While Mike was singing that song, I was strengthened in my position
as I read and study and preach the Word of God. I'm not trying to find out who
the Antichrist is. I know there is Antichrist and
the spirit of Antichrist and the great Antichrist. I'm really not interested in
the place of Russia in the days of the coming of
the Lord. I have less interest in that all the time. I know
they're demons, but I'm not interested in the study of demons. Usually
what you look for, you'll find. I'm not even interested in the
study of angels and where they came from or where they're going. or the big horn or the little
horn, I'm interested in Christ. And I'm trying to find him on
every page of this book, and I'm trying to preach the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I do know this, and I
read this again last week, him that honoreth me, God said, I'll
honor him. He that honoreth the Son, my
Father will honor. I'm confident of that. And a
man's ministry and time and effort cannot be wasted if he in some
way or to some degree spends his life and time pointing men
to Christ. Because I know that in that day
every eye is going to see him, and every knee is going to bow
before him, and every tongue is going to confess that he's
Lord in heaven, earth, and hell. And I'm interested in doing that
right now. And when you come to this church or to the meetings
in this place, I am dedicated and more dedicated than ever
before that this pulpit shall ring with the name of Christ,
the person and work of Christ, the glory of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ, and all that pertains to Christ our Lord. You cannot
overwork the message of his grace. You know, when our Lord preached
the gospel to men, he used Old Testament pictures and examples. When our Lord, when he was here
on this earth in the flesh and walked among us and ministered
to the people of that day, he often referred back to the Old
Testament types and pictures On one occasion, he said, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And those people
about him knew that story. They were acquainted with that
experience in the life of Israel, how they looked to the brazen
serpent. In fact, the brazen serpent was
kept and used in worship services after that, as an idol, until
Hezekiah came along and and ground it to powder and told him it
was a worthless piece of brass. But our Lord said, as Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but
have everlasting life. And on another occasion, our
Lord, speaking to a group of people, said, Remember Lot's
wife. Remember Lot's wife. He didn't
make any other observation, he just said, remember Lot's wife.
And then on another occasion he said, regarding his burial
and resurrection, he said, as Jonah. And they all knew who
Jonah was. He said, as Jonah was three days
in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man be three
days in the heart of the earth. And then on another occasion
he said, as it was in the days of Noah. so shall it be in the
days of the coming of the Son of Man." So these people to whom
he ministered were familiar with these Old Testament scriptures.
And our Lord kept referring back to Abraham, Jonah, Moses, Noah,
all of these examples. And the one I've chosen tonight,
if you open your Bible to 2 Kings 5, here's a a story to which the Lord God
gives an entire chapter in the book of 2 Kings. Now, I thought
this morning when I was talking about how the scripture covers
even millenniums in just a few verses. In the days of when God created
the heaven and the earth there in Genesis 1, in the beginning
God, God has no beginning But in the beginning of creation,
God made the heavens and the earth, and between Genesis 1,
1 and 1, 2, I don't know how much time went by. I don't know how old this earth
is. I don't know how old the universe is. I do know God's
eternal. And when God said to Adam and
Eve, multiply and replenish the earth, you know, you don't replenish
something that hasn't been replenished. You replenish it. Something happened
here before what happened here. Like a little colored boy was
sitting at the table eating one day, and he said, pass the lasses.
And his mother said, you mean molasses. He said, you can't
have molasses, you ain't got no lasses. And you can't replenish
what hasn't been replenished. God said, replenish the earth. Satan enters this picture somewhere,
Lucifer, way back yonder. They talk about the dinosaurs
and all the earth being millions of years old. It may be, who
knows? I don't know. I know how long man has been
here, approximately. I know how long it's been approximately
since Adam lived. We have the genealogies. We can
trace it down to not too many years off target. But I don't
know how old this earth is. I don't know how old the universe
is. I do know that God covers in the scripture like the birth
of Cain and Abel. We have Adam knew his wife, she
bore a son Cain, and had another son Abel, and here they come
before the Lord with an offering, and they'd grown men with families.
