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2 Kings 5:8-14
Today's sermon is part two in a series. I've talked before. I believe it was like six to eight months ago. I know they're certain about Naaman. I want to quickly recap that because I think they do kind of fit together.
The last sermon I preached I called the gospel of Naaman. I called it left it was called leprosy to healing and I had a few points. We saw how Naaman was an intrepid soldier and he had an incurable disease.
That was our first point application. We saw an unexpected hope and then we saw undeserved favor from his servant girl reaching out and saying could go to Israel you can be healed and finally saw a kingly gift.
Which was the letter that was given to Naaman to go to the king of Israel. We saw a priceless salvation, which is the last point of the sermon. So today I want to pick up on part two of that. The title my sermon today is gospel of Naaman pride or pardon.
We're in the second half. We're in the second part of a three-part series here. How many of you have heard of the battle of a little bighorn that's probably a very familiar familiar name to many of you.
It's also known eponymously or as Custer's last stand. Since general Custer and his entire Calvary regiment were annihilated by Indian warriors. It's a very famous. It's really stuck in American lore almost like no other battle.
This battle was one of the worst defeats suffered by the US Army during the Indian Wars of the post Bellum American West. So after the Civil War was over. Many of those Union commanders transferred out west and fought in the Indian Wars and if of all the Indian Wars.
There's nothing quite as bad as Custer's last stand. Custer was a very able Cavalry commander whose lack of regard for his personal safety and his tactical brilliance Made him famous during the American Civil War.
He was promoted to general at 23 at only 23 years old. He became a general in the Union Army. He was one of its rising stars his flair for the dramatic carried over to his personal appearance or his gold lace coil black velvet uniform red bandana.
Shiny spurs and he had long golden locks that he perfumed with cinnamon oil. That was quite a spectacle in the battlefield when you saw him going out. He's like is he going to a show or is he going to fight?
He's gonna get bloody. The end of the Civil War saw him reassigned to lead Calvary units in modern-day, Montana or Idaho in this battle 700 US Calvary men face off with 2 ,300 to 2 ,400 Indian Braves.
So they're outnumbered four or five to one. Although Custer was worn by his native scouts. They said look this Indian village is bigger than any we'd ever seen before. Custer said no, let's go ahead and attack.
Anyway, he should have waited for reinforcements. He just forged ahead. Dispatches seem to indicate that he didn't want the Indians to escape and deny him another battlefield victory or laurel. Historians still debate his motive.
We don't know exactly since everyone got massacred or but killed actually in battle. But it seems like his flair for the dramatic and his pride finally got the best of him. Rather than waiting for reinforcements as he was counseled.
He forged ahead and his decision would doom himself and all of the soldiers under his command. They all died. Pride has cost many people their physical lives and has doomed million more to eternal hell in today's sermon.
I would like to discuss another distinguished military commander whose pride was an obstacle to his physical healing unlike Custer. The Lord personally intervened in Naaman's life leading to spiritual redemption as well.
Naaman's pride was no match for the Lord's pardoning grace. What word would you use to describe Naaman on his journey to Israel. Put aside anything you can think about like a demographic information. I'm not talking about his ethnicity his rank his religion or his wealth.
I want to know how would you describe the posture of his heart? I Describe him as a seeker. I think that's the best way to describe Naaman. He was a seeker. He was seeking for something. He traveled to Israel to seek healing that had eluded him in his native land.
All people that come to Christ are likewise defined by this term. We are seekers. We must be seekers. When God regenerates people he turns them into seekers and the object of their quest is the gospel hope.
The main theme of this of the verses 8 and 10 in our chapter is that of a seeker hearing truth. So, please turn to 2nd Kings 5 and we're gonna read verses 8 through 14 together. 2nd Kings 5 starting in verse 8.
So it was when Elisha the man of God had heard the king of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the king. Saying why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me and I shall know there's a prophet in Israel the name and went with his horses and chariots and he stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.
But name it became furious and he went away and said indeed I said to myself He will surely come out and stand and stand and call him the name of Lord as God and he'll wave his hand over the place. And he'll the leprosy are not Abner and Parfar the rivers the Damascus better than all the waters of Israel.
Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage and the servants came near and spoke to him and they said my father. If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?
How much more than when he says to you wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times. According to the saying of the man of God and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
So the main point of verses 8 through 10 is a seeker hearing truth. Well, let's boil it down a little bit smaller in verses 8. We see Kings power versus God's power. Where do people turn today for answers?
Generally people they seek advice or help from some kind of earthly authority. You're gonna look to an earthly authority on something that a judicial system Exists to help those who have been physically harmed or financially defrauded if you have a health condition.
Who do you seek the advice of. You go to a trained medical professional? Mechanics that can diagnose and repair automobiles have a form of technical authority. Because you trust them to keep your family car running.
You take it in. You don't. You don't just say I don't. I don't believe. You're gonna fix my car you take it in you trust me pay the money. For the secular world these authorities are their safety blanket.
They do. They're depending on fallible authorities with finite domains. They generally panic when they discover the limit to these earthly powers. All of these powers have their limits. The courts have their limits.
