So tonight's message, as I was
putting this message together, I was just so blessed putting
this message together. And I named it God's Providence,
God's Providence. Again, I think this is a very
timely message for the believer, no matter what circumstance we're
going through, no matter what we're going through. This is
a message that's very, very timely for God's people. And last week,
we looked at the miracle of Naaman. being cleansed of his leprosy,
which pictured, again, as I mentioned, we sinners being washed by the
precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Leprosy at
that time was an incurable disease. No physician could heal it. No
man could heal it. But we know that which is impossible
with man is possible with God. And it's such a picture of we
sinners in our natural state And always remember, Zechariah
chapter 13 verse 1, remember that the Lord is a fountain open
for sin and uncleanness. As we were singing that song,
it talked about the fountain. And if he doesn't wash us in
the fountain of his blood, we still have our sin, don't we?
But beloved, scripture declares this, in that day, there shall
be a fountain open to the house of David. and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. That fountain is
Christ Jesus our Lord. It's him. He is the fountain,
and the fountain open for sin is the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the fountain's filled with his blood, beloved. It's filled with
His blood. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. They're gone. They're
gone, washed clean by the precious blood of Christ. When Naaman
came out of that water, what happened? The leprosy was gone
after the seventh dip, wasn't it? It was gone. It was gone. Again, that which is impossible
for men is possible for God. Oh my. And beneath that flood,
again, we lose all our guilty stains. All our sins are forgiven
in Christ Jesus our Lord, all of them, by his precious, precious
blood. He has redeemed, he has ransomed
his people, all according to the will of God and by God's
providence. Never forget that too. We're
saved by the providence of God, according to the providence of
God, by the divine power of God. God our Father planned our salvation,
God the Son purchased our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit in time,
right, applies that salvation. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. So we say with Jonah, salvation's of the Lord.
He's the author of it, the planner. We know that he's the purchaser
of it, and he's the finisher of it too, isn't he? We will
one day be in glory with him forever. Forever. We'll be free
from this body of sin then. Completely free from sin. We
will know what it will be like to be completely delivered from
sin. We're delivered from the penalty of our sin right now.
We're delivered from the power of our sin right now. Because
oh, what would we be if it wasn't for the restraining grace of
God? But one day, one day, We're going to be delivered. It's going
to be glorious, like you said there, Dave. We're going to be
delivered from the presence of sin. It will never bother us
again. Never, ever, never. 1 John 1,
7 says, but if we walk in the light, that's Christ, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. That precious blood
of Christ cleanses us from all sin, that there's not a spot
of leprosy, not a spot of sin left on us, beloved. It's wonderful. This is the wonder working power
of God. Now let's turn again to 2nd Kings
chapter 5. Let we who are the redeemed of
the Lord rejoice. The same power exercised in the
miracles that we are witnessing through the life of Elijah, done
by the power of God. The same miracles are done by
the same power that regenerated us, by God the Holy Spirit. We're born again by his almighty
power, not by anything we do, not by anything we say, not by
anything we think. But it's all by the power and
might of God, the Holy Spirit. Look at this. We're going to
read again the narrative here of Naaman, 2 Kings chapter 5. Now Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, he's the general. He's the king's right
hand man. He's his trusted general. Was a great man with his master
in honorable because by him, the Lord had given deliverance
unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor. He's filled with courage. But
he was a leper. He was a leper. And now the Syrians
had gone out by companies 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. And the king of Syria said, 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 raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter is come unto
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of leprosy. And it came to pass,
when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his
clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive, that this
man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? See, the
king knows he can't cure anyone. Wherefore consider, I pray you,
how he seeketh a quarrel against me. So he thought this was a
trap. He thought the king of Syria was trying to set a trap
so that they could invade Israel. And it was so when Elijah, 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. So he got word. He got word
that Nahum was there. He must have got word that he
was there to see him. And he shall know that there
is a prophet in Israel. So the little maid was speaking
of Elijah. Before she was taken into captivity,
she must have heard about his miracles that he did in Israel. I believe she was a believer.
