Captain of the host of the King
of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because
by him the Lord had given deliverance into Syria. He was also a mighty
man in valor, 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's in Samaria. For he would recover him of his
leprosy. And one went in and told his Lord saying, thus and
thus saith the maid that's of the land of Israel. And the king
of Syria said, go and I will send a letter unto the king of
Israel. And he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver
and 6,000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel saying, now, when this letter is coming to
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to
pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, this is
Jehoram, and he was not a good king. He rent his clothes and
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. 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. So Naaman
came with his horses, with his chariot, and stood at the door
of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth 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 this place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and far, far rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not 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 than when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean. Then went he down, and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of
a little child. And he was clean. And he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood
before him. And he said, behold, now I know
that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, Take
a blessing of thy servant. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence. Only in the name of thy son. Pleading nothing but his merit. And his precious blood. And we
ask that we might have your presence, that you would speak in power
to our hearts from your word for the Lord's sake. Lord, we need you, your grace,
and we need to hear from you. We confess our sin and pray for
forgiveness and cleansing for Christ's sake. Now be with us.
Be with. The other classes be with us in the singing of these
hymns, in public prayer, in the preaching of your word. Bless
us with your presence. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now as I said, this is one of
my favorite stories in the word of God. The story of Naaman being
cleansed from his leprosy. The Lord uses this story, hold
your finger there and turn to Luke chapter four. The Lord uses this story to illustrate
the sovereignty of divine grace. Look in Luke chapter four, beginning
in verse 26, or verse 27, I'm sorry. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
not even one, save Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. 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 into the brow
of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down, headlong." Now, these people were mad, weren't they?
They were mad. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way. The Lord uses this man to demonstrate
the sovereignty of divine grace. God saves whom he will. And he passes by whom he will. And something that is, I, I love that. I love that. I don't apologize for that. I
love that. Whatever he does is right. Now, let's look at this passage
together. Now, Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Israel, or Syria. I think it's interesting. His
name means pleasantness. Pleasantness. He was a great
man with his master. Honorable. That's a pretty impressive
resume. Because by him, the Lord had
given deliverance into Syria. Now, don't miss that. Syria defeated
Israel. Israel was in bad shape because
of Syria. And who is the cause of Israel's defeats? The Lord. Now, I want me and
you to always remember this. He is the first cause of all
things. Your victories, your defeats,
the good things, the bad things, all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Not only are Israel's victories
attributed to the Lord, but their defeats. Now the Lord used Naaman
for this and Naaman, humanly speaking, was a very good man.
Scripture says he was honorable. His master esteemed him highly. He knew that the Lord was using
this man to bring their victories. And he was a mighty man of valor.
We would have said, this is a fine man. This is a good man. Humanly
speaking, he was a good man. Naaman. I like his name, Pleasantness. But notice at the end of verse
one, but he was, is in italics. Here's the defining characteristic
of Naaman's life. He's a leper. He's a leper. Now, Naaman believed himself
to be a good man who happened to be a leper. And he didn't
understand that he was nothing but a leper who happened to be
a good man. A leper. Now, leprosy in the
scripture is the great type of sin. There's so much devoted
in the Old Testament to this disease of leprosy. And I love
thinking about in the laws concerning leprosy, when a leper was pronounced
clean, if he came to the priest to show himself and he had any
healthy flesh at all, he had to go back to the leper colony,
unclean. But when he came completely covered
with leprosy, no healthy flesh at all, that's when the priest
pronounced him clean. That's the gospel, isn't it? Verse two, and the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid, a little girl, a little girl, Israelite,
somebody's daughter. by force came and raided Israel
and took away Israelites in order to serve them. And they took
this little maid. And this little maid ended up
being the servant of Naaman's wife. Now, think about this. If this hadn't happened, Naaman
would have never been cleansed from his leprosy. God's perfect
providence works all things out perfectly, doesn't it? This little
maid, as painful as this must have been to her family, as painful
as this must have been to her, yet this is the Lord doing this,
so Naaman would be cleansed of his leprosy, so me and you this
morning might be enabled to understand the gospel maybe more clearly
than we have in the past. This little maid, ripped out
of her home and made to be a servant, she waited on Naaman's wife.
