Flesh or Spirit

[00:00:00] I greet you in the name of our wonderful Savior this morning. It's good to be here and it's good to have each one of you here. We have a number of visitors with us and we just welcome all of you and just trust the Lord can bless you and that it can be beneficial for all of us to be here. This morning I want to look at a passage of scripture. I'd like to turn over to 2 Kings chapter 5. [00:00:38] And there's a story here that, I've read this story since I was a little boy. And we had it in our storybooks, children's storybooks, and I've read it to our children and grandchildren. And it's just a very common, familiar story to us. A story about Naaman, a man that had leprosy. And recently I was reading it again, and as I read this story, something stood out to me. [00:01:13] And what stood out to me was that you have some people that, these characters that are in this story, we have a number of characters in it, it seemed like some of them were operating just as a natural person, some were operating as a spiritual person. And you have that. [00:01:44] And I thought how alike and how similar that is yet today. I think when we look at the human story, nothing really changes, does it? It seems like people have a tendency to operate out of those, one of those two things continually. Exactly. And I, before we get into the story, just go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And we have that identified there in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. [00:02:21] And it identifies those two. It says, For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, and he himself is judged of no man. And so my goal today is just to cause us to stop and to think about our own lives. and ask ourselves, now all of us, we go through life, we're constantly making decisions [00:02:56] and we're constantly faced with situations that we need to deal with. And my goal this morning is to stop and ask ourselves, now am I doing this out of a heart that really wants to seek God and really wants to operate as a person that is filled with the Spirit of God or am I operating out of what comes natural to me? [00:03:30] Now I realize sometimes we let, I wish I could say I always operate out of the Spirit of God and I think we understand that there's times when that natural bent that we can have can take over. What is predominantly in our lives? I believe if we operate out of the Spirit of God, then I believe when that is predominant in our lives, and those things come in that come from the natural part, then I think immediately we recognize it and we deal with it. [00:04:04] But that's my goal, I guess, this morning in this story about Naaman. You know, I've noticed that this story is one of contrast. And it's a story about two different countries. A story about Syria and Israel. Israel being the northern tribe. The northern part of Judah was in the south, Israel was in the north. And I've noticed that the natural man and the spiritual man didn't necessarily depend on which country you came from. [00:04:43] Israel was to be the nation of God. They were to be godly people, but we recognize that that wasn't always the case. And here you have somebody from a country that was ungodly, worshipped idols and so on. And yet I believe here we see in that country there were some that operated out of a spiritual mind. Let's read it. 2 Kings chapter 5 Now Naaman the captain of the host of the king of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. [00:05:22] And he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper Now, when you read this account, read it closely I just noticed things as I went through here that I really hadn't paid attention to before And we'll look at some of that And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid By the way, did we get the outlines for the children? Did those come in? Children pick them up? Maybe the ushers can check and see that. [00:05:58] Because one of the questions is on there about the little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God, my lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him from leprosy. And one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. [00:06:37] And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have herewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of this leprosy? Wherewith, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. [00:07:11] And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come to me, now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. [00:07:44] The Naaman was wroth 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 strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Arbana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? And so he turned and went away in a rage. [00:08:16] And his servants came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then would he say unto thee, Wash and be clean. Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan. According to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and his company, and came and stood before him and said, [00:08:50] Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, Elisha said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burdened of earth? For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. [00:09:26] Therefore, in this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant. And 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 down myself in the house of Rimen, the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing. And he said, or Elisha said to him, Go in peace. And he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, [00:09:56] Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, and not receiving at his hands that which he brought. But as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well, my master, all is well. My master has sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. [00:10:29] Give them, I pray thee, a talon of silver and two changes of garments. And Naaman said, Be content and take two talons. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house, and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? [00:11:04] And he said, Thy servant went no further. And he said unto him, When not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee, is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-servants? The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. [00:11:37] That's quite a story. Naaman was a great man. He was captain of the army there in Syria. And it's interesting some of the things that it says about him there. It says that he was an honorable man. He seemed to be one that was well thought of. He seemed to be one that people could talk to. And just different probably than what a lot of people were at that time. [00:12:12] Something that really stood out there, did you notice there where it says, He was honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. Here God had been using this man all along. And you say, how strange. Here was a man over in a heathen country, an idol worshiper, and God had been using him. God had his eye on Naaman. And I really think what God was doing there with Naaman was he was using him to punish Israel, bringing judgment upon them for their sin. [00:12:49] But something I just hadn't really caught before How that God had been using Naaman And so Naaman had it all, didn't he? He had everything He had riches, he had wealth He had everything But then the last few words of that verse says But he was a leper He was a leper And it was like that, Naaman had all these things, but you know, all those things weren't worth anything to him because of his health. [00:13:31] And you know, we can think sometimes that if I just had enough money, if I just had more money, if I just had more wealth, if I just had this and I had that. But you know, it seems like those things really aren't worth a whole lot if we don't have health, isn't it? Those things seem very insignificant. Just this week I talked to a man, a businessman, and I was asking him a little bit about, I had read where somebody in his family had passed away, and he said that was my uncle, and he's the one that started this business. [00:14:12] And he said, and it sounded like he owned it now, but he said, I would give my whole business if I could just talk to him one more time. And, you know, wealth and those things become very temporary and very unimportant when faced with some other issues and faced with some other things. Now, we also have here, and I think we would say at this point, Naaman pretty much had a natural mind, didn't he? [00:14:43] Even though there was things about him and things that, but I think he had some good qualities about him. He pretty much had a natural mind. But in Naaman's own home, there was a little girl. Doesn't say how old she was, but it called her a maid. And here was a little girl, a young girl, maybe she wasn't so young anymore, but as a young girl she had been taken captive from one of the raids that had taken place over into Israel. [00:15:15] And she had been either taken captive by Naaman himself or by others and he purchased her as a slave. And it's interesting about this little girl. I would say here was a little girl that had a spiritual mind. She was a little girl that had went through some very, very difficult things. I don't know, we can't imagine somebody coming in and kidnapping one of our children. It happens, you know, where that does take place. [00:15:46] And what a horrifying experience that is for both the person and the family. But she ended up in this home. And it seems like that she didn't become bitter about it. It seems like she accepted what had happened to her. And she had confidence that God was working in her life. And instead of when Naaman had leprosy of saying, good for him, that's what he deserves. [00:16:17] Jesus, she said, you know, if he were just, if he would just be with that prophet that is over in Samaria, that he could be healed of that. You know, I noticed she didn't even name Elisha. Somehow I always had it in my mind that she named him, and I wonder, well, why did they go over to the king, you know? But she didn't name him, she just said the prophet. And then we go into verse 4 there, and I always read that verse a little differently. [00:16:50] Somehow as I studied this, I seen verse 4 in a little bit different light. It says that one went in, I think it's Naaman went in to the king and told him what this little maid said. When you read that verse, I think it's what that is saying. Can you imagine, just stop and think about that. Here's this great captain, great man, Naaman, and he's going into the king, and he's going into the king, and he said, you know, he said, I've got this little slave girl at home, and she says that there's somebody over in Israel that could heal me. [00:17:26] Doesn't that sound kind of foolish? Really? Didn't it take a lot of courage for Naaman, you know, to go in to the king and tell him that? I can imagine the king, you know, he could have easily said, oh, what a joke, you know. But the king took it seriously. And the king, also being a natural man, said, now there, you know, he started reasoning. And he said, well, if there's that kind of prophet in Israel, it must