2nd Kings chapter 5. Enjoyed
that song. Like the very last few words,
I believe that would probably be the desire of every preacher.
That God may feed hungry sheep through me. God does feed His sheep. This
morning, remember, we made reference in Luke chapter 4, where our
Lord used two illustrations from the Old Testament to picture
and display His sovereign grace and mercy toward unworthy sinners.
Remember, He said there was many widows in Israel in the days
of Elijah the prophet, but none of those widows in Israel were
ill. with that one widow, Gentile
widow, unlikeliest, unworthy, Gentile dog, and God showed her
mercy. And then this second one, he
said, there was many lepers, many lepers in Israel in the
days of Elisha the prophet, the prophet that came after Elijah,
and none of them was healed except Naaman. They understood exactly what
he said, that God is sovereign in his grace and in his mercy. And they could not stand it.
But I rejoice tonight that God is sovereign in everything. And why did God show mercy to
you? Why did God send a prophet to your house? Why did God cleanse you of leprosy? Why? We never get over being
amazed at God's grace. Amazed, amazed. So let's look
at this story in 2 Kings chapter 5. You know a lot of times in scriptures
the Lord just makes small references about individuals and they might
cover hundreds of years and then He pick up somebody else and
just say something small. But do you know a whole chapter,
all chapter 5 of 2 Kings is recorded about this event. God healing
this man. And if He put a whole chapter
aside for this, He had something for us to learn. God didn't mince
words and if He recorded it in His Word, intended it for our
learning and our instruction. May God enable us by his grace
to learn something tonight more about him and about ourself and
be reminded once again how God saves sinners, how he saves sinners. 2 Kings chapter 5, beginning in verse 1. 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, mighty
man of valor. I'll stop there before I finish
reading that verse. He had many commendable traits.
Some believed he was probably the general of all the Syrian
army. Everybody looked up to him. He was a man of prestige,
a man of valor. Dr. Gill even said that Naaman
was the one, that they had just come back from a great battle
in 1 Kings 22 when Ahab was killed. Go back and read the story. Remember
when Ahab tried to disguise himself and they go into battle and a
man's just standing there and he pulls a bow back at a veteran
and says, shoot, I want to shoot at something and he just let
it go and he hit Ahab and killed him. And he said that Naaman
was the man that they gave credit for killing Ahab. Don't you know
when they marched him into town, if he didn't have enough stripes,
they'd give him a few more. That's who this man is. He was
looked up to. He was respected. He was admired
by everybody around him. But he had one fault. He was
a leper. A leper. You know, God uses all
through the scripture this horrible disease of leprosy as a picture
of sin. You know, under the law of God
The person, when they were pronounced to have leprosy, they had to
go outside the camp. No one could associate with them.
Everything they touched, they defiled it. And it ran through
their whole body, from the top of their head to the soles of
their foot. If you pricked his finger and
took that blood and put it under a microscope, it would be affected
by leprosy. If you pricked his toe and put
it under a microscope, it would say leprosy. If you pulled out
a hair. and put it under a microscope,
leprosy. And if he breathed his very breath
upon you, leprosy. Remember, they'd have to put
their hand over their mouth if they saw somebody coming and
crying, unclean, unclean, unclean. But here's a man who's a general
in the army, and he wears all these things. Don't you know
he was trying to cover up something? He was trying to keep it hid.
I know some of you probably saw pictures of people who had leprosy.
Not a pretty sight. Not a pretty sight. And that
describes sin. Sin's not a pretty sight. Men
try to cover it up and they try to paint it and hide it and disguise
it. And try to keep it hid from everybody
else. Well, it's really not that bad.
In God's sight, it's really that bad. No matter what could be
said and no matter what was recorded about this man, he was a leper. And all men by nature can't stand
to hear who they really are by nature. Lepers. That horrible, horrible disease
that runs through our veins. We pass it on to our children
and to our grandchildren and it goes on and on and defiles
everything we touch. Everything. If we try to offer
a prayer, it's contaminated. We try to read and study what
is contaminated by what? Leprosy. Leprosy. That's what this man was. This
thing, this death flowed through his veins. And this was a disease
that neither the person that had it or anybody else could
cure him from. If you went to the priest, he
could only pronounce them. He said, you've got leprosy.
