Obeying the Higher Law

The Story of Naaman and Elisha

Note: You can listen to the audio sermon here: Obeying the Higher Law.

July 26, 1992 AM

Romans 7,8

Lesson:

Romans 7: (12) so then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. ... (14) For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. ... (16) ...I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. (21) I find then a principle (law) that evil is present with me- the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the Law of God in the inner man, (23) but I see A DIFFERENT LAW in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (25) With my mind (I am) serving the law of God, but ... with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:2 ..the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

It was all going very well indeed. The career was ahead of schedule- there had been victory after victory, and promotion after promotion, and now Naaman had been made Chief of Staff and General of Generals. He was on top of his world!

Then— he noticed a few strange sensations in his hands; he saw some white spots on his wrist. After a few days he went to see the doctor. He was shocked by the report! The report was: "You are a leper!" This statement, this diagnosis changed all of Naaman's life. It was a death sentence! Sooner or later it would become common knowledge, and he would be shunned, outcast, and the result was certain deformity and death! The Bible says, "Naaman was a great man— BUT he was a leper!"

But what makes this story worth telling is that even though this pagan general had a sure sentence of death, and by all the laws of nature was doomed to die, HE HEARD A WORD OF HOPE, A MESSAGE ABOUT A HIGHER LAW.

This word of HOPE came from the most unlikely place! It came from a little slave girl— a little girl from Israel that had been captured in one of Naaman's conquests. The little girl evidently cared about Naaman, and she said to her mistress—

"I WISH NAAMAN COULD GO TO ISRAEL— THERE IS A MAN THERE WHO KNOWS GOD— AND WHO COULD CURE HIM OF HIS LEPROSY!"

It wasn't much— but when you are desperate you don't need much to send you looking. The little girl told her mistress and the mistress told Naaman and Naaman told the King of Aram— and the king said, "GO FOR IT!"

So Naaman, the conqueror of nations, the general of generals, takes a small caravan of valuables and heads for Samaria and the King of Israel.

When Naaman arrived in Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom, he wasted no time. He went right to the top! When he got through stating his reason for coming, King Jehoram (wicked Ahab's wicked son) was absolutely beside himself.

"I'VE COME TO ISRAEL BECAUSE I'VE HEARD YOU HAVE A CURE FOR LEPROSY!"

Everyone knew that there is no cure for leprosy, but here stood the general of one of Israel's traditional enemies, making an impossible request. Naaman was a fearsome sight to all the neighbors of Aram, and Israel in particular.

"AM I GOD?" asked the king to his subjects. "WHO DOES THIS RAVING MANIAC LEPER FROM SYRIA THINK I AM? HE IS SIMPLY PICKING A FIGHT WITH US! HE INTENDS TO DESTROY ISRAEL!"

Naaman, for his part, was in no mood to fight or argue. He didn't think there was much hope, anyway. He simply gave the word and the caravan wheeled about and turned to go back toward the north and east.

Just about that time a man came running through the crowd. His name was Gehazi, and he was the servant of Elisha the Tishbite, a prophet of God.

[ Now Elisha was not exactly well-accepted at court. His style of worship was obsolete, and his idea of direct contact with God was not too sophisticated. And Elisha was not always civil to King Jehoram! But somehow Elisha had got word of the king's problem, and so he had sent his servant with a message to the king. ]

"SEND THE GENERAL OVER TO ME!"

It took the king about ten seconds to decide that sending General Naaman to the prophet would be a good idea. He didn't know where the prophet lived, but Gehazi was willing to guide him. So the entourage turned and left the palace.

When they arrived at the home of the prophet Gehazi went in and found Elisha. I think Elisha was in the back garden.

[Elijah was a rugged man, an outdoorsman, fond of camel skin coats and honey and locusts. But Elisha was a city person, smooth and civilized, and yet not one bit less fearless or straightforward than his illustrious teacher had been. He was not over-awed by the power of Aram's armed might outside his doorway. He did not need to satisfy any personal curiosity.]

Elisha sent word by the servant, and never himself spoke a word to Naaman:

"GO AND WASH IN THE JORDAN SEVEN TIMES AND YOUR FLESH SHALL BE RESTORED TO YOU AND YOU SHALL BE CLEAN."

"There it is! Take it or leave it! You are offered healing- - at the price of obedience and faith in God! At the price of doing as you are bidden, not as you think you ought to do!"

