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. 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. 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. 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 Israel 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, 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
is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover thee of 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, that this man doth send unto me to recover man of
his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeks 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, and 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. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and worship Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth, got so upset, so angry, and 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. Are not Abana and Parfar rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May not I wash
in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and
said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather, when he saith
to thee, Wash, and be clean! Then he went down and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God, and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little
child, and he was cleaned." I'm sure you all have heard this probably several times before
in your life. It's been years and years since
I've dealt with it. talking about Old Testament pictures
of Christ. We read this story of Naaman
and he's a leper. And it brings up two questions.
Could the waters of Jordan cure his leprosy? The answer
is no. No. Could Naaman be healed of
his leprosy? without going down into the waters
of Jordan. No. You know why this is this way?
The Lord is showing us here how He humbles a proud sinner. That's
what He's teaching us here. You know, He was humbling this
man. And whoever the Lord is pleased
to show his sovereign mercy. And this is a Gentile. You know
the Lord Jesus Christ said there were many widows in Syria in
the time of Elisha. But Elisha was sent only to one
leper, Naaman the leper. And they got upset with him.
They understood clearly. And so here he shows his sovereign
mercy in Naaman just like any of the rest of the sons of Adam.
We got the man has to be emptied. He has to be emptied. He has
to be humbled. Has to be brought down and understand
and acknowledge. Acknowledge, I'm telling you,
that salvation and mercy is the gift of God. And you can't deserve
it. And you can't buy it. And that's
what he's teaching us here, and that's what he's teaching everybody
that's ever read this lesson here. You talk about human thought. Name and thought. Simon thought. Scott Richardson
told me one time, said, I was thinking. He said, stop. He said, you get in trouble when
you do that. When you say, I thought. Human
pride. Oh, human pride. Human ways and
human works. God has to destroy them. He has
to destroy them and bring the sinner to where he submits to
the will of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. God resists the proud
and give us grace unto the humble. Our Lord Jesus come down off
a mountain one time and three lepers Three lepers came to meet
him. And the first word out of their
mouth after they fell down, Lord, if you will, if you will, you
can make us clean. They understood that as clear
as anything. And he said, I will be thou clean. And that's what I, and the name
is just the opposite to that. And I tell you when we go down
through here, we'll see how Naaman typifies sinners who God in His
sovereign mercy is pleased to save. Now Naaman, like a lot
of people, had many, many commendable traits. Human traits. But something was seriously,
seriously wrong with him that everything that he made and everything
he did and everything he accomplished made it useless. Made it absolutely
useless. Look there in verse 1. Naming
captain of the host of the king of syria Was a great man with
his master. Oh the king liked him thought
he was great and his honorable Because by him the lord had given
salve deliverance unto syria and listen to this he was also
a mighty man of valor But look that butt right there
but He was a leper. He was a leper. Oh, He is great
among men, honor and mighty and valor, but He was a leper. And
you know what that tells us? That disease and death flowed
through His veins, flowed through His body, through His veins,
incurable by human means. And I tell you there's a lot
of fleshly difference between men in this world. Some men are
wise. Some men are stronger. Some are
richer. Some are more honorable than
others. But all men have this one thing in common that makes
all they have and all they are and all they do useless. You
know what it is? Sin. All have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God. And I tell you, sin and death,
when we come into this world, sin and death was in us, it was
a disease in us, and it started growing in us, it's in our blood,
it's in our nature, and it was born in us, and I tell you what,
it flows through our veins, And if God don't do so, it's by nature
and by choice. And sin is like leprosy, it's
incurable by human means. It's incurable. The only thing
that will cure it is the blood of Christ. Oh my! Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, bless
His name. Our sinful nature, our sinful
nature makes even our righteousnesses as a filthy rack. One fellow,
Todd, was telling me today about a preacher, and they was talking,
and he said, well, I don't want to... got to talking about having
two natures and things, and he said, well, I don't want to give
anybody an excuse to sin. Todd said, well, that means that
you... You know, if you preach grace, then people are going
to see Him because you preach grace. He says that what... And
so that's what people are saying, you know. Listen, I sit in the
sleep. I don't have to get up. I wake up before my feet hit
the floor. People say, well, he got on the
wrong side of the bed. No, you don't care which side
you get out. Get in and I'll crawl out the
end of it. Getting in and out of bed has got nothing to do
with it. It's what we are by nature. That's all it took to get out
of bed and get back in. But that's what people say. They say, oh my. But I tell you,
even a man's nature makes our righteousness filthy rags. So
Naaman had lots of wonderful traits. But made everything he
was and had useless. He was a leper. Here's the next
thing about, I believe we'll see about Naaman. Down here in
verse 5. Now you know this maiden, this
maid of Israel, she told him to go see the prophet. See the
prophet. Well Naaman went to seek help.
