A moment ago we read 2 Kings 5, 1-14. And the question I would like to ask you this morning as we begin is, what possible difference does it make to you that this story is here? I mean, I suppose this is one of those stories somewhat like David and Goliath and Zacchaeus, the wee little man, and a number of other stories that you've probably heard since you were a child. And they become, I think, in our minds perhaps, We know they're inspired, we know that they're the word of God, but what possible difference does it make that this story about Naaman is cured? Does it really matter to you and me that some Aramean general at some time in Syrian history was cured of his leprosy even by a man of God in Israel? One of the things I think is very important to think through as you come to narrative histories in the Scripture is that biblical history is not merely history. Biblical history is revelation. It is not merely a compendium of facts for us, sort of like the average history text. God put these in scripture for a very precise purpose to teach us something. And I think that our Lord Jesus identified very clearly what that purpose is when he said to the Pharisees of his day, you keep searching the scriptures, and 2 Kings 5 would have been one of those scriptures. He said, you keep searching them, thinking you'll find salvation, and you do not understand. They're testifying about me. And our confession of faith also says that everything that is written in the Old Testament contains types and figures and shadows of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So in some way, that may not be so very obvious on the surface, this text speaks to you and me about the Savior in whom we profess faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow or other, if Jesus is correct, and of course He is, and our confession is correct, This text is pointing forward in some fashion to Jesus Christ, and in that sense, our lives intersect with it, no matter how irrelevant it may seem to be, if you were to take it as a bare statement of facts. Now let's see if we can unpack the glories of Christ in this text this morning. In verse 1, we have a description of a man named Naaman. Somewhat ironically, as we will see in a moment, his name, it is supposed, means well-formed and beautiful. This man is a man who is on the fast track of success. He is a captain of the army of the king of Aram. He is a man who has a very high and lofty position in the army of Syria, but that's not all that's going on here. He's not merely a man of great position. He is a great man with his master. In other words, his superiors like him. They think he's A great asset to the army. Now, for those of you who have ever labored in an employment situation, you know it's not altogether certain that just because you think you're so hot, your employer will. But this man not only has a great position, he is a man who is regarded very highly by his superiors. That's not all. He is highly respected by the common people. Why? Because through this man, the Lord, Yahweh, very interesting, through a pagan, Yahweh, God, had given victory to Aram. So this man has a track record of success. If you look into his past and check out his dossier, this man has been used by God to do some great things for his country. And as if all that's not quite enough, not only his position, not only his respect from his master, not only his past acts of valor, but he is in himself a valiant warrior. This is no man sitting behind a desk giving orders. He, the man, has been out there on the front lines. and done great things on the battlefield. And then you have this simple phrase, somewhat seemingly out of nowhere, and he was a leper. Now maybe, frankly, this doesn't really ring with you. Maybe the idea of a Syrian general just doesn't spark your imagination a whole lot. But this is something like, if you can imagine, some rich, young, good-looking investment guru in a top firm on Wall Street. And this guy is just scaling like a monkey up through the ranks of corporate power, and his superiors think he is the hottest thing going. And if you want a man to tell you what to do with your investments, the word on the street is, get this man right here. He is the man. In every respect, you look at his life and you think, now that's the kind of man, if I could have success, if I could have life as I wish it were, instead of being humble me, that's the kind of man I'd want to be. And it's sort of like if you were to pick up the paper one day and read, but he's dying of pancreatic cancer. And this brings us to the first point of our message, brothers and sisters, which is simply this, in all the grandeur of verse one, or if you like the analogy of the guru on Wall Street. The first point being simply this, that all of life, if you look at Nahum's life as an example, all of life bears the ugly marks of death and of sin. There's always a but. In the best of times, in the greatest of lives, the most successful life, there's always that but, but something. A life bearing the ugly marks of death and of ruin. And I'm not trying to allegorize this story. That is to say, I'm not saying Naaman didn't really happen. He's just sort of this mythological figure who sort of represents the sufferings of men or the success of men. This is a real man whose life really bears the evidence of