Can you imagine living in that day and you think you get a sore
on your hand and say, well, I hope it's not what I think it is.
And you go and they diagnose it and they said, you've got
leprosy. That's what this man had. That's
what this man lived with. We don't know how he dealt with
it and how it affected him, but I see here that he did try to
cover it up. He did try to keep it hid. But
look in verse 2. And the Assyrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid, and she weighed on Naaman's wife.
Some of these Assyrians had went out and they just went out and
looted some of the Israelites. And what they'd done, they'd
just captured this little girl and brought her back as a slave.
And some way or another, he must have bought her or whatever and
just happened to bring her into his house. Just happened to bring
her into his house. And look what she said in verse
3. Her name's not even mentioned. Not even mentioned. But she's
a vital part of this story. If this little girl had never
wound up in Naaman's house, he may never have heard about a
prophet in Israel. Verse 3, And she said unto her mistress, Would to God that my Lord were
with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him from
his lepers. A man has got or an individual
has to hear of a prophet that can heal from leprosy. That prophet
is Christ. Elijah is just a picture of Christ.
Moses said he'll raise up a prophet like unto me. He's the prophet
of God. He's the one that's in Samaria. She knew about him and she just
told Naaman's wife. I could probably picture as Naaman
comes home that night from all of his doings, being the great
military leader, and she sits down with him and she said, guess
what I heard today? You know that little girl, that little
maid that's in our house, you know what she told me? She told
me some news. You know, they'd probably been
discussing this thing of leprosy. They probably talked about it
a lot because, you know, a lot of people, a lot of other people
may never saw his leprosy, but I guarantee his wife did. She
saw the boils and we don't know that he hadn't been losing some
fingers. You know, it would actually eat your fingers off, your nose,
your ear, all these things, a horrible disease. And she said, I heard
some news today. That girl told me that there's
a prophet in Samaria that just might heal you of leprosy. I know Damon's just like us.
He's a picture of us. He probably had tried a lot of
things to get some cure. Probably tried a lot of things
and nothing worked. And now he hears this news. Maybe,
can this be true that there's a prophet in Samaria that can
heal me of this awful disease? Everywhere I go, it affects me. If I lay down to sleep, it affects
me. If I get up in the morning and
look in the mirror, I'm reminded of who I am by nature, a leper,
leper. And verse 4, and one went in
and told his Lord saying, thus and thus said the maid that is
of the land of Israel. And verse 5, and the king of
Syria said, he goes and he tells the king, He says, and I will
send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took
with him, now watch this, 10 talents of silver, 6,000 pieces
of gold, and 10 changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel saying, now when the letter is coming to
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman thy servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. He gets everything
together. Do you not see this here in his
great big caravan? He gets his money. He gets his
ten changes of rhema. He's going to go to try to buy
his healing. Doesn't that sound familiar?
And he even gets a letter from the king of Syria. That's going
to carry a little more weight. But he goes to the wrong place.
He goes to the king. The little girl didn't say anything
about going to the king of Israel. He said, you go to the prophet.
Men will do anything and go anywhere and bring anything to try to
get their healing. They think it can be bought.
They think it can be earned. And it cannot be none of those
things. It cannot be. He went to the
wrong person, went to the wrong place. He despised the prophet. Would go anywhere else. People
will come to the front of the church. They'll go to Mary. They'll go to some confessional
booth. They'll even come to the preacher. Before they go to Christ. Come bringing all their gifts.
It cannot be bought. It cannot be bought. You cannot
buy healing. It's not going to the law. The
law can't help you. The young girl told him to go
to the prophet. She didn't tell him to go to
the king. That's the same reason people go everywhere else but
to Christ. Everywhere. He took the wrong
things. He thought he could buy his healing.
