dear congregation, the healing of Nehemiah in 2 Kings chapter 5 is not just a story of the healing of a man from one of the most dreadful diseases in ancient times, but it is a story of salvation, an illustration of us in the Old Testament of the saving of a soul. A salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. And the story of how people come to know of that salvation in Christ. Now in Naaman's healing, there's various people that are playing a role in his history. Some good and vital to the salvation and the healing of Naaman. And others, not so good. Some with good persuasions, others with evil persuasions. That really also describes us. Because we are either aiding or helping to bring sinners to Christ, or we are hindering them. One of the two. We see that in the history of Naaman. This morning, we're not going to be there in Samaria, we're going to Syria. Yes, that Syria that is much in the news today, with all the unrest and turmoil there. It's always been a nation of unrest and turmoil. A heathen nation, covered in darkness, a place of idolatry back in Elisha's days and heathen blindness and it really hasn't changed. But what we see in this history is an anticipation of the gospel that would go out from Israel through the Messiah and then out from the church carrying the light of Jesus Christ to Gentile nations. We have in this history an illustration of what God would do through the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. An illustration of the love of God that reaches out to a people in utter darkness. And an illustration of how He often uses the afflictions in those people's lives to draw them to Himself. in His goodness. In Romans 2, verse 4, the last part, do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Well, this morning we turn to our text in 2 Kings 5, the first 7 verses. I'll read you just verse 1. 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 man in valor, but he was a leper. And what follows, through the end of verse 7, our text speaks of Naaman, a leper, first going to look at his disease, what that actually was, and then secondly, why that's so significant in scripture, and thirdly, the possibility of cleansing of this disease. Naaman's disease. What we have in verse 1 is a picture of a sinner, before he comes to God. A picture of you and me as we are outside of Christ. The Hebrew word for Naaman, though he is Assyrian, he seems to have the Hebrew name, means to be delightful, pleasant, and even beautiful, well-formed, So the name suggests that he had been a very handsome man before leprosy struck him, but now his name is a contrast to his appearance and to his character because of that disease that had attacked his body. A striking picture of us created physically and spiritually beautiful in God's image before sin began to take its toll on us. Nehemia's description gives us a picture of him as he was seen by people. People who tend to look mostly on the outward appearance. Look at his position, one of the highest positions available in those days. He was the captain of the army of the king of Syria. He's the general of the Syrian army. second in command only to the king, a man of great authority, in a great position. He's a popular man, a man great with his master, and honorable. That means he was highly respected by the people, a national hero, as the general who'd been victorious over the enemies of the nation of Syria. on his chest these days would be medals of honor and valor. And notice in verse 1 how scripture describes the source of his victory and courage, it says, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. So the Lord uses all people, saved and un-saved, to carry out his decree. But Naaman has a problem. The words, but he was, in italics and king James, are not there in Hebrew. So you have a description of Naaman, the captain. Great, honorable, mighty, leprous. Doesn't seem to fit together, does it? great man, honorable, mighty leprous. In his scripture, leprosy is a picture of sin and of man's true condition without the saving grace or the spiritual healing of God's salvation in Christ Jesus. And regardless of how men may see us, or how we see ourselves in God's holy and pure eyes, we are leprous without the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through faith in the person and work of the Savior. Here we have God's perspective on the true condition of this man and of all of us by nature, regardless of how we are seen and thought of by man. Holy God's perspective of man without Jesus Christ under the ruin of sin. And billions today are perishing from the leprosy of sin. You may be here this morning, a great person, successful, wealthy, honorable, highly respected by people, and spiritually lost. To realize your lost condition before God, and to desire to escape from it, are the first steps towards salvation. What does leprosy in the Bible teach us about sin and its effects in our lives? What can we learn from this history about man's condition in sin and what God does for man in Christ Jesus to heal him from the leprosy of sin? We'll get to that in a minute, but