I Thought

Q: What does the Bible say about God's providence in our lives?

The Bible reveals that God's ways are higher than our ways, guiding us through perplexing providences. In Scripture, we see that God's providence often perplexes us, as it does not always align with our expectations or desires. Isaiah 55:8-9 emphasizes that God's thoughts and ways greatly surpass ours. This reality challenges us to trust God rather than rely solely on our understanding or predetermined notions of how life should unfold. The experiences of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness serve as a vivid reminder that God's path, although circuitous, is designed to lead us closer to Him, strengthening our faith and reliance upon His sovereignty.

Q: How do we know that God answers prayer?

God answers prayers in ways that often exceed our expectations and understanding. Jesus assures us that if we ask, it will be given to us; if we seek, we will find; and if we knock, it will be opened to us (Luke 11:9-10). However, the manner in which God answers our prayers may differ significantly from what we anticipate. Our prayers often lead us through trials and afflictions that deepen our reliance on Him and ultimately result in His best for us. Trusting in His wisdom allows us to appreciate the unexpected answers He provides, aligning with Romans 8:28, where we learn that all things work together for good to those who love Him.

Q: Why is humility essential for receiving God's grace?

Humility allows us to recognize our need for grace and God's sovereignty in salvation. In the story of Naaman, his initial pride prevents him from accepting God's simple command to wash in the Jordan River for healing. This illustrates a common human tendency to resist accepting grace in the manner God has ordained. True humility, as mentioned in James 4:6, invites God's grace into our lives, as He gives grace to the humble. Understanding our moral and spiritual poverty is crucial, for only when we recognize that we cannot save ourselves can we submit to God's will and accept His provision through Christ. This humility opens the door to experiencing the fullness of His grace.

Q: How should we approach God's will in our lives?

We should approach God's will with obedience and trust, leaving the management of providence to Him. As children of God, we are called to obey His revealed will and trust in His perfect providence. The king of Israel and Naaman both demonstrate how preconceived notions can obstruct our understanding of God's plan. Instead of assuming we know the best path, we must seek to align ourselves with God's Word and His ways. Proverbs 3:5-6 advises us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our understanding, acknowledging Him in all our ways. This posture leads to a deeper reliance on God and the joy of His guidance in our lives.

Q: What does the story of Naaman teach us about God's way of salvation?

Naaman's story illustrates that God's way of salvation may not align with our expectations. Naaman, a nobleman stricken with leprosy, initially rejected the simple remedy provided by God through Elisha. His story serves as a reminder that salvation is not contingent upon human wisdom or status. Isaiah 40:13-14 reminds us that God's ways and thoughts surpass our understanding. In humility, Naaman ultimately obeyed God's command and was healed. This act of faith mirrors the salvation we find through Christ alone, where we must abandon our pride and preconceived notions to fully trust in God's grace that is offered freely to all who believe.

