It is not that I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, It's Not Like You Thought It Was. I'm reading from
2 Kings, chapter 5, and I would like to read a fairly lengthy
passage of scripture. I want to read this passage without
comment. And then, as the Lord enables
me, I want to preach the gospel in this passage of scripture.
In 2 Kings 5, beginning in verse 1, we have the story of Naaman.
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. And he was also a mighty man
in valor. And this is an impressive resume.
But he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought our way 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's 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
to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand
pieces of gold, and ten 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 his 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 to make alive? that this man doth send unto
me to recover a man of leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.' And it was so in
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." Now, Naaman came with his horses and with his
chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah, and Elisha
sent a messenger unto him. Notice, Elisha didn't greet him
himself. Elisha 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. But Naaman was
wroth, and he went away, and said, Behold, I thought." That's
where I got the title of this message. It's not like you thought
it was. Behold, 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. Are not Abana
and far, far 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 bid thee do some
great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather
when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean. Then went he 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. And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him
and 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. Now the Lord in Luke chapter
4 uses this story to illustrate the sovereignty of divine grace. Let me show you what that means
in Luke chapter 4. The Lord directly referred to
this event. We read in verse 27 that He said
to the crowd who was listening, and many lepers were in Israel. in the time of Elisha the prophet.
This is what he's referring to. And none of them were cleansed
save Naaman the Syrian. God passed by all the lepers
in Israel and cleansed a Gentile leper, Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him under the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong." They were going to murder the Lord over
making this statement. Now, before we get into the story
of Naaman, I want to remind you, it's not like you thought it
was. You're in God's hands. He's not in your hands. It's up to Him as to whether
or not you will be saved. He can save you as an act of
His grace, or He can pass you by as an act of His irreprehensible
justice. Now, these people, when they
heard that, they were hoping in the fact that they were Jews,
and they thought they would be saved because of that. And the
Lord said, that doesn't count for anything. And they became
so angry, they were going to throw him off of a cliff and
kill him. But he left them and went his
way. Now, name it. Verse 1 says, he
was the captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was a great
man with his master, and honorable. Because by him, the Lord had
given Syria deliverance unto Syria, and he was a mighty man
in valor, but he was a leper. Now, he was a man you and I would
be impressed with. He was a five-star general, as
it were. He was the top man in the cabinet
of Syria. He was a very important man.
He was a very honorable man. He was, humanly speaking, a very
good man, a very courageous man, and we would have been privileged
to know him. But, the Scripture says, he was
a leper. Now in the Bible, leprosy represents
sin. That's why so much time is given
to the disease of leprosy. It represents sin and how one
is cleansed from sin. The way the leper is cleansed
is the way one is cleansed from sin. Now, he believed himself
to be a great man who happened to be a leper. And he didn't
understand that in reality, He was a leper who happened to be
a great man. The defining characteristic of
his life was his leprosy, his sinfulness. Now, have you and
I ever come to terms with the fact that we are sinful, full
of sin? Now, that's true of every man,
woman, boy, and girl, whether you know it or not. According
to the Word of God, we are sin-full, full of sin. We cannot not sin. All we do is sin, because if
we do it, that makes it sin. And we can't blame anybody. It's
all our fault. And we can't look in judgment
on anybody. And if God passes us by, He's
just. We are sinful. We may even be
successful in life. We may be moral people outwardly. We may be good people and successful
people, just like Naaman was. But he was a leper, and he had
that which he could do nothing about. He could not make his
leprosy go away, and you cannot make your sinfulness go away. Now, I think it's interesting.
It's pointed out in this passage of Scripture that through him,
the Lord gave deliverance to Syria. Now, don't miss this. Syria was Israel's enemy. And Israel was under their thumb
at this time, and the reason being was the Lord. You see,
Israel's victories are attributed to the Lord, and so are Israel's
defeats. What that tells me is that God
controls everything. He's absolutely sovereign, and
everything that happens is according to His will. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. All things, all
things. And God was in control of everything
taking place. Verse 2. 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 on Naaman's wife. Now, this little maid was captured,
and this was all, you think of the difficulty that that brought
into her life, the pain it brought into her parents' life. What
a horrible situation. Yet the Lord is gonna bring good
out of all this. You see, if this little maid
hadn't been captured and brought into Syria, Naaman would have
never been cleansed. He would have never heard of
the gospel of God. He would have never heard of
the prophet Elijah. He would not have been cleansed, but this
was all according to God's purpose. He has this little girl captured
and brought in. And evidently, Naaman was a kind
man because this little maid wanted him healed. Verse 3, And
she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet
that's in Samaria? For he would recover him of his
leprosy. Now, the prophet that she's speaking
of is Elisha. He's the one who did more miracles
than any other man in the Scripture, other than the Lord Himself.
