Let's open our Bibles to the
Old Testament book of 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 5. I'm going
to read through the text and make some comments. The title
of the message is God's Way or No Way. God's Way or No Way. And what
we have here in this Old Testament historic presentation is the
healing of a man named Naaman. Naaman was a leper, and the Lord
used this man as an illustration of salvation, how God saves sinners. And of course the title of the
message tells you what the theme is. We're talking about salvation
is by God's way or it's no way at all. And that's the problem
with the natural man, all of us by nature. Men and women want
salvation. They want to live forever. They
want a relief from the guilt of their sins. They want cleansing
from sin. But the problem is, is that man
by nature, unregenerate man, wants it his way. But God has
it his way, and that's the way it's gonna be or else, there's
no salvation. You know, the Bible says twice
in the book of Proverbs, there is a way that seemeth right unto
a man, that the way is the way of death. And that's usually,
it's always the way of works and free will salvation, which
never works. because that's not God's way.
And we read in the opening in Isaiah 55, God says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. Well, what
is God's way? Well, it's clear from Genesis
to Revelation that God's way of salvation is the way of his
free and sovereign grace, total sovereign grace, in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ, who himself is the way. Why, Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Now, this story of Naaman, who
was, as it says, a captain of the host in the country of Syria,
an idolatrous, ungodly country, like all are, and he was a leper. Now, let's look, in verse one,
the first thing that's brought to our attention is the fact
that this man was a great man. Look at it. Verse one, now Naaman,
captain of the host, that is the army of Syria, the host of
the king of Syria, was a great man with his master. Now notice
who it says he was great with, with his master, with the king.
Not great with God but great with his master. An honorable
That means he was, if you got a concordance there, it says
he was gracious, lifted up or accepted in countenance, impressive
man. Because by him, the Lord had
given deliverance unto Syria. Syria was spared. Now this is
the providential work of God to work his sovereign will. Understand
the Bible speaks of God as the he who works all things after
the counsel of his own will. And what we're going to see,
if you read the histories of the scripture, you see that God
even used ungodly nations and ungodly people to work his sovereign
will. They didn't know about it. They
were unwitting participants. in the sovereign purposes of
God. You can read several like that. But this man was used by
God to give deliverance unto Syria. It says he was also a
mighty man in valor, but look at the last line, but he was
a leper. Now what does that teach him?
What's this illustrating? Well it's illustrating obviously,
you know leprosy in the Bible is a type of sin. And what is shown here is man
at his best state. Look at Naaman, look at all the
great things it says about this captain of the king's host. Honorable,
great, mighty, all of these things that can be said about him. But
it's all brought into focus concerning the plight of man. He was a leper.
You know about leprosy? They say they can cure it today,
but back then it was a death nail. You know, even in Israel,
when someone became a leper, they had to live outside the
realm of common men and women, and any time they were walking
down the road, for example, and they saw somebody coming, they
had to holler out, unclean, unclean, stay away from me. That's what
that meant. But it was a death nail. And
here this man was as great as he was. And what that's a picture
of is all of us by nature. We are all by nature. Now when
I say by nature, I'm talking about as we are naturally born
into this world. We fell in our father Adam into
a state of sin and death and depravity. And we are spiritually
dead, depraved, Now that doesn't mean that we're all raving lunatics
or anything like that, or raving immoralists. It means that we
are all alienated, separated, and in our minds enemies of God.