But he took something with him. That won't help him at all. He
took the wrong things with him. Look what it said in verse 5.
And the king of Syria said, go to, get ready, go. Go and I'll
send a letter unto the king of Israel. Oh, it says kings and
kings. And he departed and took with
him ten talents of silver. That's a pile of silver. Six
thousand pieces of gold and ten chains of rabbit. Oh my. You know what that tells us?
He said, listen, I'm going to buy this thing. I'm going to
buy it. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to buy it. And so he was conscious of his condition
and hearing that there was possibility of healing when he got into the
land of Israel, he went with a letter of recommendation from
the king and he took gold and silver and presents for the king
of Israel. and he came to Israel to buy
to buy and wonder how many that's what that's what Simon the Sorcerer
said when he saw the Holy Ghost come by the slaying on of the
Apostles hands he said how much would it take for me to have
this gift and you know what Peter told him thy money perish with
you to think that thou the gift of God could be bought with money
and before and listen But you know, you look at today's religion.
Look at today's religion. They're all the time trying to
find favor with God. It's the way of natural man to
work. It's the way of natural man to
work. And if he don't work, he wants to do something to make
himself worthy, to find some merit in something that he's
done. He tries to earn salvation. But
our Lord Jesus said it this way. He said, there many will say
unto men that day, Lord, have we, Lord, Lord, have we not preached
in your name? Have we not cast out devils in
your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works in your name? And then the Lord said, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. And you see
they tried to find favor in talking about everything they did. Everything. They talked about
what they did. They didn't talk about what he
did. What they did. That's the difference between
grace and works. We talk about what Christ did.
We talk about what God did. And they want to talk about what
they've done. And that's what it is. You know they're trying
to make it. Instead of coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ as sinners with nothing, nothing in their hands. Men will come bearing their morality,
their works, their baptism, their church membership. And this is
why they'll say, I'm no worse than anybody else. That absolutely
means nothing. You ain't worse than anybody
else. So what? So what? Who are you comparing
yourself to? Oh my, Nehemiah was no more than
a leper than any other lepers. But he was a leper. And we're
sinners. And God's way of salvation is
Christ, in Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and because of
Christ, and Him alone. Huh? Everything God requires
of a sinner is fulfilled and accomplished in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him bodily, and we're complete in Him who's the head
of principalities and powers. God made us in Christ. God put us in Christ and made
Christ unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Everything you need is in Christ. Here he comes. Do you know what
it would take to pack a thousand pieces of gold? Gold is heavy. It's really heavy. You know,
I ain't never lifted none up, but I've seen people lift it
up. They say it's heavy. I've seen fake gold. I've seen
gold-painted coins, but I ain't never seen no real gold. Except
in somebody's tooth or something, maybe. I don't know. But anyway,
he took the wrong thing with him. And here's the second thing
he done. Third thing he done. He went
to the wrong place. He went to the wrong place. Look
what it says. He went to the... And he brought
the letter in verse 6 to the king of Israel, saying, Now when
this letter's come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent
Naaman, my servant, to thee that thou mayest, the king, mayest
recover him of his leprosy. He said, My letter and all this
money that I've brought and all these wonderful clothes that
I've brought they will take care of it that you may recover him
of his leprosy and oh my goodness the king of Israel just oh he
just what in the world is he trying to do to me am I God to
kill and to make alive that that this man sent me to recover a
man of his leprosy I think he's just trying to find some fault,
start a fight between us. So what he did, instead of going
to the prophet of God, that maid said, go to my wood that my master
was in Samaria, where the prophet of God is. Instead of going to
this prophet, he's told by that little maid, he went to the king.