I want to begin reading with
verse 9. I think that you probably followed
the story close enough that we'll not have to go over all that
has been said or in the scripture here up to this point. 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. But Naaman was
wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, behold, I
thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call
on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the
place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Farpa, rivers
of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, better
than the waters in this muddy ditch of Jordan? May I not wash
in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. 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 than when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean! Then
went he 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, this morning
we'll have a very simple outline, a very simple message. I'll divide
it into two parts. The first is a word for believers,
a few words, consoling words, I hope, instructive words, I
hope, for the poor, afflicted children of God, for those that
are on their pilgrimage to Zion. And then secondly, we'll have
a word for those who are unconverted, for unbelievers, those that are
outside the Lord Jesus Christ, those who know not the way, but
which God reconciles and saves poor sinners and brings them
unto himself. So first of all, then, we have
a word for believers. Now, my subject this morning
is in verse 11, in these two words, I thought. I thought. Now, Naaman has come
to the door of Elisha, and Elisha, he doesn't come out of the house. He's busy. I don't know whether
he's getting ready to speak somewhere, give a discourse somewhere, or
what he's doing, but he doesn't even come out. Now, I think he
knew something about this man Naaman. I really believe he knew
this man. And he was aware of the letter
that had come from the king of Syria unto the king of Israel. He was aware of the reaction
of the king of Israel that said when he got the letter, am I
God to kill and to make alive? It was those words right there
that brought me to this text this week. And I thought about
some of the perplexing problems of the people of God and felt
an overwhelming burden to be able to help the Lord's people
in some way. And then I remembered this letter
to the king of Israel from the king of Syria in regards to Naaman. And when the king got that letter,
I can just imagine how he felt. Why, he said, he's seeking a
quarrel against me. He's trying to get something
against me. Here he is, he's sending this rapper. over here
with this man with this terrible, terrible affliction, sending
him to me that I would heal him. And he said, well, am I God to
kill and make alive? Now, you know, there's a whole
lot of the burdens and problems that people have that sometimes
we have to get alone by ourself and as we think upon them and
meditate upon them and say, well, am I God to kill and make alive?
You know my friend, the thing I want to point you to is this,
and that is that always look past the preacher to God for
help. Now the preacher is just a man
like you are. He's not any more able to do
anything than you're able to do anything. Look past the servant
of God and look to the Lord himself and trust God to undertake for
you, because it's God that kills and it's God that makes alive.
And this king was not able to do that, and so he felt this
frustration when he received this letter. Here's this man
with this letter saying, I've got leprosy, you heal me. Now
this was indeed, he was a man who was well-respected in Syria.
He was a man that God had used to save the Syrians and deliver
them in time of battle. And he was notriety. He was a man who was noble. And yet he's not here, and surely
he's not here in the land of Israel to in any way to air his
nobility. But to get relief from his debility,
if you please. He's here to get some relief.
And so, Elisha hears about the king tearing his clothes off.
Tearing his clothes and saying, am I God to kill and make alive?
Elisha hears about it. So he tells the king, send him
over my way. And he'll know there's a prophet
in Israel. You send him over. So the prophet is all aware of
his case. And so when the chariot pulls
up outside, the horses and the chariot, oh, Elisha, he doesn't
even get up. He just sends his servant Gehazi
out, tell him, tell him just go down there and wash in that
muddy ditch. Tell him to go down there to
Jordan, to that ditch down there, and wash himself. That water
was stagnant many times and dirty, and it was, I guess it flows
into the Dead Sea, I suppose that's true. I think it is. I
believe I read that someplace. And so this water is not the,
you know, the best place for a man to go wash himself. But
he just said, you just tell him to go do that, and that'll take
care of the situation. Well, it kind of riled this man
up. And he said there in verse 11,
he was wroth. This man was wroth. Naaman was
wroth. He got angry. Because, you know,
he felt himself to be somebody. And here's what he said. He said,
Behold, I thought. I thought. I thought that this
would be altogether different than this. I didn't think this
would ever be like this. I thought the circumstance would
be different. I thought my case would be handled
different than what it is. I just thought that things would
be different. I never thought they'd be just
like this. Now then, A few words to those
of you who know the Lord about preconceptions. Preconceptions
of what ought to be the Lord's mode of action are very, very
injurious to us. Even to those who have true faith
in the living God, these things are very injurious. when we preconceive
how things ought to be and when we think and think our own thoughts
about things and they don't turn out that way. We very frequently
indulge in preconceptions. We map out beforehand the path
that providence ought to take. We map out beforehand the very
path that mercy ought to take, forgetting that the Lord's way
is in the sea, and his path is in the great waters, and his
footsteps are not known. That's what the scripture says.
Now when the Lord does not choose to act according to our notions,
we say with Naaman, well I thought I thought that this thing would
