2 Kings 5:9-14

Thank you, Lord. Good evening. Good evening. Be in the Old Testament this evening in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 5.

! It's an account that we're probably somewhat familiar with, if we're not, we should be, about a man named Naaman.

Naaman being Syrian, which is one of the aspects of this whole story. The whole account that's, I guess you could say, highly regarded in the theological realm is he was a Gentile.

But regardless of any of that, in 2 Kings, we've got a few chapters before this, and God showing his own people, as well as others, that his word is number one.

And that he is in power. And, of course, we have an account of Elijah being taken up in a whirlwind into heaven. We've probably heard that account many times.

But Elisha steps into the ministry of Elijah, of course, after he receives a double portion of Elijah's spirit, as well as Elijah's mantle.

Not that that mantle had any magical power or anything along those lines. But Elisha was God's man during that time. He was a prophet of God, representative of God.

He wasn't God, as some would teach that he was in other circles. But he was God's representative. But we have several accounts in these opening chapters of different things going on.

Elisha performing different miracles. Through God, again, Elisha, there was nothing magical about him. He was simply doing what God would have him to do, and God was working through him.

But we come to chapter 5, and we're introduced to this man named Naaman. Naaman being a captain of the Syrian host.

And, again, Syrians were Gentiles. There was not, as far as we know, an ounce of Jewish blood in Naaman. But Naaman, the Bible describes him in 2 Kings chapter 5 as a mighty man.

He was a well-known man. He was renowned. But it says he was a leper. Naaman was a leper, and this was the issue within.

And, folks, that should paint a picture for us right off the bat. That Naaman, although he was powerful, although he had authority, although he had a name for himself, he had clout, he had reputation.

He had all these things, but he had an issue of leprosy. And none of those things that he had could solve that issue. Leprosy in the Old Testament days was a death sentence.

There was no cure for it. In fact, even nowadays, there's ways to treat it, but there is no real hard-line cure for leprosy.

You can treat it, but not cure it. But in 2 Kings chapter 5, we're introduced to this man Naaman. We learn who he is. We learn what he does. We learn about his reputation and such and his power.

We learn that he is a leper. We learn that there's a little Israelite maid that is a servant of Naaman's wife.

And she says there's a prophet. There's a prophet in Samaria that could recover Naaman, recover his body, recover him from his leprosy. So there's messages sent.

Naaman wants to go to the king. He brings camels. He brings silver. He brings gold. He brings all kinds of things with him. All these things that he had at his disposal, he brings with him.

And what does the king do? The king of Israel. The king says, am I God? Am I God? Can I kill and make alive? Can I recover this man of his leprosy?

And it says that the king of Israel rents his garment in twain because of this. Now, he saw this letter from Naaman as not only something that he could do nothing about.

He couldn't do anything about the man's leprosy. But he not only saw it as that, but he also saw it as a way that Syria could attack them. That he was trying to sweet talk him, in other words.

But it would be like a covert operation. We might call it nowadays. And that's exactly how the king of Israel saw this letter. And then we get to verse 8.

We'll pick up reading here in just a moment. In verse 8 it says, 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, somehow or another, word got back to Elisha that Naaman had sent this inquiry to the king, that the king had gotten upset about it for two different reasons, and that the king had rent his clothes because there was nothing that he could do.

One, there was nothing he could do about the man's leprosy. Two, there was nothing he could do about the power of the Syrian army. So, this would have been why he would have tore his clothes. It was a sign of lament.

It was a sign of being upset in these days that he'd done that. And Elisha sends a message to the king. It says, Send him to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.

Not that Elisha said that I can use some magical power to heal him, but that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.

We must keep that in consideration while we're reading the rest of this. So, all that being said, 2 Kings chapter 5, beginning at verse 9, It says, So Naaman came with his horses and 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 the place, and recover the leper.

Are not Abana and Farpar 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 then, when he sayeth 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.

Back to verse number nine. It says, So Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. So Naaman, as we already went through in the introduction to all this, if you'd like to call it that, Naaman, the king of Israel, has sent Naaman to Elisha.

The king of Israel realizes there's nothing that he can do about this situation. Elisha sends a message to the king of Israel, says, Send him to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.

It says, So Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. So here we have Naaman coming. He's got his horses.

He's got his chariot. He's got the strength behind him. And who knows how many servants he may have had with him. How many soldiers. He was a captain of the Syrian army.

