February 28, 2016 Namaan's Cure, Our Cure by Pastor Josh Sheldon

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February 28, 2016 Namaan’s Cure, Our Cure 2 Kings 5:1-19 Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Our text this morning is what was read to you from 2 Kings, in chapter 5.
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Let me put that whole story to you in a nutshell. This story of Naaman mentioned only here in the historical books of the
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Old Testament and only one time outside of them, in Luke chapter 4, which was also read to you.
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What is this story of Naaman? Naaman was a Syrian general who, at the word of some unnamed
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Israelite slave girl, who the context tells us he took during a raid into Israel, based upon her word, he goes to the prophet who is in Israel and there, despite his reservations about the means employed, he's healed of what is impossible to be healed, leprosy, which had no cure then, none today.
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Well, that's the story in a nutshell. That's really what happened there. This great and powerful and courageous general who had been successful in the battlefield listens to a little, unnamed, anonymous
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Israelite slave girl and at her word goes to his king and gets permission for a medical tourist leave, if you will, and is healed of his leprosy, period.
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End of story. Can we now say amen and go out in the atrium and enjoy some fellowship together?
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Well, we cannot. All scripture is inspired, breathed out by God.
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It is here for a purpose. There are lessons here for us to learn. We must look at Naaman, this pagan general who came from this pagan land,
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Syria, an enemy of Israel, and was there healed of what cannot be healed.
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And in him, we must see the lesson to ourselves. The question that I think this text asks of us is what price are you willing to pay to be healed?
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Do you even recognize your need to be healed? Do you know that you have a malady which only
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God can cure? When King Jehoram, the king of Israel, tore his clothes and said, am
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I God to kill or make alive? It wasn't speaking of actually killing anyone.
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What he was doing was he was saying the giving or taking of life, which is God's domain alone, is the power that is necessary to remove leprosy.
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Only he who can kill and make alive, which is God, can do anything about this disease.
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How can this king of Syria send me to my land to do this incredible deed?
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What are you willing to sacrifice in order to be healed? Will you even see your need to be healed?
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There are some different courses we need to take as we look at a text, especially a historical text like we have, and more especially than that, a historical text that is never mentioned again outside of that one small passage where we have it, these 19 verses.
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And then, of course, we all know what happens next is Naaman's, or excuse me, Elisha's servant, Gehazi, and his greed and his extortion of some riches from this man,
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Naaman. Perhaps we'll get to that another time this morning. Just this one incident with Naaman.
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What did it mean then? What did it mean then?
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What does it tell us about God's dealing with that people in that time, in that place, in that specific context?
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The other course to look at is what did it mean to the people who first read this?
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Unlike our New Testament, which was written within a few days of the events that it records for us, this history wasn't written until some centuries later, and it was not read first by the children of Israel in the northern kingdom.
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It was read first by the children of Judah from the southern kingdom, not while they were in Judah, but when they were in Babylon in exile.
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This was first written for them to read and to understand the cause for them having been sent off to Babylon, and to give them warning on how to behave when
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God restores them and sent them back, even under the time of Ezra, who I spoke of earlier this morning.
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What did it mean? What does it tell us first about God's dealing with the children of Israel then?
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What did it mean to the people who first read it? And then using the analogy of faith, our third course, the analogy of faith, which is that Scripture interprets
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Scripture, Scripture informs Scripture, all of Scripture can be brought to bear as we look for the lessons of Naaman as they relate to us.
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Many lessons for us to learn here, and I wish us to compare ourselves first to Naaman as we go into some detail, there's many details that we have to flesh out regarding this whole context, this incident.
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We look at Naaman, and I want us to ask ourselves these questions. Do we recognize the blight that we have upon us?
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And what are we willing to sacrifice? What are we willing to give up to see it removed?
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The other lesson I want you to hear, and this is especially for you who do not have a relationship with God by faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you who in your heart, in your spirit, you know yourself to be outside of this
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Christ, this Savior whom we proclaim in this place week in and week out, and Lord willing we'll continue.
