“FAITHFUL IS THE WORD”
Martin A Brown
I seek help to use these two scriptures that I have read together, the first in Timothy and the second in Kings, beginning with where the apostle Paul says, “Faithful is the word”. He had said that he was an insolent overbearing man, (v 13); he knew what it was to walk as a man in the flesh and to use his power in that way. Insolence is a rude arrogant disrespectful way of being, and overbearing is a domineering character; that is what Paul was. He used his learning in the law to domineer and to use his power. That is what he says he was before but what he is saying here in verse 15 is something entirely different! He says to Timothy, “Faithful is the word”.
We have that in 2 Kings 5 where we have the story of Naaman, who was a great military captain of the king of Syria, “a great man before his master, and honourable”. He was honourable, doing what was right in the interests of the nation of Syria. But there was a little maid and she spoke faithfully: “Faithful is the word”. That little maid had been taken captive from Israel and she served Naaman’s wife, and she said, “Oh, would that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria ! then he would cure him of his leprosy”. She does not say that he might cure him. There was an example of the faithfulness of the word, no doubt, in it. The gospel preaching is “faith, to faith”, Rom 1: 17. I stand here as a preacher knowing that you can be saved; I stand here as a preacher knowing that if you are away from God that does not have to be the case any longer. I stand here knowing as that little maid did that as your state before God as a sinner, as Naaman’s was as a leper, you can be cured tonight. That little maid had a wonderful simple, short message that she spoke in the presence and ears of Naaman’s wife, and Naaman’s wife as a faithful wife spoke to her husband, and as a result he went and spoke to the king! How many of us have been the recipients of a wonderful message from faithful wives or faithful sisters. How many sisters have been used to provide a faithful word, a word brought in faithfulness because of a desire for your soul, a desire for your blessing. Such faith as is operating in that person with a knowledge that God can save you, that you no longer need to remain in a state of sinful flesh.
Naaman was mighty, “a great man before his master, and honourable, for by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria”. I often like to think of Naaman; what a man he must have been, captain of the host of the armies of Syria. He would not have risen to the rank of that position without great trials; without many battle scars upon him, and yet despite all of that honour, it says, “but a leper”. He could do nothing about it! He could do nothing about that condition, and we, you and I, as sinful creatures can do nothing of ourselves about our condition. It says in the epistle to the Romans, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, chap 3: 23. These sins are but a symptom of what we are, that is, that we have been born in sinful flesh, for “by one man sin entered into the world”, (Rom 5: 12), that was by Adam, and it has passed upon all of mankind; that is what we are, we can do nothing for ourselves.
And so Naaman’s wife must have been earnestly desirous, in love for her husband, and she carries this message that the little maid has given her to Naaman himself that he might know where to go for blessing. Tonight the preacher stands before you, because he has been asked to preach knowing that there is a Person the sinner must go to, knowing that there is a source of salvation, knowing that there is one Name given. I like to think that Naaman took this word of the little maid from the lips of his wife in faith; he must have done because he took it to the king. You can imagine him before his master: it says, “And he went and told his lord saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel”. Think of the anticipation that here finally was an answer! Finally, through the words of this little maid, and the activity of faith in Naaman there was an answer, and the answer was going to involve that he had to move, he had to travel. His master says, “Well! go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel”. And as it goes on it says he went and took many things with him.
It may be that one, having heard the gospel many times, is still thinking that they can be saved through something that he or she might do or something that they might bring. Elsewhere in the scriptures it says, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”, Isa 64: 6. But still there might be the toiling to improve oneself . The gospel cannot be proclaimed and on the basis that you can work out your own salvation in terms of redemption and forgiveness of sins, that you can bring something to God that might make yourself look better; that is not God’s thought at all! These gifts of gold, silver and raiment that Naaman was going to bring to have something that might be accepted for his curing were not God’s thought at all. He brought them to the king of Israel, who did not have the answer; but the little maid had spoken of the prophet in Samaria, but he brings this letter from his master to the king of Israel. Finally, “when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his garments, that he sent to the king, saying Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. And Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha”. Sinful flesh will always seek to enlarge itself; it will always seek to have the answer itself; it will always seek to work out its own salvation, having no need of God; it will seek to build itself up in pride. That was what happened at the outset; Satan fell because of pride and sought to bring that into the heart of man through disobedience and independence, and that is what we see in Naaman here when he came to the door of the prophet. It says, “Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha”.