the truth I just stated, which is that all of life, even a great life like Naaman's, bears the marks of death and ruin. It's always there. There's always something that's that scuttles and sullies what would otherwise be such a pristine existence. And I think we can see this by looking no farther than the morning paper. Because here you and I live today, we are in perhaps the most technologically advanced age in the history of mankind. People can communicate with each other today in ways they have never had the possibility of communicating ever in the entire history of the known world. We live in a day when there is more opportunity for man to better himself than there has ever been in all of human history, perhaps, and we still cannot bring world peace. No matter how hard we labor and no matter how much we build up our world, it seems like, I mean, this is a happening time to be living in. We still can't even bring peace to the Middle East or to most of the rest of the world. And what's very interesting is the war is not only going on across the ocean. All of our communication, All of our self-advancement has not really done very much at all for our crime problem. It hasn't solved the fact that racial tensions are rending our cities apart. There was, standing in this city not too many years ago, the two greatest symbols of economic power and wisdom in the entire known universe, and in the space of an hour, two planes brought them down. We live in a grand time, and in every age there have been empires, there have been great men, and great lives, and great things, but there's always the buts. The ugly mark of death and of sin. And I remember very well when the Berlin Wall came down, and the Iron Curtain was finally being pulled back, and there was this rush of excitement. Democracy was going to sweep the eastern block of Europe. And you know something? Most of these countries today that have, in the post-communist era, I fear that democracy has brought them more plunder and destruction than communism ever did, and that's a difficult thing to believe for those of us who have grown up in the capitalist West. But the truth is that there's always something, and in the grand golden ages as they sweep in, there's always the but. We don't need to necessarily go to the public events of the world, brothers and sisters. You know this in your own lives. How many years have you spent laboring to try to earn that nest egg? And there's always something, the stock market crashes or the interest rates go down or you have an unexpected expense. And some of you, maybe you have actually achieved your nest egg or you're getting close and you about get it wrapped up and it's finally in the bag and then your wife hands you divorce papers. Or your children, you haven't seen them in 16 years. There's always a but. Life is going along fine, and then there's always something comes in. There's a sickness. Maybe it's just a set of allergies. Maybe it's something far worse. Maybe all of a sudden you're dealing with what Larry Stavage is dealing with. And you think he wouldn't acknowledge to you this morning that his life bears the ugly marks of death and ruin? I think he would. I think he would gladly testify to that. And every one of you, you have your own things you can relate to. There's something that messes it up, that sullies it and spoils it and ruins it. And then it's interesting, I mentioned a moment ago all of our technological advances, but for you young people, I know very well because I am a young person, that for many of you, in all the glitz and glamour of this culture, we're dealing with something that was unheard of before the radio and the TV and the internet and the BCRs and the CD player and everything else that we have fun with these days. We're dealing with youth today, and I have struggled with this myself, who are radically, fundamentally bored. with a boredom that was almost unheard of prior to the invention of all these fun things to do. Young people who really, when the music's off and the TV is off, some of you, I know, you struggle with a sense of, well, what now? I'm just plain bored. What's life about anyway? Who cares? I mean, you just have to sort of keep filling your mind with things to just keep that boredom at bay. There's always something at the bottom of our life that's messing it up. Scripture doesn't keep us in suspense as to why this is so. Scripture says boldly and unapologetically that sin entered the world by one man and death came with sin. It says that there was a perfect creator who created a perfect creation and left the man creature and his wife to the freedom of their own will, and they ethically, morally rebelled against the good and wholesome law of their creator. And when they did, they brought miseries in this life, death itself, and the pains of hell forever. washing into this perfect creation and utterly sullying it, and that is what you see when you read the newspaper, that is what you see in your own life, that there is always something, a death mark, a ruin mark, that creeps in and messes up the best of times. But this is at least an explanation, brothers and sisters, because what you will find is, if you look at the way the philosophy, and I say this somewhat parenthetically, if you look at the way that our world approaches the whole problem of evil today, the reality is The world without God has nothing to fall from. There's nothing in the mind of the man who says there is no God. There's nothing to fall from. There is no law of a creator from which you can fall. So therefore, you have no fall. And you know what that leaves you with? Evil that's just there. Evil that is equally ultimate with good. There's no way to distinguish good and evil because there's nothing to fall from. So at least, as heart-rending as it may be, we have an explanation in the Scriptures for why it is that everything in life always has this but attached to it. Which brings us to our second point. All of life bears the ugly marks of death and of ruin. But there's a second point. And that is that God, we'll come back to our text now, having seen verse one, God offers deliverance through foolish messengers and foolish means. The Arameans had gone out in bands, and they had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she was waiting on Naaman's wife. And one day she comes to her master's wife, and she says, I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, because then he would cure him of his leprosy. And you sort of have to wrap your minds around this. Now, I want you to think about this for a minute. I ask you, let us suppose for a minute And you're sitting in your house one day, and you're very little, and you know, you're just enjoying your toys and your things, and all of a sudden, terrorists break in the front door. And they grab you, and they put a bag over your head, and they drag you out to a van, and they drive you to the airport, and they put you on a plane, and they fly you overseas, and there in some strange foreign land, they make you slave in the kitchen all day long. I want you to think about it. This happened to this young girl here. Now I want you to notice something very interesting. I ask you, would you wish those people well? I doubt it. I mean, I know I'm not questioning your sanctification, you children, but I don't think you would wish them well. I think you'd be very, very angry. I think you would wish them all sorts of hurt. I think you would wish their children might be taken captive and they would see what it feels like. But I would have you notice this young girl. This is her response. She says, I wish that my master could go to my country and receive healing. This girl is a slave in a foreign country, but she is not a slave. to bitterness. And you children, I know you have sufferings in your life, and I don't know that they are as extreme. I assume they're not as extreme as the squirrels are. You have sufferings in your life. You have hardships. You have things that bother you a great deal. I tell you this, God uses children. And he uses children who respond to the hard things in their life, the frustrations, The parents who sometimes drive you wild, the brothers and sisters who drive you wilder, the school assignments you hate. When you deal with your sufferings and you have a response of wishing for God's best in the situation, and you open your heart to the Lord, and you do not allow bitterness to rule your heart. God uses children. He used this girl mightily here. But have you noticed something else? It's not just that she's not bitter. She has great faith in the God of her people back in Israel. Because she says here, He would, this prophet of God, would cure my master. She had no question in her mind that the God of that land of Israel that I have been stolen away from, that God is God, and He will do what no physician or doctor in this land, this pagan land, can ever do. He can heal leprosy. Now that, I doubt this girl had ever seen a leper cured. She knew something about the character of God here, and she pointed her mistress to the God of Israel. Children, keep that in mind. You're not too young to have faith in the God of Israel. But this is the first test of Naaman's pride. Would you have listened? I mean, think about this for a minute. You've already got a picture of this girl. She's probably, you know, dirty with wash water and probably, you know, less than impressive clothes. And she comes to her mistress and she says, you know, she's, what, 10 years old, maybe? She says, I wish that my master were with the prophet in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy. Just like, no big deal. He would cure him of his leprosy. If I were Nehemiah, I'd be tempted to say, yes, and children should be seen and not heard. Thank you very much. Would you have listened? To a child, to a kitchen maid, would you have listened to this foolish messenger? I ask you, you're a captain of an army. Are you going to be told what to do by a little girl? Are you going to listen to what she has to say? You see, God always sends those sorts of messengers. He sent a bunch of fishermen and foolish unlearned men to turn the world upside down. He sent them as the off-scouring of all things. If you want the scum of society, here's the apostles. And God sends them to turn the world upside down. Paul says, I was with you in weakness and trembling and much fear. I mean, I was no kind of messenger you'd want to hear from. Well, God spoke in this case to a tiny little kitchen maid. A foolish messenger. This is a first test of Naaman's pride. Will he listen when God speaks to him out of the mouth of babes? Well, it's not just a foolish messenger. It's an altogether foolish means and a foolish message. So the story goes on and Naaman listens and he goes to his master. And we don't know what sort of laughter went on in that kingly hall when he said, thus spoke the girl who was from the land of Israel. But I have a suspicion there may have been in the minds of these Aramean barons just a bit of humor. Well, we'll indulge this fiction. We'll go to the land of the Israelite slaves and we'll see what we can find with this prophet. But anyway, the king says, fine. go and I'll send a letter with you." So Naaman comes, not just with a letter, he comes prepared to pay well. If you look at this, it says here ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold. That's about fifty or sixty thousand dollars. He wasn't coming with a bunch of pocket change. He was coming prepared to give over a massive sum of money to see what would happen here. And he brings ten chains of raiment, which in the oriental culture was worth a lot of money. Clothing was highly priced by them. The king of Aram probably wrote this letter thinking the king of Israel will go and when he receives this letter, he will intercede with this mysterious prophet fellow, whoever he is. And I doubt he was really thinking of Jehoram himself. The king of Israel would cure Naaman. But he sends this letter anyway. It's interesting, the king of Israel's response here. This letter comes to him, you can imagine, he's not a fan of Syrians, they have been plundering his country, and he in walks this Aramean captain with the air of a king bringing $60,000 and ten changes of clothing, and this letter in which the king of Aram, his enemy, is saying, and now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent a name of my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy. You have to wonder, there's a little bit of a snicker between the lines here. If you look back a couple of chapters at this king of Israel, Jehoram, he has just had an encounter with Elisha the prophet in which he has had an absolutely miraculous deliverance from the Moabites. If you read chapter 3 sometimes, you want to get a perspective on chapter 5. It's unbelievable. This man has had a direct encounter with the sovereign power of Yahweh administered through Elisha. And he is so blind, By his own idolatry, you would find if you read again in chapter 3, this man is an idol worshipper. He's so blinded by his idolatry, even though he's had an experience of the power of God, that all he can see is the fight that's about to ensue. He has no concept at all of the bigger picture of the glory of God whatsoever here. And he starts fussing and fuming, and you can imagine that Naaman, probably at this moment, suddenly is very sick, because whatever perhaps laughter he has entertained about this possible cure. He's here because he believes there's a possibility. And now, every hope is exhausted. The doctors in his country can't cure him. His king can't cure him. The astrologers and magicians can't cure him. Now the king of Israel can't cure him. As you might get the sense, deep inside of this man, his body is being eaten away by this disease. He knows he's going to die and all the success he's had is going down with him. And I'm sure in the pit of his stomach there's a bit of a knot that says, it's all over now. I'm stuck with this disease. Well, how by whatever means, word of the fussing of King Jehoram reaches Elisha. And he sends a somewhat thinly veiled rebuke to King Jehoram. He says, why have you torn your clothes? Now let this man come to me. And here is sort of the quinge of irony. And he, King Jehoram, Not perhaps you, who are the very king of Israel, the covenant people of God, who ought to know the God it is whose land you rule. But at least this man, this pagan, he will know there is a God in Israel. So Naaman leaves, and I'm sure Jehoram was probably glad to see him go. And Naaman comes with his horses and his chariots. Try to imagine the scene with him. Chariots and horses. It's a great train of attendance. And he comes. And he stands at the doorway of the house of Elisha. And there's an interview of sorts. Here this regal captain with all of his chariots and horses comes thundering up to the door of this probably very simple hovel of the prophet. And they're standing there. You can sort of hear the horses stamping. There's this sense of anticipation. This is the mysterious prophet of Israel. What's going to happen? Well, a servant comes out and says, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you shall be clean. There's no appearance of this mysterious prophet. Doesn't even show his face. There's no acknowledgment of the money. No acknowledgment of a pomp and circumstance. There's a simple message. Go wash in the Jordan, and you'll be clean. Now what kind of a message is that? I mean, we know the end of the story. You've got to put yourself back and imagine what's going through Naaman's mind at this moment. Water doesn't cure leprosy. I mean, not even an Israelite would have been so silly as to think water cures leprosy. That wasn't even provided in the law as a means of literally washing away the filth of this disease. Go wash in the Jordan? What kind of message is that? And what about all this money I've brought? What about my person? Well, is that not, brothers and sisters, precisely what God