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I warn you from this text, do not presume that you are going to have opportunity after opportunity and chance after chance to hear the
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Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed to you. We studied
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Elijah as we went through 1 Kings 17 to the end of that book. We saw that God judged
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Israel by taking the Word of God, which was at that time Elijah, outside their borders.
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There was judgment against them. Here with Elisha, in this incident with the
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Syrian general Naaman, there is also judgment against this backslidden wayward people.
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Take warning, you who do not know
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Jesus Christ, have not fallen down before his cross and repented of your sins and begged
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God for forgiveness. Do not presume that God will not judge you. By removing from you the blessing of hearing the
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Word, there comes a point where that ends and judgment begins.
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God removed his word from Israel and he sent Elijah out, and now Naaman's trek from Syria to Israel.
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He has the blessing of healing, the blessing of being restored upon himself that ought to have been enjoyed by his people.
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And Naaman is not just any Gentile, he's a Gentile, not a resident of Israel but from another nation.
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Not just any visitor, Syria's most successful military leader, and he's not just a famous battlefield leader, but his reputation has been built on his successes against the very nation that he went to for the cure of his leprosy.
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As I'm circling this all back to Luke chapter 4, the only mention outside of the historical books of Naaman, no wonder their offense against Jesus finally bubbled over and they tried to lynch him.
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And that's what that mob was, it was a lynch mob. And Luke chapter 4, when it says that they spoke amongst themselves about his gracious words, the word actually means they testified amongst themselves about what he was saying.
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And they didn't go from, oh isn't he wonderful, don't we love what he's saying, to throwing him off a hill. It was aggressive against him, it was a polemic against him from the beginning.
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They were giving testimony amongst themselves about this guy, about this Joseph's son who would dare to come in and give such a lesson to us.
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No wonder they flew into such a rage, because to be reminded of Naaman, this
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Syrian general, this pagan, this Gentile, whose valor, whose success, whose acumen on the battlefield was proven against them, against Israel, was more than they could take.
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And then Jesus removed himself, he went through the midst of them. Again, judgment on them, the word of God being removed.
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I repeat my warning, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, do not presume you can be here next week and hear this gospel again.
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But make today the day of salvation. Fall down today before God, repenting of your sins.
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I call you to hear the word of the Lord while it's near, because God's patience is not endless.
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So my first application is actually this warning, the warning of Naaman being healed, the warning of God's glory departing the temple in Ezekiel 10, the warning of Judah's exile, the warning of Jesus himself leaving those to whom he came, offering
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God's salvation and taking himself and proclaiming that to others and healing others.
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I want to begin though, back to our text, with a little bit of background on leprosy.
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I'm not a doctor, you who know me know that my scientific acumen is pretty small.
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But just a little idea of what this was that afflicted Naaman.
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Some commentators will tell us that back then it was not that nerve -destroying and flesh -rotting disease that today we call
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Hansen's disease. Others think it was. Whatever the case though, whatever it really was, we know it was leprosy or a form thereof.
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We know it was terrible. We know it was somewhat disgraceful to have. We know it was incurable.
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But there's something more to leprosy that we need to understand. You see, leprosy is in the scripture a living metaphor for sin.
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It's like a living parable for how awful sin is in God's sight.
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Whether it was just extreme eczema, as some of the commentators think, or it could have been this thing we call
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Hansen's today, it was an awful, dreadful disease.
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It disfigured the body the way sin does the soul. It starts small, almost unnoticeable, just as sin begins with a thought, a moment's jealousy, a second look at that woman who's not your wife.
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Cain's crime began with covetousness, and I can imagine it began with just this glimmer of a thought that I deserve what my brother is enjoying.
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You see, it just can't be kept private. It can't be constrained. It blossomed forth in Cain into murder.
