Would you turn to Luke chapter
four? While you're turning there this
evening, we're going to observe the Lord's table together. And I'm going to preach from
Hebrews, chapter 13, verse seven, on what is spoken when the word
of God is spoken. What is spoken when the word
of God is spoken? I've entitled this message. It's
not like you thought it was. Neyman said, I thought that's
where he got in trouble. It's not like you thought it
was. Now, in Luke chapter four, Our
Lord refers to this story. And in the story of Naaman, we
have sovereign grace illustrated. Quite often, the best way we
can understand something is through an illustration. And we have
a beautiful illustration of sovereign grace in the story of Naaman. Now, what do I mean by the term
sovereign grace? Look in Luke chapter 4 verse
28. And I want you to picture this
scenario. It's something that actually
took place, verse 28. And all day in the synagogue. And this
was a religious crowd. These were churchgoers. That's
who they were. This wasn't a bar. This was a
religious crowd in the synagogue. And all they in the synagogue,
when they had heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him under the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Now, these people were mad. I want you to what if the message
I brought this morning made everybody in this room come up and grab
me and carry me out to kill me? This religious crowd turned into
a lynch mob. Now, what did the Lord say that
incited their anger to this point? Well, these people had rejected
the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 16 of this
same chapter. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, and he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives and recovering of the sight of the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it to the minister
and sat down and the eyes of all of them that were in the
synagogue were fastened on him. He read this passage of scripture
in such a way as they knew what he was saying. I would love to have heard the
way he emphasized me. They knew what he was saying.
and their eyes were fastened on him. What's he going to say
now? Verse 21, And he began to say
unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am the fulfillment of this
scripture. And all bear him witness, and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,
and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, You
will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in
thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, No prophet is except in his own country, but I tell you
of a truth. Now here's Sovereign Grace illustrated. You all don't
believe me. You're rejecting me. You're rejecting
my claims. But I tell you the truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But none of them, but unto none
of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, the city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow. Now in all of Israel, there were
a lot of widows. And the prophet wasn't sent to any of them. He
was sent to somebody outside. of Israel, and all the rest were
passed by. Verse 27, And many lepers were
in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. God in his sovereignty
passed the rest by. Sovereign grace is grace that
is 100% dependent upon God's will. Let me repeat that. Sovereign grace is grace that
is 100% dependent upon God's will. You and I have no control
in this thing. That means that right now, I
love saying this and say it all the time and say it again. Right
now, me and you are in the hands of the Lord, and He can do with
us whatever He's pleased to do. He can save me if He's pleased
to save me, or He can send me to hell if He is so pleased,
with no impeachment upon His justice. Whatever He does is
right. We're in His hands. He can do
with us whatever He's pleased to do. Somebody says, well, that'll
lead men to fatalism and indifference. No, it won't. No, it won't. But that's the fact. We're in
his hands. Now, God passed by and did not
cleanse any lepers in Israel during Elisha's day. He let them
all die in leprosy. But he did choose a Gentile leper,
a Syrian by the name of Naaman. And Naaman is an illustration
of sovereign grace. And if you want to understand
sovereign grace, The Lord's help, listen up. Now turn to 2 Kings
chapter 5, once again, that passage I just read. 2 Kings chapter
5, verse 1. Now Naaman, 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. Syria at this time was over Israel. Why was Syria over Israel? Because
the Lord caused it to take place. Not only were Israel's victories
attributed to the Lord, but their defeats as well. The reason Syria
is over Israel at this time is because the Lord gave Syria that
deliverance for his sovereign purpose. Aren't you glad it's
that way? Naaman, a 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. And he
was a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And Naaman had
a very impressive resume. He was a five-star general in
the army of Syria, a great man with his master. He was honorable,
a mighty man of valor, but look at the last phrase, but he was
a leper. And notice, but he was, is in
italics. It is supplied by the translator.
We can just as easily read it, a mighty man in valor, a leper,
a leper. believed himself to be a great
man who happened to be a leper. But in reality, he was a leper. That was his defining term. He was a leper who happened to
be a great man. A great man is a sinner who for
a while has a certain status among worms. That's all it is. Verse two. And the Syrians had
gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid. Can you imagine how painful that
would be living in times like that? I mean, people would come
in, take their family, bring them back, make them slaves.
This little Israelite girl had this terrible thing happen to
her. The Syrians came and brought her and she became a slave to
Naaman's wife, a little maid. But here we see God's adorable
providence. Everything is providence. Sometimes
you can see it more clearly than others, but everything is providential.
