. That's when I was punished. That's
when I died. When we come out of the water, we're saying, my
hope is this, that when He was resurrected, blameless, the very
sign that everything He came to do, He accomplished, that
I was resurrected in Him. We are confessing that our hope,
our entire hope of salvation, is being in Christ. And you know what? When the Lord
reveals that to the man, that his hope is all in Christ, he
develops a good conscience. It is a conscience that is clear,
that is without guilt. What is the only thing that can
clear your conscience and make you feel good before standing
before God is knowing that there is nothing to feel guilty about. That there is no sin. That through that one offering,
when he stepped into the holy place once and he died, He actually
did put away my sin to where there is none left. That means I have nothing to
feel guilty about. It is a clear conscience before God because
the reason for guilt has completely and utterly been removed. Go back to your text, 2 Corinthians
1. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12. Paul
says, "...for our rejoicing is this, the testimony or the witness
of our conscience, that in simplicity or singularity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly Wisdom. Now, here's a reason to rejoice
in the simplicity of Christ and the simplicity of the gospel.
Now, the word simplicity, like I told you, it means singularity.
Singularity. We've talked about the singularity
of Christ at length in this message, so I'm not going to spend too
much time on this, but think about this for a second. The
simplicity or the singularity that is in Christ. What is my
one hope of salvation? It is singular. It's that Jesus
Christ died for me. That's it. What is the singular
righteousness? Because this is the man's view
of salvation, a man's view of righteousness, that it's a patchwork
garment. You do your best, Christ does the rest. You come up with
your righteousness, and He fills in the gaps with His, and you
sew it together, and it all works. Folks, there's only one. There's
only one. There's only one righteousness. Singular. It's His. We have a
singular object of faith. We trust one man. We trust Him
to do everything. It is a singular object. Everything
in the Gospel is singular. Everything about Christ is singular.
But I want you to consider this, though. This is something I hadn't
thought of before. Would you think about the singularity
involved in coming to Christ? In coming and seeking mercy and
actually believing upon Him. There is singularly one thing
you need to bring. One thing. There is one prerequisite
for coming to Christ and receiving mercy. Do you want to know what
it is? Luke 9 verse 11 says this, And the people, when they knew
it, followed him and he received them, and spake unto them of
the kingdom of God, and he healed them that had need of healing."
One singular prerequisite for coming to Christ and receiving
mercy, and you'll never be turned away, is simply to have a need. Notice there it does not say
you have to feel your need very strongly. You have to burn with
this needy desire, because that's going to wane and wax day by
day. All it says is, you have to have a need. He came and He
healed those who had need of healing. That's the one prerequisite.
Do you meet that one? What is the need? It is the need
for Christ to have done absolutely everything that is necessary
for the Father to accept me. Do you have that need? You meet
the prerequisite. Come on. That's it. And it leads
into the next point. Paul says we rejoice in this,
in godly sincerity and not with fleshly wisdom. That word godly
sincerity, you know what that means? It's talk about being
transparent. It means not hiding anything. You think about the
beauty of this. When you come to Christ, the way you are commanded
to come, the only way you'll be accepted is if you don't hide
anything. You come completely transparent. You come just as
you are in all your sin. You'll never be turned away.
The only way you'll be turned away is if you try to clean yourself
up. You want an example of that? Turn to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. I'm sure you
guys are familiar with Naaman. Naaman. Naaman was a great Syrian
general, very powerful man, very honorable man, very mighty man,
second only to the king of Syria. But Naaman's got one problem.
He's a leper. But he finds out from a little
maid that there's a prophet in Samaria that can heal lepers.
So he's going to go see him. It's Elijah. 2 Kings 5, look
at verse 9. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
And Elijah 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 went
away and said, behold, I thought. That's where all our problems
begin. I thought. He will surely come out to me.
and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and
far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went
away in a rage." Now, Naaman's got a couple problems here. He
does not like the manner that is prescribed to him to be cleaned,
that Jordan's just an old, dirty, muddy river. And it's beneath
him. He says, I thought that he would
come out, he's gonna strike his hand over the place. He thought
it was gonna be a big to-do, there was gonna be fire and there was
gonna be brimstone and all these other things. He said, I was
expecting some big to-do, this is beneath me, I'll have nothing
to do with this. Think about this for a second.
The most wonderful and mysterious and awe-inspired thing that happens
on this earth is when the Lord saves someone in their experience.
And when it happens, nobody knows it happens. Not even the person
that it happens to. When you believe, folks, when
the Lord saves you, one day you just find yourself believing.
And you don't know how long you've been doing that. You don't know
the exact minute. You don't know the exact day.
You might have a time range, but you don't know when it happens.
