Okay. All right. Good morning. I bring you greetings from Ashland,
from Hurricane Road, and from the Simpson family across the
river. Just pass on to you how much
she appreciates you thinking of her. And it's been, you can
imagine, a difficult time. But we're so thankful, so thankful
that our brother Dale's at rest. He's with our Lord. I'd ask you
to open your Bible with me this morning to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. Our Sunday school back home,
we've been looking at these Old Testament pictures of Christ. I think I say this every week.
I think this is one of my favorites. But the account of Naaman. Now before we begin, you've got
2 Kings 5 there. I'd have you to consider the
words of our Lord over in Luke chapter 4. He said this, he said,
many lepers, many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha
the prophet, but none of them was cleansed save one, save one,
Naaman the Syrian. Many lepers, but God was pleased
to save one. Men say, that's not fair. That's not fair. You know what's
amazing? What's amazing is that God will
save one. That He'd be pleased to save
one. Well, let's look at this passage
of Scripture this morning, beginning with verse 1. And here we read,
here we're introduced to Naaman. Okay? And it says, captain of
the host of the king of Assyria. He was a great man. He was a
great man with his master. Naaman was a distinguished man.
You think this word said he was a great man. He was a distinguished
man. He was set apart. Naaman was
a great man with his master. Naaman was an honorable man.
And another word for honorable here is gracious. Naaman was
a gracious man. He was a kind man. He was gentle. He was forgiving. We read that
by him, by Naaman, the Lord had given deliverance. He'd given
victory unto Syria. I picture Naaman as a war hero.
I picture him as just something to see when you read this description
of him. We read that Naaman was a mighty
man, a mighty man in valor, a man who stood, a man who stood for
what was right. He was a great man. He was an
honorable man, a gracious man. He was a mighty man. But in spite
of all that, Naaman, Naaman was a leper. Naaman was a leper. Despite all those admirable qualities,
Naaman was a leper. Now, leprosy, as we've been taught,
leprosy is a picture of sin. It's a picture of sin. And what leprosy is to the body,
sin is to the soul. Naaman was ruined. And a few
things about leprosy. Leprosy was an inward disease.
But it was seen outwardly. It was seen outwardly. The cause,
the real cause, was inward. It was on the inside. But it
could be seen. It could be seen on the outside. And our sin is the same way.
We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because of what we
are, because we're sinners. Sinners. Isaiah 1 verse 6 says
this, From the sole of the foot, even to the top of the head,
there's no soundness in it. Nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that have not been closed up, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. That's a picture of us. That's
a picture of who and what we are. That's a picture of what
naming. Leprosy was a separating disease. Those with leprosy,
they were cast out. Ceremonially, they were unclean,
which meant they couldn't go to the temple to worship. They
were cast out. Isaiah 59 too. Turn over there
to Isaiah 59. Let's turn together. Look at verse 2. Isaiah says,
your iniquities, your sin, have separated between you and your
God. And your sins have hid his face from you that he will not
hear. Sin is a separating disease. Leprosy could not be cured by
human means. You couldn't go to the doctor
and get a prescription and be healed of your leprosy. Human means couldn't cure it.
And the same is true with sin. Human means cannot cure sin. Human means cannot take away
your sin. You can't heal your leprosy.
You can't heal your sin. Only God, only God can heal the
leper. And my friends, only God can take away our sin.
What can wash away? We sing that song. What can wash
away our sin? Nothing. Nothing but the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Him and Him alone. Turn over to Hebrews
1. Turn over to Hebrews 1.3. Here we read in verse three,
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he had by himself, no assistance
from man, when he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. The work was finished. He sat
down. He rested. It's done. It's finished. So here in our text we see, we
see Naaman. We see this man Naaman. We see
his, we see his leprosy. We see his sin. And next here
we see God's providence. This is, I tell you what, this
just, I don't know how many times I've read over this and never
given it that much thought, but look at verse 2. Always think
about naming, always think about that prophet, but it says, the
Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive
out of the land of Israel a little maid, a little maid. She's a young girl. And she waited
on Naaman's wife. Think about that. Think about
that for a minute. Here's this young girl that's
been taken away from her home, taken away from her family. And
I'm sure her family, if they survived this attack, thought,
what good could come from this? How often do we think that? Things
that happen in our lives, what good? What good could possibly
come from this? Romans 8, 28, you don't have
to turn there. It says this, it says, we know. You know, I tell you, sometimes
I forget, I lose those first two words. I jump ahead to that,
all things work. Listen, God's word says we know.
