I stood beside a dying bed A man with aching head. He was waiting for God to call. I marked his smile, it was sweet
as May. And as his spirit passed away,
he whispered, Christ is all. gold, to island sand and green
land show. For he heard his master's call. Nor home nor life he counted
dear, Midswanton perils he owned no fear. For he knew that Christ is all. Christ is all, He's all in all. Christ is all in all. I dream that holy time hath fled,
and earth and sea gave up their day, and a fire dissolved this
bone. I saw the church's ransomed throne. I heard the burning of their
song. They were singing Christ is all. Christ is all. He's all in all. Christ is all in all. So come to Christ, O come today,
the Father, Son, and Spirit say. The bride repeats the call. For he can cleanse your guilty
stains. His love will soothe your weary
pains. For Christ is all in all. Well, it's genuinely good to
be here with you all. I can't stop smiling. My cheeks
are killing me because I can't stop smiling. I have to look
at everybody twice. I know them. Of course, I only have to look
at some of you once to know, I know you well. I was realizing
as we sat there and the worship began, that in the Lord's gracious
providence, I can never, ever not think of this as home again,
ever. It may be another 20 years before
I come back, it's still gonna be home. Because the Lord's just
knit our hearts together and I'm so thankful for that. It's
a blessing. Thank you for asking me, Brother
David. What a tremendous blessing it
is to be with you all. Get to worship together. What
a privilege it is to worship with people that you love. We
take that too much for granted, don't we? To worship with people
that we love. Second Kings chapter five tonight.
I'm going to take this jacket off if it's all right with y'all.
And even if it ain't, I might do it anyway. Y'all see how nice
I look with it on? It's just a little too tight. Second Kings chapter five. And we'll begin in verse one.
This will be a familiar passage, I believe, to us. Let's read
it together. 2 Kings 5, 1. Now Naaman, the
captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with
his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance
unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor,
but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife,
and she said unto her mistress, would God, my Lord, were with
the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his
leprosy. And one went in and told his
lord saying thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel 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 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 his leprosy. And it came to pass when the
king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes and
said, am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth
send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider,
I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. He thought
this whole story of him being a leper was just a hoax. He's
setting up something here. He's up to something. 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. So Naaman
came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the
door of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger unto
him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall
come again to thee and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth. That sounds like the best news
a leper ever heard, doesn't it? What could be better than that? Made him mad. and 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. Are there not Abena and Farpar 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. And his servants came near and spake unto him and said,
My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldest thou not have done it? My father. Isn't it amazing how
the Lord just kept sending him people that cared about him?
That little maid said, oh, would to God. Would to God. He was
with that prophet. He'd recover him. And these servants
came and said, my father, Listen to what he said. If he had told
you some great thing to do, you'd have done it. How much rather,
then, when he saith to thee, wash and be clean. Then went he down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of
a little child. And he was clean. God wouldn't
leave him alone, would he? He was ready to go away in a
rage and be a leper for the rest of his life rather than bow to
the authority of God. You know anybody like that? They're ready to go to hell rather than bow to the one that's
their only hope, to the one that can take all of their problems
away. The one that can just say the
word and they'll be whole. The one who is all and in all,
rather than come to him. Now this statement in verse one
is the condition of every human being that ever has lived or
ever will live, though good things might be said of us, as was the
case with Naaman. You know, in that one verse,
he's called great, honorable, and mighty. But this phrase must be added
to the living epitaph of every one of us, every sinner. As this leprosy pictures our
sin, and we'll see that it does so clearly, this phrase makes
everything else meaningless unless this matter is dealt with, unless
you, by God's grace, come to know Christ in the forgiveness
of sin. Everything else about you is
meaningless. He was mighty, he was great,
he was honorable, but he was a sinner. He was a sinner. And think about it this way now.