be different than this. I never thought this would turn
out like it has. Now, number one, this folly,
this folly of our being or having notions and preconceptions of
how God ought to work in our lives and what he ought to do
and the way he ought to do it, this is often seen, I think,
in reference to our way to heaven. and the pilgrimage we take, the
path that we trod in this life, in this world. Now, sometimes
the people of God, they remind me, and I've often felt this
way in myself, I'm reminded of the children of Israel when they
came out of Egypt. Now, the children of Israel came
out of Egypt, they were brought out of Egypt by the power of
God. You and I have been brought out
of sin by the power of God and set on a path to eternal glory
and heaven. Now, there's a straight road
that leads to the land of Canaan. And why is it that the children
of Egypt, or the children of Israel, after coming out of Egypt,
why were they not allowed to take that road? That straight
road that led to the land of Canaan. They could have got there
so much quicker, they wandered around, out in the wilderness
for 40 years before they got to the land of Canaan. Why didn't
they just take that straight road and get it over with, and
get over there to the land of Canaan? Instead of a direct,
onward march, they're led roundabout. They make progress one day, and
then the next day they retreat. They go forward one day, the
next day they stand still. Now one day they go to the right,
the next day they go to the left, they go forward and then they
retreat. Why is all of this? Why did God
lead those children of Israel in that way? Does not providence
often perplex us? Does it not run counter to our
wishes, even to our best judgment? And the things that happen in
your life and my life, many, many times, they're contrary
to our best judgment of what ought to happen. That which is
according to our judgment is best, it seems to never happen. And that which is wrong, that
which seems to be most injurious and wrong, it seems to be always
the thing that does happen in our lives. Well, it's very perplexing,
it's very baffling indeed. Why is this so? Well, your forecasting,
you think about this, you forecast many times the way things are
going to be. You have this notion in your
mind, you have this picture that you frame in your mind of how
things are going to be, and they do not come to pass. You have
daydreams, as they're called, but they're never realized. Your
schemes for life, they're never carried out. And you cannot understand,
it's so baffling indeed to you. And you ask many questions about
this. You ask, why do I have to pinch
pennies when I could do so much more if I just had means? And if I had money, I could do
so much more. Why am I in the state, why am
I in poverty? Because it'd be so much better
if I just had means. And how is it that I'm laid aside
just when my family needs me most? Why is it that I'm laid
aside whenever I feel that I could be right now most useful, the
most useful I'll ever be in my life should be right now? Why
am I laid aside now? Why has ability and talent been
denied me when I could have used, why if I just had a little more
talent? How many times I've thought that.
Oh, my soul, if I just had a little more ability and a little more
talent, how more useful could I have been in the ministry if
I just had a little more to work with, don't you see? Well, why
are some given long lives and then just trifle away their days?
when other people are given short lives and they're very diligent
people and they're in poor health and come to an early grave. Why? Why all these things? Why
is this? And so we ask these questions,
but we don't have the answers. We cannot explain why this is
so. But beloved, this is reality
I'm talking about. This is life. This is the way
it is. And you and I are always saying
with old Naaman, I thought. Behold, I thought. I thought
this was going to be so much different. Now, it's just as
well, I think, that we don't have the answers to these questions. Because let me remind you that
our business is not the solving of problems. That's not our business. Our business is not the managing
of providence. That's not our business. Beloved,
listen. Our business is to obey the will
of God as it's revealed in the scriptures. Our business is to
do what God told us to do and leave the managing of providence
to Him. And so let us cease from our
own wisdom and let us quit asking or quit saying, I thought. I thought and let's leave it
because beloved things are in better hands than ours. They're
in the hands of God and God Almighty is working. He's dealing with
the people of God because he must deal with us step by step
in the way that and that's why he brought the children of Israel
in the way that he did. They were unbelievers, even though
they saw the hand of God in their deliverance, yet they were not
believers. Many of the mixed multitude didn't
have the spot of one of God's children. They were not true
believers. And after many wanderings in the wilderness and seeing
the hand of God over and over deliver them, there was only
two, Caleb and Joshua, that believed God. and trusted God that they
could go into the land of Canaan and possess it. And all the carcasses
of those that came out of Egypt, well, from 20 to whatever age,
all those above the age of 20, all perished in the wilderness
in unbelief. And so what God is doing here
is crying our faith, what we preached about last Sunday. God's
dealing with us. And His ways are right, and He
is weaning us away, He's disciplining our lives, and He's bringing
us to trust Him, and to hope in Him, and to cast ourselves
upon Him with all of our strength. Now then, I think this is also
true in connection with our prayers. Not only is it true in connection
with our daily lives and as we pilgrimage toward glory and various
things happen in our life, as we explained, but how true this
is also in connection with our prayers to God. We pray, and
I trust we pray believingly. We want to pray believingly. And an answer comes. It always
comes, I believe, sometime in very unexpected ways. And not
at all as we thought. You know, there it is again,
I thought. And we pray and we're just sure
God's going to answer in a way just like we believe it ought
to be. We're just sure of it. I thought, I was praying and