be the king. [00:17:58] If somebody would have the power to bring healing, it must be the king. So I'm going to write to him, the king, and ask him or tell him to heal you of leprosy. That's what he did. Wrote a letter. Naaman brings the letter to the king of Israel. And he reads the letter. And he gets very upset. And I believe this king was also a very natural man. And I think if he had been a spiritual man, if he had a spiritual mind, [00:18:33] he would immediately recognize what was going on here, and he would have called for Elisha. But all he could think of was himself here, and he was afraid. He said, all they're trying to do is pick a fight with us. That's all they want to do. They want to pick a fight. And he said he even tore his clothes. Sign of grief and so on that he did. I believe that Elisha must have lived close by. [00:19:05] And I think the king somehow didn't even think of Elisha. Matter of fact, I doubt if he had a real good relationship with him. I can imagine Elisha probably rebuked him and told him about his sin and so on. So, but evidently Elisha lived close by and he said he heard what was going on. News travels fast, doesn't it? And has a way, they didn't have a news reporter, they didn't have all the things we do today, but somehow news still traveled very fast. And Elisha sent word to the king. [00:19:39] And he said, send that man to me. He said, I want to let him know that there's a prophet in Israel. Now that kind of sounds like that Elisha was kind of bragging on himself, doesn't it? It kind of sounds like that Elisha was saying, you know, let him come over here and I'll show him just how great I am. But that wasn't the purpose. If it would have, Elisha would have went out when Naaman drove into the yard. But instead, Naaman drives into the yard and Elisha just simply sends his servant out. [00:20:14] I got a feeling it was probably Gehazi. And told him, he said, go and just go to Jordan and wash yourself seven times and you'll be clean. What was Naaman's reaction to that? Not very good. Naaman became very angry. He said, how ridiculous is this? He says, I came to this place, I expected him to walk out, and I expected him to start waving his arms in the sky and doing all kinds of things to bring healing to me. [00:20:56] Isn't that human nature? Especially for someone that is high up like Naaman, you know. After all, see how important I am? You would think as an important person that I am, at least he would have a courtesy to walk out of his house and do some great thing for me. But you know, God was working, wasn't he? God was working in the heart of Naaman. And I think that's one of the dangers we can get into. We can decide how God should work. [00:21:31] We kind of make up our minds, you know, we're praying for something, we'd like to see something, and we've got to kind of figure out how God should do this. And I'm afraid too often when we figure it out, somehow we always come out looking good. You ever notice that? We always come out looking pretty good out of it. When God is really wanting us to realize that He needs the honor, not us. And so Naaman was angry and took off for home. [00:22:05] Now I think a little bit of geography here would be good for us. Because somehow I've always read this story and I've always looked at the Jordan River just being down the road a couple of miles from Elisha's house. Maybe even in the other direction. And he took off of home in the other direction. If you look on a map, if you look on a map of Israel, I wish I had one I could put up here on the wall. But if you look on it, you'll find that Syria is east of Israel. [00:22:39] And Damascus, where he was probably from, is up northeast of Samaria. And when Naaman took off for home, he went toward the Jordan River. You know how far away the Jordan River was? Probably between 30 and 40 miles. Look on your map and figure it out. But probably between 30 and 40 miles, depending on how he went, whether he went on an angle or just how he was. [00:23:11] But that was a long ways from Elisha's house. And so, he was going to have to, at some point, cross that Jordan River. Actually, God made it kind of handy for him, didn't he? And I think he had some time to think. Remember his servant said to him, you know, if you would do something great, if he would have asked you to do something great, you would have done it. If he had asked you to leave all your money and all your chariots and everything there and walk home, you would have probably done it. [00:23:47] If he would have healed you. But he asked you just to do a simple thing and that is go to the Jordan River and wash seven times. And you're all upset about it. You know, I think to Naaman's credit, I think he was the type of man that while he did get upset, he was willing to listen. He was willing to listen to some advice. And you know, I think that's one of the things why God could use and change Naaman. Because he was willing to listen. [00:24:20] One of the marks of a natural man is, nobody's going to tell me what to do. I know what I want to do and that's what I'm going to do and nobody's going to tell me to. I've got all my money, I've got everything I can do. I can do what I want to do. And that's, you know, when Naaman realized, finally stopped to realize and stopped to think and listened to his servants, then God was able to work a miracle in his life. Well, we see that Naaman went. [00:24:53] He went to the Jordan River, didn't he? I can imagine him getting closer. You know, he had said, when he was angry, he had said, you know, we've got some good rivers over in Syria, in Damascus. And there are, there's still