Turn with me if you would please
to 2nd Kings. I've enjoyed so much the preaching
that we've all heard. I've learned a lot, I believe, from the preaching that we've
heard this weekend. 2nd Kings chapter 5, and we'll
begin reading in verse 1. And if the Lord is pleased to use such humble means to speak
to us this morning, we'll learn something by His
grace of how God saves a sinner. 2 Kings chapter 5 and verse 1,
it says, The captain of the host of the king of Syria was a great
man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor. But the title of the message this
morning is simply this, A Mighty Man. But, but he was a leper. Devastating. Terrible. This is not some slight affliction
that this man had. This is something that made everything
else that he was to be meaningless. Everything else that he was.
And he was a mighty man, captain of the host, a great man with
his master. He was also a mighty man in valor. He'd given deliverance unto Syria. Those above him and those below
him loved him and respected him and looked up to him. But if
I were to write a biography of you, it might sound similar to
this. a well-respected man or woman, kind and generous, looked up to by those around
them, by those who knew them, always ready to be helpful. I know a lot of people like that.
I can honestly say that about some folks. But, I would have to add this
phrase, but, He was a sinner. He was a sinner. And that, if
that issue be not dealt with, would make everything else that
we are to be meaningless. Absolutely meaningless. There might be many good things
we could say of one another as far as temporal things are concerned,
speaking strictly in the realm of the flesh, as we compare to
one another. We might say that he was a mighty
man, as it says here of Naaman, or she was a very intelligent
woman. But if you're a sinner outside
of the grace of God, though it might be said of you that you're
quite intelligent, quick-minded, sharp, and yet, if we have to
add that phrase, and we do, but He was a sinner. That makes all
of your intelligence, your natural understanding, your natural ability
to think and reason absolutely worthless. You can't understand
the first basic truth of God because of what you are. You're
a sinner. I know a lot of people, a lot
smarter than I am, that cannot understand the basic truth of
God. Have you ever tried to explain
it to somebody that can't see? Blind. And you'd do anything
you could, but what are we going to do except just set forth the
truth? But he was a sinner. And if that's
not dealt with, then everything else we are is nothing. Nothing. A mighty man capable and generous
and kind, able to do many things, but everything you do, because
of that phrase that must be added, but he was a sinner. Everything that you do is not
only worthless, but vile and wretched in the sight of God.
Everything that you are. And this sickness of leprosy
pictures that so clearly throughout the scripture. It's in leprous
terms that the Lord describes us, is it not? From the top of
our heads to the soles of our feet, there's no soundness in
us but wounds and bruises and putrefying swords. And because
we are in that condition before God, everything we touch is defiled
under the law of God. To the nation of Israel, the
leper, everything he touched, everything he came in contact
with, everything that he did was vile and defiled. And that's us. And we might consider
ourselves better than that. And no doubt, if you don't know
the Lord this morning, you do consider yourself better than
that. You say, oh, I've heard y'all talk about what sinners
we are. And I heard Brother Tim say that
we're full of demons by nature. But I'm not so sure if I believe
that because, you know, I look at myself and I look at myself
compared to others, that's the problem. You're going to have
to look into the Word of God because your thoughts are not
God's thoughts. And the way God sees you, you're going to have
to get a glimpse of yourself the way God sees you by nature. And if you ever do that, if He
ever gives you the slightest glimpse of what you are before Him, You
will cry out for mercy. You will flee to Christ. And
you'll forget everything else like this man eventually did.
He had a lot on his plate, didn't he? Until he became a mother.
And then there was nothing else on his plate but that. Nothing
else. And we cannot make the fatal
error that we are prone to make of thinking that what men think
of us has anything to do with our relationship with God. We're
pretty good folks, aren't we? to this world and to those that
we work with, our peers, and to ourselves. But it has nothing to do with
it. Luke 16, 15, He said unto them, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He said, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men. And we
do, don't we? We're masters at justifying ourselves. But God knoweth your hearts.
For that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in
the sight of God. Oh, and even if those who are
considered religious are good people in this world, think the
world of us, if we are not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, if
we do not wear the perfect robe of His righteousness, and if
His precious blood has not washed our sins away, then we are vile
in the sight of God. 5. As we walk around at this
conference and greet one another and enjoy each other's company,
we're all a bunch of vile lepers in and of ourselves. Don't be too excited when people
exalt you in this world, nor too upset when they revile you.
