Gospel—K. Harman
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Me to the Book of Kings.
Second Kings Chapter 5A well known portion and I don't suppose I'm going to say anything different that hasn't been said before on this portion.
But you know the word, the gospel that is presented tonight as the same gospel it was presented 2000 years ago, perhaps in a little few different words, But the basis of the gospel is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The basis of it is that God loves you and he wants you to be saved.
And, you know, it's a solemn thing to stand here tonight. Well, I often think of this, you know.
That God would put his word into the hands of feeble men.
To proclaim the wisdom of God to you and to me, to lost souls to help us to. To allow us to. To be a vessel To portray His grace to you and to me. Poor feeble creatures that need salvation ourselves. But He has seen fit to do that. How wonderful this is to think that we can have this opportunity in this world of handling this precious book.
Presenting it the gospel to those who are in need.
And and to to be able to stand here as those who are workers together with God, as it were.
But a wonderful thing to think of. But you know, have you ever stopped to think how much God loves you?
Have you ever stopped to think of what brought the Lord Jesus down to this world? You know the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. He is gone, manifest in the flesh. Your Creator and mine came down into this world.
And he became a man in order that he might die for the sins of you and me.
Do you realize how much what what caused him to do that?
You realize how much he loves you and how much he loves me in order to do something like that.
And you know that he cares tonight about what you do with his word, all we had before us last night. It's not it's, it's to to believe in the word of God, to believe what he has said. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
First of all, you believe that God is, and now you believe what he says. And God says that you are lost and you're on your road to hell. And he knows that. He knows that, and he's telling you this because he said his son into this world. In order that you might not have to go there. In order I might not have to go there.
We have this book in our hands tonight that gives us the revealed word of God, and what you do with this book, what I do with it, determines where we will spend eternity. Well, it's not a book that we can take, and we can read it like any textbook and put it down and forget about it. You read this book and you're responsible, my friend, for every word that you have read in this book and every time you have heard it preached.
These are songs. It's a living word of God. It's not a dead book.
Like your textbook, Perhaps it is out of date before it's even off the press.
How solemn to think that we can be under the Word of God and be in His presence, for the eye of God is upon you and me here tonight.
And He knows every heart that is here. He can look right into your heart. Why are you here tonight? And if you're here and you're still lost, just like was brought before you last night, if you were here lost, and you dare to come back again and in that same condition, oh, God is beseeching you. God has been gracious to give you another opportunity.
And this might be the last opportunity. We don't know. You know the.
I suppose every gospel meeting is that ever proclaimed can be said. This may be the last gospel meeting, and it may be it may be.
Well, let's turn to chapter 5, Second Kings, and read this little account of a man who was a very great man. And there are many great men in this world tonight.
Perhaps there's great men in this room that is great in their own eyes.
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When you stand revealed before God, naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom you have to do, how great are you?
How great are you the haughtiness of men. The loftiness of men shall be made low. The haughtiness, The haughtiness of man shall we brought down. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. You stand before Him naked and open in all your sins.
And in all your deeds that you have ever done or ever thought, God knows about them in order for you to be in His presence.
You must have them washed away.
You know God is of Coop, your eyes that cannot behold iniquity. He can't look. He can't have you and me in his presence. It's the holiness.
Of God.
Are you fit tonight, my friend? Can you set? Can you say that I can stand in the presence of God in all His Holiness, and I can tell God how great I am?
I had a man told me that once.
And it made me shake to think of it not man as an eternity tonight, because he lost it only a barely a year after that. But he told me that he could stand. He was going to was willing to stand before God and tell him how great he was. Can you imagine that?
Terrible. When you stand before God and all your filthiness and all your ranks, your you will be speechless. But all my friend, you can stand before him in the righteousness of Christ instead of your own righteousness. How dare you? How dare I think that I can stand before God in my righteousness, in your righteousness. Never, never, never.
One sin will shut you out of His presence.
How many do you have? Every day that goes by, every moment that goes by, your sins mount up one upon another upon another, and they have separated you from God. One sin that separates you from God? Just think of all the sins that are upon you tonight.
Can you stand before God in your righteousness? All our righteousness is ours. Filthy rags.
Well, that's your condition and that's mine by nature. But I can tell you tonight that I can stand before God, not in my righteousness, but in the righteousness that I have in Christ, for He is my righteousness.
Be yours too, my friend. Don't be so proud. Don't be so haughty. Don't be so lofty.
