Thank you Robert. It's good to
see everyone here today and we also welcome those who are joining
us via live streaming. Our text for today is 2 Kings
chapter 5 where we'll look at the story of Naaman and how God
healed him of his deadly incurable disease of leprosy. And we'll
see that God also cured him of that which is leprosy typifies
and the dreaded disease which inflicts us all, the leprosy
of sin, if you would, an eternally deadly disease from which we
all desperately need to be healed. And I'm convinced if you make
the mistake this morning of considering this passage as just a story
or an account from the annals of history, without giving consideration
to its spiritual application to us, you'll miss out. You'll
miss out on God's gracious and instructional design and having
inspired the writing of these words because this story is a
story of eternal significance to us all. And to confirm that,
consider the New Testament passage which Robert read from Luke chapter
4. Here's our Lord, He had just
arrived on the scene and His mission had been made clear.
He came to save His people from their sins. And so we have the
sense that our Lord there is equating His sovereignty in salvation. That is in the spiritual, eternal
cleansing of a people from their sins with His sovereignty in
having physically cleansed the Syrian Gentile Naaman of his
leprosy. And as Robert read, that was
at the exclusion of all the other many Jewish lepers that lived
at that time. And so in light of that, we can
know that the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5 is indeed a type
of our Lord's cleansing of all he saves from the leprosy or
disease that's common to us all, the leprosy of sin. We see in
2 Kings 5 not only God's sovereignty and salvation, meaning as the
scripture tells us that he will have mercy on whom he will have
mercy, but we also see in this story a picture of how salvation
unfolds as God saves a sinner. And it's a type or a picture
that we all should be able to personally identify with, so
that makes it very worthy of our attention. So we'll just
simply read through the story as found in our text, 2 Kings
5, beginning in verse 1. Now Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was
also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. I want you to
underline that last little phrase in your mind's eye. But he was
a leper. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies. That was like small raiding parties
that would venture into Israel. And we see on one such raid it
says, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little
maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife.
And she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the
prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his
lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. Now from the context and the
verses that follow, it would appear likely that here Naaman's
wife had shared what the maid had told her with her husband,
Naaman, who in turn told his lord the king, for as we read
in verse 5, and the king of Syria said, apparently back to Naaman,
go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
Naaman departed, and he took with him ten tallets of silver
and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment. And
he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, or meaning
the letter said, Now when this letter is coming to thee, behold,
I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou
mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass when the
king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and
he said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth
send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider,
I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me." In other
words, here the king of Israel, knowing he wasn't God and he
could not cure this incurable disease, he thought this letter
was perhaps a setup. a pretense for Syria to wage
war against Israel once the king inevitably would fail to cure
Naaman, as the letter requested. Verse 8, and it was so when Elisha,
the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his
clothes that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses, with his chariot, and he stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. But I want you to notice in verse
10, Elisha doesn't come out. Elisha instead, it says, sent
a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times,
and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. And now look at Naaman's response
in verse 11. But Naaman was wroth, he was angry, and went away. And he said, Behold, I thought,
and I want you to underline those two words in your mind's eye
as well, I thought, I thought he will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. or not Abana and Farpar,
rivers of Damascus, 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. 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 then there's
a miraculous humbling change of heart that takes place between
verses 13 and 14. Verse 14 begins, Then went he
down. And underline that in your mind's
eye as well. Then went he down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan. And look at this, according to
the saying of the man of God. In other words, as God had prescribed. And his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child, as soft and smooth as a baby's
skin. And he was clean. And Naaman
returned to the man of God, to Elisha, he and all his company,
and he came and he stood before him, and he said, Behold, now
I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.
Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant, But
Elisha said, as the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive
none. And Naaman urged him to take
it, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there
not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burden
of earth? In other words, soil from Israel
that he could pack on two mules to take back to Syria. And I
want you to notice here, he's now calling himself Elisha's
servant. He says, for thy servant will
henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other
gods but unto the Lord. So as I mentioned earlier, we
see from these verses that Naaman had not only been physically
healed, but he had been given spiritual life, God-given faith,
and repentance from idolatry, spiritual healing. We see that
as Naaman adds in verse 18, in this thing the Lord pardoned
thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimen
to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself
in the house of Rimen, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimen,
the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing. And he, Elisha,
said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little
way. And we'll stop there. Now verse 18 is interesting.
