 Well, we're getting started. You could turn to Luke chapter 4. That's ultimately where we're going to begin. Excuse me. I got a little dry this morning, so I'm going to try to be a little more prepared. And I will say what I said this morning, and I meant it in all sincerity. My job today is pretty simple. I'm here to make you miss Dax. So I must have pulled that off this morning because I had people, hey, that was great. Glad you got that done and glad that's over. I mean, not really, but that is how I kind of view things. I taught speech for a few years in grad school. That's what you call lowering audience expectations. I want to start though with two anecdotes, two stories, whatever you want to call them. And I'm going to be up front here. You're going to listen to these, and we're going to go through a bunch of passages this morning and you're going to be wondering what in the world do these things have to do with each other. So again, I'm telegraphing that. And I think you will see, again, how they do go together. My first story, again, this relates to, I mean, most of you sort of know who I am. I work at Faith Life, Logos. I'm a biblical scholar by training. And one of the things that biblical scholars do every year is we go to our version of a geek fest. That is the annual meetings in November for biblical studies, theology, all that sort of thing. And one year, I think it's probably less than 10 years ago, I went with a specific intention of meeting somebody. And this somebody was somebody I met online. I got an email one day that said, hey, you need to go over to this forum here on the internet because your view of Psalm 82, there's this guy in there defending it and he's taking a beating. And people are really after him saying, okay, I'll go look. So I went and looked. And sure enough, this guy is trying to defend, again, what I think is pretty obviously the correct way to look at the passage. And so I threw something in there and said, hey, he's up on this guy. He's doing okay, lighting up essentially. And the next day I got an email from the guy taking the beating. And it turned out he was a professor at Brigham Young University. He was a Mormon. And we began a correspondence. And in the course of our correspondence, he let it be known that, you know, every year I go to the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. And I'm like, why? What are you doing there? And he said to me, he goes, we depend on you guys. Because those of us over in Mormon land who care about biblical studies, we really look for the Evangelical scholars to produce things that we can learn from. Because, you know, we're not so much into that. We do other things here. And I said, well, that's fascinating. As a matter of fact, this year, you know, this November, I'm going to be reading a paper critiquing Mormonism's understanding of Psalm 82. Because I don't agree with it. And he said, I'm going to be there. And sure enough, he came. He came, listened to the paper and, you know, had real nice things to say. And he wound up asking to publish it. So that alone was kind of interesting. But we went to lunch afterwards. There we are. We get our lunch. We go find a table. We sit down. And he looks at me and he says, well, I have one question. I'm a Mormon and you are not. You're an Evangelical. Am I going to hell? Bon appetit. Just a nice way to begin your lunch there. Now, I imagine you'd like to hear what I said to him, correct? You're going to have to wait. You're going to have to wait until the end of the sermon. Here's number two. Again, and these things are related, even though they don't seem like it on the surface. I got an email. This was probably a month ago. And I occasionally get emails of people in theological distress. And it went like this. I'm not going to use his name, but dear Mike, will you consider covering divorce and remarriage in your podcast? I am in torment over it. I've heard so many different views, all of which quote numerous verses. And now I'm not sure if I will lose my salvation or not if I get remarried. My ex-wife filed for divorce, not me. I never wanted it. My particular issue is that the likes of, and then we insert famous preacher names, would say that if I choose to remarry, I will become an adulterer since it is a present continuous relationship. And therefore, I will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 10. There are people who have divorced their second spouse because they felt convicted. They were adulterers. And the question really is, can I lose my salvation by getting remarried because I'm choosing to become an adulterer? Now that's obviously a serious email. And I'm not going to tell you what I wrote back until the end of the sermon. It's another technique we use. Now the reason I bring them both up is because the answer to both questions is exactly the same. It doesn't seem like it, but just trust me, the answer to both questions is exactly the same. Now we began with the reading in 2 Kings 5, and we'll get back there. But just to sort of recap the story real briefly and then go into our first passage in Luke. And they are connected. You know, we know the story of Naaman the leper, one of the more familiar Sunday school stories that we hear as kids or that we tell kids in Sunday school. Again, Naaman's a big dude. He's an important guy. He's a Syrian. He has leprosy, which is of course a problem. And the little slave girl that ministers to his wife says, come on dummy, go down there to Israel and you'll get healed. And so he takes the trip. He winds up at the