Now, I want to ask you to read
along with me here in 2 Kings 5. I want to talk to you this
morning about this subject. He went down. Some of you sitting here, many
of you sitting here, have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the chief reason we'll look
at in this text this morning is you haven't gone down. You haven't
gone down. Pride and self-righteousness
will keep us from trusting Christ unless God work in our hearts
and bring us down. Bring us down. We always have
to be brought down. And this is so, you and I here,
who profess to believe on the Lord, to trust Him. We need to
ever be brought down. This sin and this His pride and
His heartiness is with us continually and we need to constantly be
brought down. 2 Kings 5 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. He was a very honored man and he was a
very upright man. He was a man that was honored
by the king. He was captain of the host, honored
by the king of Syria. And he was a mighty man in valor. He was the kind of man us men
like. He was a mighty man of valor. But he was this with his master.
And yet, for all this that he was given and all this praise
and honor that was given to him, it was the Lord who, by him,
gave deliverance to Syria. Did you see that? Because by
him, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. Nobody was acknowledging
the Lord in this, not Naaman and not his master, but it was
the Lord who had done it. You and I don't have anything
we didn't receive. We don't have anything that's
not given. We don't have anything we can
boast of. If we have some kind of honor,
we have something about us that other men may look upon and think,
that's honorable. But there was a problem with
him. Problem with him. He was a leper. He was a leper. Leprosy represents sin. Leprosy is caused by sin. It's
a disease, but leprosy throughout the scripture is a picture of
sin. Awful, awful disease. Horrible disease. The scripture
says of every child born in Adam, that from the top of the head
to the sole of the foot, They're just wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. That's the description of a leper. That's the description of you.
That's the description of me. A leper. Sinner. Putrefying sores. They've not been bound up. They've
not been mollified with ointment. There's nothing that has stopped
this awful, awful disease. within us. Who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean thing? Can anybody do that, bring a
clean thing out of an unclean thing? That was what the leper
was to cry out when he was walking amongst the people, was unclean,
unclean. That's what what Naaman's problem was. He
was unclean. Unclean. That's what the sinner's
problem is. Unclean. Unclean. 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. This is A little thing, a small thing
that nobody noticed, nobody thought anything about, but this is sovereign
fetching grace is what this is. If God is pleased to call you,
He's going to send somebody that's going to that's gonna tell you
the gospel, or they're gonna direct you to somebody that's
gonna tell you the gospel, that's gonna declare the truth to you.
Here was a little maid from Israel, taken captive, taken as a slave,
and carried back to Syria, but she's carried right to this house
of Naaman. It's not by accident. It's just
God bringing her right there, the Lord bringing her right there,
because Naaman was there. And this maid was waiting on
Naaman's wife. She served Naaman's wife. You
know what the Lord said about this? Look over at Luke chapter
4, verse 27. There were many lepers in Israel. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisha. This is Elisha, the prophet,
and none of them was cleansed. None of those in Israel was cleansed,
saving Naaman, the Syrian. The Lord is going to save by
grace. That's grace. That's the Lord
choosing by His grace to save, to call, to fetch out, to draw
out, to bring out the child that He set His affection on from
everlasting. This is God's work and He worked
all this about to bring this little maid to Naaman's house. And what does she tell him? Verse
3, 2 Kings 5 verse 3, And she said unto her mistress, You can
picture her going about cleaning the house or whatever she's doing.
She says to her mistress, Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet
that's in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. And
we know that the only one that can heal of sin is Christ. He is the prophet. And he's got a man here who's
going to tell going to declare the gospel to Naaman. The Lord,
there was a leper who came to him one time beseeching him.
