Sermon on 2 Kings 5:9-14



ELISHA PROVIDES A REMEDY FOR NAAMAN’S LEPROSY.

2 Kings 5: 9 – 14

Sermon by:

Rev. G.R. Procee

PUBLISHED BY THE

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

OF THE

FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.

(October 2005)

No. 4 of a series of 6

LITURGY:

Votum

Psalter 170

Law of God

Psalter 419: 2

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 2: 10 – 17

James 4: 1 – 10

Text: 2 Kings 5: 9 – 14

Congregational Prayer

Offerings

Psalter 143

Sermon

Psalter 277: 3, 4

Thanksgiving Prayer

Psalter 103: 2, 4

Doxology: Psalter 261: 1

Congregation,

Naaman, the Syrian general is standing before Elisha’s house. He is seated in his royal chariot. Around him are the other wagons, the chariots, the horses, the bodyguards and some soldiers that came along for the general’s protection. All these are stopped near the house of Elisha. We imagine that Elisha had a simple, rather poor dwelling place. Naaman, the Syrian general, laden with gifts of gold and expensive cloth is standing in front of Elisha’s simple house.

He expects that he will be healed from his disease and is fully expecting to pay well for the healing remedy. Now we will see how the prophet Elisha will provide healing but in a different way than the Syrian general expected. That will cause some difficulties from Naaman’s side.

Let us consider: Elisha provides a remedy for Naaman’s leprosy.

This remedy is 1. Prescribed

2. Rejected

3. Received

Naaman is a proud man. He thinks and feels quite important. He comes to Elisha and lets the chariots and wagons roll in front of Elisha’s house. But Elisha in no way may feed this pride. Naaman expect that Elisha will come outside and will feel very privileged that such a high placed Syrian general comes to his house, to see him, and to speak with him. Naaman fully expects that Elisha will profusely thank him for coming to him and expecting a cure from no one else but him. He expects the prophet to greet his distinguished visitor in a most humble way, and then ask to examine the disease and apply the cure by some action like waving the hand above the spot and at the same time calling upon the name of his God. This would be the miracle cure that Naaman had waited for and traveled a long distance for. Finally, the leprosy would disappear and Naaman would be himself again.

In return for the miracle healing, Naaman would pay Elisha richly with gold, silver and expensive cloths. He would expect Elisha to thank him repeatedly for the generosity. And the leprous Naaman could go home to Syria cured, and even more proud than before.

But that’s not the way it’s going to be!

Because, God’s ways are higher than our ways! When God cures and saves, He makes a man humble, poor and weak. He delivers a man from pride. It is sinful to be proud and have high thoughts of one’s self. When the Lord saves a soul, He humbles that soul. When we are saved, we learn that we are not saved by anything of self but only in spite of self. Elisha was not going to cater to these proud feelings of Naaman.

The proper protocol of those days was of course, that a visitor would be greeted according to the rules of oriental hospitality, but the prophet Elisha doesn’t do that at all.

He does not leave his house. He stays inside and does not even meet Naaman, but under Divine inspiration, Elisha sends his servant Gehazi to go outside and tell Naaman the Syrian

general the prescription: “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” That was all.

But won’t Elisha come out and greet Naaman and speak to him. Isn’t this an excellent opportunity for Elisha to preach the gospel to this heathen? Elisha does nothing of the kind! Just a simple message, which is the gospel for Naaman. That is the way to salvation for this man. Elisha pays little or no attention to Naaman.

Why? Because, Naaman has to learn the great lesson, which by the way, we all have to learn in life, and that is that we have to become humble and poor. Naaman can be cleansed, but not in his own way, only in God’s way. God’s way is the way of humiliation and of bowing before Him in the dust. The self-will and the self-pleasing must cease. Naaman must learn to submit to the will of God. He can only be cleansed of his leprosy by bowing to God’s will and not on his fancy.

That is always the way in which God saves, cleanses and restores a sinner. It is in the way of humbling one’s self before a Holy God, confessing our pride and sin, and seeing one’s inability to save self because of our sinful pride and corruption within. For, all sin stems from pride. We want to be like God.

