Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Naaman The Officer Whose Leprosy Was Cleansed │ Msg 1214 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

Transcript

Naaman The Officer Whose Leprosy Was Cleansed │ Msg 1214 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Let's pray together. How good you are, Father, to bring
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: young men and women from really thousands of miles away
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to minister to us, to use various media to touch
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a heart that's searching and lonely, to bring someone across
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: another's path, to be of encouragement and assistance and accountability,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to cultivate a friendship between opposite kinds of people, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to have that friendship grow into a relationship, and to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: have the spiritual life deepened, and to walk with Christ strengthened.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It was no doubt that way with Al and Timothy,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and with Silas, and with Barnabas, and with doctor Luke.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It certainly was that way between David and Jonathan and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: so many through the scriptures who grew together. And thankful Father,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that you have not ceased doing that great work from
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: one life to another. And I am prompted to thank
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: you at this moment for the Church of Jesus Christ,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: that you have raised up of so many different faces
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and different expressions, and in different cultures and languages, even
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: different labels and denominations. Yet there are so many more
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: things that draw us together than separate us. Forgive us,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Father for fighting with one another rather than arm in arm,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: marching together to the cadence of Christ, and sensing in
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that march a purpose and an objective that is eternal.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Minister through the Word for the next few moments, as
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: we open our hearts and as we close our minds
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to other distractions, that we might learn of you and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: learn more of your ways in the Saviour's name, Amen,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to prepare our minds for another Old Testament's story. I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: want you to take your Bibles, and I want you
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to locate the fifty fifth chapter of Isaiah. I have
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: selected four verses that appear right in the heart of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: this thirteen verse chapter of scripture. I'm looking at Isaiah
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: fifty five through nine, and I want to make a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: couple of three observations about Isaiah fifty five six through nine. First,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: let me read these somewhat familiar verses. For you seek
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the Lord while he may be found, Call upon him
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to the Lord. And he that is the Lord, will
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: have compassion on him and to our God, for he
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts, yes,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: than your thoughts. First, will you observe that these words
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: are addressed to those who don't know the Lord. They're
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: seeking to find him. They are on a search, and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: these words are addressed to those in that search. They
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: begin with a command, seek him while he can be found,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and call on him while he is near. These are
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: words addressed to people who are seeking and hoping in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: some way to call on the Lord. The second I
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: notice these verses offer three things to a seeker. First,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: they offer an invitation to seek to call in verse six,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and then the verses offer a warning. Let the wicked
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: forsake his way, and the unrighteous forsake his thoughts, and
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the warning let him return. The implied statement is if
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: you do not, there is a price to pay. There
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: are consequences that will follow. But there is an invitation,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: there is a warning. Then there are a couple of promises.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: At the end of verse seven, he will have compassion,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: he will abundantly pardon. So the verse offers three things
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to a seeker, It offers an invitation, the verses offer
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a warning, and the verses offer a couple of promises. Now, third,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: God clarifies that there is a surprise factor in coming
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to him. I find that in verses eight and nine,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: there is a surprise factor in coming to Christ, in
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: coming to the Lord. And most of us, in our
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: unsaved state did not know that. In fact, some of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: us are still learning how surprising a walk with God
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: really can be the surprise. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Those are God's words. He doesn't think like humanity, thinks
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: My ways are not like your ways. So his plan
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: is different than ours, and you know it really works
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: out in practical ways. If I may interrupt our thoughts
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: for a net, for a brief example, I thought we
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: would have two children. I really did, with a boy,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: very healthy, happy, delightful little kid. We had a girl, soft, feminine, lovely, perfect,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: alpha omega perfect two children. But God's ways are not
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the ways of ours. His plans supersede our plans. I
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thought I would minister in one territory of the country
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: throughout most of my life, and I would not minister
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in the very places that I have served the Lord
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: throughout my ministry. He's full of surprises. Some of you
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: just think you have reached the end of the tether,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: you have experienced the ultimate that the lords will lead
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: in your life. Are you in for a surprise? As
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: long as you have breath in your lungs, as long
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: as you have the ability to move about at will,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the Lord will surprise you with his ways. And the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: good thing is that his ways are well. Look for yourself.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Our thoughts are not his thoughts, Our ways are not
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: his ways. But I've left out the most important. His
