Sincerely about what the Lord would have us to examine from His Word this morning. And I believe that this is where God would have us to be. I have preached this text before, but it's been quite a while. I know it's been at least a few years because I can remember some of the people that were here last time I preached it, and they're not here anymore, and they've been gone for a little while.
So, not a good way to remember a message when you preached it, but I do remember it. So, anyways, a text you don't find preached all that often, but, man, what a good one. What a text to outline the truths of the doctrine of New Testament salvation. And that's why I love the Old Testament, because it just so beautifully illustrates with real-life accounts the doctrines that we find put in place in the New Testament.
They don't oppose and contradict one another. They fulfill one another. They illustrate one another. They go hand in hand, and they are connected. They are very much still useful to you and I. We're no longer under the Old Covenant. We're no longer under that Old Testament, but it's because Christ fulfilled it. He didn't just establish some random new thing. He fulfilled the old thing, thus allowing us to enter into the new that He established for us.
And the New Covenant, as we read the book of Hebrews, we find is so much better than that of the old. And that's a glorious thought when you think about the New Testament being better than the old. When you consider the fact that the Old Testament, a priest, the high priest, could walk directly into the presence of God, where the Shekinah glory of God would be dwelling above the mercy seat in between the cherubims. And God's manifest presence was literally there.
And then you read Hebrews 9. And the Bible says concerning that same setting, He says that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. And it says that we have a new and a consecrated way, a living way into the holiest of all. That which entereth into the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The writer of Hebrews says we can go straight into the presence of God without a tabernacle anymore because we've got Christ.
And Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it back up," and He spake thus concerning His body. And so Christ is our tabernacle. He is our temple. He fulfills everything in that Old Testament. You look at the table of showbread. Jesus said, "I'm the bread of life." You look at the menorah, the candlesticks with the seven golden candlesticks on it. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."
You look at the veil that was in the tabernacle in the Old Testament. Jesus said, "I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and shall find pasture." It doesn't matter which part of that tabernacle you look at; you're looking at Jesus Christ. And I'm grateful He's fulfilled all that because here's the thing: you and I couldn't fulfill it.
613 laws the Jews had, the first 10 of them known as the Decalogue or the 10 commandments found in Exodus chapter 20, just 10 of them that summarize the other 603 of them, and you couldn't keep them 10 either. You failed miserably. He said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and then Jesus steps on the scene and He says, "If you even look at a member of the opposite sex with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery already."
Every last one of us have done that. Male, female, doesn't matter. You got blood in your body; you've looked with lust. We failed the covenant. He said, "Thou shalt not steal," and every one of us have taken things that didn't belong to us. A lot of people say, "Oh, well, I was a child when I did that, not a big deal," as if that vindicates you. You know what that does? It actually illustrates that even as a child, in your most innocent state, you were still manifesting that sin nature that just oozes out of God's creation, oozes out of you and I.
We take things that don't belong to us, and we've broken that covenant. We've broken that commandment. He said, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." The Bible says in Revelation 20 that no liars will inherit the kingdom of God, and every one of us have told a lie.
So, I only told a little white lie or only told one or two. I don't tell them all the time. You only got to murder one person to be called a murderer. You only got to tell one lie to be called a liar. You only got to steal one thing to be called a thief. It don't matter how many times. The bottom line is you've done it. We've transgressed the law. James 2 tells us this. He says if we offend in one point, we're guilty of all.
Because whether I've committed adultery or whether I've stolen or whether I've lied, it don't matter. Either way, I sinned against the same God. He's still just as holy with one sin as He is with the other, and I still deserve just the same amount of condemnation for one as I do the other. And therefore, all of us are underneath the wrath of God outside of Jesus Christ until we recognize that God wrapped Himself in human flesh, became a man.
Jesus was not an ordinary man; He was the God-man. He was fully God, fully man, and Jesus fulfilled all 613 of those laws perfectly, 100%, totally without fault, without sin, without error. All the errors you made, He made up for in His perfect obedience to that law. And then also part of that law was the sacrificial system that demanded blood be shed for people who did break the law.