The doctors have their limits. A mechanic has its limits. Why did Naaman travel to visit a prophet of another religion in a hostile country because Syria was hostile to Israel. He was desperate the power of the king.
The gods of his country and the medical community could not cure his condition. He was desperate. There's nowhere else to go. So he made a risky move. The soul that truly comes to Christ Must be desperate.
He must have seen the limits of his earthly powers and his total inability to reform himself. Without the work of the Holy Spirit. You must be. If you're putting total confidence earthly institutions, that's the sign of a worldling.
That's not the sign of a Christian. Before Christ a person's last resort is always God. That's always they go to in the last resort. Once a person is saved they should always bring their needs to God first before they go to secular world.
That's the correct order. You go to God first. God is omnipotent and he's a loving father to those who believe in him. Why should the believer continue drawing water from the broken cisterns of this world when the everlasting fountains of God is freely available to him?
The problem with modern Christianity is we trust too little in God. It's not that we trust in God too much. If we trusted him and more we would be in a much better condition. Jesus said in the Gospels the sons of this world were shrewder in their plans than the citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
Christian you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy people. Are you going to let a heathen Syrian outwork. You is pursuing sanctification not a priority in your life? You are sons of God.
We need to be seeking those things and daughters of God there are from above where God dwells. We do not face the ardors of a physical journey to reach God. We're not traveling for their country, but we must fight the enemies of sluggishness coldness and world new worldliness.
Proceeding on. I want to discuss next. How do we receive the Word of God? Verse 9. The main theme of verse 9 is listening to God's messengers. In this case I put pastors, but it can be any room when Naaman arrived at Elisha's house.
He was forced to wait for a word from the Prophet and I think there's. I think there's a lot to learn there. Elisha made him wait. This teaches us two important lessons from this verse number one. Prompt responses to our petitions are not guaranteed.
God doesn't guarantee. He's gonna respond to us immediately. Suffering as an leper Naaman had waited his entire life for healing. His entire life was one. Waiting day after day waking up thinking when will I be healed?
Imagine his consternation when he was made to wait outside instead of being let in and immediately healed put yourself a name and shoes. Every minute that he waited outside the house must have felt like an eternity to him.
He had traveled 150 miles on horses or camels to be healed as the commander of the army of Syria. He was not used to be put in the back burner. He was used to being obeyed. But God was like in this point, you're gonna wait on me.
God is not a respecter of persons. I think first. Samuel 16 7 says man looks at the outward appearance. The Lord looks at the hearts and Accepting God's timeline is a crucial part of living the Christian life.
It's a very very important part. Waiting for the Lord does several things for us. It builds patience. It reinforces the creature creator distinction. He is God we are not and it shines brightly in a sinful world that expects instant self-gratification.
When people see you waiting on God, you're gonna stand out as different because guess what? Our world doesn't wait for anything. They don't let people in they don't want to wait at a restaurant. It's now now now give it to me now.
During his ministry Jesus himself put it on the word from God. You see that frequently in the Gospels He waited to hear what God said and he did nothing without consulting the first person the Godhead.
It is enough for the servant to be like the master we must be like Jesus in this. This waiting is especially difficult for those of us that are suffering suffering. Physically emotionally and spiritually it's not easy to wait and I'm not trying to say it's an easy thing, but it's an important thing.
However, God knows our frame and will give us grace to endure through the periods that he is ordaining for us to wait on him. In our modern context, we no longer wait for words in the prophet. There are no more prophets.
Hebrews 1 is very clear. We have the finished Word of God. That's the final revelation. But we do have shepherds or elders that the Lord has appointed to lead the flock. What parallels can we draw from this story to apply to our lives today as members of the church?
Because that's the main point of the Bible. It's not just to read it and have knowledge. It's to read it and apply it to our lives. Elders the church they have some differences from the prophecy Old Testament.
Unlike prophets elders words are not infallible and they no longer can heal people or foretell the future. So don't expect pastor Harris to heal you and he's not gonna tell you he's gonna win the Super Bowl next year either.
These gifts have all ceased with the advent of the Apostolic Church. However in their capacity as leaders the church Pastors do deliver messages from God when they preach and teach the word when they deliver the Word of God to you.
They are delivering message from God. How many of you be excited to get a personal message from an Old Testament prophet if you had Elisha walk in and Say this is what the Lord is saying for you. We would all be very excited about that.
Would that excite you excite me for sure now consider if you receive the preach. Do you receive the preach word or the written word from God with the same eagerness or alacrity? Right when the word when the word is preached or when someone gives you a verse for your context.
Do you also get excited about it or is it just a commonplace thing? Creating a distinction between these two modes of revelation is artificial and earthly. It's the same thing when a prophet came to you in the Old Testament said you have a word from God.
And when I when if someone reads the Bible and says this is what the Lord says, it's the same thing. We shouldn't create a distinction and say well, that's a revelation and this is not The same God that spoke to the Old Testament prophets.
He speaks to us today when we read his word and we exposit to it. The Lord speaks to us. Some churches I think our C scroll does this they have their congregation stand when the Word of God is read. I do think that's a wise practice and we don't do that here.
