Open your Bibles if you would
tonight to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. We'll be looking
at verses 1 to 14 tonight. Now the healing of Nahum is one
of the best known of all the wonders brought through Elijah
by God. Numerous sermons in the past
have been preached upon this narrative. Articles have been written on
this subject, and it brings forth a very striking picture of salvation,
of salvation. It portrays the condition of
man in his natural state and the leprosy which, nay him, is
afflicted with is a picture of sin. Leprosy in the Bible is
a picture of sin, and so we see Nahum, he's the captain of the
host of Syria, he's a great man, but he has leprosy. He has leprosy. And what that does is it pictures
us as sinners to the core. Leprosy infects all parts of
the body. When one gets leprosy, it infects
all parts of the body, and finally it hits the bloodstream, and
then it's over. Then the suffering becomes too
much for the body to sustain itself. So leprosy is a picture again
of sin. Leprosy covers the one who's
a leper, and these days they were covered with leprosy from
head to toe. It started off as just a little
scab, But in its final stages, there's a man in Matthew who
comes to the Lord. He's in the final stages because
his leprosy is full. So he's in the final stages of
his leprosy and he asks the Lord to cleanse him. And what does
the Lord say? He says, if thou will, Lord,
and he says, I will be thou clean. You know what? His leprosy was
gone just like that. Just the word of the master.
Oh my. And this picture of Nahum here,
this narrative of Nahum here, wonderful, wonderful story brought
forth and preserved by the Holy Spirit of God for us, for our
learning. I've always loved this story, ever since the Lord saved
me, it's just been incredible. It pictures also those who are
the objects of divine grace, so it pictures us in our sinfulness.
But it also pictures those who are objects of God's divine grace,
because there was many lepers in the land at that time. Many
lepers. But God chose to... He chose
to cleanse Nahum, a Gentile. What's that picture? That picture's
you and I, beloved. Hey, one who's outside the camp.
Oh my. So we're gonna see ourselves
in Nahum as objects of God's divine grace in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And his shed blood is, as with
the healing of Nahum, we see a picture of we who are born
again, washed in the blood of Christ. Washed, cleansed of all
our sins. How? Because we're dipped in
the fountain of blood, aren't we? There is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that flood lose all their guilty stains. That's us. That's us. It's wonderful. My, so the cleansing
of Nahum was going to picture us too, by divine grace being
cleansed from all our sins, all of them. Nothing left. We're
going to see, he's going to come out of that water clean, beloved.
He went in a leper, and he's gonna come out clean. We get
dipped in the blood of Christ, we go in a spiritual leper, and
we come out clean, beloved! White as snow. Oh my, it's absolutely
wonderful. Let's start in verse 1 here.
Now Nahum, or Naaman, Nahum, captain of the 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." So, Naaman's
a leper here, we see. He's a mighty man, isn't he?
He's a man of great stature, but he's a leper. And it was
probably a stigma to him. It might not have been to others
around him because, well, it would have been if he was an
Israelite, but he was a Gentile. He was a Syrian. So obviously
he was in the early stages of this because he was still able
to do things and do his job here. And look at the captain of the
host. He was the main fellow. He was the general. of the host
of the Syrian army. That's quite the spot. That's
quite the spot he's in. He's a great man with his master,
that being the king. The king. And honorable because
the Lord had given him deliverance unto Syria. And we see right
away in this text that Nahum is afflicted with a light form
of this disease called leprosy. which again did not prevent him
from performing his duties because we saw that he brought great
deliverance unto Syria again by the Lord, by the Lord. So he is performing his duties,
but he was concerned and lived in fear of this leprosy. Leprosy leads to death. Sin leads
to death too, doesn't it? Oh my. And he'd probably seen
lepers just degenerate in the state of the disease and thought,
that's going to happen to me. I imagine he had went to different
people, different doctors, tried to get a cure for this. There's
no cure then. You know, there's no cure for sin outside of Christ. There's no cure for sin outside
of Christ. Only in Christ can we be. Can we be cured from all
our sins? So he's in a serious incapacitating
state. He has no ability to heal himself. And he can't find anyone to heal
him. Because again, there's no healing for this disease at that
time. So his situation was serious. And it was all the more serious
because this picture is an antitype of the sinful nature of we mortals.