And He didn't only fulfill the parts of obedience; He fulfilled those parts for the disobedient, and He let His blood be shed so that when you come to Him, He can forgive you and cleanse you and wash you clean. We find a summary of that here in 2 Kings chapter number five.
And so if you would open your Bible to 2 Kings 5, and we'll read a few verses here. I believe we've got about 14 of them to be specific, and then we will open up the Word of God this morning to your hearts.
Hopefully, let's pray.
God, Father, here we are. Lord, I believe there's people here this morning need to hear this truth. Lord, I know that in myself I'm completely, utterly incapable of comprehending it, let alone communicating it. I need the Holy Spirit of God to take this feeble, frail, worthless vessel of myself, and I need You to use me, God, to be a help to these people.
And I want to bless You and thank You for every time You have used me, God. It's a privilege, one that all too often I'm not thankful enough for. Forgive me of that, God. Please take me and use me now. Feed Your people. Let the Word of God penetrate the hearts. But if there be any lost here this morning, bring them to salvation. Let them see their Savior high and lifted up on Calvary's hill, crucified, bleeding, dying, groaning for them.
And then understand that He didn't stay there, but that He rose again three days later that they could have eternal life. May they come to faith and repentance in that message, trusting this Savior to save them today. Lord, we ask this in Jesus' name, Your Son, our Redeemer. Amen.
2 Kings chapter number 5, verse number 1. The Bible says, "Now Naaman, Captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master."
You say this morning, "Well, I'm a pretty good person." Naaman would say the same thing. He's a great man with his master, and he's honorable.
Says because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. But he was also a mighty man in valor.
And here's where it gets real for you and I. You can be all those kind of things, just like he was, but there's a big "but" at the end of verse number 1.
"But he was a leper." He was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife.
She said unto her mistress, "Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy."
This young man by the name of Naaman, although he's a great man, he's a leper. And there is a little maid coming out of Israel that they've taken captive, and she knows that there is a man in Israel who is able to cleanse this man's leprosy.
Before we go too far in the narrative, I want you to understand leprosy is a type of sin in your Bible. This is not just any regular disease. This is a disease that decays from the inside out. A leper doesn't begin showing signs on the outside until it's already on the inside.
That's the same thing sin does. David said, "In sin I was conceived." David said, "When I was born, I had that sin nature coursing through my veins." Romans 5:12 says, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
And that sin nature has been passed from Adam since his fall into you and into I, and it comes forth out of us only after it's already indwelt inside of us, just like leprosy. Not only that, I'm getting ahead of myself, but leprosy separates you from other people.
If you read Leviticus 13, you know that the leper had to go around, put a garment above his lip, he had to rend his clothes, thus signifying his leprosy and his contamination, his defilement, and he had to go around crying out, "Unclean! Unclean!" That way nobody would come near to him because if he was to touch them, they would be contaminated, they would be defiled, and they therefore would have to be separated from everybody else.
And that doesn't mean a whole lot to you until you realize in the Gospels that Jesus walked up and touched lepers. You couldn't touch lepers because you'd become a leper. But what we find in the Gospels is that Christ is the only one who's ever been able to touch a leper, touch a sinner, and Him still not be one Himself.
He's the only one that's ever been able to bridge the gap, that gap between clean and unclean, God and man, defiled and holy, and yet Jesus did it perfectly as He held the hand of God and held the hand of sinners and built a bridge for people like you and I to get in. He could bridge the gap.
And here is this man named Naaman who needs somebody to bridge a gap for him. He's a leper. It says, verse 4, "And one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel."
Remember, the little maid tells him there's a prophet in Samaria that can heal your husband, Naaman. Somebody overhears the conversation. In verse number 5, they go and tell the king.
Verse 5, "And the king of Syria said, Go, go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel." And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of garment.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy."
It came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes and said, "Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."