And the greatest evidence of total depravity is man's response,
natural response to the preaching of the gospel. in which it says
in 1 Corinthians 2.14, what does it say? The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
for they are spiritually discerned. In other words, on our own, by
our own wills and our own volition, we will not believe God. We will not receive Christ. If
a person hears the gospel, and believes it, you know what that
is? That's a testimony to the power
of God and the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, not of works, and even that faith is the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. A believer, a true believer now,
not just somebody who says they believe, But a true believer
is a work of God. Ephesians 2.10, for we are his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, but
unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. And so this leprosy is the leprosy
of sin. And we all have it. And of course
what we're gonna see, there's only one cure. And it's not by
the works or the wills of men. It's by the grace of God. The
Bible says there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. It says we've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God. But now here's what man will not recognize. That applies
even to the best of sinful, lost human beings. Now we can easily
see how that would apply to the drunks and the whore mongers
and the drug addicts and all of that. But to the religionist,
to the moralist, yes it does. The Bible says that in Luke chapter,
what is it, 16 I believe, verse 15. I may have the reference
wrong, but it says this, that which is highly esteemed among
men. Now what is highly esteemed among
men? religion, morality, dedication,
sincerity, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
unto God. Why is that? It is because those
who are seeking salvation and acceptance with God, based upon
their works, their law keeping, their sincerity, their morality,
they deny the glory of God. They deny Christ. If righteousness, Paul wrote
in Galatians, if righteousness could have come by the law, Christ
died in vain. Why did God send Jesus Christ
into the world? To do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves. Salvation is based upon his righteousness,
the very righteousness of God, not ours, for we have none. And that applies even to men
like Nahum and the leper. best of the best, the strongest
of the strong, the smartest of the smart. Let not man glory
in his wisdom or his smartness, let him not glory in his might
or his power, let not man glory in anything. Paul said God forbid
that I should glory, boast, have confidence save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now from verses 2 to 9 we have
a messenger who is presented here and it's something special. Look at this, verse two. And
the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive
out of the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited, she served
on Naaman's wife. Verse three, she said unto her
mistress, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is
in Samaria. There's a prophet in Samaria,
a prophet of God, for he would recover him of his leprosy. He's
like a preacher of the gospel. I'm telling you the way that
you can be cured of your sin problem, your sin debt, your
lack of righteousness. And verse four says, and one
went in and told his Lord saying, thus and thus said the mate that
is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, go
to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 pieces
of gold, and 10 changes of rank. Now the king of Syria is sending
his captain, Naaman, the leper, to the king of Israel. He'll
cure you. The king of Syria was sending
the captain of his host to the wrong person. What did the little
maid say? He said, I'm going to send you
to a prophet in Samaria. Assyria said, go to the king
of Israel. Surely he's got the wherewithal
to do this. Surely he, you know, he's rich,
he's powerful, you know, all that. We conquered him, I know,
but surely he can't. And verse six says that he brought
the letter to the king of Israel saying, now, when this letter
has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. Oh King,
can you carry? What's the problem? It's the
problem with most religionists today. They're looking to the
wrong person. Somebody said, well, we're all
looking to Jesus. Oh, you better read your Bibles now. There are
false counterfeit Christ. Did you know that? In fact, everybody
today says we're living in the last days. You know that? We
are. fact, I believe we're living in the last days. The time of
the end has been since the resurrection of Christ and it'll last until
his second coming and we're living in that and I believe we're living
in the last of the last days. Do you know what the greatest
sign of the nearness of his coming is? Has he said it to his disciples? There will be an influx and outcropping
of false messiahs, false Jesus is preached. Those who are false
messiahs, another Jesus he called in 2 Corinthians 11. And it's Satan trying to corrupt
the minds of God's people from the simplicity that's in the
true Christ. How do we know the true Christ
from a false Christ? Well, it's in the glory of his
person. Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible's clear. He is God
manifest in the flesh. He is God-man, perfect God, eternal
God who never changes, and man without sin. He is humanity. You know, people are getting
ready to think about that in December because they think that's
the time of the birth of Christ. It wasn't, but that's okay. is his humanity was created for
him in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. Sinless humanity. That's who he is. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God with us. The Word made flesh, dwelling,
tabernacling among us. That's who he is. He's God-man.
You know, there are whole denominations who call themselves Christian
who deny either his deity or his humanity. That's a false
Christ. And then the second thing that
shows us who the true Christ is, is what he accomplished when
he died on the cross to save his people from their sins. He
didn't try to save everybody. The Bible doesn't preach that.
It doesn't say that. He came to save his sheep. He
died for his sheep and they shall be saved. His death is a propitiation. You ever heard that word? You
have. What does that mean? That means a satisfaction to
the justice of God that removes His wrath and brings justification
to His people. And how are they known? When
the Holy Spirit brings them under the true gospel and brings them
to believe it. Do you believe the truth? Well,
a lot of people are going to the wrong Jesus, basically. They're
going like Naaman to the king of Israel and he can't do it.
