May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the second book of the Kings, chapter 5, and we'll read verse
14. The second book of the Kings,
chapter 5, and reading verse 14. 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." I want to speak to you really today
on the life of Naaman. And you may think, well, that's
fairly obvious. We read it together. this morning
in the lesson, but as we've read it and as we may think on it
this morning, to consider that Naaman is actually typical of
a child of God. And you might say, well, that's
a surprising statement. Surely I'm not really like Naaman.
Well, of course, we're not like Naaman in a physical sense. He
was a Syrian and he was a soldier. But nonetheless, there is a wonderful
similarity in the life of Naaman and the true child of God. the Lord may help us and bless
us, we want to go through this section of Naaman's life and
to show there is that great truth of a believer set forth in this
account. It is of course a very interesting
account and it's something which no doubt we naturally can approve
of and think well this is very wonderful how God came and cured
Naaman of his leprosy. Well of course it was, but my
friends you know we have an equally great need. As Naaman had, he
had a need to be healed of his leprosy. And you and I have a
great need to be healed of our sin. And how important it is,
how vital it is, because unless we are cleansed, unless we are
washed of our sins, there will be no heaven for us, there will
be no time of glory for us. And so as Naaman was healed,
as he was cleansed, So you and I need to be healed and cleansed
from all our sins. Now, we're told that Naaman was
the 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. So we have here a picture of
a very important person in the Syrian army. But then we read,
these very short, simple, very telling words. But he was a leper. He was a leper. Now, leprosy
in the Word of God usually refers to sin. The analogy is one of
sin. So as we think of sin, we can
think of it being as leprosy. Now naturally there was really
no cure for leprosy and in a spiritual way there is no natural cure
for our sin. We cannot brush it off, we cannot
get rid of it in and of ourselves. It's something which is inherent
in our being and which we possess because of our disobedience of
the truth of God's Word, and therefore we are indeed sinners. It's just like leprosy. It doesn't
matter how great we may appear, how important we may seem to
appear, how successful we may have been in the things of this
life, just like Naaman was. The great thing was, but he was
a leper. And our truth is, in our lives,
there is that, but we are a sinner. Now then, Naaman couldn't get
rid of that leprosy, and my friends, you and I cannot get rid of our
sin. And so we have this example in
the Word of God of how the Lord was gracious to Naaman, and we
see the situations which developed in his life, and may we see the
situations developing or have developed in our life. We may
be able to look back and trace out our spiritual life and say,
well, I can now understand, I can now see how God has been gracious
to me like he was with Naaman. Let us just pause and think.
The Word of God is a wonderful historical account. But my friends,
it's far more than that. It's an account of God's grace
and of God's mercy. And there is, in the Word of
God, throughout it, a wonderful interpretation in a spiritual
sense. The Word of God is written for
the Church of God. And it was written for the Church
of God, it's written because and for that spiritual life. It is therefore a very, very
important consideration. Whenever we read the Word of
God, and there are numerous accounts, aren't there, of wonderful developments
and victories and situations, we should always try and visualise
and address the spiritual scene which is evident underneath the
surface of the natural occurrences. Well, here then was Naaman. He
was Leper and we're told then in God's providence the Lord
had granted them victory over Israel and in that victory they
brought back a little maid a Little made a young child Well, what
was important about this young child the important thing was
that that this young child, she knew something that was very,
very important. And we read about her, and she
said unto her mistress, would God my Lord were with a prophet
that is in Samaria, for he will recover him of his leprosy. She realized there was a prophet
of the Lord in Israel who was able to do great things. She
had that evidence and that knowledge of it. And as we think of that
in the day and age in which we live, to think, and it is true
sometimes, that there are children who are taught to understand
the truth of God. So that sometimes a child can
come and speak to a natural adult about a spiritual situation. And to realise therefore that
we should never despise children, because children are very simple.