It needs a little explanation. And the reason is there are some
who would suggest that here you have the newly converted, cleansed
sinner Naaman already planning to compromise and cave in to
his king's false religion upon his return by continuing to worship
the idol Reman. But as I agree with what I read
from other commentators who point out, that would be totally inconsistent
with the immediate context in which Naaman had just asserted
how he knew that there was no other god. He further asserted
he would not be making an offering to or worship any other God. So from the context, it makes
much more sense to understand this as Naaman asking for forgiveness
from that which he just came to realize by God-given faith
and of which he now was repenting. He had become confronted with
the fact that he had actually been attending to the worship
of an idol And that's a religious practice that this context suggests
he had no intention of continuing in. So let's look now at the
whole story in a bit more detail. We can see at the very beginning
of our passage that Naaman was a great and an honorable man.
However, there's a problem. Something's wrong. As we read
in verse one, he was highly respected. He had many commendable attributes. But the end of that verse sums
up who and what he really was when it reads, but he was a leper. You know, it's undeniable that
there are distinctions among men and women. You know, some
folks are smarter than others. Some are more gifted athletically
or musically or artistically. Some are more charitable. Some
are kinder, more compassionate. Some are more successful in their
careers than others, and even the least among us typically
have some commendable attributes that will cause others to esteem
us higher than they otherwise would. I look around our congregation,
and I recognize commendable attributes among you all. I see here loving
fathers and loving mothers who I'm sure are esteemed in the
eyes of their children. I see men and women here who
faithfully attend the worship services, folks who give of their
time and talent and money in support of the gospel of God's
grace that goes forth from here. But you know, no matter how great,
how honorable, and listen, even how accurate those descriptions
might be of some of you, they're not going to be your eternally
lasting legacy. Naaman was a leader of the Syrian
army and he had earned great respect and honor from his successful
victories against Israel that the Lord had given him. But you
know, that would only describe what he had done for the brief
span of his lifetime. Deep down, he had a serious problem. He was a leper. That's a deadly
and incurable and dreaded disease was coursing throughout his body.
He was a dying man. And as his spiritual conversion
reveals, he also had been traveling the road toward eternal death
and destruction. So know this, no matter how highly
esteemed you may be in the eyes of someone else, you too have
a problem. You know, an accurate description
and a complete description of you or me would have to read
something like this. Randy is a man who, and if you
search long enough, hopefully you might find some flattering
comment to fill in that blank. But regardless of any commendable
trait you could name, the end of that sentence for us all should
read like this, but he was a sinner. Say, due to the fall of all humanity
in Adam, We come into this world as sinners. We don't become sinners
because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. And we're in desperate need of
spiritual healing. So we may be something in somebody's
eyes in this world, but when they lay me or you in the ground,
when this brief life is over, all these distinctions will vanish. They'll be bearing a sinner.
A sinner whose sins must be accounted for before the judgment of a
holy and just God. So first, I want you to notice
that like Naaman, we all have a serious problem and it's one
we cannot get rid of ourselves. We're sinners. See, that's our
very nature. And as sinners, we're dying.
We're dying physically and we will die eternally unless God
has miraculously cleansed us. of the leprosy of sin by having
charged our sins to Christ so that He, as our substitute, might
bear the just penalty due unto those sins by dying in our place.