It doesn't much matter what we think of one another, does it?
Naaman was a great man with his master, a mighty man of valor.
Those that fought under him, everybody respected him and thought
he was great, but he was a vile leper. It doesn't matter how mighty
or how pathetic you are in this world to other people or to yourself.
You're a leper. I'm a leper. Spiritual. And I
didn't want to take the time to talk about how leprosy compares
to sin and how perfectly it pictures our sin, but let's just briefly
think about it. Leprosy is a disease of the blood. It's a disease of the blood and
so is your sin. You can't bring a clean thing
out of an unclean. How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? You've got the blood of your
father and it's unclean blood. Sin is in your nature. It's just
what you are. It's not just something that
you have or something that you do. It's what you are. And it affects the whole person,
doesn't it? It affects the whole person. Our feet are split to
shed blood. We do evil with both hands earnestly. Our tongues
are set on fire of hell. It affects the whole person.
And then it's incurable, isn't it? There's not a thing in the
world we can do about it. We're wretched in the sight of
God, and there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing. And then,
under the economy of God's law to the children of Israel, again,
this matter of leprosy, it made you legally unclean. It made you a legal outcast from
the society of God's people. And our sin problem also is a
legal problem. Is it not? It's a legal problem. We're guilty in the sight of
God. And we can't answer His law a
word. Not a word. We stand guilty and
foul in His sight. So this man Naaman, a great and
mighty man, Let me just point out real quickly here, even when
Naaman had all of his power and might, and he thought himself
to be winning great battles for Syria, notice the wording of
the text that he didn't do anything, even men, he just thought he
did. It says there, he was a great man with his master and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. It was
God that did it. He did it by Naaman. He could
have done it by anybody else. Even when we think ourselves
to be great and mighty, before he brings us down and causes
us to see our leprous condition before him, we think we're somebody,
but we're not. We're just like Tim was talking
about. Does it offend you to be called a puppet? That doesn't
bother me anymore. I just want to be his puppet,
don't you? I just want to be his puppet.
Like Tim said, somebody's going to pull the string. I want him.
Don't we pray, Lord, direct our steps? Lord, don't let me control
my life. That's the last thing I want.
But this man, he thought he was something. He said, no, the Lord.
gave a mighty victory. He just let Naaman in on it. That's alright with us, isn't
it? Just let me in on it. I just
want to be in on it, Lord. The Lord's doing something here.
I just want to be in on it. It's not me. It's not any of
these men that get up here. We can't claim any kind of ability. The Lord's doing something. We're
just glad to be in on it. That'll be fine. And when you're
nothing, you'll be able to say that. Verse 2, 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 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. And one went in and told his
Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. For all of his might and influence
and valor, Naaman was unable to discover a remedy for his
problem. There wasn't one. It took the
word of a little maid. The word of a little maid. She
was a captive out of Israel. She was one of God's people.
And there's not one word that's used to describe her. Naaman
was mighty, and great, and had valor. There's one word used
to describe this woman. Little. But she had some information
that was huge. Huge. Absolutely huge. There are those who could teach
you and I much about the ways of this world. I don't know much
about the way this world works. And the longer I live, the less
I know about it. If we were in need of such knowledge.
But though God's people are the weak and the base and the defiled
and the worthless things, the very offscouring of the earth,
Paul said, and of no reputation in this world, If somebody wants
to know how God saves a sinner, we are able, by God's grace,
to tell them. Are we not? By God's grace. That's His design. That's His
purpose that it be that way. This woman wasn't anything, and
they didn't think anything of her. She was just a maid. She
was worthless, but she had some valuable information. It doesn't
bother me that you don't think much of me. It doesn't bother
me because there's not much to think of me. We're nothing, aren't
we? God truly has chosen the weak
and the foolish and the base. If you want to know how God saves
a sinner, if you want to know who Christ is and what He did,
if you're interested in why He did it, And if you want to know
where he is right now, you can come listen to that man right
there. He can tell you that. By God's grace, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching. Not the preaching of foolishness,
but the foolishness of preaching. What this world considers foolish. No interest in what we're doing
here. But it pleased God by those humble means to save a people So if you want to know about
it, listen to somebody little. John
said, I must decrease. He must increase. So this little
maiden, she had something to say, didn't she? She wasn't much
in any other sense, but she was one of God's people. And she
knew that if Naaman could be together if he were with the
prophet. Who's the prophet? Who is the prophet? that all
the other prophets in the scripture just picture and foreshadow and
tell of. They prophesy of the prophet,
God's prophet, that he sent to this earth. God who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in times past under the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son. And if you're a leper this morning,
if you could just be with the prophet, he would heal you of
your disease. And we can say, though we're
nothing and the world knows it, we can say as Moses said to Hobab
in Numbers 10.29, come with us and we'll do you good. We'll
do you good. Because we can tell you about
the prophet. The prophet. God will use the most unlikely
instruments by which to administer His grace. That's just His way.
