Okay, we're in lesson number
10 on Elisha and his miracles in life. And this whole chapter
is such a good lesson on the grace of God. So we're going
to look at it in sections or compartments. We're just going to look at verse
1. We're just going to look at verse
1 to kind of build up And I know if you know the story, you know
the ending, so we'll just, I don't know how far it will be, two
or three messages, I don't know, but we're just going to look
at verse 1 this evening. 2 Kings 5 and verse 1, Now Nahum,
captain of the hosts of the king of Syria, was a great man, with
his master," that's the king, and honorable, because of him
the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty
man in valor, but he was a leper. But he was a leper. Let's name him. He was captain
of the host of the king. King of Syria. Now, the Syrian
army had conquered the Jews. So it's kind of odd how this
chapter starts out this way, speaking of a Syrian, not the
Jews. And the Jews were captured. And you could look at verse 2,
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 that's as far as we'll go
to kind of set that tone. But the point of the matter is,
is that these were the enemies of God. These were the enemies
of Israel. A great man, well-off, materially
and in order of rank. So let's just look at his qualifications.
Let's look at what the Scripture says and just look at his qualifications. It says, the first thing, he
was a captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was the
captain of the Syrian army. The number one person in charge
of many men. So, humanly speaking, you've
got to be smart or educated at least in the art of war. You
don't get to lead this army which is large if you're a ne'er-do-well,
whatever I want to phrase it. So he was captain of the Syrian
army. It says next that he was a great
man. A great man. And this word great,
it's a large usage. It's in any sense. That's what
the Hebrew is. This is in any sense. This man
was great. He was highly favored, specifically,
before the king. Because it says, he was a great
man with his master. With his master, the king. So
this Nahum was highly favored where favor mattered. You could
be highly favored in a blacksmith, and that may help you if you've
got animals to shoe and stuff like that. But this man was a
great man, specifically before the king, so he was highly favored
where favor mattered and with whom it mattered. Or I guess we could say in our
language, he hobnobbed with royalty. Now, he's a leper, but he's not
a leper in Israel. Israel had a whole different
set of rules. So, they may not have looked
at him the same. You can't say, okay, he was this and that and
he's got to be... We don't know that. According
to the law, which was just for the Jews, which we will not necessarily
look at, but in Leviticus 13 and 14, it had all sorts of things
which they were supposed to do. But now, this is a Gentile. This
is a Syrian. Thirdly, it says he was honorable. He was honorable. And the margin
on the reading of honorable is he was gracious or lifted up. He was gracious. He was accepted
in countenance. He was gracious, that tells me
he was kind and considerate towards his men and his fellow soldiers. Or as we would say, he'd be a
good boss to have. Anybody who's gracious would
be a good boss to have. Fourthly, it says, Because of
him, because of Naamim, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria."
Now, it doesn't mean that Naamim was accepted by God, in God's
eyes, but you know and I know that everything anyone, anyone,
lost or saved, sheep or goat, anything that anyone has is a
gift from God. That's just the fact of the matter.
He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He allows unbelievers'
crops to grow, or he doesn't. But whether we like to admit
it or not, everything that we have personally, and we know
this, and we're thankful, not as much as we should be, but
even the unbeliever, we see things that they have, it is a gift,
not of grace, It's a gift from God, and they do not acknowledge
it, whether it's acknowledged or not. It says He got the victory
even over, as I said, Jerusalem, specifically King Ahab of the
Jews. And then His army, and it says
in verse 2, they kidnapped its citizens for the use in Syria. That's what you did when you
went to war, if you were victorious. You've got the pillage. You've got the things that were
yours by right of war. And we know that Israel was up
and down, up and down, perhaps in a state of declension or a
state of rebellion, and the Lord says, I'm going to send the king
of Syria in, and he's going to take your king. So these things
happen to the just and the unjust. So what we see there is divine
providence in this statement. by Him, whether He acknowledged
it or not, by this man, Divine Providence makes use of any means
to honor God. and we see and promote substitution,
or to honor the Son in salvation. That's what this whole book is
about. It's about how God saves sinners. The substitutionary
work of Christ. And as we get into the story,
we're going to see it. We're going to see how that plays
out. Lastly, it says, He was a mighty man of valor. Great deliverance by Him, the
Lord. Of course, we know the Lord is
the first cause of all things. had given deliverance unto Syria,
specifically deliverance, he's speaking about deliverance over
his own people. And we saw in verse 2 how they
would, companies, and they'd bring away captives. Now this
girl looks like she'd be a good slave, this boy looks like he'd
be good out in the fields, and so they got him. So slavery's been around a long
time. But lastly, it says he was a
mighty man of valor, a mighty man in valor. That means he was
a powerful man of strength. And literally translated, a mighty
man of valor or a powerful man of strength. Perhaps he was resting
in all that he knew or he was in his own strength, in his own
power. Perhaps he was resting in his
strength, his wisdom, the fact that he was favored by the king,
that he was set up, he was well off. But, the last phrase, but, he was
a leper. This but, it ought to just shake
us to the core. This is a soul and body and mind
shaking clause, word, but, but, but, he was a leper, or in the
margin he was leprous. Now let me ask you this, as I
ask myself, do you think any private, in this army, the Syrian
army, or any person on the street that wasn't a man of war in Syria
would switch places with Nahum? No. Because back in the day,
leprosy was deadly. It don't cure. So do you think,
and we need to realize, we need to remember this. When we see
somebody who's much better off than us, And doing, it seemed
like, you know, David said that, you look at the wicked and they
didn't, they weren't as other man, they didn't, their stomachs
bulged out because they were always full, and everything they
touched was good profit and this and that. Let it go. If you don't know the gospel,
if you don't know Christ, they can have it. And we know that,
but we still yearn and pine for better and more. We need to be
content with such things as we have. So, he humanly, he had
it all. Is that what the believer says?