Well, here's a great man in chapter 5. Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor, but 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, and she said unto her mistress, What God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his Lord, saying.
Thus and thus said the Mane.
That is of the land of Israel. And 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.
10 talents of silver and 6000 pieces of gold and 10 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 name and my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 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 a life, that this man descend unto me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. 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. So Naman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah. And Elijah sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash and Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold.
I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord is God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not a Bannon far for rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage, and his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather than when he set to thee wash and be clean?
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Then went he down and 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, and he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naman said, Shall there not then I pray thee, be given to thy servant to mules burden of earth?
For thy servant will henceforth offer neither bird offering, nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goeth into the House of rimmen.
To worship there. And he leaneth on his hand. And I bow myself in the House of Remen. When I bow down myself in the House of Remen, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.
And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
Well, as we've seen here, this name was a very, very great man. He was a very exalted man.
He had been used by the Lord, it says. Now you say, how's that? Was that Israel, the people of God? Yes, but the Lord used Syria to punish, to discipline his people, and as a result this little maid was carried away captive into Syria.
And so there she is, in this land where she is a stranger.
But she remembers the God of Israel, and she loved the God of Israel, and she spoke about the God of Israel. Any children here today that are afraid to talk about the Lord, speak up. And that should be the same for any of us. Because you don't know where it's going to stop. This little woman, this little maid. She spake up and it got right down into the King's palace. How? Well, God took care of that, didn't he? And you know, I don't know why you're here tonight.
But perhaps.
Someone spoke to you about coming here tonight, and perhaps it was God. It was God that put this into your heart to be here. You would say, no, I came on my own. Of course I came on my own. No, I say God sent you here tonight.
Just as God sent this man Niamh into the very doorstep of Elisha.
Well, it looks like circumstances were such that that it was a king of Syria that did all of this, but.
It was the Lord, it says, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. And then she speaks about about the.
This prophet.
That was in Samaria and.
We read down here how that it was the Lord that.
That he turned to and speaks of the man of God. And so you see, God was in all this and.
Just like he is in everything concerning your life and mine.
You know, you and I can look back on circumstances in our lives as opposed, and we wonder why it turned out that way.
Don't forget that God is over all.
Don't forget that God is working in your life and in my life. And first of all, He wants you to come to the knowledge of Himself that you might realize how great He is, how much He loves you, and how much He loves me. You know, when we're great in our own eyes, we can't see anything else.
We are great in our own eyes. We don't see how great God is, and we don't want anyone else but ourselves. This man Naaman had everything going for him. He was. He had as it were. He was one that had gotten right to the top and there were many, no doubt, that envied this man.
To think that he was captain of the host. Here he was right next to the king himself.
He was, overall, he was a great man. He had defeated in their eyes, he he had defeated the enemy. And so we can see Naaman walking down the streets of Damascus, perhaps after his victory, and there are many there that were hailing him as a great man. He would be riding on his chariot and they would be cheering him on.
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Cheering him for all his accomplishments, a great man in his master's eyes and in the eyes of everybody else. Perhaps you are here tonight in the same position. It's hard for you to come down. You know. It's hard for us to come down when we are great in our own eyes. But don't forget, God can humble you. God will bring down the loftiness of man, and the Lord himself will be exalted in that day. So humble yourself now before God. Don't sit there and think how.
How great you are. And that like this man Naman, how he had everything fixed, formulated in his own mind, how everything was going to take place. But you know, there's a problem with Mammon. And it was one that he could not overcome himself. It was one that he was at a loss to do anything about.
He was a leopard.
He was a leper. He had that terrible, terrible disease that just ate away at you, and little by little, little by little, you just decayed and you finally died.
You know this, this disease of leprosy all through the Scriptures is a type of sin. It's not what you and I can do nothing about. We may be great in this world's eyes. We may be great in our own sight. We may have people envy us our position. You may have lots of money like Naomi did, but you're a leper. You can't do anything about it. And if you don't have something, take have it taken care of, my friend.
It's going to finally end you in a lost eternity.
These are solemn things that this book lay out to us very, very faithfully.
So here was a man who had everything going for him, who had all the money that he no doubt could use in order if there was a cure, he would be able to find it. Reminds me of this woman.