says to you and me in the gospel? He says simply, wash you in the blood of Jesus, and you shall be clean. Now what kind of a message is that? Washing in the blood of some first century carpenter can't cleanse me of my sin, can it? Ah, but God says it can. And he says to you, he commands you, wash you in the blood of my Son, and you shall be clean. We come then to the third point. All life bears the ugly marks of death and ruin. God offers deliverance through a foolish messenger and through foolish means. Then we have a third point, which is that sinners naturally hate God's appointed means of deliverance. Watch what happens here. We have Naaman's reaction in verses 11 through 12, and he is not just a bit miffed. He is furious. The leprosy of his heart comes oozing to the surface at this moment. And he explodes. And we have in verse 11 his expectations. He says, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me. He will at least have the decency to come out and acknowledge my person. I've come all this way with all this money and all these clothes and expecting something from him. He could at least come out to me. That's his expectations. That's not his only expectation. He says, and then I thought he would at least stand and call on the name of the Lord, note the adjective here, his God. I mean, Naaman doesn't yet get it. He does not see this God of this prophet as the God of all the earth. He sees this as the private God of this mysterious prophet. And he says, I would have thought he would at least come out and call in the name of the Lord his God. And he wants a little hocus-pocus and pomp and circumstance. He says, I wish he would at least wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. I mean, put on a show, for crying out loud. I'm paying for a good Broadway show here with all this money, so at least put something on. Those are his expectations. Well, we don't just have expectations. We find out that Naaman, in the leprosy of his heart, also has some alternative ideas. In verse 12, and notice here the contempt for Israel and for Israel's God. And not just that, there's an out-and-out mockery of God here. Look what he says. He says, Are not Abana and Pharqar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? Now, do you think Naaman, for one moment, entertained the idea that if he went back to Damascus and washed in the Abana on Farpar, he would be cleansed? No. The seething contempt is right on the surface here, and he's basically saying, God, if you're going to pick a river, if you're going to be that silly, at least pick a clean one from my country. I mean, it's just, there's seething mockery here. Are not Aban on far, far the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of this stinking country from which we've been dragging slaves? I mean, it's right there on the surface now. And one commentator says, Naaman sits entrenched behind his own opinions, measuring what is divine by an earthly standard. Can you imagine a greater fool than this man? He is without any other remedy, brothers and sisters. I've said it already. His physicians back home can't cure him. His king can't cure him. The king of Israel can't cure him. And he has the audacity to come up to this prophet of Israel and to start issuing orders like a king instead of like a beggar. Can you imagine any greater... There is nothing in one... If I may say it this way, with all humility and meekness, because I'm looking at my own heart now. But is there anything in the entire universe more ridiculously foolish than a man who has leprosy or a sinner caught red-handed in his sins to come up to the bar, to the only place where there is healing, and when it doesn't suit his fancy, to scorn it? There are many, many, many, many such fools in our world today. God revealed remedy for sin and for all the miseries that fall in its wake is that you should receive the righteousness and the righteous life of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to your account and that you should allow your sin to be imputed to Him and realize that God has sheathed the sword of His justice in the person of His Son, thereby paying for all your sins. That is the remedy of God for sin and for misery. Wash in the blood of this Savior who has been slain for sinners. That's the remedy. But, oh no. Now, when you look at our culture, we have other ideas. Let's try just all keeping the Ten Commandments. Let's try more social reform programs. Let's try more education. We don't have quite enough of that already. Let's try throwing more money at the problem. Let's try more charity. Let's try more self-sacrificial living. Let's try anything at all. Let's try AA programs or whatever. You name it. But wash in the blood of Jesus? Now, we'll deal with our sin and our misery some other way. Thank you very much. But before we get too smug, because most of us here this morning, I'm quite sure, would not say, well, I'll take a social reform program over the Lord Jesus Christ. But I have observed something that grieves me very much and that I puzzle over. Among reformed Christians, I'm surprised, I understand part of it, but I don't understand it all for sure. There is an interesting discomfort quite often with the notion of free grace with no strings attached. I puzzle very much as I look out at the reformed world right now and there are