rivers there. And I think it was two things. For one thing, I think those were nice, clear rivers. They were closer to the mountains and so on. And they were nice, clear rivers. Not only that, but I think there was some national pride involved, you know. I'm from Syria. [00:25:24] Yeah, we're, you know, this hick place over here in Israel, we don't have to, we don't have to go in their rivers. We've got good rivers at home. And so, he finally gave in. And I could just imagine as he was getting closer and closer and closer to the Jordan River, and he knew he was going to have to cross that river, that finally, he said, okay, I'm going to do what I was told to do. And he humbled himself. And you know, if we are going to have a spiritual mind, we're going to have to humble ourselves. [00:26:04] We're not going to have a mind that says, I want what pleases me. I want to do what I want to do. But we're going to have to have a mind that says, I want to do what God wants me to do. I want to do what His Word says. I'm going to obey Him. And you know, that takes humility in order to be able to do that. When Naaman did, he went into that river. I don't know how, sometimes we picture it as ducking himself in underneath the water seven times. [00:26:38] He says to wash himself seven times. I don't know if he took some soap and he washed himself and washed off and did that. I don't know. I don't know how he did that. But that last time, it says, that when he came up, his skin was like the skin of a little child. It was gone. What a miracle. What a miracle that took. Or that took place there. And what was Naaman's response? You know, I had to think of that story over the time of Jesus when there was those ten lepers that Jesus healed. [00:27:16] Remember that story? And it says one of them, Jesus said, you go show yourself to the priest and let him know that you were healed. And they can examine you and declare you healed. And it says one of them turned around and went back to Jesus and thanked him. Well, this is what Naaman did. You know, Naaman had a good start for home. He turned around, the whole group that was with him. And they went back that 30 or 40 miles back to Elisha's house. [00:27:52] And you could tell he was grateful. It wasn't that he just said, oh, this is great and headed for home. He went back. He wanted to thank Elisha for what he had done. Something had happened to Naaman. He knew that there was a prophet in Israel, didn't he? He knew that God, the Lord, had brought healing to him. Now it's interesting when he gets back to Elisha's house and how that, what he says here to Elisha. [00:28:25] You know the first thing he says to Elisha, I've got all this wealth with me and it's all yours. I want you to take this. I appreciate so much what you have done for me. Then I want you to have all, did you see that kind of wealth? He had, he took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of rhema. Rhema, today we would say, well that's not worth a whole lot, but it was then. [00:28:58] But all that gold and that silver, can you imagine at today's prices, what kind of wealth that was? And Elisha just flatly turned it down. So I don't want any of it. Keep it. I don't want it. And, you know, I think too often people can use religion, they can use something like that in order to get wealth for themselves. And I think that's really a mistake, where they misuse the gospel and so on for self. [00:29:31] I'm not saying people shouldn't be paid and that type of thing. but before it's misused and want to become wealthy through the use of the gospel. But then he said he urged him, he kept saying, no, do this, take it. And he refused to take it. And then Naaman says two things that is really interesting here. Did you catch that? He said, okay, if you don't want to, if you don't take this, there's something I want. [00:30:08] He said, I want two mules of burden. In other words, what he's saying is, I want to take, he probably had mules with him to carry things. He says, I want to load down two mules with dirt. That's kind of strange, isn't it? Two mules full of dirt. I mean, enough that they can carry it. He said, I want to take that back with me. Because he said, I know there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. [00:30:40] What did he want that for? He wanted to take it back with him. That's where he wanted to worship God. There. He wanted to build an altar, I think, out of that dirt. And because, you know, think about Naaman here. The poor guy, he had a very limited knowledge of God, didn't he? But I think he had a change of mind. He knew who God was. He knew God was powerful. And he said, I want to take this dirt back and I'm going to build an altar and there I'm going to worship God because this dirt comes from Israel. [00:31:14] Well, we say, how foolish. How foolish that'd be because, you know, a little maid was in Syria and God was using her. And God was not limited to one place. But Naaman was limited. With his limited knowledge, he was, I believe, that he was doing the best he could at that point. And then he said something else. He said, I'm going to ask in advance, or beforehand, that the Lord would pardon me. [00:31:46] He says, when I go back home, he says, one of my jobs is to go with the king to the house of Rimen, the idol. And he says, I have to go with the king there to that house of idol worship. And he says, when the king walks in there, and it sounds like the king might have been older, and he says, I take him by the hand and we go into the house of Rimen, and we bow down. I want you to know that I'm not bowing down to Rimen. And we say, well, Naaman, you