But it does make I think it does make a critical distinction between when God speaks. We need to be at a posture of alertness and respect and not comfort. My words are one thing the Word of God is another and some churches do practice that.
Listen to what Apostle Peter says in chapter 1 of 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter 1 verse 19 says. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed. Which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
What is the sure word here the Bible. The Bible is the sure word that that Peter describes in this verse. Why would we need new prophecies? We have the fulfillment of all the Old Testament described right in front of us if given the choice while he was living.
I'm almost a hundred percent certain that Elisha would trade places with us to be able to see God's working to be able to see the to know the crucifixion look back on it. He would have given up all of his privileges all of his Abilities as a prophet to come here and look backward at salvation not forward to it.
Knowing the full story of redemption and being able to look back to the cross. That's way more valuable than any prophetic office being able to see God's redemption and see God's plan unfolded. What it what is the primary purpose of a pulpit ministry?
The primary purpose of a pulpit ministry is to get people of their sin and to prove to them. They need a righteousness that comes from outside of themselves. You cannot be saved on your own righteousness.
You must be saved by the righteousness of Christ. Let us examine how this truth is shown in the narrative. First 10 the main thrust of verse 10 is the necessity of cleansing that must come from an external source.
You can't have internal cleansing if you already made whole and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and You shall be clean.
Unlike many sinners today who think they're righteous name him was acutely or painfully aware that he had a disease. He wasn't thinking that he was whole. I Believe I we can draw a parallel between the way he was healed and the manner in which God justifies us as believers.
Cleansing must come from an external source. That is more powerful than we are. Right, we must be cleansed by something more powerful if you're expecting to be cleansed by your own works. You're expecting to be cleansed by a power.
That's not sufficient. You need a more powerful source. The river Jordan was the material cause or the agent in this scenario. But God was the efficient cause or power beyond the miraculous healing, right?
The Jordans not there's nothing mystical about the Jordan. It's just a river, but God used the Jordan to heal Naaman. When God justifies us that whole process is external to us. There's the God. God comes in changes our hearts.
It's not coming from within us. God comes in and changes us and then we love God. Our sin is the only element that we contribute to this process and then after we contribute our sin. We passively receive the gift of salvation that Christ imputes to us.
While that process is spiritual God does use physical means to make this reality a reality of our changed lives evident to us. What symbol do we have for that? We have baptism. Baptism is a powerful reminder that our sins are washed away.
By the blood of Christ. In his letter to the Colossian Church Paul writes the following he writes us in Colossians 2 12. We were buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God.
Who raised him from the dead? As I read through verse 10, I thought it was interesting. There are there are two clauses there are two parts of the sentence that seem to refer to Naaman's healing, right?
One says your flesh will be restored and the other says you will be clean. There's two. Why did God inspire the Prophet to use two phrases? Don't they mean the same thing? They seem to be very similar if you know someone who suffers with a chronic disease.
You know. There's difference between a short reprieve and a total eradication of the sickness. You can be at a reprieve from it, but then it can come back. Being cleansed for a couple months. That wasn't the object of Naaman's quest.
He didn't come there to get cleansed at the car wash run back to Syria and come back again. He didn't just want to win the first round of the battle against leprosy. He wanted his life to be forever free from the scourge of leprosy.
That's what he came. He came for the ultimate cleansing. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. It's a common saying I actually I think actually not common. I think it's the Proverbs if you somewhere in the Proverbs and Naaman could not have peace.
Until he was certain that the back of this illness had been broken. His peace was can was can his peace was dependent on. I want this leprosy gone I don't want to have to worry about it again. The Levitical law for leprosy included a seven-day moratorium before an ex-leper could reenter the camp.
I want to reread that passage together because I think it does have bearing on what we're going through today. So Leviticus 14.
Let's go to.
Verses 7 through 9. And Let's read about the window for a leper. For a leper that got cleansed to reenter the camp. God says in Leviticus set 14. He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from up a seat leprosy and shall pronounce him clean.
He shall let the live bird go free over an open field. The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and Shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward He may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside the tent for seven days.
So it will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off all his hair. He shall shave his head his beard his eyebrows and all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and body and bathe in water and be clean.
And of course this applies to women as well. It just says men here. The window where the leper had to remain outside the tent was to protect the other Israelites in case there was a recurrence of that dreaded.
Disease.
The passage from Leviticus now makes clear to us why Elisha said Naaman you must submerge yourself in the Jordan seven times and not once. Because Elisha was just doing Levitical law. He was basically quoting the law to him.
The Levitical law it was basically inspiration for this which Elisha dictated to Naaman Layman's leprosy posed no threat to the other Israelites because he wasn't gonna stick around. He's gonna head back.
So Elisha did adapt the process for his Gentile guests, right? He adapted it. He didn't say stay outside the camp seven day. He didn't say stay out to the camp shave shave seven days and come in. He just said go bathe seven times and you'll be clean because he was going back in the modification.
That's cleansing ritual though. We see the Holy Spirit pulling back the curtain on the full inclusion of the Gentiles in the covenant community of God. Because here you see Naaman who was an outsider.