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As it does with us, these small blights, these leprosies, if you will, these lesions in our soul, as Jesus says in the
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Sermon on the Mount, call your brother a fool, you're guilty of murder. Snap your neck looking twice, you're guilty of adultery, and so on.
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That's why leprosy is so dreadfully described in the
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Old Testament. It's a living metaphor for the sin of our soul.
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It's a visual, if you will, for how God sees our sin.
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Think to Zechariah chapter 3. Don't turn there now. I'll just describe it to you. It shows
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Joshua, a high priest, standing before the Lord, and it says that he was clothed in filthy clothes.
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But what was he actually wearing? The beautiful garments of the priest. And yet before God, they were filthy.
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They reeked. They were wretched with their stink. Why? Because he was bearing the sins of his children, or excuse me, the sins of Israel, God's children,
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God's people, before him. This is the sort of image we should have when we read of leprosy.
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That's what it is. It was a living parable, living metaphor for sin.
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Of course, like sin, leprosy, by any human effort, by any human means, is incurable.
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I want to stay on leprosy for just a moment. We need to really understand what it is that Naaman had. Keeping in mind, as Jesus said, there were many lepers in Israel, in the borders that God had set apart for his children.
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It was given by God as a judgment against certain individual sins.
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Very quickly now, because I do want to get to our text, but we need to understand leprosy very well before we understand what's really happening in our text.
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Think of Moses at the burning bush when he met Yahweh and he heard that great revelation, I am who
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I am. And remember, he questioned God's intention to use him as his agent of deliverance.
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And God gave him two signs. One, he says, what is that in your hand? He says, it's my rod. He says, put it on the ground.
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It became a serpent. That was one sign. What was the other sign? Do you remember? Clothes book test.
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Do you remember? He says, put your hand in your bosom. And Moses did.
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It came out, leprosy. He had leprosy. The very idea of questioning
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God like that, we could almost say, he said, how are you going to do this? How are you going to do this?
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We've been 400 years, slaves of the most powerful nation on earth. Put your hand in your bosom. You have leprosy.
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You are now blighted with sin. Do you see what that question is like in my eyes?
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And of course, he put his hand back in his bosom and returned and he was restored. Think of Miriam, Moses' sister, when she rebelled against Moses' authority, an authority that had been shown in signs and wonders throughout the time of their deliverance from Egypt.
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How did God judge her? Do you recall? Clothes book test. Do you recall? She was made leprous.
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Her sin was then manifested in her body with this awful, dreadful disease, leprosy.
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One more. Just one more. Do you remember King Uzziah, who went into the temple and presumed to take the part of the priests to offer sacrifices to God, to offer the incense?
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And the priest said, no, King Uzziah, this is not your part. He became furious and insisted. And how did
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God judge him for that sin? Do you recall? He was made a leper and he died a leper.
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Leprosy, this living parable of sin, given especially to those whose affront was against God's person, even when it wasn't attributed to a specific sin, as in Naaman's case, it's the most profound manifestation of the ravages of sin.
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And as we think, even in the worst sort of leprosy, the Hansen's disease that causes the rot and the nerves to die, this we must think of is what's happening in the soul because of sin.
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Let's meet Naaman. That's what Naaman had. Let's meet Naaman. In many ways, he was like, if we're honest, most of us would like to be.
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He was successful. He was the number two man in Syria. He was Joseph to Pharaoh, but there in Syria.
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He was Daniel to the King of Persia, but he was there in Syria. He was the number two man.
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He was successful. He was known as a man of valor. His battlefield success was legendary.
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He was like the Lord Marlboro in the 17th and 18th century England. He was
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General Patton. Nothing he did went wrong. He was incredibly wealthy, probably by raiding
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Israel, but also because of his position in Syria. The IVP background commentary was probably written in the 80s.
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I didn't look up the date on it, but in there in the background commentary, they estimate that this gold and silver he brought would have been worth about three quarters of a billion dollars.
