The Gospel of Naaman: The Double Agent

Redeeming Grace Church

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Please journey with me back in time to the early 1970s in the Cold War, at the height of the

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Cold War. The FBI had a problem. Someone was giving up their confidential informants and operations to the

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KGB, which is of course the Soviet security service. Nothing destroys morale for an agency and the public's trust in it more than a mole or a double agent in the ranks.

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Years of work and thousands of dollars can evaporate in one instance through a string of photographs or coded messages sent to the enemy.

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Finding this double agent was priority number one for the Bureau. Since the mole was playing a dangerous game, he or she would take many different precautions to avoid getting exposed.

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The higher in the agency the mole was, the more difficult they would be to weed out. You can accuse a lower level agent with impunity, but you need solid evidence to prosecute a department head.

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In February 2001, this 40 -year mole hunt came to an end as the agency arrested

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Robert Philip Hansen in a suburban Virginia park. He had just finished placing a dead drop by taping a garbage bag full of classified materials to the underside of a wooden footbridge over a creek.

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Over the years, the Russians had given him $1 .4 million in cash and diamonds, as well as a

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Rolex watch in return for his information. He had no ideological disagreement with his country.

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He sold us out purely for greed. Money was his idol, and he did not care how many people were harmed, and he died in the pursuit of it.

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He spent the next 21 years in confinement at a supermax prison before he died of colon cancer in 2023.

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In today's sermon, I would like to talk to you about another double agent. This one comes from the pages of scriptures, or more specifically, the book of 2

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Kings. Like Robert Hansen, this man was also driven by cupidity, or greed.

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But unlike Robert, he sought to profit from God's free grace. Gehazi's sin was far greater because he sought to sell out the living

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God for earthly riches. Please turn to chapter 5 of 2 Kings, and we will read verses 20 -27 together.

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This will end up closing out our chapter of 2 Kings 5, starting in verse 20.

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But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, Look, my master has spared Naaman the

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Syrian while not receiving from his hands what he bought. But as the Lord lives,

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I will run after him and take something from him. So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said,

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Is all well? And he said, All is well. My master has sent me saying, Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim.

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Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments. So Naaman said, Please take two talents.

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And he urged him. And he bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of garments and he handed them to two of his servants.

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And they carried them on ahead of him. When he came to the citadel, he took them from their hand and stored them away in the house.

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Then he let the men go, and they departed. Now he went in and stood before his master.

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Elisha said to him, Where did you go, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant did not go anywhere. Then he said,

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Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?

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Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever. And he went out from his presence, leprous as snow.

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Please bow your heads and pray with me. Dear Lord, I pray that, Lord, as we, as I bring the word today,

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Lord, I pray that you would apply this to our lives. Help us not to be like the man that looks in the mirror and goes away and immediately forgets what he saw.

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Lord, I pray that you apply it to our lives together. Lord, help us not to get caught in the sinfulness and greed and the lust for the pleasure of this world.

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That you would just be with us today, Christ's name. All plots begin with a plan.

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The main idea of 2 Kings 5 .20 is lust conceived. Or if you want to follow the theme of the servant, which

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I chose a spy's theme, the plot. This plan may be as rudimentary as a thought in the mind or a few scribbles in the back of an envelope.

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Alternately, it can be as sophisticated as a military operation. Think of something like D -Day, complete with schematics, rehearsals, contingency plans.

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Secrecy is paramount to the success of any plot. You need secrecy. Without it, the most sophisticated plan is doomed to failure.

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Let's consider the case of George Washington. We just had the 4th of July here. He crossed the ice -dotted Delaware River in the dead of the night,

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Christmas Eve, to attack the Hessian garrison in Trenton, New Jersey. This plan was dangerous and it was difficult.

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However, its sheer audacity and its secrecy caught the British troops in the middle of their

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Christmas partying and resulted in a complete victory for the Continental Army. General Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese general, he lived around 500 years before the birth of Christ, but he's got a famous book called

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The Art of War, and that's mandatory reading for any general military officer. Writing about the importance of preparation before battle, he said this.

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He said, every battle is won or lost before it's fought. Preparation will determine the success or failure of your battle.

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Since spiritual warfare mimics physical warfare, it's easy to draw some spiritual parallels here.

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If you look at Ephesians, turn to Ephesians 5 .3 for me. I want to bring this to light real briefly.

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Ephesians 5 .3 says, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as fitting for saints.

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A lot of times we're tempted to put covetousness in its own category, as it's not a bad sin to covet. But you see here, the apostle

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Paul puts it with fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness. In a sense, covetousness is another type of lust.

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And that's where my first point is, lust conceived. It's just as bad as adultery, even if the world doesn't view it that way.

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If you start in verse 20, the first thing we see there of 2 Kings 5, we see Gehazi having a conversation with himself about the foolishness of Elisha's decision to reject

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Naaman's gift. These silent thoughts of Gehazi's mind are now shouted from the rooftops in the pages of Holy Scripture.