No, no, never. That's why this phrase, he was
a leper. Yes, he was valiant. Yes, he
was brave. Yes, he was gracious, kind, highly
favored by the royal family, but, sin. But, He was a leper. He had leprosy, but sin. This
story here sounds a lot like Adam in the garden, does it not?
He had everything. And then, as soon as he takes
that fruit, he blames it on his wife, and then he seeks a covering
of fig leaves. But now, if we look at this leprosy
as a type and picture of our sin, but now we are dead in trespasses
and sins. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians
chapter 4. We're alienated from the common
grace of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And turn with me
to Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. I think this sums it up very
clearly. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now,
that's probably morally correct, but spiritually we know it's
correct. We're born in trespasses and sins. We're dead in trespasses
and sins. We're born in sins. David said,
in iniquity did my mother conceive me. So that's, we could have
all this stuff. And we do want our children to
be successful. We do want our children to have
a good education. We do want this and we do want
that. But that's, that's only going to get them so far in this
life. And this life is, compared to
eternal life, you know, you can't even, it's just like a pinhead.
That's what we are interested in. That's what we are interested
in. If we were to look at Leviticus
13, chapter 13, chapter 14, we would see the terrible disease
of leprosy and how it was to be treated in the Israelites,
the Jews. But suffice it to say, it pictures sin dark and deadly.
How does it picture sin dark and deadly? Well, I've got several
thoughts. One, leprosy starts slow. You just don't get it and then
you're like in Leviticus, you look at it, you go to the priest,
if you think there's something, a little bit on the flesh, you
go to the priest. And you keep going back, keep
going back. It doesn't start, it starts slow. The unsuspecting
host, perhaps it's not that bad. And you know how us men do that,
something's not going right, wife says go to the doctor, go
to the doctor. I'm like, I got this. And then we go and then
it's blown out of proportion. Never think sin. Never, brethren,
is sin to be thought lightly of. It is the ruination of countless
souls, of our friends, of our neighbors, of our mothers, of
our daughters, of our children. Never think of sin, even though
it may... There's no such thing as little
sin. Secondly, leprosy spreads. And
the Scripture says sin is a reproach to any people. Evil communication,
says the Scriptures, corrupt good manners. It's not the other
way around. And Bruce has mentioned this
numerous times in Bible class. When you're with people of the
world, you begin to act like people of the world. It never
rubs off the other way. So we need to be careful that
we do not think lightly of sin because, as I said, evil communication,
as it's described in the Scriptures, evil communication corrupts good
manners. May we beware of this, all of us. I can take a little
bit of this, or I can do this, or I can miss this, or do that
or that. Be careful. Be careful. Sin is not to be played with.
It's like leprosy. Thirdly, leprosy tends to run
in families. This is according to the genetic
home reference. Did we not inherit Adam's transgression? The scripture says, in Adam all
die, and in Christ we have life. That's Romans 5. It tends to
run in families. And they're still, I was looking
at the contemporary figures and stuff, they still don't know
quite how to get a handle on this. Now apparently there is
a cure now, but it's treatment after treatment after treatment
after treatment after treatment. And even still, the death rate
or the case fatality rate of leprosy is nine percent. This is in 2015. Nine percent. Most cases in India and Africa. Talk to somebody over there and
tell them, well, it's no big deal. Fourthly, leprosy is a
state of living death. Until we are born again, we truly
are dead men and women, spiritually speaking. It's a state of living
death. Fifthly, according to the law,
the leper or leprosy was to be banished. Leviticus 13, 46. Don't
turn there. No exceptions. It didn't make
a difference if you were the king, if you were a priest, a
high priest, If you were the candle lighter, if you were a
singer of songs in the king's court, or if you tended the bushes
or shrubs, it didn't make any difference, there's no exception.