He raised the dead. He brought matter into existence,
new matter into the universe that was not there before on
three different occasions. He was the one who put the meal
in the pot that was poisoned and it was no longer poisonous. That's another picture of the
gospel. This man Elisha is somebody who God's hand was on and the
Lord could use him to recover the man from leprosy. Now, let
me remind you once again, leprosy is a type of sin. And there's some very interesting
passages in Leviticus chapter 13 and 14 about how a leper was
cleansed. But a leper was not pronounced
clean until this took place. Listen carefully. If he came
into the priest and there was any healthy flesh at all, he
was sent back to the leper colony. But when he came into the priest
to be examined, and every square inch of his body was completely
covered with leprosy, that's when he was pronounced clean,
and the sacrifice would take place. Now, my dear friend, If
you try to come into God's presence with anything good about you,
you're just going to be sent back to the leper colony. But
if you come altogether sinful, not one thing to recommend you
to God, you're going to find mercy. That's just the way it
is. I hope the Lord teaches you that. I hope the Lord's taught
me that. Well, at any rate, she says unto her mistress, Would
God my Lord were with the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would
recover him of his leprosy. Now, it would be the Lord doing
it, not him. But that's the way she spake. And one, verse 4,
one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus saith the
maid that's of the land of Israel. Now, the king of Syria, love
naming. He was very close with him. And
he knew how the Lord had blessed him to defeat Israel through
him. And he was very dependent upon
this man. And so when he hears that there's a prophet in Israel
that can rescue Naaman and recover him from his leprosy, he's interested.
And look what he says, verse 5. 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 raiment. He's going to try to buy this
recovery. I think it's interesting the
10, number 10, the Ten Commandments, number 6 in 6,000 is the number
of man. Adam was created on the sixth
day. It's talking about buying this favor with human righteousness
and with human obedience. Verse 6, And he brought the letter
to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come
unto you, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of leprosy. Now he sent him to
the wrong place. He didn't send him to the prophet. He sent him
to the king. Now look at the king, Jehoram's
response. 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's
a prophet in Israel. Now, what is a prophet? A prophet
is one who brings the word of God to men. Now, in our day,
we have the Bible. They didn't have the full canon
of Scripture. And there is no new prophecy. The canon of Scripture
is closed. But a prophet in that day spoke
for God. They spoke the words of God. So Naaman came with his horses
and his chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
He didn't knock on the door. He just stands there. And I'm
sure he was a proud man, and he thought, Elijah or Elisha
ought to come out to me. And what did Elisha do? Verse
10, And Elisha sent a messenger unto him. That's very significant. He didn't come out to the door.
Elisha 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. Now what this represents is the
preaching of the gospel. Elisha sent a lowly messenger
to this proud, successful man. Now he thought, he ought to be
coming out to me, but Elisha didn't do it. The Scripture says,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now here's the fact. Me and you,
in and of ourselves, we can't figure this thing out. I can't
sit down and read the Bible and figure out what it means and
understand what it means. I'm incapable of doing that,
and you are too. I think of what The Ethiopian
eunuch said to Philip, when he came up to him and he was up
in his chariot and he was reading Isaiah 53, and Philip said, do
you understand what you're reading? And this man said in true humility,
how can I, except some man should guide me? God has manifested
His Word through preaching. Now, that's not putting importance
on the preacher. There's no such thing as clergy
and lady, and it's not exalting the preacher, but it's letting
us know that God speaks through the preaching of the gospel. That's how He speaks. And you
can't figure this out. He's going to cross your path
with a preacher to hear the gospel. Now, verse 10. And Elijah 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. But Naaman was
wroth." He was offended. He was angry. Doesn't he know
who I am? Yes, Naaman, he knows who you
are, and he's treating you as you should be treated. And Elisha
was a very wise man. He knew how to deal with proud,
arrogant men. And Naaman was wroth, and he
went away and said, behold, I thought. And there's where he got in trouble.