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In revealing his thoughts, what is the Holy Spirit trying to do here? He's trying to show us that the countless generations of future believers, we need to flee greed.

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We need to flee it. Our thoughts are as visible as our actions to God. Indeed, there is no distinction in God's sight between sins of the mind and the sinful actions.

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In the eyes of our thrice holy God, these are exactly the same. Job writes this in Job 4.

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He says, can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker?

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If he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is the dust, who are crushed before a moth.

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The idea there is that the angels themselves are not pure enough in God's sight. How much more can we be pure in God's sight?

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We can't without the covering of Christ. But our actions and our thoughts are visible, our thoughts rather are visible to God.

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Naaman was a general in the Syrian army and he became a foot soldier in the army galore. He went down and became like a recruit.

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After he was saved, what did Naaman choose? He said, I'm going to be identified with God and his chosen people over my pagan countrymen.

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He traded his earthly privileges for eternal rewards. And in doing so, he followed the example of many great saints in the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. But I especially like the example of Paul, the apostle. Naaman lived hundreds of years before Paul did.

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But let's read what Paul writes in his general epistle to the Philippians. He says, Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh,

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I more so. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews concerning the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal. I persecuted the church concerning the righteousness which is in the law.

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I was blameless. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

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Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, my

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Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain

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Christ. This was Naaman's attitude as well. Gehazi, on the other hand, Gehazi was a servant of God who traded his spiritual privileges for the golden dust of this earth.

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Outwardly, he was part of the visible church of God. He was indeed part of the church, but inwardly he served under the devil's banner.

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This false convert or turncoat was the devil's double agents. Like his spiritual ancestor

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Esau, Gehazi spurned God's covenant promises and blessings for temporal things.

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Esau wanted stew, Gehazi wanted gold and clothing. They're the same family. You can see the family resemblance right there.

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The lust of unconverted man can only be kept in check by external ordinances for a very, very short time.

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Eventually, the dam of reputation is blown open by a torrent of lust and the true colors of the carnal man will be exposed for all the world to see.

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If God does not bring them to repentance, then this same torrent of lust will eventually sweep them headfirst into hell.

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Hatching a plot has many similarities to committing a crime. When you commit a crime, what must you have?

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If you've ever seen any TV serials, you must have means, motive and opportunity. If you don't have those three, you're not going to win a conviction.

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In the court of law, the job of the prosecuting attorney is to look out at the jury and convince the jury that all three things are present.

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Let's use this framework and let's review the character of Gehazi. As Elisha's servant, he had a platform unlike any other servant in Israel.

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He was especially privileged. The king of Israel could dispense money or power, but only

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Elisha could heal leprosy and raise the dead. Serving God through ministry was

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Elisha's purpose in life. We see that. That was the most important thing to him. But for Gehazi, it was just another career path.

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He must have grown frustrated as he saw Elisha demonstrate the power of God again and again and again, and each time there was no financial benefit to them.

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Servants of the kings, they lived in palaces. But Elisha and Gehazi, they were dependent on the munificence or the generosity of random people for their basic needs.

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Think about the Shunammite woman. We go one chapter back to 2 Kings 4. That chapter is proof that he had to become rich in God's service because she provided him with an apartment.

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He didn't have a place to stay, or he didn't have money to buy a place to stay. Years of self -denial with no apparent earthly reward, they had disillusioned

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Gehazi. Therefore, he took matters into his own hands to ensure his financial security.

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I will provide for myself. Like the unjust steward, he sought to turn his master's authority into a source of income for himself.

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Moving on from that, let's look at his motive in verse 20. What does it say in verse 20? It says

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Gehazi says that Elisha had spared Naaman by not accepting his gift. The word spared is used by most

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English translations, except if you're using the CSB or HCSB. Those are the two that didn't use it.

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These versions translate the corresponding Hebrew word with the following phrase, and I like this even better.

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It says, let Naaman off lightly. You see Gehazi's motive here. Naaman owed them something.

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These words express disdain for Naaman as an unworthy recipient of grace. He didn't think he deserved it.

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Could the sins of religious pride or racism have played a role in this statement? We don't know. But we do know this, both religious pride and racism are diametrically opposed to the character of God we serve.

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The apostle John writes this in his first epistle. He says, he who does not love God does not know

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God, for God is love. 1 John 4 .8. Ultimately, we will never know

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Gehazi's motive this side of eternity. However, we do find another example of Gehazi treating a person with callousness.

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Please turn backwards a chapter in the Bible, and we're going to read the story of the Shunammite woman in 1 Kings 4 .27.

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So please turn there. The Shunammite woman, her son just died, and she comes running up to Elijah.

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And we start in verse 27. Now, when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came near to push her away.

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So he's pushing her away from Elisha. But the man of God, Elisha said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the

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Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. The Shunammite woman was in very great distress. Clearly, her son had just died.

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Therefore, she ran to Elisha and flung herself at his feet. I think you see something similar with Martha in the gospels when it comes to Jesus.

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Instead of sympathy, though, Gehazi sought to remove her hands from the foot of his master, like, get off my master.