The king said, "Who do you think I am? You think I'm God? You think I can heal this Naaman? He said, I can't fix leprosy. He said, I'm a man just like you. What am I supposed to do about this man's leprosy problem?"
Verse 8, "And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."
Naaman went to one man, and that man couldn't do nothing for him. But there's another man that sees Naaman's plight. He sees Naaman's situation. He sees Naaman's leprosy, and he said, "That king, as mighty as he might have been, he can't do nothing for you."
But Elisha spoke up, and he said, "There's something I can do for you." And Elisha is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Naaman is a picture of you and I as lepers, as sinners before God.
And he finds out there is one that can help him. "Let him come now to me," he said, verse number 8.
Verse 9, "So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and he stood at the door of the house of Elisha."
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."
Lepers never heard that in his life. Never once been told he's got the opportunity to be clean. As far as he's concerned, he's going to spend the rest of his days this way. He don't know there's any way out of it until what? That little mistress comes and tells him.
That little mistress comes and tells him, "I'm going to wash in Jordan seven times." He tells him, "Hey, there's a way out of your plight." And that's where you, as children of God, those of you that are already saved, the sinners that are bound in their sin, bound in their leprosy, they don't have any clue that there's a way out of the condition that they're in until somebody goes and tells them.
And for the first time, Naaman hears the words, "You can be made clean. You can be washed. It can all be fixed for you, Naaman."
And you would think Naaman would be head over heels for that idea. But Naaman's prideful, like a lot of us.
Verse 11, "But Naaman was wroth." Man just got told his leprosy can be cleansed, and he's angry about it. Why? Because God ain't going to cleanse his leprosy the way he wants it cleansed.
Verse 11, "Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought." That'll get you in trouble with God. "I thought, I thought God would do it this way. I feel like I can do it that way."
He said, "Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper."
He wanted some miraculous outward spectacle to see for his cleansing and for his healing. But instead, what did he get? He just simply got God's words, didn't he?
He just simply got a command that he had to acknowledge by faith. In verse number 10, he said, "Go to the Jordan seven times, wash, and when you get done, you'll be clean."
It took faith for Naaman to believe that. That's the most ridiculous thing Naaman's ever heard.
"You mean I only got to wash in this river seven times, and now I'm clean? Listen, Elisha, that's really not the way that I rode this horse all the way over here for. I thought you'd create some big miracle and put your hand over it, call on the name of God, and then I would see God work like that. I really wasn't coming over here to trust some ridiculous promise that you make me."
He says, verse 12, "Besides that, I got a better river I can go to than the river Jordan."
Verse 12, "Are not Abana and Farpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?"
A lot of people saying that today. "Ain't there a bunch of rivers we can go to to be clean? You know, isn't there rivers in other religions? Isn't there rivers in other ways that I can be clean? Isn't there a river that I can go to and clean myself up and turn over a new leaf and try to be a better person? Won't that clean me up?"
But Elisha said, "No, there's only one river you can go to. You've got to go to that river by faith. You've got to go to the river Jordan."
And he says, "So he turned and went away in a rage."
Verse 12 said, "And his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?"
He says, "Naaman, now if Elisha would have said, 'Why don't you go jump through some great set of hoops and do all this crazy stuff and pat yourself on the stomach 10 times and rub your head,' he said, you'd probably have done that, wouldn't you?
So if he'd asked you to do some great thing, you would have went and done that. He says in verse 13, 'How much rather than when he saith unto thee, wash and be clean?'
He said, "Isn't it a lot simpler just to trust the words and just go? It's easy that way. Why are you bickering when God made it simple? Why are you trying to find other rivers that you can figure out on your own where you can wash yourself when God said He would wash you? What are you worried about, Naaman? Just do what the man said."
Verse 14, "Then went he down, dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again unto the flesh of a little child. He was clean."
You're looking at a man right here who almost missed his cleansing, almost missed his opportunity to no longer be a leper. And the reason being is because he thought he had a better way instead of just listening to what the prophet had told him.