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: plan is higher than our plan. God's goal is not
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to bring us down. God's goal is to lift us up.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: God's goal is not to push us in a corner
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and hide us. God's goal is to pull us away
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: from the corners and use us. That's his plan. Now,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: it's still in process, it's still going on. It's still
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: going on in my life. About the time, I think
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that is it. That was the year. That was, That
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: was the ultimate. There is no way that I could
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: know more surprises in God's arrangement. The next year is
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: full of even more and even more. Now I'm saying
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: all of these things out of Isaiah fifty five to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: prepare us for a story that's tucked away in the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Second Kings chapter five. So will you go back to
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that Old Testament section of scripture. Those words from Isaiah
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: fifty five are going to come back to haunt us
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in the life of a man we are about to study.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Every story has a setting, just like every beautiful gem
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: needs a setting in a ring or a necklace or
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a bracelet for it to be appreciated. And the setting
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of this story is a little bit unusual and perhaps
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: not clear to a number of people. Just before we
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: get into chapter five of Second Kings, let's understand that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: there is a war going on. It isn't a simple
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and easy war, as no war is. It is a
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: war within a nation. It is a nation at war
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: with itself. If we were reading American history in Second
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Kings chapter five, we would be reading during the era
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of nineteen six, of eighteen sixty one to eighteen sixty five,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: during our Civil War. The worst war we have ever
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: been through, that is wars fought with weapons, with guns,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: with armament, etc. The worst war in all of time
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: is the war for life. Of course, the whole issue
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of abortion. That's the worst war that's taken more lives
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: than any other war in the history of time. That's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the worst. But in human terms, in an American history,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the worst war we've faced has been the Civil War,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and it lasted for us only four four and a
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: half five years. Israel lived as a nation for one
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty years under three different kings, first Saul
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and then David and then Solomon. Because of the weakening
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of spiritual life in Solomon, by the time he died,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: his son was not walking with the Lord, and before
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: too many months, the nation that had been united for
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: over one hundred years almost one hundred and twenty five split.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Most of the tribes were in the Northern kingdom called Israel.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Two of the tribes remained in the Southern Kingdom, Benjamin
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and Judah. They came to be known as simply Judah. Now,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the scene we are looking at is a scene that
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: took place in the Northern Kingdom during the Jewish Civil War.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: It's a time of upevil It's a troubled era. It
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: is a time in which God worked mainly through his spokesmen,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: who were known as prophets. Between a prophet then and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a prophet today is that then he was a prophet
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: in the technical sense of the word. He spoke ex cathedra.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: God's word was not complete, and when a prophet stood
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to declare, if he was a true prophet to declare
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the word of the Lord, he made no mistakes in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the declaration. His prophecies were precisely as God's oracle would
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: have been written, and often they were put into written form,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and they have found their ways in their way into
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the Bible that we love and read today. The particular
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: spokesman who was at odds with his times in this
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: particular era is the man Elisha. The main prophet during
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the Kings, in the early part of the Kings would
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: be Elijah, that is in the writing of First Kings.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: But the main prophet now now that Elijah is off,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: is a man whose name sounds much like his. It
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: is Elisha. Elisha walked in step with his God. And
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: remember God's ways are different, and God's ways are higher
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: than man's ways. So he was walking at odds with
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: his times. By the way that still goes on, people
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: who walk with God walk against the cadence of the world.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: They do not watch the world for their cues. They
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: do not pay attention to the world for their direction.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: They in fact, we in fact resist the counsel of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the world in learning how to live our lives. In
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: that sense, we have that in keeping with the early prophets,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and Elisha is the man we have in mind here. Now,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: what we have in Second King's five is a story
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of a miracle, and the main character in the story
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: is a man named Naeman nam a n who's mentioned
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: in verse one. Naemen. Now the question you might have
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: is was he a Jew in the Northern or the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Southern Kingdom? Remember we said it was the Northern Kingdom,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But he wasn't a Jew, who was a Syrian. And
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: that's important when you see the last part of this
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: first verse. Will get there in a moment. Understand now,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: he is an unsaved Syrian military officer who serves the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: King of Syria named Ben Haydad, who wasn't mentioned in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: this account, but is mentioned elsewhere in the in the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in the Book of Kings. Now, notice in verse one