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It seems that he thought she was unworthy of touching Elisha. Her great love for these men had already been displayed.

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She had provided an apartment in her house. But Gehazi's disregard for someone who had already shown great love for them, showed that his soul harbored either pride or prejudice.

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We don't know which, but one of those was there. God will not use a callous person to advance his kingdom.

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He cannot use you. Richard Sibbes writes the following on this topic. He said, where God intends to do any good, he first works in that person a gracious disposition or a kind manner, as we would say today, after which he looks on his work as a lovely object, and so he does give them other blessings as well.

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God crowns grace with more grace. So, God, you must be tender and kind and gentle for God to use you.

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Or God can change you to that type of person, but he will not use a callous person. In the case of Naaman, God did the miracle, but Gehazi believed that he and Elisha deserved the reward.

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Co -opting God's work and disobeying Elisha's command showed that Gehazi was also guilty of spiritual rebellion as well.

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To keep this from becoming an academic exercise, we must apply this to our own lives as well.

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We're not here to learn information. We're here to apply this. How often do have we sought to steal

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God's glory when he answers our prayers? Do we rebel against our spiritual leaders when we do not agree with their spiritual decisions?

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Lord, spare us. We must not have the spirit of Gehazi. We've all been guilty of this and say, Lord, purge the spirit of Gehazi from within me.

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As I read these verses, I could not help but see the spirit of the prodigal son, older brother, and Gehazi. Both men were resentful when a sinner was redeemed and both men felt cheated by the free grace of God.

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They both confused outward conformity for hard obedience. And like mercenaries, both the older brother and Gehazi, they served for a price.

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Subsequently, they both developed bitterness toward those who they saw as less enlightened than them.

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And when their true nature was exposed by their father, in the case of the older brother, and by their master, in the case of Gehazi, respectively.

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The opportunity to sin presented itself shortly after Naaman had departed. Gehazi surreptitiously stole away from Elijah like a thief in the night and pursued

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Naaman. Cloaking his sin with a religious veneer, Gehazi said, as the Lord lives,

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I will run after him and take something from him. If we turn back several chapters in 2

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Kings chapter 2, there we can see Elisha making a very similar oath. 2

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Kings 2 .24 says this, and it came to pass when the Lord was about to take Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

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Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel. But Elisha said, as the

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Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Serving Elisha every day, as Gehazi did, he would invariably start talking like his master.

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However, the way he applied this vow in this verse is entirely foreign to the

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Old Testament prophet, the way Elisha would have done it. This strange juxtaposition or putting together of cowardness and brashness is frequently found in the lives of hypocrites.

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Two sins were committed in this statement, there were two. First, Gehazi concealed his sin under the guise of holiness.

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And second, he took the Lord's name in vain. One of the devil's favorite remedies for a guilty conscience, he tempts people to rationalize their sin with spiritual trappings.

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Use, put God's name on it, claim it in God's name, add some of God's name to your sin, that's what he does.

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The decay of a dying Christmas tree can be artfully concealed. If you take artificial green garlands and wrap around the

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Christmas tree, it may look alive, but it's dead still, even though it's brown inside. This is what the hypocrites do.

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We see very similar behavior, if you think about the harlot in Proverbs 7. Let's think about, let's read about what she does.

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Proverbs 7, starting at verse 12. At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking at every corner.

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There's cowardness, she's not gonna come out in the open, she's lurking at the corner. She caught him and kissed him, and there's the brashness of it.

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And with an impudent face she said, I have had peace offerings, today I have paid my vows.

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So you see she cloaks it with religious trappings. She basically is using

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God's ordinances to cloak her breaking of the commandment about adultery. So and then of course that verse finishes up.

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So I came out to meet you and diligently seek your face and I have found you. The harlot used temple offerings to justify her fornication.

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Gehazi used God's name to justify his greed. All such practices are abhorrent to the sight of God.

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A .W. Pink writes the following about these acts. I came across this quote a week back and I love it.

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He said, what are the rights of worship if God is not in them? What indeed but empty shells and dry husks.

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That's all they are without God. An empty shell on the beach, a dry husk of corn, there's nothing in there. God deserves the best that our bodies, our hearts, and our minds can offer.

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Offering him anything else is offensive and even blasphemous for us to do that. Blasphemy or taking

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God's name in vain is prohibited by the third commandment. Now that encompasses far more than simply using

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God's name as a curse word. The Westminster Shorter Catechism replies with this answer to question 113.

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And question 113, it says, what sins are forbidden by the third commandment? Here's the answer.

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The sins forbidden in the third commandment are the not using of God's name as is required, the abuse of it, and ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, his attributes, his ordinances, his works, blasphemy, perjury, all sinful cursings, oaths, vows, lots, violating our oaths and vows, if lawful and fulfilling them, if unlawful, making profession of religion in hypocrisy or for sinister ends, being ashamed of it or ashamed to it, being unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, offensive walking, or backsliding from it.

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You can see how the people that put the Westminster together, there's a lot of sins encompassed in the third commandment.