Again, leprosy is a picture of sin. It's a picture of sin. It's typical of sin, number one,
because leprosy is mysterious in origin. It's mysterious in
origin. Likewise, sin is mysterious in
origin. We're born with it. Our sin was
imputed to us, wasn't it? Because our father Adam had it,
and now we have it. It comes to us by nature. And
every one of us have it. We're born into this world. People
say, oh, look at that little baby. He's so innocent. Oh, that
little baby's a sinner. And he's going to prove it in
a few years when he starts screaming. Right? But we love him, don't
we? We love those little ones. Oh, my. And leprosy, like sin, was thought
of to be God's judgment in Israel. Well, we know our sin definitely
was God's judgment upon Adam and Eve. And every person on
this earth is now affected with sin. Remember how people went crazy
with the pandemic? This is a pandemic, beloved, been going on for 6,000
years right here. I made a message one time, the
pandemic is sin. That's what this is. It's incurable by man. Sin's incurable by man, isn't
it? Sin's only cured in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.
The seed of the woman. And leprosy is slight in the
beginning, It may at first appear on the skin as merely a swelling
or a scab or a bright spot, according to Leviticus 13, 2. It just appears
as a scab or a spot. And likewise, even though we
are born in a state of sin, we can again consider newborns to
be in a state of what we call innocence, although the truth
is we're all born into sin and we're all sinners by birth. Leprosy is painless in the beginning.
Painless, they say, in the beginning. It doesn't hinder the afflicted.
Nahum could still do his duties. And it allows those at the beginning
stages, it doesn't hinder them from following the normal pursuits
of life, which again we see in our text here. Likewise, little children afflicted
with sin are not even aware of its presence, are they? And neither
were we until the Lord revealed it to us. Were we aware of our
sin before the Lord saved us? No. We basked at one time in
what the scripture says, the pleasures of sin for a season.
Now we hate it. Now we hate it, although we're
still sinners. Leprosy is dangerous because
it may continue a long time without producing any ill effects. The
leper may even be lured into the thought that, hey, I'm going
to be healed. I'm going to be cured. It's gone. But then now the lingering in
the system will eventually manifest itself in a way that dashes away
all hopes of recovery. Likewise, we may think we will
not be overcome by our sin. People in their self-righteousness
think that, right? But it's the ever-lingering evil
in our nature. And it will eventually manifest
itself in a way that dashes all our hopes of recovery from it.
My, oh my. Leprosy is incurable. In the
times of the scripture here, today they can, if they catch
it early, they can cure it, if they treat it in the earliest
stages, but this was not the case in Nahum's day. It wasn't
the case in his day. And even today, the nerve damage
and the deformities caused by leprosy may not be reversible. Likewise, sin is incurable by
any means of man's doing. We cannot cure ourselves from
the pandemic of sin, can we? There's absolutely no way except
through the Lord Jesus Christ and his cleansing blood, which
again is pictured in that river when he said, go dip yourself
in that Jordan seven times. Seven being the number of perfection,
right? Go and do it. Oh my. Only in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ can we be cleansed from all our sins, just as Nahum
was cleansed from his leprosy. They're not a spot remaining
on us, beloved. But yet we're sinners. But yet
God sees us in Christ, clothed in that perfect, spotless righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he wove himself in his life and
in his death. Leprosy causes loss of feeling.
It damages the peripheral nerves, those outside the brain and the
spinal cord, to the point that the leper no longer possesses
the sense of touch. It's so debilitating. Likewise,
sin causes one to be eventually without
feeling, according to Ephesians 4.19, conscious-seared, without
feeling against it. Drinking it like water, Job says.
That's where we were when the Lord saved us. That's where we
were. Leprosy affects the whole body,
from the head, top of the head, to the bottom of the feet. It
affects the whole body, even inside too. It will cause hair
loss. It'll cause disfigurement of
the hands and the face. It'll cause sores to appear on
one's feet. It'll cause inflammation of various
body parts, the skin, the lymph nodes, the joints, the kidneys,
the liver, and the eyes. It causes damage, especially
to the nasal cavity, where sometimes noses just fall right off. It's
awful. It's horrible. Digits fall off
in the latter stages. Man literally rots from within. Causes blindness and rash to
skin. Again, even the falling off of
body parts, especially fingers and toes. Likewise, sin affects the body
from head to foot. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faints from the sole of the foot even to the head.
There is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores, they have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. That's how our sin is. Now what
did the, think of this too. So it said they're not being
bound up, right? What did the Good Samaritan do to that fellow
on the side of the road? And we know who the Good Samaritan
pictures. That picture's Christ. He bound up his wounds, put the
ointment upon it, right, take the pain away, bound them all
up, and took them to the hotel, or took them to the inn, and
said, charge it to my account, put everything on my account,
no matter how long he has to stay. You know what church is? Church is a hospital for sinners,
beloved. It really is. This is a hospital for sinners.
I'll tell you why. It is. It is. Amen. It's a hospital for sinners.
My oh my. And leprosy renders the afflicted
unclean. They had to go through town crying,
unclean, unclean in Israel if you had leprosy. You were actually
supposed to stay out of town. You weren't really even supposed
to go into town. But if you did, you had to cry unclean and people
would just scatter. So there's a separation there,
isn't there, even from the people. Oh my. Oh my. Sin causes separation from God.
Causes separation from God. Leprosy kills in its worst stages. Do you know it's often identified
as living death? Listen to this. Likewise, sin
kills, for the wages of sin is death. Also, the sinner is spiritually
dead and trespasses in sins, even while he's physically alive.
Walking dead. My, oh my. Do you see all the
parallels? The picture, how clear of a picture
it is? The leprosy picture sin? Let's
read verse one again and see how God, here's a little thing
I found, a little nugget I found in here. Look at this in verse
one. Now Nahum was a 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. Note the words here. Because
by him, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty
man in valor, but he was a leper. Note those words. Here we see,
we see God's sovereignty at work. This man was not saved at the
time, but the Lord used him. The Lord used him, look at that.
Because by him, the Lord, the Lord used him. By him. But who was the power behind
it all? The Lord. He's sovereign. See, he does. This is a scripture
that we can look at and say, look, God does whatever he wills
and uses whomever he wills, right, to have his plan and purpose
accomplished, right? Remember he raised up the Greeks
and they went all the way to India and then he raised up the
Romans and they paved roads and then the gospel spread like wildfires
because they kept the Greek language, the Romans did. The whole New
Testament written in Greek. Whoosh, down it goes. All by
God. Those men weren't saved. They
were building them roads. They had no idea. We're building
these roads so our legions can travel. God's got a purpose behind
it all. Isn't that amazing? Think of
the internet, too. We got the internet, right? People
say, oh, there's so much bad stuff on the internet. Yeah,
there is. But look at the sermons going out. Look at the messages
going out all over the world. Look how you got information
at your fingertips, too. If you want to know about something,
you just, right there. But more so for me, the most
important thing is the gospel going forth. It's opened an avenue
that we're reaching countries that we could never reach before.
We're reaching places that we could never, all because of the
Lord using it. The Lord is the one behind it
all. You see? It's his church. It's his message.
And Christ is his elect. He's a set one for his people. My oh my. So look at that. Because
by him, the Lord had given deliverance into Syria. And think of this
too. Nahum didn't know. He's the sheep
of God. He's got no clue. He's dead in his sins at this
point. He's got no idea. But what's God going to bring
him over? All the way from Syria. And here we go again. We're going
to see why. How was he brought over from
Syria? Well, there's a little maid that happened to be captured
by the Syrian raiders. And just happens to end up in
Nahum's house. No, it doesn't just happen, does
it? It's all by the providence of God, beloved. And this is
amazing. We can even see it in our own life. You look below
it, you can just see, you just see that weaving. Oh, it's just
glorious. Look at, look at your life. Go
back and look at your life in that sense where you just see
the Lord. He's just at work. He's moving you from this situation
to this, to this, to this. Sometimes I'm going to get way
out of this trouble, and I'm going to put him over here. Right? No, but there's things that we
could have done that would have ruined our lives, but he prevented
us from them. He prevented us, beloved. Isn't
that wonderful to be where we are right now? It's amazing.
Oh, amen. It's amazing. So we see here
the scriptures that Nahum's a great man with his master and honorable
because by the Lord, by him the Lord had given deliverance into
Syria. And this teaches us that there
can be no success in any sphere of life unless God gives it,
unless he gives it. My, for the way of man is not
in himself, the scripture says. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Who directs our steps? The Lord. The steps of a good man, and
the only way we're good is in Christ, no other way. Steps of
a good man are ordered by the Lord. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. My, oh my. And this brings to remembrance,
except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. That build it. Because it's evident
that when God bought the lot, the lofty ambitions of those
erected in the Tower of Babel, right? Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh in vain. Psalm 127 and 1. Think of Belshazzar. Remember
him? He discovered that the Medes
surprised them and overcame them and captured all of Babylon. He didn't see it coming, but
God knew it was gonna happen. Oh my. Now let's read verses
two to four. 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 Nahum's wife. So
they had sent out raiders, raiding parties. That's what they had
done. They used to do that all the time. They'd send out raiding
parties. And they'd capture people. Now Israel right now at that
time was their enemy. So they had sent out raiders. companies, and they bought away
captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited
on Nahum's wife. Kind of like how Joseph ended
up in Potiphar's house. Right? All by the providence
and sovereignty of God. We are right here tonight, you
and I brothers and sisters, we are right here tonight by God's
doing. He's got us right where he wants
us. Isn't that wonderful? That's absolutely wonderful.
I'll tell you what, absolutely wonderful. Look at this, a little
maid though. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God, my lord, she's obviously a believer, she says, Would God,
my lord, with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover
him of his leprosy. Namp didn't have a clue who this
guy was. And wouldn't have unless God sent that little maid, right?