He was a smart man. Everybody that you know in this
world that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what
you think about him, whatever may else be true about him, he's
the smartest person I know. By all human accounts, he's a
brilliant person, successful and brilliant, but he was an
idiot. He's an idiot if he gives no
thought to the God that made him. Not a thought whatsoever to the
God in whose hand his eternal destiny rests. That's not smart. She was a kind lady, but she
was mean as a snake. You cross her about whether she's
God or not and see how nice a lady she is. He was a good man, but he was
evil to the very core. No matter your outward personality
or manner, No matter your success, whatever this world may think
about you, God knows what you really are. And he tells us what
we really are. Aren't you thankful for that?
We've got to hear it like it is, don't we? There's no hope
for us. You can't even know the truth
about yourself. You know examining your sin and
your downfalls and all of your failures in this flesh, you'll
never know anything about what you are by examining those. You
know how you're going to know what you are? By believing God,
what God says you are. That's it. That's the only way
you're going to know. We can't even know the truth
about ourselves unless God gives us faith to simply believe him. You may have yourself and everybody
else fooled, but you're a spiritual leper. What is that? Well, leprosy
is a blood disease. It's an all-consuming disease. Our feet are swift to shed blood.
We do evil with both hands earnestly. Our tongue is set on fire of
hell. We're all Inside and out, wretched, vile before God, desperately
evil. Our heart is desperately wicked.
We don't even know it. Spiritual leprosy. Everything
about us is evil. Leprosy is incurable. Not only
are you a horrible wretch in the sight of God by nature, but
you can't do anything about it. With men, it is impossible. Impossible. It takes God. It takes mercy.
It takes mercy. Leprosy under Old Testament law
was a legal problem, wasn't it? You were legally an outcast. from all society, there were
things you were not permitted to do and things that you were
required to do as a leper. And so it is with spiritual leprosy. Make all the decisions you want
to make. You're not coming into the presence of God as you are
in yourself. And notice our text does not
say, am I too close to that? It's my hearing. One of the things,
I've been sick, and one of the things that's a problem is I
can't hear anything. But it does not say, Naaman was a
mighty man, but he had leprosy. Big difference. Sin is what we
are. It's what we are. You can turn
over all the leaves you want to turn over. But when the Ethiopian
can change his skin and a leopard can change his spots, then you'll
do something good. That's what God says. You'll do something that's not
evil. What can be done then, Craig? You're painting a pretty
dark picture here. Incurable, utterly vile, totally depraved
from the top of our head to the soles of our feet, no soundness
in us. Is there any hope? Well, there's something you need
to know about. Look at verse 8. There's something that we
need to know about. And it was so when at last year
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. Does that sound familiar? Who
does Elisha represent in this story? Oh my. Let him come now to me. And he's
gonna know something that he doesn't know right now. He's
gonna know God has a prophet. There's a prophet among God's
people. We need to know that, don't we? Everybody needs to know that. Religion makes it all some kind
of a numbers game. How many people have you invited
to church this week? Here's the thing about that. People are
dying and going to hell. They need to know there's a prophet,
don't they? It's not about numbers. It's
about souls. It's about people. I don't think it's going to be
long, do you? I guarantee it ain't going to
be long for you, because you ain't going to live much longer,
and I'm not either. And people are dying and going
to hell and don't have the slightest idea that God is even speaking
in this world. That's a shame, isn't it? That's
a shame. And God doesn't depend on us
for that, but he does exhort us to tell people. There's a preacher of the gospel
in God's church. What a marvelous thing. Wouldn't
it be good if everybody knew that? But more importantly, this
is talking about Christ. There's a savior. There's a savior
for leopards. Thank God. And notice, you know,
it might seem like Elash is bragging here on himself. He's going to
know there's a prophet in Israel. It sounds like he might be bragging
a little bit. But look at, there wasn't any confusion about what
he's talking about. Look at, look at the result. of the way Elisha conducted himself
through this whole thing in verse 15. Look at verse 15. Who got
the glory out of this? And he returned to the man of
God and he said, he and all his company and came and stood before
him and he said, boy, there is a great prophet around. What
a mighty prophet you are. No, he didn't say that, did he? Now I know that there's no God
in all this earth but in Israel. Oh, there's no other God but
your God. Oh, that's going to be the result
of when somebody preaches the true gospel, isn't it? You're
not going to say, what a preacher. You're going to say, what a God.