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It's not just using his name as a curse word. Lots of them are encompassed there. Sinful vows are also a violation of the third commandment.

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We heard that, but I want to, let's drill down a little more on that. Qahazi did not just take the opportunity to act out on his greed.

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He also sealed his determination with a sinful oath. He says, as the Lord lives.

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Using the phrase this way in a careless manner is spiritual harlotry. Hosea condemns this exact same sin in chapter four and verse 15 of his book.

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Let's read it together. Though you, the Israel, play the harlot, let not

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Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal. Do not go up to Bethhaven, nor swear an oath saying, as the

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Lord lives. So you see, it's the exact same thing Qahazi did. Calling God as a legal witness for your sin is a special form of devilry.

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Murdering a man in his house is terrible, right? And we can all agree with that. But murdering a man in his house and then framing his family for it are far worse.

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Earthly law, it shows no mercy on such occasions. You will not, if you kill someone and then frame it for it, you will have a sentence unlike any other sentence.

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How much worse is the penalty for those that break God's law while using God's name as a bond for the performance of their sinful deeds?

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I promise you that people that do this, if their trust is not in Christ, they will be beaten with many stripes in the lake of fire.

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Steal yourself to battle even the smallest appearance of this horrid sin. Please return with me to verse 21, and we'll continue the exposition from there.

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In verse 21, we see from verse 21 to 24, we see lust fulfilled or alternately deception, right?

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So the plot was conceived, now we see deception. As Qahazi, the double agent, started his sinful work.

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Our text says Qahazi pursued Nathan by running after him. This could have been by necessity since Naaman was riding in a chariot and Qahazi was on foot.

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Alternately, his haste might have been a calculated deception to convince Naaman of the urgency of his requests.

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If you're running real quickly, it's really urgent. Either way, Qahazi was thoroughly dedicated to his mission of obtaining worldly wealth.

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He left nothing to chance and was willing to risk physical exhaustion to pursue his goal.

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Sadly, the effort that Qahazi put forth for a physical reward, how often can we say that exceeds the effort that we put forth for our eternal rewards?

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This is an admonition of us to all of us who claim the name of Christ. Christ is the pearl of great price.

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He's the fairest among 10 ,000. He's our creator. He's our perpetual mediator. How great is the dishonor that we bring on his name through spiritual sloth?

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Thomas Watson pleads with his readers through these words. He says, some think free grace will save them, but it must be in the use of the means.

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Watch and pray. Others say the promises will bring them to heaven. But promises of the word are not to be separated from the precepts.

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The promises tell us of a crown, the precepts of faith. So run, as the apostle

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Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 .24. The promises are made to encourage faith, not to cherish sloth.

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Our salvation costs Christ blood. Our salvation will cost us sweats.

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The boat may as well get to shore without rowing as we can get to heaven without offering violence.

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A convincing cover story is very important to spies. A cover story is your background, what you're doing, ways to deceive.

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Create the right story and you might be able to convince the enemy soldier at the checkpoint to let you pass by in harms.

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The wrong story can lead to disastrous consequences. You can fail your mission, you can be arrested, executed.

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That's usually what happens to spies. We put them to death. Most spies have spent hours pouring over architectural features and customs of a certain town to prevent their exposure.

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If they say they're from a certain town, they want to be able to back that up if someone questions it. People do quiz you on the knowledge.

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If you say you're from a certain area, they're going to want to know. What is it like? Gehazi had the perfect cover story to explain why his master had a change of heart.

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What was his cover story? Unexpected guests had arrived at Elisha's house and he desired to send them on their way with money and a change of clothes.

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Gehazi perfected the details of his lie. He gave the number of visitors to their occupation, their sons of the prophets, and their dwelling place, the mountains of Ephraim.

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The number of visitors in Gehazi's lies, it is significant, although it doesn't seem that way at first glance.

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A visit from a single person would not really qualify as a serious emergency. And in that culture, it was fairly improbable that a large group of three to five, seven people would just show up without letting you know.

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They were very much about giving advance notice. Hospitality and courtesy were very important to the ancient

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Middle Eastern culture. Perhaps Gehazi was thinking of the Old Testament standard for obtaining a legal conviction.

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The New Testament is fastened to the Old Testament like a house is built on its foundation. So you put a foundation on, you build a house, you may not see all elements of the foundation, but it's there holding it up.

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The Old Testament functions the same way. The Old Testament is the foundation and the New Testament is the glorious revelation of that.

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The Old Testament contains God's moral principles and shadows of messianic redemption. But the New Testament, we can see the person and work of Christ in its full glory.

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You can see the parts like the house that you like, the windows, the ceiling, the beautiful front porch. Chapter 19 of Deuteronomy says, one night witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or sin that he commits.

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By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established. And that's a legal standard across all time and eternity.

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In the New Testament, we see this standard reemerge in both evangelism and polity, which we call church government, right?

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When Jesus sent out 70 disciples in the gospel, he sent them out in pairs. There's two reasons he sent them out in pairs.

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Number one was for their protection. That's probably the more obvious reason. But number two, to show the official nature of their visit.

