The Proud Mind of the Flesh\u20142Ki_5:11-12<\/p>\n
The deeply interesting and suggestive history of Naaman the Syrian, who came to Samaria to be healed of his leprosy, and was healed by bathing seven times in the Jordan at the command of Elisha, is one on which volumes might be, and actually have been written. Note: We have before us one old folio volume of about 900 pages, upon seven verses of this history. It especially abounds with matter from which, by nearer or remoter analogy, instruction in things spiritual may be drawn; and seeing that, in its first aspect, it is no more than a simply told incident in the history of Elisha, we scarcely know any passage of holy writ of the same extent, which more remarkably bears out the declaration of the apostle, that \u201call Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness.\u201d The history, or rather the anecdote of Naaman, is \u201cprofitable,\u201d not, for one of these things separately, but for all of them.<\/p>\n
The point of this history to the consideration of which our mind is today most drawn, is Naaman\u2019s near failure of cure, by reason of his having settled in his own mind the mode in which it was to be done, and his scorn of the simple and naturally inadequate instrumentality prescribed by the prophet.<\/p>\n
We, knowing much better than Naaman did, the character and claims of Elisha, are apt to be amazed at the petulance and pride of Naaman. Yet in fact there are few of us\u2014are there any?\u2014who have not manifested many times in the course of our career, as much, or more, resistance to the demands upon our faith, and to the enforced exigencies for the humiliation of \u201cthe proud mind of the flesh,\u201d as ever Naaman did, and often with far less reason. Let us rather admit, that the demand upon the faith of Naaman, and the extent to which he was required to bend down his natural reason, formed somewhat of a severe exaction from one so raw and inexperienced in the things of God. Yet it is the common course of the Lord\u2019s dealings with those whom He brings under the operation of his healing grace. The course is paternal. As a father deals with his children, so deals He with us. He demands obedience, He exacts submission, He requires faith; and then, the mind being brought into the right state, He teaches, He leads, He heals. So his soldiers at their enlistment are subject to the same discipline as the world\u2019s soldiers. Obedience, discipline, are first of all exacted. This is the foundation of all things, and facilitates the education and training which go to complete the good soldier for the spiritual no less than for the world\u2019s warfare.<\/p>\n
This fundamental requisite is generally enforced upon us in the same way as in the case of Naaman, by the Lord\u2019s refusing to be bound by the course of proceeding which seems to us best, and pursuing a course of his own, to which our unqualified submission is demanded. And often, in the course of our career, we are checked in the same manner, with rigorous claims upon our submission, until we are brought into the state of having no will of our own, but are content to be still in the Lord\u2019s hands, leaving him to dispose of all things for us, and recognizing in all matters, and that readily and cheerfully, his way as the best. This refusal to be bound by our courses, is a right which the Lord exercises for our good, by bringing us into a state of affectionate and constant dependence upon him in all things and as to all times. Hence we are continually taken at unawares, with incidents which we did not expect, or could not calculate upon, but the right reception of which, or the contemplation of our constant liability to which, serves to hedge up our way when we become prone to wander, and to instruct well in all the lessons of his school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a scholar: The great Lord of love<\/p>\n
And life my master is, who from above,<\/p>\n
All that lack learning to his school invites.\u201d <\/p>\n
And in that school it is as often by his disciplines\u2014by his rod, as by his book, that He teaches us to profit.<\/p>\n
It is only by the grafting of our will into his, that we can bear much fruit\u2014any fruit; and no branch was ever yet grafted without being cut to the quick. In what He allows us, or in what He takes from us, in his dealings with us, or in his action upon us through others, the same object is always kept in view, of teaching us our dependence upon him and it is well with us\u2014very well, then only well\u2014when our will so works with his, that in all we see, or hear, or enjoy, or suffer, we strive to realize for ourselves that which He strives to teach\u2014to see his will, and to have no will but his.<\/p>\n
This dependence upon him, and this submission of all things to him, is health to our souls and marrow to our bones; and therefore, and for our profit, in so far as the Lord loves us, will He care to bring us into this state by all the dispensations of his providence and grace towards us. He is a great king. He is our sovereign master; and often the soul that shrinks most keenly from man\u2019s despotisms, submits the most cheerfully to hold all things, from the least even to the greatest, at the absolute disposal of him whose imperial prerogatives are not only beyond dispute, but give that which man most needs, and which he can nowhere else find\u2014rest for the soul amidst all life\u2019s perturbations.<\/p>\n
We may, to a certain extent, take it for granted, that if we have well tilled our ground, we shall in due course have a sowing season; that if we have sown our seed, we shall in due time reap the crop; and that if we have carried it to our barns, we shall at leisure thresh out and eat the fruit of our labor. And so, generally, it comes to pass. Yet we still hold all at our Lord\u2019s prerogative; and by wet, by drought, by sunshine, and in a hundred other ways, He will teach us that He reigns; and He is not so tied by the means and husbandry we use, but that for our presumption, unbelief, or unthankfulness, He will use his prerogative in bringing all the labor of our hands to naught. We are thus taught to walk with more awe and fear before our God, who is, when it so befits him, a consuming fire.<\/p>\n
There remains, therefore, nothing for us but to shut up ourselves and ours, daily and nightly, in the ark of his protection; to rise up, to dress, to eat, to work, to converse, to lie down with a humble and thankful heart\u2014not as slaves, nor yet as presumers\u2014but as those who know that they are not their own, as those who, if their Lord should say\u2014\u201cThy silver and thy gold are mine; thy wives also, and thy children, even the goodliest are mine,\u201d\u2014can answer\u2014\u201cMy Lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
How narrowly should we look, how guardedly should we walk, and how soberly should we use every blessing, if we were under bond to surrender all to a creditor at an hour\u2019s warning, and we were beholden only to his courtesy for the bread we eat! Even so, let us walk humbly before God, who is our sovereign, and has our lives, our wealth, our persons at his command\u2014in a moment to take all, if it so please him, from us. Let us daily take all we have as lent one day more from his hand, and use his blessings humbly and purely, as though we used them not; and strive to realize the condition of that holy man, who, when asked over-night whether he would go to such a place on the morrow? made answer\u2014\u201cI thank God, I have known no morrow these twenty years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Proud Mind of the Flesh\u20142Ki_5:11-12 The deeply interesting and suggestive history of Naaman the Syrian, who came to Samaria to be healed of his leprosy, and was healed by bathing seven times in the Jordan at the command of Elisha, is one on which volumes might be, and actually have been written. Note: We … Continue reading ““390. THE PROUD MIND OF THE FLESH\u20142 KINGS 5:11-12””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}