And this prophet, listen to me, this prophet represents our Lord
Jesus Christ. He is our prophet, he is our
priest, and he is our king. And this prophet represents the
Lord Jesus Christ. And everything about him is.
You know, God who in sundry times and divers manner spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken by the Son, by His blessed Son. And so I tell you
what, you go to the wrong place with the wrong thing and that's
what happens. But salvation's of the Lord. You know where salvation
starts at? It started with God. It started
before God ever put Adam in the Garden of Eden. Well then if
he has a salvation that originated with him, how in the world is
this salvation that he's originated with him, how is he going to
come down here and execute that salvation that started with him?
So he sent his son. He said, you go down and accomplish
this salvation that I started with us in eternity. You go down
there as my lamb, as my son, as my servant, as my righteous
one, as God in flesh. You go down there and you accomplish
salvation. You execute this purpose that
I have. Then how in the world, that's
one thing for God to originate. It's another thing for God to
send his son to execute it. But how in the world are we going
to get it? Where are we going to get this salvation
at? It's already been executed. Where are we going to get it? We ain't going to get it like
Naaman did. We ain't going to buy it. How
are we going to get it? The same way God sent his son
to say, he's got to come and give it to us. He's got to come
and apply it to us. He said, you know our Lord Jesus
said, all that the Father giveth me, they're going to come to
me. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. So he
said, listen, I'll see that they have it. The Holy Spirit said,
I'll see that what you did, they'll have it. And He brought it. And
then once you get it, how are you going to keep it? Once you
get it, once God gives it to you, how are you going to keep
it? What are you going to do to keep this salvation? Well, if God originated, Christ
executed, it's applied to us. Don't you guess that what He
gave us, He's able to sustain it and keep it? And I tell you, one of these
days, just like it started, there'll be an end to it. And you know
what that end is? Perfection. Being one with Christ,
being in glory with Christ. Ah, salvation to the Lord. And
what, how foolish, how foolish is people to go to the Virgin
Mary, go to a priest, go to a preacher, go to the law, go to the church,
when the Lord Jesus Christ says, no man comes unto the Father
but by Me. Huh? If any man's thirsty, let him
come unto Me. Why do men, why do people look
to those who can't save, instead of looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ, to God himself in Christ. God said, look unto me, all ye
ends of the earth, and be saved. I'm a just God, and I'm a Savior. And besides me, there is no other
God. And then when Naaman finally
came to the prophet, He came with the wrong attitude. The
wrong attitude. Now look what it says here in
verse 8. 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. Now watch what happens here. So Naaman came with his
horses, not horse, with his horses and with his chariot, got out
of it, walked up to the door and stood there at the door of
the house of Elisha. Now you watch him getting out
of that chariot. Dressed, oh he's dressed, oh
he's dressed up. And he gets out of that chair
and he walks up there and crosses his arms standing there so proud.
Oh he was so proud. Stood up there proud right before
that prophet's house. Stood up there so proud. And
I tell you what, what he wanted to do is he wanted to be treated
as a great man who happened to have leprosy. When in reality
he was a leper who happened to be a great man. And Elisha knew
this fellow is so proud, this man is so arrogant. He didn't even come out of the
house. He never even got up out of his chair. That's why people, you know,
I hope I never do this. I want to be nice to people.