See, a just punishment which otherwise would fall upon us,
eternal condemnation and death. So we see in our story right
off from verse 1, Naaman, he was highly esteemed among men,
but he has a serious problem. And then secondly, in verses
2 through 5, and even the verses that follow, we see a picture
here of the miraculous, mind-boggling to me, providence of God in salvation. And you know, God's providential
hand is at work in the conversion of each and every one He saves. As our Lord said himself in John
6, 44, no man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And I marvel at that drawing,
the manifold wisdom, the infinite power of God that so orders the
lives and all the circumstances of all his dear children that
will cause them to come under the sound of this, his gospel
of grace. and then give them such a radical
change of heart and mind as he draws them unto himself in regeneration
and conversion. Consider this providence from
our story. The Lord calls this young Israeli
girl to be taken captive. Not just any girl, but this young
maid. And then, not just assigned to
serve in some household, but to serve Naaman's wife in his
household. Was that just happenstance? Why? It wasn't happenstance as our
story shows. It was because the Lord had mercy
in store for Naaman. And I want you to think about
that. There may be somebody of you hearing this very gospel
message, and it may be because the Lord has mercy in store for
you. And I pray so. Now not only was
this young girl placed in the household of Naaman, but the
Lord also brought to her mind to recall and to recommend Israel's
prophet to Naaman's wife. You know, I can imagine she might
well have thought, you know, I know this prophet could help,
but maybe I shouldn't bring it up. No, but that wasn't going
to happen, was it? God's providence was at work. And as you go on
down in our passage, you get down around verse 13, you see
that the Lord even operated through the heathen servants of Naaman
to kind of calm their master's rage and cause them to listen
to reason. And then when you see that miraculous
transformation that takes place between verses 13 and 14 that
we read, we know that only God could have influenced this proud
Syrian to do a 180. to go down into the Jordan River
in accordance with God's prescription for healing and that after all
the rage and hatred he had shown upon learning that the cure wasn't
as he thought. But instead, it was going to
be something which God alone wrought. And incidentally, that's
the title of my message today. I thought, but God wrought. And I suggest to you that all
who are saved, they're brought to a similar realization. I thought,
but, but contrary, see, to what I thought, God wrought. Well, I found out I really did
need God's grace. I really was at His mercy. That
salvation is truly of the Lord. So we've seen already in this
story, there's one, a serious problem. And two, we see the
overriding providence of God unfolding to bring about all
that was necessary for God to show His mercy to Naaman. Now
in verses 6 through 8, we see a picture of how we all will
naturally seek a cure, that is, if and when we discover we've
got a disease. And we're going to seek a cure
that seems right to us. We certainly wouldn't seek a
cure that doesn't seem right. But as we so often quote from
Proverbs, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death. So like Naaman, we
may seek a cure, and if we do, we'll seek one that seems right
to us, but the way that initially seems right to us by nature,
God declares in his word, is a way that will leave us perishing
in our sins. That's why the scripture commands
that God calls all men everywhere to repent. So regarding that,
I want us to look in our story here at several aspects of our
seeking a way that initially seems right to us. First we see
that Naaman sought a cure for his leprosy, but he sought it
in the wrong place. The king of Syria didn't send
him to the prophet, but instead he sent him to the king of Israel.
The king of Israel was baffled at the suggestion, at least as
he understood it, that he could somehow cure Naaman's leprosy. But Naaman needed to see the
prophet. He needed to get to Elisha, the man of God that the
young girl had providentially suggested he see. And likewise,
by nature, we'll all seek eternal salvation and forgiveness, but
we'll seek it in the wrong place. Some will seek it on their knees,
repeating what some call the sinner's prayer, where they're
told, if you'll just repeat these words, God will save you. Some
will seek it in a confessional booth. Some by going to see their
priest or their preacher. Some by walking a mile to make
a profession of sorts. Some by going into the baptismal
pool. But listen, there's no salvation
to be found in these places. God is a God of means, and the
Bible tells us He's pleased to save sinners by the foolishness
of preaching, what the world, the lost unregenerate world,
calls foolishness. In other words, the preaching
of God's gospel of grace in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Think,
consider sadly how in many pulpits across our land this morning,
preachers are going to direct sinners to somewhere other than
or somewhere in addition to looking to Jesus Christ. Many in this part of the world
where, quote, Christianity is so popular, they will invoke
the name of Jesus Christ. It may say a lot about what He's
done, but the telltale sign is at the same time They'll present
to their hearers a false gospel that directs the sinner to do
something in order to save themselves, rather than directing them to