He said He did that so that no flesh could glory in His presence.
When we sinned in the garden, we robbed Him of His glory. At
least that was our intent, wasn't it? We didn't make Him any less
glorious than He is. But that was what it was, wasn't
it? We were robbing Him of His glory. We were going to get some
glory. I'll be His guide. determining good and evil. And
I guarantee you that's our problem right there. We're a bunch of
little gods running around. And I promise you this, the remedy
to that problem will not involve any glory on your part whatsoever. I promise you that. He'll choose the most unlikely
and he will be all the more glorified and exalted in the saving of
sinners because he does it that way. I know that there's nothing
to me, that's fine. But will you listen? Will you
despise the message because of the messenger? Will you throw
away the gift because of the package? Will you despise the
water of life because it's in an earthen vessel? The weakness,
the pathetic nature of the messenger, it just exalts all the more.
The glory of that prophet who is able to save, able to heal. Verse 5, And the king of Syria
said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.
And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six
thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. Wait
a minute, that's not what the little maid said today. She said
he just needs to hook up with that prophet. But they're going
to do things, you know, they're going to go back through diplomatic
channels here. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter is come unto
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. Isn't that what
she said? She didn't say the king of Israel
will recover him of his leprosy. It came to pass when the king
of Israel had read the letter that he were in his clothes and
said, Am I God? To kill and to make alive? He knew something, didn't he?
That this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. Their efforts to
do it the way they thought it ought to be done caused nothing
but harm to them. It made the King of Israel suspicious. He must be sending these people
over here to spy on us. That's what it is. He wouldn't
send somebody over here for me to heal them of their leprosy.
That's ridiculous. He's come over here to spy on
us. And it is ridiculous, isn't it? The way that seems right
unto man. Listen to the so-called gospel
of our day. Is it not ridiculous? Is it not
foolish? Is it not nothing but heal yourself
and leave a sinner there to do something for yourself. Take
the first step. Do this. Do that. A dead man. Ridiculous. The big shots got
involved. The king of Syria communicated
with the king of Israel on behalf of Naaman. And money and gifts
were sent. How much is that worth? The recovery
of a leper. How much is life worth? How much
are you going to pay for that? But the king couldn't do Naaman
any good. It had to be God's way. It had to be God's way.
And it still does. God's still in the saving business.
Did you know that? You know how I know that? Because
that son came up this morning, and we're still here, aren't
we? When he calls that last one in,
he's going to wrap this thing up. Isn't that what he said at
second Peter? He's going to wrap it up. He hasn't wrapped it up
yet, so I reckon there's a sheep out there somewhere. Don't you
think? He's still in the saving business,
but he saves sinners on his terms. He saves it on his time. All that was accomplished here
was a misunderstanding. Oh, and it was pretty simple. There's a prophet in Israel.
And if Naaman can be with that prophet, if he can come together
with that prophet, if he can close that prophet It will be
alright with Him. It will be alright. And we preach
that message. Look and live. And somehow it's
misunderstood. And I know why. Because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. I wouldn't
have either. We wouldn't know anything apart from His grace.
