Evidences of Naaman's Salvation

Introduction: Naaman's Physical Healing and the Promise of Spiritual Healing

0:05 Now, before reading the text which was announced in your hearing this morning, 2 Kings chapter 5, verses 15 through 19, I want to read a parallel passage from the New Testament, Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26, one of the accounts of the Apostle Paul concerning his conversion and his commission by the risen Lord, and quoting the words of Christ to him, we read in Acts 26, in verse 16,

1:05 To open their eyes, that they may turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to them of the land of Israel. And also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. And now to our text in 2 Kings chapter 5, at the conclusion of the details relative to the physical healing of Naaman, simply and yet beautifully summarized in verse 14, His flesh came again like unto the flesh. The flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And the writer goes on to say, 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.

2:28 Now therefore I pray thee, take a present or a blessing of thy servant. But he said, that is the man of God, Elisha, as Jehovah liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, If not, yet I pray thee, let there be given to thy servant two mules burden of earth.

2:55 For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto Jehovah. In this thing Jehovah promised, Pardon thy servant, when my master goeth into the house of Rimen to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimen. When I bow myself in the house of Rimen, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace.

3:28 So he returned from him a little way.

3:35 After considering the record of Naaman's healing, as setting forth in a very vivid way the unrivaled sovereignty of God, the unfathomable wisdom of God, and something of the unbounded love of God, we then examined for two Lord's Day evenings this account of Naaman's healing as setting forth in a very graphic way the way of a sinner's salvation. Naaman's healing is like a number of the healings, recorded in the Old and the New Testament, in that these healings are, as it were, a picture in the theater of the physical and the tangible of the mighty work of God in the realm of the invisible and the intangible, that is, the realm of the soul. We noted that that activity fell into three major categories, Naaman's conviction of need for a divine deliverance, God's, God's activity in preparing him for that deliverance, and then the obedience of faith which brought the deliverance. Now tonight we want to conclude our studies in this particular incident by

4:53 carefully examining what I am entitling the manifest evidences of Naaman's spiritual healing. Now the evidence of his physical healing was very clear to Naaman himself and to all of his followers. And to all of his friends and to any who knew his previous condition. For verse 14 states, his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

5:22 And where once human eyes could see the ugly evidences of the living death of leprosy, those same eyes could now behold the evidence of his physical healing. Well, it's my thesis tonight that verses 15, through 19 contain equally clear and equally convincing evidence that Naaman received not only the healing of his leprous body, but something far more wonderful. He received the healing of his leprous soul and that long after that body healed of the living death of leprosy was rotting in a grave, the soul that was brought to the healing touch of the living God will be, as it is in this very moment, a monument of the savoring power of Jehovah. And I should like to suggest that there are four specific lines of manifest evidence that Naaman was brought to true spiritual healing. He was brought to what is described in the language of the Acts 26 text to turn from his sin

Evidence 1: A Public Confession of Faith in Jehovah

6:39 to the living God and brought forth fruits, meat for repentance. The first one that is set before us in the text is what I have entitled a public confession of faith in Jehovah as the true and living God. Verse 15, And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him and said, Behold! Now!

7:09 I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Notice for a moment the circumstances of this confession. It came after he was healed, he had nothing more to seek or to gain from the hand of the prophet. The thing that had brought him to Israel had been realized.

7:36 The thing that had moved him in the first place to seek out Elisha the man of God was Elisha, the man of God, was already his possession. So in a very real sense, he could have packed up his things and made his way back to Syria. But he doesn't do that. He returns to the man of God, and notice, he returns in the presence of all of his companions who were brought with him from Syria.

8:04 He does not tell his entourage, wait here while I go and have a few words with the prophet. He gives orders that all of them return with him into the presence of the man of God. So this confession was given after he received the healing and had nothing more to gain from any interaction with the prophet. It was obviously totally spontaneous.

8:31 There is nothing in the record to indicate that the prophet said, go wash and then come back and talk to me or tell me what has happened. It was totally spontaneous, and it was public. It was made in the presence of all of his company as well as in the presence of the man of God. Now so much for these few particulars relative to the circumstances of the confession.