What a Savior. We sang that song. I love that
song. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Yeah, the preacher may be one
in a million. He is. He is one in a million,
isn't he? Sure enough. Because this world
is a religious wasteland. And there's not anybody telling
the truth, but just a few, just a handful. But when the gospel
is preached and God saves a sinner, which is what all of this pictures,
the takeaway is not going to be, what a great preacher. The result's going to be, you're
going to know who God is if he's pleased to reveal himself to
you. You'll say, there's no God like this God. And I've heard
of God, but not like this God, a just God and a Savior. And
you're going to find out in spite of yourself now, God is going
to use a nobody to make sure you hear from Him and are saved. If He's purposed to save you,
He's going to save you. He's going to save you. And He's
going to find a nobody somewhere to use, to get the job done. You see, salvation is not by
chance, it's of the Lord. Do you see that here? The Lord
wouldn't leave Naaman alone. He tried to mess it up every
way he could, didn't he? He tried. A little maid, verse
2, a little maid. Look at verse 2 again. The Syrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's
wife. She was Naaman's wife's little
handmaid. The only thing that we know about
her is that she was little. God don't use big shots, does
he? I mean, look at us. God don't
use big shots. And she couldn't do anything
about this man's leprosy, but she knew who could. And do you see how that though
you have no power at all, we're less than nothing. But do you
see that because you know the Lord Jesus Christ, do you see
what a valuable thing that is in this world? Paul said, the
world's not worthy of his sheep. And we see the sense in which
that's right. The Lord said, I'm the light
of the world, and he is, isn't he? But he also said, you're
the light of the world. Because of his light, which he gives
us and puts in us, it don't depend on us. We know
that. We can see that from this story.
The Lord had determined, though, to save Naaman. How's he going
to do it? Bless God, it might just include you. Do people that you know know
that there's a preacher of the gospel among the people of God? Do they know that there's a savior
among his people? What did Moses say? Come along
with us. We'll do you good. How are we going to do that?
Well, the Lord God of glory might just introduce himself to you
here through his people, through his worship. Our preacher preaches the Christ
of the Bible. He's able to save to the uttermost
those that come to God by him. It don't matter who you are,
what you've done, what you... The preacher can't do anything,
but he knows and declares the one who can. Can't get anybody
saved, we don't get people saved. I can't even convince a sinner
he's lost, much less save him. But I know who can, by God's
grace, I know who can. I know the one who said, I did
this the way I did it so that you might know that I have power
on earth to forgive sins. He still does. He can still walk
up to a sinner and say, your sins are gone, and they're gone. We know him. I'm just little. That's all I can tell you about
me. Not in every way, but I'm little. Spiritually speaking, we're little,
aren't we? I know you all have heard what
Scott Richardson said sometime, a gospel preacher is a nobody
telling everybody about somebody that can save anybody. That's just the truth, isn't
it? And notice that even before Naaman was a leper, when he thought
and everybody else thought wonderful things about him, he was a nobody
even then. Look at verse one again. Boy,
he was a great man with his master and honorable because by him
the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He didn't give deliverance
unto Syria, the Lord just used him to do that, you see that? There had never been anything
to us and there's not ever gonna be anything to us. We need to hear from God. It was the Lord that did great
and mighty things. He just used Naaman to do it. Now he's a nobody with leprosy. The lost sinner is nobody. The
preacher is nobody. The only word used to describe
the one that God used to tell about hope and salvation is little. And even when told what to do,
Naaman doesn't do it. He didn't do what he was told
to do. Apparently, when Naaman sent word to the king of Israel,
the prophet wasn't even mentioned. Because we hear the testimony
of the king of Israel, and he despaired and said, am I God?