We'd be down there worshiping ourselves like everybody else
is this morning. A misunderstanding. The king
of Israel suspected the king of Syria of treachery. And this
king was not only unable to recover a man of his leprosy, but he
revealed his ignorance regarding how a man might be recovered
of his leprosy. He didn't have anywhere to send
him even. And in his ignorance he could only cause harm. This
king was right about one thing. To Naaman, this was a matter
of life and death. He said that, didn't he? To kill
and to make alive. That's exactly what this was. This was a matter of life and
death. That's your need and mine. It's
life and death, isn't it? We don't need to live the abundant
life. We need life. Is that not right? We need life. The things in the
way of this world will only complicate and make spiritual matters worse
than they already are. I've heard people tell me that
the truth that we preach, the doctrines of grace, are complicated
and hard to understand. Nonsense. There's not a thing
in the world complicated about the truth of God. I'll tell you
what's complicated and difficult to understand. When you try to
reconcile the truth of God with your preconceived notions of
who you think God ought to be and how he ought to act and who
you think you are. If you try to reconcile the truth
with your sense of fairness and righteousness, it's going to
get real complicated. It's going to be real difficult
to understand. Because you're trying to reconcile
the irreconcilable. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts. It is not that men do not understand
what we are saying. It is that men hate the Christ
that we preach. Verse 8, And it was so, when
Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, Then he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast
thou ripped thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. Naaman had not acknowledged the
prophet at all here before. There was a couple of kings involved
and great gifts bestowed, but that prophet that that woman
spoke of, was never even acknowledged in any of this. He handled things
the way he thought best, by dealing with men of weight. Elisha, here,
it may seem on the surface that Elisha is exalting himself here. Saying, he'll know there's a
prophet in Israel. But notice the wording, he just
said a prophet. He didn't say the prophet. And
he didn't say, Elisha the prophet is in Israel. He just said, send
him to me. Send him to me. And he'll know
that there is a prophet. By God's grace, there is a prophet. There's a prophet in the cross.
By God's grace. And he doesn't exalt himself.
But he doesn't make any bones about it. He's not giving another
opinion on matters here. He's preaching the truth of Christ
here. And nobody else is. And we don't
make any bones about that. He wasn't exalting himself, but
it is evident that the office, the calling was much to him.
There's a prophet in Israel. And may that be true of us. I'm
not reverend or doctor, anything at all. But let not you or I,
either one, ever disrespect the office of the pastor. Ever. God has sent a man to tell you
the truth. And he says, send him to me.
You want to know who God is? Come listen. Come and hear. And
that's right, isn't it? That's God's way. He's not bragging
on himself. We're not just offering another
opinion on things. I'm telling you the truth this
morning. Somebody read this week, we present ourselves to every
man's conscience openly in the sight of God. Don't we? Is the
works clear? Am I saying something contrary
to the Word of God? Have these men preached from
this book or have they twisted it somehow? It's evident in me
that what we're saying is the truth of God. And like Elisha,
I want all the Namens Around and everybody else To know where
God's gospel is don't you I want them to know that Send them there
Send them where the the words of life are free where Christ
is exalted Send them there come here and hear it. I And you may
disagree with us, and you may hate us, and no doubt that we'll
be maligned and misrepresented, but if you don't want to know
what God said, where are you going to go? Verse 9, So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot and 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." He didn't say,
let's give this a shot. He said, you're going to be clean.
You do what God's prophet told you to do. Simple. Straightforward, clear. It wasn't
what he wanted to hear. But it wasn't something that
could easily be misunderstood, could it? It's impossible to
misunderstand what he said. And our gospel's not confusing
or ambiguous. Fleet of Christ. You're a leper.
And there's one prophet. And if I can just exalt him and
speak with him to you and cause you to at least in your head, consider
Him. And then by God's grace, He may
just reveal Him to you. He may do that. He said He'd
do it by these means. He sure did. The modern so-called gospel of
our day is confusing to me. Is it confusing to you when God
says, when somebody tells you God loves you, But if you don't
do this, He'll send you to hell. Is that confusing to you? That
doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I would assume that if
God loves me, His love is everlasting. It's perfect. It's infinite. And if He loves me, I would assume
that everything would be okay with me. I wouldn't worry much
about hell if I was certain of that, that God loved me. But
that's confusing to me when somebody says, God loves you, but he'll
throw you in hell. That doesn't make any sense to
me. Christ died for you, but if you
don't do something, you're going to hell. That confuses me. Does not the scripture say that
the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin? That's what my
book says. If Christ shed that blood for
me, how can I ever perish? How can God demand payment from
me if my substitute has paid the price for my sin? Do you have any interest in the
one whose precious eternal blood washes sins away? That's clear,
isn't it? There is one who by his righteousness
and blood is able to present sinners flawless in the sight
of God. Are you interested in him? And
when his preachers speak of him, it's clear and it makes sense,
doesn't it? It makes sense if God gives you
some understanding. It'll make sense to you. Can
you bow to the sovereign Christ who has all power and all authority
to give eternal life to and reveal the Father to whomsoever he will? Does the word not teach that?