I want to be friendly to people. But I am not going to make over
people to get them to come to services. I'm not going to do
that. And that's what, we was talking to T and Judd
today. They said, you know, they, took
one of her uncle, he's gone now, but said took her uncle to the
services and said he wasn't interested in the gospel and then when they
was over asking him what it was to talk witness to him about
the gospel and he said oh that's fine for you but it's just not
for me and that's the way most folks are that's fine for you
but it ain't no good for me but when he came and Elisha seeing
his pride and arrogance You know what he said look what happens
now in verse 10 Elisha sent a messenger Go outside and tell this man
Go outside and tell this man saying go and wash in Jordan
seven times and thy flesh are coming to thee and thou shalt
be clean. Oh my He told him, strip off
your garb, strip off that earthly garb, strip off that garb of
glory that you got on, and you go down to the Jordan and you
get in that thing seven times. Seven times. Do you know how
this made them feel? What in the world? This fellow
is nuts. This man is crazy. Telling me
to go get in the old Jordan River. Old muddy Jordan. And that's
the way most men today. They want some special recognition. Oh, give them special recognition. They want special recognition.
People want special attention. They want the praise and honor
of men. Especially in their religious professions. They really do. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you know,
He says, you know, men, He told them, He said, you don't have
the love of God in you. You don't have it in you at all. But oh
my. People say, well, I may come
to your service one of these days. I don't know how many people
say that. They ask me, when do you have service? I tell them,
I may come out there one of these days. We're going to stand up and bow
to you when you walk in. Oh boy, they want us to act like,
oh please come, oh please come. Please make God feel good. Come
in here. If it's on Mother's Day, we're
going to give you a rose. If it's Grandmother's Day, we're
going to send you out to dinner. Because Grandpa Days, we're going
to figure out something to do with you. The youngest married couple,
stand up. We're going to give you a bouquet
or just anything to make people feel good. But oh my, pride. I read this in William Jay the
other day. He said, all my men want to have
pride of face. Oh, I'm somebody, I'm somebody. Then they like pride of race. Then they like, you know, Southern by birth, how's that
one thing? Born American, but Southern
by birth or something like that, you know, proud of place, you
know. And even pride and grace sometimes prevails. But we, sometimes
like Maiden Ammon, wanted to be treated as somebody that's
really great, who just happens to be sinners. Instead of what
we are, sinners who for a while have just a little status among
worms. What's one worm better than another
worm? None. And when God himself said
there's none righteous, you know what the rest of it says? No,
not one. That covers everybody, don't
it? And then look what Naaman thought here. Look what he thought
about, had wrong thoughts about mercy. Look what he said in verse
11. But Naaman was wroth. Oh, he
got so upset. He got so mad. And I've seen
this happen. I couldn't tell you the times
over this. He was angry and went away and said, Behold, I thought
I thought, I said within myself, He'll surely, He'll surely come
out to me. Do you see what that says? He'll
surely come out to me. Huh? And stand, make a big show of
prayer, make a big show of prayer, call on the name of the Lord,
then He'll just take His hand, like they do in this healing
service, Slap them. Knock them down. And slap them
real hard. And my leprosy will be gone.
Oh boy. He's going to come out and call
on God for me. You know what Nehemiah was trying
to do was preserve his own pride. Preserve his position. And Naaman's
way and God's way, they're as far apart as the poles are. Farther
apart than that. And I tell you what, God's way,
He's going to be the humble, this proud leper. And He's going
to turn around and give God all the glory for everything that's
going to happen. And salvation, salvation by God's
free grace. Salvation by God's three-foot
grace and through the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's offensive to a natural
man. It really is. To the Jew, it's a stumbling
block. I've got law. I've got Moses. I've got Abraham.