We have spoken of the word being faithful; I hope that you can accept that, that the word is faithful, the word goes out from faith, and it is going to your heart that there might be faith in activity with you to believe it. The word is faithful; all we can do is state what we know to be true. We cannot state anything else: all we can state is what we have come to know to be true ourselves: “Faithful is the word”. Naaman knew that the little maid knew that she was saying something true, and it comes to him from his wife, but there was still another thing! He was going to have to experience that the word was worthy: “worthy of all acceptation”. When Naaman comes to the door of Elisha, he thought that something was worthy in himself, ‘I am a great man and I am honourable before my master; I am worthy of a reception: look at my chariots! Look at my horses, look at who I am!’. And Elisha does not even go out of the building. God cannot and will not tolerate fleshly pride; it says in the scripture, “all have sinned”, and it also says, “and come short of the glory of God”, Rom 3: 23. There is one Man before God, one standard before God, one Man who He will look upon, and in whom salvation is offered. Elisha sent a message to Naaman saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”.
Here again is the faithful word. We come to the preaching again, week after week going out faithfully; have you found it worthy of acceptation yet? Or are you still fighting against it? “Naaman was wroth”: at this point he would not bow in obedience. He absolutely refused to let the obedience of faith operate in his heart because of his pride, because Elisha did not give the word that he wanted to hear, because of the things that he wanted to do. But he was going to come to it that the word was “worthy of all acceptation”. “Naaman was wroth, and went away and said, Behold, I thought, He will certainly come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, rivers of Damascus”. He was a nationalist, speaking of “rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and went away in a rage”. It is not often that persons who are brought up in believing households go away in a rage from the gospel; I do not think I have ever seen it, but I have seen persons who have come into the gospel having not been brought up in a Christian household leaving in a rage, or leaving in a bad state. So perhaps you might not relate to this but perhaps you have heard the gospel and thought it was not for you. It is easy to think, ‘Well, I still want to do my own thing, or I want to be cured in my own way, or I want to find happiness and joy through doing it my way’, which is essentially what Naaman said.
But the story in 2 Kings 5 is a wonderful story because it illustrates these three sentences in Timothy: eventually it was through the faithfulness of the word of these servants, they say to him, “My father, if the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he says to thee, Wash and be clean”. Here we have reached the point where Naaman in all his greatness and honour finds the word “worthy of all acceptation”, and it says, “Then he went down”. Speaking in gospel terms, he had reached a point in his own soul when he realised that he simply had to obey what God was saying. Have you reached that point? Have you reached the point in your life where, as having been born in sin, and having experienced the symptoms of that sinful state through the sins you have committed, perhaps the things you have done, and certainly the things you have thought, where you are prepared to go down?
I would like to tell you about a Man who has gone down already. It says in Timothy that that worthy word is about a Man, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. That is a wonderful sentence in itself; it leaves the believer almost in awe that Paul should say this, that such a One should come into the world to save sinners! Such a One as we contemplated earlier who is God Himself, having brought the very world into being, creating this very river that Naaman had to plunge himself into, should deem it necessary and an act of grace that He should come into this world to save sinners, that we might know the love of God, that we might know the relationship that God wants us to know and enjoy.
This matter of Naaman going down and plunging himself “seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God” is like him receiving and believing and accepting the full glory and benefit of the glad tidings. Paul does not say, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to forgive you all your sins’, which in itself would be glorious; He is going to take them away all these wrong things that I have done! How wonderful that I should not feel the guilt of them any longer. Peter says to us, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet 2: 24. That is the sacrifice for sins that God required, that Jesus offered Himself on the tree, that holy sinless Offering; so God could pour out all His wrath upon Jesus, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. But it is not only a matter of all the things that I have done wrong, and all the thoughts that I have had that have been wrong, are dealt with but my very sinful state; I believe that is what Naaman prefigured. It was a complete exercise, plunging seven times in the Jordan, the Jordan speaking of death and the acceptance of that as belonging to him. It says, “And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child”. All these battle scars gone! What a wonderful thing that tonight through the gospel, and through the saving grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did such a wonderful work of redemption at the cross, you can be saved from your sins. But you can also be delivered from the state that sins, never to walk in it again. I read a wonderful thing that a preacher once said, that by the Spirit now the believer can keep that sinful flesh under lock and key, JT vol 32 p145. Yes, it is there until Jesus Christ takes us to be with Himself forever, but the believer can now take account of it if it ever acts again, judge it and keep on walking in the Spirit; how wonderful is that? That is what Naaman suggests: coming into the good of it when “his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean”. It was the purity of a little child: that flesh which once before was pock-marked by the ravages of leprosy, now was made like the flesh of a little child.
