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Worship God for His Heart to Humble and Heal the Heathens | 2 Kings 5 (10-22-2023 _ Richey Goodrich)
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The speaker expresses gratitude to the audience for their support as ministry partners. They discuss their ministry of training Indian pastors and reaching Indian international students. The speaker asks for prayers for their upcoming trip to India. They then introduce the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5 and highlight how God uses unlikely people to bring healing. The story is read aloud and the speaker emphasizes the themes of God's mercy, the willingness of unlikely individuals to carry out God's work, and the danger of pride. The speaker concludes with a prayer and encourages the audience to reflect on their own pride and consider how it may hinder their relationship with God and their ability to share the gospel. Good morning, Cornerstone. Good morning. It's a great joy to be with you. I want to extend my gratitude to you for joining us as ministry partners. The last time I was here, I was presenting in Sunday school our ministry of training Indian pastors and reaching Indian international students at the University of Texas at Dallas. And since that time, you guys have joined us with generous one-time partnership and monthly partnership. And we're so grateful for that. So we're now your church's missionaries, as Mark mentioned. If you don't have one of our prayer cards or if you're not signed up for our email list, I'd love for you to sign up for that at the back where you get the bulletins. We need people praying for us, and I send something out each week about what's going on in ministry. So please join us in that if you would. I'll be going to India again in two weeks, and I'd love your prayers for that. You can stay abreast of what's going on there. All right. Well, our worship is going to continue as we go to 2 Kings 5 and look at the story of Naaman. When Jesus was trying to express God's unbounding mercy to the unlikely, he pointed to God's mercy towards Naaman in 2 Kings 5. And so we're going to glory in God's mercy to the unlikely, and we're also going to see how God uses the unlikely, like you and me, to be his agents to do that. And so as I read this text, I want you to look for who is God using, what circumstances, but especially what people is God using to bring Naaman both physical and spiritual healing. So let's read the word of God from 2 Kings 5. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of the raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went in and told his Lord, thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel and the king of Syria said, go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothing, and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read when this letter reaches you know that I have sent to you Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy. Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. But when Elijah, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me that he may know there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away saying, behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord as God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Should I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned away and went in a rage. But his servants came to him and said to him, my father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him and said, behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant. But he said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused the name and said, if not, please let there be given to your servant to mule loads of earth for from now on, your servant will offer burnt offering or sacrifice or not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord in this matter. May the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Vermont to worship there, leaning on my arm and I bow myself in the house of Vermont. When I bow myself in the house of Vermont, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, go in peace. But when they had gone from him a short distance, Gahazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God said, see, my master has spared this name in the Syrian and not accepting from his hand what he brought as the Lord lives. I will run after him and get something from him. So Gahazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, is all well. And he said, all is well. My master has sent me to say there have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim to young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing. And Naaman said, be pleased to accept two talents. And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gahazi. And when he came to the hill, he took from them their hand and put them in the house and he sent them in a way and they departed. He went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, where have you been Gahazi? And he said, oh, your servant went nowhere. But he said to him, did my heart not go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, all of orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. So he went out from his presence, a leper like snow friends. We know that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever and ever. Please be seated. Let me pray before we go further into this time. Our father in heaven, we are so grateful for the wonderful gift of Scripture. We're thankful that in Scripture we see a