Look at that. Look at how God is, again, so
he used Nahum for a great victory. Now he's using this little maid
to tell Nahum about the prophet Elijah. And one went in and told his
Lord, saying, thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
She said, you need to go see that prophet. He can recover
you. She knew he was a sent one of
God. She knew. And we see by God's
providence a little maid being captured by the Syrians, and
now is a little maid for Nahum's wife. And he was an honorable
man, so I would presume that he was a good owner of the slaves
that he had with him, that he probably treated them right. Because she just willingly gives
us information, too, doesn't she? She doesn't say, oh, let
him die. No, she's got concern for him.
She's overheard them talking, probably, about his leprosy,
and probably heard about how nothing's helped him. And here
the Lord puts this on her heart to say, it's all of God, isn't
it? It's all by his work. Now Nahum was one of God's lost
sheep, and he didn't have a clue. That's a picture of us before
the Lord saves us. We don't have any clue. We're
going to other places to try to gain merit and salvation,
and God sends one of his little messengers. Oh my. He was one of the lost
sheep. He didn't know God, but in his
providence, God sent this little maid to his house. And she tells
Nahum's wife about Elijah the prophet and how he could recover
from the leprosy. He can heal you. Because she
knew God was the one doing the healing, see? Elijah's just an
instrument. God's the one going to do the
healing. Truly, our God moves in mysterious
ways, his wonders to perform, doesn't he? He really does. And
we see here how this narrative sets forth the power of God and
the sovereign control of God on so many levels. He is over
everything. Stuff we might think means nothing,
he's over it all. He's over it all. How much more
does he watch over us then? Who are his loved ones from eternity? How much more does he watch over
us? Let's read verses five to seven
now. And the king of Syria said, go to, go to, and I will send
a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with
him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 charges
of raiment. He would give all that to whoever
could heal him. But God don't need money, does he? We don't contribute a dime to
our salvation. We don't pay for our salvation.
It's impossible. What shall profit a man if he
gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man
give in exchange for his soul? There's nothing. There's no amount
of money. Even if we were the richest people
in this physical world, nothing that we would have could purchase
our salvation. But yet now we're the richest
people in the world. based upon nothing we did, all because of
what Christ did for us. That's amazing. See, the world's
got it upside down. It chases treasures, it chases
the things of the world, and we just look to Christ, the one
who did it all, the one who saved our eternal souls, beloved. My,
oh, my. And he bought the letter to the
king of Israel, saying, now when this letter has come unto thee,
behold, I have therewith sent Nahum, my servant, to thee, that
thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. Now Nahum went to the
wrong person. He went to his king first, didn't
he? Instead of going to the king. And so what does his king do?
His king writes a letter to the king of Israel and says, you've
got to recover him. But wasn't the one that the maiden
said, Elijah? Didn't tell him to go to the
King of Israel, did he? She said, go to Elijah. You don't need
to go to the King of Israel. He can't do nothing. See what
happens when we go to men and follow the priest or men. They
can't do nothing. Nothing. Now this King of Israel,
he had some knowledge, because look what he says here. And it
came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that
he ran his clothes and said, am I God? I'm not the Almighty. No, no, there's only one. There's
only one. There's only one God. Look at
this, to kill and make alive. He says, I, yeah. And then he thinks, I'm being
trapped. Because they're enemies, right?
He's thinking, oh my. that this man does send me to
recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me." So right away he
gets a suspicious mind. No, the king of Israel, he doesn't
know, or the king of Syria obviously doesn't know that he was supposed
to go see Elijah. He probably just said, well,
I need to go to Israel. He said, well, I'm going to hook you up
with the king then. He'll get you anywhere. Oh, my. Didn't listen. Didn't listen,
did he? My, oh, my. So the king of Syria sends Nahum
with a letter to the king of Israel along with gold, silver,
fine clothes as a gift to whoever could recover him. And the king
of Israel considers this a trap. Again, we see verse 7. Am I God
to kill, to make alive, that this man doth send me to recover
a man of his leprosy? Or, for consider, I pray you,
and see how he maketh a quarrel against me." Again, the king
of Israel, he ascribes life and death to the true king. To God
and God alone, right? He says, am I God? No, I'm not
God. Only God has power over life and death. Only God has
power to cure. My, oh my. And then, So he proclaims, knowing that
he's just a mere man, he can't do nothing about Nahum's condition.
Now let's read verses 8 to 10. And it was so when Elijah, the
man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
and 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. Send him to me. Send him to me,
my king. So Nahum came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
Now I imagine there was a bunch of men with him too. This is
the captain of the Syrian host. He wouldn't just come by himself.
He's going to have an entourage. He's going to have some soldiers
gathered to protect him. So Nahum came to the house with
his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elijah.