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: he is a proud man. First of all, we read
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: he is captain of the King's Army, the army of
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the King of Syria, perhaps highest ranking Germany during its
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: during its involvement in the Second World War had a
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: position known as a field marshal, and every once in
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a while you would read a field marshal Ramel or
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: another field marshal. I think perhaps this might be along
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that line. He was no doubt responsible for a section
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: of the war under Syrian rule at the time, so
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: he is a high ranking officer. We read also he
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: was a great man with his master, So apparently Ben Haydad,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the King of Syria, and Naeman spent time together. There
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was a mutual respect, certainly between the king and this
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: captain in the army. Third, we read he was highly respected,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: highly respected, and he was an honorable man. I read
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: fourth that he was an instrument in preserving peace. The
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: man was also a valiant warrior. He wasn't an armchair
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: general who stayed back behind them allies. He was involved
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: in the skirmishes and in the battles. He probably had
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the scars of war. But says the text, and it
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: changes everything, he was a leopard. In fact, you will
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: notice in the New American Standard Bible the words but
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: he was or in italics, which means they aren't in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the Hebrew text. So literally it reads the man was
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: also a valiant warrior. Leper. It's supposed to be abrupt.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: It is extremely it's just awkwardly abrupt. In the original text,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Lepper supposed to scream at you from the passage Leper.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't cure itself. It was terminal. Of course. Now,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: had he been a Jew, he would have become an
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: outcast once the leprosy showed up. But he's Syrian. Remember,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: in a very reliable work by Kyle and Dalitch, this
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: old German couple of scholars put together commentaries on the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Old Testament. Kyle writes in this work on Second Kings,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: there is an allusion here to the difference between the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Syrians and the Israelites in their view of leprosy. Whereas
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: in Israel lepers were excluded from human society, in Syria,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a man afflicted with leprosy could hold a very high
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: state office, in the closest association with the king. It's
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: unheard of in Israel. When you were a leper, you
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: were put out of the camp, you were put out
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: of the city, and you were treated as an outcast.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Not in Syria. So here he is in the warp
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and roof of life, in touch with involved with different people,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and now out of blue he discovers he has leprosy.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Years ago, when I worked in a machine shop, I
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: broke my hand on the chuck of a turret lathe
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: that I was working on, and this was called a
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: tracer lathe and it was speeding at multiple, multiple revolutions
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: per minute and I got my hand too close and boom,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I broke it in this bone on my left finger.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: A small finger came out and what was a terrible
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: looking thing. And I had to go to an orthopedic
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: surgeon to get it worked on. Still have that scar
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: there where he cut it open and put it all
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: back together. Wonderful a surgeon. He was a surgeon of
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the hand, and I just appreciated the way he did
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: his work. And except for having a barometer on my hand,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: when it's going to get cold, I can feel it
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: in my bones, you know. And when it's going to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: change weather, I can feel it. Other than that, I
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: have no disability from it at all. Anyway, when I
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: went back to have the little pin, looked at that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: he had put from the knuckle all the way down
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to the wrist. As he said that, he said to me,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I won't be here the next time you come back
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: for an examination. He said, I'm gonna I'm going to
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: go and have a little mole taking off my stomach.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: He said, In fact, he showed it to me, opened
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: his shirt and there's a little black mole right there,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: about the size of your fingernail and your small finger.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And he said, it's kind of irritating. It's right on
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the belt line. I just want to have it taken out.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So I went back in two weeks to have my
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: hand looked at, and the man was dead. I couldn't
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: believe it. Here was this up and coming, capable pace
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: setter of an orthopedic surgeon dead. When they cut him open,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: they found that he was full of cancer, and they
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: didn't touch him. They sewed him up, asked him if
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he had a will, and he took care of necessary
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: legal matters and financial matters. He was gone. I couldn't
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. My mouth literally fell open. When
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I asked about how the surgery went, they said, oh,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: you haven't heard doctor so and so has died. He
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: was in his mid thirties. It's that kind of abruptness
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: when you read at the end of verse one leper
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: as good as dead terminal. I can't imagine how the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: man felt the morning that he was dressing and he
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: found the first spot. And though Syrian he knew what
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: leprosy looked like, changed everything. Suddenly the metals that hung
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: from his chest seemed unimportant. In a matter of seconds,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: his future paled into insignificance. It was a leper. We're