Believe me, nobody thinks you're God. Nobody in this story thought
that. But he sent word to the king
of Israel and didn't even mention the prophet. The prophet had
to hear about it and go to the king of Israel. The little maid
didn't say the king can help you. But of course, there's matters
of protocol and there's a certain decorum that's expected. I'm
a big shot, so I'm gonna contact the big shots over there. I don't
know anything about this prophet. But it blesses my heart that
she cared, doesn't it? She cared. Oh, what did God? You know, if God sends you a
man that preaches the gospel to you, I guarantee you every
time he'll send somebody that loves you. He said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart. What do we know about God's heart?
He loves his sheep. Simon, if you love me, feed my
sheep. Oh, that little maid, she cared. She said, the prophet, the prophet,
not the king. People don't have any use for
God or his servants. But God wouldn't leave him alone
anyway. He wouldn't leave him alone.
It mattered to her. She was very clear about where
hope lay. But if there's any way we can
mess it up, we will. And Naaman sent word to the kid. But even though the prophet was
not mentioned in sending word to the king of Israel, the king
of Israel, instead of thinking of God and his prophet, which
is what Elisha said, what are you despairing of? Why are you
rending your clothes? Let him come to me. But he did, he didn't think about
the prophet. All he said is, I'm not God. Everybody knows that. What about the one who is God?
Anybody ever give a single thought to him? When you and I don't know what
to do, what about God? What about God? I don't think we even have the
slightest idea about what's going on most of the time, do you? Look at that in this story, and
may the Lord teach us something about this. Nobody had a thought. Nobody cared about God or his
prophet. Didn't even give him a thought.
Despaired of the whole situation. without ever thinking about maybe
God, maybe God would do something for us. So this ends badly now, except
that God told Elisha what was going on. Elisha just happened
to hear. Somebody needs mercy. He heard
about that, didn't he? Somebody needs mercy. Somebody's
in trouble. Somebody needs something that
only God can do for them. And may God make us acutely aware
of that. Somebody needs mercy tonight. Somebody needs done for them
what only God can do. right now, tonight, in this place.
Let's make it clear, like this little maid did, that there's
mercy for sinners. So Elisha says, why? Why despair
when there's such hope, when there's a Savior that delights
to show mercy? Why will you starve when the
bread of life is free to whomsoever will? What did Elisha say? Come, let
him come to me. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David and the bride and morning star. And the spirit and the bride
say come and let him that heareth Say come. Those of you who have come, say
come. And let him that's thirsty come.
And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. When? What are we to testify
to the churches now? I've sent my angel, my messenger,
to testify unto you these things in the churches. What things?
I am. He is. He is. Look how simple the message is
in verse 10. 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. There's
gotta be washing, doesn't there? If it's that simple, it's just
dipping in some water, then why didn't it last, it just say,
be thou clean? Well, the Lord's teaching us
here, isn't he? There's gotta be cleansing. There's
gotta be the washing away of your sin by the precious blood
of his son. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins. You notice every time it says
something about his love, it says he loved us and. His love
is not sitting back hoping the best for us. He loved us and
he did something about it. He loved us and he did everything
about it. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
But it was a clear, simple message, wasn't it? And it's really, really
good news for a leper. It's the best possible news.
Don't you imagine? Naaman, he had a lot on his plate,
didn't he, before he became a leper? And now there's one thing on
his plate. And you talk about the best news
in the world for a leper, and yet it was offensive. It was
offensive, wasn't it? Made him mad. If it had happened
the way that Naaman thought it was going to happen, with a lot
of fanfare, then Naaman could have gotten some glory out of
it. He could have stayed up on his high horse if it would have
happened that way. But God don't do it like that. No, you're not
staying on your horse. Ask Saul of Tarsus about that.
You're not staying. It was our pride in the garden,
wasn't it? It was our desire to be God,
and most people still think they are. And I guarantee you this,
the solution to the problem is not going to have any boasting
for you in it at all, not a bit. Naaman thought his way was better.