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One person might come on pleasure, a group of two meant business. It was more like a delegation then. Additionally, in 1

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Timothy 5 .19, the church is instructed not to accept a charge against an elder with at least what?

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Two to three witnesses. What does this do? This benchmark protects the elder from a frivolous charge from a single disgruntled member, and it shows the gravity of the process.

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When you bring a charge against an elder, that's a serious thing. That's not to mean you never do, but you should be aware it's a very serious thing.

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Multiple members must concur that an elder has the same disqualifying sin to simply begin the disciplinary process.

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We're not even disciplining, we're just bringing a charge at this point. We can't be certain that Gehazi had this standard in mind when he invented this lie, but the devil loves to pervert

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God's standards. What does he do with them? He twists them to fulfill his own wicked ends. When tempting

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Jesus in the wilderness, Satan twisted the words of Psalm 91. These promises, they're for the righteous.

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They're going through fiery trials. Yet Satan said, wanted Jesus to perform a party trick.

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Presume upon the mercy of God. That's what Satan said. Satan always has a mutation for God's perfect revelation.

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He always does. The term sons of the prophets, it's a term that's found almost exclusively in the books of 1st, 2nd

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Kings. And there it's primarily, or almost exclusively, in connection with the ministries of both

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Elijah and Elisha. These were not physical sons, but apprentices to the prophets or spiritual sons.

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Priests and kings have a hereditary right to their position, but prophets are selected by God.

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It is noteworthy that God chose prophets from many different tribes and families, rather than passing the prophetic office from father to son.

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He didn't choose that. Elisha was Elijah's spiritual son. Samuel was Eli's spiritual son.

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We see that pattern. Perhaps Elisha had hoped that Gehazi would take up the prophetic mantle after Elisha died.

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We never know, we don't know, but he might have hoped that. Unfortunately, if this was his hope, it was utterly dashed when

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Gehazi's true character was revealed. God has no grandchildren.

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Heed this warning from scripture. My mom used to tell me this all the time growing up. Having a godly mother or a father or a best friend, a mentor or a pastor is no guarantee of your own salvation.

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You can serve in Christian ministry your entire life and still enter eternity without God. Your earthly boss will be satisfied with the mere labor of your hands.

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God desires your hearts. Stephen Sharnock wrote the following. He said, without Christ, we are only as lamps without oil.

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We are altars without fire, branches without sap, souls without grace. Don't be a branch without sap, and don't be a soul without grace.

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Finally, the mountains of Ephraim, they're not a random geographic location. They had spiritual significance.

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How many of you are familiar with the term Shiloh? Before Solomon's temple was built, the place where the

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Ark of the Covenant rested in the mountains of Ephraim was called Shiloh. This was the religious political hub of Israel during the era of the judges.

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So before David established Jerusalem as the capital city, Shiloh was where he'd go to meet the Lord. Where did

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Hannah pray to the Lord for her son? At Shiloh. Where did she dedicate Samuel to the Lord? At Shiloh.

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Jericho, Bethel, Gilgal, and Ephraim, those were known as being home bases for the prophets.

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Perhaps Gehazi had traveled to each of these locations with Elisha to meet other prophets. It's certainly possible.

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However, instead of using this knowledge to help others or to help the newly converted Syrian, Gehazi chose to use it for evil.

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Storing up spiritual knowledge without a changed heart always leads to religious wickedness.

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In the parable of the talents, the unfaithful servant committed two sins. He refused to use the talents to gain more money for his master, and he returned the money in worse shape than he had received it.

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The once clean talent had been buried, and thus was contaminated by the soil.

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Gehazi committed a positive sin of not using his knowledge to edify others, and a negative sin of using it to deceive and aim it.

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Woe to those, if you trade the light of the gospel for the goods of this world, you're gonna have a curse from God.

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That's a very dangerous sin to fall into. The text never states if Gehazi was a regular servant or a prophet in training.

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We don't know. I cannot go beyond what God's word says here. However, we do get a small clue that maybe his duties were more than secular.

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If we go back to the story of the Shunammite woman, we're gonna see that. After the woman's son died,

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Elisha sent his servant ahead to lay his staff on the child. In this instance, I believe he was participating in ministry, as Elisha was seeking to perform a miracle.

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Please read 2 Kings 4, 29 to 31 with me. Elisha, or he, said to Gehazi, tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go.

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If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child.

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Then the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So he arose and followed her.

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Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child. But there was no sound or sign of life.

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Therefore, he returned to meet him, or Elisha, and told Elisha, the child is not awakened. In the

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Old and New Testaments, God performed miracles in a variety of ways. Sometimes he would allow his prophets to use various people or means to accomplish a wonder.

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Elisha used Elisha's cloak to part the Jordan River. There's a common one there. He used a stick to make an ax head float, and he used the

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Jordan River to heal Naaman. The commonplace and changing nature of these items were to show everyone that these objects are not intrinsically powerful.