He was a Gentile going through a Levitical right to be cleansed. That's foreshadowing the New Testament when all of us I don't think any of us have Jewish heritage in this room when all of us Gentiles were brought in and allowed to become part of the kingdom of God.
Baptism before God. Replaced washing and presenting ourselves to one priest. So if you look at the New Testament, we no longer we don't wash ourselves from leprosy. But we're baptized before God. Cleansing from sin is no longer a protracted process when we go to our Savior now.
Our Jesus offered himself once for all as the final oblation or offering for sin. What is necessary for the power of sin to be broken in the life of the Christian? Have you thought about that? What is necessary for that to happen?
First we must be justified of our sin before God. This process involves a great transfer of our sins for Christ's righteousness. There's a reason the reformer said imputed there because it's imputed. It's given to us legally transferred.
There's nothing we do. It's not infused in us. It's imputed to us. However, God does not stop there. He doesn't just make us save to leave us there through sanctification. He gradually replaces our Adamic nature with the holy nature and that process accumulates when we are glorified.
So when you're glorified you are completely. Your sin is completely removed from your life as a caterpillar sheds its earthbound body for a glorious set of wings. Our souls and bodies will finally be set free one day and they will finally display the unadulterated Beauty that was lost by our parents in the fall.
So one day when the Lord cleanses your soul and cleanses your body of sin and you are in heaven. Your body will have all the beauty was created with you won't be marred by sin anymore. True freedom is when we're able unable to sin against God that is true freedom.
True freedom is not the ability to choose sin. True freedom is the ability not to ever not even be able to choose sin. Because God cannot sin is God truly free. No one's more free than God. So why would you want the freedom to sin in heaven?
We won't have we won't have the freedom to sin and be a glorious state in Theological terms we call this being peccable when you can choose the ability to sin. You're peccable. That's not a good thing.
You want to be impeccable. Christ was perfect though. He could not sin. Impeccability is a great gift the Lord gives to his children when they depart this world and enter their internal residence. So when we enter heaven, we become impeccable.
We are no longer able to sin. We cannot sin anymore. I like how Thomas man man says this here. He says what was lost in Adam can only be recovered in Christ. We lost a great thing in Adam, but Christ gives us a greater thing back.
Moving on to 2nd Kings 5 11 through 12. The next thing we want to examine is the seekers pride. I think you can really see in this in this verse pride come out up to this point. Name it had behaved very admirably in his quest for healing.
He brought a letter to the king and he brought presents. We talked about this in the last sermon and he brought a letter to the king. Presents for the king and he also brought from. The text he brought presents for Elisha.
So his etiquette or manners was excellent.
However.
What are those gifts to our God who owns the universe does God you can attempt God with a gift? God has everything. God owns everything. There's nothing you can give him. It's as foolish as when Satan in the gospel said to Jesus bow down before me and you'll have the whole world.
GSRA owned the whole world. There's there's no you can give Christ. He has everything. The sacrifice that God required was the exact thing that name wasn't willing to give up namely his pride. He did not want to give up his pride.
Thomas Watson summarized sin in this manner. He said pride is the greatest sacrilege it robs God of his glory. I love Watson these statements like this are the reason why pride is is a terrible sin. God's God one name gave his pride up.
In verses 11 through 12 of Kings 2nd Kings 5 we see the seekers pride. Let's read these verses. But name it became furious and went away. He said indeed. I said to myself He will surely come out and stand and call the name of the Lord has got my his God.
Wave his hand over this place and cure the leprosy. Are not Abner and Parfar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean. So he turned and went away in a rage in a fury.
At the root of all pride people want to repudiate or push away the doctrine of original sin. They do not want to say that they're sinful people. Many people will admit they make mistakes if you talk to people in the street.
Do you make mistakes? Absolutely, everyone admits it most will say they've committed a few sins. Most people say yeah I've committed a few sins. But very few will own up to the true wretchedness of their soul if someone says I'm a hopeless sinner.
And I need a Savior, you know, you probably found a Christian because the young the cardinal man does not speak like that. Have you noticed this phenomenon in your life? I have if you ever go out and evangelize participate street evangelism you will discover that very very few people think they're great sinners almost none and Among the small minority that admit they are sinful the large majority of that minority thinks they can solve it themselves.
They think well, let's say you get 10 of people. Let's say I'm a sinner, but I can solve it myself. They don't think their problem is that bad. Both groups of people have a warped view of the Atonement.
Those that are truly saved are always always every single person's testimony. No matter your background should have a point where you say I saw my total depravity and I saw God's perfect Righteousness and I weighed them in the balance and I was lacking.
That must be present in your testimony. Let us ease drop on what the Apostle Paul says about this. He delivers a self-assessment of his spiritual state in Romans 7 15. He says for we know the law is spiritual.
But I am of the flesh. I am sold into bondage to sin. This is him talking. I'm under bondage to sin. We are not merely hampered by sin. We are not merely hindered by sin. Our lives are hamstrung by sin until Christ sets us free.