Remember, Adam and Eve by pride wanted to be like God and fell in the Garden of Eden. Man rebelled against God, his Maker. Man rebels against all of God’s commands even today. Man is self-righteous and high minded. The devil tempted our first parents by saying, “ye shall be like gods knowing good and evil”.

This aroused them to rebel against God. If man is to be restored again to God and delivered from sin he must be humiliated and acknowledge that God is God and none else. Self must be broken. Isaiah 2:11 says,” The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.”

Blessed it is if in this life, we may learn to bow before this God in the dust. This is the way to salvation. Naaman has to learn to abase himself before God; otherwise, there would be no salvation for him. He must leave his throne of pride, come down from his chariot, and descend into the dust denying himself and become the least before God. James 4:6 says,” Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Naaman must learn to deny himself and abase himself before the God of Israel.

Naaman hears the message. “Wash yourself seven times in the river Jordan”. That is all. That is the prescription to obtain the remedy for his disease. This is the means to obtain the cure.

A similar prescription is given to those who have learned that they are spiritually leprous. For sinners there is no other remedy than to be washed in the Fountain which has been opened for sin and uncleanness. That Fountain of the Blood of Christ is the only remedy for sinners. We read in 1 John 1:7 “The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

My friends, we are all suffering from this spiritual leprosy, namely, sin. It is absolutely that in this life we be washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ. For the Lord Jesus Christ has said in His word, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”

The emphasis must be on the word I. The important thing in life is that Christ Himself must wash you and me. We can wash ourselves as often as we want, with or without soup, but you will still remain unclean in the sight of God. We must be washed inwardly, in the heart. That is where the problem is!

You may try to merit cleansing by all kinds of good works and religious duties, and that indeed will bring you applause from friends, neighbors and the world, BUT it will not cleanse you from your sin. If I wash thee not!

Listen closely to those words again. It states, “If I WASH thee not.” The blood of Jesus Christ needs to be applied to the heart. He needs to wash us from the filth of sin, from the pollution of sin, from the stain of sin and cleanse our guilty conscience. He needs to wash us completely.

He may have instructed you, but so was Judas Iscariot. You may have directed others to the Fountain of washing, but have you yourself been washed by this Fountain? Without this washing you remain in your sins and outside the Kingdom of God.

Are you burdened with your sins? Have your sins been revealed to you? There is only one remedy to be delivered from your sins. Be earnest in prayer, asking for the cleansing blood of Jesus to wash you from all sins. There is a washing and cleansing in the Blood of Christ. All spiritual lepers who have been awakened to their desperate condition can be cleansed by the Blood of Christ.

Those who abhor themselves in dust and ashes because of all their sins and iniquities, and who learn by the Spirit’s workings to lean upon that finished Blood of Christ for their spiritual cleansing will at God’s time and in His way receive this grace, this underserved grace, given to the chief of sinners. They become a dependent one, needing only this Fountain. They learn to prostrate them self at His Holy feet, begging for undeserved mercy. They learn to trust this Jesus alone, for no one else can do. They need the finished work of Christ. They are the ones who come to Christ in true faith.

They are cleansed and washed completely. Romans 8:1 states,” There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Those who are in Christ have all their sins washed in His precious Blood. This is great mystery but also a great wonder! This forgiveness is received in the way of humiliation. The soul is deeply humbled before the Throne of God, confessing sin and iniquity and pleading for mercy and pardoning grace but also trusting and believing that salvation can and will only come from the finished work of Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. The sinner has no other refuge and no other comfort than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Naaman hears the message he receives from Elisha’s servant. He must wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. But Naaman does not appreciate this treatment at all. So then, we have considered the remedy prescribed but now we will look at the remedy rejected.

2. The Remedy is Rejected

Naaman has come all the way from Syria. He is desperate.

There is no other solution for him, no other cure provided for him. He is willing to pay dearly for a remedy, and now he hears this treatment. Wash seven times in the Jordan River! Such a simplistic, degrading order for him. Take a bath seven times in the Jordan River at no cost and a very simple deed. Naaman turns around and burst with anger! He is offended at such an order because it goes contrary to his thoughts and expectations. Naaman sees himself going down into the dirty Jordan River to bath seven times in front of all his viewers and coming out how? The thought is preposterous!