we first need to realize what this leprosy actually was. The Hebrew word for leprosy is for a wide range of skin diseases. and actual leprosy. In Greek it comes from a word that means to peel off in scales. It's like psoriasis, only far more serious than the psoriasis we know today. In those days there were two types of leprosy. The very dangerous type that was malignant and a more gentle type. And they both started the same way. There would be a discoloration of a patch of skin. It would turn white or pink. It would scare people when they saw that. It would most likely appear on your eyebrow or your nose or your ear or your cheek. And that malignant type, as it begins to spread, had all kinds of effects. Portions of a person's eyebrow would disappear. And then these spongy little tumors like swellings would appear on the face and the body of that person. And this disease was deeply seated in the bones and the joints and the marrow of the body. And it resulted in the deterioration of the tissues between the bones. And the end result would be deformity and a loss of feeling in children. people's toes and fingers would eventually fall off. And this type of leprosy was impurable and would last until the victim dies. Some of these people would live for 20 to 30 years in that miserable condition. The other type, the less severe type, would last from one to three years, and when it looked like it was gone, you would have to go to the priest, and he would observe it, and then he would declare you cleansed. But other than by God's direct intervention, there was no cure for malignant leprosy. That's why all those special instructions were given in Leviticus 13 and 14. was not only for health reasons, but for spiritual reasons and ceremonial reasons. Because leprosy is a picture of sin and all its features and its effects upon man and on his relationship with God. Leprosy is very significant in scripture. How so? Well, that's our second thought, the significance of leprosy in the Bible. In Old Testament Israel, if you had leprosy, you were considered unclean, and you would be isolated from society. Wherever you went, You had to cry out when people were coming, unclean, unclean. You had to wear a black cloak with a hood covering your face. You had to live outside of the walls of the city. And Jesus, when He came here, He cleansed lepers. But it never says that he healed them or cured them. It always speaks of cleansing them. And that's because a true leper was incurable in Bible times. Just like sin is incurable. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says we are desperately wicked. It means also that we are beyond pure, incurably sick. And Isaiah puts it like this in chapter 5, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in our body but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And there is nothing a sinner can do to deal with his sin problem, just like there was nothing a leper could do to deal with his leprosy problem. Sin separates us from God, and even from intimate fellowship with other people. So when the Lord Jesus healed a leper, that picture should have been so obvious. Christ alone was and is the means of reconciliation, the means of peace with God and man. In the Old Testament, when the priest said, you are cleansed, that's not what cleansed it. It simply recognized the fact that this leper who had that mild form of leprosy was indeed clean of the disease. and could be reconciled to society. We need to know that leprosy, like sin, begins on the inside, and then it erupts on the skin, on the surface. Lepers are just like sinners. It's not just what we do, and say that it's so bad, but it's what we are. Our mouth speaks and our hands do what they do as a result of what our heart is and what our heart thinks. In Leviticus 13, even the slightest blemish on the skin, there was a little swelling or a scab or a bright spot had to be very carefully observed to see if it was leprosy. The priests had to examine the skin and then pronounce that person clean or unclean, depending on what he was observing, depending on what he saw. And so today, the Lord Jesus has provided cleansing for sin. And every one of us, especially believers who are all priests, are to detect sin in our own lives and pronounce it as sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the proof is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, we have not sinned, we make God a liar. And the proof is not in us. That would be like an Old Testament leper looking at his leprosy and saying, I don't have leprosy. The truth would not be in him. Same with us. We say, I have no sin. And the truth is not in us. That would make God a liar. See, the pain, the pain of leprosy in most forms was not severe, because leprosy also killed the nerves in the area that was affected. These people didn't really feel a lot of pain, but they were restless, and miserable, and frustrated, and disgraced. As they saw all that happening, parts of their bodies becoming numb, the muscles wasting away, the tendons in their hands contracting, making their hands like claws many times. And