March 13, 2016 The Descent of a Servant of God by Pastor Josh Sheldon

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March 13, 2016 The Descent of a Servant of God 2 Kings 5:20-27 Pastor Josh Sheldon

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The last portion that was read to you, 2 Kings 5, 20 -27, is our text this morning.
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This downfall of Elisha's servant Gehazi, and if not his downfall, then it was certainly the uncovering of his iniquity that he had hidden for all this time.
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As he goes after this huge amount of money that had been set before him, but he has good reason for it, does he not?
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One man once said, excuses are lies wrapped up in reasons. There's so many variations of that saying that it's hard to even get back to find out who said it first, but it's very good.
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Excuses are lies wrapped up in reasons, and Gehazi here has good excuse, and I say good with those quotey ditto things that we always do.
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He had good excuses for what he did, and what are excuses but self -manufactured idols, just as John Calvin said, we may gather that man's nature is a perpetual factory of idols, and what
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Gehazi warns us of this morning is just this, this erection from within of an idol, which is really nothing more than an excuse, a rationalization to do what we ourselves have in our own spirit decided to do.
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Our Lord Jesus had something to say about this that bears upon the message this morning, which
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Lord willing will be more than simply wagging my finger from the pulpit and saying Gehazi was greedy, and that was his downfall, therefore you don't be greedy, because simply to tell you to stop being bad is not the gospel of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, and yet even so the scripture does warn us to guard ourselves against our own tendencies.
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Lord willing this morning we will look at this from a couple of levels, we have the horizontal level, the simple message of the warning of Gehazi's downfall, and the greed that may lurk within the excuses that we make that so easily justify what we have decided to do, even knowing it's wrong, we have an excuse, a lie wrapped up in reasons that we've all manufactured.
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The Lord as we might expect really put it best, he said no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God and mammon. This bears directly on the case this morning.
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Nothing but God stands in for God. What our Lord is decrying here is man's tendency to put something other than God on the same plane as God.
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Directly here in what he said, serve God and mammon, serve God and money, serve
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God and any material gain or comfort that this world has to offer, and put that on the same level with God.
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You simply cannot serve them both. Gehazi tried.
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This is what Gehazi wanted to do, he wanted to serve God and mammon. He had been Elisha's personal assistant for some seven years at least.
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There's even a tradition that places him as Elijah's servant, the one that Elijah sent to look out and see if the rain had started.
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Whether that's true or not, we don't know. But on that theory, he was the one in 1
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Kings 18 is referred to. I don't put a lot of confidence in that, but we do know that he had been a servant of Elisha for some time.
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And the schools of prophets, it's begun under Elijah, so he's been around the prophets. He's heard the word of God so many times.
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It's been his life, if you will. And somehow he was elevated to this position of being the aide -de -camp for Elisha, Elijah's successor.
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His downfall, of course, was his greed. And this is the simplest message that we have from 2 Kings 5, 20 -27.
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This warning against greed. Gehazi fixated on the wealth that was so enticingly near.
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It's got to be like a dream where you can just reach out and take it, and you think you've really got it, and then you wake up and, oh,
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I was just sleeping. It's got to be like that, where it's right there in the cart.
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Do you remember these wagon loads of money that Naaman had brought? And we estimated the value to be millions upon millions of dollars when we covered this a few weeks ago.
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To be militant against greed is certainly one of the lessons that we have to gain from the text, but there is more.
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We need to be warned of how easily sin slips in on us, how easily it comes back out of us.
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Not just greed, but any master other than Jesus Christ our Lord. Any master other than him.
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Anything we try to put on the same plane as his. And here's our warning flag.
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How do we know when we are in danger of stumbling as Gehazi did, and not just for money, but for any other thing that we want to reach out our hand to take, whether it be extortion or adultery or violence or any other sort of thing.
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Here's the warning sign. Here's our flag. It's the excuse. The excuse.
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The quote was, an excuse is a lie wrapped up in the skin of a reason. And I want to add to that just a little bit and bring in what
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Jesus said, an excuse is an idol wrapped up in the skin of false holiness.
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And here I think Gehazi's experience comes to bear more closely upon what we need to warn ourselves against.
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Gehazi's descent from Elisha's personal assistant to disgraced deserter may have begun much earlier.
