Transcript
And for our consideration in the Word of God this morning, I want to invite your attention to the book of 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. Second Kings chapter 5. And we want to begin reading at verse 14.
2 Kings chapter 5, reading from verse 14:
So Naaman went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan according to the saying 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 aides, and came and stood before him. And he said, ‘Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.’
But he said, ‘As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.’ And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
So Naaman said, ‘Then, if not, please let your servant be given two mule loads of earth, for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. Yet in this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—may the LORD please pardon your servant in this thing.’
Then he said to him, ‘Go in peace.’ So he departed from him a short distance.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, ‘Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought. But as the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him.’
So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him 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, saying, Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.’
So Naaman said, ‘Please take two talents.’ And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants. And they carried them on ahead of him.
When he came to the citadel, or as the margin suggests, the hill, he took them from their hand and stored them away in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.
Now he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, ‘Where did you go, Gehazi?’
And he said, ‘Your servant did not go anywhere.’
Then he said to him, ‘Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.’ And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow.
His name was Melvin Nurse, spelled N-u-r-s-e, just like it sounds. He was 35 years of age, and he was a youth pastor of the Living Way Christian Fellowship Church International in Jacksonville, Florida. On September the 24th of 1998, he was giving a message in the church. It was a Thursday evening, and he had an audience of about 250, composed of young people and their parents.
He was telling them that doing things like drugs and running around with the wrong people and carrying weapons was like playing Russian roulette. And he had with him in the pulpit a .357 caliber pistol. As he proceeded in his sermon, he opened the chamber of the pistol and put in it a blank. And then he closed the chamber and spun it. And then each time he would come to a sin, he would repeat that process without adding another blank. And then he would fire the weapon over his head.
Now, Melvin Nurse had grown up on the streets of Jacksonville, and he was urging the youth group to turn in their guns. And he was telling parents typical places where young people hide their guns. When he reached the end of his sermon, he put the gun to his head and fired it. And the blank flew apart, and he fell to the pulpit. And they rushed him to a local hospital where a week later, the following Thursday night, he died.
Michael Cooper, who was the associate pastor of the church and was in the audience that night, said, “We didn't know he was going to dramatize it that way. We were all stunned. Nobody said a word. We thought perhaps it was part of the act and that he would pop up again. We knew he was using a blank, so we were not uncomfortable with the situation.”
But in the audience that evening were Melvin Nurse's wife Deborah and his four daughters, aged nine, eight, fourteen and fifteen. And even though Michael Cooper said that this death had an impact on the church, there was no concealing the fact that this was a sad and unnecessary and tragic event.
And I strongly suspect that as we hear a story like that, it seems almost incredible to us that it could have happened in a church, that it could have happened behind a pulpit, that it could have happened during the course of a sermon. But not only could it have happened that way, it did.
And I'm reminded this morning of the fact that all over this country there are people in pulpits and there are people in pews who are playing with a sort of pistol that can blow their spiritual brains out. The type of thing that can devastate and destroy their physical lives. And that brings me to the topic and title of my message to you this morning, which is this: That gun is loaded.
And I suspect you won't have any trouble remembering that title, but just to be sure that it's fastened on your mind. Once again, the title of my talk this morning is, That gun is loaded.
Now, I suspect that everybody understands that in Hollywood they love sequels. So we get things like Jaws 2 and Godfather 2 and Home Alone 2 and on and on the list can go. And there is a sense in which in the passage of Scripture that we have read this morning, we meet a sequel.
In the first part of 2 Kings chapter 5, we have one of the most famous stories in the entire Bible. And we could label that story the leprosy of Naaman one. But in the last half of this chapter, we have a sequel. And we could label that sequel the leprosy of Naaman two.
And Elisha replies, “What? What? Didn't you just tell me a few minutes ago that you had decided there was no God in all the earth except in Israel? And now are you telling me you want to go into the idolatrous temple of that false deity called Rimmon? And not only that, you are going to bow down in the presence of this abomination. Is that what you're telling me, Naaman?”
Well, Naaman, if that's what you want to do, maybe you'd better give me a gift after all. If you want to do that, that will cost you. That will cost you. Hey, I missed it again, didn't I? Elisha didn't say that. Instead, Elisha said most simply, “Go in peace.”
Go in peace. And do you see, my friends, this morning, that not only has Naaman learned that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel, he has also learned that the grace and mercy of the God of Israel is absolutely free. It is absolutely free.