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: not told every detail of what he said or what
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: he did, but out of the blue, and this is
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: just the way God works. There's a little servant girl
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that comes across his path. Remember what we read in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty five. My ways are not your ways. My
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: ways are higher than your ways. I am working when
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you don't even know how I am or where I
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: am working. You don't even know who I'm working through.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Look at verse two. The Syrians had gone out in
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: bands and had taken captive a little girl from the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: land of Israel. And she waited on Nayam's wife. Isn't
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: that interesting how these lives criss cross and dovetail. And
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: she said one day to her mistress, I wish that
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: The prophet is Elisha. She knows of Elisha. This man
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: didn't know of Elisha. His world is Syria, and if
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: he knew of him, he had quickly put him out
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of his mind. Prophet prophet? Who cares about some Jewish
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: prophet when you're a Syrian field marshal. She says to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: her her mistress, I wish your husband could be with
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the prophet in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Now you better believe that that wife said something to
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: her husband that night. She says to him, Namon, my
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: maid was speaking to me today as we were finishing
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: with our meal, And and she knows someone who is
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: in that land, that territory of Israel, that you and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know of. But somehow he has power. Don't
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you wonder if Naeman was open to it? Verse four?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: And Naemon went in and told his master, that's the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: King ben Hadad, saying thus, and thus spoke the girl
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: who is from the land of Israel. Remember, my ways
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And out of the blue, across his path comes this
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: little maid who brings to his attention through his wife
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a man in Samaria, which leads him to say soon
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to his authority. There is someone who can help me
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: in the land of Israel. Now I understand there's a
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: lot of prejudice. There isn't an openness between these countries.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: But when you're pressed, those kind of things sort of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: break down. Now, there was a desperate search that takes
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: place in Naeman's life in between verses five through twelve.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And I don't want you to miss the mistakes he
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: makes because he's thinking like an unsaved person thinks when
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: seeking the Lord. I see two or three major mistakes
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: he makes. Look at verse five. The King of Sirius said,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: go now, I will send a letter to the King
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of Israel and Naemun departed, and look at what he did.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Of course, there is no free lunch. You're gonna buy it.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: So he took with him about four million dollars in
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: silver and gold and ten new suits from Syria's finest
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: men's clothing store. He takes all of that with him
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: as he makes his journey from Syria to Samaria, where
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Elisha is living his life. What's he thinking. He's thinking,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: cures don't come cheap, but that's no problem if it
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: takes money. I've got money. His first mistake is I'll
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: buy my cleansing. That's still going on, by the way,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: people who believe. If I am going to get something
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: as rich and significant as heaven, it's going to cost
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and I am willing to pay. You know something. There
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: are more people willing to pay their way to heaven
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: than to believe their way into heaven. More people are
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: willing to buy heaven than to take it by faith
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: free of any cost. I know, I've heard from too
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: many of them. If this costs me something, it makes sense,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I'll buy it. But if you're telling me it's a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: free gift, on suspicious of it, nothing's free. That's the
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: way the unsaved thing. There's a second mistake, and that
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: is I'll get my cleansing from another man. Now look
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: at what he does. He brought the letter to the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: King of Israel, saying, now, as this letter comes to you, behold,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I have sent Naem and my servant to you that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you may cure him of his leprosy. So the king
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: sits there and he's reading this. Is Jehoram, the King
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of Israel. It came about when Jehoram read the letter
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: that he tore his clothes and said am I God
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: to kill and to make alive? That this man is
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: sending me, sending word to me to cure a man
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: of his leprosy. Let's look into this considered now and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: see how he is seeking a quarrel against me. He's suspicious,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: he wonders what this is all about. Now Naeman comes
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: thinking this man is going to cure him. He doesn't
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: know who it is, but he comes trusting in. A
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: man gives him a letter says, I'm ready for you
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to cure me. Look at verse eight. It happened when Elisha,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: there's the man that's got the power, the man of God,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: He sent word to the king. Now, by the way,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: how would Elisha hear about Naeman's visit. I mean, there
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: was no major newspaper that was delivered every morning into
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the driveway of Elisha. Life wasn't quite like that. But
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the beauty of it all is that God is at work,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and his ways are higher than our ways. He works
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: in surprising ways. He gets information from one source to another.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: You look back and you wonder how did that happen?