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God alone possesses essential and eternal power, no one else does. Why did

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God not allow Elisha's staff carried by Gehazi to heal the woman's son? I believe it's because this route would not bring maximum glory to God's holy name.

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Gehazi had a defective character. Perhaps Elisha took it for granted the Lord would heal the child in the first try.

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God ordains ends and then works through imperfect means to accomplish them. Let's read the next three verses of Second Kings four.

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When Elisha came to the house, there was a child lying dead on his bed. And he went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the

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Lord. And he went up and lay his hand on the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands.

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He stretched himself on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again he went and stretched himself out on him.

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The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. God waited until Elisha prayed to him to raise the lad from the dead.

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Is this not consistent with God's perfect character? We have not because we ask not, in Elisha's case, or we have not because we ask amiss to spend our lusts as we see in Gehazi.

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James, our Lord's brother, wrote this. He said the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

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Gehazi wasn't righteous, and Elisha had not yet prayed fervently for the Shunammite's woman's son.

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This is the reason the Lord delayed his miracle. He wanted a prayer from a righteous man, effective and fervent prayer, and he got that from Elisha.

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Being a double agent, that's a very dangerous job. Generally, those that choose this profession are compensated very handsomely.

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Gehazi asked an amen for two talents of silver and two changes of clothes when he caught up with him. The word talent in Jewish culture could refer to either a unit of currency, or a weight of volume.

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In this case, we look at context, we see currencies in view here. One talent in the Middle East was equivalent to 6 ,000 denarii, or 20 years of labor for an average worker.

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Gehazi asked for two talents of silver, which was equivalent to a common laborer's lifetime wages, 40 plus years of earnings.

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This was a princely sum that far exceeded the temporary needs of a few visitors. Gehazi didn't want a doctor's fee.

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Gehazi asked Naaman for the equivalent of a fully loaded 401k. In our culture, it's like I want too many dollars in a 401k for my visitors.

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Naaman was not, he was ignorant of the Jewish religion. He didn't know much. We saw that in the previous sermon. But Naaman was not stupid, right?

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No visitor would expect, or if they did expect, ever receive 40 years of wages from a host.

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Naaman knew that this money was meant for Elisha or Gehazi, either individually or as a group. However, Naaman was so grateful for God's miracle that he did fulfill

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Gehazi's request. He even sent two servants to help Gehazi carry the money back, since the weight would have probably been too much for a single man.

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Clothes were expensive, and fine clothes were even more valuable, as this was before the era of mass production.

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They can't produce clothes quickly. That's why two sets of clothes were paired up with such a large sum of money.

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Now that Gehazi had the money, he needed somewhere to store it that was free from observation. He didn't want to be found out.

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Dead drop. That sounds very ominous. But this concept is a very important part of being a spy or espionage.

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Typically, a dead drop is a hidden cache of weapons or money or messages that is hidden in an easily accessible way away from a spy's house.

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This prevents the items from being discovered if their house is searched, and allows them to come back and access the items, even if they're on the run.

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You can't come back to your house if you're on the run, but you can go back to your dead drop. Gehazi stored his loot in such a place.

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Various Bible versions give us different renderings here. The KJV says tower. The New King James Version, which is my preferred, says citadel.

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But most of the translations use the word hill. Gehazi took these precautions to ensure that his disobedience and lie was not discovered.

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Here's what Matthew Henry says about verse 24. He says the tower was a safe and private place where he,

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Gehazi, had chosen for the purpose, and where he had probably hid and kept other things, which he had got by fraud and artifices.

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So he probably had other stuff, loot there as well. After storing his loot, Gehazi sent name and servants away, confident that his actions had escaped notice.

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However, this double agent could not hide his sin from the Almighty. God knows all things, and God is present everywhere.

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Picking up in verse 25, we'll see how Gehazi's cover gets blown. The Holy Spirit, in verses 25 to 27, we see the

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Holy Spirit reveals the consequences of Gehazi's lust. I'll read it real quickly.

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Now he went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, where did you go, Gehazi? And he said, your servant did not go anywhere.

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Then he said to him, did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?

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Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever. And he went out from his present, leprous, as white as snow.

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My final point is lust revealed. Gehazi's plot leads to deception, and deception leads to punishment.

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In verse 26, we see Gehazi going in and standing before Elisha. This is more than just an idle visit.

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His duties as a servant require him to periodically check in with his master. When you're a servant, you check in with your master.

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In the first chapter of Job, we see the devil must come before God regularly and give an account of his activities.

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God knows what the devil does, but he still makes him come to show you're the servant and I'm the master. And like Elisha disciplined his servant, the devil's on the authority of God, and the devil will ultimately be punished for his actions.

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He's not getting away. Undoubtedly, Gehazi's little excursion to run down Naaman and then store his lucre, or unjust gain, took a significant amount of time.

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Speed is important for spies. The longer a mission takes, the more there's a risk of being discovered.

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Because the risk of becoming an enemy becomes greater, rather. If he did not get back quickly, then Elisha would get suspicious and start asking questions.