I just somehow or other was convinced there was going to be an answer
and it was going to be just like I wanted it to be. Just like
I was asking God to do it. Well, we ask God to bless our
home. Bless our family, Lord. Bless
our family. And then, what do we have? We
have sickness that comes into the home. We have sometimes more
need than we've got means to meet the needs. And sometimes
we pray for health and somebody dies in the home. Bereavement
comes into our lives. We ask God to make us more spiritual. And he sent a severe affliction
to grieve us, and to vex us, and to trouble us, and to bother
us. I thought, you say. Well, I thought,
but oh, how different from my thoughts was the answer that
came. But how much better than your
thought, brother? How much better than your thought,
sister, have things turned out? Now, the poet said, I asked the
Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might
more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. I hope that in some favored hour
at once he'd answer my request and by his love's constraining
power subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead of this he made
me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers
of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own
hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe. Crossed all the fair
designs I schemed and blasted my gourds and laid me low. Lord,
why is this? I trembling cried. Will thou
pursue thy worm to death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith. This is the way. Now, my friend,
You'll find that the Lord's doing, that he is doing for you when
he answers your prayer exceedingly abundantly above what you're
able to ask or think. You see, the Lord has a design.
God is enriching you by your poverty. Say, preacher, that's
hard to take. He is healing you by your affliction. That's what he's doing. The Lord
is healing you by your sickness. and drawing you nearer to himself
by driving you further away from all creature competence. The
Lord is drawing you nearer to him. He's dealing with you so
as to have your heart, brother, to have your heart, sister. The
Lord knows how to get your heart. And this is what he's doing.
Now, often we fail to see God's gracious design to prayer because
we make up our minds before the way in which these answers are
going to come. And we refuse letters from heaven
that come to us because they come in black envelopes. They come in black envelopes
and we say, oh, that doesn't belong here. That doesn't belong
in my box. Put it on there. Not here. Not here. Send it back because
it's not the thing that we want. Now look in Luke, if you will
with me hurriedly, Luke chapter 11. And I want to read here,
beginning with verse 9. And Jesus said, I say unto you,
ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened. Now, the Lord Jesus here, I think,
makes it crystal clear that there is no such thing as one of his
dear children praying in vain. that God has pledged to you that
if you ask, it will be given, if you seek, you will find it,
and if you knock, it will be opened to you. And that everyone
has this guarantee, every child of God, every believer, that
if you ask, you receive, if you seek, you find, you knock, it
will be opened. Now listen to this. If a son
shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give
him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion instead? If ye, then, being evil, ye,
then, being of a depraved nature, ye, then, being affected and
corrupted by the fall, know how to give good gifts unto your
children when they say, when they say, Father, give me bread. You know that that child needs
bread. He doesn't need a rock. And so
you give him bread. You don't give him a stone. If
he asks a fish, you give him what he asks for. And if he asks
for an egg, you do not offer him something hurtful, a scorpion,
but you give him an egg. And so then, listen, if beings
that you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him. How much more shall the Lord
give you exactly that which is best for you? And so, brother,
sister, we have not received a rock, we've not received a
serpent, and we have not received a scorpion when we've prayed. What we have from the Lord is
what the good Heavenly Father has been pleased to send into
our lives regardless of our preconceived notions. We got from the Lord
that which was good and that which was right and that which
eternal wisdom, infinite wisdom would dictate. That's what we
got from the Lord when we pray. Is that alright? Can you believe
that? Can you accept that? Well, brother, sister, I'm telling
you the truth. Now then, when we see the Lord's
hand in unexpected ways, we're apt to say, in disappointment,
well, I thought. After all, I thought that it
would be otherwise. But yet what we receive from
the Lord is what is right. Now the third thing, there are
times in our preconceptions when we thought that God would not
bless us at all. We said, well, maybe dejectedly
say, he will never do anything for me. God won't, he won't do
anything for me. He does things for other people,
but he won't do anything for me. He's not going to do it.
Now he has designed, listen, he has designed our good by our
afflictions and our problems, but we have a closed mind. And
we have thought that he has utterly forsaken us and is against us.
God is against me. He has forsaken me. And we've
cried out like Jacob did when he said Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not, and you're going to take away Benjamin. You're going to
take away my son Benjamin. Now all these things are against
me. Wasn't that what Jacob said? But I'll point out to you, brother,
sister, there came a day when Jacob saw clearly that he misjudged
God. He saw clearly that all the time
when God was doing what he was doing, when Joseph was gone,
and he thought he had been killed, and when the other boys had been
sent down into Egypt there to get corn, and had been kept down
there, and when Benjamin had been sent for, he come to see
that he had misjudged the Lord, that the Lord had gone before
him, that God had sent Joseph. to Egypt to provide for him and
his household in the day of famine. He come to see that. And he also
came to see that God had in his providence brought Simeon and