look solely to the Savior, to Jesus Christ alone for all salvation. And listen, if that's the message,
there's no cure to be found there. That's the wrong place. I believe
in our story, Elisha is a type of the eternal prophet. Jesus
Christ, the one that was prophesied of in Deuteronomy 18.15, where
we're told, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, a God-man
prophet. Unto him ye shall hearken. Now
that's a prophecy of Jesus Christ, and there's no salvation to be
found anywhere else. Just as Naaman had to go to the
prophet, we must go to this prophet, Jesus Christ. As Peter said of
Christ in Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Christ himself said of himself
in John 14.6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man
cometh unto the Father, he said, but by me. One way. Naaman, he sought healing, but
he sought it in the wrong place. And secondly, Naaman sought it
in the wrong way. We see that in that Naaman, he
took the wrong things with him. As we read, he loaded 6,000 pieces
of gold, 10 tallets of silver, and 10 changes of clothing. Heading
off to do what? To buy his healing. And you know,
that's consistent with a way that seems right to us all. We
may not have 6,000 pieces of gold to buy our salvation, but
isn't there a sense where our first inclination is to want
to barter with God as if we have something worth enough to swap
or to trade for our eternal salvation? Boy, and you think of the evil
of that when you consider what it actually took. We're stacking
up, I'll receive you, I'll accept you, I'll do this, with the precious
blood of Christ, what it took to take away sins. So if we go
to the wrong place, where false gospels preach, you can pretty
much bank on the fact they'll suggest there's something you
can do, listen, in order to be saved. They may say a lot about
what Christ has done. But then they'll add, and He'll
save you if you'll just do this or if you'll just do that, if
you'll just receive Him, if you'll just accept Him, if you'll turn
over a new leaf, whatever it might be. You know, contrary
to Scripture, many erroneously believe that Jesus Christ lived
and died for everyone that ever lived. And you know what? If
that were true, the real difference maker in salvation would have
to be you. Or me. Unless you believe that
if he died for them all, then all of them are saved. And of
course, no one believes that because the Bible is very clear
in refuting that. And so, based on a false premise,
they logically then focus on the real difference maker in
salvation. Asking, how will you respond? They suggest, just believe
whatever's being prescribed. And God, listen, in exchange
will save you. Now, they may not, likely won't
say the words in exchange, but there's no doubt about it. That
is precisely what is being conveyed. Or as some say, just walk this
aisle and profess your faith before men and in exchange God
will save you. or give of your time and your
talents, and in particular, of your money, and God will bless
you in exchange. My friend, God doesn't need anything
that you or I have to offer. You know, we are only a steward
of things in this life for a short time. It all belongs to God.
As the Scripture says, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
He doesn't need anything we can offer. We must be, like Naaman,
stripped down, humbled, and come to Christ as the prophet Isaiah
instructed when he wrote in chapter 55, Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy
and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Every time I read that verse,
I'm reminded of that phrase in that grand old hymn we sing,
Rock of Ages, where we sing, in my hand, no price I bring. Excuse me. Excuse me. That thrills me. In my hand, no price I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. Man, is that free salvation?
Boy, that's mercy and grace, isn't it? Naaman, he came with
something to offer for his healing, and that typifies the false gospel
of salvation by works. The message, it says, that salvation's
conditioned, at least in some way and or to some degree, on
you, the sinner. The real difference maker being
something you offer up. You know, God tells us in His
Word that that's not His way of salvation. He says it's by
grace alone. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. That faith, it's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2, 8
and 9. And you know, then over in Romans 11, we're taught, unlike
what so many are told, that Jesus Christ has done 99%. Now if you'll
just do your part, He'll save you. Well, in Romans 9, we're
told that If there's any works added to the mix, it's no longer
of grace. If it be of works, it's not of
grace. Those are mutually exclusive
things. They can't be mixed and God won't
have it because God won't share His glory. So Naaman, he came
to the wrong place and he came in the wrong way. And then thirdly,
we see that he came with the wrong attitude. By God providentially
bringing things to the attention of Elisha, Naaman finally got
to the right place, didn't he? But as the story reveals, his
first reaction was that of a proud sinner yet to be humbled and
brought to repentance. We read where he came with his
horses and with his chariot and he stood and it paints the picture
of perhaps standing very proudly outside of Elisha's house. As
he said, I was expecting him to come out and stand before
me. But Elisha stayed inside instead and he sent his messenger
to deliver to this proud man God's prescribed means for his
physical healing. Well, as we read, none of this
set very well with Naaman initially. He wanted healing, but he needed
it in a way that would preserve at least some degree of dignity.