And we know out of Romans, the wages of sin is death, and eternal
separation from Jehovah God. Matthew 25, 46, separate them,
eternal separation. And sixthly, leprosy was a mark
of shame. though Nahum was all you could
ask for in person, yet this great leveler, this great humiliation,
it says he was a leper. It doesn't make any difference
how great he was. It didn't make any difference
if he was the best worker on in the shift. It doesn't make
any difference if he got double, triple promotions and nobody
else did. You look at that guy, are you going to envy that guy
if you know he's going to die? Probably. If you don't have leprosy,
he's got leprosy, he's going quicker. You're not going to
trade it. You're not going to trade it. And in Jerusalem, if you walk
by a leper, the leper himself, this is Leviticus 13, 45 and
46, the leper himself would have to yell, unclean, unclean, and
he'd throw dust in the air. What a humiliation that would
be. Seventhly, leprosy was incurable. Perhaps nowadays there's treatments
to slow it. But what my point is, is that
back in this day here, and it's a good picture of sin, neither
Reformation nor legislation can do anything. Education doesn't
help either. So you take all of human thought
and science and all this stuff that we, you know, we're so smart.
No, we're not smart. We're still lepers. Jeremiah
13, turn to Jeremiah 13, Jeremiah 13, verse 23, Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you, or can
you, also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Nahum was quite the fellow, quite the leader,
quite the person, quite favored, but he was a leper. Now, when I started this tonight,
I started with the introduction that this was a beautiful picture
of the grace of God and salvation. Turn with me to Luke chapter
47. Now we know in the story that He's going to be cured. Such a great lesson of the grace
of God. How is sin put away? And how
are sinners who are born this way in sin and leprosy, spiritually
speaking, how are they heaven bound? It's only by the grace
of God, the free electing grace of God. Luke chapter 4 and verse
27. And this is one of the things
that got our Lord Jesus Christ, they fumed. They fumed at Him. Okay, to give a little background, He's in Nazareth, okay? He's
in his own place where he was raised, where he was brought
up. And as custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
So they gave him the book of Isaiah, and he read the passage
where the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. He said, this day,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He closed the book,
he sat down, and he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all, verse 22, all bear him
witness and wonder that the gracious words would proceed out of his
mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? That's why
a prophet is not accepted in his own town. They expected him
to do the miracles and feed and help and do all these things
for his own people. But look at what he says. Verse 23, you'll say to me, this
proverb, physician, heal thyself, whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum do also here in thy country." And he said, "...verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country,
but I tell you of a truth." And verse 27, "...many lepers were
in Israel." Many of my own Israel. My own home place. And aren't
you supposed to be, humanly speaking, that's what they thought, aren't
you supposed to be more gracious to your mom and your dad and
your brothers and sisters? Aren't you supposed to be more
gracious to folks in Jackson? Aren't you supposed to be more
gracious? Aren't you sent to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel? Aren't all these things true? And look at what example
he uses, verse 27. Many lepers were in Israel. in the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them was cleansed. None of them was he sent to.
He went over. We sing that song, while on others
thou art calling, do not pass me by. Oh, God doesn't pass by
any. Oh, yes He does. Those who are
worthy, those who believe in their own free will, those who
don't need God, they can do this and they can do that. He had everything. But he was
a leper. In the time of Elias the prophet,
none of them was cleansed save for our illustration, save he
named them Assyrians. And look at what happens. And
all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath and rose up. and thrust him out of the city
and led him under the brow of a hill whereof their city was
built. They might cast him down headlong, but he, I love this,
being sovereign and complete control, passing through the
midst of them, went his way. None of them. That's one reason
why we ought to be so thankful that the gospel has found a place,
at least for now, in this place. Because there's churches on every
corner. There's churches on every storefront. And they're all saying the same
thing. God owes us something. I'm this. I'm that. I struggled. I'm poor. I'm poverty stricken. I'm this. I'm that. And they
always start off in the wrong place. We need to start with God. Turn
to Matthew chapter 8 and I'll close. This is how we need to approach
our God. And eventually, this is how Naaman approached Him. And when Christ was come down
from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, there
came a leper and worshipped Him. And he said, Lord, if You will,
it is all according to Your will, You can make me clean." And Jesus
put forth His hand and touched him and He said, I will be thou
clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. This is how Naamim, this is how
you and I, this is how any beggar in a dunghill is saved, is redeemed,
is by the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace. May we implore the
Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all sin. Bruce, would you close us?