June 16
2 Kings 5:1-8:15
Simply repent of your sins (change your mind and accept God's standard over your own) and accept the sacrifice of Jesus as full payment for your sins, past, present, and future, and you will be saved. Really, can it be this simple? The simple answer is, yes! This simple solution to our sin problem is often rejected by those who in their pride and intellect cannot fathom so simple a solution with no strings attached. But that is grace. God's beautiful gift to mankind, not based upon our works, but based upon Him giving us something that we have done nothing to deserve. That is why it is so shameful when others, supposedly speaking for God, begin to add layers of complexity to the simple solution offered. Though belief of Jesus Christ is an essential, they will state that you must belong to a certain denomination, or perform a certain ritual, or recite a specific prayer. Though you will naturally, slowly but surely, rid yourselves of your habitual sins (we will never become sinless this side of heaven) once entering into a relationship with Jesus, and you will eventually no longer practice them, remember Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We were never told we must clean up our act then approach Him. We were told to approach Him and enter into a relationship with Him, and He will help us shed off all those things which hinder our walk with him. Jesus kept it simple for us, we ought to do the same with others as we convey His message of hope to others.
We read the story of a pagan Syrian general struck with leprosy, named Naaman. His Israelite servant recommends that he go to the prophet Elisha if he desires to be healed. He goes but we see the initial interaction in 2 Kings 5:9-11, "Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he 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 shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘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 heal the leprosy." Interestingly, leprosy in Scripture is always a picture of sin. Elisha offers him a simple remedy for his condition but his intellect and pride rejected this simple offer initially. In his intellect, he reasons why this approach is foolish in 5:12, "Are not the Abanah and the 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." But his servants rightly point to trying the simple solution as we see the healing in 5:13-14, "And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” " So he 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.
Around 900 years later, Jesus had already ministered, died, and risen from the grave, and his disciples were now taking His simple message of being washed clean from their sins by the blood of our Savior to the unsaved world. But the same arguments broke out, as we read in Acts 15:1, 5, "And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”... But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”" Whenever we add the word "and" to grace it is no longer grace, but a combination of God's gift and our works. This was not and is not God's prescription to our freedom from sin and our salvation. So, in this debate in Jerusalem, Peter rightly concludes in 15:10-11, "Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”" So, as we consider our standing before God, and as we reach out to others with the simple gospel truth, remember what it is that we are saved upon, as we consider Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Thank you, Jesus!!!
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: