In the book of 2 Kings chapter
5 is the story of a man with leprosy who was healed. It is
a story which represents how God saves men and women from
the leprosy of sin. 2 Kings chapter 5 I am reading
beginning with 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 or courage. He was a leper, a leper,
a great man, honorable, mighty, but a leper. Now, leprosy was
a devastating disease. It used to be always fatal. And as with all diseases, it
started on the inside until it finally began to show up on the
outside. outward symptoms. Leprosy literally
caused the body or the flesh to decay, to rot, and to die. In the beginning stages of leprosy,
it would show up as a small patch of scaly skin, perhaps on the
hand or the legs or somewhere on the body. which in the end,
that small patch of scaly skin, seemingly a harmless thing, in
the end it would cover the whole body with dead, rotting flesh. Leprosy is a picture of sin. All mankind, God's word says,
is born with this fatal disease of sin. And like leprosy, sin
in the beginning shows itself in small ways. The Scripture
says we are born in sin, that a small child is a sinner at
birth. In seemingly small, insignificant
ways, sin begins to manifest itself. in a small child, a lie
here and there, a tantrum, a fit of anger, an act of selfishness. But in time, it fully manifests
itself in adulthood or in adolescence, until the whole person is consumed
with sin, thought, word, and deed. who denies sin in themselves
is deceived by sin. An honest person, a truly honest
person would admit that sin comes naturally, that sin is in their
whole being, that anger, wrath, selfishness, lust, and so on
all come very easily, while doing that which is right is difficult,
if not impossible. And sin will kill us, yea, has
killed us spiritually, and sin will damn us unless God does
something about it. Scripture says all have sin. Scripture says we are dead in
trespasses and sin by nature. Now, the fact about Naaman is
this. Naaman was a leper, just a common
leper. as any other leper who happened
to be a great man. By the sovereign grace of God
and constraining grace of God and providence of God, he happened
to be a great man. He was a leper who happened to
be a great man. And like all of us, we are all
sinners, all of us. Some more powerful, some richer,
some more famous than others, but we're all dying lepers. Some happen to be great lepers. Well, in our story, a young girl,
servant to Naaman's wife, told Naaman's wife of a prophet and
told her that if Naaman could get to this prophet, he might
be healed of his leprosy. Well, Naaman's master, the king
of Syria, heard this story, and in verse 5, the king of Syria
said, Go to, go, I'll send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
Naaman departed and took with him, Naaman took ten talents
of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment. The king sent Naaman to try and
purchase Naaman's healing. Now this is a picture of how
man thinks he can buy God's favor. Man thinks he can do things for
God to get him out of the trouble he's in. Man thinks he can give
bribes to God in turn for God's favor. Peter dealt with this
when he said, we are not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold from our vain conversation received by tradition
from the Father. In other words, Peter said, we
are not redeemed, we are not accepted by God. We do not receive
favor from God by works of piety by good works
or our vain conversation or life, by acts of charity or right living
or doing anything for God. No, we are sinners. We are lepers. God must do something
for us. We cannot buy the favor of God. We cannot redeem ourselves. No, there is only one thing which
will redeem the soul, and that is the blood, the precious blood,
Peter called it, of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Well, the prophet
Elisha, of whom the young girl spoke of, the prophet Elisha
heard that Naaman had come. And he told the king of Israel,
he said, send him to me, send Naaman down to my house. So in
verse 9, Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and
stood at the door of the house of Elisha. Can you picture this? Here comes this great, mighty,
powerful captain. a great important man, a VIP,
rich and famous and powerful and noble. High, mighty, wise
and noble Naaman came riding up in his big chariot with all
his entourage or all his soldiers and serpents. Here he comes riding
up to this little house of the little insignificant prophet.
And he stood outside. I believe he stood in his chariot,
and he stood outside and he waited. And he expected the prophet to
come running out to greet the mighty, noble Naaman and thank
him for coming to grace his house with his presence. Well, if Elisha
had been any old preacher, or he had been like the modern preachers
today, He would have. He would have run out there to
greet old Naaman. Why, he would have probably gone
to see Naaman first. When Naaman came, if Elisha had
been like the average preacher today, why, he'd have rolled
out the red carpet for this influential man who could be a great donor
to his church and give a lot of money. Well, but verse 10 says that
Elisha sent a messenger unto Naaman, probably the young man
Gehazi. But he was just a common servant
and a messenger. Elisha sent out a common servant
boy to tell something to Naaman. And here's what he said, verse
10. common servant went out to this
great and mighty and noble Naaman, standing in his chariot with
all his armor and all his pride, and he said to Naaman, the prophet
says, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come
again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." Now, the River Jordan
is now and always has been a muddy river, not very big, not beautiful
like some, but a little muddy river. And Elisha sent word to
Naaman, through this common servant, to get off his high horse, get
down on the ground, and go down to that muddy river, and go down
into that muddy river, and go down further under the water,
and dip down under that water not once, Not twice, not three
times, but seven times. Dunked himself down under that
water seven times. And if he would do this, he would
be clean. All of this is a picture of man
in his pride. Naaman depicts man in his pride. which is the worst sin of all,
yea, it is the root of all sin, and that which God hates more
than anything else. He said in the Proverbs, six
things I hate, yea, seven are an abomination to me. And the
first thing God mentions there in Proverbs 6 is a proud look. God hates pride. Why? Because the Scripture says, what
do we have that we have not received? And if we have received it, then
why do we glory or boast, or why are we proud as if we had
not received it? You see, the Scripture says a
man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. So a person, if a person is proud
of anything, race, face, or grace, he's full of the worst sin of
all, pride. And the first step in salvation
is for God Almighty to bring us down from our pride. Now, it's not as the false prophet
would tell us. that God needs us, God loves
us, God wants us to feel good about ourselves. No, no. What
do you think repentance is? Repentance is not feeling good
about oneself. Repentance is hating oneself,
denying self. Christ said, if any man come
after me, let him deny himself. It is turning from self. Psalm
34 verse 18 says this, "'The Lord saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit.'" Go learn what that means. Christ said that. He said, I'll have mercy, not
sacrifice. Mercy is for guilty people. He
said, go and learn what that means. When God sends His Word,
it's a Word to humble us, to bring us down. a word which causes
us to ask for mercy, grace, and forgiveness. And that muddy river
Jordan represents the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which
cleanses us from all sin. The only way to be clean is to
go down, come down and wash. Well, verse 11, Naaman was angry,
and he went away and said, Behold, I thought, why, I thought, and
that's everyone's problem by nature when it comes to thinking
about God or salvation. It's not like we think. I thought. Naaman said, I thought surely
He'll come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord
and the Lord His God and pass His hand over and I'll just recover
from my leprosy. Surely He'll come out to me.
Doesn't He know who I am? Yes, He does. You're just a leper. Naaman. Naaman said, Well, are
not the rivers of Damascus and so on better than all the rivers
of the waters of Israel? Well, he turned away. Verse 13,
his servant said, If the prophet had asked you to do something
great, wouldn't you have done it? Well, Naaman finally, verse
14, went down and dipped himself seven times According to the
word of the man of God, and his flesh came again, and he was
clean. He went down. He came down off his high horse
and dipped in the muddy river Jordan, and he came clean. And
so it is with every sinner whom God brings down and brings to
Christ to wash him in his blood. May the Lord use this message
for your humbling and your salvation. Thank you. Okay.