And the scripture says that he came beseeching him and he kneeled
down to him. That's just what we're going
to have to do. We're going to have to come down. We're going to have
to kneel down And he asked him, and he said,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. That's how we're going
to have to come. Lord, if thou wilt, thou can
make me clean. Down, down, down. All right,
let's see what happens. 2 Kings 5 verse 4, 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. and 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, this is what the letter said, 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? To make this man, that this man
doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? This king
knew he couldn't do that. Wherefore consider, I pray you,
see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. He's coming to. This
trouble's brewing here. This man obviously wants some
trouble. No, this king knew he couldn't heal anybody of leprosy. 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
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
Now here's Naaman. full of pride, he's got his horses,
he's got his chariot, he's got all these valuable gifts that's
come. He's coming to purchase. This physician we're talking
about, he won't take your money. You can't purchase this healing. He is the healing and it can't
be purchased. He's the purchase. He's the redemption. He's the purchaser and He's the
one who is the balm. He's the cure. And you can't
come with money. You can't come with any kind
of price. You can't barter with God. You can't barter with the
Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You got nothing to offer Him.
You are a stinking, putrefying leper. That's what I am. That's what you are. This is
what every child of God's grace is whom God chooses to save.
He's a stinking leper. And he can't bring anything to
God. He's got nothing to bring him. So Naaman's standing at the door.
You know, Christ is the door. We can't stand at the door. Enter
in at the door. Go in the door. Verse 10, And 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. He wasn't
speculating on this. He didn't say it might be the
case. He said, Do this. And your flesh
will be clean. You'll be clean. And here's what
he's telling him. Here's what he's telling him.
You're going to have to be stripped of all your honorable garments,
of everything that you, all of your pomp and all of your garments
that you think make you somebody. He's saying, Naaman, you got
to take all those off. They got to be laid completely
aside. And that's so with me and you.
All, any righteousness, any goodness, any will, anything that we think
that we have, it deserves for God now to do something for us. Naaman thought, I've come this
far, now he ought to come out here and meet me. And he sent
a messenger out there to him. And he said, you got to be stripped
of everything. And he says, you got to wash
in the Jordan seven times. There was nothing about the Jordan
River in and of itself that was healing. The Lord showed us a
picture of Christ the Lord here. Seven times, perfection. Christ
the Lord is the one who is the perfection. He is the perfect man. He's God. He's man. He's the
perfect servant of God whom God accepts and receives and is well
pleased with. And if we're going to come, we've
got to come washed in His blood. Nothing but the blood. Listen.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon, this I say. You need pardon. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing, this is my plea. Nothing but the blood of
Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And that's what he... Go wash. There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stain. Just keep telling us this
over and over and over. Why do you just keep telling
us this? Because I pray God God send forth the Spirit of His
grace into your heart and say, and make you hear it for the
first time. Make you hear it. Wash. And He said in it, you'll be
clean. Robed in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ,
you'll be clean. Verse 11. Now that seems, that
seems That seems just easy, doesn't
it? Verse 11, But Naaman was wroth. This angered him greatly. And
he went away. He left. He went away. And he said, Behold, I thought
he will surely come out to me. After all, I'm somebody. That's what he's thinking. I'm
somebody. We wear somebody on our sleeve,
don't we? 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 doesn't own himself as being
the leper. He speaks as if he's not really
sick. It's the leper. That would have been, that would
have just been, there would have been no humility in that. There
would have been no coming down in that. There would have been
no stripping in that. That would have been a fair bargain
in Naaman's mind. I've come here, I brought all
this substance, I brought all this stuff. He comes out to me,
puts his hand on the place, calls on his God, and I'm healed. God's going to demand we part
with everything. And He's going to demand that
we be brought to nothingness. He said this too, verse 12, He
said, Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus? Aren't they
better than all the waters of Israel and any river in Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean? A river of his own country, a river
