2 Kings 5. And I also pray that the Lord
would bless us this morning, meet with us, send His Spirit
to us, and show us His goodness. We're going to look at verses
1-14. 2 Kings 5. And verse 1 says, 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. Naaman was the captain of the
king's army, the captain for the king of Syria. And when I
read this and we know this story, sometimes we have to be reminded
of it, but we know the story of Naaman. And when I read this,
the first thing that stood out to me was how highly the Lord
speaks of Naaman. I thought our Lord is so good
to us, the way that He thinks of us and speaks of us and the
way He's recorded some of our brethren. He's so kind to us
worms. He really is. We all know because
our Lord is the one who said it, but all have sinned. We know
that. We know there's none good. And
I write this and I say this and I pray the Lord would bless this.
We literally have the same thing to say every time we stand up,
don't we? The same thing. Everything that we think is a
righteous work is actually a filthy rack. Everything that we think is a
righteous work. Some of the things that we do
that we think, oh, that was pretty good. That is a filthy rag in
the eyes of our God. It's an awful stench in his nostrils. It stinks. We are by nature rotting dead
bodies, actually, literally. We're covered with putrefying
sores. But listen to how our good Lord
and Master speaks of his filthy, rotten sinners that belong to
him. Just listen to a few of them. Job said in Job, verse
one, he wrote, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name
was Job. And that man was perfect. And upright. And one that feared
God and to shoot evil. He told Satan, the Lord said
unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth? A perfect and an upright man,
one that fears God and eschews evil. Have you considered him?
Listen to what our Lord said about Simeon. He said, Behold, there was a
man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, And the same man was
just and devout. Waiting for the consolation of
Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. Listen to what he said
about Cornelius. There was a certain man in Caesarea
called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian
band, a devout man. One that feared God with all
his house, which gave much alms to the people." And he prayed
to God always. Oh, can that be said about us? Our Lord is so kind to us. He's
so kind to us. Our text, verse 1, says, 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. But he was a leper. He was a
leper. Every wonderful thing, every
wonderful word that a man can say about another man is nullified. By the fact that he's a sinner. Every single thing we can say
about one another. Is completely nullified by the
fact that he's a sinner. Everything that seems to be good
about a person, he goes to church, that's great. That's great. He's honest. I really admire
that in people. I think that's wonderful. He
gives to charity. That's great. I wish I did more. He's a good provider for his
family. He loves his wife. He loves his
children. He's a family man. He's an upstanding
moral citizen. That's great. Honestly, that's
great. I'm happy about that. The problem
is He's a sinner. The fact that Naaman was a leper
means he's a dead man walking. That's what it means. You can
say all these things, but it's all nullified by the fact that
he's a dead man walking. He's a leper. That's the problem
with every man and woman born into this world. The problem
we all face is we're all born dead in our trespasses and sins. Go with me to Psalm 58. Psalm
chapter 58. Psalm 58 verse 1 says, Do you
indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? As everybody meets together,
congregates together in front of each other. Do you indeed
speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O ye
sons of men? Yea, in heart you work wickedness. You weigh the violence of your
hands in the earth. You weigh how much can I get
away with and still look good in front of everybody else. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born speaking lies. We're all born speaking lies. None of us has any hope born
into this world, all of us. Well, back in our text, verse
one says. 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 into Syria. He was
also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captives 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 is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy. Oh, I wish to God that
Naaman was with that prophet. He would heal his disease. Verse
4 says, And one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus
said the maid that is of the land of Israel. This little maid, who providentially
was taken into this man's house, said, as she's going about her
business and doing her job, I know a man. I know somebody. I know of one who was able to
heal your disease. I believe Naaman knew he was
a leper. I believe he could see it skin
deep. But I don't think Naaman realized
just how serious his condition was because he was not seeking
a cure. When a person realizes how serious
their condition is, they go seeking a cure. They drop everything
else and they go seeking a cure. He was off trying to be a great
man. He was trying to win battles and conquer all and take the
spoil and gather up. And that's what we do. That's
exactly what we do. But this little maid who represents
the Holy Spirit planted a seed. Just one word. Word and season. She planted a seed. And it created
a desire for a cure. That's what happened inside Naaman.
A desire for a cure. This desire to seek a cure, it
didn't begin with Naaman. It was put there by someone else.
It's the same desire that the Holy Spirit puts in a sinner
when he or she realizes, I have a problem. I have a problem. I'm a sinner. And I need a cure. A seed is planted that says,
maybe you should seek Christ. Maybe you should. Well, Naaman
now knows he must seek this prophet. This prophet represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. He knows he must come to Christ,
but he doesn't know how he must come. And he comes the wrong
way. Verse 5 says, 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. Not to the prophet, to the king.