In the book of Mark, this chapter I believe, where she had an issue of blood for 12 years and she she sought out many physicians and she spent all that she had. She only grew worse, nothing better, only grew worse. And no, no doubt Naaman had spent much money trying to find a remedy for his sin. And so what's all the words this is but he was a leper.
I was reading.
Up on the wall there today. All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Is that right? All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Man's wisdom.
There is a man by the name of.
Of.
Charlie.
Umm, his last name just escaped me.
He was one of the first astronauts that went on the moon. I don't know why I should forget, I just heard the story.
But perhaps you've heard the story yourself. His name was Charlie, in a way, and he was the first man, one of the first men that landed on the moon.
That was his dream. That was his dream. He pursued that with all the intensity of his youth and he trained for it. He was going to be great. And and so he finally got there.
He got to that point where he was chosen to be an astronaut and when he finally got to that place, there he was strapped in his capsule and and he landed. He went to the moon, he went to the moon. Nobody else has ever had that accomplishment at that point. So he was somebody when he came back to Earth.
He was very important and as they went down the down the streets of New York and the ticker tape parade, he was waving to everybody and everybody. There were many that envied him.
He had. Well, he had.
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Importance. He was had prestige, he had position and he was only 36 years old.
And he got into the top, not only to the top, but he got into the moon.
And back again.
And so he thought that everything was.
Was.
Going to be all right from there.
He reached it and he got to all his expectations.
But you know what? He was a leper.
And when he came back, his wife thought, now I'm going to see. Now he will give up all these expectations and he will he will spend more time with me and we will have a happy life because their marriage was going down the tube.
Instead of that, it got worse, degenerated, degenerated, generated until it got to the point where she was going to commit suicide.
And he hardly spent any time at home. He was after money. He tried this and he tried that and never satisfied. Yes, he was a leper.
And he pursued his dreams, and he reached them.
But it never brought happiness. And it won't with you, my friend. It won't with me. There's only there's one one thing that's missing. The purpose for what you and I have been made is not to pursue our dreams.
We have been made to glorify God.
And if you leave him out of your life?
There is no way on God's earth that you will ever find true happiness.
Never.
I'm going to tell you another story. I've told it before, maybe you know it already and forgive me for mentioning it again, but I always, I can't help but think of the grace of God.
In how he deals with hearts and souls.
You know, God is working out there. God is working in hearts and consciences tonight.
And I would trust and pray that He is working in your soul tonight, that you have come here not just to fill a seat, but that you have come here because.
You have not found satisfaction for your heart and you want to.
And I want to tell you tonight that God in the Lord Jesus will satisfy you beyond.
All expectations.
And this Charlie found it. By the grace of God, his wife was saved and he was saved later. And they together have gone on to serve the Lord. And this man who walked on the moon now walks with God, and he has found his satisfaction in that and his happiness. His marriage was saved, his life was turned around, and he can do the same thing for you.
And I was thinking of another man who was the third top man in the mafia.
He was a murderer.
He was a killer, he was an extortioner, He was everything that you can think of that they are in the underworld. He was someone who perhaps was envied by his own peers because he was second to the top man in the mafia. His father, his grandfather, had brought it over to this country and so he was very great.
He had. He got to the point where he was absolutely.
Fearless and he was rich. He got at the.
Snap of his finger. He could. He could make millions.
He had his own jets, he had his own crew, he had everything that that he ever could imagine.
But he wasn't happy.
And this man went on, went from one place to another place, trying to find happiness.
And one day he was invited to a church service.
And there this man.
Put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Tom.
The first time I laid eyes on you, I saw a little boy who wanted to be loved.
Bingo, that hit him right in the heart.
And this man, he didn't let on that he knew that he had hit the spot that no one else had ever thought was there because he had not shed a tear in 30 years. He was so hard. The last one, absolutely the last one that anyone would think would be come a servant of God. Does that remind you of the apostle Paul? Does me? Yes, it does.
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And this man?
Could say I'm going to kill him, he's found my weakness.
And so he came back to kill him that night at his office, and the man sat him down and he said, Do you know Jesus?
And he said, you know who I am.
Sounds like naman, doesn't it? Great man.
And he's too proud to come down.
And he began to tell him the story, his story. Had he never told anybody else? You know, the mafia, they don't tell anybody anything.
Except their own. But he told him. He began to tell him everything about him that he had ever done in this man just listened, and the next thing he knew he was on his knees crying.
Crying. The grace of God had broken him down, and the man was.
Was crying.
And God saved his soul.