Do I need to tell you? I don't need to tell you here at Coast Bible Church that all over this country there are people who believe that the only way to find acceptance and eternal salvation with God is to give Him something. And sometimes this is expressed in terms of giving Him everything, including our money. And people who think that way about the God of the Bible do not understand the God of the Bible.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Whosoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely.
And if we think that our basic relationship to God is somehow related to what we give to Him, maybe we get away with getting into the relationship and giving Him nothing. But afterwards, if we feel we have to give Him something to sustain that relationship or to make it a reality, if that's the way we think about the God of the Bible, we really do not know the God of the Bible.
And this is a beautiful story about a pagan man who came for the healing of his physical sickness of leprosy and he went away knowing he didn't owe God anything at all. But there was another person standing there that day who didn't exactly think that way. And to our surprise, this man is none other than Gehazi, the loyal and obedient servant of Elisha the prophet.
And as all of this is going on, Gehazi is thinking something like this: This doesn't make sense. I mean, this simply does not make sense. This man is fabulously wealthy and he has come to Israel loaded to the gills with money, and my master is not going to take one single thing from him. I'm going to run after him and get something from him. I'm not going to let this chance slip away.
And please do not think that Gehazi felt this way because he had no faith in God, no belief in the living God of Israel. Because as he speaks in his heart, he says, “As the LORD lives, as surely as God is alive, I'm going to get something from this man.”
And don't you see it, my friends? Naaman is returning to his native land both physically and spiritually healthy. And I'm reminded of the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who said,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
You know what surprises me? I'm really not surprised if unsaved people live for the here and now. I mean, many of them think that's all there is. And in their view of things, if you don't get it now, you'll never get it. And they go for all they can get in this life and in this experience. And that doesn't surprise me.
I'll tell you what does surprise me: Christian people who know that they are saved by faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who know that they are guaranteed a place in the kingdom of God. They know their destiny is firm and sure by the grace of God. And still they're more worried about what they can get now than what they can have in the kingdom of God. I don't understand that. Do you? I don't understand that at all.
So I don't really understand Gehazi. However, I understand what he did. He played with the gun called greed and he suffered the consequences because now Elisha says to him, “The leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your descendants forever.”
Sometimes we think that our sins do not affect subsequent generations and we're seriously mistaken about that. But obviously Gehazi, as he walks out of the presence of Elisha and he is covered with leprosy, the leprosy of Naaman clings to Gehazi. Gehazi has fired the gun. He has blown his spiritual brains out and he has devastated his own physical life and experience.
Never play with greed because that gun is loaded.
Many years ago, there was a famous artist by the name of Ary Scheffer who painted portraits in Paris. One of his good friends was also one of the wealthiest men in the entire world, Baron Rothschild, the famous and enormously wealthy banker. And on one occasion, Baron Rothschild was visiting Ary Scheffer in his studio. And Ary was talking about a portrait that he was painting and he explained to Baron Rothschild that he needed a model of a beggar so that he could paint the beggar as part of this portrait.
And Baron Rothschild said to him, “Wait till tomorrow. I will come dressed as a beggar and a very good model I will make you indeed.” So the next day Baron Rothschild showed up dressed as a beggar. And what a miserable and pitiful looking beggar he seemed to be. So he began to pose for Ary Scheffer. And while he was painting Baron Rothschild, the beggar, another man walked in, a man who was openhearted and good-hearted and generous.
And this man looked at the miserable, wretched, poverty-stricken beggar that was being painted by Scheffer. And he felt very sorry for him. So he pulled out a Louis d'or, which was a gold coin that they used in those days for French money. And as he passed the beggar, he slipped him the Louis d'or and the beggar took it and stuck it in his pocket.
Ten years later, ten years later, this man received a message from Baron Rothschild which was accompanied by a draft on the Rothschild bank for 10,000 francs. And the message said, “Some time ago you gave a Louis d'or to me and I have invested it wisely and now I am returning it to you with the interest that it has earned.”
And no, my friends, God doesn't really need our pennies, does He? He doesn't need them at all. But if we are smart, we will invest them into the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who left the splendor of heaven and became, as it were, a beggar here upon earth. And He will return our investment to us with marvelous interest in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And I have to believe that if we've got any spiritual brains in our heads at all, that that is exactly what we will do.
Shall we pray?
Father, help us to take the meager possessions that we have only temporarily here on earth and to invest them into the hands of the bank of heaven, to invest them in the interests of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, knowing that He will repay us generously in the world to come. Help us to do this, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.