God of infinite goodness. As we were reminded in Sunday school today, we see a God in Jesus Christ of abounding mercy, going to the least likely and using the least likely to take your message of grace. Father, we are so thankful for those of us who are united to Christ by faith that in your kind mercy you have led us to your son, that you have redeemed us, that you have reconciled us to you, that we may enjoy and worship you in all your beauty and splendor as acceptable sons and daughters of you, the living God. And we marvel that you've entrusted to us this great message of reconciliation. The best news the world has ever known, a message that is so great and is also for every tribe, tongue and nation for the least in the lost. We pray, Father, that you would open our eyes to see the wideness of your mercy today and that you would encourage each of us who belong to you by faith in Jesus, that we are your chosen instruments to point people to the good news of a great savior for all the world. So, Lord, bless this time as we dig into this text. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. In the summer of nineteen eighty six, there were two passenger boats going into the Black Sea just off the coast of Russia and they crashed together and they crashed so hard that the boats began to sink and the passengers had to jump off into the icy waters. Many drowned, others succumbed to the icy waters, to hypothermia, and in the end, hundreds died. People began to wonder how could this happen in nineteen eighty six? Now, granted, this is 30 years ago from now, but even then they had good radar. And so as an investigation went on, they had to find out what happened that would lead to such loss of life. Surely there was a combination of radar malfunction. There must have been a bunch of fog where they couldn't visibly see each other, because unless those two things were present, what in the world could cause such a disaster? Well, as they investigated, the cause was not radar malfunction and it wasn't a foggy day. It was human pride. Both captains of each ship did not want to give way to the other captain, and so they engaged in a colossal game of chicken with neither one wanting to be the first to go right or left until it was too late. Pride led to the destruction of their careers, the destruction of human life, pride is dangerous, pride is dangerous to ourselves and pride is dangerous to others at the deepest matters, pride can keep us from experiencing the good news of the gospel that we've been celebrating in song and prayer and confession today, because the gospel comes to us first with bad news that we can do nothing to reconcile us to our creator because we are in rebellion against him and God offers us reconciliation as a free gift to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And as proud sinners, we don't like that. It's hard for us to come with empty hands and not offer something. Pride can keep us from finding salvation in Christ. Pride can inhibit our growth as believers because growth in Christ is about greater and greater awareness of our dependence on Christ for everything, for both our reconciliation with God and our obedience to him. Pride can also keep us from taking the good news to those who most need it, to those around us who are unlike us, who maybe we tend to despise, who we perhaps look at their life of rebellion against God and we think they don't deserve the gospel. And maybe in misplaced pride, we don't think that God could use us or that we might be a fool if we share the gospel. Augustine was once asked the great church father from Hippo in the third century, what is the greatest Christian character? What are the three most important things of Christian character? And he said, humility, humility and humility. Friends, we are proud people and great need of humility from our God to stay because pride is endemic to all of us. We all struggle with it, even if we already belong to King Jesus. And what we're going to see in this text is that God is such a God of grace that he's willing to humble proud people that they may receive his grace. And he's able to use his humble servants, those who've humbled themselves under his grace, to be the very agents to take the gospel forward today as we look at Second Kings five. I want you to walk away from this text, worshiping God for his heart to humble and heal the heathens. I don't use heathens in a pejorative way. We're all heathens, I would say, before faith in Christ, but simply some assonance with my ages and my sermon title. We're going to look at three aspects of this. We're going to look at how we should wonder at God's love for heathens. That's you and me, we're going to include ourselves in that category. Secondly, we want to see how we should work to humble ourselves before God. And then thirdly, we want to welcome God to heal the nations through us. Your outline should be on your bulletin. Let's begin to wonder at God's love for the heathens. Let's consider the man who's really the object of God's great mercy here. We discover in verse one that he is an arch enemy of God's people. He's a leader of the armies of the king of Syria. He's a man who led military raids and pillage and rape and killed and plundered. Don't be confused when it says in verse one that by him, the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was not a servant of the Lord yet. God and his sovereignty was using this pagan for his purposes, but he was an enemy of God's people. I mean, if you wanted to put it in modern