Lessons Learned From Naaman

Q: What does the Bible say about Naaman's healing?

The Bible teaches that Naaman's healing in 2 Kings 5 exemplifies God's sovereign grace and the necessity of humbling oneself before God. In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, a proud and mighty man afflicted with leprosy, learns that healing requires not only obedience but also humility. The prophet Elisha instructs him to wash in the Jordan River seven times, which signifies the complete act of submitting to God's will. This event illustrates that God's mercy is freely given and does not depend on human merit or status. It challenges the notion that outward appearances or achievements can earn one's standing before God. Naaman’s initial resistance reflects the human tendency to cling to pride and self-righteousness, a theme reiterated throughout Scripture, emphasizing that God’s grace is freely bestowed to the humble and contrite heart.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sovereign?

God's sovereignty in grace is evident in His choice of whom to save, as illustrated by Naaman's story. The doctrine of sovereign grace posits that God, in His mercy, chooses individuals for salvation according to His own will and purpose. This is vividly demonstrated in the account of Naaman. Despite being a great military leader, Naaman was a Gentile and, at that time, outside of God's chosen people. Yet, he was chosen to experience God's mercy, signifying that God's grace extends beyond human limitations and societal boundaries. The Bible consistently reinforces this theme, illustrating through various accounts, especially in the New Testament, that God does not choose the elite or the righteous but the humble and the broken. This clear demonstration of grace underlines the truth that salvation is entirely of the Lord’s doing, showcasing His absolute sovereignty to save whom He wills.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is crucial for Christians as it prepares the heart to receive God's grace and acknowledge one's need for salvation. Humility is a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith, as it acknowledges our true state before a holy God. In the story of Naaman, we see that without a humbling experience—realizing his leprosy and need for healing—he could not receive God’s grace. The Scriptures teach that pride leads to destruction and humility to salvation. Jesus Himself exemplified humility and instructed His followers to approach God as little children, recognizing their dependency on Him. True faith emerges from a heart that understands its own inadequacy and sinfulness, leading to sincere repentance and trust in Christ for redemption. This is consistent throughout Scripture, where God promises to give grace to the humble but opposes the proud.

Q: What does Naaman's story teach about faith and obedience?

Naaman's story illustrates that true faith manifests in obedience to God's commands, regardless of human understanding. Naaman's journey to healing emphasizes the connection between faith and obedience. Initially, Naaman was skeptical about the simple command to wash in the Jordan River, reflecting the common human tendency to prefer complexity over God’s simplicity. However, when he finally obeyed, his leprosy was healed. This act of obedience was essential for his faith to be realized. The Scriptures consistently link obedience with faith; genuine faith produces actions that align with God’s word. Believers today are called to respond in faith and follow God’s commands, even when they don’t fully understand the outcome. This narrative serves as a reminder that faith is more than intellectual assent; it requires action and willingness to submit to God's plan.

