Just As I Am – Sermon 7 July, 2013

Just As I Am

2 Kings 5: 1-14   Galatians 5:6-18

Just as I am, you will receive,

Will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because your promise I believe.

O Lamb of God, I come.

This is one of the verses of one of my favourite hymns. It is a hymn of surrender to the Lord, the Saviour Jesus Christ, who can make us a new creation. A hymn of self-recognition; accepting that we are sinners by nature and need God’s mercy through the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who shed His blood on the cross and died for us.

Every time we say a prayer of confession, as we do often, we say we are sinners and need your pardon in other words.

Every time we say the creed we accept that we are sinners and need salvation

Every time we take Communion we accept the reality of our sinfulness.

And yet sometimes we are not willing to surrender ourselves to the Lord God to cleanse us and give us the hope for the everlasting life.

We as Christians sometimes hesitate to take the step and go to God as we are.

In the reading of 2 Kings we have the story of Naaman, the great general of the Syrian Army. He was a great man. He was a great warrior and a national hero. He was highly thought of by his king. But Naaman had a problem.

Naaman had contracted the disease of leprosy! Leprosy is a terrible and deadly disease.

Leprosy, when mentioned in the Bible is a type, or a symbol of sin. Not that leprosy itself was sin, but rather it was used to symbolize sin, and the way sin affects the man.

In t Naaman’s story, we are not only reading an account of a man who was a leper, but we are also reading an analogy of a sinner.

Let’s take a look at Naaman this morning:

1. He was unclean

We read in Lev 13:44-46: “A man with infectious skin disease is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean because of his sore on his head. The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean.! ’As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”

One who was unclean could not even enter into the temple to worship God, he could not come into the presence of God until he had gone through the ceremonial cleansing, and had been examined by the priest and was then pronounced clean by the priest.

The sinner is like the leper. He is unclean. He cannot enter into the presence of God, for God cannot look on sin.

Isaiah in 64:6 says: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

We all in ourselves are unclean. We all are sinners, and unclean, unable to enter into the presence of God.

However, Jesus Christ came to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we come to Jesus with a repentant heart, we are washed in the blood of the lamb, and then the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ himself, pronounces that we are clean and now able to enter into the very presence of God!

Naaman, being a leper, was a picture of the sinner. He was unclean and there was nothing he can do for himself.

2. He was aware of his situation

While Naaman was a leper, apparently, he had not been one long, or his disease had not progressed very far yet, because he was still living among the common people, and still working, etc. He was however aware that he had the disease.  And he was miserable. And he was looking for an answer, looking for a cure.  He was looking for some type of hope. He knew that it would not be long, and he would have to be shut out of his home, forced to live away from all that he knew and loved. He would soon be isolated, and would be forced to walk around crying out…”UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN”.

He was clearly aware of his situation.

3. He was willing to do what it takes to be cured

Naaman was willing to do anything and even to pay.  He went to the king and told about the prophet in Samaria. He took a letter from the king, 10 talents of silver, 6000 shekels of gold and 10 sets of clothing. He was willing to pay an enormous amount, if he could be healed.

Some think that giving alms will guarantee the forgiveness of sins. That is why some people give so much hoping to buy their salvation and are willing to do good works in order to get to heaven. Paul wrote in Titus 3:5:  “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit….”

But it is impossible to earn our salvation through good works. We are not saved by good works, but by grace. We are not saved by good works, but rather we are saved to do good works!

Naaman wanted to purchase his healing. He was like the person who wants to come to God on his own terms, rather than on God’s terms. So he took all his bribes to the prophet, and when he arrived at the prophet’s home, he knocked on the door…and Elisha, the prophet sent a servant to give him a message to go down to the river Jordon and dip himself seven times. And with that, the servant shut the door!

Naaman was angry and could not believe what happened! He had travelled all this way, and brought all these wonderful gifts to pay for his healing and the prophet didn’t even come out to look at him. He despised the idea of the muddy waters of Jordan!

A lot of sinners don’t want to bow their knee and confess their faults, and acknowledge that they are a sinner. .

4. He submitted to God

Finally he was convinced and having no other option he dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. He was healed. He was cleansed, and made whole. He went to Him as he is and was fully recovered as a sinner is saved.

What can we do to be saved? We should go to God as we are with our sins, faults and shortfalls and God does the rest.

It is a matter of willingly submitting to God through Jesus Christ. As sinners we are unclean and we need to be aware of our situation, do what it takes to be saved and surrender to God.

When we submit to God just as we are we become a new creation. It is not what we do or what signs we bear; rather it is total submission to the mercy of God. That’s why we confess our sins, make confession prayers and seek His forgiveness.

We have to go to him just as we are and the rest He does.

Krikor Youmshajekian