The word hamstrung comes from you back in the day when they captured horses, it's kind of gruesome. They would cut the back the back sinew on the horse's leg. So it can never run or carry have a load again.
That horse is worthless. You have to kill it then just they would sow salt in the earth. So that is how we are with our sin. We are hamstrung. We can't do anything. However, well the offer of salvation.
It's it's freely given right? It's a free. It's a free offering that God's given to us just because it's really given though. Don't let that confuse you that doesn't mean that we don't have to give anything up if you come to Christ.
You will have to give something up. Does anyone out there like chess? I used to play chess a lot growing up. I'm not good. I like to watch people that actually are good play, but If some of you may be familiar, there's a term called sub swing, right?
If you are in a sub swing on a chessboard That means you're going to have to give something up your opponent put you in a position. We're gonna lose your Queen or you're gonna lose your night and you've got to choose based on the scenario.
Based on you know, the part of the game you're in and grandmasters know which choice to make but you're gonna have to lose something. There's no like getting out of this thought losing something. Elisha had placed Naaman in a sub swing, right?
Was he going to give up his pride and be healed option number one or When he is sure forgo Elisha's advice preserve his ego and remain a leper. He had a choice. You can give up your pride and be healed.
You can keep your pride and stay a leper. Choose on the surface. Does it seem crazy for go being healed of a chronic disease? Because of the simplicity of the cure. I mean that seems ridiculous on the surface.
Why would you do that? All you do is bathe in Jordan River, but see while times have changed. Mankind has not name it is not that different from us today unwilling to accept the gift of salvation. People today will choose pride and control of their life every single time over heaven.
Unless the Holy Spirit intervenes to change their heart. It's a fact if you tell someone today, you've got to give up your pride. You've got to give up your sin to come to Christ. I'll keep my pride. I will keep my sin, but I still want Christ.
It doesn't work that way. You must give up your pride. You must give up your sin. The main theme of verse 11 you see impatience with God and his methods. I was I was I was reading through that I Thought I said this is really and this is has a lot of application for us today.
Because how often are we impatient with God and his methods? How often are people out there impatient with God and his methods? It's a common affliction of Adam's race. Pride has a variety of children.
Grumbling arrogance. Refusal to take correction. They're all offspring of this heinous sin in this passage. You see another of its progeny or children. Specifically impatience with God's methods. Naaman wanted immediate healing, right?
He said wave your hand over me. And where did he expect that healing to come from? He expected it come from a hand of Elisha. He said Elisha should wave his hand over me. So not only seems wants to be healed.
He wants to dictate the manner of healing to God. God disappointed him on both counts. Elijah. Elisha Prescribed the cure, but he did not affect the cure. He said go bake. I'm not gonna heal you directly.
Naaman must journey to the Jordan River and bathe seven times to be made whole. Why did God ordain this process? Why did he do it this way? Well, why does God do anything in the Bible? I think paragraph 1 from chapter 5 of our confession sums us up very nicely.
Paragraph 1 from chapter 5 says the following. It says God the good creator of all things in his infinite power and wisdom. Does uphold does direct? Dispose and Govern all the creatures and things from the greatest to the least by his most wise and holy providence.
To the end for which they were created. Unto his infallible for knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his will to the praise the glory of his wisdom power. Justice infinite goodness and mercy.
God did it for his own glory. God did it for us in the future. God did it to glorify himself more completely. The cure prescribed by Elisha. It was providentially ordained to being maximum praise to the glory of God and direct attention away from men.
That's why God ordained that Naaman is separate us by a lot of things different time different culture different language different religion. But guess what his heart was still a factory of idols as John Calvin said just as much as our hearts are today.
We may not be polytheist in name people that worship multi God, but we are often are in practice. Whenever we put our trust in created beings or God's gifts. Guess what? You're a polytheist. You're not worshiping one God.
We are practicing idolatry in our hearts if Elisha had healed Naaman directly. What would the temptation be for Naaman then? Worship Elisha. Put your trust in Elisha and not in God here what God says the words the prophet Isaiah.
He says I am the Lord that is my name my glory. I will not give to another nor my praise to carved images and that includes a godly man like Elisha. God will not give his glory to another no matter how good the man is in our eyes.
God's glory will not be usurped by men or idols as Isaiah says that our minds create to that end. God's atonement is very very different from that which is devised by carnal man. We'll see this in more detail in verse 12 of our texts.
Main point of verse 12 we see man devised atonement. What does they even say? He says are not Abner and Parfar the rivers of Damascus? Are they not better than all the waters of Israel. Could I not wash in them and be clean.
So he turned and he went away in a rage in a fit. Elijah lived in Samaria. He was a prophet to the northern kingdom. Jewish tradition states that his house was very close to the Jordan River. We don't know exactly but it wasn't far.
It was on a big country. Getting to the river is not difficult and bathing. The river is not difficult either. Why was Naaman upset then if it's an easy task. His primary issue was that he believed the waters of his native land were better than the rivers of Israel.
Right. He said my rivers are better than the water than the rivers of Israel. Now, let's put aside the question I'm not concerned with which river is superficially cleaner. We can go and take a. I mean I don't really.