Benjamin away down to Egypt that it would be easier for him in
his old days to make that trip and to go down there because
those beloved sons of his were down there in that land. And
so he saw the good hand of the Lord. You've read the story and
you know what I'm talking about. Now brother, sister, let's leave
off these forecastings about how that God's not going to do
anything for me. I've heard people whine that
and say, well, the Lord ain't never going to do anything for
me. Well, if you don't believe he's going to do anything for
you, then he probably won't. We're to be a believing people.
And let me tell you that that unbelief is blind and it always
errs. And when you make these forecasts
in unbelief, you can be sure of it that you're wrong when
you make He ran it and waved, and I bet he didn't say that
under his breath either. He said, it's all against me.
Have a bit of it. But the Lord was working. Believe,
my friend. Believe that goodness and mercy
will follow you all the days of your life. And when this life
is over that he'll receive you into eternal habitation. Believe
God and trust him and God will not fail you. Now the next thing
I'd like to say is that there are some of us Maybe who who
say now what's all this about about this preacher talking about
hard times and difficult times and afflictive Providences and
there was a fellow told Conrad the other day Conrad shared this
with me and said I don't know anything about this business
of he said I never I can't never imagine the Providence of God
being contrary to my flesh. He said I can't imagine such
a thing and of course The man is an unbeliever. He thinks he's
all right. He thinks he's inside, but he's
outside. He doesn't know the first thing
about the providence of God. But you may say, well, I don't
know anything about this trouble business. I feel pretty strong
myself. And we flatter ourselves with
a flattering forecast of the future. And we say that we, you
know, we have this vain confidence in ourselves, somewhere or another,
that it's like David said, he said, in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. I'll never be moved. He had money
in his pockets, he was blessed and outwardly and he was prospered
and he said, I will never be moved. And he said, Lord, by
thy favor thou hast caused thy mountain to stand strong. And that's glorious too. That's
wonderful. That's tremendous. And he might
say everybody else might be tossed to and fro, but I'll never be.
Not me. Everybody else is having trouble.
They're up and down and they're on a yo-yo, but I'm on no yo-yo. My mountains stand strong. And
he said, I'm too strong to tremble at these assaults from which
other people just flee away and are disconfitted. He said, I'm
too strong for that. Why, you'll never see me shaking
around like a leaf in the wind. I ain't going to do that. That's
a forecast, you see, concerning the future. And I want you to
listen to him later. Now, listen to the sequel. Listen
to this. Thou didst hide thy face, he
said later, and I was troubled. You hid your face. And then I
was troubled. And like any other man left to
himself, he became fearful and his mountain turned out to be
only a rolling cloud which fled before the blast. He, this brave
man, In Psalm 55, 1 through 8, he asked one time for the wings
of a dove that he might fly away and get away from it all. I want
you to see this over in Psalm chapter 55. You turn over there
with me. And I want you to see this brave
man, what he's got to say here. Just listen. I'll begin here
with verse 1. It says, Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide
not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and hear me.
I am born in my complaint, and make a noise, because of the
voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My
heart is sore pain within me, and the tears of death are falling
upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I say, Oh,
that I had the wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and
be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off
and remain in the wilderness. Selah, think of that. I would
hasten my escape from the windy storm and the tempest. I'd fly
away. I'd get out of this storm. I'd
get out of this tempest. I'd just get away from here if
I could. If I just had them wings, so I could just lift up and fly
away. Now brother, sister, you see,
all of this idea that we are somehow or other that we're invincible
and that we've got some strength that nobody else knows anything
about and that we're going to stand regardless of whatever
happens, that's just a bag of wind. And you get rid of it.
You throw it away. We must give up this prophesying
of our position of strength and greatness and that we're going
to be able to stand. We've got to trust God every
day. We've got to have His face and His countenance every day.
We've got to see the Lord. and look to Him and feel His
blessing and help. And this is the very worst kind,
I think, of forming judgment, what is to be and what ought
to be, and how we're going to react in the situation. We'll
stand if God enables us to stand, and we won't stand unless He
does. Now, brother, sister, remember this, that things are in better
hands than ours. And you may say, well, I thought,
preacher, but things are in better hands. We have enough to do to
obey the Lord, and we don't have any time, as I said earlier,
to become managers of providence. We must leave, let Him plan,
and let us trust. Now that's what we've got to
do. And if we're true children of God, we will. We've got to
walk as in His sight, we've got to be resigned to His will, and
then you'll have some joy of heart and soul. But if you begin
to map out your own way, Map out a way for yourself to be
your own guide and your own provider. Your heart is going to be wounded
with many sorrows. And this, my friend, is because
you have these preconceived notions. And you say, I can do it this
way, it'll be done that way. Surely, it's going to be this
way. Well, O'Neilman said, I thought,
I thought. Now then, I want to say a word
to unbelievers. A word to unbelievers. Now, preconceived
notions, and I see that real clearly here in the case of Naomi,
of the way of salvation is a great hindrance, I think, to many,
many poor lost souls. Their preconceived notion about