8:58 What then is the significance of this confession? Well, it is nothing less than a public declaration that Naaman has repudiated, all other gods and all other claims of all other gods and all personal attachment and allegiance to those gods in any form whatsoever. For this man from his pagan Syrian background to say, I know that there is no God in all the earth, was a confession on the one hand of an absolute, absolute repudiation of the very essence of his pagan religion, namely that there are many gods, that each nation has the right to have its own gods, to worship its own gods. But he makes this sweeping declaration, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but that God who is in Israel, and he knows his identity by name, for you'll remember up in verse 11 he said, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God.

10:19 And we must remember that the knowledge of the mighty deeds of Jehovah were quite well known amongst the pagan nations. When you turn to the book of Joshua in chapter 2 and read all that Rahab the harlot knew about Jehovah, and that was prior to the conquest of Canaan, you can imagine the tremendous backlog of knowledge that existed by way of verbal transmission among these pagan nations, concerning that God, who was the God who would put forth his arm of power on behalf of his own peculiar people, so that this confession in a real sense is a parallel to confession to that of Rahab, which according to the book of Hebrews is a confession of an intelligent, and of a virile faith. And so what we have in this passage is the first manifest evidence of Naaman's spiritual healing, namely a public confession of faith in Jehovah as the true and the living God. Now let me say by way of application, if we, like Naaman, have been brought to that spiritual healing from the malady of the devil, from the malady of our leprosy, an inevitable attendant of that spiritual healing

11:47 will be a public confession of Jehovah Jesus as the only Savior of sinners.

11:58 We are saved by faith. That is, faith is the instrument by which we lay hold of the offered salvation, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and we are not saved by faith plus confession. But the Bible makes plain we are not saved by a faith that does not issue in confession. For the teaching of the word of God is clear in such passages as Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10.

12:35 Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord. In other words, our confession must be in terms of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Lord of glory, the mediatorial Lord, the one who has come to his throne of lordship by way of his cross and his open tomb. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And here our salvation is said to be conditioned upon a confession as well as upon a belief. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made, unto salvation. And here the same apostle who has been so careful to establish in the previous chapters and in the immediate context that we are not saved by the deeds of the law, we are not saved by works of any kind of whatever sort, does say that there is no salvation without the confession of the mouth.

14:01 He binds into this closest relationship the faithfulness, faith unto salvation which exists in the heart, and the confession to that salvation which is made with the mouth. And surely he is simply echoing the words of our Lord Jesus from Matthew 10 and verse 32. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven, and whosoever will deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father, which is in heaven. And if our confession is genuine like Naaman's, it will be a public confession.

14:42 It will not be one that we make in secret. It is said of Naaman's confession that he said before them all, in the presence of the man of God, Jehovah's representative in Israel, I repudiate attachment to all other gods, and I confess my attachment to that one true and living God, who is Jehovah, the God of Israel.

15:11 Now if you frequent this place of worship, you know that we seek to point sinners continually and urgently and tenderly to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of sinners. We assert again and again that there is no saving virtue in this church or any other church. There is no saving virtue in the sacraments, be it, that of the Lord's Supper or the waters of baptism, and without in any way seeking to pare off the figure of those repeated assertions, I stand before you to say tonight that baptism is God's appointed way of public, verbal, visual confession of attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is so vital that God is not at all fastidious to use language that almost, almost appears to teach that there is saving virtue in baptism. Repent and be baptized every one of you unto the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.

16:26 Now those who rest the Scriptures take those verses and dare to teach that there is a saving virtue in baptism. And we say, no, there is no saving virtue in baptism whatsoever. All the virtue of saving might and power is in the blood and righteousness of Christ and in the work of the Spirit. But we dare not erode the clear teaching of Romans 10, 9 and 10.

16:56 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And because this text naturally leads us into the orbit of that concern, I am constrained to press it upon the consciences of some of you present here today. You say that you have come to repudiate all false gods. You say that God has brought you to that felt sense of need as He did Naaman.

17:32 That He has dealt with you, stripping away your confidence, in your own virtue. That He has stripped you away from all expectation of salvation in the creature. That He has humbled your pride and crushed your carnal wisdom. And you have been drawn to embrace Christ as your only hope of salvation.