So here he comes, he's just standing there. Imagine, he's probably
standing there pretty proud. This is the captain, the host
of Syria, man. I tell men to do this and they
do that. I tell men don't do that and
they don't do that. My oh my. And Elijah sent a messenger. He didn't even show up himself. He didn't even show up himself.
Elijah sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in the
Jordan. So he doesn't even face him. He doesn't even face him. He sends a messenger and says,
go and wash in the Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come
again to thee and thou shalt be clean. doesn't even give him
the time of day. Tells the king, send him to me,
and he just sends a messenger to the front door. Now how do
you think Nahum's gonna feel? Oh man, he can be madder than
a wet hornet like we used to say in Canada. He is gonna be
ticked off. And Elijah, Hears about the renting
of the king's clothes and then he sends to the king a message
to let Nahum come to him. And we see that in verse 9. Nahum
comes to the house of the prophet, Elijah. And what we see in verse
10 is absolutely amazing. The prophet of God tells Nahum
through a messenger to go wash in the Jordan seven times. Again, he doesn't even come out
himself. He just sends a messenger. Now think of it. This is a man
of high ranking. He would expect to speak face to face with this
so-called prophet. He's a man who demands respect
because of his office and because of his accomplishments. But see,
Men of God, we're told not to esteem anyone better than ourselves,
or we're to esteem others better than ourselves, but we're not
to vault men up. We're not to have favorites. We're to meet every man on the
same level, right? That's why I said I love that
there's no cliques in our church. We're all the same. We're all just one group of sinners
saved by the grace of God, aren't we? That's what we are. Oh my. And think upon this. Our great God sends his messengers,
doesn't he? He sends his messengers to tell
sinners. Just like this man and his leprosy.
He sends a messenger. He says, tell just like this
man and his leprosy, because leprosy is a picture of sin.
And those sent men, what do they do? They tell sinners where they
can be cleansed. Where they can be cleansed, amen.
Praise God. It's all his doing. Isn't it
amazing? He tells sinners to go dip yourself
in the fountain. You hear me say that? Flee to
Christ. Dip yourself in the fountain of His blood. And by God's grace,
you'll do it. But only by God's grace. And
when you flee to Christ, you will be forgiven of all your
sins. And this poor sinner, my whole
duty is to tell other sinners where to find bread. There's
the fountain. Look to Him. There's the King. There's the only Savior of sinners,
and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. My, turn if you would, turn if
you would to Colossians chapter 2. Oh my, we can only be cleansed
by the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
do you know, beloved, we are complete in Christ. That means
you can't add nothing. Yeah, complete in me, amen. We're
complete in Him. Look at this. Colossians chapter
2, we're gonna read verses 8 to 15. Beware, so be aware of this,
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ. So they will tell you salvation's
in everything but Christ. My, oh my. For in him, look at
this, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye,
that's us right now, you David, you Zane, me, let's say, are
complete in Christ. That's it. That's God's word
telling us that. That's not my opinion. That's not your opinion. That's
God's Word telling us we are complete in Christ. And in the
Greek, that means you can't put another drop in it. It's done. Complete in Christ. in whom ye
are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, born again,
there it is, born again, and put not the body of the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in
baptism, wherein ye also risen with him through faith of the
operation of God. See, salvation's an operation
of God. It's not man's works. It's an operation of God. You
can't buy it. You can't merit it. It's an operation
of God, beloved, strictly by him. Look at that. through the
risen through the faith of the operation of God who has raised
him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins,
that was our state, right? In the uncircumcision of your
flesh, we were lost, dead. Walking dead ones, right? Hath
he quickened, born again. Together with him, heaven forgiven
you what? All trespasses. All, nothing
left. The lamb paid it all. Oh, my. Blotting out. That's whitewashing
in the Greek. Whitewashing. There's nothing
left. It's gone. You can't even see them anymore.
Blotting out the transgression that was against us. And they
used to, when they had a criminal in the jail cell, they would
have a list of all the things that they'd done. Imagine how
long ours was. Oh, so long. Blotting out. All those, all those offenses,
beloved. No, rejoice. All those offenses,
blot it out. Blot past, present, and future. Blot it out. Blot it out. My. Blotting out the handwritings
that was against us. Oh, they were against us. The
law of God demanded our death. Christ died for us. Guilty, it
said, yep, those ordinances, guilty, you're guilty, Wayne.
And the blood of Christ says, forgiven. Paid in full. My, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinance that was against us, that was contrary to us and
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made an open show of Satan and
his minions. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it. See, our Savior's a triumphant
Savior. He accomplished what He was sent to do. My, oh my,
He's a successful Savior. He's not a Savior wringing His
hands, waiting for us to do all, He's done all He can. No, that's
a fake Jesus. This Jesus, our Jesus, the Jesus
of the Bible, is a successful Savior. I told someone yesterday,
or Monday, I was talking to him, and I said, you know what, or
yesterday I was talking with a lady who don't know Christ,
lost in Catholicism, and I was talking to her with a friend
of mine, and I said, you know what, you're looking at a man
who's totally forgiven of all his sins by nothing I have done. She looked at me like, what?