She testified of God's almighty power. She testified of the God
of Israel, the one true living God. And she said, there's one
who can help you. Oh my. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
Now this is the part, I'm sorry if I start, this part just makes
me chuckle. So here, he's a great man. It'd
be like the general, the chief of staff of the five generals
that sit for the Pentagon that talk with the president. The
chief one comes to your door and Elijah sends a messenger.
He doesn't even come out and greet the guy. See, to Elijah,
he's just a man, right? Elijah, the only one he's to
fear is God. This is just a man. He has lots
of power, but God's given it to him. And he knows that. He's
not trying to be disrespectful. He's just saying, you're nobody
in my eyes. Right? He doesn't care about
the pomp and circumstance that he came in. He came in as chariots.
He probably had men with him, guards with him, too. Elijah sent a messenger unto
him saying, go wash in the Jordan. He doesn't even just not come
see him, he sends a messenger to tell him, yeah, go wash in
the Jordan seven times. Go wash in the Jordan seven times,
and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
Now, he's serious about this. Elijah's sending this message
to Naaman, and he's serious about this. He says, you go and do
that, and you're gonna be washed clean. Obviously, the Lord put
that on his heart to say that. Because the Lord's going to do
a miracle, isn't he? He's going to do a miracle. Now here's Nahum,
or Naaman, here's his self-righteousness come out. And this would be true
if we did the same thing to that general if he came to our door
and we just said, hey, you don't go down the creek there and just dip
yourself seven times. How do you think they would think?
They'd think, who is this guy? Who is he? We would never say
that because we don't have any power, right? But if Elijah was
there and said that to that fellow, they would be wroth too. Look
at his reaction. This is a reaction of a self-righteous man. This
is a reaction now of a natural man. And you know what? Think
of this. Think of when we first heard
the gospel before we were saved. How did we react to it? The same
way. We might not be throwing things
around and got all mad, but in our hearts, we were just burning.
angry. You're telling me I'm a sinner? Look at this. But Nahum was wroth
and went away and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come
out to me. Here I am. I'm a big shot. Surely he'd come
out and see me. I'm a man of authority. Right? And stand and call on the name
of the Lord. So he thought he was going to come out and do
like them TV evangelist guys. God's preachers don't work that
way, do we? His prophets don't work that
way. We just simply preach the gospel and leave it in God's
hands, right? My oh my, look at this. Surely
he come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord
and his God and strike his hand. Put his hand down like that.
Strike his hand. over the place and recover the
leper. Surely he's going to do some sign and wonder so everybody
can see. God doesn't work that way, does
he? He could save us without us moving a muscle by the power and might of God
the Holy Spirit. Now he's going to start saying
about the rivers in Syria, are not Abna and Farpar
rivers at Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? So
now, out comes the national pride. Our rivers are better than these
rivers in Israel. My, he's burning. He's burning
up this fellow, I'll tell you what. May I not wash in them
and be clean? So he turned and went away, look
at this, in a rage. He was enraged. Now this man has the power to
lop people's heads off too, right? He could say to his soldiers,
you go and burn that house down. But see, we're going to see what happened
to us in what happens with Naaman. God's going to subdue this rebel
just like he subdued us. My, oh my. And his servants came near and
spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to
do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? If he
said, go slay five wild animals, he'd have done it, right? He's
a man of valor. He's brave. He'd have done it. How much rather than when he
saith, wash and be clean? See, when he's stripping down
to nothing, because that's what he did, he stripped down to nothing,
and he went in that water and he dipped it. He's not doing
anything, is he? There's no work of his. He's just doing what
the Prophet said to do. He's going to go down in that
water seven times, and what's going to happen when he comes
out the seventh time? Let's look at verse 14 here. Then when he
down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, just like
Elijah said, According to the saying of the man of God, look
at this. And his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little
child, and he was clean. We as God's preachers, we stand
up and we say, flee to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
If you're dipped in his precious blood, in that fountain open,
which is his blood, you'll come out whiter than snow, scripture
says, right? Come, let us reason together.
Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
And that's just by trusting Christ. And that's what the Word of God
says, right? See, Nahum submitted himself to that which Elijah
said. And he did it. He went into the
water. And by the power and might of God, he came out clean. That which is impossible with
man, is possible with God. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
fountain and lose all their guilty stains. All of them. Now as I said last week, leprosy
during this time was a death sentence. And it was impossible to be healed
by man. It was a death sentence. Leprosy
in the scripture is a very striking type of the natural man, as we
are all corrupted by sin, unfit for the presence of God, holy
God. And Naaman, like all lepers,
was incapable of healing himself, just as we are incapable of healing
ourselves from our own sin. We can't heal ourselves and we
can't help anyone else with their sin, can we? All we can do is
point them to Christ and say, he's the one who can take away
your sins. He's the one. Dipped in his precious
blood. Dipped in the fountain of his
precious blood. All our sins can be washed away. So we see in this narrative,
That he's plagued with leprosy. He's a great man, but he's plagued
with leprosy. And think of this, there was
no physician in Syria that could help him. I imagine he exhausted
going to the doctors. He had lots of money. He had
all the money he'd want. He probably exhausted going to
all the doctors in Syria. He would have paid them whatever
they could. Look what he does. When he comes, he brings clothes,
he brings money. Right? Look at verse 5. And he departed and took with
him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold.
Six thousand pieces of gold. And ten changes of raiment. This
clothing would be probably the best that Syria could give. But
six thousand pieces of gold. Even today that's a lot of money.
Could you imagine if it was an ounce of gold? Each coin? Or each piece? Gold right now is like $1,900
an ounce, times $6,000. That's a lot of money, isn't
it? And gold was the top currency just like it is nowadays, back
then. This is a fortune that he's bringing with him. My, so he probably exhausted
all the physicians. There's no physician in Syria
that could help him. No matter what he offered, they tried,
they couldn't help him. He's still a leper. Leprosy could
not be healed by man. And this is the case of all who
are born into this world. We are plagued with spiritual
leprosy. Sin. Sin. By nature, we're sinners. By birth, we're sinners. By choice,
we're sinners. Our spiritual sickness is so
deep, so deep within us, Sin is so deep within us that it
cannot be helped by a human hand. No human hand can help us with
that. The only one who can save us from our sins is the God-man,
the man Christ Jesus, who's God incarnate in the flesh, who gave
himself a ransom for our souls, beloved. A.W. Pink said this, man can
no more deliver himself or his fellows from the guilt and defilement
of sin then he can create a world. We can't create a world, can
we? We can't deliver ourselves from sin. We can't even deliver
our friends from sins, or our family members. We can't, let
alone ourselves. And do you know in the law of
God, there's no remedy provided for leprosy? Do you know there's
no remedy provided in the law for leprosy? All the high priest
can do is pronounce leprosy on someone or pronounce them clean.