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There may have been traces of it that appeared back in 2 Kings 4.
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Whether or not that is the case, his final plunge was dizzying in its speed and its finality.
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As we look at this text, it's important that we view it from these two angles. From the horizontal, what does
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Gehazi warn us of today? But also from the viewpoint of God's perspective, the heavenly perspective.
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Otherwise all we have is, don't be greedy.
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If you are, you've raised an idol in competition with God. God won't allow it. You can't do it. And then we're done.
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We can go home. And many of you say, 10 -minute sermon, great, let's get out of the rain. But we have quite a bit more than that to say.
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We're warned here, as the scripture tells us, of the deceitfulness, the insidiousness of sin and how quickly it slips in on us.
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And as we go through Gehazi, this is what I want us to be aware of.
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When we're starting to make excuses for ourselves, when we're starting to rationalize, I think one thing a
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Christian should never say to another is, I only did it because you, and then dot, dot, dot, fill in the blank.
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Here's my excuse, you did this to me, therefore I am returning evil for evil.
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And we don't even think of the scripture where it says, do not return evil for evil. Jesus says return evil with blessing.
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Excuses. Excuses I would argue are the greatest and easiest to bring up idol that we have.
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I want to look at Gehazi first, and I've kind of broken this up into his conversations. I looked at this text, and I see three conversations that he had.
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And this excuse permeating the whole thing. First he has a conversation with himself.
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He talks to himself. Then he speaks with Naaman. And after Naaman leaves, he has a conversation with Elisha, his master, his teacher.
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And these first three points here in this message this morning, these conversations he had, I think they're a near perfect mirror of James' short dissertation of sin from its incipients to its fruition.
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Let me just read to you really quickly what James wrote, very short. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
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Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.
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What Gehazi erects for himself in this process is our most favorite idol, which is the excuse.
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It's the excuse. He's drawn away by his own desires, and he doesn't tell himself,
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I'm about ready to do a terrible sin. I'm going to do a misdeed. I'm going to go against what
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Elisha had said. We don't tell ourselves that. What do we tell ourselves?
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We tell ourselves what Gehazi told himself. I am justified. My excuse either makes you so bad that I'm justified in doing what
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I want to do, or my excuse so clouds my judgment that I don't even think of what the scripture says.
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What Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, would lead us if we'd only stop for a moment and ask.
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Pray. Open our Bibles. Check with a brother or sister. See how
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Gehazi first speaks to himself. Much the same way as the man in Jesus' parable in Luke 12, the one who thought within himself about his need for bigger barns.
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Do you remember that? I've got so much wealth. I'm doing so well right now. These puny little barns are no longer good enough for me.
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I'm going to tear them down. I'm going to build more. I can afford it, and I need a place to store all my stuff.
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I'm just burgeoning with money, with wealth, with success. He spoke within himself, and this is what
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Gehazi does. And see how quickly he goes from thought to action.
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See how quick this process is. Look, my master has spared Naaman the
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Syrian while not receiving from his hand what he brought. But as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him, and immediately he's gone.
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Put on your track shoes. He's running after the cart. See how quickly he goes from just thinking what he might do to actually putting it into play.
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You see, and he's got to act fast. Doesn't he? He has to act fast. His riches are getting away.
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He's got to do something right now. It's like one of those ads or those people who call you at home, those irritating marketers.
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And if you act now, if you just say yes immediately, then you can be one of those smart, savvy people who took advantage of whatever it is.
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But if you don't act now, when you hang up, no more chance. Next time you want this product or whatever the service is, it's going to cost you all so much more.
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It's that kind of pressure he's feeling. Because the cart, the money, Naaman the
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Syrian is getting away with what Elisha had declined. But see, he can't just go running after this cart, can he?
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We can't just reach out our hand to the sin that we are planning, can we?
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Needs the excuse. He needs to erect an excuse. He's about to serve money instead of God.
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No one would ever say it this way, but that's what it is. And I wonder how much less we might sin if we just said it,
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I'm about to indulge in iniquity. I know it's wrong and I don't care. Wouldn't that be more honest than the excuse that we make, these idols that we raise up that justify what we know we want to do?
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Even knowing it's wrong, wouldn't that be more honest? Just to look the brother in the eye and saying, you know what
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I'm planning to do? I'm planning to do, and then, whatever it is, I'm not going to give you examples. Well, that's wrong.