And he gave up all his millions and left him with the clothes on his back. And to make a Long story short, you've probably heard the story, but I can't help but tell it because it shows the grace of God.
And it shows what he can do with your heart if he can do that with Tom Papania's heart.
And this man LED those that tried to kill him to the Lord.
In prison.
Well, many details have been gone over, but that is the long and the short of it. This man, by the grace of God, was picked up from that place of the worst kind that ever could be. Paul could call himself the chief of sinners. This man, I'm sure, empathize with the Apostle Paul.
And he didn't come there seeking for God.
He came there to try and maintain his secret.
That he was a hard that really he wanted someone to love him because his father beat him from a boy.
And so he went, he he wasn't looking for God, but God was looking for him. And he led him to that place where this man of God took him and had compassion on him and brought him in.
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard him. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isn't that no? Is that not what he did? Yes.
He did it to him, and how many more we could talk about that have found Christ that were great men?
But they were lepers.
You don't have to be a great man either to be a leper.
Because we're all lepers. We're all we're all born in sin and shape and iniquity in God wants you and he wants me to come into his house. House.
Is filling fast yet? There is room. There's room for you tonight. There's room for those that are not looking for it. But God is a seeking God.
And the Lord Jesus is out there tonight, and he's saying to you and he's saying to you.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.
This Tom had never seen. He never knew what it was to have peace. He was always on the run.
But from the moment that that happened to him, he said the peace that he had been seeking just came in and filled his heart. And of course, they had to get rid of him, didn't they?
Anybody that leaves up organization?
Is going to be gotten rid of somehow. But they never touched him. Instead of that, God took care of them.
Just like God took care of Namans boss.
Demons. His. His.
The king of Syria, his master. We read that a little later. But anyway, anyway, to get back to our story here, this little, this man was a was a mighty man that says he was great, he was honorable, he was mighty.
All these things that man loves to glory in, but he was a leper.
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And now we get this little Syrian, this little Israelite is made and she comes, she says.
Oh, you know, Namma, she must have had a great affection for Naman. Naman, I understand, I would believe was a gentleman. He was an honorable man, it says, and in his house he was. This little maid loved him, and she loved his soul. You and I loved the soul of a Sinner, You know God loves your soul, and He loves it so much that He sent the darling of his bosom, His Son, down into this world.
In order to go to that cruel cross, to bleed and to dawn.
For your sins and for mine.
Does that affect you?
Does that mean anything to you? Does it mean anything to you fellas over here? Girls? Does it?
Do we can we look at Calvary Cross and not be affected?
Can we, can we look there and hear that cry? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why did he forsake? Why did he forsake his beloved Son? Would you forsake yours?
He forsaken that you and I might not be forsaken, my friend.
Oh, how wonderful to think of Calvary, to think of that awful scene. There. We're gone.
Laid on his beloved son's stroke upon stroke, the judgment that you and I deserved.
How awful to think what it would be like for you and I to go out into a lost eternity but for the grace of God. That's where I was heading, and that's where you're heading tonight if you're out of Christ.
That's where this man Naaman was. He was a Syrian. He wasn't even of the children of Israel.
And he was also a leper.
And so he was in great need.
Though he had all that man could himself could dream about, he had fulfilled.
His dreams, he had the courage to pursue them.
But he was a leper.
So he had nothing, didn't he? He was going to die. He was going to have to leave all that behind. And my friend, tonight you will have to leave everything that you have ever gone after in this world. You're going to have to leave it behind sooner or later.
For we must leave this world.
So she told her. She told her.
Umm, she said all that would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying thus, and thus said to the Maid, that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go, well, how did the king of Syria hear this? As little maid just spoke it to her mistress, and her mistress told it to her Master, and her Master told it to somebody else, and somebody else told it to the king.
God was in the whole in the whole thing, wasn't he? And you know, if you're serious, my friend, if you are in earnest, God will make sure that you hear the gospel.
This man was serious. I mean, he was so serious that we see that he took a long, long journey by horse and chariot. You know, it was about I, I'm not sure whether I'm accurate in this, but I would have estimated be about 180 miles from Damascus down the city of Samaria. It was about 30 miles from Samaria over to the River Jordan and from Samaria to Jordan. And so from Damascus down to Jordan it was 150 miles, perhaps give or take a little, but it was a long journey.
In those days, by horse and by chariot, he had to drive very furiously to get there.