There's absolutely no remedy in the law for leprosy. Oh, how foolish it is to try
to justify oneself by the law. There's no remedy in the law
for sin. None at all. And that's the reason Paul's
so earnestly writing the Galatians in our study in Sunday School
and begging them to turn away from the false teachers, the
Judaizers trying to yoke them under the law. There is no remedy
for sin under the law. All it leads to is death and
condemnation. Oh my, how do we know that? Turn
if you would to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. We're going
to have a We're going to have a very clear picture here. Now
the high priest, again, the high priest could examine him and
say, they'd examine him and say, well, you've got leprosy. You
need to be outside the camp now. And then afterwards, when they're
healed of the leprosy, he could say, oh, you're clean now. But
that's the only thing he could do. He couldn't help him. But
the real, true, great high priest can. The Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this in Luke chapter
5. This is beautiful. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, only
God can cure the leprosy of sin, and only God can cure leprosy
in humans. Look at this, Luke 5 verses 12
to 14. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy. Now when it
says they're full, it means it's run its course. He's probably
missing pieces of himself. Okay, because eventually pieces
of him start to fall off. And he's in the last stages of
leprosy. And think of how he would have
cried, unclean, unclean, just to get to where the Lord was. How did that come about? How
did he know where to go? Well, God's providence guided
him, didn't it? Maybe he heard, that fellow Jesus
is in town. I have to go see him. I have
to go see him. Maybe he can cure me. Maybe. No one else can, but maybe he
can. Look at this. Behold, a man full of leprosy,
who seeing Jesus, he fell on his face. Oh, he's at the rightful
place in front of Christ, isn't he? As Scott Richard said, he's
made his headquarters in the dust. At the feet of Christ. And how do we know he's a believer?
Look what he says. I preached a message a long time
ago. They called him Lord. God's people
call Christ Lord. We don't have to be told to call
him Lord. We call him Lord because he is
Lord. And God's made him Lord far before
time ever began. People say, just make Jesus Lord
of your life. Well, God already beat us to it, right? He's already
Lord. He's Lord when he came here.
He's Lord while he's performing this miracle we're going to read.
And he's Lord even right now, isn't he? We don't make him nothing. He's Lord. We just declare who
he is. He's Lord. Look at this. And seeing Jesus, he fell on
his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou will, thou can
make me clean. If you will, Lord, oh, if you
will. Is this not the cry of every believer? Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. And he put forth his hand and
touched him, a touch from the master, a touch from the God-man,
saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him. Look at this. And he charged
him to tell no man, but to go and show himself to thy priest
and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for testimony
unto them. He says, you go and see that
priest. You know why? Because the priest would declare
him clean. He had nothing to do with the cleansing, but he
would declare him clean. Oh my, isn't that wonderful?
Now let's go back to 2 Kings chapter 5. We're going to look
at two verses tonight. Two verses tonight. We're going to look
at how God's providence works. And we're going to see in these
two verses, and as we look through the narrative, we're going to
see God's providence at work. Now Nahum was a sheep of God,
didn't have a clue that he was. Didn't know it. And he pictures
the Gentiles too, doesn't he? He pictures us. He's a Gentile
dog according to these rites. But he's one of the Lord's people.
He belongs to the Israel of God. Oh my, look at this. Here comes
God's providence at work. And Naaman coming to Israel.
Let's read verses two and three. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had bought 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. Let's read that again. And the
Syrians had gone out by companies, and had bought 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. Notice verse two, and we see
how God in this providence uses ways which we do not understand.