That is what Jesus would do for you tonight because of the work that He has accomplished on the cross. He has suffered for sins; He has exhausted the wrath of God, righteously, so that God can righteously offer you forgiveness of sins, but as completing that work of atonement in suffering those three hours. Then He could say, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”, (Luke 23: 46), and it says He “bowed his head”, John 19: 30. Here was this Man Christ Jesus who came into the world by His own volition, by His own act, and He would go out of this world by His own act, by bowing His head. It was the only way He could enter into death, for death could not claim Jesus; He had to enter into death Himself; and so He bowed His head and died, having committed His spirit into the hands of His Father who He had walked with through every step of His life.
My Saviour went into death and He did it for me that I might be saved. And He shed His blood for me that I might be washed from the guilt of my sins. He went into the grave to remove the man, me, who offended God from God’s sight that I might have peace, joy, happiness, satisfaction, the knowledge that my sinful state has been dealt with forever. And He has been raised that I might be justified and brought into the good of these wonderful heavenly blessings. My simple desire is that as Naaman did you too might find the word faithful, you too might find the word worthy, and you too might know that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. It was not only to save you from your sins, but that word is “to save sinners” - the sinner is the vessel, that is, the person: God wants you! He wants you as a vessel, once filled by sin and sins and now by His glory to be filled with the Spirit for His pleasure eternally to praise and to worship the God of glory who gave such a One as Christ Jesus to save us and to deliver us.
What a message! We may not even scratch the surface, but it comes in its worthiness. Oh that you might be touched in your heart in relation to the way that Christ has gone, and that you might respond in the obedience of faith. Naaman is going to obey and he finds it worthy, what he has accepted, this act of plunging seven times and the fulness of what that exercise meant to him. He comes out of the Jordan with his flesh as a little child, and he returns to the man of God with all his company; he wants to give him something, but Elisha says, ‘No’. Elisha will not take anything, but now this man is going to abound in hope even back in the position in Syria that he had.
He speaks to Elisha the man of God about his association; it is not only his own future salvation but he is concerned now about how he walks and who he walks with and where he goes. Such was the cleansing power of these plunges in the Jordan that he is a changed man, and he is considering for God. Such therefore is the believer who is truly changed; he considers for God in what he does, and he thinks about where he goes. So there is the question of the house of Rimmon, which was a Syrian god, and his master worshipped Rimmon; but now Naaman is no longer going to worship Rimmon; he is going to worship Jehovah the God of Israel, knowing that there is no other God, and that is the case with the believer; there is one God, one true God, and Jesus Christ’s desire is that you should know Him. It says, “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, John 17: 3. This exercise of Naaman’s is lovely. It says, “when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon - when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon thy servant, I pray thee, in this thing”. And what grace, Elisha says to him, “Go in peace”. I think Elisha had confidence in Naaman that these things would be worked out; his heart was changed. He is a new man; he was going to do things differently, and though there were complexities in the life ahead as there is in all of life’s circumstances, now Naaman trusted in God. Elisha had confidence that this man was going to work things out for God’s glory and pleasure. That can be the same for us as believers on the Lord Jesus: may we be encouraged to be like that, to consider for God.
That is now possible for the believer by the power of the Spirit, and that is why I read in Romans 15. We have read, “Now the God of hope”; Naaman had been without hope, Paul used to be without hope, and now here he is writing about the God of hope, and Naaman now as having the flesh of a little child had all the hope in his heart. And Paul says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing”, that is like Naaman, “so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. That is another wonderful blessing that God would seek to give to believers today, the gift of the Holy Spirit. I do not sufficiently appreciate the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor His power, nor His Person, nor what He is able to do; yet God would give you the gift if you desire to receive it. He will give you that gift, but it also says that the Spirit is given and active in those who obey. That is, as you appreciate Jesus as Saviour, as your heart is activated towards Him in affection, as you seek to be ruled by Him as Paul was, changed from an insolent overbearing man, to someone who could say, “for me to live is Christ”, Phil 1: 21. Having wanted to stamp out that Name and everything He did, now here was a man who was walking in the power of the Spirit; that is available for you. So that all of life’s circumstances can be met for the glory of God. What a victory God has secured here, firstly in Christ, and then in those who are believers in the Lord Jesus. The gift of the Spirit is a wonderful thing; “abounding in hope”. Are you abounding in hope today? Is there anything that is getting in the way of that? Any cloud on the horizon? We all know what that is, but the encouragement here is that you would be filled with “joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.
I trust it might be the portion of all and we may all be encouraged for His Name’s sake.
Loanhead
16th March 2025