context, this guy is like the leader of Hamas or one of the leaders and generals of Hamas. And so he was not someone that Jews would want to see come to receive God's mercy. He was not someone they would expect to receive God's mercy. I mean, think about what's involved in raiding Israel villages, killing, stealing, raping, pillaging and slaving. And we see a slave girl. Notice the disdain even of Ghazi, we saw it in verse 20 and verse 20. Ghazi can't believe that he at least get something from this enemy of God's people that he's freely handed out healing. He says in verse 20, notice the description. He says, See, my master has spared name in the Syrian and the Hebrew text. It's like this Syrian. When I was in Australia, I worked a lot of Korean origin folks and they were younger people and most of their grandparents hated the Japanese. Many of them were subject to Japanese enslavement in Korea during that time. And so their grandparents wouldn't buy anything Japanese. They wouldn't have anything to do with Japanese. And yet some of our students were being moved by the gospel and going on mission in Japan and sometimes in dating Japanese girls if they were men or vice versa. You can imagine a Korean grandpa in Sydney looking at his son or daughter and saying you're going to date this Japanese woman. There's all this hatred, all this background there, and Ghazi can't believe that God would show such mercy to them with giving him nothing. In fact, even in Jesus day, many hundreds of years later, the Jews were offended by the grace that was shown to Naaman. Jesus in Luke four, you could turn there later when he says there was lots of lepers in Israel, but only God had mercy on Naaman the Syrian. And you know what they did in response to that when Jesus said that they tried to kill him. They couldn't imagine that God's mercy would go and that Jesus would highlight that. You see, even in the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 12, there was a promise that those who blessed Israel or Abraham and his descendants, God would bless. But those who curse them, God would curse. And so you can see Jewish people thinking, come on, God, make good on that promise and a guy like Naaman curse him. You've promised. So every expectation when we read of an enemy of God's people like Naaman is that he deserves everything coming to him. He deserves this leprosy that will eventually make his limbs fall off and his life miserable in him and outcast the society as much as anybody ever deserved it. And yet we've discovered in Second Kings five, the God orchestrated circumstances and people to show mercy to the least likely look at two things that he orchestrated. Let's look at four. Actually, the first two come in versus one and two. First of all, he gave this man leprosy. This is a mighty man. This is a man's man. This is a warrior, a guy who is strong and a leader of men. And he made him weak through a disease that would waste you away and make you weak and put off by people. But he also put a little girl, a little girl who knew about the God of Israel, who knew about God's mercy, who somehow, even as a young child, knew and delighted in God's mercy. He put this little girl there who would tell him that there is someone who can cure leprosy. I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and given the sad thing that he's going to probably die in three or four years. And he's only just a few years older than me with kids. Now, if I hear of a new cure for pulmonary fibrosis or my friend does, we're going to jump at it and explore it and try to find it out. If you hear about a cure for pulmonary fibrosis, you'll probably think, oh, that's nice. But you wouldn't be inclined to explore. There's only one way that this powerful enemy of God's people would go to a prophet in Israel and hear about the God of Israel. It was if God put him in a very particular vulnerable situation, which he did through his leprosy. Notice in verse eight, two, there is a prophet in Israel at the end of verse eight. Elisha says, let him come to me that he may know there is a prophet in Israel, one sent by God to proclaim his mercies in word and deed. And then fourthly, God put servants in a life, his life, I'm sorry, in Naaman's life in verse 13, who went in, his pride says, I'm not going to do what this prophet has said in verse 13. They said, my father, it's a great thing. Why would you not do that? And so there are circumstance and person after person that God puts in Naaman's life so that he will see his need for mercy and be willing to receive the freeness of mercy that was given through him. And God is going to bring physical and spiritual healing to name and to breathe, to preview his plan for the nations, and that's why Jesus picks up on it in Luke four, because this is just a small picture of what God, when the fullness of redemption would come in, Jesus would begin to do notice in verse 14, the Lord's graciousness towards Naaman. Notice at the end of verse 14, as he finally, at the behest of his servants, listens to the message through the prophet and he goes and dips in the Jordan River. And at the end of verse 14, it says his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child. And he was clean. The Lord was gracious to heal him of his physical malady, but we see that that also led to a greater healing, a spiritual healing of name and a healing of his pride now turning from all the gods of Syria and especially the god Raman to worship the Lord and the Lord alone. There's actually a little play