how God's gonna handle their case, how God's gonna save them,
how God's gonna deliver them. Now, the gospel which we preach
faithfully from week to week, from the pulpit in this church
here, which sets forth the way in which God saves sinners, the
very plain way in which God delivers men and women from the bondage
of guilt, the bondage of sin, into that liberty that's in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the very way in which God lifts up a poor
sinner out of the dunghill, off the dunghill, and sets him on
a rock, we plainly declare in this place And I believe that
those that listen to us from week to week that are not God's
children, I think they reject the gospel. And I prayed for
them before I came this morning. Some of them are not here. But
I pray for them. I pray for them all the time.
And they reject it. And the reason that lost sinners,
alien sinners reject it is because they thought that surely salvation
has got to be other than the way we pictured it or other than
the way we preach. Surely God can save sinners in
some other way besides the way we preach. Now here's old Naaman,
and Elisha said, you servant, you just tell him what to do.
You tell him to go down there. This man's afflicted, and you
just tell him to go down there and wash himself seven times
in that muddy Jordan. You just tell him to go down
there and do it. And if you go down there and do it, you come
out clean. And he was wroth. He got upset because his pride,
and he didn't want to go down there. But now listen, to wash
in Jordan and be clean, it's not according to this man's notion.
He said we got rivers over in Syria. Why did I make that long
trip over here for? I could wash over there in a
band or a fire park. I didn't need to come all the
way over here. I got better water over there than they got in Israel.
Why did I come all the way over here? I expect something different. I expect different treatment.
Don't stand up preacher and just lump me in with everybody else
and tell me that I'm a sinner like everybody else and that
I'm just as depraved as everybody else and that I'm unclean. Don't
preach the same gospel to me you preach to the harlot and
to the adulterer and to those that are out and out open rebellion
sinners. I don't want to hear that same
same gospel. Surely I'm not fallen like other
people, they got a notion, you see, a preconceived notion that
their case ought to be handled differently than everybody else's
case. And so they say, well I thought. I thought surely the preacher
would have something to say about decent folks. I thought surely
he'd have a word to say that would somehow or other stimulate
me to go on and do what I deem to be best and what I think is
the right way. Well, the preacher hadn't got
any word for them. Well, now listen to me. Here's the question.
How could you expect to find out the way of salvation by your
own thoughts? How could you expect to do that?
What was it in this old man Naaman here that made him think that
he knew how this ought to be? Well, of course it was his pride.
But in Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 13 and 14, listen to these scriptures.
Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor,
hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and
who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment,
and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Isn't that a marvelous scripture?
It's a marvelous scripture. Now in Isaiah 55 in verse 8 and
9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. How is it that you think your
thoughts matter in this business of how God saves sinners? Now
there seems to be no limit to what the human mind is able to
invent. But with regard to heavenly things,
but with regard to the way that God saves poor sinners, the natural
man has not the faculty to discern the way God will do this. And man has never made a discovery
along the lines of salvation yet, and he never will. Man is
not able, he's not capable, the natural man My friend cannot
with his mind unaffected by the Spirit be as brilliant as it
might be. He cannot find God. Now you mark this down. I'm about
to say something that's profound. And you listen to it. It's short,
but it's profound. Whatever is known of God is made
known by God. Mark it down. Whatever is known
of God is made known by God himself. Now, upon the face of nature,
the existence of God It's written all over the face of nature. But on the face of nature, you
will never find any indication of how God saves sinners and
how He reconciles poor sinners unto Himself. You will not find
that. Read nature all you want and
you'll never see anything of the plan of salvation in nature. Salvation is in a person. It's
in a person, and he must be revealed to you by the Divine Spirit. The Spirit of God must reveal
Christ in your heart. Make him known in here. You cannot
know a person if that person refuses to reveal himself to
you. You only know somebody when they
reveal themselves to you. And Christ must be revealed to
the heart of the sinner. That's the way of the Lord. Well,
you say, Preacher, I don't know whether I can accept that or
not. Well, listen to me. We cannot imagine that His way
of salvation can be known by man except as He has revealed
it. Why the Bible? Why did God give
us His Word? Why has God give us the revelation
of His Word? Why has God revealed Himself
on the pages of Holy Scripture? Should the way of salvation be
according to your will and your judgment? Must it be according
to your mind? Will you go to hell on a whim?
Will you go to hell because you believe that it's got to be some
other way? Well, look at old man Naaman
here. Well, he didn't want to do this, and his servant came
near, in verse 13, and said, My father, if the prophet had
bid thee do some great thing, oh yeah, now we're getting somewhere.
If the prophet had bid us do some great thing, then would
you not have done it? How much rather than when he
said to thee, Wash, and be clean? Well, if he'd have said, You
push this peanut, around the town square, you get
on your knees and push it with your nose around the town square,
I believe only Edmund would have done that. He wouldn't have said
a word. He just said, okay, if that's what it takes, I'll do