Behold, I thought. Naaman, it's not like you thought
it was. Now, my dear friend, listen to
this very carefully. Everything you and I naturally
think about God and about salvation is wrong. Everything. We're born into this world dead
in sins and blind, and all of our thoughts about God and about
His Son and about salvation by nature, they're wrong. For instance,
somebody says, well, God's given us a free will, and we can choose
to accept the gospel. It's not like he thought it was.
That's not so. That's not so. All the things men naturally
think about God, about the Word, are not so. It's not like you
thought. I think of what the Lord said
in Psalm 50, Thou thoughtest, I was altogether such a one as
yourself. We think, well, this is the way
I do it. Surely this is the way God is. No, no, it's not like
you thought. Now, let's go on reading. But
Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought,
he'll 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. He thought something impressive would be
done. And then he said, Are not Abana and far, far 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. He was deeply offended by the
way Elisha had treated him. You see, he thought he was somebody,
a very important man who happened to be a leper. And he hadn't
come to terms yet with the fact that he was a leper who happened
to be a very great man. So he leaves 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, wouldst thou
not have done it? How much rather then when he
says to thee, wash and be clean. Now, if he would have given you
some kind of great work to do, you would have been right at
it. But here you go leaving when all he says is wash and be clean. You know, men naturally believe
salvation's by works and they just can't get something as simple
as this. Verse 14. Then went he down. Now the way up in the kingdom
of heaven is always down. Then went he down, and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. Now picture this in your mind.
He gets in the river, leprous. He does exactly what Elisha told
him to do. He goes down once, all the way
under, comes back up, he's still leprous. Two, three, four, five,
six, that seventh time, he comes up and he's clean. His flesh
is like a baby's. Now, I want you to think about
this. Did that act of going down in the River Jordan seven times
Did that have anything to do with the cleansing of his leprosy?
The answer is no. God is the one who cleansed him
of the leprosy. It was not the act of going down
in the River Jordan seven times. It was God who cleansed his leprosy. The Lord did it all. Now, second
question. Would he have been cleansed had
he refused to go down seven times? No, he wouldn't have been. Now, what this represents is
faith in Christ, this going down seven times. You're not saved
because you believe. You're saved if you're saved
because God elected you, because Christ died for you, and because
God the Holy Spirit gave you life. Salvation is of the Lord. You're not saved by being baptized.
You're not saved by coming down to the front of the church. You're
not saved by anything you do. Salvation's of the Lord. And
I love thinking about this. He came up clean. Now, in the
New Testament, how is a sinner cleansed? Well, first, by the
will of Christ. The leper said, if you will, you can make me
clean. It's totally up to you. And he said, I will be thou clean.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. How's a sinner
cleansed? By the blood of Christ. His blood
washes away all sin. By the word, now are you clean
through the word which I've spoken to you. This is all about cleansing,
being made perfect, being justified in God's sight. You see, that
cleansing from the leprosy represents justification. When he came clean,
he had no sin. He had no guilt. He stood perfect
before God. That's what that represents.
He was raised up and made clean. Then when he down and dipped
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,
he was clean. Now he was not cleansed because
he dipped seven times, He's clean because of God, because
of Christ. But he would not have been cleansed
had he not dipped down seven times. That represents faith
in Christ. You're not saved because of your
faith, but you're not saved apart from faith. Everybody that God
saves believes the gospel. All of them do. Now let's read
verse 15. And he returned to the man of
God, I think this is interesting. He hadn't met him yet. Remember,
a servant was sent out to him instead of Elisha. But now that
he's so amazed, he sees that he's clean, he returned to the
man of God, he in all his company and came and stood before him
and said, behold, and this is what you find out when the Lord
does something for you. Behold, now I know that there's
no God in all the earth. Now, he'd been worshiping the
god Remnant in Syria. He'd been worshiping false deities. But when God saves you, you see
that everything apart from him is just false. It's just false. And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him
and said, Behold, now I know that there's no God in all the
earth but in Israel, the God of Israel, Jehovah. I know that
salvation is of the Lord. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
take a blessing of thy servant. He was not trying to buy salvation. He was wanting to give, and that's
what happens when the Lord saves people. All of a sudden, they
want to be a giver. Now, this man, Naaman, is an
illustration of what happens when God saves a sinner. A proud, arrogant man is made
to go down. And he's made to see that salvation
is utterly by what Christ has done and nothing else. And he
confesses to all the world that this is the only gospel and this
is the only God. All else is false. It wasn't, Naaman, like you thought
it was. Now we have this message on DVD,
CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. Amen. To request
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request
to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
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