I'm not really interested in looking at Parfar or Abner than compared to Jordan. Right, but it seems that name was overlooking the wretchedness of his disease. What's his leprous body really clean as the waters the Jordan the Jordan was dirty.
But how about his body was covered with leprosy? Shouldn't he be grateful that a way was open for his cleansing instead of quibbling about the method used to accomplish that. He should have been grateful for it.
The carnal man Rejects God's only method of justification. He rejects it. He says I do not want that. He militates he fights against the narrowness of the way and he devises his own method to atone for his misdeeds.
Do those lines describe you today? If so, please put away your wretched attempts and rest totally in the finished work of Christ. You cannot be saved without trusting his perfect righteousness. Not long after the fall.
We see the very first example of men centered atonement. It didn't take long Genesis, I think two and two. Three was the fall in Genesis four we got our first example now. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the grounds and in the process and This is 30 in verse 2 to verses 5.
It came the past that Cain brought an offering of fruit of the ground to Lord. Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat and the Lord respected Abel in his offering. But he did not respect Cain in his offering and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.
Implicit in these verses like it doesn't we're not told directly but it's very implicit. God had commanded Adam Eve and all their children to offer a blood sacrifice. They knew that Cain was not ignorant.
He wasn't bringing these back vegetables to God in ignorance, but in impudence. He did not like what God said. He said I don't care if you told me blood. I'm gonna bring my my vegetables. Whether these instructions were delivered by an angel whether delivered directly from God or a dream is unclear.
We don't know how he delivered them, but God had told them that what is clear though. Is Cain decided to fashion his own atonement for his sin? He said I want my own atonement for my sin. Cain could have taken his vegetables and he could have traded Abel.
He said guess what? I've got these gourds and these squashes and pineapples. I'll give them to you. Give me a lamb. I'll sacrifice to God, but he didn't do that. Cain wanted to offer a gift that he had helped grow.
This is my gift my atonement my way. I want to worship God this way. Naaman wanted to choose this exact location and method where he received a gift of healing both of these desires. Their acts of rebellion disguised as reverence.
This is not reverence to God. This is rebellion against God. It says I'm gonna be healed my way in my time when you fear God. Fearing God means you must trust him holy and you must relinquish your feeble attempts to dictate the method of timing for his action.
Spurgeon said that had made these remarks concerning sin. He said the greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit that makes men look to themselves for salvation. Salvation that's the greatest enemy looking inward not looking to Christ looking to the cross.
Arrogance and pride led Cain to present an offering that he had fashioned with his own hands. I'm he's. I know better than God. I'm gonna do it. This is a form of idolatry. God had specifically commanded a separate offering for sin.
Thomas Watson said this he said idolatry is worshiping God. Sorry worshiping a false God or worshiping the true God in a false manner. There's two ways you can break. There's two ways you can do that.
So today we do worship false gods. We worship power and money and success or we worship the true God and we use a mayor. That's not the Lord hasn't given us the scriptures to worship him. Both of those are idolatry and both of those must be shunned by us.
True obedience only occurs in one whose heart has been justified by God if you want true obedience. You must have Christ's righteousness. Otherwise, you won't do it fully in the final verse our text. We will see how Naaman's obedience was indicative of how his heart had been miraculously changed.
So coming down to 13 and 14, we're gonna see the seekers obedience. Why does Naaman ultimately choose to follow God's instruction and go to Washington Jordan River, like why did why does he do that? Some may say his servants convinced him.
That's one person. That's one option. Others may say his judgment became clearer when he became less angry. Both are good secondary causes. Either one sounds good to me. But the primary cause was the Holy Spirit.
Without the Holy Spirit on his heart Naaman would have never chosen to follow God's commands and be healed. He needed the Holy Spirit to follow God's Word. Right. Our will is like an unbroken horse when you have a wild horse from the plains of Colorado or Montana.
That horse is good for nothing until it's broken. The only thing I can do is destroy it. But when it's broken and trained to wear a saddle and wear a bit then you can ride it. It's useful. The Holy Spirit is the writer and the bit or God's commands and scriptures unless we are broken by the work of the Holy Spirit.
We will never Willingly yield our autonomy to God's divine will we just won't do it. We'll not do that without the Holy Spirit. God ordains the means As well as the ends and wise counsel should never be forsaken.
So breaking this down further verse 13 is Talks mainly about wise counsel and his servants came to him and said my father if the prophets had told you something great. Would you have not done it? How much more than when he says to you wash and be clean?
The Bible has much to say about the importance of wise counsel. Proverbs, especially. I know Keith loves the Proverbs. Probably got them all memorized. He's always got it one for every situation, but there's a lot in there.
I mean if you're going to go to a book about wise counsel head to Proverbs. The Bible and prayer are primary means of grace. Don't forsake the Bible and prayer. That's the main point to but we should not disdain the wise advice of those that God has placed in their lives.
If God's giving you godly friends or parents or people you can trust he's given to those there for a reason. Don't ignore them. Proverbs 11 14 says it better than I could it says when there is no counsel the people fail.