God's mercy is not for sale, it's free. It's free. What I want you to see, God's
teaching nailing some things. A sinner's got to be taught this,
that you can't buy it, that you can't earn it. that God's not
impressed with how many chariots you bring, not how much money
you bring. And you notice he still got on
all of his outward apparel. I mean, he probably had on his
best suit. He probably had on, if he was
in the Marines, he probably had on his dress blues with his white
gloves on. And oh, just so real impressive.
Just look at me. He wanted everybody to think
he's something. He's a nobody. And he's got to learn that. He's
got to learn it. God can't be bargained with.
Have you ever heard the term bartering? A few of you have. There's a
little theater over in Tennessee, they call it Barter Theater.
And where it got its name years ago, people would want to come
to see a movie and back during the Depression didn't have any
money. So they'd bring a chicken or whatever, eggs or whatever,
and they'd say, well, here, I ain't got no money, but I'll barter
with you. I want to see your movie, and
you maybe need a few chickens, so we'll just swap, swap out
a little bit. That's how people think God is. God has something they want,
and they think God, they have something that God wants. Ain't
that how they do it? Oh, God just loves everybody.
God just wants to do something for you. Oh, you're just so special.
That ain't how it works. It's freeing. In my hand, no
price I bring. Here and there, man comes with
his chariots and all of his goods. He thought he could swap all
of his goods for salvation. Isn't that what the temple did
in, I mean, the Pharisee did in the temple? I think the, I'm
not like other men. I give tithes of all that I possess. I do all these things. And it's
going to be the same thing when men stand before God and our
Lord talks about it in Matthew chapter 7. He says, many will
come to me in that day and say, we've prophesied in your name.
We've cast out devils. We've done many wonderful works. You'll say, depart from me. I
never knew you. I never knew you. So Naaman went
to the wrong place. Went to the wrong person and
he brought the wrong thing. Look in verse 9. Let me read
verse 7. It came to pass when the king
of Israel had read the letter that Naaman had brought with
him, that he rent his clothes. And here's what the king said,
am I God to kill and to make alive? That this man does sin
unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider,
I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me." He thought
he was picking a fight. He said, he sent me to me and
wants me to heal this man of leprosy? He's just wanting to
start war. Look at verse 8. And it was so,
when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel
had written his clothes that he sent to the king, Satan, Wherefore
hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him, Naaman, come now to
me. You see that? Let him now come
to me. And he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. You send him to me. And he's
going to know for certain that there is a prophet in Israel. Verse 9, So Naaman came with
his horses, with his chariots, and he stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh
shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. You see,
Naaman finally came to the right place and to the right person,
but he comes with the wrong attitude. He's standing there and he actually
thinks that Elijah is going to come out to him. He thinks, like
everybody else does him, that everybody else is going to bow
to him or everybody else is going to salute him. He thinks God's
prophet is going to do the same thing. And God's prophet don't
even go out to him. He just sends a messenger. He
just said, you just go tell him to go to that Jordan River over
and dip himself seven times. Can you imagine what he thought?
Here this man comes, he thinks he's so special, so arrogant,
so filled with pride. Seven things doth God hate. And
the first thing is what? A proud look. God has to humble
every sinner he saves. This man's so proud, he thinks,
he ought to come to me and bow. Isn't that what sinners think?
They've made God out to be the beggar. They think God ought
to come on their terms. God doesn't come on your terms.
You come on God's terms. He just stood at the door. Elisha was probably living in
some small, humble house. Not nothing real impressive.
And he was probably too proud to go in. I'm too good. But God has to humble this old
proud man. Naaman wanted to be treated like
a great man who just happened to be a leper. But he was a leper
who just happened to be a great man. Men even today want to claim
the human differences. Like you said this morning, Lindsay,
who makes anybody to differ? Two men hanging on either side
of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was hanging on the cross.