uses ways which we do not understand to bring his almighty will to
pass. A lot of times when we look back at circumstances in
our lives, we get a greater understanding of them and why they happen,
because then we see God's hand at work. But during the time
of whatever we're going through, we do not see it. We do not see
it. We see the word companies here
in verse two, and the Syrians had gone out by companies. These
were not regular soldiers that were sent out, because if they
had sent out regular Syrian soldiers, there'd be a war. These were
bandits. Robbers. Now, whether or not
they were under the control of the Syrian government, we don't
know. They could have been, and just been sent out to rob and
pillage Israel. Or they were just robbers on
their own. going out and plundering the land of Israel. But they
were Syrians. They come out by companies, a
large amount of men. Again, they're not regular soldiers,
came into Israel and raided the land. Because again, that would
have triggered a war between the two countries. They were
raiding parties made up of bandits and robbers who would raid the
lands around Syria and take that plunder back home. And the plunder
included men and women, children, who would become slaves and either
be sold at the slave market or maybe given to prominent people. And they would be taken back,
if they weren't given away to a prominent person, they'd be
taken back and they would be sold in the slave markets of
Damascus. So in one of these raids, we
see they've taken a little maiden of Israel, a little maiden. We don't know her age. She'd obviously been raised in
the fear and admonition of the Lord. She's probably in her teens,
I would think. And by God's providence, we see
that she's now a servant in Naaman's house. She's a servant. And it appears from verse 3 and
from verse 13 that Naaman's servants had more liberty than most slaves were in those days. As we see
them, they're speaking to their master. Now, slaves were to be
seen but not heard. But these slaves of Naaman, they
have liberty to speak, so it would appear. And look at verse
three, and she said of this little maiden, 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 then look at verse
13. Now this is after Naaman's blowing
a stack and in a rage. And look what happens here. And
his servants came near. Now that's probably the last
people he wants to hear from, but look. And spake unto him,
and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great
thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then,
when he say it to thee, wash and be clean? So it appears like
his servants had liberty to speak to him. And of course, that comes
from the Lord. That comes from the Lord. And by God's divine providence,
this little maid had been taken captive. Taken out of the land of Israel,
now she waited on Naaman's wife. We don't know if she was purchased
at a slave market. We don't know if she was given
to Naaman after the raiders maybe have, if he knew about them,
he could have demanded a certain amount of their spoils. We don't
know. We have no idea. But we know that he being a man
of high position, he would be prone to have people give him
gifts. It's sad to think that people were like merchandise,
isn't it? It's sad. It's very sad, but
that's how it was. So one of these radiant parties
had went out to Israel. Again, he may have sanctioned
them, we don't know, but by the province of God, the little maiden
finds herself in Naaman's home. And it's by the providence of
God, let me tell you. She could have ended up in another
home where all kinds of horrible things could have happened. But
here she is. She's in Naaman's home. And we know that she's being
taught the fear and admonition of the Lord because she says,
well, there's a prophet in Israel. He can heal him. He can recover
him. There are means to take away
his leprosy. He can take it away. So obviously she had grown up
hearing about the miracles of Elijah that he performed, because
that news would spread all over Israel, wouldn't it? Oh, my. Listen to what A.W. Pink says
about the differences brought forth about the little maiden
in Naaman. Observe the series of contrasts
between them. He was a Gentile. She a hated
Jew. He was a great man, and she,
a little maiden. He was Naaman. She was left unnamed. Her name's not even mentioned.
Did you notice that? Her name's irrelevant, isn't
it? She testified of our great king. He was captain of the host of
Syria while she was captive in enemy territory. What a contrast. between the two of them. And
God often uses despised and feeble things, often in circumstances
which seem strange to human wisdom. Let's picture a little scene.
Here's this little maiden getting up in the morning, getting ready
to do her chores, eating and getting ready to go out and do
her chores, and going out and doing what she probably does
every day. And all of a sudden there's a sound of horse who's
beaten on the ground. Screams. Clatter of swords. Oh my. A roving band of marauders
have come upon her village. They're killing some by the sword. They're taking spoils from homes. And along with the spoils, they're
collecting up women and children to be taken to Syria and to be
sold as merchandise in the slave markets of Damascus. And among them was a captive who was insignificant
to them. She was just another one of their
captives. And yet, she will be used as
an instrument of God in Naaman's life. She will be used. Wonder of wonders, beloved. Behold
the sovereignty of our great God. Behold His wondrous providence. She would be like Joseph, who
was sold by his brothers into slavery, except she was taken
by force. She would be perplexed at the
situation she finds herself in. But behind the dark clouds of
Providence, our great God is at work, beloved. God moves in
a mysterious way. His wonders to perform. He plants
his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful
saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your
head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purpose will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. He works in a mysterious way
that we cannot understand, beloved, that we cannot understand. Nothing
happens in this world by chance. And our God has great reason
for this trial that this young maiden's going to go through. He was shaping things in His
own unfathomable way for the outworking of His great and good
providence, all according to His will and purpose. Remember,
His wise purpose. His wise purpose. Again, nothing
happens in this world by chance. A predestinating God has planned
every detail in our lives. Psalm 3115, the psalmist wrote,
my times are in thy hand. That's true of all of us, right?