The Jordan River is extremely muddy and dirty compared to the Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus. Those two rivers flowed fresh down from the Lebanon and were fresh and clean rivers with good clear water, much better than the muddy water of the Jordan. What a request! To bathe in the muddy waters of the Jordan. Naaman says: “Does the prophet think that I, the general of the Syrian army, came all the way from Syria to take a bath in a mud river? “ In public? Then, I could have rather taken a bath in the Abana or in the Pharpar.

The thing that Naaman must do is a very simple thing. But that is now exactly the stumbling block. Wash seven times in the river! That is very simple is it not, children. But, this order is contrary to human wisdom. Naaman had expected that a much more difficult order and remedy would be prescribed for him to execute. Now the fact that he had to take a simple bath fills him with extreme scorn.

The situation is exactly the same in spiritual matters, congregation. Many today consider the waters of Jordan dull and muddy, and the God appointed way of salvation not necessary because other ways are available. The preaching of the Word of God alone is too simple and boring. The preaching of sin and grace, the preaching of the meritorious sufferings and death of Jesus Christ for a guilty, condemned sinner, is not wanted by many. Isn’t that true? Many don’t like that religion. Many deny the truths of scripture. Other things need to be added in the service to make it more entertaining, so that the hearers will remember the message. But do they? More often than not, everything is remembered except the short watered-down version of the message. Man’s inventions are added, some niceties, some specialties, some visual presentations, more audio to uplift the spirit, and you may add to the list. But not just the preaching, that is so DULL.

Are you maybe one of them? Remember, the Lord has given us His Word as a means of salvation. He is pleased to use the reading of His Word, the preaching of His Word and the singing of Psalters. He works by Word and Spirit! We are called to study God’s Word and to be diligent in listening to God’s Word. How is the Word of God used in our homes? Is it

only reading a short portion after the meals? No time for God’s Word at all? Can we go through the day without seeking guidance from above? No hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Friends, is this a picture of us? In the morning we rush off to work because we don’t want to be late, at noon we don’t want to blush in front of our co-workers, and at suppertime, a short reading from the children’s bible because the family has commitments elsewhere. In the evening, we are too tired to do much serious reading and thinking and praying. Really no time!

My friend, if this is a picture of your day, may I warn you in love, you are despising God’s Word to the detriment of your never-dying soul. Maybe you do not see the need of reading the Word seriously and frequently, but is that an excuse not to read it. The destination of your soul is a serious matter which must be known here. Start today to make amends and start afresh to read the Living Word. The Lord has called us to study it, and He is pleased to work faith in the heart and grant salvation through His Word. His Holy Spirit applies that Word to our souls and therefore we must diligently read and even study God’s Word. We are called to use the means, the God-appointed means. For, if we neglect to do so, we in practice of our lives do the same thing as Naaman did.

God’s Word goes contrary to human wisdom. It goes contrary to human pride. Naaman came as the great man from Syria but now he was told to do something he finds foolish, useless and ridiculous. His pride is hurt! He is angry!

Congregation, this is experienced by all those who fear the Lord. The heart of rebellion which rebelled against all of God’s laws and precepts in the past still rises up against a good-doing God time and again. We do not want to live by free grace alone. We would rather work ourselves to death by works than bow in the dust begging for a crumb from the master’s table.

Before having received grace, the soul finds the thought of resigning to god’s will and way difficult and even impossible. We want to be our own master. To admit that we have sinned against God, a good-doing God every day and confess our sins and rebellion we find too harsh and hard and consequently want do we do? We resist free grace! Until the Lord, by His Holy Spirit becomes too strong for us! Then, we are made willing to bow and confess. Then it is delightful to draw nigh to God with tears of contrition and confess our sins, even the little sins of every day. We become nothing before God, having no rights, no merits, no not even words. We lay prostrate before a Holy God. He may do with us what is pleasing in His sight.