17:54 If so, my friend, where is your public confession of Him in the way that is appointed? If you profess to believe in Him from the heart, it is not optional as to whether or not you will confess Him with the mouth, in the way of God's appointment. It is an absolutely unquestionable mandate from the Almighty. And I solemnly charge you then, like Naaman, not to run away irresponsibly saying, Wonderful, I am cleansed!

18:29 But to return to the place of God's appointment, and in the circle of those before whom that confession ought to be made, to make that good confession of your attachment to Jesus Christ in faith and in love. But then there is in the passage a second, very clear and manifest evidence of Naaman's spiritual healing, and it is what I am calling a spontaneous expression of gratitude, to Jehovah. Not only a public confession of attachment to Jehovah, but a spontaneous expression of gratitude to Jehovah. Look at the language in the text itself. The latter part of verse 15. Now therefore I pray thee, take a present or a blessing of thy servant.

Evidence 2: A Spontaneous Expression of Gratitude to Jehovah

19:30 But he, Elisha said, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Now why is this incident recorded? Well, it is here recorded to show another undeniable manifestation of the grace of God in Naaman's heart.

19:53 Having confessed his repudiation of all false gods, his attachment to the God of Israel, there is now this spontaneous expression of gratitude to Jehovah. He has been freely and graciously healed. No price was laid in Elisha's hands before he made his way to the Jordan. He had no personal dealings with the prophet of God.

20:22 Now coming back with a gift in his hand, he can't be coming to buy anything. He already has what he came to get. He is healed. He looks down in the very hands that hold this gift that he would give as a blessing.

20:35 Why, those hands are like the hands of a child. Why then is he so insistent? Elisha, please take something. No, lo, as the Lord God lives, to whom you now claim attachment, I will not take it.

20:48 Oh, but Elisha, perhaps that's just a bit of oriental custom, and you're being polite with me, and maybe your Israelite manners are a little different from ours. Please, Elisha, take something as the representative of Jehovah. The gratitude in my heart is real, and it's felt, and it's burning within me. But I want to put it into something that you can see and that your God will accept.

21:13 Please, Elisha, take a present from me. And as we'll see in the subsequent incident of this matter of Gehazi, there were wise and good reasons for the prophet's refusal. We'll not go into them now, because our concern is to understand what the passage indicates of the true spiritual conversion that had occurred in the heart and life of this man, Naaman. Again, he had no order to do this.

21:42 He had no little booklet that was stuck in his pocket. Six directives to new converts, and he turned it up and said, Oh, if you're converted now, you must...

21:51 It was spontaneous. It was reflexive. Having freely received, he now longs, freely to give. And, oh, let me say by way of application, this is always the reaction of a heart touched by the grace of God.

22:11 This is always, this is inevitably the reaction of a heart that experiences spiritual cleansing. That's why the Apostle Paul, in describing the conversion of the Roman Christians, can describe it in that language that we examined some months ago in Romans chapter 6. He has no doubt but that this is true of every single Christian at Rome. Romans 6 and verse 22.

22:44 But now being made free from sin and become servants or bond slaves to God. He says, Every Christian at Rome, in whom the dominion of sin has been broken through grace, has gladly presented himself a bond slave to God. Or in the language of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul describes the conversion of every single Thessalonian in this language. Verse 8.

23:21 Sorry, verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians 1. For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that ye turned unto God from idols, there's Naaman's confession, to serve a living and true God. Not only was there a turning and repudiation of the false gods, but there was the glad spontaneous abandonment to the true and the living God. In the language of the hymn writer, contemplating the wonder of Christ's death, he penned the words, Hear, Lord, I give myself to thee. Tis all that I can do. It is utterly impossible, morally, spiritually, psychologically, use whatever term you want to describe what man is inwardly as an image bearer of God. It is impossible to have any felt sense of free and sovereign mercy imparting salvation and not to have the heart respond, saying, Lord, take a present from me.

24:44 Take a present from me, Lord, and all I can offer is myself. This whole idea of addressing congregations of professing Christians and saying, now most of you are saved and your sins are forgiven and you're on your way to heaven, but you've never yielded to the Lord, you've never surrendered to the Lord, now you...