Our times are in his hand. He hath determined the times
before appointed in the bounds of their habitation, Acts 17.26. What a great resting place the
province of God can be for we who are God's people. What great
rest we can find in his providence. Our poor hearts are troubled
by the things in this world. But when we look and see God's
providential hand at work, what comfort can be found for the
born again blood washed believer, knowing that he is in control
of all things. Now God's gonna use this little
maiden to proclaim that there's a prophet of God in the land
of Israel. Who could cure Nahum, look at, or Naaman, look at verse
three. 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. There's no doubt in
what she's saying either, is there? She's saying he needs to go see
Elijah. She's heard of his miracles that he performed. And we know
that they were all performed by God. He was an instrument
that God used, but it was all by God's almighty power. And
notice this little maiden, she's not bitter about being in captivity
either. She could have been so bitter
inside thinking, I'm just going to let him die. But God's people aren't like
that, are they? No. No, we have compassion for
the lost. She didn't even seem to have
enmity towards Naaman's wife or Naaman himself. She tells
his wife about the prophet Elijah. And we see this little maiden
is actually concerned about Naaman. Concerned for his health. Concerned
for his condition. And she says to his wife, Elijah
can recover him. In the Hebrew, the word recover
there means to gather or take away. She's saying he can take it away.
Because she knows behind Elijah is a wonder working God. Who
has all power and authority and all might. She knows the one
true God. of Israel. So we see, we see that this little maiden,
she's being brought up and nurtured in the fear of the Lord. The
seeds that were planted when she was young have come, come to fruitation. There's fruit
in her young life. This is beautiful to behold.
What do we see? We see God's grace triumphing
over the flesh. Because she could have just said,
I'm just going to let them die. That's what the flesh would say,
right? But see, God's grace is greater than our sin. She says,
there's a prophet. There's a prophet in Israel. Let's read verse 4 again. Well,
let's read verse 4 now. Actually, remember this too.
Notice the simple manner in which she proclaimed this. She proclaims
this in a simple manner, right? Easy to understand. There's a
prophet in Israel who can recover you from the leprosy. And you
know what the name Elijah means? The salvation of God. Oh my. Now let's read verse 4. And one
went in and told his Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that
is of the land of Israel. Now verses 3 and 4 can often
be overlooked. But there's such gems right here
before us. Such gems. She testifies of the Lord. And
then think, in comes another servant and tells Naaman about
what she said. Now he could have just blown
it off, right? But see, God in his providence is working, isn't
he? He gives him ears to hear this
little message. What? I've not heard of this
fella. He's exhausted all other hope,
hasn't he? He's absolutely hopeless. What a blessing these two verses
are in light of God's providence at work in the lives of his people.
Now let's consider how our great God worked. He had Naaman's wife
heed the words of this little maid. He opened her ears to this. What? She probably called another
servant. Go tell my husband right away. And he came flying in to Nahab,
told Naaman. Oh, my. Now, remember, she's
a foreigner in this land. She's of a different religion.