But he was in earnest, and I would hope that there is someone here that if you're still in your sins, you're in earnest, that earnest about your your condition, that you would get serious with God. And you know, if you're really serious, he'll see to it that you hear the word.
That's what I'm here for tonight.
Are you listening?
She knew how he was to be healed. She knew where to get it.
We know how you can be healed. We know where you can get it. We're telling you that tonight, and you've probably heard it before many, many times, but you're like this man and we'll get to it a little later. Maybe was running ahead of it a little bit, but.
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This man, you know, had to cross this this river, he had to cross it three times.
How many times have you bypassed the way of salvation? How many times have you come to that point and you have gone right over it?
Hasn't meant anything to you? How many times have you heard the gospel and you have despised it?
This man Naman had to cross the Jordan to get to Samaria.
If you were hearing the gospel meeting last night, you crossed the Jordan once.
You know, Jordan is a little picture of death in some aspects. It says in Jeremiah that if I was brought if I was run with the with the.
With the.
We'll have to read it. Jeremiah chapter. Let's just read that. Jeremiah chapter 13. If thou hast run with the footmen, chapter 13 and verse five, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trust us, they wear thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:00 and 5:00.
In other words, when everything goes well with you.
What's it going to be like for you in a time of difficulty?
And if everything is in this land, wherein thou, trust is all peace.
And yet you get worried and you don't. You can't find your way. What's it going to be like?
In the time of death.
If God sees that.
You to that point where you will have to go through death.
And you will.
How will it be in the swallowing of Jordan for you?
So the king of Syria said, Go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him six tones of silver, 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of Raymond.
Well, he had spent much, as I said before, on trying to get.
No doubt it's not told this year, but no doubt he had all the.
He had everything at his disposal that he could find, every physician that ever was.
To try and get healed. But now when he hears of this, he's going to take all this money with him and.
And, you know, that's the way that souls are. They think that they think that salvation can be bought. They think that the only way that they can get rid of their sins is that if they do some great thing.
And so they will go, and they will confess their sins to the priest, and they will give them some money and and think that it's all taken care of.
But that's not what we find in the Word of God. That man will go out and he will commit another sin. And what about that? Who takes care of that? He has to go back and face more money. That means nothing to God.
His money will perish with him.
And so he takes all this money and he goes, and he was told to go to the prophet that was in Samaria. Where does he go? He goes to the king.
Goes to the key. He was going to go right to the top.
And so that's the way it is, you know, with souls, they don't, they will go, they, they will circumvent all the, the proper way of getting, getting help for their souls. But they wanted to do it in their way. They want to do it in a, in a, in a distinctive way. They want to do it in a way that caters to their pride. And you know, that's what the law does to to a man, The law, the law deals. You know, what speaks about, about men?
It gives them something to do.
And it caters to their pride that if they can accomplish the law.
And they feel good.
And if they don't fulfill it quite right, it makes them feel bad. But the devil whispers in their ear and says.
It doesn't matter because God is so loving and kind that He knows you did the best you could.
And so the law speaks about man, but it also condemns him.
Because there's no man that has ever kept the law that has walked the face of this earth other than the Son of Man.
The Son of God.
So if you're trying tonight, my friend, to get to get to get rid of your sins or to get to heaven.
By keeping some part of the law. I'm going to tell you tonight that if you don't keep it all.
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You're guilty of it all. If you follow one point, you're guilty of it all.
And you have to realize that it's it's.
As we get in the 4th chapter of Romans, let's just turn to that. I'm going to read it instead of trying to quote it again.
Romans, chapter 4.
And verse 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
You're trying to work your way to heaven. Don't don't forget there's going to be counted to you for death. Because if you're trying to do that according to the law, you're guilty of the whole thing. If you're not going to keep it, keep it all. If you're not going to, if you're going to fail in one point, you're guilty of it all.
So it's death and your debts pile up, and they pile up and they pile up. What are you going to do?
You become more and more miserable.
And you turn to this, and you turn to that, and you try and find happiness and rest for your soul. Meanwhile the Lord Jesus says, Come unto me, and you shall find rest unto your soul.
But you don't like to hear that. I want to try something else 1St. And so this man went to the king of Assyria, of Assyria rather.
Instead of going to the prophet, the little maid said go to the prophet.
That is in Samaria. He will heal the of his life, heal him of his leprosy. It's a simple gospel, I tell you tonight, my friend, come on to me, the Lord Jesus said, and I will give you rest.