My children are able to understand that in their heads. That if
you're going to have life, you're going to have to go to the one
who gives life at his sovereign discretion. He has given me power
authority over all flesh that I might give eternal life To
as many as thou has given me The Lord stood in that last day
the great day of the feast And he said if any man thirst If
you didn't get what you came for at this feast day if your
religious doings Didn't satisfy They didn't accomplish what you
thought they would. If you're thirsty, if you're
thirsty, come to me. Come to me and drink. Is that hard to understand? You
notice Elisha, again, he didn't say, this very well may do you
some good. He said, when you wash, boom,
when you wash, you shall be clean. And I'm telling you this morning,
the blood of my Savior, it washes sins away. It doesn't do anything
potentially. It washes sins away. I'm preaching
to you a Redeemer that redeems, a Savior that saves. I'm talking
to you of one whose blood can make the foulest leper clean. The foulest. Verse 11. But Naaman was raw and went away,
and said, Behold, I thought. Have you ever seen anybody, as
the gospel was preached, get mad? And go away saying, I thought. It's not like we thought it was,
is it? It's not like I thought it was.
But what I thought was a fool's dream. Fool's dream. I thought he'll surely come out
to me. He's not going to send a messenger. He doesn't realize
who I am. He's going to come out personally
and he's going to stand and call on the name of the Lord his God
and strike his hand over the place. That's familiar, isn't
it? Let's make a big show out of
this thing. Let's get up on the stage and
make a show out of it. That's what he'll do, surely,
and he'll recover the leper. Are not Havana and far, far rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Yeah. All of
your thoughts are better than God's thoughts, aren't they?
Your ways are better than God's ways. Until you see His way by
His grace. Until you see what you are. Until
He reveals the truth. May I not wash in Him and be
clean? That's not what God said, did it? So he turned and went away in
a rage. Do you know what Naaman's problem
was? He was still captain of the host
of Syria. In his mind. But you know what? His captain of the host in days
were over. If his leadership can't be dealt
with, his captain in days are over. But he hadn't come there
yet. As long as he was anything but
a vile leper, God's way was offensive to him. And that's true of us,
isn't it? When I can say honestly from
my heart, God be merciful to me, be sinner. That's the only description of
me that's worth saying. The sinner. We talked about that
not long ago. I preached on that. There's really,
in that prayer that that man prayed, there's two people and
there's two attributes. And then some grammar in between.
There's me and there's God. And there's two descriptions
that describe us. Sinner, what are you going to
say about me? Well, we're talking about eternal
issues. We're getting down where the
rubber meets the road now. It doesn't make any difference
where I've been or what I've done in my life. What am I before
God? I'm the sinner. That's what I am. And how would
you describe God as a sinner if you just had one word? Well,
God's a lot of things now. We could say He's holy and arguably
His chief attribute would be His holiness. But let me remind
you of something. When Moses said to God, show
me your glory, God said, all right, I'm going to make all
my goodness pass before you. And here it is. I will be what? God merciful. Me, sinner. And when I become that and nothing
more, I'll ask for that mercy, won't I? I'll ask for it. Well, when God intends to bring
mercy upon a sinner, he'll first bring this conflict on him. There
is a conflict between the sinner and a holy God. There's warfare. We are, by nature, enmity against
God. And that's what Naaman's revealing
right here. That he is enmity against God
Almighty. And we reveal that too, don't
we? When God comes where we are, when He confronts us with His
truth, when He arrests us on our road to Damascus, He'll have
to bring us off our high horse, won't He? Because that's where
we are. That's where we are. It made him raw. I've heard a
lot of testimonies along those lines, haven't you? From believers.