And here, in God's providence, this little girl is brought into
Syria for this purpose. Verse 3, And she said unto her
mistress, Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that's
in Samaria? For he would recover him of his
leprosy. Now, this little girl knew of
the prophet Elisha. She knew of the miracles that
God had done by him. You remember when he asked for
a double portion of the spirit of Elijah? And he was given it.
And the first thing he does, he smites the river Jordan with
his mantle and the water's part, and he walks through it. This
man was a man who worked miracles by God's grace. He's the one
who caused that oil of flack, little jar of oil to keep pouring
into those pots. He even raised somebody from
the dead through the power of God. Now that's what kind of
power by God's power this man had. And this little girl knew
about him, and she looked at her mistress's husband, who was
a leper, and she felt sorry for him. She said, oh, if he was
just around that prophet in Samaria, they'd be Now let's go and read. Verse 4, And one went in, and
told his lord, saying, Thus and thus saith the maid that is of
the land of Israel. They told Naaman about what was
said. So Naaman tells his king about
it, 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 10 talents of silver and 6,000 pieces of gold and 10 changes
of raiment. The king loads up Naaman with
gifts. He says, you go to Israel and
you can pay for your cleansing. You know, this would have made
Elisha fabulously wealthy if he took it. And I think the 10
changes of raiment, you think that might have something to
do with the Ten Commandments? buying favor. If I keep these
commandments, God will have mercy on me. Ten changes of Ramans. Verse six. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel. Now, the first thing I see is
he brought it to the wrong place, didn't he? The king of Israel couldn't
do anything for him. Only Elisha could. and he brought
the letter to the king of Israel saying now when this letter is
coming to thee behold I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee that thou mayest recover him of leprosy this letter was
sent to the king not to the prophet but to the king of Israel verse
7 and it came to pass when the king of Israel read the letter
that he rent his clothes Then he said, Am I God to kill and
to make alive that this man descend unto me to recover a man of his
leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeks a quarrel against me. The king of Israel
interpreted this as looking for a way to start a fight. That's
what's going on. He's trying to start a fight
with me. Verse 8. And it was so when Elisha, the
man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy
clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there
is a prophet in Israel. Verse nine, So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. Now notice, this is an important
detail. He didn't knock on the door, did he? He just stood there. He knew Elisha would know he's
there, all the noise and the horses and the chariots. I mean,
this was a big production. And he knew that he would hear,
so he got to his house and he stood there and waited. Now,
we see something of the character of Naaman here. He was a very
proud man, wasn't he? In his general's uniform, with
his horses and his chariot, And he stands there at the door of
Elisha's house. He doesn't knock. He knew Elisha
was bound to hear him. He just waited for Elisha to
come out to him. Now, he didn't come with humility.
He didn't come saying, would you please ask the Lord to heal
me? He just came there and presented
himself and waited, thinking that there's something about
him that obligated Elisha to come to the door. I mean, surely
he's going to come to the door for me. Look who I am. And there
he stands. Sinners believe salvation to
be in their hands. If they had done what is needed,
and exercised their free will, and decided to accept Jesus as
their personal Savior, God is now obligated to save them. We
are waiting on Him. I have made my move, now He needs
to make His move. There He is, standing, waiting. sent a messenger. Elisha didn't
even go to the door. Can you imagine how offended
Naaman was by that? I mean, he ought to come after
me. What's he doing sending a servant to me? Does he know who I am?
Oh, you can imagine how offended he must have been. But you know
what? When you know the living God
the way Elisha did, you have a tendency to not be too impressed
with the flesh. He just does not. He sent this
humble servant. Now, this represents the preaching
of the gospel. You and I will not hear from
God apart from a humble servant. You're going to hear from God
through a man, a weak man like me. I'm going to hear from God
through a man. Elisha doesn't come to him, he
just sends his servant out. And what was Elisha's message?
Verse 10, 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. Go to a dirty, muddy river, get
in it, dip down seven times. Not six, not eight, seven. The
number of perfection, the number of completion. Dip down seven
times, and when you come up that seventh time, Your leprosy will
be gone. You will have perfectly clean
flesh. Now, the issue here is cleansing. Remember how the Lord said regarding
Naaman? None of them were cleansed, save
Naaman the Syrian. The issue here is cleansing.
The issue of being clean before God. Now, that's what I know
I need. A lot of things I think I need.