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So that long ago in our economy would have been worth that, so maybe a billion dollars today.
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So he's rich. He's successful. He's powerful. He's respected.
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His courage is renowned. His success is in this unbroken stream. Now we know it was the
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Lord's doing. It was the Lord who gave him victory, but that comment comes from our author, not Naaman nor his king even attributed it to God.
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But in every way, this man was a man to be admired, to be respected, a man to be envied, and a man, if we would be honest, many of us would envy.
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This successful, rich, respected man, except for this.
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Except for this. He was a leper. And we don't read of him being excluded from society by this as was the case in Israel, where the leper had to cry out in the streets, unclean, unclean, and warn people to keep away from him.
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And we don't really even read of him seeking a cure, so we can't compare him to the woman who came to Jesus for help with her flow of blood after having spent her savings on physicians to no avail.
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All we know is that leprosy was a dreaded disease throughout the ancient Near East, sort of like the plague in medieval
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Europe. And by the way he goes to his king at the word of a little Israelite slave girl, we can surmise how desperately he wanted to be rid of this plague.
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But in every other way, is he not what we would sort of ourselves want to be?
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So successful, so respected in the world. That's his disease, leprosy.
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That's the man, the successful, respected man. I'm gonna skip right ahead now to his approach to Elisha.
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He gets permission from his king to go on this medical tourism leave.
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He goes to the king of Israel. The king of Israel gets this message from Elisha, says, no, send him to me.
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What's he doing there? What are you doing tearing your clothes as if there's no God in Israel who can do this? Where's your faith,
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King Jehoram? You're the king of Israel. You're the king of God's land. You're tearing your clothes in desperation instead of, for example, by faith saying, yes, we do serve a
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God who can cure even this. But he comes to Elisha and I wanna go right to his approach to Elisha.
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Naaman comes with his retinue and all his money to the prophet and he gets no audience.
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The man who stands before kings, this leader who doesn't leave the field of battle except with victory in hand, wealth, prestige, every worldly trapping, a man accustomed to only his king not showing him deference.
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He's greeted how? Elisha sends out his servant. He doesn't even talk to him. He doesn't come to his presence.
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He says, just tell him to go do this. Now, Elisha's not being elitist.
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He's not being a racist. Remember a few weeks back how we spoke about how
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Elisha represents God in Israel, that it was he who maintained the vestige of the temple and the priesthood as God was beckoning his people back to himself away from their false temples, their false places of worship, their false priesthood.
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In that context, leprosy, that physical emblem of sin and its ravages, it can't be allowed into the temple.
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You look back in the book of Leviticus, no, if you have a scab or eczema or anything like that, you don't come in because it is that representation of sin.
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It's not allowed in God's presence, which is what the temple represented. God is of two pure eyes and to behold sin.
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See, Elisha doesn't deny him his request. He only denies him his immediate presence. He says, just go dip in the river and we're done.
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That's simple, right? It's simple. It's too simple. It's so simple in fact that he becomes enraged.
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Do we see any of Naaman in ourselves? What leads to this rage?
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You know, the ESV Bible, the NIV, the NET, they all say that he was angry.
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That's way too soft. It's way too soft. Our new
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King James gets it a lot better. Says he was furious. And I think even that is a little bit light. This is not your garden variety fit of pique.
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He's not just annoyed. He's in a murderous rage. What causes this?
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Do we see Naaman in us? Do we see us in him? What's causing this? Is it anything but pride?
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Is it anything but I am a person of greater dignity than to be treated with such lack of bowing down respect?
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How dare you not come out to me first? How dare you give me something so easy to do? Here then, the gospel.
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See the prototype of the gospel. Because in the gospel, what do we add to the salvation that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross?
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And the class said, nothing. Nothing is just too simple. What is crushed by the gospel?
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Many things. In the context of what we're speaking of this morning, pride.
