Substance of a Gospel Address by C. P. W. N.
I DESIRE, beloved friends, to draw your attention for a few minutes this evening to three words found in Scripture― “THOUGHT, TALK, WALK.” If a man’s thoughts are not right his talk will not be right; and if his thoughts and talk are wrong you can hardly expect his walk to be right.
In Psalms 14:11<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1) we read of a man who said, “There is no God.” It was only in his heart he said it, but his outward walk was evidently according to his inward talk. “They are corrupt and have done abominable works.”
Have not you, my hearer, not only thought but talked and walked as though there were “no God,” utterly careless about that soul of yours?
What does God say about this man? He says he is a “fool,” and we may say so too. It is a well-deserved name for such a man. The man who acts as though there were no God is a fool indeed. FOOL! It is not some exaggeration of the poor speaker, it is God Himself, the Holy and the True, who has used this word.
Have you not been going carelessly on as though there were no God? Then let me tell you this. The God you have been so careless about has been very careful about you! So desirous of your blessing has He been that He gave up for you His well-beloved Son. Yes, Jesus left His home in glory and came to Calvary, there to do a work whereby you might be eternally saved. Do not, therefore, persistently continue in your present thought and talk and walk till you are eternally damned for your sin and unbelief.
But what I want specially to speak about is a man of whom we read in 2 Kings 5 In the first verse of this chapter we are told that this man, Naaman, was a man of importance in the estimation of his own country. He was captain of the host of the king of Syria. He had, as a mighty man of valor, proved to be a deliverer for his nation, and was personally, moreover, a man of honor―a great man with his royal master.
But what spoiled it all was this, “He was a leper”!
Oh, what a terrible discount to his greatness was this! A favorite of king and country, a terror to his enemies, but a misery to himself. “He was a leper.” Poor Naaman! He is entirely done for now. And that is just where you are, dear unsaved one, for in soul you answer to what Naaman was in body. The leper is a type of the sinner. Inside and outside Naaman was a leper, and inside and outside you are a sinner. You may be a person of great mind; you may be amiable, loving, and kind; you may be well spoken of, and a great favorite with those who know you; but in God’s account you are a sinner― a crimson-dyed sinner. “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness.” Nothing but “wounds and bruises and petrifying sores.” That spoils it all. You are in Naaman’s plight, and as far as you can help in the matter, you are done for.
But good news, welcome news, reaches the ears of poor leprous Naaman. He hears that there is a prophet, a man of God, over there in Samaria who can recover him of his leprosy. But Naaman lives in Syria, and Samaria is a long way off! What is that to a man who is suffering from a loathsome disease and wants to be cured?
Perhaps you will be ready to say, If Naaman does not get cured of his leprosy it will take his body down to the grave. But wait and let me tell you that if you do not get delivered from your moral leprosy―your sinful condition―it will carry you down to everlasting damnation.
But this man wanted to be cured. Let the difficulties and the distance be ever so great, he was determined to go. Now, if you want to be cured you have not to go to Samaria: there is no distance to travel. Praise God, His beloved Son has bridged the distance. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. To reach the Healer you need not move a step from the spot where you are now seated. Feeling your sinful state, just where you are, just as you are, and at this moment, if you receive Christ as your Saviour there will be a perfect cure effected by Him.
But whatever you may think of your own ease, this man was not going to lose an opportunity. Not he! He wanted to be cured, and did not know how long the way would be open, how long the prophet would be in Samaria. And are you certain how long salvation may be within your reach? From this night you may be too late.
Oh, turn ye, then, turn ye; why will ye die?
At all events nothing was allowed to put Naaman off, so he started on his long journey.
On arriving in Samaria with his splendid equipage, he drove first to the palace of the king with his letter of introduction, and then to the door of the house of Elisha, with his carriage and pair. No mean one-horse vehicle would do for him! It may have been a “four-in-hand” for aught we know, but since it says “horses,” he must at least have had a pair. But then, you see, his dignity demanded it. And no doubt he thought it was advisable to make as good a show as possible. Alighting from his chariot, he stood at the door of the prophet, fully expecting that the man of God would rush out to meet so distinguished a visitor. But to his utter amazement, if not disgust, all he received was a MESSAGE! What unceremonious treatment! he no doubt thought, only such, as he would himself have shown to one of his retinue. Then the substance of the message was anything but what he expected. “Wash in Jordan” indeed! This he could not stand: it was most hurtful to his dignity. He was something like a great lady I heard of some time ago. A servant of the Lord was seeking to press upon her God’s way of salvation, when she exclaimed, “And do you mean to say that I must be converted in the same way as my coachman?” “Yes, indeed you must, or you can never be saved at all,” was the reply. “Well, then,” she said,” I never will be.”