You want to know where you find the prophet's words this morning? They're right here. Jesus referred to this as the law and the prophets. This is where you find the prophet's words. This is where you find Elisha's words. This is where you find God speaking through the prophets is right here.
And if you want to be clean, then you've got to come this way. There aren't many rivers. There aren't a lot of ways. This is the only way. And if you've got some terminology that you think saves you and it's not rooted in the Word of God, you're holding on to the wrong thing.
We've got so many ideas today of what saves somebody, what cleanses somebody that's not even in Scripture. We say baptism will cleanse somebody; you don't find that here. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17, he said, "For I'm not come to baptize, but to preach the gospel of Christ."
He says, "I'm not necessarily worried about baptism." By the way, if baptism was necessary for salvation, have you ever realized that the disciples of John got upset because Jesus baptized more people than John? Y'all remember that in the Gospels?
And then it says, "But Jesus baptized not Himself, but His disciples." Jesus didn't even baptize the people that came to Him; He had His disciples do it. Now, if baptism saved somebody and Jesus is in the business of saving people, don't you think Jesus is involved in dunking people under the water?
But He's letting His disciples do it. Why? Because that's not the gate into heaven. That's not it.
We've got this idea that praying some prayer will get us into heaven. You won't find that in the book. Not one single solitary person in the Scriptures, specifically the New Testament, ever got saved by praying a prayer. Not one of them.
We got this idea that, "Well, turning over a new leaf and being a good person and trying to do right, that'll get you into heaven." That will get you straight into hell. You want to know why? Because you can't turn over a new leaf. You can't be a good person.
Ephesians 2:1 says you're dead in sins and trespasses. How many dead people flip over a new leaf every year? None. And that's the condition you and I are in. We're spiritually dead. You can't fix yourself is what I'm trying to say. You simply got to trust what God said.
And what did God say? That Philippian jailer in Acts chapter number 16, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The apostle Paul did not look at him and say, "Pray this prayer." The apostle Paul did not look at him and say, "Be a good person." He did not say, "Go get baptized."
Here's was his simple words: Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Believe it's by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we find this illustrated here in 2 Kings chapter 5.
I got to get back to it. 2 Kings 5, and look at verse number 1. I want you to notice first off Naaman's condition. Hang with me; I'm going to try to be quick.
Naaman's condition. Notice a couple things about Naaman. Verse number 1, he's a captain of the host. He's also a great man with his master. He's honorable. He's a mighty man in valor. All that's in verse number 1: captain, great man, honorable, mighty man of valor.
Naaman would have considered himself a good person. I believe it even says he's a great man. Naaman would have considered himself to be clean. As far as he's concerned, "I'm a good person. I'm a captain. Do you know who I am? What do you mean I need to be cleansed? I'm a good individual."
Now you may consider yourself a good person, but let me ask you this: good in comparison to who? You want to compare yourself to me this morning? You probably are a good person. You're probably better than me.
The problem with that is on Judgment Day, I'm not the one handing out sentences. And how you stack up against me don't do nothing for you. And how you stack up against your spouse and your neighbor and the drug addict down the street and the drunkard and all that, it does nothing for you because they're not the one handing out sentencing. God is.
How do you stack up in comparison to what I'm saying? Comparison to Him. Your judgment has everything to do with how you measure up to God's standard. And God's standard is holiness and perfection.
He said, Matthew 5, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." He said, "Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." How many of you have rose to that occasion? Perfection. Not a one of us.
We're not as good as what we thought we were. We're not to judge one another by one another. Here's the reason being because our salvation has nothing to do with how we stack up to somebody else.
Hebrews 4:13 says, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." You're going to have to deal with God on Judgment Day. Not me. Not your neighbor. You're going to have to deal with Him.
Naaman's condition. He's got some good qualities. He's a captain, great man, honorable, mighty man in valor. But while he's got some good qualities, he's got a greater calamity.
All those good qualities are found in verse number one, but there's a great calamity at the end of verse number one: "But he was a leper."