25:05 My friends, that is sheer nonsense. Sheer nonsense! Each of us must continually know deeper and richer dimensions of abandonment to Christ. Yes, that we must be instructed from the Word of God to know more fully the implications of our bond service to Christ.

25:30 Yes, but that we should need to be instructed to bring a gift to Him. No! It is the reflex response of a regenerate heart. And here we see it with men.

25:46 Take a present from me. I cannot. Oh, please take it. Let me press that question on your conscience.

25:56 Is that your reflexive spiritual posture sitting here tonight? Do you count it your delight to say, I am not my own, and say it with joy? If not, you're not a Christian. You have no grounds to claim you are a Christian.

Evidence 3: A Settled Determination to Worship and Serve No God But Jehovah

26:22 If the sight of God's cleansing, healing mercy in the Son of God has not brought you back not to Elisha, but to the greater than Elisha, saying, Lord Jesus, I give myself to Thee, then you know nothing experimentally of the grace of God. But then there is a third manifest evidence of His spiritual healing. Not only was there this public confession of attachment to Jehovah, the spontaneous expression of gratitude to Jehovah, but a settled determination to worship and serve no God but Jehovah. Look at verse 17. And Naaman said, If not, that is, if you'll not let me present a present, indicating, you see, that he was looking beyond the prophet. He was dealing with the prophet as the representative of Jehovah.

27:24 He was saying, in essence, let me give a gift to Jehovah through your hands. But if not, I pray thee, here's the alternative, let there be given to thy servant two mules burden of earth, that is, as much earth as two mules could carry, in sacks or wicker buckets hung over their sides. Now why does he want two mules burden of earth? For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto Jehovah.

28:00 Now there are a couple of possibilities as to what was going on in Naaman's mind. Some commentators suggest, and because their knowledge of the actual in-workings of pagan thought is deeper, more extensive than my own, I can't refute them or make an evaluation of their judgment. Their judgment is that Naaman was here reflecting some of the grave cloths of his pagan past. And they tell us that it was the notion of pagans at this time that the deity of any given nation could only be worshipped in the precincts of that nation.

28:43 So if Jehovah is Israel's God, then the only way he can worship him back in Syria is to take some Israelite dirt. So in that sense he takes a piece of the real estate of Israel back to Syria that he may legitimately worship the God of the Israelites. Now that element may have been present. I do not know.

29:08 I'm not competent to make any kind of a fixed judgment on the matter. But one thing is clear, and thank God the things that are important are usually the things that are clear. He wanted that earth in order to build some sacrifices at which he would worship only Jehovah. Notice his language.

29:32 For I want the two mules' burden of earth, for thy servant will henceforth from this moment on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifices unto other gods but unto Jehovah. Now think of what this meant. You talk about a man carrying through on his confession. It's relatively safe confessing there is no God but Jehovah.

30:02 When you're in Israel standing in front of a prophet in the presence of a bunch of people who've just seen that God perform a miracle. That's sort of like getting baptized in a Christian church in the midst of your friends. But here he makes his way back to Syria. Can you get the picture?

30:20 Coming back, still with all his money. Nobody took it from him except the little bit that Gehazi tried to take later on. He's coming back with all the ten chains of clothing, almost a thousand pounds of precious metals, and then tagging behind is a couple of donkeys with some dirt. I mean that isn't exactly what you usually find.

30:40 The returning big shot carrying along with him. And so somebody says, Hey, Naaman, what in the world you doing with that donkey dirt? With all that dirt on the back of them donkeys. What in the world is this business?

30:53 Well, I'm going to build an altar. Build an altar? Man, we've got altars everywhere you turn in this country. There's altars behind everybody's fence.

31:05 There are altars in all the temples. Altars everywhere you turn. What do we need a new altar for? He says, No.

31:13 All of those altars are to gods who are no gods. And I'm not going to let anyone think that I in any way am participating in that kind of idol worship. I'll have an altar made of dirt from Israel as I worship the one true and the living God. I tell you, this man was putting his hand where his mouth was.