How many people he had behind him. But he ends up standing at the door of the house of Elisha, the man of God, the prophet of God, who was the representative of God in this time.

And folks, what I want you to see here is that Naaman had come to the right place. He had come to the right place for healing. He had come to the right place for mercy.

He had come to the right place to have this ailment that he had lifted up off of him. He had come to the right place. He had come and was standing at the very door to Elisha's house.

But my fear now, in fact, I can't even call it a fear. I will say I know right now that there are people in churches, not only in this town, not only in this region, not only in this country, but the world over, there are people right now that have come to the right place.

They have gone to the house of God. They are assembling within the church of Almighty God. They are fellowshipping with the people of Almighty God.

But they are just like Naaman is in this account that we just read. They are just like Naaman. They come to these places expecting God to work like they expect Him to work instead of the way that God actually works.

Folks, God does not work according to our opinion. God does not work according to our expectations. God works in His own timetable. God works in His own way.

He does His own thing. He doesn't seek your permission. He doesn't seek my permission. He seeks no one's permission to do anything that He does. And that is a lesson that Naaman is about to learn here.

He has come to the man of God. He has come to the house of Elisha and He is standing at the very door awaiting mercy and awaiting healing, awaiting a move from God.

And there are many people right now in the same shape that Naaman was in. Maybe you were in that shape before you came to God. In fact, I dare say all of us were in that shape to one extent or another.

We thought that God would do this. We thought that God would do that. We read it just a few verses ago. Naaman said, Behold, I thought. I thought that it would happen this way.

But that's not the way that it happened. Let's read on now. Verse number 10. 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.

So Naaman has come to the prophet's house. He is standing at the very door, and the prophet doesn't even come out to greet him. He sends a messenger of his own to Naaman.

He sends a message to Naaman. But folks, this message is simple. This message, there's nothing elaborate about it. There's nothing exciting about it.

He sends a message, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be healed. You will be healed if you do this thing. But folks, what we have got to understand here is that Elisha, being the prophet of Almighty God, he is speaking the Word of God.

There is no way that Elisha could have known that the dip into Jordan seven times would have healed Naaman had God not revealed it to him. So he was speaking the Word of God.

And this is the exact same shape that many people the world over find themselves in. They hear the Word of God. They hear the preached Word of God. They hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But folks, the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be heard. People can hear it. They can admire it. They can love it. They can even agree with it. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires something.

It requires a response from everyone who hears it. And the thing is, Naaman, Naaman's response initially is negative.

Naaman's response is much like some of ours was, much like some of mine, much like mine was before I got saved. I could hear the Gospel, but I would brush it off.

I could hear the Gospel, and I'd say, that can't be true. That cannot be right. But folks, the truth of God's Word does not depend upon whether we think it's true or not.

God's Word is true regardless of what our opinion of it is. God's Word is true regardless of our interpretation. The Word of God is absolutely inerrant.

It is true. And as the Bible says, let God be true. And every man a liar. God's Word is truth. It speaks truth. The Gospel is truth. The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is all truth.

It is up to man to respond to those things. And man's response will either be positive in favor of the Gospel, in favor of God, in favor of the Word, or it will be negative.

No, I want to do it my own way. Or I thought that it would be this way. Or I thought that it would be that way such as Naaman thought here. Verse 11. Verse 11 says, 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 the place and recover the leper.

Again, if you read these words that Naaman speaks here, but Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought. I thought it would happen this way.

I thought that it would happen that way. And folks, again, it does not matter what we think. What matters is what the Bible says, what the Bible teaches.

I don't know as much about this book as I would like to know, but I know enough about it to where I can tell someone that they are a sinner, that they are in need of salvation.

I can tell them about the way of salvation that has been made in Jesus Christ. I can explain to them that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

I can explain to them that the wages of sin is death, but I can also explain to them, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I know enough about it to be able to explain those things, to be able to explain those things. Here is Naaman in the same shape that so much of the world is in, and if you're honest with yourself, in the same shape that you were in before you got saved, in the same shape that I was in before God imparted salvation and eternal life to my immortal soul, but behold, I thought, I thought, and what does he say?

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 the place and recover the leper. I don't know what place he was talking about striking the hand over.

I don't know if the leprosy was just concentrated in one spot and that's what he was talking about, but regardless, he was expecting, Naaman was expecting something dramatic to happen.

He was expecting some elaborate deliverance ceremony that Elisha the prophet would perform upon him. But what happened, we read it just a couple of verses ago, Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman.