I thought about this, if God recorded everything that we needed
to know, and everything about which we're inquisitive, do you
know how many books we'd have called the Bible? This room wouldn't
hold them. We wouldn't be able to read the
scriptures. We'd have to hire lawyers to find it for us. There'd
be so much written. Our God, in his wisdom, in his
good providence and purpose, has brought this down to all
we need to know. You know, the scripture
said if everything Christ spake was recorded, the world wouldn't
contain the book. So of course you're going to
have questions, of course you're going to have to, with some kind
of spiritual understanding and wisdom, seeking the leadership
of the Holy Spirit, we're going to have to fill in what God leads
us to fill in that's not contrary to the Word. Don't go filling
something in that denies another scripture. As long as we don't
violate the scriptures, as long as we don't violate the character
of God and the character of men and the character of Christ in
redemption, You have a right to your opinion about these things.
But we can only say, Thus saith the Lord. But now, here's an
amazing thing. For God to give two verses to
the entire lives of Cain and Abel, two or three verses, and
to give a whole chapter to a man called Naaman, isn't that astounding? A whole chapter in this precious
book that is so summed up by the wisdom and power
of God, and so brought together in such a compact package, and
preserved all these many years. God has preserved the story of
Naaman. So there must be something very
vital and very instructive, Charlie, about this man Naaman. And it
is. Now, first of all, look at verse
1. I'll move along quickly. Now, Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man. I'm not going to spend a
lot of time on this except to say that one could say a lot
of complimentary things about Naaman. God did. He said he was
a great man. He was an honorable man. He was
a man through whom God had worked his purpose, through whom God
had given deliverance unto Syria. He was a mighty man. He was a
brave man, a mighty man in valor, and all these things. But here's
the important statement. But he was a leper. But he was
a leper. An incurable, contaminated, diseased,
dying leper. I don't know a great deal about
leprosy now. Don't know a great deal about
it then. But I do know the scripture implies that leprosy was one
of the most hated diseases of all the world in that particular
time. Leprosy. People who had leprosy
were unclean. People who had leprosy were separated
from the people. People who had leprosy were marred
and scarred and difficult to look at, and they covered up
their faces and they went about crying, unclean, unclean. Leprosy
was a feared and deadly disease. And this man, Naaman, and you
get the picture here. The scripture says he was a great
man, a mighty man, a man of honor, a man of fame, a man of valor,
a man of courage, but say what you will about him, he was a
leper. He was a leper. And I can see
him. I just imagine if I were in that
condition, he wore his uniform, and I'm sure that he covered
everything, his face, his neck with a scarf, he wore white gloves. I don't imagine he allowed anybody
to see anything but his eyes. That's about all anybody ever
saw of Naleman was his eyes, because what was underneath was
unsightly, unsightly and deformed. Now then, where did I come in
here? I could stand here tonight and say many complimentary things
about the people of this congregation and my friends in this city,
people I know all over the world. I could say many complimentary
things. There are some captains. There are some leaders. There's
some men of valor, men of courage, men of fame, men of honor, men
and women of intelligence, musicians, educators, historians, teachers,
lawyers, doctors, dentists, all of these things. We could say
all these, just like God said about Nehemiah, good homemakers,
fine mothers, good cooks, all these things. But there's a statement
that can be made about all of us when we sum all that up. But
we are lepers. Leprosy is sin. It's a type of
sin in the scripture. When they talk about leprosy,
it's sin. And like mailmen, we are incurable,
we are diseased, we are contaminated, and we're dying creatures. and
we're unsightly and ungodly. We're guilty before the law of
God. Our natural minds are enmity against God. Our disease, like
Naaman, disease starts within, and it's killing us. It's reached
every part of our body and every part of our being. God says in
Isaiah, he said, the whole head is sick and the whole heart is
pained. If you were to check Naaman's blood in the tip of
his finger, you'd be plagued with leprosy. If you were to
go down to his little toe and just tap his little toe with
a drop of blood, you'd have leprosy. If you pull out a hair and the
doctor put it through one of the examinations, you'd have
leprosy in it. Even his breath had leprosy in
it. And that's what we are now. Say what you want to, from the
sole of the feet to the top of the head, there's no soundness,
Nothing but open, running sores that have not been bound up,
neither mollified with ointment. And you know, like I said, old
Ailman, he covered up his leprosy. And that's what we do. We cover
up our sins. There's not any of us telling
people what's inside of us, are we? You haven't lately told everybody
what you thought in one day, have you? No, we cover that up.
We cover up our thoughts. We cover up our deformities.
We cover up our depravity, we even cover up what we're really
thinking, and we tell lies to cover up our sins. That's exactly
right. We're such great sinners in God's
sight, we all do fade as a leaf. Even our righteousnesses are
filthy rags in God's sight. And that's what I'm talking about.