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Can't explain it. We're not even told here. All we're
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: told is that Elisha is We're told it happened that
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: he heard that the king of Israel had torn its
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: clothes in it, and he sent word to the king saying,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Now this leads to his third mistake. So Nayeman came
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: with his horses and his chariots and stood at the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: doorway of the house of Elisha. This is the moment
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: of truth, Lepper, standing in the doorway of profit watch.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, go and wash
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: in the Jordan. Go and washing the Jordans seven times,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and your flesh shall be restored to you and you
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: should be clean. Period. Now here's a man who has
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: multiple millions of dollars worth of silver and gold and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: clothing ready to pay his way. Here is a man
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: who has already been suspected of some kind of plot
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: by the king, now standing at the doorway getting word
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: from not the profit did you get it from a messenger?
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: And he's ticked off to use today's terms. Verse eleven
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: says he was furious, and he went away and said, behold,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I thought, See, that's his first mistake. I had it
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: all planned that it would be like this. I thought
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Elisha would surely come out to me. You see, he's
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the captain, and when you're a field marshal, most folks
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: jump when you snap your finger. Surely Elisha will come
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: out of this little house where he lives and talk
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to me. I thought he would do that. See. The
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: third mistake is this isn't the way I had in mind.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: This isn't what I thought would happen. I thought something
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: else would occur. Look, he was furious, he said. I
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: thought he would surely come out to me and stand
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and call on the name of his God and do
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: his voodoo and wave his hand over it and cure
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the leper. I thought he would just do the mumbo
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: jumbo thing, and I'd pay him. I'd be on my way,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: clean and healthy and happy and ready to live the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: rest of my life. That's what I thought would happened.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And then you'll get a little prejudice in verse twelve.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, are not Abana and Farparer the rivers of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: not wash in them and be clean. So he turned
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and went away in a rage. How dare he think
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna put my body in some muddy river called
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Jordan in Israel when we've got these great rivers back home,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going to any one of them. They're better those
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: two rivers than all the waters put together in the
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: land of Israel. Sound familiar, Sound like they're wrestling. You're
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: hearing from someone you've talked to about the Savior. Well,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I thought this, Well, I expected that. I didn't think
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: it would be like this. I mean, I never there's
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: a whole other set of circumstances here. It's another game plan.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I thought he'd come out to me. I thought he'd
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: stand personally before me. I thought he'd call in the
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: name of his God. I thought he'd do his magic,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: do his chance. I thought immediately it'd all be taken away.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, after all, look at the reward I brought
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: with me. I've already gone the second mile, and on
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: top of this, he's telling me to duck down in
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a Jordan river. Absolutely no way. Next time you have
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: a chance to read Bunyan, you will meet a character
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: named mister Loathe to Stoop. I thought of him when
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I read about Naeman's response, loath to stoop, you may recall,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: comes across Immanuel, and in order to come to terms
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: with himself he wants. He doesn't want to stoop. He
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: he wants Immanuel to recognize his own superior character in dignity.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Upon finding there was no way that that would happen,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: there was no way he could come to the Savior,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: but by bending and stooping he refused to do so.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Naheman is an ancient captain loathe to stoop. I am
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: not about to do what he says. Once again, God's
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: ways are not our ways. Earlier, a servant girl spoke
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: verse two. Later a messenger spoke verse ten. And now
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: there's a third unnamed individual or group of individuals. It's
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: amazing whom God uses in our lives verse thirteen. As
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: he turns away in a rage, his servants came near
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and spoke to him and said, my father, had the
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: prophet told you to do some great thing, would you
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: not have done it? Did they know him? Oh better
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: than he would ever believe if he had told you
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: to do something great and you would have done it?