Naaman's standing at the door of his house and he sent a messenger and he said, wash and be clean. Go down to Jordan seven times and wash and be clean.

There's nothing fancy about that. And folks, there is nothing fancy about the gospel and that is why the gospel is so offensive to the human heart. That's why it is offensive to human pride because we, like so many others, we want to say, I had something to do with my salvation.

I had something to do with God approving me. I did this and I did that. Folks, the gospel erases any boasting outside of Jesus Christ.

We can only boast in Christ just as Paul wrote. He said he could boast in nothing other than Christ, other than the cross of Christ. That's all we have to boast in, folks, because we have nothing to do with salvation.

All we are required as per the Scripture is to believe what we have heard, believe what we have read, believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and repent of our ways.

And if you truly believe that God sent His only begotten Son into this world to take your place on a cross on a hill called Calvary, to take your place on that cross, to take your beating, to take your scourging, to take your humiliation upon Himself, if you truly believe that, that will drive you to repentance.

That will drive you to repentance, turning from your ways, turning from wickedness, turning from evil, turning from the darkness, turning from the blackness, and turning toward God who is light, God who is righteousness, God who is holy, and God who through His Son makes us spotless and blameless according to the book of Jude.

Praise God. Hey, when God looks down upon me, He doesn't see Spencer Baumgartner, He doesn't see the filthy wretch that I am, but He sees the righteousness of His only begotten Son.

He sees the holiness of the crown jewel of heaven when He looks down and sees me. And I praise God for that. Because if He saw me, I'd still be in trouble.

But, the Bible teaches that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. And as long as I'm in Christ, God doesn't see me. He sees His Son. And His Son's work is what is pleasing to God.

His Son's finished work on Calvary, that is what pleases God. And that is the only work that God will accept as far as salvation is concerned.

Naaman here says, Behold, I thought it would be a different way. I thought deliverance would come in a different manner. And folks, the world is full of people that think that.

The church, unfortunately, is full of people that think that. But deliverance is the way that God says deliverance will be. There has never been one preacher other than Jesus Christ.

There has never been one preacher save a single soul. There has never been one preacher that was able to redeem a soul. There has never been one preacher that was able to wash a soul clean.

Only Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice is able to do those things. And that is offensive to a prideful world that wants something to do with it.

That offends them. It offended me before I was saved. It offended me that I could not please God. It offended me that nothing I could do would appease God.

But it was all for someone else's work. That was offensive to me. And truth be known, it was offensive to you as well. Verse number 12, Are not Abana and far par 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. He turned and went away angry. Wow! We just read it in the previous verse because it didn't happen the way that he thought that it would.

But notice here in this verse, he says, Are not Abana and far par rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? He's comparing his own way with the way of God.

God, or Elisha, sent a messenger with the word of God to Naaman. Go down to the Jordan and wash seven times and you will be healed.

Simple instructions. And here is Naaman comparing his way, comparing his country, comparing the waters that he was familiar with to God's way.

And we do the exact same thing. Whether you're saved or whether you're lost, we are prone to doing the exact same thing. Comparing how we think it should be as compared to the way that God actually works something out.

I don't understand why so and so passed away. I don't understand why they're still in the hospital. I don't understand why they still have a fever. I've prayed over these things.

Folks, when you pray and you pray on matters such as that, God, please heal them. God, please show mercy. God, please give them a touch from above.

You need also pray that God give you the grace to accept whatever His will is because it may not be that God's will is that they are healed. It may not be that they are healed immediately.

It may not be that they are healed a month later. They may be in that shape for years. Pray for the grace of God. Pray not only for the mercy for mercy for that person but pray for mercy for yourselves.

That is not a selfish prayer to ask for from God. God gives to His people. God hears His people and He acts on behalf of His people. And you can say that God knows our needs before we even ask Him.

I don't need to pray for that. Folks, God wants to hear from you. That's one of the most amazing things about all of Scripture. That is one of the most amazing things about God is that not only did He send His Son to be a sacrifice, to be an atonement for us, that we could be washed clean, that we could be forgiven, that we could be reconciled back to Him.

But His Son, with that same blood and that same sacrifice, made access to His throne. And God wants to hear from us. He wants to hear from us lowly creatures.

Us lowly creatures that have rebelled against Him. Us lowly creatures that are incapable of keeping His law. God wants to hear from us. Take advantage of that.

