It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for, Lord, that could not be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I'm going to be speaking from
2 Kings 5 this morning. I've entitled this message, It's
Not Like You Thought It Was. Let me give my text and you'll
see why I entitled the message, It's Not Like You Thought It
Was. In 2 Kings 5, verse 10. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, Naaman the leper, 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, angry,
and he went away, and said, Behold, I thought, Behold, I thought. Here's what I thought would take
place. He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the
name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place
and recover the leper. I thought it would be this way. Naaman, it's not like you thought
it was. Now Naaman gives us an illustration
of what is called Sovereign Grace. Now what do I mean by that term?
In Luke chapter 4, we read beginning in verse 28. I could entitle
this sermon Sovereign Grace Illustrated. That would be just as good a
title because it illustrates Sovereign Grace. But in Luke
chapter 4, verse 28, and this is a religious crowd who had
heard the Lord speak. And all they in the synagogue,
they were completely unanimous. Everyone was in agreement right
here. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city and led him under the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Now these people were mad. They were going
to throw the Lord Jesus Christ off of a cliff after they heard
the message he brought. Now what did he say that incited
their anger to the point that this religious crowd in the temple
became an angry lynch mob? Now this is the opening of the
Lord's public ministry. And what they had done, they
rejected his claims. We read in verse 16 of Luke chapter
4, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as
his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me. to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book, and he
gave it to the minister, and he sat down. And I have no doubt
that the way he read this passage of Scripture, everybody there
knew he was referring to himself. And they were upset. And he closed
the book, and he gave it to the minister, and sat down, and the
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on
him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears. He says, I am the fulfillment
of this scripture. And all bear him witness, and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,
and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Whose he think he is to
make such claims to say this scripture, that he's the fulfillment
of it? And he said unto them, You shall surely say to me this
proverb, Physician, heal thyself. In Capernaum do also here in
thy country. But I tell you the truth. Now
he uses an illustration. He says, You fellows don't believe
me, but let me tell you the truth. I tell you the truth. Many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heaven was shut
up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land, but unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto
Sarepta, city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. God
sovereignly passed by all the widows and saved a Gentile widow
and preserved her. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed
save Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. God passed by all those lepers
and He saved Naaman. Now, Naaman is an illustration
of sovereign grace. Sovereign grace is grace that
is 100% dependent upon God's will. You and I have no control. There's nothing we can do to
get him to give us this grace. We are in the hands of a sovereign
God, and he can save as he will, or he can pass by in judgment
as he will. God is sovereign, and my dear
friend, you'll only worship a sovereign. And God passed by and did not
cleanse any lepers in Israel during Elisha's day, but he did
save this and cleanse this Gentile leper. Now let's read the story
in 2 Kings chapter 5. Our Lord uses it to illustrate
God's unimpeachable sovereignty. We read in 2 Kings chapter 5
verse 1, Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria,
was a great man with his master, an honorable because by him the
Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. The Lord enabled the Syrians
to defeat Israel. I think it's interesting that
not only were the victories of Israel ascribed to the Lord,
but their defeats as well were ascribed to the Lord. He enabled
Syria to defeat Israel, and Naaman was the leader in this. He was
a five-star general, and he was an impressive man. He was a great
man with his master. The scripture says he was honorable
and a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now, Naaman believed himself
to be a very great man who happened to be a leper. And he didn't
realize that he was a leper who happened to be a great man. You see, a great man is a sinner
who for a while has a certain status among worms. We read in verse 2, and the Syrians
had gone out by companies and brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife.
Now think of the pain that this little girl had gone through,
being ripped away from her family and brought into Syria and made
a slave of Naaman's wife. But we see God's adorable providence
in this because Naaman would have never heard the gospel.
He would have never heard of the God of Israel. He would have
not known of God's way of saving sinners had it not been for this
taking place. Now this little maid says in
verse 3, and she said unto her mistress, Would God, my Lord,
were with the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would recover
him out of his leprosy. Now this little girl felt sorry
for Naaman and she knew of the prophet Elisha. She knew of the
miracles that God had done by him. Remember he was given a
double portion of the spirit of Elijah. He smote the waters
of Jordan River and they parted and he walked through. She'd
heard about the miracle that he had performed when he took
a little jar of oil and filled up many, many empty vessels of
oil and made the woman wealthy and took care of her. She knew
how He had raised the little boy from the dead. And she said
to her mistress, Oh, if your husband was with God's prophet
in Samaria, He'd heal him. So we read in verse 4, And one
went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus saith the maid
that's in the land of Israel. They told Naaman about there's
a prophet who could pronounce you to be clean. And the king
of Syria, he loved Naaman. He had a high opinion of Naaman,
and he wanted Naaman to be cured. So what does he do? The king
of Syria said, go to, go, I'll send a letter unto the king of
Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver,
and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. Now this could have made the
prophet fabulously wealthy. This is his payment he thought
he would get. I'll give you all this if you can cleanse Naaman. I think that maybe the number
10 represents the law, the 10 garments, the keeping of the
10 commandments as my righteousness before God. He comes on the footing
of law. Verse 6, And he brought the letter
to the king of Israel, saying, Now when the letter is come unto
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy." Now, the king
sent Naaman to the wrong place. He shouldn't have sent him to
the king of Israel. The king of Israel couldn't do anything
for this man. He should have sent him to Elisha, God's prophet. But he begins by going to the
wrong place And look at how the king of Israel responded to this.