Saying, this is what the letter said. 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. First of
all, Naaman didn't go to the prophet like he was told. He
went to the king. He went to who he thought was
the one. Well, religion's all the same,
isn't it? Why not this place as opposed
to this place? It doesn't matter. He thought I deserve to go straight
to the chief seat. What he thought was the chief
seat. And he thought with all these gifts I'm bringing, he's
bound to accept me. I'm bringing a lot of stuff with
me. He's bound to answer my request. He came, but he came the wrong
way. He went to the wrong man and
he brought the wrong things. He brought his letter. He brought
a letter of recommendation. He brought his work. He brought
his resume. This is, from the time I've been
born, everything I've done. Our Lord said in Matthew 7, many
shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name
done many wonderful works. We have our list here. He brought
his resume, he brought his money, he brought 10 talents of silver
and six thousand pieces of gold, he brought his goods, he brought
10 changes of raiment, he brought the fruit of his work. I've worked
hard and this is what's been bestowed to me." Cain tried that. It didn't work. What he needed to bring was the
blood of lamb. He didn't know that. In verses
7 and 8, this king that he comes to represents a true preacher. A true servant of God. Verse
seven says 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 to send unto me to recover a man
of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. 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. A false prophet, a
false preacher tells people, come on in here to me. And sign
right there, we send our numbers in. Come in here to me. I have just the right Hail Mary
that will fix your problem. Tell me what your problem is
and I'll tell you what to pray. Come in here to me. I have just
the right tongues for you to speak that will fix that problem
of yours. I have just the right clothes
for you to wear and way of life That'll fix that
problem of yours. Come in here. I have just the
perfect pool of water right there. That'll fix your problem. That's not what God's true preacher
says. He says, don't come to me. Don't come to me. I can't do anything for you.
You're going to have to get to Jesus Christ. You've come to
the wrong man. Don't pray to me. Don't pray
to Mary. Don't pray to anybody else. You
need to pray to God. The true preacher says, don't
speak any tongues. Let our words be few. We're standing
in the presence of a holy God. Put our hand over our mouth.
The true preacher says naked, we came into this world and naked,
we're going to leave it. Your clothes aren't going to
do you any good. That bonnet is not going to do you a bit
of good. The only covering you need is the blood of Jesus Christ. You've got to get to Him. The true preacher is going to
say, don't come near this pool of water until you've come to
Christ. You've got to be in Him first
before you can get in there. That's just a confession that
you are in Him. Well, this king told Naaman,
you've come to the wrong place. There's one prophet that you
need to get to. One prophet. Verse nine says,
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood
at the door of the house of Elisha. First, he brought the wrong things,
then he went to the wrong place. Now he's at the right place,
but he has the wrong attitude. He's come to the right place.
But he has the wrong attitude. Verse 10 says Elisha sent a messenger
unto him. Elisha, God's man, didn't come
out. He 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. He got mad
and he rejected it. A sinner is only going to hear
from God through a messenger only. Naaman's pride said to
him, I deserve to see the man myself. It was an insult to his
pride that Elisha didn't come out. He didn't come out to meet
me. He had to hear the word through
a lowly servant. That simple servant told him,
the first thing you're going to have to do is wash in the
Jordan River seven times. Now, let me show you three things
about the Jordan River. The first one turned to Genesis
13. Genesis 13, verses 10 and 11 say, And Lot
lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that
it was well watered. There was a big river that ran
through the plain of Jordan. Everywhere. Before the Lord destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah. Even as the garden of the Lord,
like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar, then Lot chose
him all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east, and they
separated themselves one from the other." The river of Jordan ran straight
through Sodom and Gomorrah. It's the river of sin. It's the
river of sin. That messenger told Naaman, You're
going to have to get in that river. You're going to have to
get in that river. The second thing about the Jordan
River is in Numbers 32. Numbers chapter 32. Verse 1 says, Now the children
of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude
of cattle. And when they saw the land of
Jazer and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a
place for cattle. Just like Lot saw. This is a
nice plain, it's flat, it's well watered, lots of grass here.
Verse 5, Wherefore said they to Moses, if we have found grace
in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a
possession and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the
children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, shall your brethren
go to war and shall you sit here? They're going to go over Jordan
and fight to receive the promised land. And you're going to sit
here. Verse seven, and wherefore discourage
ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into
the land which the Lord hath given them? Verse 10 says, and
the Lord's anger was kindled the same time, and he swears
saying, surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt from
20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swear unto
Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob, because they have not
wholly followed me. Verse 19 says, We will not inherit with them
on yonder side of Jordan, or forward, because our inheritance
has fallen to us on this side of Jordan. We don't want to cross
Jordan. We must cross Jordan to enter
into the promised land. It's the river of death. I like
it here just fine. In order to reach the promised
land, we must cross the river of Jordan. That messenger said, you're going
to have to acknowledge that river. The third thing about the Jordan
River is back in our text. Second Kings chapter five. Down in verse 12, Naaman said,
Are not Havana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the
waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be
clean? The River Jordan was unclean. It was filthy. It was filthy. It was unclean. It was not clean
like the rivers of Damascus. And his proud attitude was saying,
that's too dirty for me. You want me to get in that? I'm
cleaner than that river. I'm a leper, but there's some
good spots on me, too. I'm a sinner, but I'm not a total
sinner. There's some good in me. There's
a little good in everybody. No, there's not. Not only does Naaman have the
wrong attitude, he has all the wrong thoughts about everything.