He might have been good in all these other areas, but it doesn't change the fact that at the end of the day, he's got a defilement upon his flesh. He's got something that has separated him, like we already talked about.
He's got something that has made him unclean. He has got something that has forced him away from society, and he can be as good as he wants to be in his own eyes, but it doesn't change the fact he is separated. He's a leper.
I want you to understand that it's the same thing for you. You can be as good of a person as you want to. It don't change the fact you've been separated from God because of sin.
You say, "Well, I got a lot of good qualities about me." Isaiah 64:6 says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."
You might have some good things about you, and praise God for it. It ain't going to get you into heaven, though. It's as filthy rags, the Bible says. It holds no weight in the sight of a thrice holy omnipotent God.
You say, "Well, I got some good qualities. There's some of the commandments I do good about keeping." I already quoted it. James 2:10, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all."
So you might have some good qualities, but there's a greater calamity. Your sin outweighs your good every time, and the devil sells this lie.
"Well, if your good outweighs your bad, then you can get to heaven." There's one problem with that. Your good will never outweigh your bad because once you've got that mark of sin on your life, no matter how small you think it is, it is infinite before God.
It is a massive debt that you owe Him, for the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23 says. It's too big between you and Him.
In the middle of this condition, Naaman finds himself in, there's some convincing. Naaman finds, verse number 2 through 4, there's this woman who comes and she witnesses to Naaman's wife.
I want you to hang with me very quickly; I'm going to try to be fast now. There's this woman who tells Naaman's wife, "Hey, there's a prophet in Samaria that can heal you. There's somebody that can help you."
And I want you to notice the certainty of this woman's witness. Verse number 3, Naaman's a leper, but this little woman knows there's somebody that can heal leprosy.
Verse 3, she said unto her mistress, "Would God my Lord were with the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy."
She had complete confidence that if Naaman could get to the man of God, Elisha, all of his problems would be taken care of, and that leprosy would be gone.
Can I tell you this morning, Elisha's dead and he's in a grave, and he can't help you. And you might not be a leper this morning, but there's a greater picture behind all of this, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He was in a grave, but He's not anymore, and He rose three days later, and I can guarantee you that if you will get to Him, like she told him to go to Elisha in verse number 3, He will recover you of your sin problem.
He can take care of it with certainty. He would recover him of his leprosy, no doubt. You know, Jesus used a lot of "I will" statements in the New Testament, not "I might," not "I maybe I will," not "possibly." He said, "I will."
He said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That's a statement of certainty, no question about it.
He said, "Listen, here's your part, you come. Here's my part, I will give you rest." He said, "If you'll call, He will save." Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," no question about it.
He said, "If you'll believe, I will give you eternal life." For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life, everlasting life, no question about it.
He made it clear there's no reason to doubt Him. His track record's 100% proven, and when He says something in His Word, you can take it to the bank.
And here is Naaman convinced to go. Naaman's convinced to go. We find in verse number 5 through verse number 7, after Naaman's convincing, we find Naaman's commencing.
And what I mean by that is after being convinced he should go, he commences and actually going. Verse number 5, the king of Syria said, "Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel."
And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, ten changes of raiment, and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy."
Naaman took him up on the offer, and Naaman went. After being convinced he could be healed, he commences his journey to be healed, to be cleansed.
Now I want you to notice something about this very quickly. Naaman is sadly and unfortunately misled in this passage right here.
And I want you to notice, verse number 2 through 3, the woman tells Naaman's wife that there's a prophet that can heal her husband in Samaria. Samaria is the capital of Israel.
In verse number 4, somebody overhears the conversation between Naaman's wife and the Israelite woman. And in verse number 5, they go and tell the king what they heard, that, "Hey, I heard somebody tell Naaman's wife if he goes down there to Israel, there's a prophet that can heal him. Why don't you send him down there to Israel?"
And what happens? The king says, "Okay, well, I'll send him. I'll send him on down there." The problem is, the king didn't get it from the source himself.