of his own people, a river of his own place. That'd be fine,
but not this river. Not this river. And so he turned
and went his way, went away in a rage. Somebody said this. Total depravity offends man's
dignity. Divine revelation offends man's
wisdom. And the blood of the cross offends
man's pride. We're going to have to be offended. We're going to have to be We're
going to have to be broken, broken. Verse 13, now listen to how his
servants reasoned with him. 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? Let me be set on fire and walk
through crushed glass and be doused in rubbing alcohol, anything,
but not go do nothing. Not entrust my soul into the
hands of another. You see, it's by faith that it
might be by grace. If you do anything, if you do
anything, And man's willing to do anything, any great work. If he would have said, do any
great work, would you not have done it? How much rather then when he
said to thee, wash and be clean. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and be clean. Verse 14, are you a sinner? What's it gonna, what's God gonna
bring you to do? What must I do to be saved? Look at the next verse. Then
went he down. 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. You see, when he was angry walking
around with his chest poked out, thinking about how I thought
it would be, he didn't change the truth of God. He didn't hurt
anybody but himself. He was just a leper. And he could
get mad all he wanted to get mad. He could get angry all he
wanted to get angry. He could be offended all he wanted
to be offended. He's still a leper. But then he went down. What's it going to take? He went
down. Look over at Matthew chapter
9 and we'll be done. Matthew chapter 9. You know, the Lord was walking through
a crowd of people one day Zacchaeus, he was short of stature
and he wanted to see Christ. And so he climbed up in a tree.
He climbed up and the Lord came to him and
the Lord said, come down. We're not going to be able to
climb up to see Christ. We're going to have to have Christ
say, come down. And through this word, He'll
say it, come down. And when He says it, then He
came down. You'll come down. I'll come down.
Matthew 9, 10. Here's what the Lord said. Came
to pass, Jesus said it, meet in the house. Behold, many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And
when the Pharisees saw, They said unto his disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard, he said
unto them, they that be whole, they need not a physician. When
Naaman was angry, walking around in his pride, do you think he knew he was a
leper? You know you're a sinner. I know
I'm a sinner. When we're rebelling against
God and believers, you and I, we're rebelling against God.
We know it. We know it. We know it. But they that are whole, why
they think they're whole, they don't need a physician. But they
that are sick, sick, Those folks came to him and they said, why in the world don't you just
wash and be clean? Are you sick? This is what the
Lord said. Go and learn what that meaneth.
Okay, verse three, go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will
have mercy. I will have mercy. And Abel said,
I thought, the Lord said, my thoughts aren't your thoughts.
Return unto me, come unto me, come down asking mercy, and I
will abundantly pardon. I'll have mercy, but not sacrifice. You're not gonna bring anything
to him. For I'm not come to call the
righteous. If we try to come with something,
we're trying to come in our own righteousness. And he said, I
didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners, sinners to repentance. Know what repentance is? It's turning from everything.
It's completely, that's what happened to Naaman. Then he went
down. He had a complete radical change
of direction. And he went down from up to down. That's what we got to do. Repentance
is being brought the opposite direction that we think we ought
to go. We got to be brought into Christ's way, out of our way,
out of the falsehood and lies of our deceitful, deceivable
heart. You hear His voice saying this? If you come down and wash, how
do I wash in the blood of Christ? Believe on him. Is there something
I do? Yeah. Nothing. Believe on him. It's the opposite
of work. It's believe on him. How will
I know you won't be able to do anything else? And he publicly, he publicly
manifest, he believed the word spoken. He went and washed. That's a picture. There's a picture
of what baptism is. A water baptism is a picture
that you've been washed in the blood, been plunged into a grave. and dead. You're dead. Everything
about you, you're saying, is worthless, putrefying, stinking,
and all my hope is that when Christ was raised, I was raised.
When He sat down, I sat down, and I'm accepted of God in the
Beloved. That's my hope. So, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be clean. That seems like Come now, let us reason together. He said, though your sins be
as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. If you be willing and
obedient, why don't you come? Not willing, not obedient. Obedient and willing to do what?
To trust the obedience and willingness of another. Christ the Lord. I pray He'll do that for us.