that. or some great thing. Now we know that by that being
some great thing, maybe he would have to go out and be a general
in a battle, or maybe make some contribution to some particular
society, or something, a charity, or something like that. He would
have been glad to do any great thing. Whatever you want to call
it, he'd have been glad to do. Because the servant knew him,
he said, you'd do that. Now listen to me. You are a sinner
and you need to be pardoned. Your nature is depraved and you
need to be renewed and you cannot tell God the way he's going to
go about fixing your need and fixing your case. You can't do
that. As a reasonable man, this morning
I beg you to consider, has not the Lord
the absolute right to dispense His mercy and His salvation to
whoever He pleases and however He pleases? Doesn't He have that
right? Listen, I'm here to claim for God that right. His sovereign
prerogative to save sinners however He will. I'm here to claim that
right. God's not bound to give you anything.
And if He gives you anything, He gives it freely, and He gives
it according to His own purpose, and according to His own will.
It's the will of God that binds God. It's His own will. And it's
his own nature that binds God. And he is not forced to do anything.
Now Naaman with his chariot and all these horses, he wanted homage
of this prophet. And therefore he thought, surely
he's going to come out to me. Surely he will. And well, listen,
men love to be flattered. And they want a plan of salvation
which will gratify their self-esteem and enable them to show what
dignity there is in human nature. They think that man should be
treated like an impure in disguise. That's what they think. And that
mercy should be given to them as a reward for their merit. And as they wish it to be, so
they believe it is. Now listen, and until one gets
into real trouble. You see, the thing here about
O'Neilman was he was in real trouble. He was a leprosy. He
was sick. He was in bad shape. And that's
the only thing that kept him from turning and running. You
see, here he was, he had to have something. Something had to happen.
He needed help. He needed deliverance. He needed
cleansing. He needed healing. He needed
it. He must have it. And so listen to me, until a
man gets in trouble, you see, people are not going to listen,
preacher, to you preach this free grace gospel and tell them
that the salvation is in the Lord's hands and He gives it
to whomever He will. And that what they do or don't
do don't have anything at all to do with it. that salvation,
that this is God's work from old eternity, that God purposed
from old eternity who he'd save and who he'd reprobate, who he'd
leave to himself. God purposed all this, and you
see, people are not going to believe that. They're not going
to believe that. Do you think that this man would
have ever bowed down if he wasn't in serious trouble? He would
have never listened to the message of the prophet. Then, look in
verse 14, it says, then went he down. Then he went down. I mean when he come to see that
there wasn't any way out of this. Then he went down into that muddy
ditch and dipped himself seven times and came out with his flesh
as clean and just renewed like a child's flesh. And when the
Spirit of God gets a hold of a sinner and makes him to feel
that he's undone, that he's ill-deserving, that he is hell-deserving, and
this sinner, listen, when he gets in bad shape, And when he
gets hungry, why, he'll seize hold of the gospel, and he'll
take the kingdom of God by violence. Yes, he will, just like a beggar
would take a loaf of freshly baked bread. I mean, he'll take
it when he gets in trouble. Then he went down. This man went
down finally, because he had to have some help. And so he
had to take it on God's basis. Now you see, what I'm trying
to say is this, and I'll hurry with it. Salvation is by the
free grace of God. It's by the free grace of God,
regardless of what people think. The thoughts of men worldwide,
always contrary to God. Always contrary to God. And men
everywhere at all times looking for something they can do to
bring themselves into favor with God. Now mark it down, that's
just the way it is. Everybody trying to get in favor
with God by doing some great thing. Everybody wants to do
that. But listen to me. Nobody wants to bow. Nobody wants
to come down, you see, and submit themselves of hungry, poor souls. And you won't argue with God
any longer when you get hungry. You won't have any trouble with
God's way of salvation when you get to be a sinner. When you
find yourself to be a destitute, helpless sinner, unable to save
yourself, you won't argue with God anymore about how you're
going to save him. You're going to submit to God's way of salvation
if you just have mercy on me. If you'll just have mercy on
me. If you'll just have mercy on me. Now, let me just tell you what the
scripture says quickly. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Say, preacher, do you really
think that a man, do you really think that old Nahum, do you
think that a leper would have to wash seven times in that muddy
ditch, Jordan River, to be cleansed from his leprosy? Well, there
may be a lot of lepers that was cleansed in other ways, I don't
know. Healed in other ways. But Nahum and the Syrian will
be dipped, he'll go into that muddy river, or he'll die a leper. That's the only way out for him.
He's got to do it. God said this is the way you
do it. You're going to be clean. You're going to be clean. You're
going to die at that muddy ditch. And somebody said, Prince, do
you really believe that a man's got to be baptized to be saved?
Do you really believe that? Well, let me tell you this. You
know, more important than the answer to that question is why
do you ask it? Why do you ask it? You've got
to quarrel with God about being baptized. Are you quarreling
with God about this? Is there something between you
and God about this? My friend, let me tell you something,
that if there's something between you and God, whatever it is,
you'll go to hell unless you bow to what God said. God will
demand of you. He'll cross you right where you
say, I'm not going to do that. You tell God you're not going
to be baptized? I was telling Conrad about this
too the other day. I read about this fellow. He