And this first verse here is a commentary on the whole human
race. Naaman was a great man, an honorable
man, a man of valor, a man of fame, a man whom even God had
used to accomplish His purpose. All right, you know the story,
how the little girl told him he was a prophet down in Israel. So in verse 5 and 6, Naaman was
prepared to buy cleansing. He knew what was wrong with it.
He would give anything to be rid of that leprosy. So he told
the king and the king of Syria, you see what he took with him?
Ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold. I don't know
what they weighed, each one of them. I do know when he gave
Greedy Gehazi that money, just two talents, it took two men
to carry it. ten changes of raiment, he was
prepared to buy cleansing. Now let me tell you something.
Where do we fit in here? Well, you can't doubt his sincerity. He knew he was a leper. He wanted
to be free of that leprosy. And he would go to any extent
to get rid of it. And he heard this man, this woman,
this young girl talking about how he could be cured, and so
he gathered up possessions, gold, silver, clothes, and all these
things, and he wanted to be cleansed, he wanted to be healed, he was
prepared to pay well for it. Pay well for it, prepared to
do great, prepared to go in debt to get rid of it. Well, men today know there's
a God. They know there's a God, most people do. Men today know
they have sinned, they know they have a disease to various degrees,
to various extents. There's nobody who would say,
not many, who would say, I'm perfect, I'm without sin. Men
know death is coming, and they know judgment is ahead, and they
know these things, and most of them are fully prepared to pay
for a cleansing. They're fully prepared to give
something to God in return for healing. They are. Paul said
about those people in Romans, he said, they're going about
to establish a righteousness with God. They'll keep a day. They'll give their tithes. They'll
go to the feast. About three times a year, everybody,
all the Jews would leave their homes and close them up and go
all the way to Jerusalem. That was a tiresome, painful
journey. Take the whole family up there
to stand around for two or three days going through the motions
of a religious ceremony that they didn't understand and the
folks that are putting it on didn't understand. And men today
will make professions, they'll get religion, they'll be baptized,
they'll go to church, they'll serve the Lord, they'll come
to prayer meeting, they'll go to visitation services. They'll
give their money, great sums of money, to charity, to the
church, to various causes, just like old Ailman. They'll take
all these goods, you know, and go to the servant of God to buy
cleansing. But it's not for sale. It can't
be worked for, it can't be earned, it can't be merited. It can't
be bought, and I'll tell you why. There are four reasons.
In spite of all our works and our gifts and our going and all
these things, the holy law has been violated and it goes unhonored.
No matter what I do, I can walk down an aisle, shake a preacher's
hand, join a church, be baptized, turn over a new leaf, quit some
sin. and start teaching Sunday school and come to prayer meeting
and go out knocking on doors and witnessing and driving a
bus and giving my money to charity. I can do all these things. I
can go through all these motions and keep the Sabbath day and
raise my family right and go to all the revival meetings.
I can do all these things. And the holy law of God still
goes unhonored. It still goes unhonored. I'm
still a sinner. I'm still a leper. in the eyes
of God's love. And secondly, in spite of all
of our works, in spite of all that we do, we can shake a hand,
we can rededicate, we can come to the altar and mourn and weep
and pray and beat on the altar and rise up and say, I got the
victory, and go out here and read the Bible on the job and
pit, butt and hole everybody that comes by and give out tracts
and even sell our homes and go to the mission field and die
on the mission field. But it won't satisfy God's justice. The law still cries out for the
death of the sinner. So with sin is it will die. I
don't care what I do, that law goes unhonored and God's justice
still says, you've sinned and somebody's got to die. And another
thing, here's another problem, number three, whatever opinion
I have of my good work, Whatever opinion I have of my
preaching and praying and working and witnessing and winning souls
and all this thing, God still says that man at his best state
is altogether banished. God still says that our righteousness
is. I wouldn't offend you, but it's
so. The very best we do, the best
we have, the best we give, our very best works is still in God's
sight. filthy rags. Now brethren, that's
what she says. There's no way, no matter, the
problem is I can never satisfy that law, I can never honor that
justice, whatever I do, and whatever I do in God's sight is totally
unacceptable, because God cannot accept anything that's not perfect.
I've never prayed a prayer that God could accept. I've never
prayed a perfect I've never preached a sermon that God could have
anything to do with apart from Christ. I've never given a dime
to mission work or anything else that God sees Him to be pleased
with. Never, not one dime apart from Christ's blood. You see,
even our repentance needs to be repented of. Even our faith
is imperfect. And I tell you, if you have a
God that can accept an imperfect sacrifice, you've got an imperfect
God. And he's an idol. He's an image.