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Pride is crushed. Gospel is the pride killer. Pride leads this man to a rage.
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I think he started getting extremely mad when the servant instead of the man himself came out.
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I don't think he cared or understood that Elisha couldn't be in contact with that manifestation of sin.
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But then to be told to do something so simple that is so man effort eliminating.
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He goes into this rage. The word used in the original language for anger, that he became angry, he became furious, is used only 56 times in the
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Old Testament. And all but a very few of those times have to do with God's anger.
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A few of the times have to do with a righteous man's anger, but if you look at the context of the gospel, the context of those, it's a righteous anger because someone else has shown disrespect towards God.
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A very few instances have to do with a man's anger at his own affront, but then it's usually a king, as in Esther, when
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King Ahasuerus is angry at the queen for not parading herself on his command.
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See, this is the sphere that Naaman's prideful anger put him in. That of an unduly assaulted king, a sovereign, or a god even.
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He's not just mad, he's not just petulant or offended. The core of his self -image has been assaulted.
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The core of what he thinks of himself and what is affirmed by people's adulation of him has been attacked.
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If Elisha's refusal to meet him in person wasn't insulting enough, now the sheer simplicity adds insult to injury.
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This just is not what he had in mind. I said to myself, let me repeat what Jesus read, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the
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Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy. And then he goes on to speak about how his rivers in his home country are better than the
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Jordan. What on earth is Elisha talking about? And really what I think is behind this is, I thought he'd come out and make a big deal about me.
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What did he want? I thought Elisha would come out and in the name of the Lord his God, make all this ceremony, make a big deal about me, wave his hand over me, thank me for coming to him, thank me for allowing him to heal me and save me from this terrible thing.
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You know, the sheer simplicity, the sheer lack of us adding anything to the gospel puts so many of us in the same boat, doesn't it?
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I mean, does he want to be healed or not? Well, he does certainly, but the price is just too great.
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I asked before, what price are you willing to pay to be healed? Will you even recognize your need to be healed,
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I guess is the first question. What price are you willing to pay? The rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, good teacher, what good deed shall
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I do? What work shall I do in order to have eternal life? Just obey the rules, says
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Jesus. Now, he didn't mean if you obey the rules, you get yourself saved in eternity.
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That's not where that goes. He says, you know the commandments.
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What do you make of them? Of course, the man repeats them. Jesus says, do this and live. He said, I've done this all my life.
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What else do I have to do? Ah, now we get to the point. Now we get to the point.
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Do what all those rules you say you've kept should have led you to want to do.
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Sell all you have. Give it to the poor. Come to me. That's just so simple.
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The answer's right before you. What makes you hang on to it? Pride. Naaman came, he was willing to give this huge fortune.
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Elisha could have had the whole wagon load. Remember the estimate.
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In 1980s dollars, it was three quarters of a billion dollars. I don't know what it would be today.
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Have it all. No, Naaman, go dip.
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So you come out as a child. That reference should mean something to us. Just go dip.
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I don't need your money. Because you don't get to take part in this. This is the great error.
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If we take this forward to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, how then can we be saved?
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As the people cried out to Peter at Pentecost. Repent. Repent.
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No, you don't understand, Peter. What do I have to do?
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Repent. No, I need to do a great deed of penance. I need to go up those steps to the
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Vatican as Martin Luther did. Each step stopping and crying out to God for this or that or whatever.
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No, repent and believe the gospel. Can't you just take the money?
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As Peter told Simon Magus in Samaria, your money perished with you. You can't buy this.
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What's the price to be healed? It's too much.
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Set aside your pride. Set aside self, relying only on Jesus Christ and what he has done.
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Hope only in God and in nothing that we ourselves can do. What wells up here in Naaman when he gets so furious, when he has an anger that is really this rage that God has at sin.
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I think the word is intentionally used there in the original language. What wells up in him is a blight that's far worse than his leprosy.