The Bible says,

But Naaman was furious and went away and said, "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. (5:11-12)

"IT'S TOO SIMPLE! IT'S TOO HUMBLING!"

The message of finding the higher law is not unique to this story. That message is that WHEN WE COME TO THE END OF HUMAN RESOURCES, IF WE WILL ACCEPT HIM ON HIS TERMS THERE IS GOD!

We may think that we have life pretty much under control— and yet we discover that we are sinners! Like Naaman, we are under sentence of death! The wages of willful sin is death!

We seek help for the symptoms of our sinfulness- the damage it does to our lives. We go to church— we ask for help in many accepted channels and we hear things like:

1. Sin is an outdated concept. There really isn't any sin any more— it is a combination of our environment and our inheritance. We have received a bad deal from our parents. Whatever feels good is all right to do.

   But somehow we KNOW that we are on a collision course with a just and holy God— and that we are not prepared. or...

2. We are offered various human therapies which are helpful as far as they go, but which can not reach to the depths of the real need of our lives, which is freedom from the power and guilt and condemnation of sin. We are not just people who sin— we are SINNERS!

And THEN— we hear the simple Gospel message:

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, shed on the Cross of Calvary, cleanses from all sin! Christ died for the sinner! Or this passage in Romans 10: (8-11) "the Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and if you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved!"

And our "sophisticated" reaction is like the ancient Aramean general, the leper named Naaman. "IT IS TOO SIMPLE!" NAAMAN'S STORY DOESN'T END WITH HIM GOING OFF IN A RAGE:

His servants prevail on him with common sense: "What can you lose?" He goes to the banks of Jordan— maybe to the same place Jesus was baptized, who knows?

He looks up on the banks and sees the natives watching. He knows he will look stupid! But he wades in— and dips under the water.

Nothing! He dips again— and again

Nothing! But seven times down and the seventh time up he looks— and . . . the white spots are gone!

He comes up out of the muddy water and heads, dripping, for his chariot. "Go back to that prophet's house!" he orders the driver. The caravan wheels around again and heads back for Samara.

And this time Elisha the Tishbite comes out. Maybe there is even a little smile on his face.

"Here is a million dollars!" says the general, Naaman.

"I won't take one red cent!" says the prophet. (Evidently he is on salary, like Billy Graham; or else, he hasn't learned how to make a big prophet like the TV prophets.)

The general rides away a man who is convinced of the power of Jehovah God!

Summary and Application:

I suppose that I have read this portion of Romans -speaking about being bound by lower laws— and then finding freedom in higher laws— a hundred times or more. It is NOT a simple, easy passage. We think as we read, "Why do you make it so difficult? Why don't you simply spell it out in language that we can easily understand?"

Two or three things come to mind when I think of 'easily understanding' the Word of God.

One is— that the way of salvation is easily entered, simple to grasp, requiring only the obedience of faith to say, "Jesus is LORD!"

But another is— that we think that because eternal life is a free gift, then it does not require study and application and effort, like any other wonderful truth. We think in arrogance that we know all that is to be known simply by our native intelligence. And that simply is NOT so! Paul speaks of the deep things which the Corinthians OUGHT to have been grappling with, but they simply were going over and over the same elementary truths of arithmetic, not realizing the depths of algebra and calculus and wonder that God had for them to understand and practice.

And finally, along with this lack of willingness to study: We think that God should always bend to our way of thinking; we think that we are the measure of understanding. But we must be willing to endeavor to follow God's teaching, and enter into His lessons.

This, then, is a difficult passage. It expresses the deepest joy of freedom and life in God found anywhere in the Bible. But it demands our full attention. We will not plumb its depths in this sermon together, and I hope that you will not solve its meaning this afternoon and come back with all the answers tonight. But you can begin, or you can continue— as I am sure that we all are in some measure engaged in this "heart-of-Romans truth."

Have you submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Are you even NOW confessing with your mouth, and by God's grace, believing in your heart? It is profoundly simple, and simply profound— but the freedom and power of Romans 8 is for us all! We can obey God's HOLY law, and be FREE from the "law of sin and death" as we submit to the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus!"

Elisha said to Naaman, "Go, wash and be clean!"

The Spirit says to you and to me: "Confess, believe, and be free from sin and condemnation!"

Prayer

Hymn No. 465 Trust and Obey