They both at one time railed on Him, then all of a sudden
God did something for one man and opened that man's eyes and
He said, we're getting exactly what we deserve. What made the
difference between those men? The man in the middle. That's
what made the difference. But people want to look at human
distinctions. It doesn't matter how smart a
man is. It doesn't matter where he goes to school. None of those
things doesn't matter to God. Neither black nor white. Male
nor female. None of those distinctions that
we look at make any difference to God. It doesn't matter to
God who this man was or who he thought he was. He's a leper. And God deals with every leper
the same way. Everyone. It doesn't matter what you have,
what you think you own, or what you know. You are, just like
the rest of us, a dead, dying leper. You just try to keep it covered
up. Try to keep it hid. Let me tell you a little secret
tonight. There's not any of us could stand to hear just how
bad we all are. Couldn't stand it. We live in a day where people,
where preachers cater to the rich and powerful men. Well, most people would have
thought when here Naaman comes with his letter from the king
and he's got all this money. And all this stuff, all they
would run out and say, oh, we're so glad to have you in our little
congregation. Oh, you come up here and sit
on the front. Didn't James talk about that?
He said a man comes in in his gay clothes and all it looks
like is outward appearance. He's got something. He said,
come on up here and sit on the front row. And a man comes in
and looks like he ain't eaten two or three days. You say, sit
back on the back row. Or nevertheless, just stand up. He said, you're
partial. None of those things just doesn't
matter. It didn't matter that this man wasn't a Syrian. It
didn't matter. It didn't matter. Elisha would
not go out and speak to that proud chief of that army. Wouldn't
even go out and talk to him. Wouldn't even go out. Just said,
if you want him, you sit on Muddy River Jordan, you go out there
and dip in it seven times. A wise servant of God will not
cater to the flesh. They cater not to humans. Elisha
would not go out to this dead sinner. Elisha wouldn't play
his games. If that sinner wants to be made
whole, he must go to the Jordan River. You know what he was telling
him? He told Naaman to take off all
of his stars and strip down naked. and go in that Jordan River.
He knew that's what he was saying. And his essence, he was saying,
I'll do anything but that right there. Not just run down one time and
hurry back out. Seven times. God humbles people. The problem
today in the world in which we live, one of the biggest problems
is stinking, damnable religious pride. Don't they? Some of the worst people you
ever meet are those who, oh, they think they're so good. Oh, look
what I've done. God ever gets a hold of him, gotta
humble him. God will put him in the dirt. Look at Naaman's response, and
Elisha sent a messenger out to him, saying, Go and wash in the
Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean. Verse 11, But Naaman was wroth. Can you not just see him walking
off that porch? He could have spit nails. Does he not know who I am? Who does he think he is treating
me such a way? Man, look what he said. And he
went away and he said, behold, I thought. That's his mistake. I thought, what did he think?
He's going to come out to me. He's going to come on my terms.
That's what he thought. Man's thoughts are not God's
thoughts. That was his big mistake. I thought. What do men think? They think this is what God's
going to do. I thought. I thought this is what he would
do. He said, I thought. He will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of His God and strike His hand
over the place and recover the leprosy. You know what He wanted?
He wanted a big show. I can see Him. He wanted Elisha
to walk out after and just speak before everybody. Oh, we're so
glad that Naaman's here with us today. This man, we're so
glad to have him in our presence and he's come to be healed and
we're going to heal him. We're going to wave and make
a big show. Doesn't that sound familiar? and brag on Naaman. And he thought he would strike
his hand over the place and recover the leprosy. In verse 12, he said, in Abana
and Paphara, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of
Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and
went away. in a rage. I guarantee it doesn't say, but
I may be reading into it a little bit. I can see him get on that
chariot and he grabs him right, he hits that horse and he said,
I'm getting out of here. If God hadn't stopped him, that's
exactly where he would have went. And that's how we would have
went too. We wanted our way. We thought this is how it's supposed
to be. Why? That's how we'd been taught.
No one had probably seen them waving their hands and doing
all that stuff in Assyria. Seen the Assyrians do it. That's
how they claim to heal people. He thought, well, this is how
I think it's supposed to be done. He'd got them thoughts from somewhere.