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The Word of God says that that's wrong. I don't care. Wouldn't that be so much cleaner?
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Wouldn't there be more integrity to that than trying to rationalize it the way we do? I know it's wrong.
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I don't care. The benefit offered by this passing fancy is greater right now than my love for Jesus Christ, than my fealty to His Word.
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Or for that matter, it's greater than my faith in His provision for me.
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And if I don't do whatever I need to do to take advantage of this thing, whatever it is, I know
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God won't provide for me in this way. I have to do it. And that's what's going on here.
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And again, with the dishonesty of this idol of an excuse. And he finds it right away.
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He finds two excuses, in fact. Behold, Elisha has spared
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Naaman the Syrian by not receiving from his hand what he brought. All of a sudden,
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Elisha, his master, his teacher, the head of the school of prophets, all of a sudden,
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Elisha, the one he's been serving all this time, what is he? He's become like a doddering old fool.
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Look what Elisha has done. He's let this money get away. What's wrong with him?
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The cart is moving back to Syria. And he's just going to stand there and watch all these... What's the matter with him?
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I don't know what's got into him. This man, who had done these unprecedented miracles, has crashed in a moment in his pupil's eyes.
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The tender mercy to the Shunammite woman is forgotten. Life given to her son's dead body is erased from memory.
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Poison miraculously neutralized has receded in his mind to being a mere chef's trick.
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All he did was make the food taste better. How quickly the pupil's love and respect for his master has deteriorated into derision.
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And this is his excuse. This is what he's doing. First, he has to tear down Elisha, the one who not only declined the riches for himself, but would disapprove of what
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Gehazi is doing. What is our first excuse? It's to take that person who would prick our conscience, and putting him in order, is first Jesus Christ by His Spirit, then
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His Word, and then that brother or sister, who we know would lead us onto the right path, and we don't want to hear it, because we were determined already where we're going to go.
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What do we have to do? I don't want to talk to that fool. Didn't you hear what he or she said last time?
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That answer in Sunday school class? No, no, no. I'm not going to go to them, because I know
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I'm right. I'm just going to go my direction. Isn't that the way for us?
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That one pesky saint, that one whose faithfulness to Christ's commands keeps pricking away at our conscience, how do we get them out of the way?
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We do just what Gehazi did. We recast them as something else. He or she is a prude, a legalist, a libertine, whatever we need to do to get our conscience clear of that one obstacle.
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And this is just what Gehazi did when he besmirched Elisha. Make no mistake, he's not simply saying,
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Oh, Elisha's letting the money go. There's more to it than that. He's critical of the prophet for letting this money, this wealth, get away.
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We've determined an ungodly course. We simply have to find a way to justify it. I'm not speaking of honest errors made in ignorance or an incomplete knowledge or analysis of the facts.
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But if we ask ourselves, why didn't he stop a moment and ask
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Elisha? Couldn't he have gone, he's right there, they're all together. He's observing this whole thing.
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Couldn't he have gone to Elisha and say, Master, wouldn't it have made sense to take some of that, to help us build up the school of prophets, to give money to the poor, to buy some more food, to whatever it is, whatever purpose it is.
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Elisha, wouldn't it have made sense and heard his answer? Well, he didn't.
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And why didn't he ask Elisha? It's the same reason that we don't go to that pesky saint who we know is gonna lead us to the scripture.
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It's the same reason we don't open our Bibles ourselves. It's the same reason we need to erect this excuse idol.
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It's because he didn't want the answer. He knew that what Elisha would say would wreck his plans because of what
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Elisha had already done, because of the testimony of all these years that he had serving Elisha.
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So he doesn't ask him, but why does he not ask him? Well, because he made such a horrible mistake.
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He let the money get away. Certainly he doesn't have sense enough to answer my question after doing something like that.
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I better just move ahead on my own. So he's got
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Elisha cleared in his conscience by his excuse. And now he still has
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Naaman in the way. He has Naaman in the way. He has to get him out of his conscience also. And what does he do here?
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He does much what he did with his master Elisha. Did you hear how it was read in the scripture?
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He says, this Syrian Naaman. This Syrian Naaman.
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He's becoming a bigot. Not this man upon whom God poured out grace and health.