He was born in your imagination. He wasn't the God who made all
things. If you have a God who can get along with you apart
from a mediator or a high priest and a sacrifice, you've got an
idol on your hand. And the fourth reason is this.
If we are justified by our works or anything, if we make any contribution
whatsoever to our acceptance before God, any whatsoever, if
God lowers himself and becomes a bargainer with sinners and
accepts anything from our hands in return for his grace, he can't
have all the glory. He's got to share it with me.
I don't care what I give. I don't care what I do. I helped
in some way. But my friends, eternal life
is the gift of God. So here comes Naaman, and he
brings everything he has. He's going to buy redemption,
he's going to buy cleansing, he's going to buy that healing. But it's not for sale. And even
after he was healed, the prophet of God wouldn't let him pay.
He would not have associated in any way, the prophet of God
was wise, he would not in any way, have anything material or
anything from the hands of a man associated with a free gift of
God. And I think we'd be wise to adopt that same thing around
here. And when we're talking about
redemption and the grace of God and the mercy of God, let's keep
it totally free from any kind of giving. Don't ever say, if
you do something, God will bless you. If God blesses you, you'll
do something. That's the difference. And we
need, don't ever, let's be like, I know Elisha could have used
some help, and I know some of his friends could have used some
help, but he wouldn't let that man have even an inkling of a
thought that God looked to him for anything from his dirty hands.
Not anything. Well, old Nehemiah was proud.
Look at verse 9 and 10. He had to be brought down. So
he came, verse 9, with his horses and chariots Now watch this,
there's so much here. He stood at the door of the house
of Elisha, at the door. That's a proud day. And here
he is in his uniform and all of his soldiers, and he was a
great man, a famous man. They even called him down here,
they called him Father. And he was a leader of this troop,
and he had all this entourage, you know, and all this wealth,
and he came to the house of Elisha, probably a humble abode, and
he stood outside. He stood outside. You'd think
Elisha was the beggar and Naaman was the king. But beggars are
proud, too. A man doesn't have to have a
whole lot of anything to be proud. He can just be proud he's not
proud. You know, somebody said one time,
if a man is totally brought down into the dust, the last thing
that'll die is his pride. And even as he's lying there
in the dust, pride will keep wiggling, just keep wiggling.
He'll get to be proud he's a sinner. And proud he's humble. And proud
he's brought low. And pride is a, it's a horrible,
horrible disease. And God hates pride. When the wise man Solomon wrote
the book of Proverbs, he says six things God hates. Six things
God hates. Yes, seven are an abomination
to God. You know what number one is?
Pride. A proud look. Well, old Naaman
stood there, stood at the door. You know what was going through
his mind? Naaman wanted to be treated as a great man who happened
to be a leper. And in the sight of God, he was
a leper who happened to be a great man. That's the difference. He was just another old dirty
leper. another old contaminated, diseased
leper who happens to wear nice clothes. And I'll tell you this,
you and I and the average person out there in Ashland, the average
person out there wants to be treated as somebody. Great people who happen to be
sinners. And there are a lot of churches
who will treat them like that. I saw a church ad one time that
says, come to our church where everybody is somebody. Well,
I invite you to this one where everybody's nobody. We're sinners
who happen to be able to play a piano. We're sinners who happen,
by the grace of God, to be able to talk. We're sinners who happen,
by the grace of God, to be able to add to and to. If it wasn't
for His grace, we'd be blundering idiots. If it wasn't for His restraining
grace, we'd be devils. You know that? You talk about
Adolf Hitler, and that's awful what he did. You'd do the same
thing, except for the restraining grace of God. You'd be worse
than a beast, because man is half beast and half devil, apologists
to the beast. That's so. The only reason that
you're not right now, the only reason you and I, this preacher
is right now, is not giving bent to every possibility and potential
of a devil in hell is the restraining hand of a holy God who wants
to keep some kind of order in this world until he calls out
his sheep, makes up his bride, redeems his church and honors
his son, and then he's going to let her go. And you're going
to see what men are. Oh, he stood there. We're lepers
who happen to be great men. We're sinners who happen to have
a little bit of sense, by the grace of God. pride goeth before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall, and this man
has got to be stripped. He's got to be brought down,
and everybody whom God saves, I don't care if it's a doctor