But I know something I know I need. I need to be clean before God. And I know this. In and of myself,
I'm filthy. In and of myself, I'm dirty. And I need to be cleaned, and
I know I can't make myself clean. Now, the three things in the
Bible that are said to cleanse the sinner it's the same, wherever
you have one, you have the other. First, a sinner is made clean
by the sovereign will of Christ. Remember that leper? Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. And he said, I will. Be thou
clean. And you know what? That leper
was clean. He was cleansed by an act of
the sovereign will of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you and
I are wise, we'll come to Christ just like that leper did. Full
of leprosy, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
Secondly, we're said to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ, God's Son,
cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Christ makes it
to where I do not have sin. It's all washed away. And thirdly,
we're cleansed by the word of Christ. Now, are you clean, our
Lord said, by the word that I've spoken to you? You're cleansed
in hearing the gospel. Now, the issue here was cleansing. Naaman's leprosy represents his
sin. How can he be cleansed? How can
he be clean? Well, he has to be washed in
the blood of Christ. That's what that dipping represents. He's washed in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, was the act of going down
into that river seven times, would that cleanse him? Is that what cleansed him? No,
it's God that cleansed him. But he wouldn't have been cleansed
without doing it. No way. So he hears Go and dip
down seven times and you shall be clean. Verse 11. But Naaman was wroth. He was angry. He was already
offended by the fact that Elisha didn't go. He thought he ought
to be coming to me. He sends a servant. And then
he tells me to go dip down in a muddy river seven times and
I'll be clean. Naaman was wroth. He was angry.
And he went away. And he said, Behold, I thought.
There's where you went wrong. Now, you just write this down.
Please believe this. Everything that you naturally
think, everything that I naturally think regarding God and salvation
is wrong. Behold, I thought. There's where
you got in trouble, Naaman. Your thinking is wrong. I think
that passage of scripture in Psalm 50, where God says, Thou
thoughtest, I was altogether such a one as yourself. And that's
the way we all think. We think God's like us. Well,
I wouldn't do that. Surely God wouldn't. I do it this way. I believe that's
the way. No, your thinking is wrong. My thinking is wrong.
Now, just believe this. I thought there's where the trouble
begins. Naaman was wroth, and he went away and said, 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. He was looking for big things.
He thought he would see great miracles and maybe strike his
hand over the place. He was. Just tell me to wash
and be clean. He says in verse 12. are not
abundant in far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the
waters of Israel. May I not wash in them and be
clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. Now this thing that I thought, well I thought if I was sincere
and did my best and accepted Jesus as my personal Savior,
I thought everything would be okay for me. it's not like you thought it
was. I thought God loves everybody,
loves me, wants to save me. If I'll just let him? If I just
accept him? I thought... It's not like you
thought it was. It's not. It's not like you thought it
was at all. There's no truth to that. Behold, I thought. You know, he was so arrogant,
he pretty much said, I'll die a leper before I submit myself
to this. I'm not going to go in that filthy river and the
rivers at home are a lot better. This is ridiculous. I can't believe
he'd say something to me. Who does he think I am? And he
went away in a rage. Verse 13. And the servants came near. Remember
he had a bunch of people with him and they witnessed all this.
And his servants came near and spake unto him and said unto
him, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldst thou not have done it? What if I told you that you would
be eternally saved and all your sins would be forgiven If you
crawl on your hands and knees to Louisville, Kentucky, you'd
do it, wouldn't you? If I really believe that if I
crawl on my hands and knees to Louisville, Kentucky, that would
guarantee I'd be in heaven forever. I'd do it. I would. I mean, it would hurt. It'd be
painful. But I'd do it for my immortal soul. Of course I'd
do it. If he bids you do something great, something spectacular,
wouldn't you do it? How much rather than when he
says to thee, wash and be clean. It's too easy. Too simple. I need something greater than
that. Wash and be clean. Verse 14. Then went he down. I love the language. He was way
up too high, wasn't he? The way up in the kingdom of
heaven is always down. Always. He went down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the
man of God. Now, picture this in your mind.
He goes down all the way under, comes up once, twice, three times,
four times, five times, six times. Has anything happened? No, not
at all. But he goes down the seventh
time and he comes up. And can you imagine him looking
at his hands and seeing he was clean? Seven times. And his leprosy
was cleansed. Now, look at verse 14 again.
Let's read the whole verse. 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 two things took place. Two
things. First, his leprosy left. It was
gone. It was washed away. But what
about his flesh? It doesn't just say, you know,
he was probably 40 or 50 years old, you know, he was a general.