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Not this Gentile who is headed home with the praises of Yahweh on his lips. This Syrian.
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This enemy of Israel who became rich by plundering us. And as he did with Elisha, he has to justify his actions by elevating himself, and he does that by lowering his estimate of others.
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This is all part of the excuse process that we go through. Because we have to denigrate those others who would call us to the righteous path.
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He is here very much the opposite of, for example, Peter. Peter resisted going to a
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Gentile. You remember that in Acts chapter 10 with Cornelius. But when he did, he saw that God's grace is dispensed at God's own good pleasure and for God's own purposes.
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Gehazi saw the grace of God no less than Peter did. And Naaman was as much a
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Gentile as was Cornelius, the one who Peter met. Gehazi is completing here a very vicious and very fast descent.
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He hatched a plan. He knew his master would disapprove. He eliminated that as a concern by destroying his reputation, at least in his own mind.
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And he ignored God's view of Naaman by calling him this Syrian, this
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Naaman, this Gentile. And now see what he does.
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He has everybody lowered in his mind. Elijah and the one who was healed of his leprosy, he has them lowered in his mind.
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Now he calls God as a witness to the certainty that he will accomplish his own design.
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Now what do we make of this? How did he say it? As the
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Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him. What do we have here?
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Is this not blasphemy? To swear by God's name that you will do something that is against God's will.
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Is that not blasphemy? To call down God's name, say, as the
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Lord God lives, I'm going to sin against God and I will do it.
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Is this not the ultimate pride? We don't want to open this up right now into the prophets and they talk about Lucifer's downfall, but isn't that exactly what
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Lucifer did? I will see my will done. I will make myself like God most high, which is exactly what we do when we say knowing
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God's will, I will violate it cognizantly. I will ignore the pricks of conscience.
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Our excuses are powerful things. We need to be so careful of them. They're powerful idols. He has this vicious descent.
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He has patched his plan. He has eliminated his concerns for the conscience with Elisha and with Naaman.
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And now he calls God as a witness to the certainty of his plan. This is sheer hubris.
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This is blasphemy. I can't find enough words to describe this. But notice how similar it is to what
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Elisha had said. Naaman said, please take all this, the whole cart of all this money, a fortune.
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Elisha, as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing. Naaman urged him.
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He would not break his word. I will take nothing. And here he's saying in a very proper, right way,
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I swear to God, I will take nothing. Gehazi, as the
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Lord lives, I will run after Naaman and take something from him. Now, Naaman urged him just as he did
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Elisha. The difference, of course, is that the one was impervious to the
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Syrian's persuasion. Elisha. Because when he said, as the Lord lives, he spoke of a
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Lord whom he served. He spoke of a Lord whom he loved. When he said, as the
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Lord lives, he meant it. For Gehazi, it was just a veneer. Just a holy veneer.
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Oh, as the Lord lives, like he said. Like the prophet said.
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I say it the same way. I'm gonna get some money. As the Lord lives. A Lord who we see now, he didn't truly know, or love, or serve.
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This is his conversation with himself. This is what we hazard when our
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Bibles are closed, when our posture before God is erect, when our brethren and the Lord are not consulted.
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We leave our phone on the hook. Yes, children, phones used to have hooks that we put them in.
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We leave our phone down and we don't call that person whose words we know will convict us against what we're doing.
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Our lesson is this. If the Holy Spirit is giving you pause, well then, pause. When you feel that excuse rising up within you, stop.
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The old Boy Scout acronym, stop. Now, in Boy Scouts, we use that for when you got lost in the woods.
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Stop. Because all you can do is get more lost if you keep going. Do you remember what that stands for?
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Stop. S is for stop. To remind you that stop means stop. The O is for observe.
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Excuse me, the T is for think. The O is for observe and the P is for plan. Stop. Think about what you're doing, where you're going.
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Observe where this might take you in your walk with Christ. Plan to double check the plans of your heart.
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Check with someone I think is so important here. Go to someone to help you sort it out. Keep your
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Bibles open. Keep your knees bent. Trust God to show you the truth. Gehazi did none of these things.
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He was so determined to follow his course. With the proven prophet of God right there, a man who did unprecedented miracles, miracles not seen again until the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself, right there in his presence, he didn't stop.
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He didn't think. He didn't observe. He didn't plan. He had already ruined Elisha's reputation in his own mind.