And my friends, this little maid was very simple in her statement,
but it was a very true statement. So we should be thankful in our
lives if there have been perhaps people that we may have thought
were not able to describe to us the situation which we needed
to have put before us, so that we might be cleansed. to not
despise anybody, and especially if they should be a young child. And so here we have this position
of this little maid who spoke to her mistress, the person she
could speak to. She wasn't able to go and speak
directly to Naaman, but nonetheless she could speak of that which
was needful and that which was necessary to those that she was
with, who then, they could pass on the message. could at this
wife could mistress could pass on this message and so we're
told one went in and told his lord saying thus and thus saith
a 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
well we see here then natural man natural man not going to
the prophet as a little maid said no but must go to somebody
more important looking for some greater situation, some greater
person to go to, despising perhaps the prophet in Israel. Oh no,
we can't do that, we must go to somebody important, somebody
who should be able to produce the result that we want. Well,
you see, we're not to despise people, and we're not to raise
up one person above another person. and think that, well, this person
is a great person. We can think perhaps, in this
light, we might be tempted sometimes to think, ah well, I want a blessing
and I must go and hear this preacher because he's a great man and
I'm bound to get a blessing from him, rather than perhaps listening
to someone who might be relatively unheard of and relatively despised. You see, we are to be led by
the Spirit of God and the Lord has his servants. Some he uses
more than others. Some he grants greater gifts
than others. But we should not despise any
true servant of God, because that person can, under the blessed
Spirit of God, bring the same great blessing. And so here was
this testimony we have in the Word of God here, going to the
king, and Naaman went to this king, And the king read the letter,
and of course he realised that he wasn't able to cure this man
of leprosy, and he said, Am I God to kill and to make alive, that
this man does send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore consider I pray thee, and see how he seeketh a quarrel
against me. He was an ungodly man. He didn't
realise what the position was, and therefore he looked upon
it in just a natural way. What a blessing there was, though
a man called Elisha. And it had been relayed to Elisha
what the situation was. And therefore Elisha, the man
of God, had heard the king of Israel 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. Well, Elijah desired this person might
come to him. And we might think of the analogy,
we might desire that people might come and hear the true word of
the Gospel. You see, if the Lord has sent
people to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, surely it should
be our concern that such may come to hear the truth of the
Gospel, that they might be healed from all their sin, that all
their sins might be forgiven and taken away. How necessary
and how important it is that people do come to hear the preaching
of the Gospel. It is through the foolishness
of preaching that the Lord has ordained that souls should be
blessed. And we should be very conscious
of this and concerned about it. We may see and hear, perhaps,
of people doing this and going there and trying to be healed
of this and that. But it's good, you know, if we
are able to recognise their situation, direct them to come and hear
the preaching of the Gospel, that which God has ordained to
be the blessing of souls. And so we see then that Naaman
reacts to the request, Well, it's good if people react to
the request, isn't it? To come and hear the preaching
of the Gospel. Naaman reacted and he came with
all his finery, his horses and his chariot, and stood before
the house of Elijah. We can imagine, can't we? A proud
person. Yes, here was this man, Naaman,
no doubt clothed in all his apparel, no doubt well clothed because
to cover up his leprosy, he didn't want that to be seen. And there
he was, he'd come here and he stood before the house of Elisha,
expecting some wonderful occurrence, expecting that Elisha himself
would come out and cure him. He didn't expect what was to
happen. So often this is true in the
day and age in which we live. People expect something to come
in all their greatness, as it were, and expect to be taken
notice of. We perhaps might come and expect
to be taken notice of. Well, what is that? It's the
pride of our heart. What was it in Naaman's? It was
the pride of his heart. He expected the prophet to come
and do some great thing. And we might perhaps come, and
people might perhaps come and expect God to do some great thing. No. Elisha sent a messenger. A messenger unto him. And it's important to know that
it wasn't Gehazi. It was a messenger that Elisha
sent. and he brought to him a very
simple message. Now we can thank God today that
the Gospel is a very simple message. This man came, he had a great
need. He had a great need to be cleansed. And what a blessing it is if
God has shown to us that we have a great need to be cleansed.
Therefore we may have come as it were to hear the preaching
of the gospel may have come in a wrong way We may have come
with a wrong spirit We may have not just come simply and willing
to bow down to hear what God will speak to us and do for us
and so when the messenger came and spoke and The messenger was
no great person. We're not even told his name
and No, he was relatively insignificant, but the Lord uses messengers,
he uses preachers, who perhaps may be insignificant, may be
unknown, and yet, nonetheless, they have a thus saith the Lord. They have a message to deliver,
and they come and they speak the truth of God. Now the truth
of God may not always come to us in a way that we expect, You
see, Naaman had his ideas, he had his plan, he expected some
great deliverance, some great appearing of Elisha. And sometimes
we may come in this way and expect a blessing in a particular way.
We may have our understanding, we may have our belief, we may
have our rules, we may have our scheme. And the problem is, that
if God came in the way that we wanted, then you know the effect
would be to demote God and to raise us up in pride for the
great person that we were. No, God ensures that when he
blesses, people are brought down to a low level, not a high level. They're brought down so they
aren't able to glory in themselves. And so here was this messenger
sent to Naaman, and he was sent to Naaman with this simple message,
go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again
to thee, and thou shalt be clean. Now, was this an attractive solution
to Naaman's problem? No, it wasn't. And why wasn't
it? because Naaman was having to
do something which was very humbling. Very humbling. It wasn't any
great act, a very humbling situation. And so it is, in our spiritual
life, the Lord brings us to that position, to be humbled under
the mighty hand of God. to come right down in our own
estimation and perhaps be brought in our time of great need to
do something which is very simple. Very simple. And so here was
Naaman and he was angry. He was angry. I wonder if you
and I have been angry at the preaching of the Gospel. We've
heard the Gospel. And it hasn't come in the way
we wanted it to come. And it's angered us. We've been
rebellious against Almighty God. Here was Naaman angry, wrath,
and went away and said, Behold, I thought. Yes, often we think,
don't we? We think wrong things very often.
Here was Naaman. He thought. He thought. He will surely come out to me
and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and
Phapa 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. Well sometimes you see we may
be left to ourselves and we find that God deals with us in a very
different way to the way that we perhaps expected. And the
Lord has to teach us, and he has to bring us down in our own
estimation, so that his name will be honoured and glorified. So that we will realise the work
is his work, The work is God's work. It's not our work, that
which we expected to have to do. No, it is not our work, but
it's a blessed work of the Holy Spirit of God. And so we can
read here, Naomi expecting some wonderful revelation, some wonderful
blessing, and in fact, turning and saying, well, isn't the situation
back home in Damascus better than it is here? Again, perhaps
we may be looking elsewhere and saying, well, surely the Lord
could bless in that place. Let me go back to where I've
come from. Surely that's a place where the Lord can cure me as
well as here. Well, it's good when we are favoured
to have good advice given by people. And here we have this
good advice given by Naaman's servants. They came near to him. They spoke to him in a kind way.
They didn't speak in an abrupt way. They came and they spoke
in a kind way. My father, if the Prophet had
bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
Well, of course, that's what he wanted. He wanted to have
done some great thing in order to establish himself. and to count himself worthy to
have received the healing. Therefore these servants come
and they speak in this way, my father, if the Prophet had told
you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much
rather then, would he have said to you, wash and be clean? Well, it's good when the Lord
uses people to come to us and to point out the simplicity of
the Gospel. Naaman was in need. The servants
came and pointed him to the desirability of doing that which the messenger
had spoken to him. You might say, well, what is
the analogy of that today? Well, surely the analogy is quite
simply us to come to the Lord Jesus as we are. The Word tells
us, doesn't it, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. Believe in the Saviour so that
our sins might be taken away. Hear the gracious words of invitation,
come unto me, so many words which are encouraging to us to come
to the Lord. This person was very needy. We might think of ourselves in
perhaps a similar situation, suffering with this illness,
this illness of sin which has taken hold upon us. We might
be laden with it, burdened by it. The Lord Jesus speaks very
glorious words. he spoke to his disciples and
he said these words come unto me and he qualifies this statement
all you that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest
take my yoke upon you and learn of me for i am meek and lowly
in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is
easy and my burden is light." Now, leprosy, sin is a burden. It was a burden which Naaman
was carrying. It was with him all the time,
he couldn't get rid of it. It was there day and night. It was
upon him. It was a burden. And he couldn't
get rid of it himself. What was he to do? He'd come,
you see, all this journey. across to the Prophet of the
Lord. And now he'd been instructed
what to do. And initially he was rebellious. What a wonderful thing it would
be if the Spirit of God directs you and me in our time of need.