prophet's house. And if you notice, the prophet doesn't even come out to talk to it. The prophet stays in the house and sends somebody else to the door. Like he doesn't care who Naaman is. You're not such a big guy. And the person says to Naaman, go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan and you'll be clean. And Naaman has a fit. He's angry. But he gets talked into doing it. And so he goes and he dips himself seven times in the Jordan and he's cleansed. He's healed. And then he goes back to Elisha and says, now I know that there's really no God, no true God anyway in all the earth except for Yahweh of Israel. And he tries to give Elisha a present, a gift in return. And Elisha says, now we don't need any of that. And then he says, well, okay. Would it be okay if I take two mule loads full of dirt back to Syria? Because I got to go home. I got to show up for work Monday. And he explains a little bit about why he wants that. And from this point on, I'm not going to sacrifice to any other God, but Yahweh of Israel. But I have a question, Mr. Prophet. Part of my job is that I've got to go into the temple of Ramon with the king. And we get the picture that the king's kind of old. Maybe he's a little feeble or whatever, but he has to go in with the king. And he says, I just want to know that if while I'm in there, when I bow down with the king to Ramon, I want to know if that's okay. I want to know what Yahweh thinks of that. And what does Elisha say? Shalom. Peace. You're good. Now, I would suggest that on its own terms, and we're going to talk about this in a few minutes, that Naaman is a believer. He's saved in our parlance. And there's an episode in the Gospels that lends weight to that, and I think nails it down. And that is in Luke chapter 4. We're actually going to read all three, the episode in all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but we're going to start in Luke here. In Luke chapter 4, verse 16, this is the scene where Jesus preaches in his hometown. And he, Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, doubtless, you will quote to me this proverb, physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your own hometown as well. And he, Jesus said, truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman, the Syrian. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. You know, we miss a little bit about what the connection is, but they're angry. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away. Let's go to Matthew. In a second, I got there Matthew 13, 53 through 58. This is the same episode. We're going to get a little bit of a different flavor here. When Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there and coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom in these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And he did not do, this is the key thought here, he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Okay, store that away and go to Mark. Again, same episode. Mark chapter 6 verse 1. He went away from there and came to his hometown and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled, key thought, he marveled because of their unbelief. Now why? Let's go back to the Luke passage. It's the only place in the New Testament that Naaman is mentioned by name in conjunction with the widow of Zarephath. Why is Jesus referencing these two people? Why do they get so angry when he does? Because Jesus is using them as templates, as perfect examples of faith. They were believers. They believed. Let's go back to 1 Kings 17. Let's read the widow of Zarephath story. 1 Kings 17. We know Naaman believed because now I know there's no God on all the earth except in Israel. And that's a good example. Jesus approves of Naaman. But let's just throw the widow in here. The widow of Zarephath, 1 Kings 17, verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to him. This is Elijah. Arise, go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water and a vessel and a drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. This is all we got. And Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do, as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me. And afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. So what does she do? She believes him. She went and did, as Elijah said, and she and he and her household ate for many days the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke and that he lied to you. So Jesus showing up in the synagogue says, yeah, I hear all these nice things you're saying about how well I read. And you've all heard about the things that I've done in Capernaum and other places. And surely somebody here is going to say, hey physician, heal yourself. Let's see some of those miracles that we heard about in Capernaum. Can you do that here? And Jesus does do a few things, but he doesn't do what he could do and what he has done in the past, why? He was just shocked at their unbelief and to dig at them he says, you know, there were lots of widows in the days of Elijah, but only one of them you had enough to eat and drink. Only one of them got by, the one from Zarephath. And they know the story. They know their Bible. And there were lots of lepers in the days of Elisha, but only one of them was healed. Naaman, the Syrian. They know what those two people have in common. They had faith. And by using them as examples, Jesus is saying, you people are pathetic. I'm shocked at your unbelief. And they get angry. Now that's all well and good, but I actually think even that misses something. What do