He's got about three people's word tied up in it right now, and he gets it wrong, and Naaman is misled and let down and walks away from his first attempt uncleansed.
Let me show you very quickly. Naaman is sent to the right place to be cleansed, but he goes to the wrong person. I'm going to make that make sense for you in a minute.
He's sent to the right place to be cleansed. Verse number 3, where is he supposed to go? To the prophet that is in Samaria, right? That's Israel. He's supposed to go to Samaria. He's supposed to go to Israel.
If we look at verse number 6, he goes to Israel. It says he brought the letter to the king of Israel, right? He's in the right place. He's in the right spot, just like he was told to do, but he goes to the wrong person.
If you look at verse number 3, he was told to go to the prophet that's in Samaria, right? And in verse number 6, who's he talking to? The king. Right man, wrong plan.
He's in the right place with the wrong person. And look what happens when he's misled to the wrong person to cleanse him in verse number 7.
It says, "And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."
He says, "Who do you think I am? I can't cleanse leprosy. What did you send him to me for?"
And I can imagine at this moment, as the king says, "I'm sorry, Naaman, there's nothing I can do for you," he walks away with his head hung saying, "Well, somebody just told me to come down here to Israel."
You know what the problem is? Naaman got told to go see the wrong person. And a lot of you, because of American culturized Christianity, have been told to go to the right place.
And I'm glad you're in the house of God this morning. You've been told to come to church. You've been told to try to do good. You've been told all those things, and praise God, that's wonderful.
But I'm the wrong person to cleanse you. I can't cleanse you. This ain't a person on these pews this morning that can cleanse you. You're in the right place, but you got the wrong man.
You might go talk to the king, but the king can't fix it. There's only one man who can do that, and it's Christ Jesus the Lord.
And if you come to church and you read the Bible and you pray the prayers and you sing the songs, but you don't get Him, you're still as dirty as you've ever been.
I'm glad you're here. You're in the right spot. I'm not the right person, and nobody else is here.
Let me tell you who else ain't the right person to cleanse you: you. So many people say, "I'm going to flip over a new leaf. I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to try to do this. I'm going to try to do that."
Once again, you're coming from the right place. I see what you're trying to do. You want to be clean. You want to be right with God. The problem is, you're the wrong person to do that.
All we like sheep have gone astray. There's none righteous, no, not one, Romans 3:10 said. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Isaiah 64:6, "We are all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." You can't clean something up with a filthy rag.
You ever tried to do it? You ever had a rag in the kitchen, and that rag, you used it all week long, and that thing's nasty, and you go, "Would you wash your dishes with it afterwards?"
Because it's going to leave your dish nasty, right? Because the rag's nasty. And he says, "That's what you're like over there trying to clean up your sin nature with your filthy good works."
He said, "It's not gonna clean anything up; it just spreads the contamination." He says, "You're coming from the right place, but you're the wrong person to try to do the job."
She said in verse number 3, she said, "There's a prophet that's in Syria. He would recover him of his leprosy."
But what that praise God, and maybe you've been like Naaman. You've been misled. You've been trying to be a good person. You've been trying to flip over a new leaf. You've been trying to come to church. You've been trying to do all these things.
You've been trying everything that religion tells you to try, and you're misled just like Naaman. You don't have to walk away upset and sad-hearted because Naaman, even though he was misdirected, there's one who hears what's going on, and he calls out to him.
Naaman's call in verse number 8. "And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, Elisha hears what's going on."
And lo and behold, ain't Elisha the one that can help him? And Elisha hears this man being misdirected, and he hears what's going on, and he says, "Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me."
"Let him come to me, and he shall know that there's a prophet in Israel." He says, "King, ain't nothing you can do for him, but Elijah says there's something I can do for him."