some teachers out there who have such a low apparently low view of sin that they will speak in terms of covenant faithfulness. And they're very uncomfortable with just pure grace, with just giving grace to sinners because, I mean, my goodness, we certainly wouldn't want sinners to just take free grace and just turn it into sin. I mean, you know, far be it from us to ever just to loose the bonds of sinners so completely that they have no sense of responsibility to their God. Listen, brothers and sisters, the Scripture says quite plainly that you will not serve sin if you are under grace and not under law. When you really understand the gospel of free grace, that you wash in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God doesn't want your money, He doesn't want your ideas, He doesn't want your clothing or your pomp and circumstance. He wants you to humble your proud neck and wash in the blood of His Son. That is all that He requires. Wash and be clean. When you understand that it's just free, overflowing grace, it's all from God and nothing from you. When you believe that from the heart, it will make you holy. But woe to us, brothers and sisters, if we somehow, in our concern for holiness so called, prefer a mixture of law and grace to free grace. Tack on some legalism, see if that will make us holy. I'm surprised at how this goes around and around and around in Reformed circles. This discomfort with just free grace. Now I'm not saying you don't teach holiness, but I'm saying the road to holiness is free grace. If you ever reverse those things, then we are in at least as much trouble as our culture. In verse 13, we see this antithesis between Naaman's ideas about how he ought to be saved and God's free grace, wash and be clean. And the foolishness of that. You see this antithesis come right down to a head in verse 13. Because after Naaman's reaction and explosion, he's going away. He's about to walk away from the Jordan. He's about to leave. The only thing that can cure him, he's on his way back to die in his leprosy. And his servants come along and they're sort of the evangelists to this man. They say to him something very interesting. They say, my father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean? See, that's exactly what it is. God asked me to walk to California, asked me to climb up a hundred stairs on my knees saying Hail Marys. Ask me to scale Mount Everest blindfolded. Ask me to walk barefoot in the snow for 40 miles to the nearest Mecca. Ask anything of me at all. Ask a great thing, God. Ask me to be a good person and straighten myself up and pull myself up by my bootstraps and get it together. But don't ask me to just simply wash and be clean. Ask of me something great, God. God says to you, I want a small thing. I want you to wash in the blood of my Son. That is what He requires of sinners. And the irony of the whole thing is quite plainly painted by these servants. If He had asked you, to go slay an entire army, ma'am, and you'd have done that. That would have tickled your pride. That would have played to the tune of your self-righteousness. But go wash in the Jordan, do something foolish, something that humbles you and brings you down into the muddy water? That you will not do. And that is the heart of unsaved, unregenerate, sinful man. Give me a great thing to do, but I will not do the little thing. It's obedience. But this reminds us of something else that's beautiful. That is, God's way of salvation is not for the great only. You see, if God had asked us to walk to California to pay for our sins, some of us would have died in the attempt. Myself, for example. Because it is simply wash and be cleaned, it is open to everyone. The weak, the strong, the great, the small. And that is very beautiful. Because anyone can wash in the Jordan. And anyone is welcome. Well, then we have in verse 14, the sum of the story. Note this phrase. Naaman, somewhere along that road to Damascus, much like another proud man many, many centuries later on the same road to Damascus, Naaman, something happens. And that evangelistic message gets through to him. And his heart is humbled and he turns and he goes back to the Jordan. And he says, it says he went down and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according This is the important phrase, according to the word of the man of God. Now, that is the issue in salvation, brothers and sisters. It is not whether you're doing a great thing or a small thing. It is whether you are doing the thing that God has commanded you to do, which is to wash in the blood of my Son. Wash and be clean. Now, imagine this scene, because now things have really gotten cooked up. There's been this whole explosion on Naaman's part, and now he sees that, yeah, I suppose in his heart there's probably this idea, well, what can it hurt? You know, what can hurt after all? I mean, I would do a great thing. I guess I'll try the small thing. So, probably not filled with faith, he comes down to the muddy banks of the Jordan. And you've got to somehow wrap your mind around what this must have been like. He goes down into the water. It's nasty. You know, he peels off his shirt and he's just ugly, oozing sores all over. Walks down into the water. And he goes under. And he comes up. You can imagine all his attendants standing there on the shore. Kind of a faded