Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’?”His servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
5 sermons cite this verse
… back from the intimacy and the victory you desire in your life. The Bible says in verse 13 that Naaman's servants went to him and said, My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more than when he tells you, Wash and be cleansed? In other words, what he's saying… I'm just going to elaborate a moment. Naaman, sir, we've come all this way. We traveled seven days to get here. Think of all the things that had to happen for you to get to this point. The servant girl had to see the spot at the right time. The odds were against it, but it happened. The king had to agree to write you a letter and risk his national reputation in order to talk to an enemy, and he did that for you. We had to make the journey safely to a place that we have attacked and ransacked several times, and we made it safely. We have been going through this dry, arid terrain for 200 miles. For seven days we've been walking to get to this point, and you want to go back to Damascus now? Naaman, just do it. Worst-case scenario, you get clean. Best-case, you get cured. But either way, we've come too far. …
God when you don't think it's that big of a deal, but God watches these things when he tells us something so clearly, he watches our spirit. And I'm going to ask you to just really get still and quiet and lean in for the next few moments. Naaman was the commander of the army of Syria and he was a powerful man. The chapter begins by saying he was a great man and if the Bible says somebody is great, then they're great. And he was great in power and influence and yet he was a leper. The leprosy was not completely manifested yet and the laws of leprosy were different from Israel. Israel, if you were a leper, you could not be among people. But in Syria, they did not have the same laws. So this man was a great man, and he goes. And he goes on an expedition with his Syrian soldiers, and they capture some of the homes in Israel, and they raid them, and they burn the homes down, and they slay the people and they keep some of the people as their slaves. …
"'Tis but to trustImmnanuel's blood! 'Tis all! 'Tis all!" "Yes," I hear you say, "but this is too little! It is too easy!" Well, and what a mercy that is for you, for if it were a difficult thing, how could you do it? You are precisely in the case of Naaman, when the Prophet said to him, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times." "Oh," said Naaman, "it is too simple!" Then his servant said, "My Father, if the Prophet had bid you do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he said to you, Wash and be clean?" The poor Hindu will roll himself over and over for five hundred miles to get to the Ganges, because he has been told that he will get rid of his sin if he thus lies prostrate in the dust the whole painful journey. Poor soul, he is but like us! We would all do that if we were quite sure that we would be saved by it. How much rather, then, when Christ simply says, "Trust, trust, trust, trust Christ and live! Depend simply upon Him! Rely upon Him!" Are you not almost sick of hearing me tell you this? We have to iterate and reiterate on this point. We have to bring the hammer down continually on just the same place on the anvil, and to strike just the same note. Ah, well, if you were all saved, and all believed in Christ, we would gladly go on to something else—but until every soul is saved, we can do nothing but blow the trumpet with the same sound! Believe! Trust in the Substitute! Take Christ to be yours! Look out of self—look to Christ! Have done with your doings! Have done with your trusting in your own powers, and now, whether you sink or swim, give up every other hope and rest in Him, and rely on Him, and upon Him alone! …
I remember hearing an illustration of faith which struck me very much. It came from an idiot. They had been teaching him all they could, but it was weary work. He had a little brain left and, after long teaching, and especially teaching him the great Doctrine of Faith, one of the teachers began to question him and said, "John, have you a soul?" The poor creature replied, "No, I have no soul." The teacher felt grieved and thought that he had spent his labor for nothing. But the poor fellow went on to say, "I had a soul once, but I lost it. And Jesus Christ found it and so I always let Him keep it, and so it is His and not mine." Truly, the very essence of faith lies there—the consciousness of being lost in ourselves and found in Christ, and the leaving of one's soul in Jesus' hands! When we go to Christ, faith does very much the same as when a man takes his money and deposits it at the bank. I see you come up to the counter and pay in very large sums of money. But you do not come back in half-an-hour and say, "Show me my money." You do not stand there at the counter half the day to watch the sovereigns as they are counted in order that you may make sure that your money is safe! No, you trust in the bank and go your way. So do we deposit our souls in the hands of Christ, committing them to Him as unto a faithful Creator. And then we say with the Apostle Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him unto that day." …
And now, another lessen to those of you who are as yet hearers and nothing more. I want you to go from plowing to something better, namely, from hearing and fearing to believing. How many years some of you have been hearing the Gospel! Do you mean to continue in that state forever? Will you never believe in Him of whom you hear so much? You have been stirred up a good deal—the other night you went home almost brokenhearted! I should think you are plowed enough by this time, and yet you have not received the Seed of eternal life, for you have not believed in the Lord Jesus! It is dreadful to be always on the brink of everlasting life and yet never to be alive. It will be an awful thing to be almost in Heaven and yet forever shut out! It is a wretched thing to rush into a railway station just in time to see the train steaming out—I had much rather be half an hour behind time! To lose a train by half a second is most annoying. Alas, if you go on as you have done for years, you will have your hand on the latch of Heaven and yet be shut out! You will be within a hair's breadth of Glory and yet be covered with eternal shame! Oh, beware of being so near to the Kingdom of God and yet lost—almost, but not altogether saved! God grant that you may not be among those who are plowed and plowed, and plowed, and yet never sown! It will be of no avail at the last to cry, "Lord, we have eaten and drunk in Your Presence and You have taught in our streets. We had a seat at the Chapel. We attended the services on weeknights as well as on Sundays! We went to Prayer Meetings, we joined a Bible class, we distributed tracts, we subscribed our guinea to the funds! We gave up every open sin, we used a form of prayer and read a Chapter of the Bible every day." All these things may be done and yet there may be no saving faith in the Lord Jesus! Take heed lest your Lord should answer, "With all this, your heart never came to Me. Therefore, depart from Me! I never knew you." If Jesus once knows a man, He always knows him. He can never say to me, "I never knew you," for He has known me as His poor dependent, a beggar for years at His door! Some of you have been all that is good, except that you never came into contact with Christ, never trusted Him, never knew Him. Ah, me, how sad your state! Will it always be so? …