I've died for me. I shed my blood that you might have your sins washed away. That's the gospel. God so loved the world. He so loved you and he so loved me. Yes, he did. And he gave. He gave. He didn't come. He didn't. He didn't say you give me.
So this man took all this money, all this wealth with him to give for his healing.
Because he thought that's what was going to be required. He thought, What are you thinking about tonight, my friend? God hates your thoughts.
He wants you to listen to what he says.
And so he goes to the king of Samaria and the king of Syria rather, and he says.
This man's trying to pick a flight with me. What did he send me? What does he think I am that I can feel this man of his leprosy and, you know, mysterious to me. But we know that God was over it all. But somehow Elijah heard about this.
God's sight to it. Again, we see God working behind the scenes. He's working.
Tonight, behind the scenes, he's working underground and very soon perhaps, he's going to speak to your heart and he'll make you realize what a leper you are.
Maybe you've come, you've been brought up in a Christian home, and you haven't done anything really, really bad.
I was like that.
I was preserved from a lot of things, the corruption that was in the world because I was brought up in a Christian home.
Perhaps just like most of you here.
But I want to tell you, you have a heart just like I have.
You have a heart that makes you a leper.
Full of sin, and it wants to do only those things that are bad.
Perhaps you're saying tonight. Perhaps you're you're saying you're shaking your head. Not so I can see it.
But God knows the Lord Jesus sees you tonight. He's looking down in this room and he sees your heart, and he knows exactly what the voice of your heart is saying. You're looking at me tonight and you're listening to what I'm saying, I trust. But are you listening to what God is saying? Oh, that's so important.
You. He wants you to believe what he says. Just trust him.
And so he came to pass when Israel, when the king of Israel, had read the letter.
King of Israel, I was saying. King of Syria.
He ran his clothes, and said, Am IA God to kill, and to make a lie to this man, to send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider I pray you, he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And So what It was so when the Elijah, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying.
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Wherefore hast thou read thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know.
That there is a prophet in Israel.
We see how much God was interested in the healing of this man.
We see how God was interested in the salvation of this man's soul, and he is interested in the salvation of your soul tonight.
All come for the Lord Jesus. Listen to what he says. Look at what he has done for you. Look at the cross. You know the Jordan here. This man had to cross the Jordan in order to get there.
And the Jordan is a is a type again.
We might say of the death of Christ.
And you know the cross of Christ.
And if you bypass the cross, there's no salvation, there's no hope for you.
So this man, he had to cross the Jordan.
In order to get to this to the land of Samaria.
Then we go on in verse 9. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah.
So can you not see this picture? Now he turns around and he finds there's no help in the king of Israel. So he turns around and he's directed now to where he should have gone in the 1St place. And he comes to, and he stands with all his equipage in front of this man's house, and all his greatness, all his wealth, all his mighty men, his Chariots, his horses, And he stands there in all his grandeur. And he's expecting now for this man to come out.
And touch them and heal them as of his leprosy. What are you expecting? How do you expect to be saved, my friend?
You want to keep your greatness. You want to keep your pride. You want to keep your.
Your shall we say.
Your.
You don't want to give up anything. You just want to come and so there's no more change. No, I don't want anybody to see any change in me. I don't want to see there's made it, there's any. If this makes any difference, I want to be saved. Remind you, I want to go on with the way I was before. Is that your thought? Is that the way it is when you come to be saved? The whole no.
God says that, except you become as little children.
Shall not see the Kingdom of heaven. You've got to come down, my friend. This man, this man thought that this that the Prophet, seeing as how he was who he was, like Tom Papania could say, do you know who I am? Don't you touch me or I'll be the last time you ever touch anybody.
What he said, he was a great man.
And so he thought that he was going to come to this door, and Elisha would come out and he would touch him, and his leprosy would be gone, and then he would go back and he would be cleansed and continue on as he was before. No, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Know when you come to Christ with all your sins, and he washes your sins away.
You are no longer the old you, you are a new creation. He has made you a new creature in Christ. All this is wonderful to think, and not only that, but He has given you something that you never dreamed of before.
This Tom, you know, he had all the money he wanted, ever wanted. He gave it all away.
And he found out he had far more than he ever had before.
Plus he had the peace of soul that passes all understanding. He was happy in his soul.
And so you will too, my friend. Don't let the devil tell you.