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Unfortunately for Gehazi, Elisha's first words were a question concerning his unexplained absence. Where did you go,

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Gehazi? Elisha asked. This phrase must have sent a warning tingle up Gehazi's spine. Elisha's question to Gehazi was a rhetorical question.

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He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from the lips of his servant. Jesus did the same thing in his evangelism in the

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Gospels. He used pointed questions to expose people's hearts in their thoughts and through their words.

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Why are spiritual questions so threatening to an unbeliever? For the answer to that, let's read Proverbs 28 .1.

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It says the wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous is as bold as a lion. You can run from many things, but guess what you can't ultimately outrun?

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You cannot outrun God and you cannot outrun a guilty conscience. This question that Elisha posed was intended to stir up the soiled waters of Gehazi's heart so that Elisha could show

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Gehazi the true state of his soul. When Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, God asked them a very similar question in the garden.

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He said, where are you? Guilt follows sin as surely as day follows night. The world uses psychology to lessen your shame.

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God wishes to address your guilt through confession of sin and restoration of the relationship. In his response,

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Gehazi took refuge in what? A lie. Matthew Henry notes that this lie was not to man, but against the

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Holy Spirit in the matter of Ananias and Sapphira. Lies are like dominoes, telling one lie always cascades down into many more.

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Gehazi's lie to Naaman made his lie to Elisha much easier. Haven't you noticed this in your own life?

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I've noticed it in mine. Plead with the Lord to give you truthful lips and erect a high barrier against that initial lie.

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When temptation comes, you'll be very glad those spiritual safeguards are in place. Without these safeguards, what do we see of Gehazi?

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He quickly slipped from lying to a foreigner, to lying to God's prophet, to lying to the

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Holy Spirit himself. Naaman's superstition, it came from the zealous ignorance of a new believer.

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Gehazi's lies were crafted cunningly in the heart of a false convert.

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My dad used to say religious wickedness is the worst kind of wickedness, and I agree with him on that.

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Your heart and actions must proceed from the same godly fiber for them to be acceptable in God's sight.

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God wants your heart and your actions aligned. Without this change, you know what you were like? Unbelievers are like Pinocchio.

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You have the body of a real boy with a wooden heart. You don't have a real heart. Elisha's reply to this is very noteworthy for several reasons.

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He says, did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Note that Elisha says his heart, not his mind.

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Gehazi had broken his trust. Gehazi had wounded his soul. No sin grieves a minister of God or a prophet of God or apostle of God more than when a close confidant or pupil apostatizes.

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Elisha's response bears striking similarities to the messianic lament recorded in Psalm 41.

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What does Psalm 41 say? Psalm 41 verse 9, to be more specific. Even my own familiar friend in whom

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I trusted, who ate my bread, he has lifted up his heel against me. Elisha's reply seems to indicate that he had more than just a surface knowledge of his servant's misdeeds.

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The phrasing kind of seems to indicate that maybe Elisha had a God's eye view of his activities. Before Gehazi can even reply, what does

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Elisha do? He follows the first question with the second question. He says, is it time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?

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The first question exposed Gehazi's lie. The second laid bare his heart.

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It's no coincidence that these words of Elisha parallel the Tenth Commandment. What does the

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Tenth Commandment say in Exodus 20 verse 17? It says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house.

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You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that's your neighbor's.

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Pride is rebellion against a God's authority. Greed revolts against God's wisdom.

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Covetousness is a singular sin, or it's a very interesting sin. It's the only sin whose list of varied expressions is recorded in the

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Decalogue or in the Ten Commandments. Like Legion, the demon of the New Testament, this sin speaks with one voice, but its expressions differ like the personalities of a thousand demons.

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There's one sin of covetousness, but everyone's life has a different expression of it. Covetousness affects all ranks of people, from the lowliest janitor to the president or foreign heads of state.

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Additionally, greed is a hallmark of false teachers. Like Balaam of Beor, these so -called teachers, they peddle the word of God for profits.

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Flee from this sin, lest you perish along with them. If you pursue greed, you'll perish in the destruction that was appointed for false teachers.

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Though the world may view greed as simply a weakness, the steps of this sin, they descend to the very gates of hell itself.

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Judas betrayed Christ for what? The price of a slave. And the slaves of this world, they spurned freedom for which our

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Savior paid an immeasurable price. Augustine made this following observation.

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He said, earthly riches are full of poverty. Having uncovered

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Gehazi's sin, Elisha now passed sentence on his servant. He said, the leprosy of Naaman would cling to you and your descendants forever.

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Gehazi willfully ignored the disgrace that his actions would bring in the name of God and Elisha. He just totally threw that off the side.

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The severity of this sentence shows the wickedness of greed and the high price that God places on the souls of new converts.

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Gehazi's greed gave Naaman an occasion to stumble in his newfound faith. In Matthew 18, what do we see

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Jesus says? He pronounces a terrible curse on those that cause new believers to stumble. Let's read it together.