31:34 He's going back saying, I'm setting up a true center of worship right in the heart of the people of Israel. And he says, in the heart, polytheism and abounding idolatry. He is saying to the prophet, I have a settled determination to worship and serve no god but Jehovah and to do it at any cost. Now, it's my own conviction that the more profound significance of this event, I can't make judgment on whether or not he still had some overtones of pagan thinking, but as we have found again and again in the ministry of Elisha, there is a wonderful prefigurement of gospel days in Elisha's ministry. We could not help but see the parallel between the feeding of the five thousand and the discourse of the bread of life in the way that those barley loaves were multiplied. In the resurrection we see the mighty power of him who said, I am the resurrection and the life. And surely here we have a prefiguring of those who are the resurrection and the life and the life of the Lord Jesus.

32:53 You remember when the woman at the well said, Hey, should we worship here in this place? You Jews say back in Jerusalem. What is the right hungaril estate on which to worship? Jesus said, The hour is coming and now is when neither here nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship.

33:16 The Father seeks the people to worship him in spirit and in truth. This was a real irregularity. You don't have altars set up anywhere but in Israel under the direction of the appointed priesthood. But here the prophet in the name of God approves of this.

33:40 Why? What a marvelous picture of that day when Gentiles would raise altars to Jehovah Jesus throughout the face of the earth. If you penitent heart there is an altar raised to the living body. And Naaman becomes a wonderful picture of that day when the gospel would as it were break over the banks of ethnic Israel and would spread to the ends of the earth.

34:23 And here the prophet in the name of God would offer the gospel to the Gentile gods. He would know what it is to render acceptable worship through Jesus Christ in the sacrifices of praise and adoration and in the sacrifice of presenting concerning the leprosy of your sin. If you have seen in the Lord Jesus the only hope of sinners and from the heart you have embraced him then with Naaman you too have a settled determination to worship and serve no God but Jehovah. A determination to do so what about it my friend? You claim to be a Christian? Do you have a settled determination to worship and serve the living God?

35:39 That was true of the Thessalonians. Ye turn to God from your idols to serve him. Though your problem may not be idols of wood and stone but you are a Christian and you are in the right to worship the living God and to worship him. You have the power of the Holy Spirit to worship the living God. on the eyebrow, or a disapproving glance from one of your friends. May God help you to see the folly of your position. For some of you, your God may be ambition. It may be your family,

36:48 your wife, your home. Whatever it is that takes the supreme allegiance of your heart is your God. God will not brook any rival to that place in your heart. One of the clear marks that Naaman became a true man of God, a true believer, is that he expresses this settled determination to worship and serve no God but Jehovah. And my friend, if you've had a sight of Christ crucified, that again is no burden to you. When you read in Romans 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice. You don't think that that's an excessive demand. You think it's the most reasonable thing in all the world. You don't count it a burden. And if the very thought of that

37:51 is a burden, then, my friend, it's an indication of the wicked idolatry of your heart. And I can only pray, even as I preach, that the Spirit of God will give you such a sight of your leprosy, the desperateness of your plight, the only answer to that plight in Christ in giving you the Holy Spirit. And you and I, to see Christ in the glory of His dying love and in the power of His risen might, that you, with Naaman, will say from henceforth, I will dare to go back into the bastion of idolatry where all my friends worship the latest high, whether it's the latest drug-induced high, the latest musically-induced high, the latest sensually-produced high. I'll go back! Into the idolatry of these who worship their highs. And I will say I'm determined to live soberly and righteously and godly, worshiping none but the living God. And you'll erect

38:59 your altar to Jehovah right in the midst of all that idolatry. At work, at school, at play, it matters not! That's what it means to be a Christian. Are you one? Well, then, fourthly and finally... We see as another manifest evidence of Naaman's spiritual healing that which comes out in verses 18 and 19. And it's what I'm calling a deep desire to walk with a good conscience before Jehovah. He not only rendered a public confession of faith in Jehovah, spontaneous expression of gratitude to Jehovah. Settled determination to worship only Jehovah. But now notice the deep desire to walk with a good conscience before Jehovah.