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Why ask him? Well, that's his whole conversation with himself. And this is the way we raise up our own excuses too.
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And I think one of the first warning signs we have to be careful of is when all of a sudden, that brother or sister whose advice we had so often cherished and it led us on the right path and it turned out to be something that comported fully with God's Word, when all of a sudden we lower them just a little bit, why are we doing that?
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So we don't have to ask them again. His second conversation is with Naaman.
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Naaman sees him coming. He initiates the conversation by getting down out of his chariot.
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That's an interesting thing that Naaman got out of his chariot. In this whole incident in 2 Kings 5,
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I've avoided speaking of whether Naaman was actually converted. And we mean converted in the complete sense, salvation in Jesus Christ and him alone by trusting in those promises as they were revealed to him then.
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I've avoided making statements as to whether or not he was really saved. When he came out praising, came out of the river praising
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God, when he went to Elisha, said, now I know that there is a God in Israel, that there's one true living
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God. Was that a confession unto salvation? I've kind of left that alone.
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But right here is evidence in favor of a completely changed heart in the salvation sense that we speak of.
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He got down out of his chariot. This is an incredible act of humility by a man who was accustomed to looking down on inferiors from the height of his symbol of prestige and power.
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This speaks in favor of his conversion more than his easy relinquishing of the money because money is much easier to let go of than pride.
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And so for Naaman, this man of valor, this famous successful general, right hand man to the king of Syria, to step down and speak to another person on the same level, it shows great possibility that God really did work in his heart, that he truly did see
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God for that moment for who he is, and it made a lasting impression. Humility is one of the great signals we have of true conversion.
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And he wants to know immediately if all is well. Is everything okay? Is there shalom, is how it's really in the original language, and Gazi affirms that it is well.
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That's a lie. All is distinctly unwell. You see, my fool teacher sent you back to Syria with this terrible weight of money and I'm here to relieve you of your burden.
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And there's a second lie. You see, excuses are just reasons wrapped up in the skin of a lie.
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Here's the second lie. Well, you see, Naaman, we've got these visitors that just arrived. Yes, indeed. From the time when you left until just now,
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I need to stop for a second. The Scripture says he'd only gone a short distance. And what that phrase means is he was still within eyesight.
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He hasn't gotten out of the parking lot yet if he were here. He's right there. This is all very close in terms of the scene where this is, the proximity where everybody is.
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Everybody's right together. Naaman has just gotten started. Well, see, from the time that you left till now, you see, these two visitors arrived and Elisha suddenly realized that we need a bag of silver so we can accommodate them.
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Now, think about the insanity of this lie. Naaman is right there.
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He could look over and say, there's no visitors coming down the hill. I can see that.
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We're all right here together. We're still in the same city block. The other thing is, a bag of silver, and I'm not going to bore you with these tedious calculations to take you from the 8th century
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B .C. to money today, but it's millions. It's worth millions of dollars. What kind of visitors are these?
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Is it royalty? No, he said it's a couple sons of the prophet came down from Ephraim. Just a couple guys like me.
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We just need a bag of silver. We need a few million dollars to accommodate them properly.
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So Naaman urges him. Same word as when he unsuccessfully urged
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Elisha. He urges him to take not just one, but two. It's like the man
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Jesus really wants us to be. Going two miles when one is requested. Adding our cloak when just the tunic would have sufficed.
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He reminds me of Zacchaeus who having found salvation in Jesus Christ, having repented of his sins, he promised to repay four times of anything he had taken by false accusation.
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You see, there's a joy in the Lord that overcomes our attachment to the world. Naaman is giving from his wealth, not his poverty, yet he is giving.
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There are some who think Naaman knew exactly what was happening. He knew for sure that Gehazi was lying, just taking revenge of him.
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I don't think we need to go there in this passage. I don't think it's right to go there. There's no hint of it.
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He's simply being generous to any representative of the God who had so soon before set him free of his leprosy.
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If he was aware of Gehazi's ruse, then again he demonstrates a godly ethic. He prefers to be wronged rather than retain his wealth.
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But how the conscience should have been brought back to life by Naaman's example, by the nobility of this
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Syrian. But sin destroys the conscience. God in his mercy allows us to repent and return, but the harm we may have done to ourselves and others may not, in fact it usually does not, recede away so quickly.