on words in Hebrew in verse 14, he says, restored like the flesh of a little child. And that's the same description in verse two of this little Israelite girl. She's described as the same Hebrew terminology. And Hebrew is very subtle in its points. It's very clear, I think, in the larger context that he is saying this one has become just like the little Israelite who first showed and told about the mercy of the God of Israel. He's become like a little child. We think of how Jesus often said in the Gospels, only those can come into the kingdom of God who will humble themselves like a little child. And notice now Naaman has been converted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He says in verse 15, he returned to the man of God, he and his company, and he came and stood before him and said, behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant. Verse 17, Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant to mule loads of earth, for from now on, your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any God but the Lord, but Yahweh, the God of Israel. He didn't simply receive a physical healing and said, that's nice. Thanks very much. I'm glad the God of Israel. Is one of those powerful gods among many? No, he's converted to really realize that this is the true God, the only God, the only God that can heal. Ramon could not heal him. No doubt when he went with his master and bowed down before him, he'd ask for healing for Ramon and Ramon was silent because of the gods of the nations have mouths that do not speak in eyes that do not see in ears that do not hear because there is no reality to them. In fact, in his job duties, he will be with his master and he's going to. Apparently, his master is perhaps an older man and he has to accompany them into the house of Ramon and he doesn't want there to be any mistake that when he goes in there, he's no longer going to worship Ramon along with his master when he has to bow down for the sake of his master bowing down. He says in verse 18, Lord, please forgive me. I'm not worshiping this God. I'm only worshiping you. You see, in the covenant made with Abraham, where it said, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you in Genesis 12, three, it also said all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. And in the Old Testament, a number of times, and this is one of those cases, we see just a little glimmer of that promise. We see people like Naaman unexpected out of nowhere, least likely who becomes a true worshiper of the God of Israel, who humbles himself and receives God's mercy. Just a small picture of what's going to explode when the Lord Jesus Christ comes on the scene and commissions his spirit indwelt church to go and to make disciples of all nations and to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation. Oh, Christian, are you in awe of God's mercy to Naaman the heathen? And are you in awe of God's mercy to you, a former heathen, if you now believe in Jesus? I doubt there are very many here who are physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, maybe a few. We would all fall into that category of outsiders if you look or most of us. And yet God has been so merciful. Putting circumstances in your life where you would hear the gospel, putting you in a place where you'd be receptive to the gospel and working in your heart to humble your heart, to really admit that you're in need and that only in Jesus Christ can you find salvation. Oh, friends, you should worship him and delight in his incredible mercy towards you. And friends, God's love didn't just bring forgiveness to Naaman, it really brought character transformation. And so we want to see, secondly, how you must work to humble yourself before God. We notice that Naaman was a great man only by the grace of the Lord, even when he wasn't seeking the grace of the Lord. We saw it in verse one. He was great because the Lord had given him victory. But in his greatness, because he was not worshiping God, it led not to humility, but to pride, both a personal pride and national pride. I mean, look in verse nine. It says, So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elijah's house. Here's a great man coming with all of this pomp and circumstance. And he comes to this prophet in this little country of Israel that they've already subjected. And do you notice what happens? Did you notice who doesn't come out to see him? The prophet. I mean, Elijah doesn't come out. I mean, he goes to the king first, Naaman does. The king says, What am I to do? He comes to the prophet, the prophet what sends a messenger. I mean, what a slap in the face of Naaman's pride that he would only send a messenger. It would be like if Texas Governor Abbott came to your house, maybe he's choosing to randomly talk to some citizens of Texas and find out how things are going. And he's come with all of his agents that protect him. And he comes and knocks on your door and your kid runs in and said, Mom, Dad, Governor Abbott's at the door. I'm too busy. Can you tell Governor Abbott to come back another time or send a message? I would be insulting to Governor Abbott. He would probably feel insulted here. This great man is insulted because only the messenger comes out and notice that he is angry. Look at verse 12. Naaman was angry and went away when he heard this message. He also was angry because he thought, Why should I wash in this river of Jordan? I have better rivers in my country. He goes away at the end of verse 12 in a rage. What is fueling that