Evidence 4: A Deep Desire to Walk with a Good Conscience Before Jehovah

40:02 This miracle is how it longs for getapp pu rim hol i z god to ensure that God is at will for his disciples in the house ofmen. . Verse 18 ."In this thing, Jehovah pardon thy servant, when my master goeth into the House of Riman to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself down in the house of riman.

40:18 . myself in the house of Rimen, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, you miserable, half-converted hypocrite, you don't have the root of the matter in you. That's the way some commentators interpret the passage. The only right thing for Elisha to have said to him is words such as I have read into the text. No, Elisha says, go in peace. And of all that I have read on this passage, nothing makes more good sense with the text and the context than what I read in Edersheim, who, speaking to this, says, when my master, this is his own translation from the original, when my master goeth into the house of Rimen to bow down there and he leaneth on my hand and I bow down. in the house of Rimen, when he boweth down in the house of Rimen, O let the Lord forgive thy servant in this matter.

41:19 It will be noticed that according to this reading, a sharp distinction is drawn, even although the terms used are the same, between the bowing down of Naaman, simply because his royal master leaned on his arm, and in the bowing down of the king of Syria, who bowed down for the purpose of worship. You notice he's careful to say, when my master goes to the house of Rimen to worship, and my bowing is only incidental to the fulfillment of my official tasks as his valet, his right-hand man. The very mention of this scruple by Naaman proved not only the tenderness of his enlightened conscience, but that he was not in any danger of conformity to heathen worship, and so without speciality. He was not in any danger of conformity to heathen worship, and so without speciality entering into the matter, Elisha could bid him go in peace. Now why is this recorded? Well, for the simple reason to demonstrate that when a man comes to true faith in the living Jehovah, the living God Jehovah, there is immediately impressed upon his heart this deep desire to walk in good conscience before Jehovah.

42:39 Because communion with God can only be maintained in the context of a good conscience. A conscience all bloodied with unconfessed sin cannot be the context of delightful communion with God. And so as his mind begins to project back to Syria, he faces the reality of setting up an altar to the true God in the midst of idolatry, and he's prepared to do it in the suburbs of Syria, as well as his работы at any cost. He thinks through the official responsibilities that await him back there, in the royal palace of the king of Syria, and then he remembers, it won't be long before a holy day comes. And on those holy days my master expects me to take him and accompany him, whether as Bodyguard or whether the King was actually feeble, we do not know. But he anticipates that he will have to walk with his King into the God running, and he that his king is a pagan who from the heart embraces the gods he once embraced but has now repudiated and his conscience anticipating the compromising appearance is so sensitive that he brings up the issue long before it ever comes to pass and says to the prophet as the representative of Jehovah I pray

44:05 I pray that Jehovah will pardon thy servant what is this my friend here's the evidence of a converted man who like the apostle Paul exercises himself to have a conscience void of offense to God and to man one of these days I hope to preach a series of messages on the doctrine of conscience in relationship to the Christian life suffice it to say that the apostle Paul puts it as a central issue in maintaining the vitality of spiritual life he says to Timothy the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith on faith he goes on in 1st Timothy to say Timothy hold faith and a good conscience which some having thrust aside have made shipwrecked concerning the faith they started on the high road to apostasy when they let their consciences be bloodied when they let their consciences be smitten and they did not deal with their sin they rationalized they excused they glossed over they went hours days and weeks until the heart by degrees became hardened and then the judgment begins to play tricks to justify the state of the heart

45:31 and the road to apostasy never begins with errors in the head but with perversity in the heart so we have in Naaman a wonderful example a clear example of this fourth evidence this manifest evidence that he experienced true spiritual cleansing this deep desire to walk with a good conscience before Jehovah now let me press that is this true of you I remind you nobody Naaman down by the side now look you profess to be a Christian now here's your little booklet with 10 rules to live the Christian life it was reflexive reflexive reflexive why because he had come to know the grace of God in saving power my friend do you know anything of walking with a tender conscience before God when the harsh words that we heard about this morning slip out to your brother to your sister are you pained are you breathed are you smitten until you've gone and without any equivocation or glossing over owned your sin and sought forgiveness