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In a very brief summary fashion, that's his conversation with Naaman. It's just all lies.
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Elisha sent me. Elisha didn't send me. Elisha sent you away. We have a couple of visitors coming.
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We know there's no visitors. I need seven or eight million dollars to take care of them.
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No. At most all you need is a bag of bread. Lie upon lie upon lie in his conversation with Naaman.
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And finally Gehazi returns and has a conversation with Elisha. Now first of course he stops and he hides his money.
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And how gleeful he must have been. All pretenses that holy designs for the money are abandoned.
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He's not saying, oh I'm going to use this to feed the poor like Judas did when he had control of the money box. I'm going to build
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Elisha a better room. I'm going to get him a library or anything like that. He just hides the money for himself in his own house.
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He makes it clear just whose he thought it to be. And just who was going to bring into his confidence regarding its existence.
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Who's going to know that the money's there? No one. Not Elisha.
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Not any other brother, son of the prophet. No, it's his. He's hidden it away in his own place and he's going to have it for himself.
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And his question from Elisha, where did you go Gehazi? He knew exactly where he had been and what he had done.
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The very question should have jolted him out of his sinful stupor. Have you ever been confronted like that?
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You remember being a little kid when your parents know just what you did? Say, where have you been?
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And I knew I was in trouble if my mom used my name and called me J. Joshua. That was it. I'm busted.
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And how hard we hang on to it. No, I didn't go anywhere. I didn't do anything. It doesn't work.
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He's busted as we would say. Where did you go Gehazi? He has a chance that only grace can offer to repent and to confess.
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I can imagine Elisha's glance to be like the one that Jesus gave Peter when Jesus came out of the high priest's house.
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Remember he was bound and they were taking him for more trial. And Jesus looked at Peter and Peter broke down and wept bitterly.
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I can imagine Elisha looking at him, something like that. That look broke
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Peter. The same look deflected off Gehazi's forehead which was like flint to use the biblical analogy.
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What does he say? Nowhere, I've just been hanging around. Just hanging out. I didn't go anywhere.
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Of course, another lie. I think this is lie number three. How stupid we become when we let sin take over.
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Every child knows what a question like that means. What it always means. Where did you go?
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And here's the time to let pride fall away. Here's the time that God in his grace gives us to demolish the excuse and to repent.
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When our conscience led by the Holy Spirit of God with our scripture open, perhaps a brother or sister, where did you go?
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What are you planning? What did you do? Usually we wrap it up all the more tightly with more and more excuses, more and more justifications, more idols that we just can't stop making them.
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Whereas this is the God -given opportunity for him to say, I've sinned.
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Join King David. I've sinned before God and men. No trust in the grace of God to hear true confession and to forgive sin.
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No willingness to let go of that bag of money or those two bags of money.
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He says, where did you go, Gehazi? Elisha is acting as God would. He has an insight into another man's heart such as none would have until Jesus Christ comes.
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This is unprecedented in the prophets and you're not going to see it again until, as I said, the
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Lord's advent. He's not giving Gehazi enough rope to hang himself. That wouldn't reflect
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God at all. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He would that all men might repent.
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Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?
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You see, there's nothing left for him to hide. Hebrews 4 .12 is exactly on cue.
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The word of God, and is that not what Elisha spoke to him? Elisha wasn't just smart and figured it all out and put it together and accused him.
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We know that God is giving him these insights. We know that all the glory, all the praise goes to God for this.
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The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
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Is this not exactly played out in 2 Kings 5? He's not suggesting that Naaman's healing signaled a particular time for anything.
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Gehazi's last bastion of secrecy has been destroyed. His plans for the money here have been exposed.
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What did Elisha mean when he said, is it time to do all these things, to receive money, clothing, olive groves and all that?
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Elisha is showing him that he knows the plans that he had for the money. What was Gehazi going to do?
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He's going to make himself a little fiefdom. He's going to raise himself to be a duke or something like that. He was going to buy property.
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He was going to buy servants. He was going to make himself the lord of the manor. His lies were legion, one building on another like a mason building up a room.
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But Gehazi wasn't constructing a room. He was making a cell. He was making like jail cell into which he'd soon be cast.
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We know greed to be behind the lies, but notice how he affirms his intentions.