Because sin is just like that and leprosy. You and I can't
get rid of it. It's upon us. And it affects
us. It affects us greatly. It affected
Naaman. And sin affects the true believer
terribly. It's a burden to us. It makes
us heavy laden. Are you heavy laden because of
your sin? Does it, as it were, bow you
down? Well, we have here the remedy. The Lord Jesus speaks to us.
in this wonderful way of invitation, come unto me. What does it mean? It means we are to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, not to ourselves, and that's not a great act on
our part, is it? Naaman was told simply to go
down into the water and to dip himself seven times. We are invited
very graciously by the Lord to come unto him. Now it's not anybody. Elisha was a person called out
of Syria. He was, we might say, unique. The Lord had ordained that this
man, Naaman, should be cured of his leprosy. The Lord Jesus
says, when he was on the earth there were many lepers in this
land of Syria. the Lord only had mercy upon
Naaman. There are many, many sinners
in the world today. What a great blessing it is if
the Lord has mercy upon you and me. The Lord looks upon us and
causes us to come to him, to look to him, so that we might
be saved. And so here these servants had
come to Naaman and they had encouraged him to go and do this simple
thing. Then we read, he went down and
dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying
of the man of God. What was he doing? He was being
obedient. to the statement that the Word
of God had directed him in. Yes, he went down and he dipped
himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the
man of God. And what was the result? What was the result?
It was a wonderful result. It was a result that Naaman had
so desired and had been granted to him His flesh came again,
like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean, cleansed
from his leprosy, taken away, washed away. Well, he was told to go down
the dip in Jordan. My friends, the invitation for
us today is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. exactly as we are. You see, Naaman couldn't do anything
but to simply come. He had to come. He had to go
down into the river. He had to do that which the Prophet
had spoken to him of. And so in our life today, the
Lord comes and directs us and speaks to us, not to look anywhere
else, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can recover
us. He's the only one who can deliver
us. He's the only one that can cleanse
us from all our sin. And how is that to be? To be
washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, the blood of Christ is sufficient. The blood of Christ,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. This man was
clean. The blood of Christ makes us
clean, cleanses us from all sin. My friends, if we don't know
our need, if we don't know that we're a sinner, then my friends,
there'll be no need for this cleansing, no need for this blood.
if the Lord shows us and directs us to our true condition as we
stand before a holy God as a sinner, as Naaman was a leper, so we
are a sinner and we need cleansing and to be brought to this position
to discard all our own works, to discard all our own plans
and to hear the word of the Lord. gracious invitation of the Gospel. Yes, we have wonderful invitations
in the Gospel. We have wonderful invitations
to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can
save us from our sins. He it is that came into this
world to die upon Calvary's cross, to atone for our sins, to pay
the price that was due to us of the enormity of our sin. We could never possibly pay the
price required to cleanse us and to free us from that condemnation
of the sin which is in us. We are condemned. We are guilty. Yes, we'll never be able to cleanse
ourselves. And so here we have this wonderful
picture of this Syrian, full of leprosy, Hearing the Word
of God, being encouraged to do that which was right, very simple,
no great act. In actual fact, you might say
no real physical act at all but from simply going down into the
water and dipping himself those seven times. Now of course, the
analogy doesn't quite follow because we do not need to be
awash seven times. We just need. be washed at once. The blood of Jesus Christ, you
see, it is efficacious. It does cleanse. It does make
clean. Well, what a great blessing it
would be if you and I have realised our leprous condition, our sinful
condition, and have been brought to that position where we know
we need to be cleansed, and the only way is the way set before
us in the Word of God. It's not perhaps the way that
we might have thought, it's the way set before us in the Word
of God and to come and to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our
salvation, our salvation, the only one that can save our souls. And so as Naaman was made clean,
what a blessing it is if we also are made clean. Oh my friends,
how needful it is, how essential it is, that we are indeed washed
in the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Well, then we read,
and Naaman returned. He returned to the man of God
and all his company, and came and stood before him, and he
said, now there was a revelation. Now he knew What did he know? We're told, there is no God in all the earth
but in Israel. He'd come to know the true God,
that true God who had cleansed him. No longer are the rivers
in Samaria any good. No, he knows that it was the
Lord God that had cleansed him through just going through the
river of Jordan those seven times. Yes, it was the Lord God that
had done it. And therefore he makes this great
statement and came and stood before him and said, Behold,
now I know there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.
