2 Kings chapter 5 again. A few
more verses. 2 Kings chapter 5. We looked
at verse 1 last week. We're going to look at verses
1, 2 through 7. So I'll re-read verse 1 and then
we'll go to verse 7 and we'll stop there. This is Elisha, the 11th study
in this lesson of Elisha. 2 Kings 5, and let's start at
verse 1. Now Nahum, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable
Because of him, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Nahum's
wife. And this little maid said unto
her mistress, Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet, that is
in Samaria, for he would recover him, that is Nahum of his leprosy. And one went in and told his
Lord saying, thus and thus saith the maid, that is of the land
of Israel. And the king of Syria said, go to, go and I will send
a letter to the king of Israel And Naamim departed and took
with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold
and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter is come unto
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naamim, my servant, to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to
pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he
rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive
that this man, this king, does send unto me to recover a man
of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how this king of Syria seeks a quarrel against me."
We're going to stop there. So, we're going to see tonight
our kind and benevolent God will work His sovereign will to His
good pleasure. And oftentimes, it's against
the grain, or against our grain, so to speak, or in a way that
we would not even have thought of. God's providential dealings
with His people. So we look at verse 1, and we
talked about Nahum. He was great in the eyes of men,
but in the eyes of God, as all men are born in sin. He's a leper.
The leper we saw last week was a perfect picture of sin. Man born in trespasses and sin.
So as this leper was, as Nahum was, he being a leper, he's still
in need of cleansing, he's still in need of healing, or spiritually
he's in need of saving. This is what this pictures. And
yet life as we know it, verse 2, goes on. Yet nothing happens
by chance or by luck, but according to the will and pleasure of our
glorious God." Verse 2, the Syrians had gone out by companies, they
went into the land of Israel, which Israel was under the dominion
of the Syrians, but they would do what they wanted to. They
went in there and basically took slaves, servants, they would
go, I guess, house to house, and they found this little maid,
we don't even know her name, And they brought her back to,
coincidentally, Nahum's wife. So she's a servant. She was in
her own land. The Syrians invaded a Jewish
town or Jewish province. They took captive, for servitude
or slavery, a Jewish girl, which is called here a little maiden.
She was taken from her home, taken from her parents, from
her homeland and took her to wait on and serve Naomim's wife. Now, humanly speaking, this is
horrible. This is wrong. This is evil. It's harsh. It's cruel, etc.,
etc. Humanly speaking, what they did,
they went in and took her. took her away from a life that
she had known, a parents that took care of her, the security
and comfort and safety as a child would think, and they took her,
and you're going to wait on Nahum's wife. But spiritually, or not
even spiritually, but sovereignly, God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
Does not the scripture say that all things work together for
good? Tell that to her parents. Tell that to her. Are not all
of God's elect people under the care and concern of the Almighty
God? Yes. Tell that to her parents. And tell this to the little girl.
That's the first thought. God's providence and God's ways
All we can see, as one man said, is you look back and you see
God's providence. Or if you want to know what God is doing, read
the newspaper or read whatever. But that's what God's doing.
We don't see ahead. We don't prophesy. We don't look
ahead. We just day by day, one foot in front of the other. The
second thought I see here is in verse 3. She's taken captive. She's waiting as a servant or
a slave And this little girl said to her mistress, would God,
my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would
recover him of his leprosy. Now, I don't know about you,
and I don't know how this little Manethe and I were discussing,
we don't know how old she was, have no idea. Old enough to do
Servitude work old enough to take to do work in the house
clean or whatever She whatever her mistress said to do she would
do we know that But I ask you a question could ask myself this
question does anger abound in this little girl towards her
captive I Don't think so. I don't see
it. I don't see it. I don't know about you, but if
I was taken at a Any age before, any age, if I'm staying at home
and get taken, the last thing I'm going to do is do something
that will be to my enemies, my foes, good. That's exactly what
she did. She had compassion, concern,
and thought towards her enemies that brought her out from safety
and the security of her family and her homeland. So here's what
I see, and what I hope we all see, to be as this little grace
teacher, this little maid, to be kind and have compassion even
on our enemies. Secondly, to truly have a wonderful
testimony of the grace of God in the soul. It's one thing to
talk about grace, and it's another thing to have it and live it. Melinda and I were talking about
this very thing coming in. John Bunyan in prison. He wrote that great work, Pilgrim's
Progress. As far as I know, he wasn't railing
against the jailer. He wasn't railing against the
government. He wasn't doing any of that. He was thrown in there
falsely. You step back and say, well,
that's wonderful, but look at our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
was set up against him, humanly. And yet he was led to the slaughter
as a lamb. He didn't open his mouth. There's
our example. To be like Christ. And this little
maid is doing that. To have that testimony of the
grace of God in the soul. And thirdly, to truly believe
Romans 8.28. All things work together for
good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.