I said, nothing I've done, all what Christ did. He paid for
all my sins. That's the message of the gospel,
isn't it? Right? He paid it all. My, oh my. Now let's read verses 11 and
12. We see natural man's response to the messenger of the prophet.
So Elijah sends this messenger. Messenger says, okay, you go
to the Jordan, you dip yourself seven times and you're going
to come out cleansed. So now we're going to see in
second Kings chapter five, verses 11 and 12, we're going to see
natural man's response to that message. Right? Natural man's response to the
gospel. But Nahum was wroth. He was angry. Oh, he was so mad. And went away. He left. He left. And said, behold, I thought he
will surely come out to me. I'm a man of high ranking. I'm a man of authority. I thought
he'd at least come out and talk to me. See? His pride is wounded, isn't it?
Just like all of us. We heard the gospel. Oh man,
I don't want to hear that anymore. Telling me I'm a sinner? I ain't
no sinner. Oh yes you are. Oh my. He was wroth. I thought he would 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.
I thought he was going to do all these wonderful things, these
signs. Did not the Jews require a sign? They had God in the flesh
right before. Oh my gosh. Oh. He says, are not Abana and Farfar
rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Our
rivers are way better. Now he's getting some national
pride here. Our rivers are all better. It's like an American going to
Canada and saying, our lakes are way better than these lakes
up here in Canada. Well, your lakes are beautiful
too. So is Canadian lakes, right?
But you see, it's national pride, right? It's pride. His pride
is now bubbling out even more because he's so angry. He's mad. And when we're mad, we speak
rash things, don't we? We speak rash things. But the
true nature is coming out, isn't it? His true nature is coming
out. Oh, yeah. May I not wash in them
and be clean? Nope. No, you can't. So he turned and went away, and
look at this, in a rage. Now this is a man of authority. I'll tell you why. He's liable
to take somebody's head off. He's so mad. He's so mad. So what's happening before us?
Well, the Lord's humbling a proud sinner, beloved. And we will see that the Lord
was pleased to show Nahum his sovereign mercy and his sovereign
grace to this Gentile sinner. But Nahum, like any son of Adam,
must be emptied of himself. He must be humbled. He must be
bought to understand and acknowledge that salvation and mercy is a
gift of God, which is neither deserved, merited, or bought. Nahum reacted in anger because
of his fallen human thought and his pride. And because he had
a dead nature. Beloved God, human ways and human
works must be destroyed. And the sinner must submit to
the will of God. And the time that happens is
when we're made willing in the day of God's power. Listen to
this in Matthew chapter 8. It says, when he was come down
from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, speaking of Christ.
And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou will, thou can make me clean. Now here's a leper coming.
He's got nothing. He's going to die. He's been
emptied of his pride. He's been humbled by God. He
says, Lord, if thou will, thou can make me clean. And the Lord
put forth his hand and touched him. Oh, a touch. He touched
him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. That's what he'd done to you
and I, beloved. I will be thou clean, Zane. Oh my, it's magnificent,
isn't it? Absolutely magnificent. Now let's
read verses 13 to 14. So he's off in a rage. He leaves,
and he's in a rage. Now, of course, his servants
follow him, right? They all follow him. Whoever's with him is going
to follow him. Look at this. And his servants
came near and spake unto him and said, my father. His servants are saying that
to him. They must have really loved him, beloved. They're calling
him my father. If the prophet had bid thee to
do something, some great thing, would thou have done it? So they're
asking, you know, if he told you to jump up and down 20 times,
would you have done it? If he told you to do some great
thing, like go and slay a wolf or go and slay a lion, would
you have done it? How much rather, when he said
to thee, wash and be clean. Simplicity. Look to Christ and be saved.
All the ends of the world. Simplicity. Not something you do. Not something
you do, but what God commands. See, Elijah's just a messenger.
He's just a messenger for God. And that messenger that Elijah
sent to Nahum, he's just a messenger for Elijah. Then he went down. He submitted. He's been humble, hasn't he?
Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in the 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. Oh, what a miracle. Look at that,
just like that. Imagine he come out of that water
the seventh time, and he was just white as snow, or cleansed. He was a Syrian, so he had darker
skin. So he come out, though, just cleansed of all his leprosy.
All his leprosy gone. Now, could the waters of Jordan
cure leprosy? No. No. Could Nahum be healed
of his leprosy without going down in the waters of Jordan?