the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the leper have in common? They are pagans. They are Gentiles. Naaman lives in Syria. The widow of Zarephath is in Sidon. This is Gentile territory. Why is that important? Jesus picks two people hopelessly cut off from any of the things that the Jews around him would think assist them in their salvation. They're not elect. They have no temple. They don't have a Bible. They're never, let's just restrict our comments to Naaman. Naaman is never going to show up at temple. He is never going to read his Bible. He is never going to look at a psalm and think, well, this is probably the kind of prayer that Yahweh likes. I think I'll pray that. He doesn't have it. He's never going to observe a festival. He is never going to observe these days, one of the rituals. He's never going to be connected to the sacred calendar of Israel. And oh, by the way, he ain't getting circumcised either. In other words, he brings nothing to the table. He is totally empty-handed. He brings nothing to the table. And he goes to Elisha. Here's his theology. Hey, I'm clean now. That's awesome. Now I know that there's really, you know, Yahweh is the true God. And from this point on, whenever I offer my own little sacrifice, and of course Elisha doesn't jump in and say, oh, don't do that. You got to go to the temple. You're not going to do it right. Whenever I bring sacrifice, I'm only going to do it to Yahweh. Can I take some dirt back with me? And then he has this question. He has this nagging doubt. I got to be honest with Elisha. You know, part of my job is I got to go into this temple. This temple of this God who I no longer believe in. And I just want to know that when I go in there with the king, and we do our little thing that we're supposed to do, how does Yahweh feel about that? In other words, will Yahweh look differently at his faith if he messes up theologically? Does Yahweh know his heart or not? I mean, that's really where it's at. He's asking, look, when I do this, does Yahweh know that I know he is God? Does he know that? Does he know that I believe? And so what does Elisha say? You're good. Shalom. Go home. So what's the point? What I want us to begin to see is we really need to look, I think, clearly and differently at faith, at grace, these sorts of things. Naaman wants the prophet to know that even if he goes off with the king of the temple of Ramon, his heart has not changed. He believes in the God of Israel alone, and he wants to know if God knows that. Will God look at me differently? He has no theology. He's never going to get any. He has no work to bring to the table at all. All he's got is his belief statement, his faith. That's it. I think Naaman is actually the perfect example. And I think there's a reason why Jesus endorses him as an example of faith and the widow at Zarephath, because they're both pagans and they're both Gentiles. Unlike the Jews around him in the scene who can say, well, we're elect. We got the temple. We're all circumcised. We're this. We're that. We do this. We do that. These two people can say nothing. And the implication is that's what counts. They have nothing to bring. They have no single point of merit about them at all. Their entire relationship to the true God, to the God of Israel is based on believing that he is who he says he is. That's it. Now, you could say, well, the Israelites knew more. They had more information. They had the law. They were important and all that sort of stuff. Let me ask you a question. If God looks at two pagans and Jesus endorses this, because he uses them as an example of faith, if God and Jesus look at two pagans, and the only thing that matters is whose side are you on? Who is your God? Who do you believe in? Who do you trust? If it's good enough for two pagans, why isn't it good enough for an Israelite? I would suggest to you that it is. Now, we look at the Jews, and the Jews, of course, are going to trust in Torah. Works, calendar, ritual, circumcision, all these things. And we know from the New Testament Paul, when he gets to talking about grace, he uses Abraham pre-law, pre-circumstance, he's trying to make the point of faith. Salvation is by faith. There is nothing in it. There's no little sprinkle of merit. Personal merit and performance has nothing to do with a right relationship to God. Not even election. Because people, oh, they were elect, you know? Yeah. Well, if you're thinking election is a synonym for salvation in Old Testament theology, you're wrong. It's easy to prove. It's this thing called the exile. Was Israel elect? Yeah. Israelites elect? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, most of the country, most of them go off and worship Baal and other gods. That's why we had the exile. We don't have Baal worshipping Israelites in heaven. Okay? We have the exact opposite. This is why the relationship gets severed. Election just means that they were in a position to know who the true God was. They had the oracles of God, as Paul likes to say. They had the truth and nobody else did. They still had to believe it. They still had to believe it. If they don't believe it, you go off and worship another God, forget it. This is why what's the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord. You worship the Lord, your God, alone. You know, you bow down and worship no other. Okay, David. Okay, David's an Israelite. He's the king. God's made a covenant with him. He commits some of the most heinous crimes that you could commit. But what he doesn't do is he never changes allegiance. There's