Verse 7, And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read
the letter that he rent his clothes, he said, Am I God to kill and
to make alive that this man doth send me to recover a man of his
leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh
a quarrel against me. The king of Israel just thought
he's just looking for a reason to come and fight us because
I can't do anything for this leper. Verse 8, And it was so
when Elisha, the man of God, And heard that the king of Israel
had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore
hast thou rent thou thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." So the king sends
him to Elisha's house. So here Naaman comes to Elisha's
house with his chariots and with his armies and with his uniform
and his dignity and so on. Verse 9, so Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariots and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. Now we see something of the character
of Naaman here. A proud and an arrogant man in his general's
uniform on his horses and with his chariots and he stood at
Elisha's door. Notice he didn't come in humility
and knock on the door. and say, O man of God, would
you please ask the Lord to cleanse me. I can't cleanse myself. He
stood there outside. He knew that Elisha was in the
house. He knew that he could hear him coming. I'm sure there
was a great troop of men and making a lot of noise. And he
knew he was somebody. He thought he'd done his part
and he was waiting for Elisha to come to him. Now, I see no
humility there. He thought there was something
about him that obligated Elisha to respond to him. You see, sinners
believe salvation to be in their hands. If they do what is needed
and exercise their free will and decide to accept Jesus Christ
as their personal Savior, now God is obligated to save them.
I've made my move. Now it's time for God to make
His move. So there He stands in His pride. Now look how Elisha
handled this. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him. Elisha didn't even come to the
door. 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. I'm sure Naaman was deeply offended
that Elisha didn't come to the door. Doesn't he know who I am
and he sends a messenger to me? But Naaman, you don't understand
that someone who knows the living God is not impressed with fleshly
status. He sends his messenger to him,
and this represents the preaching of the gospel. You will hear
from God only through a humble servant. And oh, how that stung
his pride. Now, what was Elisha's message? He said, you go to the River
Jordan and dip yourself in that river seven times, not six, not
eight, but seven. the number of completion, the
number of perfection, and you'll be clean. Now the issue here
is the issue of cleansing. Leprosy in the scripture represents
sin. How can the leper, how can the
sinner be clean? Remember The Lord's words regarding
him, none were cleansed in the New Testament when he's talking
about Naaman. None of them were cleansed save
Naaman the Syrian. Naaman's leprosy represents his
sins. How can he be clean? How can he be washed? Now, this is what the blood of
Christ does. This dipping in the River Jordan seven times
represents being washed in the blood of Christ. Now, let's consider
this issue of cleansing. Cleansing, being made clean,
presupposes filthiness and a need to be clean. Do you need to be
cleaned? Now, if you need to be cleaned,
I know this, you know that you can't clean yourself. You can't
make yourself pure. You can't make yourself holy.
You can't make yourself acceptable to God. You're filthy, you need
to be cleaned, and you can't make yourself clean. Now, in
the Bible, there are three things that are said to make a believer
clean. And all three of these go together. They cannot be separated. It's
part of the same thing. But first of all, if I'm clean,
I'll be made clean by the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
was a leper that came to Christ. And that leper knew he was filthy.
He was full of leprosy. And he said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. You know what the Lord said?
I will. Be thou clean. All Christ has
to do is will my cleansing, and I will be made clean. Now, cleansing
begins with the sovereign will of Christ. Secondly, we read
where the blood of Jesus Christ, 1 John 5 says, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us. from all sin. That's what the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ did when he shed his precious blood. The
sins of all of God's elect was washed away. There is no sin. I have no sin before God cleansed
by the blood of Christ. And then our Lord said, now are
you clean through the word that I've spoken to you, cleansed
through hearing and believing the gospel. Now, that's how one
is cleansed. Now, did the act of dipping cleanse
Naaman? Absolutely not. It was God who
cleansed Naaman. But would he have been clean
if he refused to dip seven times? No, he wouldn't have. This is
the obedience of faith. Now, God is going to meet me
and you at our point of rebellion. And He's going to break us, or
He's going to send us to hell. One of those two. He met Naaman
at his point of rebellion. Now, let's look at Naaman's response
to what the humble messenger said. You go in the river Jordan
and dip down seven times. Verse 11, here was Naaman's initial
response. But Naaman was wroth. He was
angry. I'm sure he was offended that
Elisha didn't come out to him. And he said, Behold, I thought. And Haman, here's where you went
wrong. Behold, I thought. He will surely come out to me.
Not send a servant. He'll come to me. And he'll stand
and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over
the place and recover the leper. I thought. There's a passage
of Scripture in Psalm 50 where God says, Thou thoughtest. I was altogether such a one as
yourself. Now, here's where we get in trouble.