or a lawyer or President Reagan, or whether it be a bum in the
street, everybody's going to be leveled off in the sight of
God as nothing. And he's not just going to put
on a show and an outward form and just put on sackcloth and
ashes. His heart's going to be in sackcloth
and ashes. It's going to be an inward attitude
and spirit, a casting down of the eyes because of the opinion
of the heart, a bowing before God because driven there by a
heart understanding of our nothingness. And Elijah, and preachers need
some wisdom along this line, Elijah, here was a man standing
outside the door of his house who was representing the king
of Syria, who was the captain of the whole armies of Syria,
a man who with a word could declare war on Syria, a man who with
a word could have prospered everybody in Elisha's community, a man
who with just a word could have built him the biggest cathedral
in the city, a man who had the power and influence to do anything
materially that Elisha could possibly want for the rest of
his life, a man who could put him on easy street the rest of
his life. There stood that man outside
his door, and he wouldn't even go out and speak to him. I tell you this, he didn't run
up to him and pass him a business card. And the next morning, knock
on his door and say, we're just so glad to have you. Our church
just needs you. We are such great sinners, aren't
we, in that regard. Oh, how we pamper and pacify
and pussyfoot with the people of this world to try to get them
to come to God's church. I get so embarrassed at preachers
I could cry. so embarrassed. Old Alaska, he
was God's man, and he knew it. He had God's message, and he
knew it. And like Abraham, he lifted his hand to God, and he
didn't want anything this world had to offer, and he just sat
there and turned to his servant, Gehazi. And it wasn't much to
him either. And he said, Go out there and
tell that fellow to go down to the River Jordan, the little
old muddy river down there and dip seven times, and when he
does that, he'll be made whole. Well, you can see Naaman's reaction
to that. You can see his reaction to that
in verse 11. And Naaman, when the prophet
didn't come out, he didn't even meet him. He journeyed 500 miles
out of here, 400 or something. He didn't even meet him. He had a servant. And a servant
delivered him a very distasteful message, a very humbling message. And he was angry. And I tell
you, a fourfold response. And this is human nature. The
first thing he said was, I thought. I thought. Now, this is the way
that I see it. I thought. Marginal reference
says, I said with myself, this is what he'll do. This is what
he'll do. And here's part of his whole
trouble and part of our whole trouble with subjecting the way
of God to the way of the flesh. We read the Word of God, and
it says this, and we say, well, now, here's what I think. Isn't
that tragic? But there we are, right there.
I thought, well, who's he to think anything about God? Who's
this man to think anything about healing? He never healed anybody.
He never met God. He didn't know anything about
salvation. He didn't know it, but he still thinks he does.
Old Brother A. Riley Copeland one time said
this, I was listening to him preach 30 some odd years ago,
1952 or 3. He said, you know, it's a mystery,
but he said if a man's going to be an electrician or a fool
with electricity, he'll go to school a little while and study
it. If a man's going to be a plumber or auto mechanic, or an insurance
man, or a doctor who goes to school for years, or a lawyer.
But he said, every mother's son is an expert on the Word of God.
He may have never read it, but he said, I'll tell you what I
think. An old man said, I'll tell you what I think. Well,
God said, your thoughts are not my thoughts, and your ways are
not my ways, and my ways and my thoughts are so far above
yours as heaven is above this earth, and that's a And he said,
there is a way that seems right to you, and the end is death
and destruction. Like Walter Gruber said when
he gave a test to the preachers down in Mexico years and years
and years ago, before they had a chance to study anything, he
said, now look over these questions. And he said, whatever you think
the answer is, that'll be wrong. So write the opposite. That's
the truth. All right, the second thing Neheman
said, I thought, now watch this, that he'll come to me. He'll
come to me. He'll honor me, my position.
He'll honor me for who I am. He'll come to me." No, he didn't. I can't bear the
thought of being treated as a beggar. I can't bear the thought of being
treated as just another man. I can't bear the thought of being
ignored. He'll come to me. And here's
the third thing he said, and he'll stand before me, and he'll
call on the name of his Lord, and he'll go through some kind
of outward ritual, he'll strike his hand over the place. That's
what these fellows are doing on TV. Strike their hand over
the place. You're hard of hearing, they'll
slap their... You will be when they get through with you. And he said, that's what I thought
he'd, that's what the normal human being, he loves ritualism.