47:00 and you've spoken harsh words to husband to wife to brother to sister in Christ when you've allowed your eyes to rest upon forbidden objects no one knows but you and God do you feel pangs until the thing is dealt with just as much as if those thoughts had been projected on the screen for the entire church to see when you feel the risings of envy of jealousy of bitterness and you've entertained them long enough to feel a sense of justice enough to be conscious of their rancor and of their terribly infectious influence upon the soul? Do you cry to God for cleansing in the blood of Christ? Do you know what it is to have the kind of a conscience Naaman had? If not, my friend, it's doubtful that you know anything of the grace of God. I don't care how much you know intellectually of the

47:58 gospel. It's doubtful that you know anything of the grace of God experimentally. One of the most wonderful things is to see the tenderness of a true convert in the days of his spiritual infancy. And one of the tragic things is so few maintain it to the end of their days.

48:27 To see a new convert weep. And when you ask him why, he says, I didn't pray today. I got so busy I skipped prayer. I've seen new converts weep because they despise their Lord enough to skip a day of conscious communion. Oh, that's legalism. My friend, that's the language of your own unconverted heart that knows nothing of the very thing we're talking about. Some of you can go days and not pray. Conscience doesn't speak. You see, the new convert Smithley feels as guilty as though he robbed the First National when he cheated the Lord on his portion.

49:13 That belongs to him by right. And for one reason or another, he did not give to the Lord his due portion. And his conscience smote him. He felt the guilt pangs of a criminal until he asked God's forgiveness and then gladly gave to the Lord what was his. Some of you have gone weeks and months and you robbed the Lord of his portion continually and your conscience doesn't even twitch. Doesn't even twitch!

49:49 Just like some of you sitting in front of the TV. The first scene that came in front of your eyes was titillating in nature. It was marked by ribaldry or by unclean language. You felt a shock and horror and your hand reached out instinctively, and you flipped off the TV.

50:09 Now you just settle back into your chair with even more comfort and drink it in, and your conscience doesn't smite you. WRIGHT์‿H gibberish Puisque of 3 where are you? Is God finding you with his word? You're on the high road to apostasy.

50:28 You don't come back to the place of a tender conscience if ever you know it. Things that once made you weep and blush don't even make you twitch anymore. And you say, well, I've grown up now. I understand the doctrine of Christian liberty. No, no, my friend. You've gone in the road of a hard heart. You've become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And if you know nothing of that tenderness, you better ask yourself where you stand before the God of the universe. Because for the true Christian, nothing is more precious than communion with God. Therefore, nothing is more heinous than that which interrupts his communion with

51:24 God. And a bloodied, wounded conscience interrupts communion. And if you put no more value upon communion with God than to allow your conscience to be laden down with the accumulated accusations of unconfessed sin, then, my friend, there is little reason to believe you're a Christian. And I plead with you to seek the God whom Naaman sought and found. I plead with you to call upon the God who is manifested in the Lord Jesus.

52:06 I call upon you to seek a new heart from him, to seek cleansing of all your sins, to seek from him that inward work that will then manifest itself as it did in Naaman, in that open confession, in that spontaneous expression of gratitude, in that settled determination to worship no one but the true and living God, and in that deep desire to walk with God. There is no better place for us as the people of God to renew those graces in our hearts than at the Lord's table. For if they are there as the implantation of grace, they can only grow by the nourishment of grace. And Christ himself is the fountain of that grace. Oh, that we may find joy as we nourish our souls upon him.

Conclusion: Call to Seek and Renew God's Grace

53:08 But my friend if you've never fed upon him then you must come to him in the way of the gospel invitation that is turn from sin throw yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ and find his word of promise true him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray. Our father we are indeed grateful for the record of your mighty work in the heart as well as in the body of that ancient Syrian general. We thank you for the clear evidence of your mighty work in him and we bless you that that's the work you continue to do in the hearts of all whom you draw to yourself. May your spirit be pleased to take this work.

54:13 May the word preached tonight and burn it into the fleshly tables of our hearts and may it bring forth fruit even that fruit unto everlasting life. Hear our prayer and continue with us as in obedience to our Lord Jesus we gather to his table we ask in his worthy name. Amen.