There are two questions that
immediately come forward. Because of man's superstition,
and we are superstitious creatures, and because of man's spiritual
blindness and deadness, these two questions have to be answered. The first question is this. of
the Jordan River differ from the waters of any
river in the world? What I'm asking is, do the waters
of the Jordan River have any special power to heal leprosy? The answer is no. You see, Naaman
said the same thing. He said, we've got better rivers
in Syria than they've got here in this place. And basically
he was telling the truth. There's no power in the River
Jordan. I know there are people from
America, fundamentalists, professing Christians that go to tours of
the Holy Land and get baptized in the River Jordan. Some magic
powers. That's heathenism. That's idolatry. Right. Second question is this. This is a powerful question.
Be careful before you answer it. Could Naaman the leper, could
he have been healed of his leprosy without washing in the Jordan
River? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. If he had not taken those seven
dips in the Jordan River, he would have perished, a flaky,
corrupted leper. Then what on earth do we have
here? What's going on here? What's this all about? Why did
God take the whole page of the sacred Word of God and devote
it to the healing of one single leper? And there were thousands
of them. But I'll tell you something that
makes it of greater importance ought to to us is that our Lord Jesus Christ
referred back to this man, Naaman the leper. My master came back to Nazareth. Now, he grew up in the town of
Nazareth, worked in his father Joseph Foster's father's carpenter
shop, and when he was thirty years of age, he went out to
preach. He began his earthly ministry,
preaching ministry. And he performed miracles, and
they heard in Nazareth about it. And when he came back to
Nazareth on the Saturday morning, on the Sabbath day, he went to
the synagogue, as it was his custom, and they gave him the
book of Isaiah to read. And he stood up to read. And
then he began to preach. And he said to those people,
he said, you Jews think you have a corner on God. You think God's
obligated to you. That's what he was saying. But
God's mercy is sovereign. And God's grace is sovereign.
And God will heal whom he will, save whom he will, redeem whom
he will, and take the glory whom he will. That's what the Master
said. And he gave them two illustrations. To show you the weight of what
I'm dealing with this morning, Christ gave that congregation
in Nazareth two illustrations. He said there were many widows
in the land of Israel during the days of the Prophet, and
God fed none of them for three and a half years. But he fed
a Gentile widow. Then he said there were many
lepers in the land of Israel. in the days of Elisha the prophet,
and God healed none of them, except one, and my Lord called
him by name, Naaman the leper." So this is, what we have here is this. You
see, the Lord of glory is pleased to show mercy to someone. He said, I will be merciful,
I will be gracious. The Lord is plenteous in mercy
and delights to show mercy. And he'll show mercy to this
Gentile sinner by his sovereign grace. But, now here's God choosing
Naaman and God determining to redeem Naaman and determining
to make Naaman his own, which he did. But Naaman is a proud,
arrogant haughty, Gentile soldier. So what we have here, Naaman
must be brought by the grace of God, like any son of Adam.
If you're an object of God's grace, if you're an object of
God's grace, he's going to whittle you down. He's going to strip
you, break you, humble you, and bring you to himself. If you're
an object of God's grace, I know grace originates with God Almighty.
And I know God will save whom he will. But I'll tell you, when
he saves a man, he saves him. I like that story about the traveling
salesman that went in the little country store, a little general
store out in Arkansas. He's selling his wares. He went
in this little general store and had a pot-bellied stove there
and some fellas sitting around. He looked over there and there
was a man whittling. He asked the papyrus, he said,
they come in here and set the stove and whittle, and the papyrus
said, yeah, you see these little statues of hound dogs? He said,
that fellow whittles hound dogs. Boy, he reached up and picked
up one of those hound dogs, and it was a perfect hound dog. It
just had the old floppy ears and the sad eyes, you know, and
just the perfect wood carving of a hound dog. He said, that
guy did this? Yeah, I said, he's good. So he
did all these, I sell them for him. He took that, he walked
over there to that old man and he said, did you do this? Yep. He said, how do you do that?
That's great. How do you do it? The old man
looked at the piece of wood, looked at his knife and looked
up at the fellow and he said, I don't know. He said, I just
cut off everything, don't look like a hound dog. That's what our Lord does, and he does it with a sharp knife. That's what I'm saying. He's
going to save Naaman. He decided to save him. Naaman
didn't decide he wanted God to save him. God decided he was
going to save him, purposed it for the world again. And that's
so with everybody whom he saved. Known unto God all his works
from the foundation of the world, that's what the Bible says. But
see, he's got to do something for Naaman. He's got to make
him know that God is God. Naaman's got too many gods. And secondly, he's got to show
Naaman his poverty. Naaman is a stinking leper, but
he won't admit it. He's got his clothes on, he's