rage? It's his pride. He hasn't been treated as a respectful person. This country has been treated as more important than his own. But what a transformation when he experiences God's mercy. Notice the new humility that's there in verse 15 when he says, I know that there is no God in all the earth but Israel. When he finally submitted to the very simple calling to wash in the waters, his greatest humility is seen in his exclusive worship of the true God. And what a contrast he is with Gehazi. Gehazi, this servant of Elisha, this helper, is almost an anti-type here to Naaman. Gehazi had spiritual pride, too, and he wanted Naaman to pay. How could we not get anything from this guy? And so he goes, and as we saw in verses 19 to 27, I won't read it again, but he comes up with a ruse so that he can get some personal benefit and at least put something, stick something to this enemy of God's people. He can get something from it. And so he lies and gets money from him, gets possessions, if you will. And notice Elisha's rebuke of Gehazi in verse 26. He said to him, did not my heart, this is Elijah speaking, go when the man turned from his chariots to meet you? Was it a time, and notice what he says, or was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Do you know what that's a description of? That's a description of the things that you would gain in a raid. Those were the types of things that Naaman had taken from Israel in his raids. And he's saying, you're trying to get a peace back. You can't stand that our God has shown pure grace and mercy. You want something from him of what he's taking, and it's your pride. Gehazi's pride also thought that he could hide from God's prophet that Elisha wouldn't know. And notice the impact of Gehazi's pride. I'm sorry. Yeah, Gehazi's pride. Verse 27, Elisha says, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. Again, pride always hurts us and it always hurts others. You see, humility is the condition we most need to receive God's grace and to walk in God's grace. Friend, if you're not a follower of Jesus, I wonder if your pride is keeping you from embracing Christ. Do you feel like, hey, this is certainly I got to do something. I mean, I work with people from religions, Hinduism and Islam, who it's all about doing something. There's advice given and you do something. And at the end of the day, you can look at yourself. And at least I went through all these steps. At least I completed the five pillars of Islam. At least I did all this good things to get good karma. There's something in us that wants to do something because we're prideful people. It's really hard to receive free grace, and yet the gospel can only be received. The good news of Jesus, the free gift of reconciliation and righteousness and new relationship and eternal life can only be received if you'll come with empty hands and say, I have nothing to offer, but I'll freely take your gift. Oh, friends, don't be offended by the freeness of the offer. Don't be like Naaman, who gets enraged and angry. I want to speak to you like this little nameless servants of Naaman that says, is it not a great word that has been spoken to you? Friend, if you are not a follower of Jesus, you are hearing good news today and do not let your pride keep you from receiving it. God is a God of great mercy and he's offering his son Jesus to you today, right now through the preaching of his word. Oh, would you take it? And Christian, we have to walk as we came. We had to humble ourselves at some point to receive the gospel of Jesus. And that's how we're supposed to walk in the Lord. Always mindful that it's all of God's grace. The New Testament refrain over and over taken from the Old Testament is that God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And that's not only true for our entry into the Christian life. It's how we are to walk and grow in the Christian life. And I wonder, friend, if pride is creeping up in your life, unmortified, unput to death, and it's in hindering your growth and grace to grow more like your savior. I wonder if pride is keeping you from taking God's good news to those you don't like, to those you might perceive as enemies. Oh, how we need to work to humble ourselves before God. And I mean work in dependence on God to humble ourselves before God. His mercy is to make us humble. And in our humility, we must see and embrace the truth that God delights to use us as his instruments in the grace of grace in the lives of others, especially as he extends the gospel to those who do not know it. And so, thirdly, I want to challenge you to welcome God to heal the heathens through you. Did you notice how God led the heathen Haman through the most unlikely of people? I mean, look at the initial one who starts it off, this little servant girl in verse two of our passage. Notice her. She's this little girl who's taken in a raid, carried off from the land of Israel. Don't miss out on what this girl had experienced. I mean, it just says it succinctly. She was taken in a raid. Think about what that involved for this little girl. Very best case scenario, she was just kidnapped. Best case scenario. More likely, she saw her parents killed, her mother raped before she was killed. She saw all kinds of horrors and then was taken to live with a new family with a language she probably did not understand. Who knows how she was treated in that house? If there was ever a little person that we might give a little bit away for wanting vengeance on Naaman, it was this girl. If there was ever anybody who