Let me come show him what a prophet can do. And I'm so glad that when people get misdirected by the waves of religion and they get misdirected by the waves of American Christianity, that God's still got Bible preachers that'll stand up and open up the Word of God and say, "No, no, no, no, that can't help you on Judgment Day. There's a Savior, and unless you get Him, you'll die and you'll bust hell wide open. And when you get Him, He'll change you and make you the person you're trying to be, but you can't change yourself."
And the Savior overhears, and He guides us in the right path. Try to work your way into heaven, all you end up doing is working your butt off just to still go to hell. That's all you end up with.
He's in the right place but the wrong person, but the right person hears him. He hears him, and he calls him unto him.
And then we see, verse number 9, I'm trying to be quick, Naaman's coming. After Naaman's calling in verse number 8, we see Naaman coming in verse number 9.
"So Naaman came." He's on his path to being healed. He's getting there. He's heard the voice from the right person, and he says, "You know what? I had it wrong, but now I see this Elisha. This is the man that can help me. The king can't do it, but Elisha can. I'm coming, Elisha."
He begins to come. It says, verse number 10, "And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."
After Naaman's coming, we find Elisha's command: wash in the Jordan seven times. I want you to notice something very quickly. I want you to notice it's a remote command.
And here's what I mean by that. It says in verse number 10 that he sent a messenger unto him. This man's going to find Elijah, right? And Elisha don't even come out of the house.
He sends a messenger, and this angers Naaman because verse number 11 says, "I thought he will surely come out to me."
He says, "What do you mean Elisha's not going to come see me? Elisha's the one that can heal me." But what he doesn't understand is Elisha doesn't have to be in front of him in physical presence in order to help the man.
Elisha's got the kind of power that Elisha doesn't have to be there. If he'll just do what Elisha said, he'll heal him. Isn't that the same thing with Christ?
A lot of people make this statement, "Well, if Jesus would come down in front of me, then I'd get saved." Or they want to have an experience, and they want to have something that they can see, something that's tangible.
But we find here that Naaman didn't have anything tangible. He just simply had to go off what the man of God said, right? And with Christ, it's the same way.
The only way you get cleansed is just simply by believing what He said. He don't have to be there standing in front of you to do some great spectacle.
You don't have to be there standing in front of you to do some great spectacle, some great miracle. I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things about their salvation testimony.
I've heard people say that when they got saved, it's like a weight was lifted off their shoulders and this great experience. And maybe it was for you; praise God for that. That's wonderful if you have that experience.
The apostle Paul, his was a little bit different. Acts chapter number nine, he got knocked off a horse by a blinding light. It wasn't like that for me when I got saved.
But you want to know what I'm looking at for my salvation? It has nothing to do with an experience. It has nothing to do with something that I felt. It has everything to do with God said for the simple fact found in His Word.
If I would trust that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again for me on the third day and come to Him with a heart of repentance, God promised He would save me at the very moment that I came to Him with that heart.
That's what I'm holding on to. You'll see the problem with Naaman. Naaman wants more than that. Naaman said, "I'm not interested in just some random command."
He said, "I want to see some great spectacle and feel some great experience." Jesus doesn't sell experiences. He sells salvation.
Well, He doesn't sell it either. I better change my wording on that. He gives it freely. It's a remote command, and then it's a rudimentary command.
Simple. That's what rudimentary means. It means element. Just elementary. Easy. Simple. It's not complicated. Very simple.
I'm so glad God made salvation simple just like that. He told Naaman, "Naaman, spend your entire life a leper, and here he is about to be cleansed for the rest of his days, and it's not some crazy process. Very simple.
Go to the Jordan and wash seven times. When you come out, you're clean, buddy. It's all taken care of. That's it. Very simple.
But what we find is Naaman's quarrel, and I'm done right here. Verse number 11, "Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper."
You know what he says? He says, "That's way too simple for me." Naaman says, "I wanted something way more than that. That ain't what I was looking for. I want some experience. I want some mighty work. I want some kind of miracle."
But can I remind you that Jesus Christ said if you come to faith in Him, that's the greatest miracle that'll ever happen.