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God has just done something never seen before, nor seen again until the
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Lord Jesus. I've said this a few times with Elisha. As we go through his history, as we continue in this,
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Lord willing, you're going to see things in Elisha and going back even to Elijah that you won't see in a prophet until Jesus.
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The power of these men, Elisha and Elijah, is phenomenal, what
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God was doing in and through them. He had just seen the power of God reach down from heaven and cure the incurable.
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Speaking, of course, of Naaman coming out of the Jordan River, cured of his leprosy. His flesh became like a child's flesh.
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He had just seen the gospel spread outside of Israel's borders and Israel's people.
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Gehazi had just witnessed one of the watershed moments in the history of redemption. But where was his attention?
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We can almost picture him just staring at the wagons full of money. And somebody comes along and says, hey,
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Gehazi, did you see what just happened? He says, no, what happened? I got distracted for a second.
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What happened? Oh, not much. God just healed a leper. A Gentile came from another land.
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The prophet sent him into the river and healed him of his leprosy. Not much, Gehazi.
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He's saying, oh, yeah. Oh, that's great, praise God. And all the time, not looking at the man who's made this report, but where is he looking?
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The wagon full of money. Do you see how blind we become?
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And it's not just the money. It's any sin. It's any plan of the heart that goes against God's word.
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We knowing it's against God's word. We can ignore everything else around.
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We become incredibly blind and myopic, focused on just that one thing.
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How could he have missed all this? I think, again, going back to the book of Hebrews, for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the
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Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the
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Son of God and put Him to open shame. You see, there's a denial of God's Spirit that proves all previous affirmations false.
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Where is Gehazi? He's with Demas, who forsook Paul and the gospel for the love of the world. He joins all lovers of money, piercing himself through with many sorrows.
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Well, it's quite an oath he took, is it not? As the Lord lives, I'm going to get me some of that money that my fool master declined.
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It's important for us to notice something. His oath, in a very real sense, is made good.
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He gets to keep all the money. We're not told that Elisha said, so go get the money, run over and put it back on the cart or anything like that or give it to me and we'll use it for the ministry, the money.
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Who wants the money? God doesn't need our money. Elisha certainly doesn't depend upon ill -gotten gains, but fully his faith in God to provide for all his needs.
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It's all his and he can have it. Let him spend it on doctors for the cure of his leprosy because he got more than Naaman's money.
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He got his disease. Remembering what we said about leprosy a while back, how that was a visible sign, that was a living parable of God's view of sin.
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Why did Naaman have leprosy? We know in God's design so that this very incident would show God's power to cure not just leprosy but ultimately sin by the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But Gehazi is given that specifically so that his sin will always be before him and others.
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Do not be deceived because God is not mocked.
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But his oath is made good. He got to keep the money. He got it all. But I don't think any of us have to wonder whether this is a bargain he regretted or not.
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The leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever. And he went out from his presence leprous as white as snow.
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Another principle at work here. What he had tried to do in secret, God would publish abroad.
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Naaman would never be able to walk in public except with this outward symbol, this leprosy, this emblem of how
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God feels about sin, what it looks like to him. So that's
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Gehazi's story. Among the sons of the prophets and he was Elisha's right -hand man.
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There's something we learn from this. Whether he was around when
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Elijah was, certainly he was with Elisha and at this point for some seven years.
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Let us understand that holiness is something that does not rub off.
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Read in the book of Haggai. When Haggai has to go to the priests and he has this teaching for them about how things become holy and how they become unclean.
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And if something unclean touches something holy, does it become unclean? They say it will become unclean. So if something holy touches something, no, the holiness does not transfer.
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You can hang around with the most righteous people in your own mind that there are.
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Pick the pastor, pick the saint. Come to church and be around the saints of God, those who've been redeemed by Jesus Christ out of this world and are called holy by God himself.
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It doesn't come from rubbing shoulders. It comes only from the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Do not think because you're hanging around with the right people, religious people if you will, because you're coming to church on Sunday and sitting with us and singing the hymns and praying the prayers and hearing the preaching that by this you can avoid what
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Gehazi was unable to avoid. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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We do no harm to that text if we substitute holiness for righteousness. In Christ and him alone, did
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Gehazi rely upon his proximity to Elisha for his own personal righteousness or holiness?