shouldn't be in there in the first place. [00:32:17] And I had to wonder, you know, I had to wonder that Naaman realized later on that he couldn't even go in there. I don't know. But I noticed that Elisha said, go in peace. Go in peace. And you know, I believe that Naaman just had a real primitive faith in God. But God honored that. and I believe that Naaman grew from that [00:32:48] and I believe that Naaman became a man that had a spiritual mind rather than just a natural mind. Now we come to the end of this story and in this story I've titled a tragedy because here we get acquainted with another man the servant of Elisha If anyone should have had a spiritual mind, this man should have. [00:33:21] Maybe he did at one point. But when Gehazi's seen all the wealth, and I've never seen that kind of wealth. But when Gehazi's seen that kind of wealth, he said, what a shame. What a shame. We ought to help this guy out so he doesn't have to take it all back home. And I noticed he even used the Lord's name. He said that as the Lord liveth, I will run after him and take somewhat of him. [00:33:57] What a tragedy. What a thing to do. Of even justifying his lying and his stealing with the Lord's name. You know, we can fool ourselves so easy, can't we? And we can try to justify ourselves so easy. And we think if we just attach the Lord's name to something, we somehow make it good. How tragic that is. [00:34:28] We know that he ran after Naaman, lied to him, and Naaman was even more generous than what he asked for. He gave him more than what he had asked for. He even sent a couple of servants and said, I'll help you carry it, take these servants and have them take it back. And of course, before he got back to Elisha's house, he said, here's a good place, we'll just leave it here for now. I had to wonder, how could Gehazi be so dumb? [00:35:04] He had seen the miracles of Elisha. I'm sure he had seen a lot of things that Elisha had done. And somehow he thought he could do this and get by with it. And you know the lesson I think here is for us. When we let greed and lust and where we have the wrong values in life and all of those types of things, [00:35:38] it causes us to do some dumb things. Really dumb things. We don't think right. We don't think ahead. We don't think what could happen. Somehow our minds are just dulled and our minds become something that we just don't function like we should. And I think that's what happened to Gehazi. He let that greed and so on come back, get a hold of him. [00:36:12] He gets back to Elisha's house, and Elisha says, Gehazi, where are you? Oh, no place. That sounds familiar, children. Elisha says, I, my spirit was with you when you went, did what you did. I know all about it. And you know, Gehazi, Elisha said, you are going to be a leper. [00:36:45] You and your descendants forever. It's always going to be with your house. What a tragedy. In the midst of this great miracle that had taken place with Naaman, we see this tragedy of Gehazi. Gehazi. And I believe it's because Gehazi let the natural man overcome the spiritual man. And it had become a tragic thing in his life. [00:37:21] I'd just like to ask the question this morning. Everyone asks themselves, how am I operating? How am I making decisions? I'd like to go to Romans chapter 8, just a few verses yet. I'd like to read this in closing. Romans chapter 8, I want to read the first nine verses. Because it talks about what kind of mind we have. [00:37:56] Romans chapter 8 verse 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. See those two minds there? The flesh and the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. [00:38:32] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. [00:39:07] Notice that, underline that in your verse. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And then verse 9 says, But ye, and that is ye that walk after the Spirit, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. And now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. [00:39:42] Now we could go on and say a lot more there, but I just want us to ask ourselves, Am I operating under the Spirit of God? Or am I operating under my own spirit? Now what determines right and wrong in my life determines on how I feel about it. instead of what God's word says about it. And I just really want to challenge us this morning on that. [00:40:12] To really sincerely ask ourselves that. How am I operating? What am I operating from? I appreciated so much recently Dana talked about what direction are we going? And I guess it's kind of the same thing. Naaman hadn't arrived at everything there. And yet God honored him, and God brought healing into his life. And I believe that if we are headed that direction, God will work in our lives too. [00:40:45] May the Lord bless you. Let's stand for our closing prayer. Loving Father, this morning we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus. Thank you so much, Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for the work of your Spirit in our lives. Thank you so much how that you have brought new life to us. [00:41:18] Father, I just pray, I pray for all of us. I pray, Lord, that we can have that sincere desire to walk by your Spirit. and that your spirit can just direct and lead us and guide us according to your word. Father, I pray that as we face issues in life, Lord, I just pray that we can desire to know what pleases you. [00:41:50] What do you want, Lord? Lord, I just pray that we can be serious about this here today. I just ask that you would dismiss us with your blessing and help us to walk with you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.