Do we know this personally? Have you become the chief of sinners before God and man? Have you felt that you are nothing but sin and guilt before God? Does it grieve you that you can do no good at all? Where do you go with all your guilt? To the law? Or to another? The Holy, sinless, God-appointed mediator between God and man has He been revealed to you as your mediator? Is He your Savior? Has the way of escape been opened to you? This Savior is applied by the Holy Spirit to every humbled, confessing, condemned sinner who sees no other refuge or way of escape. This lovely Jesus becomes the only hope,

the only way, the only Fountain of Life and salvation. Then you seek and find no other righteousness than the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the simple, God-appointed way of being saved. Salvation applied by the Holy Spirit.

A simple but profound prescription! Naaman hears the prescription but he becomes angry. He leaves the front door of Elisha’s house, turns around and walks to his chariot. He commands his men to ride back to Syria. Oh, how unreasonable his anger and how dangerous. His anger had nearly turned him away from the restoring of his health. His own pride had nearly been the cause that Naaman would die of leprosy.

If Naaman had persisted in this angry state, he would have returned to Damascus as a leper doomed to die. The remedy is presented to him, yet Naaman doesn’t accept it. Why not? The reason being that the remedy is too simple. Naaman will not bow, he will not be humbled. He will not enter the Jordan and wash himself seven times. The dirty, muddy waters of the Jordan. No, never! Many things have to happen before sinful man will bow before God.

Naaman says: “I thought that the prophet would come out and do this and that.” That is exactly what we say too. Also in spiritual life we think, if only I experience this or that; receive great things from the Lord, hear an audible voice from heaven, than, all is well. If only I enter the third heaven and may hear wonderful things or have a conversion like that person than I would know with certainty if I am His or not. Expecting great manifestations of grace, great experiences and …nothing happens. They we quickly blame God. For we reason, “I sought it earnestly but the Lord won’t hear.” The issue is not what we think but that God’s will be done. What does God say! But, if only my conversion would be like that person or if only I had a deeper insight into my sins, then??? True, all of God’s children know a measure of the knowledge of sin, and a deliverance from sin and a desire to live a holy life to God’s honor. But the way and the depth is determined by the Lord.

The simple remedy for a sin-burdened soul is this: confess all your sins before God against whom you have sinned. Confess it all before His Throne of Grace. Humble yourself on account of all your sins before Him. Repudiate your self, abhor your self because of all your sins, forsake sin, flee from it and beg for mercy and grace and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart. Flee to Him and call upon His name, for all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. For the unbelievers and the strangers to God and grace this is too simple! They deny this way saying it need not be so. Oh, our pride! Pride keeps man out of heaven. Pride blinds man into thinking that there are other ways and means.

God’s way is so simple and so true. But blinded man sees it otherwise. He will not be saved by the only Mediator between God and man. He will not be saved by free grace alone. He thinks:” the Lord must do such and such with me.” But, congregation, the Lord’s ways are higher than our ways. Can He not do with His creature as He pleases?

Naaman had his preconceived idea about his healing. As things went otherwise than he had thought, he rejects the offer of healing given to him. The fact is that God had attached a promise to the using of the means. This you will find so often in scripture. The Lord gives a precept and with it a promise. “Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved”. “Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.

In the case of Naaman, if he went in the way of obedience the Lord would bless Naaman with health. In the way of doing what the Lord had told him through the prophet Elisha, he would receive healing. Naaman had been given the assurance by the Almighty God of Israel that he would receive healing. Often it pleases the Lord to use weak means to fulfill His purpose.

The Lord has used Moses’ shepherd’s rod and that was more powerful than the imperial scepter. Two uplifted arms of Moses in prayer are more powerful than a whole army of the Amalekites. What were all the medicines in the world compared to the brazen serpent in the wilderness after the Lord had said: “He that looketh upon it shall live?” Yes, it pleases the Lord to use weak means. Those means when blessed by God’s power become miracles. Naaman looked at the muddy waters of the Jordan River and he despised them. He rejected the God-appointed means for his healing.