had a right to call on the curses of the Abrahamic Covenant that those who curse God's people, God were cursed, it would be this little girl. If there was ever a girl who could go to the Psalms and pray the Psalms of imprecation so that God would destroy his enemies, it would have been this little girl. She probably, we could not have blamed her if she looked at Naaman, the guy responsible for what happened to her parents and her homeland and her new situation and said, this is a sign of God's judgment, this leprosy. I hope he gets every, I hope it's long and painful. I hope he gets everything coming to him. But that's not the heart of this little girl. This little girl had been Deuteronomy 6 by her parents. She knew to love the Lord, her God. She knew of God's mercy, apparently, because she wants to tell how this man who has every right to be considered her enemy can be healed. She tells him about the prophet who is in Israel and what a contrast she is. There's lots of contrast in the story. We've seen the contrast of Naaman and Gehazi, but look at verse 7, the contrast to the king of Israel. Of course, Naaman being a great man, he goes to the king, the leader of Israel, and brings this letter. And what is the king's response? What do you want me to do? You're just trying to pick a fight. He doesn't point him to where he can experience healing. He doesn't point him to the prophet. Yet this little girl does. This little girl points to God's mercy. And notice in verse 10, another nameless, unlikely person. Remember, Elisha didn't go out. He sends a messenger. Elisha is a great prophet. I'm sure he could speak well. He could do miracles, but he sent a nameless messenger. And we don't know if this messenger is Gehazi initially or others, because there were lots of helpers around the prophet. But this nameless messenger who goes and shares the message of how he can be healed, he knows just go wash in this river. Elisha doesn't even go out. Elisha doesn't speak to him here. Notice verse 13, another nameless servant. Remember, Naaman and his pride and his spiritual pride and his personal pride and his national pride doesn't want to wash and doesn't want to do the message of healing. And who convinces him to do it in verse 13? His servants. His servants came near and said to him, my father, it is a great word. The prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean? Do you see God uses three groups of nameless people who would be so unlikely to be his witnesses? And yet God uses them powerfully and Naaman responds. Do you know that pastors only lead about one out of every 10 people to faith in Christ who come to faith in Christ? You have a great gospel preacher and Pastor Evans here. But you know what? Who's going to be instrumental if this church is to grow by conversion? It's going to be every one of you in the pews or the chairs. You know, he'll play a huge part, but you play a key part in befriending those who don't know Christ, welcome them into your life, loving on them, sharing the good news, bringing them to the Savior, bringing them to hear the message of Christ, whether sitting down one on one in the scriptures or bringing them to church or a Bible study or a community group. And here in this passage, it all started with a little girl who learned to love her enemies. She wouldn't have done it if she hadn't been able to love her enemies. We wouldn't know about Naaman. We wouldn't see this expression of God's mercy. Naaman would not have eternal life was it apart from this girl who'd been so transformed herself by God, the Redeemer of Israel, that she was willing to love her enemies. Friends, if you do not love your enemies as those who've been loved when you were enemies of God, you will not be the witness that God calls you to be. I know you have non-believing neighbors, classmates, co-workers, people that you run into at the grocery store who your tendency is to not like them. Maybe it's because of their race. Maybe it's because of their outward expressions of rebellion against God. Maybe they're LGBTQ expressive. Maybe they express all kinds of things. And there's people in your life that you don't want to have anything to do with that perhaps you even think, I hope they get what's coming to them. And yet we are people in our gospel profession who say that God loved us in Christ when we were yet his enemies. And if we will not, in the power of Christ, experiencing the wide mercy of Christ, love our enemies, we will not be the witnesses that God calls us to be. To be able to take the good news out to those who most need it, because God loves to glorify himself by saving the most unlikely of people. I mean, if you care about the glory of God, and if you're a good Presbyterian, you know your chief sin is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And God is glorified most as the gospel goes forward to the least of the lost, those most unlikely, and they come to faith in him. Also be encouraged, too. I mean, I know how most of us feel like when it comes to opening our mouth about sharing the gospel, we're intimidated. I don't know what I'm going to say. What if they present this objection? I don't know how to respond to that. We know all the objections. Can God really use me? But look who God used in our passage today, the most unlikely of people, the most simple of people. And if he can use them, he can and will use you. You just need to make yourself available to him. Having tasted the mercy of God in whatever way you can point people to Jesus, do it. Maybe it's