I get the sense he thought, wait a minute, who do you think you're
dealing with here? I have a lot to offer. Look at
our text again beginning in verse 10 where Elisha's messenger told
Naaman, go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall
come again to thee and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth. He was angry and he went away
and he said, behold, I thought Now there's something that we
all think by nature. We all think we can be saved
the way that God says ends in death. Naaman said, I thought
he will surely come out to me, not send a lowly messenger, and
stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his
hand over the place. Most think that means he'd move
his hand up and down, perhaps with great ceremony over the
leprous sores. and recover the leper. And he
goes on saying, Are not Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus
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." I believe we see here a picture of a sinner recalling
what the Bible calls the offense of the cross or the offense of
the gospel of God's grace to the natural man. Upon first hearing
that sinners are truly saved by grace, many ask in anger,
what do you mean? You're trying to tell me there's
nothing I can do to be saved? Notice how Naaman confused the
means of his physical healing, the dipping seven times in the
River Jordan, with the source or the cause of healing. He considered
the rivers back in Syria to be superior to the Jordan. It would
seem it was beneath Naaman to strip down out of his fine raiment
and go into Israel's river. He wanted something to do, but
surely it would be something more noble than this. He misunderstood. There was no healing power in
the Jordan River or in any other river. God does the healing,
but we must come to God as He prescribes, according to His
means. Likewise, today multitudes confuse
the means of spiritual healing, of eternal salvation, with the
cause and the source and the ground of salvation. People are
prone to naturally think we can be saved because we do this or
that. You know, even those who are
raised under the gospel, first, when they get serious about religion,
they first say, well, I want to go to heaven. I want to be
saved. What do I need to do? It's just,
that's the blindness, spiritual blindness that we're born with.
We think we can be saved, see, as I once did, because I believe. rather than seeing that I only
truly believe because I've been saved. See, faith is the blood-bought
gift of God to all those for whom that blood was shed, all
those which God saves. If salvation were conditioned
on me, something that came forth from me, the sinner, then I guess
I would retain some of my presumed dignity. I'd have to imagine
at least that I'm better than the other folks that weren't
willing to do what I thought it took to be saved. 1 Peter
5, we're told this, to be clothed with humility. For God resisteth
the proud. Now he resists the naming of
verse 12. he resisted the proud and giveth
grace to the humble." Somewhere between verses 12 and 14, he
gave Naaman grace. He giveth grace to the humble
whereby Naaman could follow this command that continues in verse
6 there, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God
that he may exalt you in due time. So let's consider now Naaman's
humbling conversion. In verse 13, we read his servants
reasoned with him, how if the prophet had told him to do something
great, he would have complied with it, but why wouldn't he
do that which was so easy? Simply wash and be clean. And
isn't that akin to the simple command to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and be saved? Not believe on your believing,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, on what he did. But it's like this. It's akin to
wash in the blood of the lamb and be eternally clean. But like
Naaman, we're inclined to insist that we contribute something
to that mix, something that'll make the real difference in saving
ourselves, while God tells us in His Word to simply trust and
rely upon the doing and dying of another. And it's the one
he tells us to rely on is the impeccably sinless, incarnate
Son of God. Now, you think about that. Think
of the folly of our having insisted that salvation was somehow conditioned
on something that I could offer. Even the very best I could offer,
the best faith I could offer is the faith of a sinner. And so even that, all that I
can do is tainted with my sin, the folly of relying on something
that I could produce when by God-given faith I can claim God's
way of salvation that's conditioned on the infallible, the sinless,
perfect work of a substitute who is the God-man, Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. Think of the pride that would
have us insist that it's conditioned on us rather than on Jesus Christ. As Romans 10 foretells us, Christ
is the end of the law. He's the finishing or the fulfillment
of all that is required for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
is their satisfaction to the law and justice of God. Well,
back to our text, we see that, as I've said, there was a miraculous
conversion that took place between verses 13 and 14. And I love
the way verse 14 begins. Then went he down. And that's
what has to happen. Many who I read believe that
it was likely Naaman stripped off all his fine garments that
would distinguish him as this mighty leader of the Syrian army,
and thereby exposing the rotten, ugly sores of his leprosy. He
went down. This proud sinner was brought
low and made clean. As we read, as clean and as soft
as the skin of a little child. Naaman now see came the way that
God had prescribed for his physical healing through his prophet Elisha. And he dipped in the river Jordan
seven times and was made clean. And as the rest of our passage
indicates, Naaman also was cleansed eternally of the leprosy of sin.