We can think that God’s ways are mysterious and that they do not make sense. We can even think that it is of no use to pray, or hear the word, or read the Holy Scriptures, or seek the Lord’s will. What really is the use? Why do we have to exert all this energy? Will the Lord hear me after all that I have done? Even those who truly fear the Lord are in danger of despising the means. They too can think when all is dark within, what is the use of praying to the Lord?

Satan then can whisper thoughts to forsake the God-given means and seek it elsewhere. But the Lord does not lie and He cannot lie. God’s Word is TRUTH. God is faithful to His Word. His promises are attached to the means. Although it seems as if the contrary is true, God’s Word is the TRUTH.

Do you need evidences that this is so? Look with me to Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Do you notice the precept and the promise? Another example is John 15:5 “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” How can you be fruitful? By abiding in Christ! Christ abiding in you. Hebrews 7:25 “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Look at 1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:” Matthew24:13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” These are just a few of the many examples in Holy Scripture.

There are so many promises given in God’s Word and the means are simple and plain. ‘Humbling, seeking, coming, abiding’ etc. Because they are so simple we so easily despise these means. We then reject God’s way of truth. That is exactly what Naaman did! May the

Holy Spirit teach us the true humility and a life of faith. May we not depart from the simplicity of God’s Word. Let us bow and persevere for God’s Word and God’s Name is at stake. He cannot lie. He always speaks the truth. Although it seems as if the contrary is true, God’s Word is true.

God gave Naaman a promise, but Naaman despised it. We too have received promises in His Word. Let us not be foolish to despise these promises. Let us bow before the Word of God and not question its contents. Let the Word lead you in the future what ever it brings, and be obedient unto the Lord and His Word.

We have seen that the remedy was prescribed, the remedy was rejected, and now we must also consider:

THE REMEDY RECEIVED

Naaman does not want to bathe in the Jordan River. He is angry. He turns on his way back to Damascus.

Then something happens. His servants say something to him. The servants have care for their master. They address him in a caring way: “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?” The care the servants have for their master displays that Naaman was loved by his servants. This leads us to consider that Naaman was a good and benevolent master.

These servants do not want their beloved master to die.

These servants appeal to plain common sense. If Elisha, so they reason, had asked Naaman to do something big and difficult, that would have given him hope. He would have crossed the Arabian Desert or climbed some high mountain, which they knew. He would even fast for an extended period of time. But to wash in the Jordan River, no less than seven times that was completely futile. That was however the way in which he would receive cleansing from his leprosy. “Master, only wash seven times!”

The same matter applies to the way of salvation. To be saved, the Lord does not ask great things. He does not ask great achievements. If man could secure salvation by doing something difficult, man would certainly do it. But the Lord does not ask some achievement, the Lord saves sinners in His own way, the way of confession of sin and looking outside of self for deliverance. The Lord comes to us and says, “all things are ready.” Let him that is athirst take of the water of life freely. Man may not walk after the imagination of his own heart which will certainly deceive, we will only be saved in God’s way.

We may imagine ourselves free, but in reality we are all slaves of sin and lust. We may think that we keep God’s commandments, but in reality we sin against the Lord in all that we do. Every day we increase our debt before God.

WE can only see these realities if our eyes are opened. Then we see that we are sin and do sin and that we are spiritually bankrupt before God. Only when we come to an end with ourselves, by trying to please God with this good intention and that good work, only then do you see that you have nothing to present before the Lord to merit salvation. You are then convinced that you are unable to do any good and therefore not able to merit anything. The Lord says,” Why spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not, but listen diligently unto the Voice of the Good Shepherd.” Only in the way of bowing before the Lord with empty hands and a contrite heart do you learn humiliation. Then there is hope and deliverance. But this is a difficult lesson. That is however a lesson that Naaman must learn.

That is a lesson that all learn who shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only in the way of humiliation before God is there deliverance. That costs me my life, my proud life and heart. I will be broken before a good-doing God.