got that high collar with those stars these generals wear, you
know, and those boards, and he wears these white gloves, and
got his hat pulled down around his ears with all that gold braid
on it and his swagger stick commanding his forces, and he's the only
one who knows he's got leprosy. He's got a head. Got it covered up. We cover up
our blemishes, don't we? Spend a lot of money sometimes
trying to do it, too. Got everybody fooled. And God's
got to make him admit he's a leper. Got to. Can't leave him in that
arrogancy. The high's got to be brought
down. He's got to empty him. He's got to humble him. He's
got to bring him to admit before God and before men that salvation's
of the Lord. You're never going to sing that
song in glory if you don't learn it down here. I beg your pardon. Human thought, human pride, human
ways, human works have all got to be destroyed now. And I tell
you, I tell me, and I'll tell you. If a man misses Holy Spirit
conviction, humbling, stripping, conversion, breaking, killing
your pride, bringing you down into the dust, You're going to
miss repentance. You're going to miss repentance.
And if you miss repentance, you're going to miss faith, because
the two go together. You can't have faith without
repentance. Now, tell me, you can't do it. And I'll tell you, if you miss
faith, you're going to miss Christ. So it all goes back to this humbling
experience. I know a man can have some truth.
Anybody can read. Read can have some truth. That's
no problem. A man may have some doctrine.
You say, I don't know the doctrine. Well, that's no problem. All
you've got to do is read and put two and two together and
come out with four. A man can have a profession. He can play the game of religion.
He can wear his collar high and his hat pulled down and his white
gloves and fool everybody but God. But I tell you, all who
come to Christ in saving faith do so in an unforgettable experience
of self-humbling. I guarantee you. Everybody who comes to Christ
is going to come to Christ empty-handed, stripped, broken, humble, brought
to his feet in the dust, and their unchanging song will always
be unto him who loved me. When I was ungodly and a sinner,
to him who loved me and washed me from my sins in his own precious
blood, and made me, lifted the beggar from the dumb hill and
set him among princes, made me a king and a priest of God, and
unto him be the glory both now and forever. I am nothing, I
know nothing, I have nothing, I can do nothing. My all and
in all is Christ Jesus." I'm telling you, that's what's happening
here. You see, you hear about four
or five things about Naaman. Number one, you remember the
reading, Naaman had many commendable traits. Look at verse one. Naaman was captain and host of
the king of Syria. Naaman was a great man. Naaman
was honorable. By him, the Lord had given deliverance
under Syria. He was a mighty man. Well, you
could go on and on. This man had many commendable
traits. He was an unusual, gifted, talented,
special man. But something was wrong. Something
serious that desperately was wrong. Something was so wrong that it
made everything he had and everything he did to mean nothing to him.
Absolutely nothing. While everybody out here was
talking about how great he was, how important he was, now Sarah
couldn't get along without him. He's sitting here knowing that
he had a rotten, corruptible, killing, deadly, fatal disease
in his blood. He was a leper. And I know there are fleshly
differences among men and women. Some of you are richer than others.
Some of you are wiser than others. Some of you are stronger. Some
of you are taller. Some of you are more educated,
I know that. Some of you are more moral than
others. You've got stronger, higher principles. Straight as a stick. But I'll
tell you, all of us have one thing in common this morning,
one thing in common that makes our so-called wisdom and strength
and riches and education and honor and all these things, nothing. Makes everything I've accomplished,
everything I am, everything I have to be worthless. It's nothing
in the world but a soap bubble. And that is we're dead sinners
before God. Rotten. Dying and going to an
eternal hell. That's right. The Bible says
all have sinned. Come short of God's glory. In
Adam all died. There's none good, no not one.
There's none righteous. There's none that understand
it. God dwelleth in a light to which no man can approach. No
man has seen God at any time. No man knoweth the Father. Our
sinful disease, our sinful natures makes even our righteousness
guilty reigns. That's what's sad. Without Christ, any prayer you
ever pray is so full of sin, it alone could damn you at the
judgment. Am I telling the truth, Cecil?
That's a hard statement, but the best prayer you ever prayed
alone, without Christ, could make you damned at the judgment
because of its self-righteousness. See, everything, Naaman was a
leper. He was contaminated in everything. Everything that he sat on had
to be burned. Every glass he drank out of had
to be destroyed. Everything he touched had to
be removed. He contaminated everything. And
that's us. Now, I'm telling you, Naaman
was somebody with the somebodies, but he was a leper. And everything
I am and everything I touch is contaminated because I'm a sinner. Nealman found out, you know this,
he found out that there was healing to be had. He found out that
there was healing to be had, like we found out that there's
salvation to be had. He found out that there was a
way to get rid of this disease. And so he went down to get it. But he took the wrong things
with him. Let's get verse 5. And the king