First time I heard it, it made me mad as a hornet. Have you
ever heard anybody say that? Many times, many times. Well,
here's our problem. I thought, I thought, but what
does the scripture say about your thoughts? They are not God's
thoughts. Well, I thought, I thought if
my good outweighed my bad, the problem is you don't have any
good. If you had some, it might outweigh something, but you don't
have any. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Well, I thought that everybody
had a chance to be saved. Salvation wasn't by chance, it's
by grace. It's by grace. Well, I thought
that if I, there is no I. Paul said it's not I but Christ.
It's Christ. Well I thought the preacher would
make a big deal out of me and recognize me as a dignitary and
say something like you can't spell church without me. But
the problem is I'm not a dignitary. Naaman was not a dignitary. He
was a leper. That's what he was. And the preacher
did what real preachers do. He told the leper how lepers
can be made clean. That's what he did. That's a
pretty good thing to do, isn't it? Christ himself is offensive.
He's a stumbling block to people, to sinners. By nature, he's a
stumbling block. This River Jordan is nothing
special. There were better rivers where I came from, he said. Yeah,
that's right. Isaiah said, For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. People didn't come to Christ
because he was a pretty boy or because he had a personality
that was appealing to the flesh. They came to Christ when they
had nowhere else to go. That's when. They came to Christ
when their eyes were opened and they saw that He is, after all,
altogether lovely. I couldn't see it before. I couldn't
see it before, but it's not because He wasn't. It's because of what
I was. That Old Testament tabernacle
was covered with old brown, dry badger skins on the outside,
but on the inside was the very glory of God. Have you been inside
the tabernacle? Have you been to the mercy seat?
That old muddy river may not look like a good place to Naaman
to take a bath. The washing in there meant perfect
cleansing. Perfect cleansing. And as I mentioned
already, most importantly here, Elisha represents and pictures
the prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He doesn't grovel or compromise,
nor is He a respecter of person. He doesn't beg sinners to come
to Him. He doesn't need sinners. Sinners
need Him. He's not the beggar that religion
makes Him out to be. You and I are the beggars. He
doesn't need us. We need Him. And that order and
that honor of Him will be maintained when He saves a sinner. It's
not going to be like we think. Christ came at unspeakable cost
to redeem sinners like you and I. But let's not forget who's who.
He's a King. He is the dignitary in this matter. And we're mercy beggars. We're
mercy beggars. You must have Christ. You must
have Christ. And before it's over, you're
going to act like it. Or you're not going to have him. Is that right? Verse 13, we'll
be through. 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 then, when he saith to thee, Wash and re-clean. That's just common sense, isn't
it? But it reveals something about our nature. We're always
ready to do something on it. What shall I do to get in on
that inheritance of eternal life? Just name it. And I'll do it. If we can get some glory out
of it. If it can be something that I can accomplish, I'll see
to it that it's done. Make your decision for Jesus.
Live the Christian life. If we can do something to be
saved, we're more than happy to do it. The problem with that
rich young ruler, and all of us by nature, is that what he
had to do to inherit eternal life, he was neither willing
nor able to do. And he didn't know any other
way besides do it. Everything that we do just makes
our condition worse. before God. Christ has done all
that there is to do with regard to the salvation of a sinner.
Can you rest in a finished work? I wish I could. We do, don't
we? But we don't. I wish I could completely rest.
I can. He's worthy of it. Verse 14, And 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
unto the flesh of a little child. You reckon his flesh was like
that before he became a leper? It wasn't like that, was it?
It didn't say that about him. He was mighty and great and had
valor. It didn't say his flesh was like
a little child. For sin has abounded. Grace did
but for a bout. God is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we could ask or think. When Jacob was on his
dying bed, he said to Joseph, I had not thought to ever see
thy face again, but now God has shown me even thy seed. Is your
God like that? He goes beyond what we would
ever even imagine. Salvation is too good to be true,
isn't it? It's too good to be true. My sin? My sin gone? My sin gone? Me able to stand
before a holy God, accepted and beloved and embraceable? For Him to give me those hugs
and kisses that Drew talked about a while ago? Is that possible? That's too good to be true. No.
That's our God. That's our gracious God. A just God and a Savior. He delights to show mercy. He shows mercy to lepers. Are
you a leper? He delights to show mercy. Do you need mercy? There's a
prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you can be with Him, if you
can close with Him by His grace, you'll be clean.