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Condition common to men, it has so tenacious a grip that to even be cured of leprosy is too high a price.
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A billion dollars a year is take it. But this other thing, this fury inducing treasure that just cannot be relinquished.
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To give this up is too much and he won't do it and too often we won't do it. Our pride.
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I think pride is the great lesson here. Pride that prevents us from coming to God.
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Pride that makes us think that all these lessons in the Old Testament that show us the word of God being removed from a people.
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Luke chapter four as Jesus reenacts that and goes through the midst of them and goes to someone else.
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It's all pride. I thought about this and I don't want to go into a theological dissertation during a sermon.
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But I think about this, I think about Naaman and his pride. He nearly lost this blessing because of his dependence upon self, his being so accustomed to being successful himself and getting it done himself.
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He nearly lost this cure to his leprosy which was the only blight in his life.
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And it makes me think, what's the Arminian error? What's the error of any so -called
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Christian? I choose my words carefully. I don't say that you can't be Christian unless you believe the way we believe.
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I'm not trying to say that. But what's the error that we of the Reformed faith rail against so much?
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Is adding something to the salvation that Jesus Christ on the cross accomplished. Adding anything to it.
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I know what I bring. I bring my faith, don't I? No. Faith is a gift of God.
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You don't bring faith. God gives you faith. I know what I have to do.
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I have to believe the gospel. That doesn't save you either, really. Only Christ.
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Only what he did on the cross. Only Jesus Christ and his perfect life in obedience to God's commands.
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Faith in him. But he is the point, the focus, the sum, and the accomplishment of salvation.
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100%. Don't make me say, oh, it's 110 % or 200 % or... 100 means 100%.
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Naaman wants to take part. He wants to choose his river. He wants someone to come out and make a big deal of him.
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Make a big deal of me. Don't you know who I am? How often,
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Elisha, how often do you get to meet someone of my stature? Remember how
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Elisha answers him. He says, as the
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Lord God says, before whom I stand. I stand before God.
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Am I going to respect a man? Am I going to change this message to satisfy you? It's just human nature.
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I speak of fallen human nature. I mean, that nature that we have because of the fall in the garden.
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I speak of an enduring vestige of the sin that we inherited from Adam that is so hard to shed.
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Just an inescapable heritage from that terrible day in the garden that makes us unwilling to admit our complete and our utter dependence and inability.
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It irks us in that natural state to admit this dependence. We simply must add something to God's blessing upon us.
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We must say in some way we deserved it. We did something to bring it about. Somehow we reached up to heaven and pulled
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God ever so slightly down to us. And he then acknowledges us. We want to take some credit.
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This is what Naaman wanted. I fear this is what we want. First, for Elisha to make a big deal over him.
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That's what he wanted. Second, he wanted to affect his cure in some way. I like what
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Matthew Henry says here. He says, He scorns to be healed unless he be humored. He scorns to be healed unless he be humored.
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I wonder how many of us resist the gospel until we can hear a version of the gospel that humors you, that doesn't call you an abject to sinner, totally depraved in God's sight, who has no hope, no hope of salvation, no chance to stand before God except full reliance and faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
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I wonder how many of us resist the gospel until our pride is given a concession, until we get to do something, any little thing.
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We get to say, I know a different river. Your river isn't going to work. I've got something else figured out.
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He stands so close to perfect health, doesn't he? Naaman. God in his providence has caused him to follow the word of this anonymous little slave girl and go to this very prophet.
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And here he is with Elisha's simple instruction and attached to easy command the promise that the little girl predicted.
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And he's ready to give it all up. And why? What is it that he is treasuring so much more than to be rid of this disgraceful, awful, incurable disease?
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Brethren, we all have it. Even we who are before Jesus Christ by faith in him still have this.
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And too many won't come to Jesus Christ because of this. I say it again. It's pride. He wanted to do some great deed.