He loves some show. He loves some outward doings. Isn't that right? That's what
Naomi, I thought, I thought he'd come to me, and I thought he'd
call on the name of his God. Well, Elisha called on his God,
but he did it back there in private. I'm sure the Lord instructed
Elisha in his whole day. He had a quiet, private prayer
meeting with God about this whole thing before it ever occurred.
He knew about Naaman coming. He knew it was coming before
he came. But the world wants to hear you pray. They want to
see you pray. They want to see you go through
the motions for their benefit. It's a bunch of show. Most praying
is a bunch of show. And I tell you, if we do more
private praying, we'll do less of that show praying. I call
on his God and go through some kind of ritual and some kind
of motion, and then he said this, verse 12, "'Are not Abana and
Pharpha, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel?' Why do I have to be identified with this hated nation? I've had so many people say to
me, I don't have to go to 13th Street to be a Christian. No,
you don't. But I do tell you this, you better
find and be identified in some way with people that stand for
the gospel of God's grace, that hated gospel of glory. Old Naaman was willing to dip
in a river, but not this river. Are you with me? Old Naaman was willing. to dip
in a river, his river, his better river, his prettier river, his
finer river, the river where he lived. But he wasn't fixing
to be identified with this little old pipsqueak, hated, no-count,
despised nation of Israel. And that's where we're going
to come to. We're going to come to identification with the Christ,
not a Christ, the Christ. Not a gospel, the gospel. Not a beautiful crucifixion as
an example, but a criminal dying on a cross in a place of sinners. And it's going to be identification
with the God of election, too, and the God of grace. Say what
you want to. But this, well, they'll take
your God if you whittle him down. They'll take your gospel if you
whittle it down. They'll take your message if you'll cut it
down to fit their imagination. And old Airman stood there and
he said, I'll go to the river, but I ain't going to that one.
I'm not going to that one, because there are better rivers, nicer
rivers where I live than this one down here. I'll be identified, but not with
this gospel. Now watch it. I'm telling you,
do what you want to with that. But I still say he resented.
He said, I thought, he's not doing it like I thought. He's
not saying it like I thought. I thought he'd come to me because
of my position. I thought he'd come to me, but
he didn't. He sent a servant. And he said, I thought we'd go
through some kind of outward experience or ritual so that
I could have something to remember, some beautiful ceremony. I watch
these preachers raise their hands and go through all these motions
to bless the people. That's nothing but tomfoolery,
that's what that is. People love it, though. They
love it. I see these preachers preaching
with their robes, you know, and the different markings which
identify their degrees, and with all this sort of thing that gives
a religious atmosphere, and that's appealing to the flesh. Say what
you want to, but that's what the nailmans of the world want.
I thought this is what he'd do, and he would have gone along
with this kind of thing. I'm not going to be identified.
So he went away in a rage. That's the normal response. That's
the natural response. You see it over and over again,
but I'll tell you this. Let me tell you this just quietly
and confidently. I'm not too upset when people
get mad at what I preach, because I know this. two things. Number
one, I know they understood what I said. That's the first thing. They understood what God said,
not what I said, what God said. Because a natural man hates the
things of God. And secondly, I rejoice when
they get mad, because they'll never get glad until they get
mad first. It's exactly right. A man's never going to be clothed
until he's stripped. And I'll tell you, when you strip
a sinner, it's a humiliating experience. And when you kill
his God, it's a terrible experience. But I know when he gets mad,
something's going to happen. Something's going to happen.
All right? Now, here a servant, and here's
my question to you in closing. Verse 13, and his servant came
to him and spake to him and said, My father, suppose the prophet
had bid thee to do some great thing. Suppose he had bid thee
to give all this money that you brought. Suppose he had bid thee
to go through some great, to go and fight a battle with the
enemy next door and relieve Israel of their oppression by some alien
army. You'd have done it, wouldn't
you? You'd do whatever they tell you to do. You'd do it. Well,
my father, how much rather than when he says to thee, Wash and
be clean? Such a simple thing. Wash and
be clean. And that's our message to every
Leper to every guilty sinner, to every fallen son of Adam,
every helpless sinner, wash you in the blood of the Lamb and
be clean. So then here's the next word. Then went he down. And he went down. I'm telling
you, Naaman went down. Off came his stars. Off came
his metals. Off came his uniforms. And his soldiers saw him like
he really was. Oh, my. I went to visit my friend
recently, who's the mortician, and he'd just finished taking
care of a man much older than I. But a man who had been through
the ravages of cancer and autopsies and all these things, And such
an unsightly thing, such a, oh, I tell you, human flesh is so
ugly in its ugliness, isn't it? It's so ugly in its ugliness.