Verse three, and she said unto her mistress, would God my Lord
were with the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would recover
him of his leprosy. Now this little girl was brought
up in Israel and she knew something about Elisha. You see, as we've
been looking at his life, he is the man who the Lord used
for miracles more than any other prophet. On at least three different
occasions, God used him to create something. Water, when water
was put in the dishes, the oil that was in the many vessels,
and the food that was not there before in the last chapter. I
mean, he was used to create things. He raised the dead. Remember
the little boy he got on and put his eyes and hands and feet
and raised the dead. I mean, he was a miracle working
prophet and this little girl knew that. And she said, Oh,
if would to God, the prophet was here because he could recover
Naaman of leprosy. Now this lets you know that Naaman
was probably a good man, humanly speaking. I mean, this little
girl obviously had been treated well, and she felt like she could
come into her mistress's presence and tell about the prophet. She
must have liked Naaman. She didn't think, let him die
of his leprosy. She wanted the best for him. So this lets you
know something about the character of this man, Naaman. He was a
good man. He was an honorable man, humanly speaking, but he
was a leper. He still had this disease that
represents sin that he could not do anything about. He was
a leper. But this little girl tells her
mistress about Elisha, the prophet, who could recover the leper.
Verse four, and one went in and told his Lord, that's the king
of Syria, saying, Thus and thus saith the maid that's of the
land of Israel. Now remember the king of Syria loved Naaman.
Naaman was an important man to him and he had seen what Naaman
had done. And when he hears that maybe
he could be healed of his leprosy, he's excited when he hears that.
Verse five, and the king of Syria said, go to, go, and I'll send
a letter unto the king of Israel. Wrong place. I'll 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 changes of raiment. He's gonna buy his healing. That's
what this is about. This is a lot of money, a lot
of clothing. What's the significance of 10?
He's coming according to the Ten Commandments. What's the
significance of six? Six is the number of man, 6,000
pieces of gold, He's coming in human obedience and he wants
to buy this man's healing. He's got a lot of money and he
can help out. And so here he comes sending
this Naaman with all this. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel saying, now, when this letter is coming to
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. Now, Jeroam was
one of the bad kings. That's exposed a few chapters
before this. And he'd had experience with
Elisha and Elisha didn't like him. And he should have known
about Elisha, but I guess he pushed Elisha out of his mind.
He didn't like Elisha. Elisha didn't much care for him
either. But look what he says, verse seven, 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 does sin unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore,
consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against
me. He's just looking for a reason to attack me, because I can't
do anything about this. He'd already forgotten about
Elisha. I think it's, you know, the natural man, when he knows
something of God, he tries to push it out of his thoughts.
Jerome had obviously pushed Elisha out of his thoughts. Verse eight,
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, Elisha was not magnifying
the office of a prophet. He was magnifying the God who
sent the prophet and works through the prophet. That's important. Elijah knew he was just a man,
a sinful man, like everybody else. He wasn't trying to make
any claims any higher than that. But God speaks through a prophet. And Elijah knew that. And he
said, bringing to me. and you'll know that there's
a prophet in Israel. Verse nine, so Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. Now, this is interesting. He
didn't knock on the door. He just stood there with all of
his horses and his chariots and waited for Elisha to come and
approach him. You see, this man was somebody.
This man had power. This man had authority. This
was a man that God had used greatly. He was a proud man, a very proud
man, proud of his exploits in life. And he thought, Elisha
is going to find out somebody's here, somebody important. This is something that he can
do. So he just stood there. with his horses and his chariots.
And he had the 10 changes of raiment and the 6,000 pieces
of gold and the six talents of silver. And he stood there waiting
for the prophet to come out to this very important man. Verse 10, and Elisha sent a messenger
unto him. He didn't even bother to go to
the door. You know, he's using such wisdom
at this time. He knew this man was a proud,
arrogant man, and he didn't even bother to go to the door. He sent a messenger. Now, what's
that represent? The preaching of the gospel.
You and I can't figure this out, and we can't deal directly. We can't read the Bible and figure
out the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And that's what this
represents at this time. He sends out a lowly messenger
with the message to Naaman. I think that's beautiful. And
Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in Jordan
seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou
shalt be clean. But, verse 11, Naaman was wroth. He was offended, he was mad,
he was angry. Doesn't he know who I am? I'm
Naaman. I'm the one who's gotten the
victory over Israel. Doesn't he know who I am? Yes, Naaman,
he knows who you are. He knows who you are. And he
knows what man is. Verse 11, but Naaman was wroth
and went away and said, behold, I thought. Now here's where he
got in trouble. Here's where he got in trouble.