I mean, I would say, you know, I look at my hands, I'm getting
age spots and wrinkles and, you know, but his, he would have
had those, but the scripture says his flesh came back like
a little child's, like a baby. I mean, he came back with perfect
flesh. Two things happened. His leprosy
left and he was given something he didn't have, the flesh of
a little child. And this gives us some idea of
what happens when God saves a sinner. Now that dipping seven times,
seven is the number of perfection. When Christ shed his precious
blood, I was washed. I was cleansed perfectly. All
my sin was washed away. When he said it is finished,
it was finished. My sin was washed away. Hebrews 10, 14 says, For by one
offering he hath perfected, perfected forever, then been sanctified. Now, my sin was washed away,
and I'm given a new heart, a new nature, just like that new flesh
that was there, that flesh of a baby. I'm given a new nature. If any man being Christ, he's
a new creature created by God. Behold, all things have passed
away and all things have become new. I'm given a new nature,
one that was not there before. Now, the Lord takes away sin
and we're given a new nature because of his blood. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Now, this dipping represents faith. Yes, it represents the
blood of Christ washing away our sins, but it also represents
the obedience of faith. Does faith wash away your sins? No. The Lord Jesus Christ washes
away sins, not faith. Christ washes away sins. Let
me ask you another question. What if Naaman decided, no, I'm
not going to dip down in that river seven times. Will he have
been cleansed? Absolutely not. This is the obedience of faith.
Now you're called upon, I'm called upon to believe, to believe the
gospel. You ought to believe the gospel.
You ought to, it's true. God commands you to. You ought
to believe. And if you don't, it's an act
of disobedience. It is an act of wickedness to
not believe the gospel. If you don't believe the gospel,
you will not be saved. It's that simple. If you don't
bow the knee to Christ, now God's going to meet you at your point
of rebellion. After He's going to meet us, He's going to meet
us at our point of rebellion, and He's going to break us, or
He's going to send us to hell. He had to dip down seven times,
didn't he? And he did dip down seven times,
and he was made clean. That's the obedience of faith. Now, let's go on reading. He
went down and he 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. He was the
leper that was cleansed. And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him
and said, Behold, now I know that there's no God in all the
earth, but in Israel. Those gods are worshiping back
home in Syria. They're false gods. They're idols.
There's nothing to them. I know that now. You know, when
the Lord does something for you, You know that the gospel is the
only gospel. And all that other stuff is false. He knew that, didn't he? Now,
he had been a worshipper in Syria. He was worshipping the god of
remnant or whatever his name was in Syria. That was part of
his life. But when God saved him, he saw
that all of that stuff was foolishness. God's not in it. Have you ever
repented of your religion? Now, it always troubles me when
people hear the gospel and they think, well, I was saved when
I was believing free will and so on, but then I came to a knowledge
of grace. No, no, no. You're saved when
you hear the gospel, when you believe the gospel, and you were
not saved when you believe that stuff. Naaman knew that, didn't
he? Naaman knew that. It was clear
with him. He saw there's no God anywhere
but in the God of Israel. That issue was clearly settled
with him. And he now says, I pray thee,
take a blessing of thy servant. Go ahead and take this stuff
that I gave you. You know, it would have made Elisha wealthy
if he took it. But I think it's interesting. He wouldn't take
it because he was going to make name and know for sure that salvation,
you can't buy it. You can't purchase it. He refused
it. But he said, as the Lord liveth
before whom I stand, I will receive none. I love that. Well, you wouldn't
get that out of the average TV preacher, would you? Here's some
money. I don't want it. I don't want
it. Verse 17, And Naaman said, Shall
there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules
burdens of earth? For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord. That's all I'm going to do. Verse
18, In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master
goes into the house of remnant to worship there, and he leans
on my hand, I bow myself with him while he bows down to Raymond.
When I bow down myself in the house of Raymond, the Lord pardoned
my servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace.
So he departed from him a little ways. Someone said, What's all
that mean? I really don't know. I don't. I've given different
views and I've thought and I've said different things. I just
don't know. Sorry. But at any rate, what did Naaman
do? I love the way he started out
mad. I'm always more encouraged when
somebody gets mad at what they hear. I don't know how many times
people have left here saying, boy, that was great. You know,
people have visited. Oh, that was great. I really liked that. And I think,
well, I won't see them again, you know. But when somebody gets mad, I
have some hope that maybe they've heard something. When Haman got
mad at first, but then he got glad, didn't he? He got glad
when he saw accomplished. Now, I say to everybody
here, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. May God give us all the grace
to do just that. Let's pray together.