She worships the one true living God, but she's in the land of
all idol worshipers. And again, the best physicians
in Syria, they were helpless in their ability to cure Naaman. And the Syrians, they despised
these rites. And yet, strange as it seems,
her words were heeded all according to God's will, purpose, and providence. We see right here, God moves
in mysterious ways. He has her taken from her land,
from her home, into a far country to be a servant now. We don't
know what she went through from getting there to getting to Naaman's
house. God protected it all, didn't he? He preserved her. Oh, wonders of wonders. Second,
we see again the hand of God as the scriptures declare, the
hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both
of them. This is true both in the physical
world and in the spiritual world. Natural man proclaims self-sufficiency,
right? I'm my own man, right? That's
what natural man. That's how we used to be. That's
how I was. Oh, I don't need nothing. And
I was so poor and bankrupt and I didn't even know it. And natural man ignores the mighty
workings of God in the world. They say, no God. and yet all
around us screams that there's a creator. Our own bodies and how we're
made, how intricate we are, screams that there's a creator. You start
looking at atoms and all that stuff. I was talking to Marcus'
dad, man, and Marcus, Marcus is an engineer and his dad does
all this stuff and then Sister Michelle's an engineer too and
you start talking about all this stuff and oh my goodness, all
controlled by God, and they give it to you from the perspective
of a believer. His dad, Marcus' dad, said he looks at chemistry
and all that as just proof that there's God. He looks at physics
as proof that God is real. It's incredible. And here we see these words of
a little maiden, God's given them hearing ears to listen to
what this little maiden has to say. Now we have people all around
us, they pay no heed to the declarations of the holy scriptures. They
perceive no beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, we who
are the redeemed of the Lord, we see him in his majesty, we
see him as so beautiful. We say with the writer Solomon,
He's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul? Who made us to differ from one
another? Who made we believers to differ
from the world? God, in his providence, made
us to differ. Now there was a slew of lepers
in Israel at this time. Like, I mean, there was a lot.
And yet God only cured the one that we know of. And he was from
Syria. He was a Gentile dog. But he was a sheep of God, beloved.
Oh my. God and God alone has made us
to differ. It is the God of all grace who's
opened our eyes. and opened the ears of his people,
and we behold Christ in the scriptures now. We see him in his beauty,
we see him in his majesty, we see him in his redemptive work,
saving our souls. Oh, it's the God of all grace
who opened our heart, just like he opened Lydia's heart, remember?
And she took unto her the things which were spoken by Paul, only
because God opened her heart. She's born again of the Holy
Spirit of God, just like us. And right before us in our text,
we see that God and God alone caused Naaman's wife to listen
to the words of this little maiden and take note of the links of
the chain that eventually brings Naaman to Elijah. Pinks at this a lot. Links of
a chain. heads, look back in your own
life, it's there! Links of a chain bringing us
to Christ. The little maiden, she's born
in Israel. We have a child, the parents say. Our little girl. She's taught the fear and admonition
of the Lord. Then she's taken captive. And then she becomes a servant
in Naaman's household to his wife. There's one chain, one
link, right? And then by the providence of
God, this little maiden testifies of the power of God. of the prophet
Elijah in the land of Israel, proclaiming that the prophet
of God in Israel can cure Naaman of his leprosy. And then, here's
another link, they go to the king of Syria. Naaman goes to
the king of Syria. Now, the king could have said,
there ain't no way you're leaving, right? But what does the scripture
say? The heart of the king is in the
Lord's hands, right? And he turns it whatever way
he wants, right? Oh my. He goes to the king of
Syria and he grants him permission to go see the king of Israel.
There's one link, another link. Then he goes to the king of Israel
and the king of Israel says, I'm not God. I can't help you. And word gets to Elijah that
he's rent his clothes. And he says, send them to me. There's another link of God's
providence. And then he comes before Elijah's house, and Elijah
sends out a messenger and says, go dip yourself. And he gets all enraged, and
he takes off. There's another link. And then all of a sudden,
his servants come to him and say, but master, if he had told
you to do some great thing, you would have done it. And here's the last link. He
goes into the water, just as the words of Elijah told him
to do, and he comes out by the power of God, cleansed from all
his leprosy. What a picture of we sinners
dipped in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh
my, it's wonderful. Oh, God's providence is sent
to Elijah. By God's providence, the little
maiden testifies of God's power. He goes to the king of Syria.