Well, that's the wonderful blessing, isn't it? When you and I are
brought to that wonderful position to be able to come and say, now
I know, by the grace of God, I know there is neither God, This is the God, the God who
has washed me from all my sins and made me white. He has cleansed
me. Now therefore I pray thee, take
a blessing of thy servant. Of course, he couldn't actually
produce a blessing as such, but we see what he desired to do. And said, Lord Liveth, before
whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take
it, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there
not then, I pray thee, be given thy servant two mules burdens
of earth? It's interesting to note that
previously he was looking back to Syria. Well, those rivers
are much better. But now, it's not the earth of
Syria he wants. It's a bit of the earth of Israel
he wants. Yes, he wants that which he knew the true God was
there in that land. For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord." There had been a true conversion. There had been a true revelation. No longer was he to serve the
idols. No longer was he to serve the
unknown God. Here he was blessed with that
personal knowledge that God had come and had healed him. Now
my friends, may it be our blessed favoured position to know the
Lord has cleansed us, the Lord has forgiven our sins. He is
the God, and He is the God that we want to bow down to, and we
want to worship. Now we read in this thing, the
Lord pardon thy servant that when my master goeth into the
house of rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hands, and
I bow myself in the house of rimmon, When I bowed myself down
in the house of Rimen, the Lord pardoned my servant in this thing.
And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little
way." Well, you see, Elisha had come now. Elisha was that one
who was there to bless him, really to wish him Godspeed. And then
just the last part of this chapter, of course, is very sad, because
Gehazi, had been an observer of that which had occurred. But
the blessing of which Naaman had received, Gehazi hadn't received,
and we see Gehazi going after the things of this world, the
poor things which perish with the using. We see Gehazi speaking
lies, We see him speaking lies to Naaman, we see him speaking
lies to Elisha. But you see, Elisha, by the Spirit
of God, knew the truth and he knew what had happened and what
had occurred to Gehazi. And so when Gehazi went in to
Elisha, Elisha asked him, whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said,
Thy servant went no whither. He pretended not to know. Oh,
you see how the ungodly person is full of lies and guile, trying
to give the impression that they're righteous. The Lord knows. The Lord knew with his man Gehazi.
And Elisha says, went not mine heart with thee when the man
turned again from his chariot to meet thee? a time to receive
money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards,
and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants. The leprosy
therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed
forever." How terrible to think, in a spiritual way, that sin
cleaves to us forever. We're not cleansed. We're not
saved. We have a wonderful account here
of God's grace towards Naaman, a very solemn account of God
dealing with Gehazi as one who had turned away from the true
God. Well, my friends, consider this
little account of Naaman. It's not hard to remember, is
it? No doubt you know the account of Naaman, perhaps pretty well,
when it's good if you can therefore trace out, alongside Naaman,
your spiritual life, and to realise how the Lord has shown you to
be a sinner indeed. It's directed you to realise
there's no hope and no help in yourself, that all your plans
of any cure, of any way, must be taken away, so that you come
totally dependent upon the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to cleanse you from all iniquity, and to be blessed with that wonderful
belief then in the Saviour, that he is able, that he is willing,
doubt no more. Amen.