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We don't know. The scripture doesn't tell us. I do believe though that this passage warns us of that very thing that this
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Gehazi who is among the sons of the prophets somehow raised up to the level of being the right hand servant, the head butler if you will of Elisha, the head of the school of prophets but the holiness, the goodness, the faithfulness to God of Elisha didn't rub off on him.
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I can't give it to you. The person sitting next to you, the holiest saint that the world has ever known even cannot give it to you but only
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God in his mercy when he hears faith in his son the
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Lord Jesus Christ, what he did on the cross, when he hears confession of sin and repentance for those sins then by his spirit regenerating the soul, remaking your heart then is holiness granted, granted, not attained, not earned, a bestowal by God.
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It's one of the things I want us to be warned about that doing the right stuff with the right people avails nothing but only faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He had stumbled over money and some of us need to do what
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Gehazi did not do. We need to repent of trying to serve God and mammon, God and anything because why?
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Because Jesus says first of all, this is impossible. It's an insult to God because it puts whatever we're trying to serve on the same plane as God and that's the worst part of it but from a sheer practical sense
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Jesus says you simply can't do it. What the one demands of you the other detests and this is true whichever way we take the equation.
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What the world, money, wealth, prestige, status, what the world demands of you is antithetical to God and the other way what
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God demands and make no mistake God doesn't ask, He demands, is antithetical to the rest.
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The one demands, requires what the other abhors. Let me close with this.
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Money and God do have something in common. The wealth which
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Gehazi reached out for which was his downfall even though he got to keep it all that and God do have something in common.
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You can't get enough. If money is your desire if worldly power and status and prestige and just stuff if that is your
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God if that is what you're erecting excuses in order to justify going after more and more you'll never have enough.
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Some famous wealthy man whose name I just can't get I won't cite it to you because I can't find him and tell you specifically so maybe it's apocryphal.
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But a wealthy man like a J. Paul Getty someone like that was asked if he had any regrets on his deathbed.
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He says, I regret that I can't make one more nickel before I die. You'll never have enough.
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As the Proverbs says these things never say enough. You always have to grasp after it.
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And in that way but I won't put them on the same level but in that way Jesus Christ is the same because if he is your goal if he is what you love if he is what you strive after you'll never get enough of him.
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And as you try to get enough of him and we all should try though you'll fail every day and it's a wonderful failure because that means next day
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I get to try more and more and more. The other will get set aside into its proper place.
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Now in the same way as money for totally different reasons if God is your God if his son Jesus is your desire you'll never be satisfied.
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The Psalmist in Psalm 73 he wrestles with just what Gehazi did. This idea of serving
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God but the wealth I see all around me that I want so badly that I'm jealous I'm envious of the proud and the wicked because they have so much of it.
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All of which is an okay struggle if we come back to where that Psalmist does. Whom have
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I in heaven but you and who do I desire on earth but you. Last of all this just as we think of what
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Gehazi reached out for the excuses he raised to justify himself Romans 11 .22
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says Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity but towards you goodness if you continue in his goodness otherwise you also will be cut off.
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God in his goodness sends an Elisha who says Where have you been? Jane.
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Where have you been? Robert. What are you doing? Josh. What's that plan in your heart?
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In his severity God will not be mocked. God does judge sin.
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In his goodness he often slows us down he gives us a chance to check our spirits and not come under the severity against his sin.
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That severity that he poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ when he hung on the cross. God in his goodness giving us a chance to repent of our sins.
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If he's given you that chance I plead with you to take it. Look into your heart see if Gehazi resides in there the littlest bit and the warning flags are easy enough to find they really are they're not so easy to confess to each other that could be embarrassing but just for yourself what excuse have we erected to justify this thing that we know in the depth of our soul guided by the
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Holy Spirit of God and his scripture are wrong. Has anyone tried to slow us down?
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Have we ignored the promptings? And maybe we'd be those who would reverse course unlike Gehazi but here the good warnings that God gives us and change course.
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Amen. Lord God again we are grateful to be able to come in your presence to see how applicable your word is to us and I just pray
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Father that we would all be more sensitive to the idols that we raise up in our own hearts the excuses that we make when we know that we are going against your will.
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Lord that we may unlike Gehazi be those who when you prompt us when you prick our conscience
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Father that we would repent and turn away from sin and return to the fold of the