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He wanted some credit. And this pride was almost his undoing. Does not scripture say in Proverbs, and then
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Peter repeats it, and I believe James does. He says God resists the pride.
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He gives grace to whom? The humble. You're humble.
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You don't add anything to this equation. You don't pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.
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We admit, as I've said before, you have no straps on your boots to pull. Here's the great error of all those of any sort who say that they take some part in salvation.
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That's wrong. That's just so wrong. Leprosy is a symbol of sin.
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It cannot be cured. Sin is, well, sin is sin. It also cannot be cured.
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It can only be forgiven. It can only be set aside by God because of Jesus Christ.
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Nothing else. Nehemia does have an advantage over so many of us.
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He does have an advantage. I don't mean his success in his profession, his prestige or his status in his nation.
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I don't mean being able to fill up wagon loads with three quarters of a billion dollars and pay it all out because he knows he can raid
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Israel and get more. He did have an advantage over so many. You see, he knew that he was leprous.
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He knew he had a problem. And despite his rage, he knew he couldn't find a cure that the
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God of Elisha was his only hope. Do you know,
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I speak especially to you who do not have Jesus Christ. I speak especially to you who have not bowed your knee to him.
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I speak especially to you who've heard this gospel and let your pride set aside one more week and said arrogantly, insolently, presumptuously,
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I'll give it another try next week. God may remove it. Think of how many times he removed
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Elijah from Israel. Think of how many times now blessings through Elisha are given to another people.
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Think of Jesus Christ going through the midst of those to whom he proclaimed that word. Do not presume.
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Do you know how you appear before God? When Isaiah saw the glory of God, he said,
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I am ruined. As R .C. Sproul says, I've come undone. I'm a man of unclean lips.
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I stand before God. I'm seeing his glory. As John tells us in chapter 12 of that gospel, that he was seeing the glory of Jesus Christ.
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And he says, I've come undone. I have no answer for my sin. Habakkuk, when he saw the vision of God and his glory, he said, rottenness entered my bones.
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Job said, I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and dust.
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Peter, when he saw the glory of God and Jesus Christ, fell on his knees and begged him to depart from me, for I am a sinful man,
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O Lord. Do you see how you appear before God? I should think that if we had the worst, nightmarish vision of what leprosy can do,
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I think we'd have to be promoted several times before we could look that good before God in our sin.
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Don't turn because of pride. God said by Isaiah, in returning and rest, you shall be saved, and quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
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But you would not. You're gonna pick another river. You're gonna add something to it.
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You want God to come down as it were and make a big deal of you? Some ceremony over you?
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As if all heaven rejoices when you allow God to work in your life? No, one wants him to repent.
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But you would not. Or Jeremiah, but although I have spoken to you rising early and speaking, you did not obey me.
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Or 2 Chronicles 36, 16. They mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the
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Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy. Why do we ignore? Why do we go into this rage like Naaman did?
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Pride, we want to have a part of it. Maybe you haven't had the advantages of a
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Naaman. I don't mean the worldly excess. I mean his leprosy. Maybe you haven't had the advantage of having such a disease because he knew he was blighted with something.
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He knew he needed a cure outside of himself. He knew that all the physicians or magicians in the world could do him no good.
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He had a great advantage over so many of you because you have not yet acknowledged your true condition. Now he got corrected in this idea that he could pay money for it and was sent with nothing that he got to add to the whole equation.
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But at least he knew that he had a problem. Here's what the
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Bible says of you. If you have not Jesus Christ, if you're not clothed in his blood and his righteousness as our great hymn says,
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Isaiah 64, 6, but we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.
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We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. If only you could see your blight as clearly as Naaman did his.
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If only I could find words to speak from the scripture empowered by the spirit of God that would make you turn inward and see in yourself something so much worse than Naaman's leprosy.
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And then leaving all your pride, all your money, all your worldly success behind, turn your gaze to Christ.
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If only I could somehow incent you to do that.