We know that all things work together. All things work together. The things that we call good
things, the things that we call bad things, all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to His purpose, to His purpose. You know, there's mercy. There's
mercy in store for Naaman. Almighty God who orders and directs
all things, all things, calls this young little maiden to be
taken from her home and placed in this other home for the purpose,
for the purpose of... Naaman's going to learn something
about God, isn't he? Naaman's going to be... I'll
tell you why. Here's something else. Moses
says this. He said that when Pharaoh, think
about this, when Pharaoh was going through killing all those
children, all those boys, and somehow Moses gets placed in
that little basket, placed there in the water. And Pharaoh's daughter
comes by and sees that baby and has compassion on it and takes
that baby to be his own. Who's going to raise that baby?
Who's going to nurse that baby? These things, God's purpose is
going to be accomplished. He orders and directs. He directs
all things. And verse 3, let's read on here. She said to her mistress, Would
God my Lord, this is this young little maiden. She said, Would
God my Lord, with the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would
recover him of his leprosy." Now again, I don't know what
all this little girl, this little maiden knew, but I believe we
can say with some confidence that she knew something of Naaman's
leprosy. She knew something. She had seen him. She knew something. She knew he needed healing, didn't
she? She'd seen something of his sin. And think about this, she knew God
would use Elisha to heal him. She knew God was able. She knew
God was able to heal him. And no doubt, no doubt that he
could heal Naaman, that he could cure him of this leprosy. And I tell you, One other thing
we should keep in mind about this is just the importance,
the importance of teaching our children and our grandchildren
the scriptures. You know, we think we're going
to have them forever, and that may or may not be the case, but
how important is it, how important is it that they be taught the
scriptures at a young age, at a young age? All right, that
they're brought up, that they're brought up under the sound of
the gospel, that we might, that they'd be taught, that they'd
be taught of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Him and His salvation, that
they would be brought up in the nurture and the admonition of
the Lord. that we might be able to say,
just as Paul said of Timothy, from a child, from a child thou
hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, this little maiden, she says this, she says, would God,
my Lord, were with the prophet that's in Samaria. He'd recover
him. He'd recover him of his leprosy. And then fourth, we
see something of Naaman's self-righteousness and pride. Something that's easily
seen in every one of us. Our self-righteousness and our
pride. This little maid told Naaman, she said, go to the prophet
of God. That's who you need to go to. Go to the prophet of God.
I don't know if Naaman thought he was too good for that, or
if he thought the king would have more power to heal, but
he went, see that? He went to the king. Listen, go to the prophet of
God. For healing, for forgiveness
of sin, for salvation, there's only one place to go, and that's
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, salvation is of the
Lord. It's all of him. Well, Naaman
goes to the king and he goes to him with a letter and with
some changes of clothes and with some gold and all these things. Men will turn to everything before
they'll turn to Christ. Men turn to their, they'll turn
to the law. Let's put a poster of the Ten
Commandments up out in the front yard. They'll turn to the law.
They'll turn to their idols. They'll turn to their church. I was brought up being taught
this, right? They'll turn to their works.
They'll turn to the preacher. They'll turn to themselves. They'll
turn to anything, anything but Christ. Remember that woman over there,
Mark, with the issue of blood? It said that she had spent everything
she had, every dollar she had. Did she get any better? No. No,
it says she only got worse, didn't she? It wasn't until she turned
to Christ, she turned to Him, that that issue of blood was
dried up. Now, let's go on here. Verse 9. Naaman came with his horses and
with his chariot, and he stood there. I bet he was standing
up tall, wasn't he? Standing up tall and proud. He
stood there at the door of Elisha's house. There he is. There he is with his gifts in
his hand, no doubt dressed in the best of apparel, the best
raiment that money could buy. He stands there. And one of the
old riders said, probably dressed as good as he could, covering
every last part of his body that he could, trying to cover his
leprosy. Doing everything he could to
cover that awful, filthy leprosy. Make you think of Adam back there
in the garden, right? There he is knitting those fig
leaves together, him and Eve, trying to cover their nakedness.