Take advantage of that. Make your prayer life a number one priority on your list. Whatever your list is, prayer should be at the very top of it.

God wants to hear from you. It says, Are not the waters of Abana and Farpar? Are not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?

The answer is a simple, emphatic no. Because that was not the instructions of God. And this is no different than someone walking into a church house and throwing $1,000 in the coffer.

God blessed their heart. But they say, Isn't my $1,000 worth something? Won't my $1,000 bring cleansing? Won't it bring healing?

Won't it make me right with God? The answer is no! Folks, Naaman had gold. Naaman had silver. Naaman had livestock. Naaman had clout.

He had reputation. He had all of these things. And none of them were capable of healing his problem. Folks, we are just like Naaman.

We are just like him. He went to Elisha's house. He was standing at the front door. And he had all these things behind him. But they could not solve the biggest problem that he had as per the Scripture, which was leprosy.

It could not solve that. And we were in the same shape that Naaman was. We had a bigger problem than that though. We had a problem of sin that we could not erase.

We had a problem of sin that we could not get rid of. Folks, it is in your very flesh. It is in your very nature to be a sinful creature. That is something that has been passed down since Adam and Eve.

And there is no way to get rid of it. But there is a way to be cleansed from it. There is a way to have the guilt cleansed. There is a way to have the humiliation cleansed. There is a way to have all this washed away.

But that way is of God's way. And that way is of God's instructions, I should say. And that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. And through man's belief in Jesus Christ and the repentance of his own ways.

It says he turned away and went away in a rage. He was mad. He was mad because it wasn't his way. Verse 13. And his servants came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?

How much rather then when he sayeth to thee, wash and be clean. What is his servants doing here? Essentially, his servants are evangelizing.

They're evangelizing to him. I don't know who said it, but one of the greatest terms I've heard since I've been saved and since I've gotten into street ministry especially, is that salvation is simply one beggar telling another beggar where they found bread.

And I say praise God, amen, and hallelujah to that. That's what it is. It is one beggar. Or that's what evangelism is. Not salvation. That's what evangelism is.

It's one beggar telling another beggar where they found bread. And that's exactly what evangelism is and that's exactly what these servants are doing. I'm not saying that these servants were necessarily right with God.

But, on the flip side of that, who was it that told Naaman about this prophet that was in Samaria? It was his wife. His wife probably would have been a Syrian as well.

But where did she hear about it from? From a little servant maid who was an Israelite. So these servants very well could have been Israelites. But regardless, regardless of any of that, it says his servants came.

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? And folks, there are people piled in churches right now that have that very same thought pattern.

I must do something great for God. I must do something incredible for God. I must do something exciting for God to cause him to pay attention to me, to cause him to see me, to cause him to put the spotlight upon me.

And these servants come to him and they say, Have the prophet, have Elisha told you, go and do some great thing. Go and lift a 200 pound boulder. Go and wrestle with this animal or with that animal.

Whatever the case is, would you not have done it? They said, but he didn't say that. He didn't say that. What did he say? Say how much rather than when he said to thee, Wash and be clean.

Folks, this makes me, every time I read this passage of Scripture, every time, it never fails. I think of the thief on the cross. I always think about the thief on the cross.

That malefactor, I understand Christ had two on one side, but the one on the one side. Folks, he could not be baptized. He could not offer up any type of restitution whatsoever.

He couldn't turn over a new leaf and live his life morally. Folks, he was on a cross and he was dying. And he knew that he was dying. But all that man could do, all he could do, he could not live a holy life at that point.

He was dying. He was taking his last breath and he knew it. All that he could do was face his eyes upon the dying Christ and believe upon him.

And that's all it took. And that's all it takes for you. That's all it took for me. That's all it takes to anyone out here in the world is to fix their eyes upon Jesus and believe upon him.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Hallelujah. I thank God that it's that simple. I praise God for the simplicity of the gospel.

How much more then? How much more when he says to thee, wash and be clean. I don't know anybody's heart here tonight. I don't know if you saved or lost. I have no reason to think that you're lost.

But it's all between you and God. It's all between you and God. And the very basic principle of the gospel is this line. Wash and be clean.

Wash and be clean. Come to the pountains that is filled with blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins. Wash and be clean. Wash in the blood of Christ to have all your sins removed.

Not only now, not only from the past, but for all of eternity. Hallelujah. Wash and be clean. Wash and be clean. Don't make it something more elaborate than what it is.