But right now, this could happen if the Lord was pleased to. He
could save someone right now. And it would be the most mysterious
and amazing and wonderful thing that's ever taken place. None
of us would ever know it. Not even the person that he was
saving in that very moment. But he's got another problem.
Look at what his servants said. Look at verse 13. And his servants
came near and spake unto him and said, my father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather than when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Now, what the servant is saying
there is, Naaman, if the prophet had said, if Elijah came out
here and said, there's the tallest mountain, shackle your hands
behind your back. If you can get to the tip of
that mountain, I'll heal you. You would have tried it, Naaman.
If he would have said, here's a sword. There's an army of 1,000
men out there. If you can slay them all by yourself,
I'll heal you. You would have tried it, Naaman.
You would have tried it. But when he says just go dip
in the river seven times, you won't do that. This is fleshly
wisdom, folks. The reason Naaman wouldn't do
those things, he wouldn't dip in the Jordan, he was willing
to do those greater things as this. There was glory for Naaman
doing those greater things. If he would have climbed the
mountain, Naaman could say, look what I did. I got to the top
of the mountain. That's where I was healed. All glory be Naaman.
If he slayed the army, and you say, see all those dead bodies?
I slew all those men, and that's how I was healed. All glory be
Naaman. But there's absolutely no glory
for Naaman, given that old dirty Jordan seven times. And that's
why he won't have anything to do with it. Folks, that's fledgling
wisdom right there. You tell a man, desire salvation? Believe on Christ. This man receiveth
sinners. That's it. That's it. Trust Him. That's it. There's
got to be more. Where's the thunder? Where's the lightning? Where's
the thing I need to do? Where's the glory for me in all this?
It ain't like that, buddy. Go dip in the Jordan seven times.
Just believe on Christ. That's it. But Naaman is one
of the Lords. The Lord loves Naaman. So you
know what happens? The Lord changes his mind. Read down here. Look
at verse 14. Then went he down. That's always
the way, it's down. And dipped himself seven times
in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh
came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was
clean." Now, visualize this for a second. I don't know what a
Syrian general wore back then, but I'm assuming he was very
impressive garments. Very, very impressive. You think about what
a general wears in armed forces today. Crisp uniform, big stack
of ribbons. He's walking around, you know
he's somebody, right? And I'm sure Naaman looked just the same.
You knew he was somebody, right? We're talking about godly sincerity
and transparency here. You imagine, Naaman turns around,
and he starts walking towards Jordan. And all of a sudden,
he starts stripping all that off. And he looked like a big,
powerful general before, but then he stood on the banks of
the Jordan, naked as the day he was born, and you didn't see
a powerful, mighty general anymore. All you saw was a leper. There
was true transparency there. In front of his servants, in
front of Elijah, most especially before the Lord, he stood there
exactly as he was. Just a leper. And then he was
a candidate for cleansing. And this is the point here, folks.
This is the godly sincerity. You come just as you are, in
complete and utter sincerity. Don't try to hide anything. Don't
try to sweep anything under the carpet. Don't use fleshly wisdom.
Don't try to build yourself up. That's how you'll be rejected.
You come just as you are, a sin-sick leper from the top of your head
to the sole of your foot. And you know what? You'll be healed.
Every single time. All right, let's read our text
one more time. Turn back there. The last thing Paul mentions
here. Paul says, for all rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God. We have had our conversation
in the world, and more abundantly to you, Lord. Now, Paul says
we've had our conversation. By the grace of God, we've had
our conversation in this world. And that word conversation, what
that means is conduct. Conduct, that's what he's talking about.
Now, when the Lord says a man, does it have an effect on his
conduct? Absolutely it does. But what is the conversation,
the true conversation of the believer in this world? I'm gonna
read it to you. This is 1 Peter 1, 17. And if
ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according
to every man's work, pass the time, that's the same word conversation,
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. What does he mean by that? Does
that mean I'm supposed to be afraid? Afraid of my circumstances?
What's going to happen tomorrow? No. The Lord's in control of
everything that's going to happen. And He has promised that everything
that's going to happen is for His glory and our good. Don't
fear that. Am I to fear men? Opposition? The Lord's in control
of them men. Am I to fear that the Lord is going to change His
mind? That today he looks at me in Christ and he says he's
perfect, he's holy, he's unblameable and unapprovable, and tomorrow
he says, no, it's not like that anymore. Absolutely not. What
God does, he does eternally. There is no turning back from
that. So fear of what? In the fear of the Lord. Now
what is that? Has something to do with respect.
has something to do with reverence for his person, has something
to do with standing in all of him. But the fear of the Lord
more than anything else, folks, is this, being afraid to look
anywhere but Christ alone. What's the conversation of the
believer? How do we spend our time in this world keeping our
eyes on Christ? I hope that was a blessing to
you.