To truly believe that. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
6. And to truly believe this, Matthew chapter 6. I'm going
to look at several verses, just going to go through here. Matthew
chapter 6 and verse 9. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9. After this manner, therefore
pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our debts as we forgive
our debtors." This is exactly what she's doing. She doesn't
know if she's going to be fed. She doesn't know what's going
to happen. But she's forgiving those who sinned against her.
Forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. Verse 19, in the
same chapter. Matthew 6, verse 19. Lay not
up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Maybe she
was storing up dowels or whatever as a young girl. Well, the next
day, they're gone. It's gone. She doesn't have that
anymore. We are not to lay up, being in
this country, this is a tough one, because we do, we do, we
got to have extra this, extra that, extra two or three or four,
all these different things, extra, extra, extra. Don't lay up for
yourselves treasure upon earth, because it's going to be gone.
It's going to be gone. Verse 20, But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through or steal. Something happens,
get upset, or we could be kind. We could show kindness because
we've been shown kindness through the grace of God. And I'll tell
you, the older I get, it seems like it gets more difficult.
It's just so easy to complain. It's easy to fight stuff, this
and that. I hear Christ speaking to Paul.
He speaks to me. Is it hard for thee to kick against
the pricks? Submit. Submit to the glory of
God. I'm for you, I'm not against
you. But we have to constantly be reminded of that. Look at
verses 25-34. Therefore Christ says unto you
and to me, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat,
or what you shall drink, neither for your body what you shall
put on. Is not the life more neat in the body than more than
raiment? Behold, the fowls of the air,
they don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather in the barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Oh, that's good now. Oh,
but there's one more phrase. Are you not much better or more
in His eyes if He sent His Son to die for us, to bleed, to suffer,
to die? Are you not much better than they? Well, we need to be
frugal. Yes. We need to be good stewards.
Yes. But above all that, we use these things as excuses. Are we not much better than they? Don't take any thought for our
life. Verse 27, which of you by taking thought
can add one cubic to a statue? One thought. Can anyone? No, you can't do it. We can't
do it. We can't change the color of our skin. We can't do this. We can't do that. Why? Verse 28, take you thought for
raiment. Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, how they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet
I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast
in the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? Here's our problem,
O ye of little faith. Oh, ye of little faith. But here's
this little maid, this little grace teacher. Oh, how we could
learn from her. She's taken away from everything
she knows. And she says, oh, I wish my master
knew about the prophet. The Scriptures is plain about
us telling people, He says, if we withhold our gospel, it's
not woe unto us if we do so. We are not to withhold the Gospel.
He continues on. Therefore, don't take any thought
what you'll eat, what you'll drink, or what you're going to
wear. For all these things do the Gentiles seek. Now, to the
Jew, this was a pretty good rebuke. You're walking by sight and not
by faith. Walking by fear and not by faith. And I was looking at this down
at my mom's. Whatsoever is not of faith. This
is broad, but this hits every one of us. Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. So, we've got a lot of problems.
We've got a lot of problems. But thanks be to God, He's given
us the grace of faith that when we start acting like this, and
we'll see this very action in this little section, We realize,
no, God's on the throne. God's sovereign. God's in control. For your heavenly Father knows
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added. Therefore, take no thought, for the morrow shall take thought
for things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We don't know if we've got tomorrow.
We don't know if we've got tomorrow. So we are to act in faith today. Fourthly, to truly live up to
our possession, not merely a profession. It's easy to say, I'll trust
Christ when the sun's out. And let's do like this little
teacher did, to point any man even enemies, any woman, this
mistress, or Naaman's wife, any boy or girl that maybe was also
in the household, let us do what she did. Look back with me in
her text. Would to God, my Lord, we're
with the prophet. Point everyone we know to our
Elijah." And that is simply, we talked about what that name
means, the salvation of God, or the God of supplication. Show
them, point them to Christ. That's what she's doing. This
is what we are here for, to act and react and live as our sister
here, to tell sinners, lepers, of Christ and Him crucified.
The third point. This is us. This is human nature.
So, she tells them to go talk to the prophet. And here's what
somebody that doesn't understand the gospel, this is what they
do. So one went in, you know, it's kind of like a rumor, you
know, it gets spun out and everything. She said, one thing, go to the
prophet. What did they do? They knew better. We know better.