You notice the word better in verse 12? Better than Christ
alone? That's religion, isn't it? We
preach the simple gospel of Christ and him crucified. I'm determined
to know nothing else but him. But they have something better. We'll always think that until
we know Christ. Agrippa was almost persuaded
for the same reason that Naaman. had a problem with
this, and here it is right here. Both of them had this same problem.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Naaman didn't like God's way
because there was no glory in it for him. How about you? If I can't boast, this is Naaman's
attitude here that he displayed. If I can't boast in God accepting
me, then I'll boast in me rejecting him. Willing to walk away, I'll
do it my way. I'll choose. I have a free will.
That's what you have to be saved from, your free will. You must repent, you must change
your mind about that. You've got to change your mind
about God, that he's somebody that you can manipulate, and
that's waiting on you. You got to change your mind about
yourself, and you got to change your mind
by the gift of God, about how God saves a sinner. But God was
not gonna let Naaman go. Again, wisdom comes from where
it is not expected. Nothing happened the way Naaman
expected it to. Verse 13, look at verse 13. And his servants came near and
spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do
some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? Nothing happened,
but look at the beautiful language again, it's a remarkable, How
tenderly and yet how powerfully God overrules and puts down our
pride, our self-righteousness, our boasting of our will. These
servants came to him. I don't know if they said it
because they were scared of him or if they actually liked him.
Maybe he was genuinely a nice man because they said, my father,
my father. But whichever it was in the natural
story here, I know what that pictures. If somebody's going to tell you
about the Lord, it's because they care for your soul. If they care about popularity
and getting along with you, they'll tell you something different.
They tell you the truth. And I'm thankful that God's not
going to let me yell at sinners. He's not going to let me yell
the gospel at you and whip you with the law. He's not going
to let me do that. He's going to send somebody that cares about
you. Boy, if he let us go, we would,
wouldn't we? He's not going to let me go on
a campaign just to prove people wrong and wield my doctrine like
some kind of a big stick. Don't you get sick of that? It's hard to say, come unto me
and I'll give you rest in a harsh way, in a scathing way, in a
mean way. And the smoking flax, our savior,
will not quench. The bruised tree, he will not
break. In verse 14, boy, his skin came upon him like that
of a little child. You know, knowing the kind of
man he was, I doubt if his skin was like that before he got leprosy,
you reckon? I don't think it was like that
ever before. And that's us, we're more than conquerors. We're in
Christ Jesus. Oh. Beautiful for situation. The Lord didn't just make him
like he was before. My skin's not like a child's
anymore, but in Christ Jesus, the dew of youth is on my brow
too. The thorns and the thistles of
this fallen world have not left their scars on me, not in Christ. The cursed fall, cursed sun of
this earth has never beaten down on me in Christ. And of course,
as we read a while ago, God gets every bit of the glory of it.
I know now that there's no God like God, because he alone is
worthy of it. It's his loving providence that
brought me here clean. He's the one that did this. It's
by his will that I'm saved, not mine. He wouldn't let me go. I tried to mess it up, and he
wouldn't let me. Because he loved me with an everlasting
love and with loving kindness, he drew me to himself. His precious blood has washed
me clean in spite of me. His gospel has made me wise unto
salvation. His Holy Spirit gave me life
within and without. God says, there's no God else
beside me, a just God and a savior. And what do we say? Same thing. There's no God like him. Just, holy, righteous, and yet
merciful to sinners like us. Naaman thought in verse 11 that
Elisha would come and stand before him. But in verse 15, we see
that Naaman comes and stands before Elisha. You don't accept God. The question is, will he accept you? In Christ Jesus, he will. In
Christ, he will come to Christ. Those that come to God by him. You will in no wise turn away.
You can only stand before Him if you're washed in His precious
blood. As Naaman stood there clean before
Him who pictures the Lord. Would to God that He'll show
mercy to all of us. It's His to give. He did a lot.
He don't have mercy on who He will, who He wants to. But bless
God, he delights to show mercy. Amen. Thank you, brother.