I've got the Fathers. I've got the Old Testament. Do you all see that funeral,
that woman, that judge that died, that justice that died, and see
all them, see that Hebrew woman get up there and sing in Hebrew,
read in Hebrew, sing the Psalms? And they didn't talk about eternal
life. They didn't talk about going into eternal life. They
didn't talk about salvation. They don't talk about anything
like that. You know why? Because to the
Jew, Christ is still a stumbling block. The cross is still a stumbling
block. And Christ is a stumbling block
to people who want to be saved by law. Reform people, that's
a stumbling block to them. And to that wise man, that man
that's got all this intellectual power and ability, when they
look at the cross and look at what Christ did and what we say,
you know what they'll say? Man alive, that's don't know
we got to have some philosophy. We got it something deeper than
that I tell you what, if you can get deeper than Christ and
deeper than the way God saves a sinner, and if you want more
than that, you're going to go, listen, dive in all you want
to because I'm not going anywhere besides this. Are you? That's deep enough for me. That's
more water than I... I can't swim in this gospel,
much less wade in it. And I mean it's just so glorious,
so powerful, so majestic that we just touch, every time I preach
and every time anybody else preaches, we just touch the hem of the
garment. But oh my, it's offensive. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts.
And our ways are not God's ways. Now you start thinking about
it. You start telling a man what an awful sinner he is and how
depraved he is and how he offends God by his very presence and
living. That offends man's dignity. Oh
my, you're surely not talking about me. You're talking about
everything has to come by revelation that God's got to make you see
it and bring it to you and show it to you or you can't get it.
Your brain cannot grasp this. I don't care how big it is. Einstein
could not grasp the Bible apart from God giving him a revelation.
They said, boy, that upsets a man's wisdom. And you talk about telling
that the only thing that will make you acceptable to God and
cleanse you from your sin is the blood of Christ that flowed
from that cross. It's the only thing in this universe
that God purposed to cleanse a man with. And it's red blood
that will take dark, dead, black sinners and make them as white
as snow in the sight of God. Now you figure that one out,
how he can take a black sinner put blood all over him and he
comes out snow white. Is that deep enough? Oh, God don't humble a man before
he'll ever save him. And here's what happens, he'll
either humble a man or he'll destroy him. He'll destroy him. And then finally, Naaman did
something right. He went down. Now look what it
says. And his servants, in verse 13,
said this. They got near to him and said,
Master, my father, if the prophet had told you to do some great
thing, you would have done it. Much rather when he said, then
just go wash, just go wash and be clean. Now look what these
next three, these three verses, this one verse says, then went
he down. Then went he down. He went down and dipped himself
seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God
and his flesh came again unto him like the flesh of a little
child and listen to this he was clean he got down off that high
horse Bowed to the way of God. You know why he became willing
to do that? Same way me and you was made
willing. In the day of God's power. God got him. God got him. And I tell you when God brings
his power to bear on a man, he'll quit lying. lying to himself,
lying to God, and lying to anybody else. He'll quit trying to save
himself, quit trying to do anything to save himself, and he'll never
ever try to buy anything from God anymore. He'll bow to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he'll acknowledge that everything he
has, that God gave it to him, and say, this is the gift of
God. And I tell you what, and that's the only way God will
ever save a sinner. And once he starts on that road,
and the fellow starts on that road, he don't ever want to get
up from where God put him, does he? Huh? No, God put you down,
that's where you will stay. That's where you... Don't get
up! I'm going to get up. No, no,
don't get up! Don't get up. Huh? Don't get up. Oh, what a
blessed, blessed gospel we have. Oh, what a blessed gospel. Our
Father, oh our Father, thank you for your precious word. Oh
how precious it is, how powerful it is, how blessed it is to our
hearts. Oh Lord, I can so identify with
this man. Oh Lord, and I thank you that
in your sovereign mercy, you came, you came, emptied this
sinner, emptied him, Emptied him brought him down
and Lord, please keep me down Don't let me be proud. Don't let me be self-righteous
Don't let me ever try to rob you of your glory Seek to honor
glorify myself in any way They will all be made that way for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen Reach out and touch
the Lord as he passes by. You know he's not too busy to
hear your heart's cry. He's passing by this moment your
need to supply. Reach out And touch the Lord as He goes
by.