As we sing, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. Like Naaman, we must come God's
appointed way. Well, we can also learn some
identifying characteristics exhibited by all who are saved by looking
at the aftermath of Naaman's healing. First, I want you to
see there's a new motive for his actions. Remember now, Naaman
initially, he came loaded with gold and silver to buy his healing. But after being healed, we see
in verse 15, he still wants to give to Elisha the prophet. But
not in order to obtain healing. By then, he had already been
healed. So rather now we see he had a new motive. He had the
motive of love and of grace and gratitude. And next, as a result
of God's saving mercy, we see that Naaman intended to worship
Him. When Elisha still refused the gifts that Naaman offered,
he responded in verse 17, saying, Shall there not then, I pray
thee, be 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, the Lord, Jehovah God who
saves. Now we see Elisha's God is Naaman's
God. Remember before when he said,
I thought he'd come out and call upon the name of his God. Well,
now he's saying Elisha's God's my God. Naaman, he had turned
up his nose and outrage over the idea of going into Israel's
River Jordan. Now he's wanting to take Saul
back from the land of Israel to build an altar. in order to
sacrifice to Elisha's God and to him alone. As an alter see
built from the soil of their land would testify that Elisha's
God is now Naaman's God. Thirdly, we also saw in verse
15 and following Naaman's assertion that he now knew there was no
God in all the earth but the one true and living God. In other
words, he could now distinguish the true God from all counterfeits.
God-given faith is always accompanied by that inseparable grace of
God-given repentance. If we turn to God, we're turning
away from something else. I'm speaking of the initial repentance
from former idolatry and the dead work or works we had thought
would save us. So lastly, we see that all who
are saved, like Naaman, they will repent of their former idolatry.
Naaman now recognized, and he asked forgiveness for having
worshipped with his king, the false god, Rimman. You know,
our idols, they don't necessarily go under a different name like
Rimman or like Allah. The erroneous concept that many
have of the God of the Bible is just as much an idol. Idols
aren't always constructed of stone or other materials as were
many of the Old Testament idols. But rather, our idols are often
the product of our own spiritually lost imaginations. And in salvation,
God exposes the evil, the evil of what we once thought of God,
that idol in our own minds, as it is exposed by how we thought
we could be saved. by our having imagined that God
will save us in a way that actually denies who He is, His very essence,
His holiness, and His justice. As if He would just look the
other way if we do our part, He'd save us with our sins never
having been dealt with justly. In other words, He'd save us
some other way, we imagine, than through the justice-satisfying
work of Jesus Christ. by imputing or accounting unto
us the very merit of His redemptive work, His obedience unto death,
His righteousness, rather than presuming to be saved by that
which we could produce, a presumed righteousness of our own making.
I quoted Romans 10.4 earlier, but let's close by just looking
again at that passage in Romans 10, which Jim alluded to in the
10 o'clock hour. I think it provides an excellent
summary of that which is right and that which is wrong as it
pertains to God's way of saving sinners and as is typified in
the healing of Naaman the leper. Beginning in Romans 10.1, Paul
said of his fellow Jews, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He's saying they
were lost, but why? He said, for I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're religious. but not according
to knowledge. What vital knowledge did they
lack? For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, that
which God wrought, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. See, like all
who are saved, I once thought But contrary to what I thought,
there was no salvation possible based upon anything done by me
or in me or through me, the sinner. By trying to establish a righteousness
of my own by which I presumed I could be accepted. No, the
only salvation is to be found in that which God wrought. His
work, the very righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. See,
all that the doing and dying of the God-man merited for me
He's the fulfillment, the end of all that is required, the
perfect righteousness needed for every true believer. I thought,
but thank goodness God wrought.