It is so simple. It is so simple to believe and to repent. When we believe and repent, we are washed and we are made clean. Not of our own works and not of our own doing, but all by the work and all by the doing and all for the plan that was put in place before the foundation of the world was ever laid.

All that plan revolves around and is centered upon the work of Jesus Christ. Wash and be clean in His blood. One more verse and we'll be done.

then He went 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.

He was clean. His servants in the previous verse said, if He had asked you to do some wonderful great and mighty thing, would you not have done it? how much the more that He says to you, wash and be clean.

And it says, then went He down. This mighty man, this man of valor, the Scripture describes Him as at the beginning of this same chapter.

This man who was captain, He was used to commanding people around. He was used to getting His way, to getting anything that He asked for. He had power. He had strength.

He had armies behind Him. And this man went down. This prideful, angry man went down. He humbled himself.

Okay, so it's not my way. So Elisha's not going to come out. And he's not going to strike the place as he calls upon the Lord his God. And I'm going to be made clean. He went down in humility.

He went down to Jordan. And folks, we must do the same thing. I'm not saying the Jordan River. Folks, there is nothing, there is nothing enchanting or magical or anything else about the Jordan River.

You can be baptized in Boone Lake just as easy as you can the Jordan. And neither one of those will save you. Neither one of those places where you're dunked in water will save you. Nor the action of being dunked in water will save you.

Only the blood of Jesus Christ has that kind of power. Only Christ can do that. Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God.

That's one of the greatest parts of this entire verse. He went down, he dipped himself in the Jordan according to what? The saying of the man of God. According to the word of God.

That's how this man Naaman received his cleansing. That's how he received his healing. And if you want to be healed, if you want to be cleansed of your sin, it will be by the word of God.

And not your own way. It will not be your own way. You must obey the word of God. Not just because that's what I'm up here preaching to you, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But because it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter who preaches it. No matter who preaches it. The gospel is the gospel. Now there are false gospels out there which are no gospels at all.

But there are gospels out there that people will preach which are not true. But what we find within the pages of this sacred book, this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And there is one way for cleansing and that is through and by Jesus Christ and none others. Then he went 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.

He obeyed the word of God. Not only did this man obey the word of God, this Gentile, this Syrian, this one that was outside of covenant relation with Almighty God.

He obeyed the word of God and God came through with this promise just like He said that He would. And when you obey the word of God and you come before God in humility, you come before God in belief, of what you have heard.

He finally, He finally believed it. He finally said, I'll go down. I will do it the way that it was said for me to do. When you finally come to that realization, the Bible says that all who believe will be saved.

The Bible says, Joel chapter 2 says, there's coming a day that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And Paul reiterates that in Romans chapter 10. It says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Hallelujah. You call upon the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved. Now, not only all this, but we'll go back to this little Israelite made for just a moment.

this is for the church. This is for those of you that know you're redeemed. This little girl, she had no armies like Naaman.

She had no strength. She had no power. She didn't even have any freedom. She was taken into captivity by the Syrians.

And she was a servant to the wife of Naaman. She was a servant to the Syrians. But she knew where the answer was.

She knew to tell Naaman's wife what Naaman needed to do. You that have been born again, you that are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, you know what to tell the world.

You know how you got saved. And you know who did the saving. And it is your job to go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature.

It is your job to go into the world and tell them where they can be cleansed. It is your job to tell them, hey, you can go not go to the Jordan, but using this Scripture as an example, go to the Jordan, dip seven times, and be clean, be cleansed, be made whole, and God will come through on His promises.

this girl, this little maiden girl, I said she had no power whatsoever, no strength behind her, probably not much reputation, but she knew the answer.

And folks, it doesn't matter how insignificant you feel like you are in the world, in the world, if you are born again child of God, you have the answer that the world needs to hear.

You know the things that the world needs to know about. Go and tell them about Christ. Go and tell them about redemption. Go and tell them about salvation.

Yes, tell them about sin, by all means. Because if they don't understand they need something to be, that they have something they need to be saved from, they'll never have any desire to be saved.

Yes, tell them that they're sinners. But tell them there was one who came, lived a perfect sinless life, died a vicarious death, was placed in a borrowed tomb, resurrected the third and appointed morning, has since ascended to the Father, and He mediates on behalf of everyone who has repented and believed on Him.

God bless you all. That's the message for this evening. I appreciate your attention. Praise the Lord.