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety. In this case who were named as counselors. They were his social inferiors. They were ordinary servants. They weren't his equals. He didn't have any equals only the only the king of Syria was above him.
Our culture tends to look down on those who perform menial labor for others. If you're a servant or a janitor you do a menial task. What does our culture do. It looks down on those people, right? It says you're less you're not important.
These people are seen at the bottom of the social totem pole if you have a you know. If you ever see like an Indian totem pole false religion, but they put their most important God at the top. They're the least important God in the bottom.
So that's why when you say bottom of the totem pole least important God. However, the fact that Naaman listens to and ultimately he's the opinion of his servants. That was a sign the third person the tree had been at work.
The Holy Spirit was working on him. Naaman's age and experience. He was an older man probably and he had a lot of experience. It would it was be an insurmountable obstacle if only the Word of Elisha was involved.
But the Holy Spirit specializes in turning stony hearts into supple ones. The Holy Spirit does that's his work. He takes a stony heart makes it a heart of flesh. Naaman valued the opinion of his servants.
The centurion the gospel valued the life of his servant both. Actions are hallmarks of Christian character. God is not a respecter of persons and as Christians We should act the same way. You should not respect people if you're just feel based on their educational status or based on the color of their skin or based on Any other indicator that's outward and not on their heart.
You're not doing Christ did if you're always talking to the people that make you feel comfortable and you're always going up. You're making French people you like you're not being like Christ did. Christ sought out the people that were left alone the strangers the awkward the outcasts.
That's what being like Christ is like. It's not staying your comfort zone. If you're saying your comfort zone if Christ stayed in his comfort zone, he never would gone to the cross and we shouldn't either.
You know. And I was have you noticed that a person as a person gets more intelligent or they have wealth or authority or educational status. That often leads them to issue or avoid the vice of others.
The more of those things a person has the more likely artists disregard people's advice. This is one of the reasons I think God chooses to overlook people in the world to become citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
You must receive the gospel as a little child if you want to be saved. Not as the Syrian military commander of all the armies of Syria you must you must obey that you must heed the gospel as a child to be saved.
If Naaman had refused to listen to wise counsel or Let's say he went to see Elisha by himself. He might not have been healed without the Holy Spirit's work because he wouldn't. The Holy Spirit used those servants to change him.
God provides the power. But he uses ordinary Christians to lead others to Christ to encourage others or give godly counsel for our lives. We should not despise the day of small things or the people of low station if we hope to become a powerful force in the kingdom of God.
In Verse 14 we see baptism the new birth. We read it over real quick so he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan and according to the saying of the man of God and His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
Baptism is a symbol as closely linked to the new birth. That's one of the primary hallmarks that separates us from our Presbyterian brothers and sisters. We don't believe it's just a symbol. It's more than a symbol.
Baptism goes with a changed heart. You get baptized when your heart is changed not just when you're born a Baptism doesn't save you. The Church of Christ teaches you that you once your water baptized you're saved.
There's no efficacy in a baptism. But if you love Christ and you believe in your heart and you confess in your mouth. You're going to want to obey the commandment scriptures and want to be baptized to show you love Christ.
Submerging himself and when you do that when you are baptized. You're acknowledging to all the witnesses that Jesus is Lord and I will follow his commands and I will be baptized. Submerging himself in the Jordan River.
That was a clear sign to all onlookers that name and believed in the authority and power of God. When he went under that water, what was he saying? I believe God. I trust God. I'm gonna submit myself to it.
It's the same thing we do in baptism. I believe God. I trust God. I submit myself to him. Notice our text does not say the Jordan River made him clean. It doesn't say the Jordan River made him clean. It says and he was clean.
So we don't put our faith in the Jordan River. It's not a it's not a holy river. We're not like that the water. The water of this river has no more power than any other river in the world, you know. The Hindus over in India, they idolize the Ganges River.
They think you throw dead bodies in there takes them somewhere. They bat they bathe in it cleanse themselves. There's nothing miraculous about water of any country. It's just water. Right, they believe and I look this up.
They believe that river erases their sin and brings salvation. Right that doesn't that's not gonna happen. Notice our text says according to the Word of the man of God. That's why he was healed. God's Word alone Made the waters of the Jordan efficacious enough to save to cure Naaman.
How many Israelites with chronic diseases or illnesses similarly bathed in this river and were not healed? I can assure you that this event was an infrequent occurrence. Many Israelites probably bathed in that water.
Use the water and they weren't healed. But Naaman was in the Gospels the pool of Siloam is a great example of what happens when a man confuses. The means of healing with the God who heals water is not sacred.
There's nothing sacred about water. The Catholics have little holy water things in their church. It's stupid. There's nothing sacred about water. God heals and in the Old Testament. Sometimes he used water as a vehicle to heal people.
It can be a channel for healing. Did you notice the phrase for Naaman's healing? It said his skin became that as a little child. This serves to highlight the miraculous nature of this occurrence healing being clean and restoring your flesh.
Those are very very different things a person can be healed from leprosy and yet carry the scars of that disease on their body for the Main of their life. You can get a cut and be healed up and you have a scar.