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Of course, it wouldn't be me. So when one sinner repents and all heaven rejoices, it's not because Josh Sheldon or any other human preacher said anything worthwhile.
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It's because God did a work attending his word into your heart with power.
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It's your sins that have kept you from God. It's your pride that keeps you in your sins. You've been taught in this world what the
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Bible calls evil is actually good, and what the Bible calls good is actually evil. Light for dark and dark for light.
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Your problem without Jesus Christ, your sins being your clothing before God, your appearance before him, far worse than Naaman's leprosy.
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It's what leprosy can only hint at. It's a condition which will bring suffering far worse and infinitely longer than any sickness, including
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Naaman's. Sin, and with sin comes pride, and with pride comes a blind eye.
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Here's how Jesus described this self -delusion. Revelation chapter three to the church at Laodicea.
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Because you say I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, look into the scripture.
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Close the book and forget what it says you look like. Jesus couldn't say it any more clearly.
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You think you're rich? You think you're wealthy? You don't need anything? As Naaman, when he came to Elisha, this is
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Naaman. You do not know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. At least
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Naaman knew he had leprosy. Jesus goes on. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see, that you may see yourself for who you are, that you may be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, that his blood will cleanse you.
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The record of Naaman really warns us in a couple of ways. First is this,
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I beg you, do not presume that God's word will always be available to you. Do not presume that the blessings promised in this word, if you keep denying them, and declining them, and refusing them because of your pride, do not think that God's gonna hold them eternally in reserve for just you.
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But he may turn away. He may finally turn away and discontinue your hearing of his grace in Jesus Christ.
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There comes a time when he will tire of your obstinacy and your insolence, and he will take it away. The record of Naaman warns us of how effectively our pride declines for us the blessings of God.
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How hard it is to get rid of our pride. He goes before the prophet of God.
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The prophet of God says, yes, I will heal you. Do this. Just go dip.
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Something so simple that you can't take any credit there'll be no boasting before God.
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And pride was almost his ruin. A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
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Psalm 73 6, therefore pride serves as their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment.
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This is what Naaman had to give up. It was almost too much for him. This is what the rich young ruler, his pride in his accomplishments, his money, his worldly wealth, and it was too much for him.
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I'll close with just this. Elisha wouldn't meet with Naaman until he was cleared of his leprosy.
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He couldn't come in contact with it, maintain his own cleanness. Elisha represented so much in Israel, this vestige of the temple, the priesthood, the presence of God.
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And the priest couldn't come in contact with someone who was unclean because of leprosy. Such a one could not even be allowed to the temple, and so he wouldn't contact, he wouldn't talk to, he wouldn't even look upon Naaman while he was still in that condition.
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But Christ, reading the gospels, how many times Christ touched the leper, met with sinners, and he, the beloved son of God, who in all ways was tempted as we are, yet without sin, he could come in contact with such physically and simply in their company, and himself have no fear of becoming unclean because he never could be such.
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It is Christ who can come and touch you and take away your sin the way
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God took away Naaman's leprosy after Naaman was cured, cleansed, made pure again.
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Then, notice, then Elijah came out and conversed with him and sent him away.
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Jesus Christ can do that if you will repent and have your sin removed and be clothed in beautiful garments, garments the opposite of what
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I cited in Zechariah 3 when Joshua was clothed in filthy rags, but in the something that in God's sight is beautiful, the precious blood of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and that will cure you of something far, far worse than Naaman's leprosy, but of your sin and all those consequences.
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So I call you to repent. I call you this day to repent before God, to set your pride down low and come to God and confess that you have nothing to bring.
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Nothing in my hand I bring, but only to thy cross I claim. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you again for the day that you've given us.
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Thank you, Father, for your word that gives us such clear warning. I just pray, Father, that as my words have comported with your scripture, that you would bring true healing, that you would bring repentance, grant forgiveness, and give eternal life to many in this place this day.
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I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.