they were losing bits and pieces of their hands and their feet until it was all gone. That's the picture God wants us to see from Scripture this morning. This is what sin is like. because of man's separation from God, because of our spiritual deadness and the hardness of our hearts, we by nature become insensitive and calloused, yet restless and never satisfied. No, we may not have severe pain from our sins and waywardness, not only insensitivity, and restless misery, and emptiness, and ever seeking a means to fulfill, and to run after one thing after another, looking for satisfaction, and never finding it. The wicked, says Isaiah in chapter 57 verse 20, are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked." So by nature, our ultimate difficulty is death and loss and the judgment of separation. And because of the nature of the disease, A leper was often considered like a dead man. He was living kind of a living death, even though he was still physically alive. And that's how it is with us. Without Christ, we are nothing more than the living dead. Yes, walking around and talking, but according to Ephesians 2, dead in trespasses and sins. And regardless of your position, or your honor, or your power, or your possessions, or whatever it is, leprosy, like sin, is no respecter of persons. Naaman was a man of great prestige. but the lepers. Now in Israel, according to the law, lepers were excluded. And the most painful part for a truly godly leper would be to be excluded from religious society. They were banned from the temple. They could have no communion with God's people. And as a picture of sin and its effects, God used this to remind all of Israel of His holiness. Cleansing a leper meant that he would be restored to that communion, restored to a normal life, Later on, when a little girl says that she wishes that her master could go to that prophet in Israel because he would recover him of his leprosy, the word there means to receive him back. Receive back, and that's a fitting picture of our reconciliation to God and to each other. All things are of God, says Paul. who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's what it would mean to be recovered from leprosy. All leprosy, the leprosy of sin, destroys the pleasantness, the graciousness, the beauty that God meant for man in his creation. Sin deforms us. Oh, we may be beautiful on the outside, but inside, like a grave with dead bones, until In Christ, we are made new creations and can be transformed into His glorious likeness again. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Think of Naaman. His greatest problem that he knew about was that he was lecherous. And that's exactly the problem that God is going to use for Naaman, to bring him to himself. And God often does that still today. He will use our personal failures or sicknesses or problems or afflictions to bring us to a place where we don't know anywhere we're to turn anymore, to bring us to a knowledge of the Lord and His salvation, so that we may say with David in Psalm 119, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Not only does the Lord often use those problems in our lives to draw us to himself initially, but he often uses further problems in our lives to force us to face our deepest problem. The problem of indwelling and ongoing sin and our desperate need of God's forgiveness and salvation in Christ Jesus. Zenaiman went from his problem to God's solution. And that was much more and much better than the healing of his leprosy. Because as we will see later on today, this afternoon, Naaman came to know the one true God, and to worship Him, and to love Him, and to adore Him. So when we are going through difficult times, remember, this is often exactly what the Lord is using to draw us ever closer to Him and to depend exclusively on Christ Jesus. So now we have met Naaman, the general of the Syrian army, and we know what his greatest problem is now. He has leprosy. What about Think about this for a moment. What about if we had to choose one person from this congregation to go to Syria and to speak with the general of the Syrian army today and be the first person to tell this man of the possibility of cleansing? Because there's a prophet of God who could do it. be the first person to speak to the Syrian, the Gentile of God. Who would we choose if we could vote? Who from this congregation would we send? I think for sure it would be one of the elders, don't you? They know. Or somebody who's really highly educated. who could argue and reason all about God and salvation. And we would choose the wrong person. Do you know who the Lord chose to be the first person to speak to an army general in the Syrian army, the hated enemy of Israel? He had his messenger. Oh yes, the Lord always has messengers for his word. And there is a person whose heart he has prepared to hear the word of God. God always has his messengers. And sometimes the most unexpected ones. Here, God's messengers begin with a little girl. Would we have looked around this morning and say, let's find a ten-year-old girl and send her? There's some ten-year-old