We bring our little babies into the world, like Terry and Anita's
new one, and Danny's in there this morning. They're so pink-cheeked
and rosy and cuddly and dimply and lovely. But I tell you, when
this old race is run, it's ugly. Sin leaves its Oh my, just, you
don't even want to look at it. And here he, and we covered up,
we got all this covered up. We got it all looking good. But
old Naaman had this, let everybody know what he was. His heart on
him and heart on them. He just let them know what he
was. He stood there, a sinner, a leper. And he went, before
he went in that river, Charlie, he went down. He went down. And I'm telling you, Grace is
the great leveler. They say the grave is a leveler.
No, grace is. Grace. The high is brought low. The mighty is stripped. The beautiful know their ugliness. And he dipped certain times in
Jordan. Now watch this. Here's according
to the saying of the man of God, according to the Word. He did
what the Word said. That's all I'm pleading with
you. The Word says, repent toward God. The Word says, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word says, confess Christ.
That's what the Word says. And this man acted according
to the Word of God, and his flesh came again like the flesh of
a little child, and he was clean. And the beautiful thing about
it, when he returned to the man of God, he and all his company,
he was a different man. He came right on in before Elijah
and stood there. He stood there, but I'll tell
you something else. His soldiers saw him in his ugliness, but
I'll tell you, when he came out of that river, they saw him in
his beauty. It said he was clean as a child.
They saw what God had done. And me and Will, let's see what
God has done. And he came in there to Elijah,
and he said, I want you to take a blessing. I want you to take
a blessing, your servant. I tell you, God makes a man a
new creature. And then he said to Elijah, he
said, I've got to go back up there and do my job. He said,
my master leans on my arm when we go in that pagan temple. And
he said, I don't like it and I don't want to go, but I have
to go. That's my job. And he said, well,
the Lord forgive me. And Elijah said, go in peace.
Go in peace. And he left. And then we see
something about, and I could go on, but I've got to quit,
something about men profiteering, profiteering through the ministry
of the Word, profiteering. That's such a sad commentary,
and that's what we're in the midst of in this day. Like old
Gehazi said to Nahum, and he said to some young prophet's
son who needs help, that was a lie. He was the greedy one. And we just got to not have any
part in that sort of thing. God will meet our needs. He'll
meet our needs. Well, I hope that's a blessing.
I hope God will use it. The work of grace is an inward
work. And this relationship with God,
if you say, well, don't we have to come down the front and all
this sort of thing? Let me tell you something. If God does something for you
or me or anyone else, it's a private, personal work of grace that goes
on in the heart. And if God does something, he
brings you to this place and brings you to this change of
heart and nature like Naaman had through the grace of God
according to the gospel. Just like Naaman returned, he
didn't go on back to Syria. He came back to the prophet of
God. He came back. He came to that
place and said, I want to declare the glory of God. Listen to what
he said. Let me read it to you there. He came back to the prophet
of God, and he said in verse 15, he returned to the man of
God, and he said, Behold, now I know there's no God in all
the earth but in Israel. And that's what I'm saying. You'll
do it. You'll return, and the redeemed
of the Lord will say so. And you'll ask for baptism, you'll
ask for church membership, you'll ask for identification with the
people of God. And you'll tell it. He had to tell it. He was so grateful. He met God
and he wouldn't leave him. And he returned. People say of
me, you don't give an invitation. No, I give a command. Elijah didn't say to Naaman,
would you please go dip in Jordan? He said, go dip in Jordan. And
I give a command, believe the gospel. And if you believe it
and God does something for you, you'll tell it. You'll rejoice
in it. You'll want to be identified
with it. You won't stay away from it. You'll just love it
and declare it. That's so. I just know that.
And I'd rather sit and watch God work than us to do it for
him, because his converts stick, mine don't. Our Father, bless the Word, how
grateful we are for this Word. What a blessing. We see ourselves
in this man. Oh, may we see thee in Christ,
Christ our fountain. Wash and be clean. Christ's blood,
atoning, cleansing, blocking out all of our transgressions.
Wash me in the blood, and I'll be whiter than the snow. Thank
you, Lord, for the gospel of your grace. In Christ's name,
amen.