That you have to hang on to this earthly riches in order to stay happy. You can't come with all of your baggage and flying Christ for your soul and return with all your baggage now.
He's going to take it all away. He's going to give you something so much more like we're talking about this afternoon. The Apostle Paul, what did he find while here was a man who had everything going for him too. And he was head and shoulders above all his peers and and yet he had to humble himself there on the road to Damascus. The Lord Jesus shone into his heart and he made him a new creature. And now he says, I press on towards the mark.
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For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the pride. Didn't you already have it, Saul? Didn't you get everything you have, everything you ever wanted? No, he says. That's all garbage.
It's all done and now more and more as they go on from day-to-day.
I count them, but done that I might win Christ.
So you want to hang on to all your garbage?
Oh, then you're not serious. You're not really an earnest like this man. And so this man, our time is going. It's almost up.
So this man went away in a rage when he didn't, when he was told good on to Jordan and dip seven times. What a simple word. What a simple gospel. Here I am struggling with leprosy and all I have to do is this. Would you do it if that was the only? All you had to do to get rid of your sins is to wash and be clean. Oh, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you? It's all you have to do.
The Lamb of God, the the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God that shed his blood.
To wash your sins away.
And so this man went away in a range. You know, if he, Elijah had it said tell Naaman to give me all that he has in his, in his chariot, than he would have done it gladly. He brought it all to give to him. And then he could have gone and said, this is all I had to pay for my cleansing. But it was something that he could do. Or if he had said tell them and that he has to crawl back to Damascus on his knees and when he gets there he'll be healed of his lepersy, he would have done it.
But the wash in Jordan?
To go down into that filthy river, why, I just came through there and I didn't see anything particularly.
Good about that river. The rivers are far apart amount of Havana and far, far, far better than that. I'm going to go back to my country and I'll I'll washing them if that all takes is that you're thinking that you have a better way of being cleansed. You have something better than God's way.
This one who knows you through and through. The one who made you. Do you think you know better than he does?
The one who loves you.
The one who came down all the way from glory, he didn't come down from Damascus to Samaria.
Came down from the glory in order to die upon the cross, to take your sins and wash them away in his blood.
That's what God required. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, and unless you are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, there is no cleansing for you. You'll go away as you can, and you'll go right into the lake of fire If you refuse. There is no alternative.
Believe what God says God is telling you.
He thought that Elijah Elisha would come out. Instead of that, he sent a messenger.
He was insulted.
I'm your messenger tonight.
And I don't care what you think about me. Don't listen. Don't look at me.
Listen to what God says.
Believe what God says.
I'm his messenger to night.
And so he went away in a rage, and then his servants came near him. Now we see him. He's going.
He jumps in his cherry and away goes.
As fast as he can go back to Jordan, back to Damascus, and he gets the Jordan again and he has to cross that river again.
Are you going to go buy that way again? What are you going to do in the swelling of Jordan?
When death comes upon you, my friend, where are you going? Where will you stand? Eternity.
So he comes to Jordan, and as he comes there, the soft answer turns away his rock. He had 30 miles to think about what he was what what what had gone on. And his servants say to him, Master, he'd have told you to do a great thing, wouldn't he have done it?
You're right.
He gets out of his chariot. He comes down.
And he gets down and he goes, and he steps into that river.
And he goes under. He humbles himself.
He puts himself out of sight.
And that's what you have to do, my friend. You have to put yourself away.
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And humble yourself unto the mighty hand of God. Realize that what God says about you is true, that you are a Sinner, and except you repent, shall all likewise perish.
And so you have to come down and you have to bury yourself beneath the flow, the blood of Christ. You have to go through that river, as it were, the Lord Jesus had gone through. You have to take what was, what took place at Calvary. You accept that for yourself.
Because without Calvary Cross you won't say it.
That was the work that God did for the salvation of your soul and mine. That was His method of salvation because.
He could not look upon sin and what is what's what's he going to do? What would take away your sins? As we sing sometimes nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What will make me whole again? Nothing for the blood of Jesus.
What made him whole again? He came up out of that river and he was His skin had come as a little day and he was cleansed. All the joy that came over him. Can you imagine the joy in his face as he was like a newborn day? And that's what you will be like, my friend. You'll be born again, and you'll be saved by the mighty work of Christ upon the cross.
His work has accomplished that for you, except ye be born again cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Except you be saved, if thou should confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.