Naaman listens. He realizes that the rational behind the words of his servants are reasonable and make sense after all. He calms down. He listens and he agrees. He agrees to do what the messenger of the prophet told him to do. He will forget the Abana and the Pharpar Rivers for the moment. He will forget the strange reception he received from the prophet. The hurricane of Naaman’s passions is stilled. He orders his chariot to be turned around and commands the rider to go back to the Jordan River.

There, he had to dip or wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. Why? We know that in the Old Testament, when a leper would be cured by some miracle of God, he would have to go to the temple and there the priest would sprinkle him seven times with a bunch of hyssop that had been dipped in blood from a bird. He had to be sprinkled seven times. When Naaman dipped seven times in the water, the action corresponds to this seven times sprinkling by blood. Naaman is a heathen and not subject to these laws of Israel, however, we see some correlation between the two here.

In our thoughts, we see the proud Naaman returning and coming alongside the Jordan River. Naaman has to humble himself. He has to lay his outer garments aside and to enter the dirty waters of the Jordan. He dips his feet into the muddy waters. He has to go down; he has to descend, even to submerge himself so that he was completely under water, the muddy water. Once, twice, three times. No change! Four, five times. No change. It seemed completely useless. Not a beginning of a change. The same blisters and sores were there. He goes down again and again, obedient to the Word of God.

Then he goes under for the seventh time. This was the eventful moment. Now it would be true and clear whether Jehovah is God or not. Now it would be clear if the Lord was greater than all the idols. Now it would be manifested that Elisha was the prophet of the Lord. This was now the last resort. If this would fail, then Naaman would have to return in

despair. Then it would have been all for nothing. Naaman goes down into the muddy waters for the seventh time.

He comes up from the seventh washing and then…. he looks at his flesh and sees that his flesh has changed. It became like that of a little boy. His flesh was young and healthy. The Lord had healed him completely and had given a full deliverance. For the Lord does a thing perfectly! The leprosy had departed completely. With joy and great delight he ascends out of the waters and he is overwhelmed at what he sees.

The Lord had wrought a miracle. This miracle took place in the way of humiliation. In the way of humbling himself before the Lord, the Lord gave a full deliverance to Naaman. He had to go down, into the depths of the Jordan. Down into the depths seven times! He had to become less and less. The Lord gives deliverance in His own way and not in our way. It goes in the way in which I become less and less before Him. I abhor myself and l repent in dust and ashes. Then to lie at His feet. Oh, how sweet that is! Having no rights, no merits, unable to hide even one sin before His all-seeing eye and no covering for my fowl transgressions. I become not just a sinner, but THE sinner. Then to receive the liberty to plead upon the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Then also, the miracle happens. The wonder is that the Lord does not cast those poor seeking and unworthy people away. He receives them and eats with them. Luke 15. He washes them. He has communion with them. The Lord renews the heart, bends the will, and imparts new life so that what they formerly hated they now start to love. The Lord cleanses from guilt and sin. He washes them completely. He washes the sinner so that they are whiter than snow in God’s sight. He makes all things new. It is all perfect. He grants forgiveness of sins. He will never rebuke or bring those sins against the charge of God’s elect. They are all laid upon the Lamb Christ Jesus. “For the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

But this forgiveness is received in the way of confessing, denying oneself, humbling oneself before a Holy God and owning guilt and punishment. Blessed to loose all before the Lord Jesus Christ.

How are things with you? Are you a stranger to these holy matters? Have you learned to bow before a holy God? Have you owned your sin, guilt and punishment? Or do you still have merits and rights that you think will help you in the Judgment?

My unconverted friend, how sad your condition is. You have no peace and you know it. You seek it here below. You have no comfort and no happiness. Your leprosy remains on you. Your picture is seen in Naaman. Unwilling and stubborn. And yes, very proud. Proud of your achievements and accomplishments in this life. But do you realize that you cannot take these with you as you cross the Jordan River to present them to God?

Blessed are you when you have learned by God’s grace and Spirit to bow. His love breaks the hardened heart. In this way, salvation is received. Blessed to become nothing but

a guilty sinner before God and to plead for His free grace. Those pleading ones receive salvation and life eternal. Blessed to have no hopes left but only the hope in the Lord Jesus. Those and those only shall be saved. AMEN.

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