Look at verse seven. It came to pass when the king
of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes. He
tore his clothes. Now, you know, in the old Testament,
that's a sign of a person who's in distress, sorrowful. And he said, am I God to kill
and make alive? that this man doth send unto
me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, why consider, I pray
you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me?" He said, the King
of Syria is just trying to set me up and have a quarrel with
me, an argument with me. Verse eight says, and it was
so when Elisha, the man of God, now this is Elisha the prophet.
Remember, he was the successor to Elijah. And Elisha, the man
of God. Now that's where we need to go.
We need to go to a man of God who preaches the truth. We don't
go to that man for him to save us. We go to that man for him
to tell us how God saves. Like John the Baptist said, I'm
not the way, I'm not the Messiah, but I'm here to point you to
one who is. That's what a preacher is. He's like a signpost. I'm
telling you where salvation is. It's not in me. I can't even
save myself. But Christ says, but he says,
the Elisha, the man of God had heard that the king of Israel
had rent his clothes. He'd heard that the king was
in sorrow and distress. And he sent to the king saying,
wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him, that is Naaman,
come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Let him come to me. I'll show him the way. That's
what he's saying here. Verse nine says, so Naaman came
with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door
of the house of Elisha, standing at the door. This is the messenger. This is the preacher of the gospel
today. Go to somebody who's telling
you the truth. Well, how do you know if I'm
telling you the truth? Search the scriptures. Test it by the
scriptures. Test the preachers. That's what
1 John 4 is about when it says try the spirits. test them. Are they telling me what God's
Word tells me or are they telling me what the majority believes
or what somebody else believes? Test the scriptures, test the
preachers by the scriptures. Isaiah said it in his day in
Isaiah 8 and verse 20, he said, to the law and to the testimony
if they speak not according to this word there's no light in
them and that's the issue. Well, look what happens here,
verse 10. Elisha sent a messenger unto him. Now, Elisha didn't
even go out to him. Now, you can imagine at Naaman
now, and his position, and how noted he was in Syria, and probably
even among the Israelites, because they had been conquered by this
man who's the captain of the king's host. And the prophet
doesn't even come out to meet him. be like an insult today. And it says, Elijah sent a messenger
into him saying, now the messenger is going to tell you the way
and here it is. Now this is the illustrative
of God's way of salvation. Look what he says, he said, go
and wash in the Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come
again to thee and thou shalt be clean. Go wash in the Jordan. Now you know Whenever we see
miracles in the Bible, and we're about to see one, they're different
miracles, different ways, and they're all illustrating some
way how God is the only way of healing or life. Just like Christ
raised Lazarus from the dead. Christ healed the blind. He made
the lame walk, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear. All of that,
he tasked out demons. They were all ways of illustrating
that only God, through Christ, has the power to save a sinner
from sin. And sometimes he did it different
ways in his healing. Like one time he healed a blind
man by spitting in the dirt, making mud, and putting it on
his eyes. One day he made a lame man walk by having people take
him down into a pool. And that's not to say that God
has different ways to save. It was different ways that God
illustrated that whatever way it is, it's gotta be His way
or no way. And that's like Naaman. Think
about this, the River Jordan. That was that river. You know,
some people say it's a dirty, muddy old river. I think some
of you all have even been baptized in Jordan, haven't you? You know
what? Didn't do you a daggone bit of
good. It didn't. Waters, physical water can't
heal. You know that. I mean, you know
the gospel and you know that. But the way Naaman puts it, you'll
see what I'm talking about. But he says seven times. Now,
why seven times? Well, seven in the Bible is the
number of a perfect completed work. That's why the Sabbath
day was the seventh day. Six days you work, you quit the
work, and then you take the seventh day. That's the Sabbath. Now,
we don't have a Sabbath day today. I know people say we do, but
we don't. Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. Sunday's the first day
of the week that we come to worship God on. We set that day aside. But our, you know what our Sabbath
is today? Read Hebrews chapter four. Christ
is our Sabbath. Why? because He did a perfect
work and we rest in Him, our eternal spiritual Sabbath. And all those Sabbath days and
weeks and years in the Old Covenant, they were picturing our Sabbath
eternal rest in Christ. Resting, come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I'm resting in Christ for my
whole salvation. None of it's dependent upon me.