He went away in a rage. Now look in verse 13. And his servant came near and
spake unto him and said, my father, If the prophet had bid thee do
some great things, wouldest thou not done it? How much rather
than when he saith to thee wash and be clean? If he had told
him to walk ten miles, now if you'll go out and walk ten miles
and come back, you'll be clean, he'd have done it. It's not do, it's done. They keep people in religion
busy doing something. They think what they're doing
that they can pay for their sins and cleanse themselves of leprosy. That's exactly right. He said, if he'd have told you,
that servant come to him and said, what are you doing? What
are you doing? If he'd have told you to do something
impressive, oh, you would have done it. He said, he just told
you to go wash in the river. And you won't do that. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Trust Christ. Trust Him that
did it all. They say, no, I want to do something.
Give me something to do. Let me tell you about one that
did it all. It's done. Done. You don't have to work
for it. Ain't you glad? God may have spared you, but
He didn't me. I lived in religion for a long time. I worked for
a long time to try to heal myself of leprosy. Why, that's what I was taught
and that's what I thought. He thought. Now watch in verse 14. He finally
did something right. Then went he down. Then went he down. Ain't you glad God didn't leave
you alone? Ain't you glad God sent you a little servant and
spoke to you and said, what do you think you're doing? Then went he down and dipped
himself seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the
man of God and his flesh came like unto the flesh of a little
child and he was clean. I want you to picture this. Here's this great, this mighty,
courageous general and he's standing beside this river. He's got his
leprosy hid from everybody else and he begins to pull his white
gloves off. He begins to strip off his medals
and all his honor and stand before everybody else that looked up
to him and he's exposed for what he really is. They probably had
to turn their face. Oh, what a horrible sight. How
humiliating. And he walks down and dips, not
one time. He dips one time and nothing
happens. He dips two times and nothing happens. He does it six
times and nothing happens. But the seventh time was the
charmer. That took faith. Well, nothing
happened. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Well, the second time, seventh
time something happened. He come up and said his flesh
was like that of a little child. God broke that man. God humbled
him. And he had to do it God's way. You will be saved God's way or
you won't be saved at all. And God will put you in the dirt. Humble you. Say, I thought I
was something and I found out I wasn't nothing. Nothing. There was many lepers
in the time of Eliseus the prophet, but none of them was healed.
Except this man right here. God still heals lepers the same way. And I'll ask you
this. Could the waters of the Jordan
River cleanse anybody from leprosy? Certainly not. They didn't have
the power to cleanse from leprosy. But another question. Could Naaman
have been cleansed any other way? Absolutely not. This was his point of rebellion.
It's just like when our Lord looked at that, remember the
rich young ruler come to our Lord and he said, what must I
do to be saved? He said, go sell what you got
and give to the poor. Does a man have to sell what
he's got and give to the poor to be saved? No, but that man did.
That was his point of rebellion. And what was this man's point
of rebellion? I'll do anything but washing that Jordan River. And where will God meet a sinner?
Right there at their point of rebellion. God will not let his
finger off of it. Did Elisha change the message?
No. He said, you go to that Jordan
River and dip seven times. He said, I'll do anything but
that. And he could not be healed any other way. But go down in
that Jordan River. Everybody here has a point of
rebellion. Somebody described it just like you've had a wound
or something on your hand. And it's so sensitive you don't,
it just, it hurts almost to look at it. You know what God does?
He'll take his finger and just keep pushing on it. That's it. And he won't let up. He won't
let up. I'm glad he won't. He humbles
us and he breaks us and we willingly, lovingly bow to his sovereign
will. Said if I had to go in that Jordan
Meadow muddy, despise Jordan River a thousand times, whatever
it takes, thy will be done. And look at verse 15, and he returned to the man of
God. He and all of his company, and
he came and stood before him and said, what's this? Behold, now I know that there
is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray
thee take a blessing from thy servant. First of all he tried
to earn it. He come back a different man.
He come back a gracious, kind, generous man. Let me tell you
this. The grace of God makes a person gracious, kind, merciful. The grace of God does. The grace
of the world talks about leaves them proud, arrogant, stingy,
self-righteous. God did something for this individual.
He did something for this sinner. If God hadn't done that yet for
you, I hope one day he does. That he meets you right where
you are at that point of rebellion. And I tell you this, he will
humble you. He will whittle you down. to
your nothing, and you know it, and you have to cry out to Him
for mercy. Amen. May God bless you.