girls here, I'm sure. You would be the one to go. You wouldn't like the way you got there, because this little girl is a little slave girl. In fact, by God's amazing and matchless grace, God has worked through the unrighteous deeds of Naaman and his own army to bring this little girl into Naaman's house, to be an instrument of God's love for Naaman. Because what's happened to this little ten-year-old girl She was taken captive by rough and tough soldiers, snatched from her family, and then sold in Syria. And Naaman bought her. And now she's working for Mrs. Naaman as her servant girl. It seems she's been forgotten. But the Lord has not forgotten her. He's blessed her with childlike faith and trust in the Lord. So what kind of messengers does God use to speak to the sinners of the world? He uses those who know and love the Lord. Here was a little girl, humble, obedient, insignificant to people, living under horrible conditions. They may have treated her nicely there, but she was nowhere near her family, nowhere near the place of worship, and yet, in that place, using the very problems that the Lord has brought into her life, using them as opportunities, and open doors to witness for God. Oh, she's so small, so weak, so insignificant, but she knew. She knew the Almighty. and the sovereign Lord. And she knew that Elisha was a prophet of Jehovah, the Lord of the universe. With him, there is healing. And she was willing to point others to the most significant being in the whole universe. Jehovah, the God of Israel. She knew he could cure Naaman's disease. And so she speaks. She speaks words that we use every day. And she speaks to Mrs. Naaman. And she says, Oh, I wish that my master could go to Samaria, where there's a prophet who can heal him of his leprosy. And Mrs. Naaman, when Naaman comes home, she tells him and he goes and tells the king. Now why would, why would one of the most powerful men in the world of that day, why would he pay any attention to what a little ten-year-old girl says to him? A slave girl for crying out loud. Why did they listen to her? Why do you think children like You know why that was? It's because the way she lived her life. They could see the way this girl lives is a testimony. And when she speaks, they listen to her. Because they know she's for real. Otherwise they would never have listened to her words. But her life gave credibility to what she said. And the Lord used this little girl to be the first person in Amon's life to begin his journey towards the Lord. A little girl. As an example, for us We so often think, I don't know how to speak to people. How foolish is that? You speak all day long. Can we not say something like what this little girl said? When we meet somebody and they tell us the problems they're having, can we not say something like, I wish you knew the Lord Jesus? Could the Lord not use that as the first step in drawing that person to himself, bringing him under the preaching of the Word? He did it here. He hasn't changed. Our problem is that we are more like Nehemiah, originally, and the King of Israel. Then we are like this little girl. What's Naaman doing? He's a typical man. Typical human being. He knew he had a big problem. He's got this leprosy. But he wants to have a part in the healing. He's trusting in his power. in his position, in his riches. He doesn't know about God's grace yet. He's thinking in terms of favoritism, and leverage, and political power, and wealth, and what he can earn, or buy, or take by force. So Naaman, first thing he does is go to the king of Syria. with the noose. Guess what, your royal majesty? This little slave girl of my wife, she tells me there's a prophet in Samaria who can heal me of my leprosy. And I would like permission to go there. And Naaman is a very good general, so the king doesn't want to lose him. He gives his permission. I'll help you, Naaman. But he does the same thing Naaman does. He's thinking in terms of political power and financial power. They thought they could just go and buy the favors of the God of Israel from the prophet of Jehovah through the king of Israel. You don't go to the prophet, you go to the king. He's the most powerful, influential person And so this king of Syria sends Maimon to the king of Israel, not to the prophet. And he took with him a lot of money. 750 pounds of silver and 150 pounds of gold and fine clothing as a payment. I did a search on the gold and silver prices this week. And by today's figures, that would be $4.5 million. That's what he brought. Put that in his context there in Syria, that would have bought 500 horses for the army of Syria. This is what Ne'eman brings. This is how he's going to pay for his healing. That was the cultural pattern of the day, and of our day. But that's not God's way. So that's how the king of Syria and Naaman, his general, go to work. And we would expect it from them. They're pagans, they're heathens, they don't know how this God works. But the king of Israel would surely know, wouldn't he? Well, in verse 7 we find out even though he knows, he doesn't act according to his knowledge either. Here is the king of Israel, the man in power and position and wealth, but he doesn't speak of the Lord. He's no witness for God, like the little slave girl was. Instead of immediately pointing them into Elisha's house, That that's where he has to be, by the prophet of God. No, the king is paralyzed with fear and paranoid. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to speak of the love of Jehovah for his people, he thinks the king of Syria is making an incident here so he can come and attack. What? Am I God? that I can kill and make alive, instead of seeing this as an opportunity to direct this man to the power of the Lord, he's thinking of himself, cowardly, selfishly. What a contrast to the little slave girl, little ten-year-old, who was thinking of others. A little girl who, because the Lord loved her, loved the Lord, and loved others, even those who had done her terrible wrong, like Naomi. She could have fought like many would. Naaman is getting what he deserves, serves him right. Or she could have tried to make some kind of a deal and say to Mrs. Naaman, I'll tell you where he can get healed if you let me go free. She didn't do that. She spoke of the Lord. no matter who the other person was. And like the King of Israel, how quick we are to begin reasoning and thinking about how other people are going to react to what we're saying. Expecting the worst, what will they think of me if I start talking about God and Jesus? Instead of taking life situations as they come into our daily life, wherever the Lord places us, as opportunities to serve the Lord and to see Him work. Why are we like that? Because we are paralyzed by self-love. That's why. Paralyzed by self-love, blinded by ourselves. So the Lord gives us this morning an example in His Word of how to go about speaking to others. In your daily situations, wherever you are, if you live in your life, The Christian life, as a Christian, your words will have credibility. People will listen to you. They will. They want, really, what you have. That's what they're lacking. But this little girl, accountable to her master, in the service of his wife, in a place where she didn't want to be, as a captive uprooted from her home and family, trusting the Lord and thinking of others' needs. So what did all this do for Naaman? Well, it shattered his trust. in human resources. Naaman is learning here that all the stuff he brought along to pay for his cure was worthless. He's left holding the bag full of money and he's still leprous. Naaman needed to learn And we all need to learn that we must never trust in anything to be saved or to stay saved except God's grace in and through the work of His Son. Nothing else will do. That's it. Children, did you know that Naaman is also mentioned in the New Testament? In fact, the Lord Jesus talks about Naaman. He's in a little place, and the people there are saying, do some miracles for us in his hometown. And then he says, no, a prophet is not received in his hometown. Then he says, there are many lepers in Israel, in Elisha's days, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. Why did God do that? It reminds us of God's amazing love, God's amazing grace in choosing His people his marvelous election. He could have gone to all the lepers in Israel and cleansed them all. But he went to one in Syria. That's the one he had chosen to be cleansed. Think for a moment, dear believers, of 35 million people in Canada Out of all those 35 million, He has chosen you. Bypassed millions of others and chosen you. And the only way to account for it is God's sovereign electing love. There was nothing in Naaman that would have moved God to choose him Just like there was nothing in you that would move God to choose you. You are who and what you are only by God's amazing grace. God's love for sinners. What are you going to do with that good news? Let's go and spread the good news of God's love in Christ Jesus for sinners. And let's never forget what scripture says, Ephesians 2 verse 8, For by grace are you saved, through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. In Titus 3 verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Almighty God and Merciful Father, We see in the dealings of the Lord in Naaman's life such a picture of Thy dealing with Thy people, choosing us from before the foundation of the world, sending Thy Son to obey Thy law perfectly and yet to die as a guilty one for our sins. And O Lord God, we do pray for boldness. to proclaim the news of the goodness of the Lord. We have seen, O Lord, in this history also, how Thou hast used the testimony of a little girl as the first step in drawing Naaman unto Thyself. Lord, take away our great self-love, our cowardliness. Give us boldness, we pray. and a love for the souls of others, so that we may see all other people as image of God, having a soul destined for eternity, whose only hope is in Christ Jesus. Lord, bless us, we pray. Be with us now as we go to our catechism classes and to the sermon discussion. Bring us safely home afterwards and back again this afternoon. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.