No. Because that's what God had commanded, right? But the water
in itself had no cleansing power, did it? No. Trust and obey, yeah. Then what
do we have here before us? Well, let us consider the following
points and we'll see how Nahum typifies sinners whom the Lord
is pleased to save. Number one, Nahum had many commendable
human traits, but something was wrong. He had leprosy, which
was gonna kill him. And that made everything he had
and everything he was useless. Couldn't save him. He couldn't
cleanse him. He's a wealthy man. None of that
wealth could save him. He could go to thousands of doctors
that couldn't heal him. Spent all he had. Remember that
woman? She spent all she had. She said,
if I but just touch his garment. Oh, if I just touch his garment.
Just a touch. Again, a touch, right? Remember the leper? And
he touched him. Just a touch. Oh, my beloved,
just a touch. So he was a great man. No, he's
honorable and mighty and valiant, but he's a leper. And disease
and death flowed through his veins. And it was incurable by
human means. And there are fleshy differences
among all men. Some are wise. Some are strong.
Some are rich. Some are poor. Some are more
honorable than others. But all men have one thing in
common. Sin. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23. Sin and death are
within us by nature. We sin by birth, nature, and
choice. And it's incurable by human means. We cannot cure ourselves
from sin. Just like a leper couldn't cure
themselves from leprosy. And still can't even. They have
to go to the doctor even now. Our righteousness is just like
filthy rags before the Lord. Number two, Nahum sought help,
but he took the wrong things with him. Being conscious of
his condition and healing, that there was a possibility of healing
in the land of Israel, he went forth with a letter of recommendation,
and he went to the king of Israel. And that letter came from his
employer, right? The king of Syria is his employer. And he sent gold, silver, raiment,
presents for his benefactor. You know, he came to Israel to
buy deliverance. He found out it was free. He found out it was free. Now,
before we judge Nahum too harshly, let us examine today's religious
attempts to find favor with God. They're no different. They're
no different. Is it not the way of natural
man to work, merit, or try to earn salvation by their own doing?
It is. And we were all there. Zane,
you and I have had many talks about that, and Dave, too. We
were all there. Instead of coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ's guilty sinners with nothing in our hands, in
our natural state we come bearing our morality, our works, maybe
our baptism, maybe our church that we belong to. And you know what we say in our
hearts? We say, I'm no worse than any
other. But we don't think we're sinners. And Nahum was no more a leper
than any other lepers, but he was a leper. And we are sinners
by birth, nature, and choice. And God's way of salvation is
Christ and Christ alone. All that God requires and all
that a sinner needs is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and
nowhere else. You cannot find it anywhere else. And Nahum went to the wrong place,
number three. Instead of going to the prophet,
as he was told by the little maid, he went to the king of
Israel. The maid didn't tell him to go to the king of Israel.
She said, go to Elijah. But see, he's a man of high standing. He's been in the presence of
kings. He's the captain of the host, of the Syrian host. He
has entrance into the king probably any time he wants. He's a trusted advisor. And the prophet of God represents
Christ. Elijah is a picture of Christ, who is our prophet, priest,
and king. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origin, in its execution, in its application, in its sustaining
power, and in its ultimate perfection. It's all of the Lord. There's
nothing we do. It all comes by his power. And
we ask, why do men look to those who cannot save? instead of looking
to Christ. Because natural man doesn't want
to look to Christ. They say, we won't have this
man rule over us. But if God ever gets a hold of
them, and if they're his sheep, he
will. If they're his lost sheep, he's going to get them. He will
make them well in the day of his power. Oh, my. When Nahum finally came to the
prophet of God, he came again with the wrong attitude. We saw
that, didn't we? We see him stand proudly outside the humble dwelling
of Elijah. I don't imagine Elijah's place
was very big. Scripture doesn't say, but he
comes to the dwelling of Elijah, and we see by his angry response,
he wanted to be treated as a great man. I thought he'd come and
talk to me. No. You're just one worm dressed
up a little bit more than all the other worms, in God's eyes,
right? You know what it is when one
sinner thinks he's better than the other sinner? Henry Mahan
used to say, that's a guy with sunglasses on. That's one maggot
wearing sunglasses going, I'm better than you. I always liked
that analogy. It's so true, isn't it? Oh, he wanted to be treated like
a great man who happened to have leprosy. But in reality, he was
only a leper who happened to be a great man. See the opposite? And Elijah
knew his pride and arrogance, and he wouldn't come out to meet
him. He wouldn't come out to meet him. But he instructed him
to strip off, think of this, all his earthly garments. He's
going to go naked in there. stripped off everything that,
all those earthly garments off, take them all off. You know why? Because our righteousness is
like filthy rags, beloved. We got to come to God. Just as we are sinners, sinners. He instructed him to strip off
all his earthly garments, and to wash in the muddy waters
of the Jordan seven times. How this pictures how we must
come to Christ stripped of all our human merit and all our filthy
works, all our supposed goodness before the Lord. They are nothing
to him. They are nothing to him. Now
the way Elijah told him to be cleansed was very degrading to
name. Again, he's a great man. He's the captain, the host of
the Syrian army. He's a great man. That had been
degrading for him. Strip off everything you have
and go into that muddy water and dip yourself seven times
and you come out cleansed. My, there's nothing new under
the sun, is there? Nothing new under the sun. Sinners
today want special recognition, special attention, and the praise
and honor of men, even in their religious professions. Pride of position, pride of place,
even pride of grace prevail. Let us not be like that, beloved.