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: How much more than when he says to you, wash
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: and be clean. I mean, I think they're saying, wake up, nahelman,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: this is your chance. Just go down to the river
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and dip seven times and you will come up cleansed.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: What a message this is to those people who are
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: still saying it's just too simple, just doesn't have enough
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: dignity to it. I mean, just to believe in the Savior,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: just to give my life to Christ. Yeah, that's it.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Just that.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I'm impressed with his momentary sense of teachability verse fourteen.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: So he went down and he dipped himself seven times
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: in the Jordan. Can't you see the servants sitting on
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the rock?
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: One, two, three, go ahead, four, five, six, that's it.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not one more. Seven. Look at this. And his
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: and he was clean. That is an incredible miracle.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Water.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, if we could bottle that kind of power
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: and dispense it. But it isn't bottled water. It isn't
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the place, it isn't the the details. It's the Lord.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: It's the working of God God in the life of
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: a diseased man. It's doing exactly what the Lord says
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that brings the change. It isn't studying about it, It
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: isn't talking about it, It is doing it. Not until
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: he did was he clean. There are some lessons we
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: learned at Nieman's expense, aren't there? I can think of
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: four of them. Number one, it is not until we
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: accept the fact that we are diseased that we seek cleansing.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Christ didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: If I can just get people to believe their sinners,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: we are three fourths of the way toward their salvation
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: just getting people to admit I am lost. I am
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: unable to get myself clean. It's not until we accept
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the fact that we are diseased that we see cleansing. Second,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: another lesson, it is not until we hear the truth
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: that we discover the way to find relief. We've heard
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: testimonies from people who heard the message of the Savior
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: in any number of ways, and it was not until
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: they heard the truth that they discovered the way to relieve.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: In Naheman's case, each person God brought across his path
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: led him closer. I call it links in the chain.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: By the way, who's God bringing across your path lately?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Don't take it lightly. Some of you have had a
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: rather interesting pilgrimage. In the process of a few years,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: you have met a person who, interestingly, it seemed almost
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: a coincidence that person got you in touch with another
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: and it altered the course of your life, and you decided,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: perhaps even to move or to make a change in
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: your lifestyle, which led you to yet another group or
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: another individual who provided something altogether different from the first
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: person in the chain, in the links of the chain,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: And here you are a few years later, absolutely different
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: than you were back when you began this journey, this pilgrimage.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: God knows what he's doing. We heard last Easter about
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: a fellow who was a graduate of UCLA and his
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: wife had spoken to him about Christ and he wasn't interested.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: But as time passed he began to soften and out
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: of the blue, they are at a public park and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: he goes into this public rest and he meets a
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: black man who is in there cleaning the restroom. I mean,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: it's just inadvertent conversation. And when this individual cleaning the
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: restroom begins to you know, he's the light is in
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: his life, and the joy is in his heart, and
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: he's bubbling over with enthusiasm, and our UCLA friend asks
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: him what this is all about. He says, I just
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: have to tell you. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: has changed my life. And the man thought, I mean,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: if I've got my wife on one side saying this,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: and out of the blue meet another fellow I've never met,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: there's got to be something to it. And the long
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: short of it is he gave his heart to Christ.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Don't take lightly individuals God brings across your path. There's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: a little servant girl here and there. There is a
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: messenger that sticks his head out of the prophet's house.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: There is there is a servant who comes near verse
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: thirteen and speaks the truth and confronts you with something
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: you need to deal with. Don't take that lightly. These
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: are all fingers on the hands of God moving changing.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I heard from a fellow who works in the service station.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: He was pumping gas and these people kept driving in
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: with this sign on the back of the car. It
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: was an excluse. It was a fish and he kept wondering,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: where are all these fishermen's club. They must all be