In John chapter number six, He fed the five thousand, right? And afterwards, He said to the people that were following Him, they saw this miracle, and they said in John 6:28, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?"
"What do we got to do to see some kind of miracle?" And verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He hath sent."
It takes a miracle from the God of heaven to open a sinner's eyes to the fact that they're lost and make them realize, number one, they need to be cleansed.
It takes another miracle from the God of heaven to bring that sinner to the message of Jesus Christ, which the Bible says is foolishness to the rest of the world, and give them faith in that message that they can believe.
That's two miracles wrapped up in the conversion experience. The third one is being actually born again, born from above, like He said in John chapter 3, where He takes that sinner, gives him a new nature and a new heart and a new desire for righteousness.
You want to talk about a miracle? See somebody really get saved and watch their life change. That's a miracle.
You got to have some type of spectacle. Just watch God work in saving somebody.
And then lastly, Naaman's correction. Verse 13, "His servant came near and spake unto him, said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather than when he saith unto thee, wash and be clean?"
He said, "It's simple. Just trust me what the man of God said. Just do what Elisha said, and you can be clean."
And I tell you the same thing this afternoon. Your salvation ought to be 100% based upon what Jesus Christ said, dictated salvation.
And I want to show you what that is very quickly. 1 Corinthians 15, and I'm closing out right here. There ain't any other way to heaven.
Everything else might be well thought out intentions, might be a good plan, might come from a good heart, but it won't get to heaven other than this message right here from 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, verse number 1.
We're done right here. Thank you so much for your patience this morning. I know I've been long-winded. Apparently, the kids have had enough of me this morning. I don't blame them.
1 Corinthians 15 and verse number 1, look what he says. He says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the good news, the gospel which I preached unto you, also you've received and wherein you stand."
"By which also you are what? Saved." What are we saved by? This gospel. He says, "If you keep in memory what I've preached unto you," it means keep in memory. It means I'm retaining my faith in this message.
"I'm going to believe this gospel not just tomorrow, and then I'm going to quit the next day." It means I have a faith that is permanently resting in the gospel.
He says, "By which also you're saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain."
You're saved by believing the gospel, and he's going to tell you what that gospel is. Verse 3, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
He didn't just die; He died for our sins. That sin that separates you from God, Christ took it on Himself, and He hung on Calvary's cross, thus bearing it on His shoulders.
And God turned His back on Christ as He said, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" So that God in eternity's time doesn't have to turn His back on you.
He died for your sin in your place. That was your blood that should have been shed. That was your shame that should have been hung out before everybody else. That was your punishment you should be bearing.
But Christ died for our sins in our place. Verse 4, "And that He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
Somebody asks you, "How you're saved? What's going to get you to heaven?" Your message better be built off of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 through 3.
Verse 1 through 4, I'm sorry. Christ died for me. Don't somebody say, "Hey, what's going to get you into heaven?" Your sentence ought not start with "I."
"I did such and such. I went such and such. I've been such and such. I decided such and such." Your decision ought to start with "He."
"I believe Jesus died for me. Christ was buried. He rose again the third day." Like the song says, "If Jesus died for me, then what sins are you even talking about?"
At that point, they're gone. They've all been washed away. I thought that's what the crimson flow does: cleanses, washes within.
And when we come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be clean. John 3:36 says, "He that hath the Son hath life. He that believeth on the Son hath life. He that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
It has everything to do with what you believe about Jesus Christ. Nothing to do with you. Everything to do with Him and your confidence in Him.
Let's leave it right there this morning. Thank you so much for your time. You come pray. Maybe you want to do business with God. You come see me.
I'd be glad to point you to Christ the best that I can. You've heard enough truth here this morning to get you saved, but maybe you still got questions.
I'd be glad to talk with you. Once again, I can't save you. Nothing I can do for you other than tell you about the one who can.
So you come do business with God. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me.
You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me.
You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me.
You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me. You come pray with me.
Thank you.
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on Nov 01, 2024