You can have different things happen to your body and you're healed, but their scars remain. God not only removed leprosy for Naaman's body, but he removed any trace of the disease. He removed any trace of his existence.
He had like skin like a little child. God rewound that clock back to five years to Naaman's being five years old. Does that not sound like God does when he justifies a sinner? He cleanses us of all of our sin our past sin our present sin our future sin.
And then he removes that guilt of our sin from our lives forever. That's what God does. What a great God we serve. He doesn't just heal us. He takes away our guilt. He takes away our shame. He bore it all for us on the cross.
Guilt is the scar that lingers on and on you. You're trying to do an analogy guilt lingers on and on after the sin has Been after we've confessed the sin and Christ has forgiven it. But in Christ our guilt and shame has been crucified on the cross when Christ died.
Our guilt and shame is there too. So the next time you feel guilt or shame for a sin that you confess put it on Christ and tell the devil He bled for me. He took my guilt and my shame. I don't need to be ashamed anymore because Christ and his perfect righteousness have atoned for me.
We can stand before Christ on judgment day with a heart as clean. As the skin of a newborn child because of Christ's work on the cross we can stand before him perfectly clean. Unmarred and say because you were bruised.
I am healed because you were crushed. I am whole because you were forsaken and cast out. I'm accepted with God forever. It's noteworthy I think the Jordan River. This is the exact same river that Jesus be baptized 900 years later.
Unlike unlike namen. Jesus had no disease and he had no sin to forgive right undergoing baptism. Was his way of fulfilling all righteousness and he leaving us a pattern to follow when john told jesus I'm not going to baptize you.
He said permit this for this fulfills all righteousness. John, the baptist message of repentance and baptism was radical because the pharisee said baptism is only for gentiles. That's not for us. We're god's people and john said no all of you must be baptized.
As a 64 6 your righteous acts are filthy rags before christ you must be baptized. They thought we're sons of abraham. Why don't you baptize? Jesus makes it clear that baptism is a new covenant signal symbol that all true believers must receive.
If you reject baptism, you reject the will of god. God says be baptized. If you trust in christ, you should be baptized. Listen to god's work in luke 7. It says I say to you among those born of women There is no greater prophet than john, but he is least in the kingdom.
Is of god is greater than he? And when all the people heard him even the tax collectors justify god having been baptized. With the baptism of john, but the pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of god having not been baptized by him.
Now i'll make a quick point here. Our presbyterian brothers sisters will take this and try to push it out and say well the baptism of john is not the baptism of christ. But it is that the baptism of christ because you can see here Jesus brings it up and as a legitimate form of baptism, right?
There is that's the same baptism, but you see here the tax collectors were baptized into it. The pharisees refused it and they were justified. They said you're right. He is a prophet. I was baptized. When we look at naman, what do we see about naman?
We see naman came to israel doing his own Will he came to israel to do his own will he left israel? Following the will of god imperfectly, but he was still following the will of god his inward change.
The inward change in his life Was even greater than the outward change. He was healed of leprosy, but you see. And we'll get to this in the next sermon, but I believe he actually took some Dirt back from israel to make an altar to worship god.
He became a worshiper of god. That's what this period is trying to tell us. He submitted himself to god became a worshiper of god. What is god's will for your life? Well, that answer has not changed to the days of naman first.
You must seek god today is a day of salvation seek him today. Second you must give up your pride and submit your life to the authority of scripture. By obeying it like a certain syrian general. Non-believers and believers alike.
They must perform these tasks. I don't care if you're saved or not. Your call today is the same submit yourselves to christ. Seeking without sacrifice or sacrifice that obedience is not what god desires.
He doesn't desire either one of those. You want to see a model for this look no further than god's perfect son. Jesus christ. His whole life was defined by seeking the father's will and obeying his commands.
Once naman was saved the real battle began. Nathan named he beat leprosy for the lord's help and then he went back to syria and guess what? Real spiritual warfare started when he re-entered syria because he was fighting against the pagan.
All the pagan nation fighting against his flesh fighting against his family members didn't know christ. That's when his battle started. It's no different in our lives today. The lord has healed us and now we must push forward and be faithful servants on this earth.
We have much clearer waters in the jorda river to look through if we're talking about what's clearer. How about the crystal sea that flows out from god's throne? That's what we're looking forward to we will praise him forever on the shore of that crystal sea.
That emanates from the throne of our thrice. Holy god. Let us pray together. Dear dear lord. Thank you for this or the word you've given us today. I pray that you would help us to be like naman. He was a seeker.
He gave up his pride. He became a follower of you. That's the most important thing we can do to our life. I pray that the holy spirit would come in and not let obstacles. And remove any carnal obstacles to that that we would seek to love you seek to pursue you and seek to fight.
Naman was a he was a physical warrior and then when you saved him he started becoming a spiritual warrior battling his flesh every day. But he would help us to battle the flesh every day and that we would live this life to your glory and lord one day in paradise when you look back we'll say As david said the lines that follow me in pleasant places.
We'll say everything that god ordained was for my good everything god ordained was for my sanctification. Everything god ordained was the best plan that could be made. So you do all these things to your glory christ's name.
Amen.