King of Syria lets him go. Then by God's providence, Naaman
is sent to Elijah by the king of Israel, comes to stand before
the very door of Elijah the prophet. Then in his self-righteousness,
he explodes in anger and in rage. Gets mad, Elijah storms away.
But God gives him hearing ears again. Do you know that? Oh, he gives them hearing ears.
How do we know that? Verse 13, and the servants came
near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had
bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?
How much rather then would he say it to thee, Wash, and be
thou clean? Yeah. He's not in a rage anymore, is
he? And it says in verse 14, Then he went down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, 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. God's people are clean, washed
clean by the precious blood of Christ. In all this, we see God's
design of mercy, even in our own lives. Beloved God, we see
the hand of providence guiding and directing us to this very
place where we heard the gospel. Where we heard the gospel. The
gospel of God's amazing grace in and through Christ alone,
and marvel at this wonderful fact, not that God not only gives
a message to the messengers, but he opens the heart of those
who hear it by faith. And that's God-given faith. We're
born again, and he gives us the gift of faith to believe on Christ,
and we flee to him. In marvel of this, again, the
king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water.
He turneth it whatsoever he will. Proverbs 21.1, that king of Syria,
okay, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead and go to Israel. Just like water, beloved. Remember
that. The leaders of this world, they're just like water and they're
just like rivers. And he guides them however way
he wants to guide them. My, oh my. Now marvel at this,
beloved God, how our great God in his providence and by his
power cooled down the rebellious heart of Naaman. He was in a rage. You know what
he did? He subdued the rebel, didn't
he? What do you do in our lives? He subdued the rebel. All by his power, all by his
might, he can cool down the rebellious
and haughty heart. After all the hatred and rage
he had manifested against the words of Elijah, We see himself, we see Naaman. Down he goes into the Jordan. Now let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord take pause here and review the means of God's providence
in our lives. In carrying out the accomplishment
of his will and his purpose. It is the same almighty hand
that first gave us eyes to see Christ. It's by the same almighty
power that God gave us ears to hear the gospel being preached
and proclaimed. It was God and his province that
had someone tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was behind our seeking the
Lord? God was directing us, guiding us to the place where we would
hear the gospel. who is behind us seeking and seeing the Lord
Jesus Christ as the cure of our, the leprosy of our sin. We were just like Naaman. We did not, and what did we do
at first? Well, we bought our best things,
didn't we? Oh Lord, I'm a good person. Surely you wouldn't send someone
like me to hell. And we heard through the gospel
that we're all guilty before God. All of us. That our sins are like filthy
rags in the eyes of the Lord. That we went to others and said,
how? They couldn't help us either,
could they? We went off into this thing and
into that thing. But now found no peace. And God
in this providence is drawing us to Christ. Scripture says,
with loving cords he draws us. And we were subdued, our rage,
our hatred against God by our works were subdued by the love
of God in Christ for us. We heard the message. We were
given hearing ears to hear the message of God's grace and mercy
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. How the forgiveness of
all our sins could only be found in Christ Jesus, our Lord, by
the shedding of his precious, precious blood. And that all
who look to Christ, all who rest and trust in him, shall be saved. And by God's grace, he gave us
faith to believe. faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. God in his providence sent forth
the message of the gospel of salvation in his Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners, and our rage was
subdued. His great love was brought forth,
his mercy, his grace, and his almighty power to save sinners
and to keep them And our hearts were subdued when
we were born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And we were given
a new heart that now hungers and thirsts after Christ. We
say, Lord Jesus, you're all I want. You're all I need. And it's God and God alone in
his providence, in his timing, that made us willing in the day
of his power to flee to Christ. Precious, precious Jesus. May
we who are the redeemed never lose sight of thy person. May
we never lose sight of thy grace. May we never lose sight of thy
mercy. But may we delight to give thee, Lord Jesus and him
alone, all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise for
the great things he has done for us. Oh, what a savior. What a redeemer. Brother Brian,
can you close us in prayer?