said, does a man have to go to church Does a Christian have
to go to church to be a Christian? Does a Christian have to read
his Bible to be a Christian? Does a Christian have to pray?
I mean, can you be a Christian without doing these things? And
there again, more important than the answer to the question is,
why do you ask? Why are you asking that? Now
listen to me. Why would a man get married to
a woman if he wasn't going to live with her? Why would a fellow
say, well, I'm joined to Christ, I'm married to Christ, and he
don't want to go to church? He don't want to go to the Lord's
church? He don't want to hear the Lord's Word? He don't want to
read the Word of God? He don't want to pray? He don't want to
have any fellowship with Christ? Well, why did he ever come to
Him in the first place? Why did he believe on Him? See,
that's more important, is why do you ask those questions? I
think it signifies that the person's out of fellowship, never been
saved, and not in Christ. Now, hear what the Word of God
says, then. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, Mark 16 and 16. He that believeth not, it goes
on to say, shall be damned. He that believeth not. But he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And in
John 3, 14-18, And as Moses lifted up the serpent, him the wilderness,
even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. And he that believeth is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. So you have God's way of salvation.
God says that the issue is my son and what you've got to do
or what the issue is not what you've done or what you haven't
done. The issue is my son. Have you believed on my son?
Have you trusted my son? You say preacher now I never
did drink and I never did carouse and I never did do this and I
never did do that. That doesn't in any way shape or form have
anything to do on whether you're saved or whether you're not.
You say, preacher, but now I just was raised different than that.
You might have been raised different than that, but I'll tell you
this, that what you do, and we'll never, as I said before, until
God makes this generation of church people hungry and religious
people hungry, we'll never convince them of it, but what a man does
or does not do has got nothing at all to do with God's eternal
salvation. It's got everything to do with
Jesus Christ. It's on the basis of His doing
and His dying. You say, I think different. Well,
you're like Naaman. You're like Naaman the Syrian.
But if you ever go to heaven, you're going to find the day
when you're going to come down like he did, and you're going
to believe what I'm telling you. You're going to believe what
I'm telling you. Everything it takes to save a sinner had to happen
outside the center. And the reason you still are
thinking that it may be your way is because you've not yet
got into the bankruptcy court. And when you do, then it'll be
all over for you, and you'll be looking for this free grace
gospel. You say, preacher, my dad didn't
believe that way, and I was born into my religion I was born into
it. Now listen to me, I am not prepared
to follow my dad or anybody else's dad if they do not follow the
revelation of the scripture and if they don't follow God. I'll
follow them as far as they follow God and the revelation of the
scripture, but no further. And about this business of you
being born into your religion and born into your thinking. Well, if a child, if a boy was
to be born in a stable, would he have to be a horse because
he was born in a stable? No! And you don't have to go
on in your ignorance and your blindness and go to hell just
because you happen to be born in the family that you were born
in. Say, Grandpa believed this, Dad
believed this, and I guess I'm going to have to go on and believe
it too. I read this story one time about a man who was getting
ready to be baptized and And he said, well, I wonder what
my folks and relatives are going to think about this. You know,
we never did believe this way. You know, maybe I better wait
and find out what they think before I go on with this. And
the preacher told him, he said, well, he said, they're not going
to, I'll tell you what they're going to think. He said, they're
going to think it's a bunch of foolishness. You're never going
to be baptized if you're going to wait until your relatives
approve of it. If you wait till worldly minds give their consent,
you're never going to follow Christ. You're never going to
believe his gospel if you wait until somebody that you admire,
somebody that's in your family, gives you the permission or the
consent to do it. You're never going to do it.
You've got to come down and may the Spirit of God bring you down.
Listen, what is man's best wisdom? What's his best wisdom in the
light of our story here this morning? And sum up and close
up here this message. What is man's best wisdom? Well,
I believe that it's to believe what God says. It's to do what
God tells you to do. It's to take freely that salvation
which God has provided in the person of His Son. This is man's
highest and man's best wisdom. And when old Naaman, when he
did what God told him to do through the mouth of the prophet, this
made the leper whole. And he came and his flesh was
like the flesh of a child. Oh, how sweet to view the flowing
of the Savior's precious blood with divine assurance knowing
He has made my peace with God. May that be your portion, brother,
sister. May it be your portion. Peace with God and may you rest
your case with Him. Every one of you, may this be
your portion. Father, we thank you

I Thought

What does the Bible say about God's providence in our lives?

How do we know that God answers prayer?

Why is humility essential for receiving God's grace?

How should we approach God's will in our lives?

What does the story of Naaman teach us about God's way of salvation?

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I Thought

What does the Bible say about God's providence in our lives?

How do we know that God answers prayer?

Why is humility essential for receiving God's grace?

How should we approach God's will in our lives?

What does the story of Naaman teach us about God's way of salvation?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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