never a question in his mind. David is he's ridiculous. Okay? He's a parody of what a believer should be. He's ridiculous. He's awful. Okay? But what he doesn't ever do is throw his allegiance to another God. He does just about everything else wrong. Okay? But he never does this and God has mercy on him. He pays for his sin in the course of life. You know, you saw what you reap. But as far as his relationship with God, he's there. He worships no other. This is what God wants. I think we need to start thinking about grace and I like to use this phrase. Believing loyalty. Believing loyalty. It has nothing to do with personal merit. I believe and because I believe I am not going to worship. I'm not going to follow another God or no God at all. I might not know anything beyond that. I might be like Naaman. I might flunk a theology quiz spectacularly and Naaman would have. But he knows who God is and that is where he is at. That is the end of the trail. He is not throwing his allegiance to any other. Period. Now I know again the reason that we're tracking on this and we're going to transition to New Testament a little bit. I know that Christians struggle with the concept of grace. I did. You're not going to be any different than I was. There just comes a point where you have to be able to grasp it. Lots of Christians believe and then they're troubled. It's good to be sensitive to sin because we all understand that. But if you're thinking thoughts like does God look at me the same way? Am I the guy with the divorce thing? Am I going to lose my salvation? Is God as fond of me today in my spiritual defeat or in this habit I have or in this circumstance I've created for myself because my behavior is self-destructive? Does God look at me the same way? Am I still his? Am I still a child of God? Am I still going to get to heaven? I understand why those questions are asked, but if you're asking them and you're troubled by them, this is just factually where it's at. You do not understand the gospel. You do not understand grace because it has nothing to do at all with performance. Nothing. You do things like Naaman. Why does Naaman ask for dirt? Well, I've got to add this to my faith so Yahweh will be happy with me. No, He does it because He believes. He does what He does because He believes. He doesn't do it to believe a little bit more. He doesn't do it, again, to stroke Yahweh. He just wants to know, now does the Lord know my heart? I got this job. I got to do this, but when I do it does He know that I put nothing into it? I don't believe in Ramon. Ramon is a jerk. I don't believe in him at all. This is where my believing loyalty is at. It's with him. Does Yahweh know that? He likes to say, yeah, He knows. You're good. He brings nothing to the table. Now, when I became a Christian as a teenager, big true confession time here, I would have flunked a theology test, believe it or not. You could have asked me about the deity of Christ. I wouldn't have known what to say. What's that? You could have asked me about all sorts of doctrinal issues that you, I hope not, but maybe you are, that you are attaching to your status as a believer. Well, you don't believe that. I'm not sure if you're really saved if you don't believe in, you know, fill in the blank. Yeah, I got news for you. I wouldn't believe in any of it. Because I didn't know any of it. I knew one thing. Yeah, you know, I was namin. I got one thing right. And that is sufficient. That is all God is interested in. Period. End of story. Now, he knows I'm a doofus. Okay? But that's all he cares about. Which side are you on? Believing loyalty. Are you, is this your God? Are you going to go worship another or no God at all? Are you going to embrace Christ or something else or nothing at all? That's the question. Now, this is actually consistent in the New Testament. Go to Romans 5. You know, we all know this passage. We all know this passage, but I think we need to think about a little bit more. Romans 5, we're going to read verses 6 through 8. I can find it here. Romans 5 verses 6 through 8. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, notice not only what the passage says, but notice what it doesn't say. Let me give you a few examples here. It doesn't say while we were cleaning up our act, Christ died for us. While we were correcting our theology, Christ died for us. While we were regular in prayer, Christ died for us. While we were faithful in reading Scripture, Christ died for us. It doesn't say any of this. While we were attending church regularly, Christ died for us. While we were having more spiritual victories than losses, Christ died for us. You can fill in the blank. While we were not cheating on our spouses, Christ died for us. While we weren't doing XYZ bad thing, Christ died. It doesn't say any of that. It says the exact opposite. A couple paraphrases here. While we were wicked, while we were alienated from God, because we wanted to live the way we wanted to live, because we didn't want God or anyone else telling us we couldn't have or do what we wanted, then Christ died for us. While we were contemptible human beings, Christ died for us. While we shook our fist at God, while we couldn't have cared less, Christ died for us. While we didn't believe or even knew that we should believe, Christ died for us. As soon as you insert any point of merit into that passage and any point of merit into the Naaman story, you defile the gospel you don't comprehend it. You just don't. And I know it's hard. Again, even as a Christian, because you are sensitive to