Well preacher, why do you work? Why do you preach? Why do you
try to obey? Because I love Christ. Because it's gratitude for what
He's given me and I didn't deserve a bit of it. Didn't earn any
of it. It's grace. And he did all the
work. And that's what this seven times
represents. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
14 says, for by one offering, Christ hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He did it all. He met every requirement. He fulfilled every stipulation.
He finished every condition that God required of his people. He
is the Lord my righteousness. All the righteousness that God
requires and that I need, I find in Him who is called, as Jeremiah
said it twice, the Lord our righteousness. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, or the Gentile
also, for therein is the righteousness of God. Not the righteousness
of men, or women, the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that
is from the revelation of God by the Spirit, to faith, the
gift of faith which enables us to lay hold of Him and believe
in Him. For as it is written, the just,
the justified shall live by faith. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all my sins, past sins, present sins, future
sins, on a just ground. And what is that just ground?
The blood of Jesus Christ, illustrated here in the River Jordan. The
suffering of Christ, the blood of Christ. And what is it to
be justified? It's to be declared righteous
in God's sight. A sinner declared righteous in
God's sight? Yes, by his grace, based upon
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, imputed, charged,
accounted to me. preacher, aren't you still a
sinner? Yes, I am. I'm a sinner saved by grace. We sing that hymn, only a sinner
saved by grace. This is my story to God be the
glory. I'll tell you what, that's amazing,
isn't it? Well, that's God's way of salvation illustrated
right here in verse 10. It's His grace through the blood
of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
this is all my righteousness." You ever sing that hymn? Do you
believe it? Well, Naaman was told by Elisha's
messenger the way to get rid of his leprosy but look at Naaman's
response. Now Naaman's response here in
verses 11 and 12 illustrates the natural man and woman unregenerate
response to the gospel. In other words, if God leaves
you alone and the Spirit does not do a work of sovereign grace
and power within your heart to give you the new birth, change
your heart and your mind, give you faith to believe, this is
how you're going to react. Look at it, verse 11. But Naaman
was wroth, he got angry. I remember the first time I heard
the true gospel, I got angry too. I really did. And he went
away. And he said, behold, I thought, I thought he will surely come
out to me, Elisha the prophet will surely come out to me, I'm
Naaman. And he'll stand and he'll call
on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the
place and recover the leper. He's gonna go through all this
mumbo jumbo. Isn't that what people want today? Oh look who's here, oh so and
so, we're just so honored to have you here. You ought to feel honored to
be here where the gospel's preached, not because I'm preaching it,
but whoever's preaching it. I thought, remember what I read
at the beginning? My thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways are not your ways. I never forget when I first heard
the true gospel, My pastor brought in a tape. Remember the cassette
tapes? Y'all remember those? Brought in a tape from an old
preacher from Michigan preaching on this lesson here, this passage. And you know what he entitled
the message? Now he was just an old country preacher. He entitled
the message, It Ain't Like You Thought It Was. It Ain't Like You Thought It
Was. Man's thoughts. What are man's thoughts? Salvation
by works. Somebody says, well, I'm not
perfect, but I've done enough. Or I'm not as bad as someone
else. Listen to what Naaman said, look at verse 12. Are not Abana
and Farpar, those are rivers of Damascus? You know, Damascus
is probably one of the oldest cities in civilization. Aren't
these two rivers better than Jordan, that muddy Jordan? Better
than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be
clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. Isn't my way good enough? Oh,
there's the Methodist way, the Baptist way, the Pentecostal
way. Isn't that good enough? Absolutely
not. God's way or no way. And the way of God is a narrow
way. He said, few there be that find it. Many are called, fewer
chosen, I mean all of that. God's way is a narrow, God's
way, God's way is the way of grace based upon the righteousness
of another. Jesus Christ, my surety, who
took all my sins upon his charge, my sin debt was laid to his account. That's the imputation of my sin
to him. He became my substitute as God
and man. He took my place under the law,
kept it perfectly, and went to the cross to die to satisfy the