He's all wrong. Everything about Naaman is wrong. He has the wrong thoughts on
worship. He has the wrong thoughts on how God operates. Verse 10
represents true worship. It says. 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. Isn't that our message? Every time we preach, we start
out bad. You don't have to get in Jordan. Oh, but if we do,
You will be clean. That's true worship. Verse 11
represents false worship, it says, But Naaman was wroth and
he went away and said, 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. He said, I thought I was going
to get to go straight up on stage to the man who's holding the
microphone in front of all those people. And I was going to tell
him my problem. And he was going to make a big
commotion to his God and wave his hand and strike over the
place. And I would fall out and be cleansed
of my sin. That's what I thought. Verse 12 says are not Havana
and far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the waters in
Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and
went away in a rage. The truth is offensive. It's offensive to natural man.
All of us by nature. Naaman represents all of us. The natural man rejects the truth
because it kills the flesh. It just kills the flesh. Everything
that we have, it kills it. It kills our works. It kills
our way, our methods. It kills our pride. It kills
our thoughts. And it forces a man or a woman
to say, I'm wrong. Everything about me is wrong.
It's all wrong. And Naaman, Not there yet, but
he's about to be. Verse 12 says, he turned and
went away in a rage. Verse 13 says, and his servants
came near and spake unto him. Naaman was going the way he wanted
to go. Away from the prophet. Away from
the man of God. I reject what I've heard. And
he's headed to destruction in a rage. He wasn't strolling away.
He was leaving. But God, he should have let him
go. He just should have let him go. I believe these service represent
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Go with me to, let's
read this, it says, 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? How much rather than when he
said to thee, wash and be clean. Now, this is the goodness of
our Lord. A parent to a child does not
have to explain himself. Child says why? The answer is
because I said so. But our Lord is so good. Go with
me to Isaiah chapter 1. Our Lord is so good. He's so patient with us. Just
so patient with us. Isaiah chapter 1. And look at
verse 18. He says, Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the Lamb. But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord
has spoken. Naaman was not willing and he
was not obedient. But God made him willing and
obedient, forced him to be, and then once he was, mercy came
to him. Come now, let us reason together,
let me explain this to you. Well, our Lord said, my sheep,
my rebellious sheep will hear my voice. I will speak to them. I'm going to speak to them. My
word is going to pierce their heart. I'm going to give unto
them the gift of repentance. Repentance, the actual definition
of repentance is a change of mind. That's what it says in
the concordance, a change of mind, a change of mind about
God. A change of mind about his holiness,
who he is, a change of mind about me, a change of mind about sin. Back in our text, verse 13 says,
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? How much rather then when he
said to thee, Wash and be clean. Wash and be clean. The word of the Lord pierced
Naaman's heart, it changed his mind and it made him willing
in the day of his power. Naaman was storming off. He was
mad. And I imagine he just stopped.
He just stopped. Changed like a light coming on. He got it. It's not by works lest any man
should boast. I understand that now. In my
hand, no price I bring. I'm saved by grace. I'm saved
by grace. I have one great need, and Jesus
Christ is made to be all I need. All I need. Christ is all I need. I believe He said, where is that
river? Where's that river? I've got to get in that river.
I must confess what I am before the God I've offended. Verse
14 says, Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in
Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. Seven times
is the number of perfection, the number of completeness, the
number of wholeness. I believe he hollered, I'm a
sinner. And then he plunged himself in
the river of sin. And then he came back up and
he said, I am a dead man. And he plunged himself in the
river of death. I am a leper. I am unclean. This is what I deserve right
here. God, be merciful to me. Lord,
save me, lest I perish. Verse 14 says, 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. Naaman didn't
deserve it at all. Not at all. But the Lord God
had great mercy on Naaman. Naaman had so much to be thankful
for. He had so much to be thankful
for. I'll show you why. Let's close
with Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Luke 4, verse 27 says, And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and
none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Just Naaman. It's God's grace. It's God's
mercy. It's God's choice. It's God's
work. Salvation really is of the Lord.
Oh, thanks be to God. May the Lord bless His Word.