just inviting them to Sunday morning. Maybe it's sitting down and opening the scriptures. I don't know what it is. But if you are a follower of Jesus, you are his chosen instrument to take the good news forward to your neighbors and to the nations and be encouraged by this story. Pray, step out, welcome someone you naturally would not like. Maybe the person you think is most unlikely to receive the gospel. And let's see what the Lord will do. He might just surprise us in some significant ways. At the age of 15, there was a young man named Charles in England. Charles was not a Christian yet, but because the social example and other things, he was starting to go to church. And one winter he went to church and it was a snowstorm. And the church that he thought he might go to, he didn't think he could get to because the snowstorm was so bad. And so he wandered into this little Methodist chapel with just a handful of people. I mean, nothing like this. Many people like 10 or 15 people. The pastor couldn't even come because of the snowstorm. And there was a very uneducated shoemaker in the congregation who felt they called upon to stand up and try to preach some kind of sermon. Now, this guy didn't know what he's doing. He didn't go to Westminster Seminary, didn't have an MDiv, wasn't gifted in speaking, wasn't set apart as even a ruling elder, had no preparation. I mean, your pastor puts in like 20, 25, 30 hours a week to prepare good sermons for you to hear. This guy had no preparation, no training. And so he did his best and he read a passage from Isaiah and spoke on it for about 10 minutes. And that passage from Isaiah said, look to me, all the ends of the earth be saved. And in Charles later recognition, he said it was a terrible sermon. He just kind of repeated that over and over. Look to me, all the ends of the earth and be saved. There's no structure to his preaching. There's no great illustrations, just kind of repeating. But you know what happened as young Charles was sitting under that preaching and hearing the word of God, as poor as that preaching was, the gospel was there and Charles was converted at that moment. He felt convicted of his sins and he trusted Christ as savior and began to follow him from that moment on. And do you know who that Charles was? Some of you know the story. I see your head shaking. It was Charles Spurgeon who had become the prince of preachers who, by the time he's 19 or 20, just had an unusual gift of evangelism to be able to preach and people just respond to the gospel. Even his preaching and written form still converts and builds up the church today. And it was just a humble man, a humble shoemaker who said he didn't say, OK, I don't know what I'm doing. There's no one else here. He steps up and did his best to share the gospel and how God used that. Friends, how might God use the members of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church if you just saw the wideness of God's mercy, if you celebrated that regularly, if you considered what God did in second Kings five and you just step out and you begin to build friendships with non-Christians and began to invite them into your life and into the life of this church and try your best to open your mouth and share the good news of a great savior who came to redeem people from every walk of life, from every tribe, tongue and nation. I think the Lord might do great things. Let's pray. Before I lead us in prayer, I just want to give you a moment or two of silent prayer. It's easy to move on into our service and let the things the Lord's doing in our life kind of go by the side. I don't know how God's convicting or encouraging or challenging your heart this moment. Maybe you've got a specific person or persons in your life that you're feeling convicted this morning that you really need to befriend and share the gospel. Just take a few moments of silent prayer and ask that the Lord would do what needs to be done in your heart. Just pray silently and then I'll lead us in a moment. Our Father in heaven, I pray that you would use your word from 2 Kings 5 today to do a great work in the life of your people. I pray that there would be those hearing my voice today and most of all who would hear your voice. Those who have yet to put their faith in Christ, perhaps because of pride, who you would give the grace of humility to receive Jesus today. I pray for the saints here, those young and old who know the Lord Jesus Christ and I pray that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon them, that you would give them a fresh taste of your mercy to them in the Lord Jesus and that you would convince them that you love to use the unlikely to take the gospel to the unlikely. Father, would you encourage my brothers and sisters here to step out and to begin to build relationships with non-Christians? Their non-Christian classmates, co-workers, neighbors, those that they run into in their activities and recreations. Father, give this church a heart for the lost that is expressive and reflective of their Savior, the Lord Jesus, who is the friend of sinners. Father, work in this congregation. Grant that in the months and weeks to come, there would be many who would fill these pews who even just previously did not know the Lord Jesus at all, but would hear the good news through the members of this church and become worshiping disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, use your word, use your gospel in our lives in great and grand ways. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