of Syria said, Go to, go, I'll send a letter to 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. Boy,
he set out to buy deliverance. You say he's dumb, wasn't he?
Not any dumber than we are. Now you come on. Before we judge
Nahum, let's examine today's religion. Let's examine today's
real estate, examine ours. Is it not the way of natural
man to try either by his works, his merit, his morality, his
heritage, his deeds, to bargain with God? You've never done it?
Now, Lord, if you'll heal my son, I'll do this. You've never
done that? Anybody's ever asked, are you
a Christian? You say, I go to church every
Sunday. You've never done that? Somebody said, are you saved?
Yeah, I've accepted Jesus. You never said that? Where is the sinner? Where is
the sinner in this world who can truly say, in my hands, no
price I bring? Before God's throne, no merit
I plead. Where is the sinner? Not my profession,
not my works, not even my faith. Condemnation is my lot. Condemnation
is my due. Lord, I'm getting what I deserve. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Oh, I know we will preach. I
know worse than anybody else. I know that. Of course you aren't. And Nahum was no more a leper
than any other leper, but he was a leper. There's no degrees of sin in
God's sight. I tell you, we are so twisted
and warped in our thinking, we say, well, I'm not as bad as
others. There's no degrees of sin in God's life. Sin is sin. Dead is dead. I don't care how
long you've been dead. You're dead, you're dead. Isn't that
correct? If you're spiritually dead, you're
dead. If you're separated from God, you're separated from God.
Whether you're 10,000 miles from God or 10 miles from God, you're
still separated from God. You're not in God. I don't know
where we get this idea, I'm not as bad as somebody else. A leper
is a leper. The neighbor was a leper, and
that's what we are. And he came with the wrong things. He's going to go down and buy
deliverance, purchase salvation, healing. And not only that, you know the
hymn writer wrote this, he said, let not even conscience make
you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him. You said this to me the other
night. I thought, well, before I confess Christ, before I own
Christ, I'll get my life straightened up. I'll do this, and I'll do
that, and I'll do the other, and I'll get my life, and then
I can really serve God. That ain't the way, is it? Come to him like God, with nothing,
nothing. Casting yourself on. But here
comes Naomi loaded down. I went to visit a dear television
listener. Just loved this lady and her
husband. Never met them before. Been writing to them for years.
On my way to Fairmont a few weeks ago, I stopped by to see her
and her husband. 83 years old. Delightful. And
I went in. We visited a while and I had
to go. I had a meeting. She said, I want to write you
a check. I said, I don't want a check. I can't see you. I can't see you. I want anything
you got. Don't be writing my Lord a check.
And nothing else. And you know something? He not
only brought the wrong things, but number three, he went to
the wrong place. The little maid didn't say anything
about going to the king of Israel. She said, listen to her, look
down here at verse 3, she said, would God that my Lord were with
the prophet that's in Samaria. The prophet. Who is the prophet?
Let me show you. Turn to Deuteronomy. Well, this
prophet here is Elisha, but he represents another Elisha. He represents another Elisha.
Deuteronomy 18. This will do you good to see
this, Deuteronomy 18. Moses is speaking here, Deuteronomy
18. He said, "...the Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee
a prophet." from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto
me, unto him shall ye hearken." Verse 18. I'll raise up a prophet
from among thy brethren, like unto thee, and put my words in
his mouth, he'll speak unto them all that I shall command him,
and it'll come to pass that whosoever will not hearken to my words
which he shall speak, I'll require it of him." Who's that? That's
Christ. And you know, the little maid
didn't say anything about him going to the king. She said,
would God that he was before the prophet. And the word of
God doesn't say anything about sinners going to the Virgin Mary.
Why did they go there? Same reason Naaman went to the
king. He thought the king had some
pull with God. He thought that God's prophet
down there, what does he want to have him do, this peanut prophet? No beauty about him that we should
desire him, despised, rejected of men. What, I want to go to
that fellow down there in that little old hut? That despised,
unrecognized prophet? I'm going to the king. He'll
tell the prophet what to do. I'll go to Mary and she'll tell
Jesus what to do, you fool. I'll go to the priest. What word
does the Bible tell us to come to the front of the church, or
to raise our hands, or go to the baptistry? Christ said, come
to me. And we look at Naomi and say,
why do you want to go to the king? For the same reason you
go other places. and hope to find the mercy of
God. It's in Christ. It's in Christ. It's in Christ.
It's in Christ. Let's just keep saving. But we keep doing it. He went
to the wrong place. Don't ask me why they do it.
Christ said, you will not come to me. Come to me, I'll give
you rest. Come to me, out of your belly will flow rivers of
living water. Come to me while they go to other
places. I don't know. I don't know. And next of all, Naaman found
no hope, watch it now, found no hope in the king. So finally
he went to the prophet. He finally did. He said, good,