justice of God. That's where mercy is found at
the cross, the suffering unto death of Christ as my substitute. He redeemed me from my sins. He paid the debt. I cannot be
charged with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, making
intercession for it. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. Those for whom Christ died cannot
be condemned, folks. You say, well, you've got to
do your part. Your part is the sinning. His part is the saving. Salvation is not conditioned
on you or me, it's conditioned on Christ. And he'll save his
people from their sin. So Naaman, he said, there gotta
be other ways to do this that are better. But there's nothing
better than God's way. And there's no way but God's
way. Well, look at verse 13. Here's the man humbled. His servants,
Naaman's servants, verse 13, came near and spoke to him. and
said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldest thou not have done it? If he had bid you to do some
great thing, give a bunch of money or jump in the heavens
or whatever, how much rather then, when he saith to thee,
wash and be clean? And the first words of verse
14 says it all. Then Naaman went down. And that's where God's got to
bring us. He's got to bring us down to
submit to His way. We've got our ways, our ideas.
He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not
your. My thoughts and my ways are so much higher than yours.
Remember old Zacchaeus the publican up in a tree? What did Christ
say? Zacchaeus, come down. And that's
what God in the gospel tells every sinner whom he's going
to save, come down, bow down. One old preacher said, lay your
shotgun down and make your headquarters in the dust. And he went down. Verse 14, he
dipped himself seven times in Jordan, just like the prophet
said. according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh
came again like unto the flesh of a little child and he was
clean." Now it takes the power of God
to bring us, no matter who we are, we may be like a Naaman
or we may be nobodies, but it takes the power of God to bring
us down to be submitted to him and his righteousness. Paul wrote
about that in Romans 10 concerning the Jews. He said they were trying
to find righteousness and a right relationship with God by their
works of the law. But he said they don't know God. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish one of their own and have not
submitted to the righteousness of God. And what is the righteousness
of God? Romans 10, four, for Christ is
the end, the finishing, the fulfillment, the perfection of the law for
righteousness to them that believe. To them that believe. Again. What can wash away my sin? Well,
look at verse 15. He says, and he returned to the
man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him.
And he said, behold, now I know that there's no God in all the
earth, but in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
take a blessing of thy servant. But he, that is Elisha, said,
as the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none.
And he urged him to take it. Naaman urged Elisha to take what
he had. And Elisha refused. And Naaman
said, shall there not then, I pray thee, be any given to thy servant,
two mules burden of earth? For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods
but unto the Lord. Now what Naaman was wanting to
do was to pay him for the miracle. And of course, Elisha lets him
know, no, salvation's a free gift. Righteousness is free. Cleansing is free. It's not what
you can pay for. Isaiah 55, right before God says,
my thoughts are not your thoughts. And remember, he said, come without
money, without price, buy without money. How are you gonna buy
without money? You bring the blood of Christ, his price. And
that's how my sins are washed away. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Well, now I'm gonna have some other issues here, but you know,
The Lord used Naaman as an example to expose Israel's unbelief.
You remember when he went back to his hometown, and he talked
about how he quoted from Isaiah 61, I believe it was, and they
got upset with him, and he said there were many widows in Israel,
but the Lord took care of a Gentile. He said there were many lepers
in Israel, but the Lord took care of a Gentile named Naaman. And they got so mad, they wanted
to throw him off a cliff. Well, my friend, let me tell
you something. Christ said this. He said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. Now, didn't he say that? John 6, what, 37? All that the
father giveth me. When did the father give him
to him? Before the foundation of the world. That's the elect.
That's his sheep. That's his church. All that the
Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Those who come to him he will
not turn away, even if they're a leper like Naaman, even if
they're a Gentile. Salvation is for sinners, and
salvation is of God, and salvation is God's way or no way.