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Matthew 18, verse 6. If anyone causes one of these little ones to believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone wrapped around their neck and cast and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

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That's how bad making a new believer stumble is. The story of Gehazi's sin and his punishment would have spread throughout

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Israel and eventually made its way to Syria as well. Gehazi was Elisha's servant. That would quickly become common news. Thus, all the

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Israelites and the fledgling Syrian church, because when Naaman went back, there was a church, and I'm sure there were more after that,

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Church of One, would be warned the Lord will punish sin. Jewish tradition states that Gehazi and his three sons were the lepers who lived outside the gates when

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Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem. Now, we don't know if that's true or not, but, you know, the tradition is instructed.

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It's not inspired, but we can't learn from it. Naaman's gospel started with a miracle of physical healing from leprosy, and that eventually led to his spiritual healing.

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The second miracle was of a far greater order as he put his faith in the one true God. Despite his complete ignorance of true religion, he knew nothing about it,

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God wrought a change in his heart that made him whole. On the flip side, Gehazi started out with many spiritual advantage.

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He had the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. He had a godly master, Elisha, who knew and lived out the truth.

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No doubt, he had sat under countless hours of teaching. He had godly friends among the sons of the prophets.

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He probably saw dozens of miracles. None of these advantages profited him because his heart was wedded to the world.

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His heart was married to the world. He didn't want to forsake the world. He wanted this world. He didn't want Jesus. Gehazi was the recipient of two miracles as well.

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In the first miracle, God revealed the wickedness of Gehazi's heart to Elisha. This was a spiritual curse.

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Subsequently, Elisha pronounced a physical curse and he transferred Naaman's leprosy to Gehazi and his descendants.

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The same gospel that blessed a heathen Syrian cursed the life of an outwardly upright

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Jew. Paul sums up this double -edged sword of the gospel, as the Puritans called it, in 2

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Corinthians 2, 15 through 16. In those verses, he says this, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

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To one, in Gehazi's case, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And to the other, we are the aroma of life leading to life.

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And who is sufficient for these things? I believe John Bunyan may have had this verse in mind when he coined the phrase below.

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He said, whether to heaven or hell you bend, God will have his glory in the end. God will be glorified in your life no matter what you do.

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However, these stern warnings are not meant to discourage the true believer, but to warn the false professor.

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God's hold on you will never slip. If you are a true believer, even if you release your grasp on God, he will never release you.

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What is his answer to Paul's question about who is sufficient to these things? You notice how Paul ended that verse, who is sufficient for these things?

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Answer that question for me. Who is the only person sufficient for these things? Only Christ. Christ alone is sufficient for every minute of our life.

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From the second we enter this world into our inevitable departure, having been justified through Christ.

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However, we must not forsake our sanctification. We do not leave that aside. Lust is conceived through a plot in the head.

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It's executed through our actions. And ultimately, you're going to receive the wages of lust.

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You're going to get earthly consequences, or you're going to get eternal punishment. As believers, we are exempt from eternal punishment, but we are not exempt from earthly consequences.

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Keith read this morning about David and Absalom. How many people died in David's household? How often did he have trouble because of that one adulterous fling with Bathsheba?

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You will not be, no matter you love God or not, you will not be exempt from those consequences on this earth. But you will be safe in eternity.

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We are Christians, we're not exempt from the scars of sin in this life. If you sin a lot, God will keep you, but you will bear many scars.

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If you are the devil's secret agent, you will quickly find out that the tender mercies of the prince of darkness are cruel.

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The Bible says that. The tenderest mercies of the devil are exceedingly cruel. In closing,

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I want to turn to, let's turn to James 1. I want to look at verses 1, 14 through 15, and this is kind of a last minute addition.

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I kind of jotted this down this morning as I was thinking about it. But this is, this is a synopsis.

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You want the Hosea's life summed up in two verses? Let's, let's start, actually,

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James 1, let's start at verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

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For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed.

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You saw the story of Gehazi. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So Gehazi's desire led to his sin.

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And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. And Gehazi got a temporal death in the form of leprosy.

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And if he didn't repent, I don't know if he did or not, he had spiritual death as well. Let's pray to God today to help us to flee greed and to put lust to death where it starts, in the mind.

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Kill the lust in the mind, and you won't have the consequences at the end. Please bow your heads and pray with me.

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Dear Lord, we thank you for this lesson from the pages of scripture. Lord, we pray that we would all be Naaman's and not

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Gehazi. We pray that, Lord, if there's any false converts in here, Lord, that you would have them today,

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Lord, not tomorrow, not next week, put their trust in you. And Lord, we pray that for those that really do love you, for those that are true believers, who

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I believe the vast majority of us are, that we would examine ourselves, that we would crucify our lust, that we would put our lust to death.

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Lord, our lust toward the back of our Savior, put a crown on his head, put thorns on his side, and nailed his hands to a tree.

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And Lord, they gave him scars that he still wears, Lord, that he would wear to this very day.

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And Lord, they will give us physical scars if we don't forsake them in this life. We pray that we forsake lust, kill it, and we would flee greed and stay away from it, and we would put our trust entirely in the eternal riches of Christ and nothing else.