this is over. No, it ain't over. No, he came
with the wrong attitude. You can go to the right place
and not be saved. You go there with the wrong attitude. I'm going to say something that
99% of preachers never say, because they don't know anything about
it. Here comes Naaman, he finally
gets to the right place, even to the right person. Bobby's
got the wrong attitude. It says here in verse 8, listen,
verse 7, 8, all right, verse 9, watch this.
came with his horses and with his chariots, he still got all
that stuff, and he stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
Now you can imagine Elisha lived in a very humble dwelling, it
doesn't matter about that. But here Naaman came with his
uniform, he came everything intact, his place, his position, his
power, his pride. And everything is standing at
the door of that prophet of God. He's not going to stoop. He's
not going to humble himself to go in. Naaman wanted to keep
his position, his place, his pride, his power. He wanted to
be treated as a great man who happened to be a leper. And before God, all he is is
a stinking leper who happens to be a great man. For a while. I'm telling you something, and
I see it today, and it scares my soul. I see men who want to
cling to the human difference, the human honor, the human place,
the human power, the human prestige, even in the family of God. And
it won't do, my friends. You see, I go to the right church.
Naaman was at the right house too. I go hear the true prophet,
he was there too. But he wasn't at his feet, he
was outside. Surrounded by reminders of his glory and greatness and
his honor. That's right. There may be big worms and little
worms, but they're still worms. There may be beautiful worms
and ugly worms, but they're still worms. Don't matter about the
coat. There may be old worms and young
worms, but there's still worms. And a worm is a worm is a worm.
A dog is a dog is a dog. A man came to this congregation,
heard Brother Scott Richardson preach one time, and he got mad
and went away. Scott preached on the Canaanite
woman that the Lord called a dog, and that man went away and said,
I'm not a dog. I'm not going back there anymore.
I'm not a dog. You won't get any crumbs either. So you don't have to be a dog. No, sir. But Elisha knew his
trouble. The prophet of God knew his trouble.
And he didn't move. He sat right there inside that
little hut. He never moved. They said, General Naaman's outside. He never moved. Never moved. Because he knew that man's trouble,
he knew his arrogance and his pride, he knew that God was bringing
him down. He knew about Naaman, he sent
to the king, told him to send him to him. He said, send him
to me, let him come to me, I'll show him there's a prophet in
Israel. But he never moved. You know when a Canaanite woman
came to Christ, he never said anything to her, never even answered
her. And when he did answer her, he said, I'm not sent, only to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she said, have mercy on me.
He said, it's not right to give children bread to dogs. See, Naaman, Elisha knew his
trouble, and Elisha wouldn't play his game. And true prophets
of God, you may not understand them, but those who really know
God and know human flesh, because they know themselves. They won't
go to sinners and pacify them in their pride. But he said to
his servant, you go tell Naaman. And that great prophet, my Lord,
told me to tell you. He said, tell Naaman to take
off his clothes and his stars and his position and power and
everything that differentiates, everything that distinguishes
him from anybody else, all worms of the dust, and naked walk into
that muddy Jordan River, that river of despised Israel, and
dip not once and hurry out, but stand there and just keep going
down for all the world to see. I ain't nothing but a leper. Got no power, no ability, nothing. I'm just a rotten sinner. I'm
just going to keep on saying it. Down, two, three, four, five,
six, seven times. Humiliation. Well, Gahazi brought in the message
straight from glory. How did he react? All right, verse 11, he got mad. I'll tell you the truth. I'd like to have a nickel for
everybody I've made mad by telling them how God saved sinners. He got mad. I get tickled. People frown at me. Watch them
react to a message, you know. Tell them God sobbed on them.
They're sinners. If Luke could kill, he got mad
and he said, I thought, this is our whole trouble. This is
what got us in the mess. That's what got Adam in the mess.
He thought that he'd be like God. The first thing you've got
to do is get a sinner to quit thinking and start reading. Now,
when God saves a man, he's got to quit thinking, because your
thoughts are not his thoughts. Your ways seem right to you. You've got to quit trying to
analyze God Almighty because He's not a man, He's God. And
He'll say in His word what you're to do, what you're to believe,
where you're to come, and you've got to quit thinking and start
listening. The reason most folks can't hear
things is their mouths are going all the time. You can't hear
when you're talking. You can't listen when you're
popping off about what you think and what God ought to do. Just
a mouth, just running all the time. The first thing God does
before He saves a sinner is shut his mouth. I guarantee you. I thought he'd come out. I thought
we'd have a ceremony. I thought he'd come out and call
on his God and lay his hand on this thing. You see, now watch
this. Naaman heard the Word, but he
had the wrong thoughts. If Elijah had come to him and
said something, called on God, touched a spot, made him whole,