But why should our friend Naaman be so vexed? The prophet’s message was clear enough” Go, wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.”
No instructions could have been plainer, none more simple or emphatic― “Wash and be clean.”
But not less plain is God’s message to moral lepers today― “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
When Naaman heard the message he was wroth. But why this rage? Ah, it is plain enough. He wanted to be cured in his own way.
Should you be in like case, please note this. If that man had not been cured according to the prophet’s word, he never would have been cured at all. And if you are not saved in God’s way you will perish everlastingly. “I thought,” said Naaman. But pray, what business had he to think, when the man of God had thought for him, saying, “Wash and be clean”?
Possibly, my hearer, you also have let your own thought govern you. Perhaps you have `many a time responded to the gospel message by saying, “But surely I must do something myself before I can be saved?” Beloved friend, let me say again, God has thought for you, and does not ask for your opinion. He has definitely settled the matter, and tells you so.
“I thought,” said Naaman, “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.”
Nov notice. Notwithstanding all the distance he had journeyed to be cured, he had evidently not come as only a leper. True, he was captain of the host of the Syrian king. But what had that to do with his being a leper? He was a great man with his master, but what had the prophet to do with that? He was a mighty man of valor, and honorable, but what had all these things to do with his disease? They were all very well in their place, but their place was at home in Syria, and he should have left them there. Certainly God’s servant did not regard them as of much importance. He spoke to Naaman as a leper, and nothing else, and if the leper had been humbly content with taking that place, the message would have been all that he required. “Go, wash in Jordan, and thou shalt be clean.”
And have you not acted like this proud officer? Have you not even sung―
“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling,”
and yet all the time the real language of your heart has been, “Lord, I own I am a poor sinner, but I do all the good I can; I give to the poor all.
I can possibly spare; in fact, I am prepared to do the very best I can”? Let me ask, What have these things to do with your guilty, lost condition? Oh, fling them all behind you and own that you have been doing the worst thing that any sinner on earth can do―refusing to be saved by God, in God’s own way.
“Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?”
No, Captain Naaman, I can answer for that. If you had dipped yourself seventy times seven in those rivers, when you came out after the four hundred and ninetieth dip you would just be as loathsome as before the first dip. You must be cleansed according to the word of the man of God, or be a leper to the day of your death.
“So he turned and went away in a rage”! His thought, followed by his anger, very nearly robbed Naaman of the longed-for healing; and since then, many a man has not only nearly, but quite, lost eternal blessing in a similar way.
Fortunately for Naaman, he had wise servants.
Hear what they say: “My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean”? If he had been called with ten thousand men to meet an enemy with twenty thousand he would not have hesitated a moment. Or if he had been told to attack a strongly fortified position, or to lead a forlorn hope, he would have done it cheerfully. But to be simply told to “wash in Jordan and be clean” was far too easy! It would yield him no credit whatever. It would make just nothing of him.
If you are in like case, dear friend, remember this. God will not alter His way to suit your pride. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” is what He says, and if you are wise you will not hesitate another moment.
Naaman at last acted on good advice. He “dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
Now, beloved friends, suppose we had met him coming back from Jordan. Suppose I addressed him trills: “Captain Naaman, I have been thinking very much about you today, for I am very sorry for you: you have my truest sympathy. It appears to me so very dreadful that you should be suffering from this terrible leprosy!”
“My dear sir,” he would have replied, “I am as free from it as you are.”
“But that is very different from what I heard from you yesterday.”
“Ah! yesterday! I had not then been to the man of God. He told me today to wash in Jordan seven times. I have done so and am clean. Not a spot is left, not even a freckle!”
And should you, who this night believe in the merits of the cleansing blood, be accosted in a similar way on your way home, you can answer in a similar way, no matter how filthy you may have been when you came to this place an hour ago. You may say fearlessly, “Coming in God’s appointed way, I have been made clean to His entire satisfaction.”
Just a few words more. “Talk,” if it ends there, is not of much avail. Plenty of people, like the Pharisee in Luke 18:1111The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (Luke 18:11), can talk religiously. But with this man it was all stupid, “tall talk,” as though God could be deceived by that which had no reality in it. His talk, however, was only the result of his thought, and with it a walk that was taking him down to hell, for he was not justified.
Oh, think of it, dear friend. It is, through grace, within your reach to be that repentant sinner tonight. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
If your heart has been bowed to trust Him, let your lips be opened to confess Him, and let your walk prove that, in your inmost heart, you henceforth regard Him as your Lord. C. P.W. N.