sin, your mind keeps going back to this question. How does God look at me? Is it still the same? Look, while you were a contemptible human being, while you didn't even know you should believe, Christ died for us. It doesn't say anything that you might be concerned about in the verse. So let the verse go. This is all you need. It's all Naaman had. Again, catch the point. Naaman brings nothing to the table. He will never get circumcised. He will never know what the law of God says or if he's violating it. He will never go to a feast. He'll never go to a festival. He'll never hit the temple. He'll never sing the Psalms. He won't do anything except he believes that Yahweh is the true God. And when he does offer sacrifices, oh, you should use the priesthood for that. That's defile, you know, the ritual washings. Elisha could have cared less. Because he knows God could have cared less. Because that isn't the question. The question isn't did you dip in the laver? The question is whose side are you on? And Naaman had that answer. That's all he had, period. And that is how we need to look not just in terms of a theology lesson. How are people saved before Jesus? No, this is about you. This is about us understanding what the gospel is and is not. Now back at our academic conference I'm sitting there with my fork in my hand and this guy says I'm a Mormon and you're not and you know you're an evangelical so am I going to hell? And I looked at him and I said you know I'm going to answer that question the same way I would answer it if I was looking at a Jehovah's Witness a Catholic a fundamental Baptist, a Lutheran I don't care fill in the blank I don't care what your tradition is I don't care what you believe about other things it doesn't matter because the answer is always the same I don't care what you are if you can look me in the eye this is the way I said it to him if you can look me in the eye and say to me that my hope for salvation the forgiveness of my sins my hope for eternal life is based entirely on what Jesus did on the cross and I bring no merit at all to the issue no works, no performance nothing if I can say that I believe that exclusively what Jesus did on the cross is how my sins are forgiven and my hope of eternal life if you can look me in the eye and say that you're in if you can't you're not that's just the way it is now I might we talked a little bit after I might think that your theology is goofy hey, my theology was goofy when I got saved when I became a believer some people would say your theology is still goofy Mike I get that but that isn't the question the question is not can you articulate this point of doctrine to my satisfaction or to the satisfaction of somebody who wrote XYZ Creed that is not the question the question is upon what are you basing forgiveness of sins and eternal life it has nothing to do with merit at all and he looked at me and he said I'm not completely sure but I think I can say that and at that point I'm not going to look at the guy and say you must be a liar because you're a Mormon no I'm going to look at the guy and think I sure hope so because that's the gospel that's what you need to focus on you know maybe next year we can have some theological discussion but this is the question today and the question and the answer is going to be the same no matter who you are I don't care what you are can you say this or not now as far as the email here's part of what I wrote back dear XYZ the fact that you're not sure whether you'll lose your salvation over a divorce and remarriage makes me wonder if you understand the gospel salvation cannot be earned it was extended to sinners not to people in the process of cleaning up their act Romans 5.8 consequently that which cannot be earned by moral perfection salvation is not of works and we're never going to be perfect so it's totally out of reach that which cannot be earned by moral perfection cannot be lost by moral imperfection and to bring it down to the divorce salvation wasn't earned by getting married so it cannot be lost by getting divorced and remarried and then I added a few things about his situation but he wrote back and said that was helpful now we can look at that and say look dude you're in a church how did you not know this it's difficult it's difficult to surrender any sense of merit in part because we're sensitive to sin but you gotta get over the hump that God looks at you based on everything you do this is not how your relationship started okay Christ didn't die for you while you were in the process of cleaning up your life while you were in the process of learning to articulate the hypostatic union and the depth of the incarnation okay he ain't waiting around for that he died for you while you were yet a sinner that's it exclamation point really that's what you need to grasp and again I know Christians who just struggle with this no different than me no different than anybody else who has sort of come to grips with what grace is but that's what it is it doesn't mean oh now I can go out and sit all I want because God died for me while I was yet a sinner what did Paul say to that very question God forbid and you're missing the point dude that's my paraphrase of what he says in Romans there the Gospel isn't here so that you can keep on sinning the Gospel is what it is so that you know it is not performance based you can be at your worst and Christ still died for you that's what it's for it's not to give you permission to do something you know something weird so again I think this is something we really need to grasp