We think, well, here's what I'd do. Surely God would do that.
No, He won't. What you and I think naturally regarding God is wrong. It's not, listen to me, it's
not like you thought it was. Well, I thought if we did our
best and were sincere and accepted Jesus as our personal Savior,
everything would be fine and our sins would be forgiven. It's
not like you thought it was. Well, I thought God wants to
save everybody and He wants to save people He can't lest they
let Him. And God loves everybody. And
Christ died for everybody and made salvation possible for everybody.
And now it's up to us to do our part in order to be saved. It's
not like you thought it was. Name and you're wrong whatever
you think. It's wrong. It's not like you thought it
was. I thought that's where you got
in trouble. Verse 13. Well, let me go and read verse
12. He says, Are not Havana and far, far rivers of Damascus better
than all the waters of Israel? Why, this dirty river Jordan,
you tell me to go, I can go back home and get a bit more clean.
May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went
away in a rage. He was angry. He was offended. Off he goes back to Samaria.
Verse 13, And his servants came near, the people that came with
him, and spake unto And said, my father, they spoke with respect,
he said, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst
thou not have done it? You know, if I said to you, if
you crawl from Lexington to Louisville on your hands and knees, you
will win heaven eternally. I bet you'd be willing to do
it. Something great, something difficult. If you give so much
money, if you do these great things, you'll be saved. But
what about this? Believe on Christ. That's it. Believe on Christ. His servant
said, If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst
thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he
saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Verse 14, he listened to these
wise servants and verse 14 says, then went he down. Now understand this, the way
up in the kingdom of heaven is always down. Then went he down,
down from his pride, down from his haughty arrogance and self-righteousness,
down from his thoughts. He went down in obedience to
what the prophet said. He went down and dipped himself
seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God. Now here he gets into the Jordan
River. He dips down once, comes back up, nothing happens. Twice,
nothing happens. Three times, nothing happens.
Four, five, six, still nothing has happened. Now he goes down
the seventh time, and what takes place? Then went down he and
dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying
of the man of God, and his flesh came again unto the flesh of
a little child, and he was clean. He dipped seven times just like
the man of God told him, and there are two things that took
place. First, his leprosy left. And secondly, his flesh was now
the flesh of a little child. Now, remember, Naaman was at
least a middle-aged man, and he'd gone through, you know,
40, 50 years old. I don't know how old he was,
but his skin didn't look like a little child's before the leprosy.
But now, all of a sudden, when he comes out of that water, his
flesh is just like the skin of a little child. Now, that tells
me something about what the blood of Christ actually does. That
seven dippings, number seven, is the number of completion and
perfection. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's tree, He completely saved everybody who believes. He completely saved everybody
that He died for. In Hebrews 10, verse 14, we read,
Wherefore, by one offering, talking about His death on Calvary's
tree, by one offering, He hath perfected. You hear that? Perfected. Forever. Something that can't be done
away with. Them that are sanctified. That's what the Lord did on Calvary's
tree. Now two things are meant by that.
First, all my sin was washed away and I now no longer have
any sin. That's what he did by his blood.
My sin was washed away and this child's flesh represents the
new nature that He gives. A holy nature. It's what we're
given in the new birth. A new nature that loves God,
that believes. Oh, we still have the old nature,
but we have a new nature now. And greater is He that's in you
than he that's in the world. This is the new nature that He
gives. He took away our sin and He gave
a new nature. Now, let's go on reading. Verse
15, And He returned, to the man of God. Can you imagine how he
must have felt? He returned to the man of God,
he and all his company, and came and stood before him and said,
Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but
in Israel. Now when God saves you, you know
that his gospel is the only gospel and all other religions are false
and wrong. You know that His way of saving
by sovereign grace is the only way of saving. You know that
His gospel is the only gospel and everything else is wrong. He made that confession. He confessed,
that stuff that I believed back in Samaria, it was all garbage.
It wasn't real. I know that now because I see
that you're the only God. He rejected all other ways of
salvation. but the way of Christ alone. And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him
and said, Behold, now I know that there's no God in all the
earth but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take
a blessing of thy servant. Go ahead and take some of my
gifts. And I love the way Elisha wasn't going to let that man
think that he could buy anything from God. He wouldn't take it. He refused it. I admire Elisha. He wouldn't take this man's gifts. But he said, verse 16, as the
Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged
him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there
not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burdens
of earth? For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord. He saw this as the only gospel. Now, it's not. I want you to think of all the
things that you think naturally about God. about Christ, about
how he saves. We all have our opinions. Believe
this. I'm talking to myself and I'm
talking to you. Everything we think is wrong. Everything we think naturally
is wrong. would to God that we'll learn
what Naaman did. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD if you call the church or write or email we'll send
you a copy and we'd like to invite you to services at Todd's Road
Grace Church Our Bible study begins this morning at 9.45,
the morning worship at 10.30, and we have an evening worship
at 6, and you will hear the truth of the gospel. We invite you
to come out and visit with us. This is Todd Nybert, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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