He told the Lord, saying, Thus and thus saith the maid that
is of the land of Israel. And the king of Assyria, he tells
Naaman, verse 5, to go to the king of Israel, he's going to
bring him a letter. And when you go, oh, bring silver,
gold, and raiment. Verses 4 and 5. The message never
changes. It's see the prophet. See the
prophet. Our problem is, or the maiden
told to go see the prophet. God's man towards man. Not a
king. She didn't say, go see the king
of Israel. She didn't say, take any money
with you or change of clothes. But that's what we do. Christ
alone is never sufficient to the unbelievers. Never sufficient.
We have our idea. Do we think we have a better
way of salvation than the strict good news of the Gospel? Absolutely
not. Do we also bring carrying gifts,
money, silver, gold, change of raiment? That's what we do, but
we shouldn't do that. Our message is very narrow. It's
one person, one way, one birth, one Lord, one salvation, and
it's to be had without money or price, says Isaiah, or silver
or gold, which is what Peter says. We were not redeemed with
corruptible things like silver and gold, but the precious blood
of Christ. Turn with me to Acts chapter
8. Acts chapter 8. Let's start in Acts 8, starting
in verse 18. And when Simon saw that through laying on the
apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
saying, Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands,
he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy
money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money. I say to the Catholics,
they thought it could be purchased with pennants. I say to the Baptists,
they thought it could be purchased by walking an aisle. In any other
religion of Cain, the grace of God is free for the lepers. And he'll show
us that we're a leper, which we're going to see weeks down
the road. The last point, the fourth point,
look at verses 6 and 7. Now this is not the right way
to act, okay? Verses 6 and 7. And Naaman brought
the letter, or one of his servants brought the letter to the king
of Israel, and so he reads the letter. He says, I'm supposed to recover
from leprosy. That's not what the message is. The message is
only one, Christ and Him crucified. And it came to pass, verse 7,
that when the king of Israel read the letter that he rent
as clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive, that
this man sends me to recover a man of his leprosy? I think
he's trying to seek a quarrel with me. This is the flesh. We often act like this king.
He didn't go to God in prayer. He never went to God in prayer. He made everything about himself.
Isn't that what we do? Isn't that what we do? Yeah,
but I... Yeah, but I... No. We are to bear one another's
burdens. We are to care for one another and look out for ourselves,
not things of everyone else, you know, and the Lord will take
care of us. I read somewhere, you cannot
give God. You just can't do it. You can't
do it. And you'll never be the poor
for doing it. And thirdly, he thought everything
was against him. Isn't that what we do? When something
goes bad, oh, everything is against me. It's against what we wanted
to be done. If I would have just done this,
let us not react to trials and hardships or tests like this
poor king. But rather, let us act this way. 2 Timothy 2 verse 1 Thou therefore my son
be strong in the grace That is in Christ Jesus anytime we go
to the flesh It's gonna end up like this King
we're gonna be upset We're gonna not we're gonna bypass the means
of great we're gonna try to solve everything ourselves We're gonna
make it about ourselves. We're gonna say everything's
against us But may we Pray for one another to be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. And verse 10, Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. when
this got brought to the king, he didn't retreat, he didn't
get alone with God, he just automatically assumed there was a conspiracy
against him. Again, who holds the hands of
every being, every human being? Like it says in Proverbs, God
has the king's heart in His hand and God turns that however He
wants to. however He wants it. Let us not
be like this, let us not complain, yet rather may we see our great
God in everything and give thanks and praise knowing that He will
take care of us in every situation and circumstance which He's promised.
And if He doesn't, whether we see it immediately or not, they
can only kill the body. Like one of the old writers used
to say, if He takes a body, we're ushered to glory. We're ushered
to glory. So may we act like this little
maid, and not like this king. Who is acting more mature in
faith? There's no age involved. Faith is faith. Grace is grace. May we act as this little girl.
And we'll see that the Lord uses her to get this whole thing moving. Humanly, a horrible tragedy.
With any family, any parent would see that. But God overrides it. And it goes to show me another
thing, that everything in this Bible is about saving and redeeming
His elect. And so you want to know why you're
here. Yes, you have a job, and you do this and you do that.
But God is going to fetch everyone of His elect, and then He's going
to shut it down. He's going to shut this whole thing down. And
it's not going to be like man did it. It's going to be that
God shuts it down. So we are just to go forth, just
spreading His Word, telling about the God of salvation. And God
will be glorified. And that's what He desires, and
He's going to use His people for His glory, whether we see
it now or not. And it's tough to see. And I
admit, first off more than anybody, this grace of God is difficult
to see, it's difficult to live, it's difficult to practice. But
if God before us, and greater is He that is in us, than He
is in the world. Let us just look to Him and ask
Him for grace. Bruce, would you close us?