Let us not be like that. We, like Naaman, want to be treated
as great ones who happen to be sinners instead of what we are,
sinners who, for a while, have certain status among worms. That's
from Brother Henry. Let us remember the rock we were
hewn from. Let us remember the quarry that God dug us out of.
It's the quarry of humanity. We all come from the same place,
don't we? Oh my. Number five, last point, Nahum
had wrong thoughts about mercy. He said, I thought he'd surely
come out on me and call on God and do all this wondrous things.
He had the wrong view of mercy, didn't he? Nahum's way, which was, would
preserve his pride and position, remember that too. It wouldn't
have been humiliating to him. It would have preserved his pride
and his position. He had to be brought low like
all of us. Nahum's way and God's way, which
again is to humble the proud leper and give God all the glory,
were polar opposites. Salvation by free grace through
the righteousness in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is offensive
to natural mind. It wounds their pride. Because
in our natural state we're enemies with God in our minds by wicked
works. And our thoughts are not God's
thoughts. Our ways are not God's ways. And the preaching of the
total depravity of man offends man's dignity, offends man's
pride. And divine revelation offends
man's wisdom. And the blood of the cross offends
man's pride. But God will humble us before
himself, or he'll destroy us. Look at verses 13 to 14 again. 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 then, when he said to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then
he went down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. And
according to the saying of the man of God, This is a miracle
of God. And his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child. And he was clean. Turn, if you would, to Matthew.
Matthew chapter 5, beloved. Oh, we see that Nahum finally
did something right, didn't he? He went down to the river and
did as the prophet Elijah commanded him. Beloved, he came down off
his high horse. He was humbled before God. And
he bowed. Now think of this too. By doing
that, he bowed to the way of God. He bowed his knee to the way
of God. And when sinners are ready and
made willing to quit lying, trying, and buying salvation, and simply
bow to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive salvation as the
free grace of God and the free gift of God, they will be saved.
God's never turned away one who's come to Him. Never. Look at Matthew
chapter 5 here, verses 3 to 6. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh, we're poor in spirit,
beloved. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. We mourn over our sins, and we're
comforted by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. meek is quiet
strength. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, whose righteousness for us, Christ,
for they shall be filled. Now turn over to Matthew chapter
9, we'll close with this. We'll read verses 10 to 13. Matthew chapter 9, verses 10
to 13. Look at this. I'm so thankful for this first
verse too. It's going to tell us he sat
with publicans and sinners. Praise be to God. Right? And
it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold,
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his
disciples. Can you imagine that? I'm talking about, you're talking
publicans there. You're talking about those most despised ones
because they collected taxes. taxes for the Romans. And then
sinners. Sinners like you and I, guys.
Sinners. Sinners to the core. These sinners,
the Pharisees, look, they're just a bunch of sinners. Right? Well, praise God, Christ is in
the midst of the sinners. He's not in the midst of the
publicans, is he? I mean, he's not in the midst of the Pharisees,
is he? He's in the midst of the publicans and sinners. sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to the disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? See, they were so self-righteous. They were so full of pride. You
ever met religious people like that? Oh, yeah. Oh, we got them
all over, don't we? They don't think they're sinners.
Oh, we're just safe sinners, beloved. Why does he sit and
talk with them publicans and sinners? Because some of them
is his lost sheep. Right? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician. Oh, you
guys, you think you're okay. You think you don't need any
cleansing. That's what he's telling them. Now he's a great physician,
right? He's saying, you don't even think you're sick, and yet
you're soul sick. You're sin sick. They don't even know it. They think they're perfectly
fine. Remember what Paul said? He said before the Lord saved
him, he thought he was blameless before the law. That's how these
fellows felt. Yet they broke in every law.
They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. Are you
sin sick? This is a sin sick saved preacher preaching to you. Saved from all my sin. Oh my. Look what he says. But go ye
and learn what that meaneth. Go and learn what it meaneth.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Look at that. For I am come not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Praise be to God. Brother Dave, can you close us
in prayer?