breath. Because they're going to get it if this doesn't work. He dips down again. And he comes up. He dips down again. And he comes up. And again. And he comes up. And again. And he comes up. And he goes down again. And he comes up. He's still got oozing sores all over his body. And he goes down again. I'll bet he stayed there a while. I'll bet he held his breath longer than he had ever held his breath in his life. And I'll bet everyone on the shore did too, because this is it. This is it. This is the moment of truth, whether the announced way of salvation from God will work or not. And I just cannot imagine what must have happened when he burst out of that water. And this is what it says. It says, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child. I love the connotations of scripture because not a word is wasted in the inspired scriptures like the flesh of a little child. You know what? Somewhere along that road to Damascus, Naaman obtained by the help of God's grace a child's heart to simply trust and obey the gospel. And now his flesh is restored like the flesh of a little child. And here he stands. You can imagine he probably tears streaming down his face and just almost in disbelief that this ugly flesh eating disease is gone. And he's like the flesh of a little child. and he is a picture of justification. He is washed and he is clean and had nothing to do with him. As we close, brothers and sisters, I want to ask you some questions that I have asked myself. Do you see your sin as leprosy? Do you see it as Do you see all of your leprosies in your life as caused by sin? Do you see that even when it's not your fault, and there are many afflictions in our life that are not our fault, that those afflictions are all caused because at some point this creation went desperately wrong because of sin? Do you see what sin has done to our world? It has ruined us. It has poisoned and made miserable and laborious and awful and hellbound our entire lives. And do you see that it is killing you? that it would kill you, but for the grace of God, leaving its marks of death and ruin on you and on everything around you until it had brought the world into a pile of stinking decay. Do you see sin that way? And I believe, by God's grace, many of you do. And I'm sure there's many a heart in this room that says, yes, I see my sin as leprosy. I groan under it. But that's not the most important question. Because to us, as to Naaman, the word comes, have you washed the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you accepted his righteousness, imputed your account free of charge? And have you allowed the Lord God to lay upon him all of your iniquities? It is free, brothers and sisters. regardless of your age, your social status, your gender, your wealth. God asks nothing of you. It doesn't matter even how sinful your past is, whatever it may be. And you may have some things in your closet you wouldn't want anybody in this room to know. It is free. There is no paying for this. God doesn't seek your money. He doesn't seek any payment from you. It is free. Or, this is the flip side of the coin. Do you hate God's appointed means of salvation? And for those of you who say, yes, I am washed in the blood of the Lamb, and I make no other plea, then let me ask you this, brothers and sisters, for your encouragement. Are you resting in it? Are you resting in it? Do you love the blood of Jesus? Does it occupy your mind? Do you think about it often with great joy? I mean, Naaman, I'm sure, thought back on that moment in the Jordan River many, many times in his life to come. Do you think back on it and say, My Savior's blood was shed for me, and I have washed in it. To you, glory in it, and you rejoice in it. Is your heart that of Naaman that day when he clambered back up that bank? And I guarantee you, he was thinking about nothing but the power and grace of this God of Israel. He wasn't thinking about his money. He wasn't thinking about all the pomp and circumstance anymore. This God turned him on when he was heading straight for the death and destruction on the way back to Damascus. God turned him around, and God had brought him into this water, and God washed away his lepers. I guarantee you that was just gripping his mind as he clambered up that bank. And I believe it is our duty as Christians, by the grace of God, to keep these things off from before our mind. Do not become weary of free grace. Do not become weary of the blood of Jesus that washed away all your sins. That is your glory. That is your crown. That is what is satisfied the justice of the Father. And that is what will make you holy. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this most interesting story put in the Scriptures to show us our need of a Savior, the leprosy of our sin, the foolishness to the eyes of man of your appointed means of salvation, yet how altogether effective is that means of salvation, Lord, to those who submit to it. Father, move in us now by your Holy Spirit that we would prize Christ this day That anyone here who has never submitted to the righteousness and the blood of Jesus Christ for sinners would flee to that fountain where all of the ugliest and worst sins can be washed away and find there peace with you, joy, and the power to live a holy life. We ask this in the sweet name of our mediator Jesus. Amen.