that would have preserved his pride, his position. That would have been God meeting
Naaman on Naaman's terms. And it doesn't come that way.
That would be God sharing the glory with Naaman, leaving him to be something special. But now God's way, Elijah said,
go and do what I told you to do, this way humbles the sinner,
strips away, God's way strips away all human differences, all
human pride, all human honor. See, that's the reason God chose
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and despise
things of the world and bring to naught the things that are,
and the things that are not, you see, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. I'm telling you the truth. This
is what it says. God will have all the glory.
And I don't know whether God's going to save everybody in this
congregation. I would like, I hope he does,
I hope he saves me. I hope he saves you. I hope he
saves everybody here. I hope he is pleased. I hope
we are an object of his love. I hope he chose to redeem us. There are many widows in Israel,
and God chose one. There are many lepers in the
land, but God healed one. Salvation is of the Lord. I hope
he will show mercy to us. But I do know this, if you are
an object of his love, that prophet will use His Word
and His Preacher to bring you down. Now you will. It's got to be
done. There's got to be an operation
on us. There's no difference. We're
going to see it. We're going to own it. We're
going to acknowledge it. We're going to confess it. We're going
to experience it. That we're going to come to Him. And it's to nobody from nowhere. That's right. Well, I've said enough for you
to know what I've been trying to say. You see, these Hollywood stars
accept Jesus, and they stay Hollywood stars. Some professional man
accepts Jesus, and he's still a wheeler-dealer, you know. He's
still Mr. Somebody. He's never brought
down. all this thing, the famous writers
and all, except Jesus. Get Jesus in your life. My friends,
this coming to the Lord Jesus Christ is a whittling, stripping,
humbling, breaking experience, unforgettable experience. When
a man is stripped now, he becomes an object of mercy, an object
of grace, with a common faith and a common salvation and a
common goal and a common unity and a common family. And he knows
he's nothing. And it's not just religious jargon. Bless God, he knows it. And he
treats others according to what he knows he
is. That's right. God found him, and God dealt
with him in mercy, and he does the same. He forgives as he has
been forgiven. He shows mercy as he's received
mercy. Whoo! You can't find old Naleman arguing
with anybody after this. The sixth thing, finally, Naleman
did something right. It says in verse 14, then he
went down. Come on down. Come on down. The way up is down, I'm telling
you. Oh, somebody here. And you're
not going to humble me. No, I never will. But if God
does, He will. No, I can't do it. I can't do
it. My words don't mean anything. But I see him. He took off that
jacket. All those ribbons. Threw it aside. Took off those boots. Oh, those
special alligator boots. He probably killed the alligator.
Took off his silk shirt, you know, threw his swagger stick
down, and in came his pants. All his soldiers standing around.
And his skin. Oh, you talk about ugly. Leprosy. Did you ever see a picture of
a leper? I've seen a leper in Mexico. Ed, we saw one down there. Remember? That's awful. But these
soldiers. Good night. Well, it's got to be done. It's painful, but it's got to
be done. I hear people say to me, if anybody's helping my mother,
she's a good woman. She ain't going to get there
that way. Your mama was a sinner. And that's what's going to happen.
Come on now. So I hear, and my Lord referred
to it, And then John, he waited out there in that river. Dirty,
muddy old Jordan. Waited out there. He'd given
up. Why don't we give up? Why don't
we lay down our shotgun? Why don't we put our sword in
the scabbard and throw it aside? Why don't we confess who we are
and what we are and what we've done and the rottenness that
moves through us? How come? Well, we've got an
image to defend. That's what it is. It's an image.
Shadow. Because it's going pretty soon.
Soon as the sun comes out, the shadow's going away. And there he is. And I expect
some laughed and some cried and some made fun. But old Naaman
quit lying, he quit trying, and he quit buying. And he went down. And I got good news for anybody
here. I don't care who you are. I don't
care how rotten you are. If you'll come to the prophet, our Lord
Jesus Christ, he has the power to make you whole. But don't
pull rank on God, okay? Don't pull rank on God. He's
hard to impress. He's hard to impress. You can
impress me, boy, but he's awful hard to impress, because he sees
that over heart, doesn't he? And you might as well be outwardly
what you are inwardly before God and before this congregation.
Here I am, the chief of sinners, but I come. Isn't that some story? But I tell you this, it's not
just a story. It's a reality.

Lessons Learned From Naaman

What does the Bible say about Naaman's healing?

How do we know God's grace is sovereign?

Why is humility important for Christians?

What does Naaman's story teach about faith and obedience?

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Lessons Learned From Naaman

What does the Bible say about Naaman's healing?

How do we know God's grace is sovereign?

Why is humility important for Christians?

What does Naaman's story teach about faith and obedience?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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