I thought. Do you realize that the things
you and I think are just wrong? Everything we think naturally
about God is wrong. It's wrong. I think of that statement
in Psalm 50 where the Lord said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such a one as yourself. You see, we think a certain thing.
We think that's the way God is. No, it's not. No, he's not. He's altogether not like me or
you. And the things that we think,
everything we think is wrong. It's wrong. Naaman didn't understand
this at this time. Behold, I thought he will surely
come out to me. I wouldn't have to come to him.
He'll come out to me. I'm somebody. I thought he'll
come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord,
his God, and strike his hand over the place in this real impressive
way that everybody could see and recover the leper. That's
how I thought he'd operate. This just isn't working for me.
And then he says in verse 12, Are not Abana and far, far rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash
in these and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. He despised what he heard. He was offended. He left. I will not do this. But you know, he had some servants
who were very wise. Look in verse 13. And his servants
came near and spake unto him and said, my father, this is
a term of respect, they respected him. If the prophet had bid thee
do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? If he
would have given you some mighty act to perform, If you do this,
you'll be recovered from your leprosy. Whatever it might be,
if you do this, you'll be recovered from your leprosy. Wouldn't you
have done it? Of course you would have. How much rather than when he
saith to thee, wash and be clean? Well, he listened to him. And
then he went down. There's significance to that.
The way up is always down. Humbling yourself before the
Lord. The way up is down. He went down
and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the
saying of the man of God. Now you think about this. He
went down once, comes back up, Nothing's happened, he's still
a leper. Goes down twice, three, four, five, six, still a leper.
Seven, he comes up and he's clean. Now seven represents what? Perfection. Let's go on reading. Then went
he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to
the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again, like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Now, he was
clean. He was clean. That leprosy was
gone. He had the flesh of a newborn
child. No blemish in it. So healthy. Now, question. Did the act of dipping in the
River Jordan do anything to cleanse him of his leprosy? No. No, not at all. He wasn't cleansed
because of the River Jordan or dipping down seven times. It
was the Lord who cleansed him of his leprosy. Now, in the scripture,
three things are said to cleanse us of our sins. And that's what
this represents. See, he went down seven times
and came up perfect. Pure, spotless. This represents
what the blood of Christ does for every believer. It makes
us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Perfectly clean.
Now, what cleanses a sinner? Well, first of all, the will
of Christ. If you will, you can make me clean. Now, bottom line,
it's up to him as to whether or not me or you will be clean.
It's up to him. Number two, the blood of Christ,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us from all sin. The will of Christ, the blood
of Christ, the word of Christ. Now are you clean through the
word, which I've spoken unto you. And there we have the sovereign
will of Christ, the work of Christ. blood of Christ, and the word
of Christ, the gospel message. All three of those are involved
in the cleansing of the sinner. Now, going down under the water
didn't clean him. God did, Christ did. But would
he have been cleansed had he refused? No, no. This represents faith in Christ. Now faith doesn't save you, Christ
does. Faith believes that. Your faith doesn't do anything
to make you clean before God. Christ did. Faith believes that. Can you be saved without faith?
No. No. And we, faith is his gift. You won't be saved unless you
believe. Faith is his gift. And he comes up clean as a little
child. And we're going to look at this
more next week, more after Jordan, the difference in this man after
he was cleansed. But just let me point this out,
verse 15. And he returned to the man of
God and he and all his company. Now remember, he hadn't met him
before. He just sent that messenger out and he hadn't even seen Elisha. But now after he's been cleansed,
he wants to return to the man of God. He wants to meet him.
He hadn't even seen his face up to this point. But he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood
before him. And he said, behold, now I know that there's no God
in all the earth but in Israel. You see, when the Lord reveals
himself to you, you know He is the only God. This is the only
gospel. There is no other gospel. I know that the Syrian gods that
I've been serving are false gods. There's nothing to them. There's
only one God. There's only one gospel. And
if the Lord ever speaks to you, you'll know that. You'll know
that. I won't have to try to convince
you. You'll know that that's so. What I thought about, I don't
know why this came to my mind exactly, but this is what came
to my mind. If you're elect, I don't have
to convince you of election. You'll know it's so. You'll know
the only reason you believe is because God chose you to believe
and gave you that faith. Okay, we'll pick up next week
on.