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: a part of this group of people at fish. And
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: he said, we weren't within hundreds of miles of a
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: place to fish. I kept scratching that. Finally I said
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to one guy, why are you all of you fishermen
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: out here on this highway? And the fella says, well,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: what you need to know is that that fish is
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: an ancient symbol of Christians. He said, in fact, the
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: word excluse represents Jesus Christ the Lord. And he described
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: to him the letters that make up the Greek fish,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: and it led into Christ pumping gas. A little sign
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: on the back of a car another messenger that God uses.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: It's not until we hear the truth that we discover
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the way to find relief. Third, it's not until we
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: come to an end of ourselves that we're ready to
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: go God's way. Money, nope, logic, no important people, no pride,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: No God tells us you must be born again. It's humbling,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: it's simple, if I may. It's illogical, it doesn't fit
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: the scheme of earthly things, it doesn't appeal to the flesh.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: It results in being misunderstood, scoffed at, even persecuted at times,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: treated rudely. But it's true, and you have to come
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: to an end of yourself. To believe and to go
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: God's way. Not until then are we ready for it. Fourth,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: and finally, it is not until we actually do as
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: God requires that cleansing occurs. Naheman finally had to get
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: in the Jordan, he had to strip down, he had
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: to walk out into the muddy waters, and he had
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to literally go under the water seven times. Nothing more,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: nothing less, nothing else, because That's God's way. And when
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: he did, and not until he did, was he cleansed.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Alexander White, one of my favorite Old Testament biographers, in
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: fact Bible character writers, says, my brethren, salvation is not
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: cut to your pattern. Leprosy is not cured on your prescription.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I advise you to get over your temper and to
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: try that very way that you have up till now
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: been so hot and so loud against. It will humble
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: you to do it, and you are not a humble man.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: But if you ever come back from Jordan with your
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: flesh like the flesh of a little child, you'll be
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the foremost to confess that you had almost been lost
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: through your pride and your prejudice and your ill nature.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: And then he pleads, oh, leper, leper, go out with
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: thy loathsome and deadly heart, go washing Jordan. Go in
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: in God's name, Go in God's strength, God's pity. Go
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: this moment. That's the message. I invite you not to
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: a river filled with water, but to a fountain filled
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: that flood. Lose all their guilty, Stain all their guilty. Stain.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Let's bow together, will you please. Salvation is not cut
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: to your pattern. Leprosy is not cured on your prescription.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: If you want to know God, if you want to
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: know what it is to have peace, forgiveness, eternal life,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: hope beyond the grave, and excitement until the grave arrives,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: you got to come God's way. You don't need the
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: River of Jordan. You need the Savior. And you're surrounded
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: by people all around this country, in fact, dotted all
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: around this world, who claim the name of Christ. And
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: you'll find in every case their search for hope has stopped.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: It stops with Christ. In every other religion, the search
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: goes on because there isn't peace, satisfaction, security and forgiveness.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: There is just more searching. Father, I thank you for
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the truth of this great Old Testament story. I'm grateful
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: that it's still true that our ways are not your ways,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that your ways are higher than ours, and we must
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: confess in this hour better than ours. Many of us
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: have wasted far too many days, perhaps even years, on
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: our own search, looking for something to buy, some person,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: to impress, some way that we expected you to change
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: our lives, and we've come to realize that it's the
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: simple faith in Jesus Christ that does the job. You're
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: satisfied with his death. Give us a sense of satisfaction
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: in it as well, Lord, and calm our spirits, and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: use our lives to reach others who are on a
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: search and are going about it the wrong way. In
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: the name of Jesus Christ, we trust you and we
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: thank you Amen.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, Nayman The Officer whose Leprosy was Cleansed,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: was copyrighted in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety two, two thousand
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: and six, twenty twelve, and twenty twenty four, and the
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles R.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: SWINDAUB Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: material for commercial use is strictly prohibited