And you might be able to cover it, but you can't take it away. You can't take it away. A picture,
a picture of self-righteousness. But all this has to be put off.
Everything that we would use to cover our sin has to be has
to be put away Our Lord told that rich young ruler He said
you go and sell everything you have and you get rid of get rid
of it It all has to be put off Well, let's read on verse 10
Elisha Elisha sends a messenger Sends a message to him and he
said you go and you wash seven times and and thy flesh shall come again
like the flesh of a little child. Thou shalt be clean. You go and
wash, and thou shalt be clean. To the sinner, we're told, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved. Let's read
on. How did Naaman respond to that?
Naaman was wroth. And he went away, and this is
what he said, he said, I thought, I thought, I thought this would
happen, or I thought he would do this. Our Lord declares over
in Isaiah 55, he said, my thoughts, my thoughts aren't your thoughts,
neither are my ways your ways. Naaman said, I thought he'd surely
come out, And he'd stand and call on the name of the Lord
his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. Arnott, verse 12, Arnott of Banna
and farfer rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and
he went away in a rage. Over in Luke 4, When our Lord spoke, when he
said there were many lepers, many lepers, and he said, God
saved one of them. Remember the people's reaction
to that? Oh, they were furious. They were in a rage, weren't
they? They picked him up and they took him out and they would
have cast him over the hill headfirst. They went away, they went away
in a rage. How many men and women, how many
of us left the worship service in a rage over hearing the true
gospel for a while, for a while? Well, the reason we go in a rage,
men hate God's free by nature, hate God's free in sovereign
grace. because they're seeking to establish
their own righteousness. We want to do it our way, don't
we? Well, neighbor was wroth and
men are wroth. They're angry over God's sovereignty.
They get angry when they get told of man's depravity, man's
utter helplessness, man's sin, the gospel. They get mad because
the gospel has to be revealed. The gospel must be revealed.
Christ's redemption offends our pride. Again, we want it our
way. We read on there, Naaman would
have preferred to do some great thing, wouldn't he? Get his name
in the paper. Be seen of men. Well, I tease
the boys about this. I tell them when I help them
with their homework, and it's rare that I can help them with their
homework, but when I can, I said, I think I should get half credit
for that. Right? We want credit. Christ's redemption, he gets
all the glory, okay? Because it's his work. And men
get upset over the lordship of Christ, that he does his will. Naaman, Naaman's going to have
to come down. Naaman and sinners, sinners have
to take their place in the dust, fall at God's feet. Well, Romans 10.3 says this, for they
have been ignorant of God's righteousness. They go about to establish their
own righteousness, having not submitted, having not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. And then last, here we
see God's power to save. Look at, begin with verse 13.
It says here, his servants came near and they spake unto him
and they said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee to do
some great thing, Wouldn't you have done it? If he'd asked you
to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather
than? Here's the simplicity of it.
Wash. He saith, wash and be clean. Then he went down. Brother Henry wrote in one of
his commentaries, he said, when sinners are ready and made willing,
And I like this, to quit lying, to quit trying, and to quit buying
and bow to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive salvation as the
free gift of God. They'll be saved. They'll be
saved. Turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Look beginning with verse 10.
Matthew 9 verse 10. And it came to pass. came to pass
as Jesus set at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said to them, they that behold, they that behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Go and learn what that meaneth,
for I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Isn't that good
news? The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Well, Naaman, old Naaman, we
read that he went down. He went down and he dipped himself
seven times in the Jordan. according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again as the
flesh of a little child. Naaman was cleansed, wasn't he? Naaman was innocent, holy. And that's what God's done for
his people. And the Lord Jesus Christ cleansed
us, made us spotless, made us holy. All right, let's stop writing.