Elisha and the Cleansing of the Captain

All right, 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5 is where we are this evening, looking at the most talked about, most written about, most preached about miracle in the life of Elisha. Now, just for the sake of trivia, how many times is Elijah mentioned in the New Testament? Answer? Anybody know? Oh, well, you're glad you came then. 29 times in the New Testament, Elijah is mentioned. Okay. How many times is Elisha mentioned? Answer? One. One time. And this is the account, which is recorded in Luke chapter 4, when our Lord refers to it when talking to the Jews in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth.

Okay. Very important to understand the context of this because what happens with Naaman becomes such a sticking point in the life of the Jews. They become angry at Christ and they want to throw him off the brow of the hill in Nazareth. Okay. They want to do that because he talks to them about, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha, but none of them were healed except Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army, a pagan Gentile, he was healed. And he was healed because he was submissive to the word of God.

And when Jesus uses that illustration, he's referring to this chapter, this context, what happens when immorality and idolatry are ruling the land in Israel. And there are many lepers in Israel, but Elisha wasn't sent to them. And God didn't heal those lepers, but God did heal a pagan Gentile captain from the army of Syria. And that's because he was willing to submit himself to the word of God. The point being is that the Jews were not willing to submit themselves to the word of God. They weren't willing to do what God said, but Naaman, he was.

And the Bible tells us that God never despises a broken and contrite heart. And the Bible says in Isaiah 66, verse number two, that to this man, when I look to him who is broken and of a contrite heart, who trembles at my word, God never despises those who are broken over his word, who are broken in spirit, crushed in spirit, poor in spirit.

Naaman gets to that place and he becomes a tremendous testimony of the grace of God, of the sovereignty of God, of the salvation of God. Let me read to you the 19 verses we're going to cover in second Kings chapter five, verse number one.

Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram was a great man with his master and highly respected because of him, because by him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, that he would cure him of his leprosy. Naaman went in and told his master saying thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.

Then the king of Aram said, go now. And I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed and took with him 10 talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothes. He brought the letter to the king of Israel saying, and now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent name and my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy. When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make alive that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy.

But consider now and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me. It happened when Elisha, the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. He sent word to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a message to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.

But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Farpar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in rage. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father, had the prophet told you to do something great, some, some great thing, would you have not done it?

How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean. So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child that he was clean. When he returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him, he said, behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. So please take a present from your servant now.

But he said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will take nothing. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. He said, if not, please let your servant at least be given two mules load of earth for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering, nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord in this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there. And he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Ramon. When I bow myself in the house of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.

He said to him, go in peace. So he departed from him some distance. This is a story that we can spend weeks on. A.W. Pink in his book on Elisha spends five chapters alone discussing this miracle and all the events surrounding it. He does more detailed discussion of it than any one author that I know or any three authors that I know. And yet this becomes a pivotal story for us to understand. So let's begin by looking at the condition of Naaman's life, the condition of Naaman's life. If you read verse one, he is a captain in the army of Aram.

Not only is he captain, he was a great man with his master. In other words, he was one with the king, King Ben-Hadad II, and the king loved Naaman. And he was highly respected, verse one says. This is a guy who in Syria was one who had ticker tape parades. He was the one who was well-known among the people in Syria. He was the captain of the army. He had won many battles. In fact, the Bible says, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram.

Now this is very important. Why? Because Israel's enemy was Syria. Syria's enemy was not Israel. Syria's enemy was Assyria. And God had given, the text says, victory to a pagan nation. God gave victory to Naaman and the Syrian army over Syria. God gave that to him. Helping you understand that no man ever wins a battle unless God causes him to win the battle. So here is Naaman, who is this well-known man in Syria, who is well-respected by the king and by all those around about him because of the fact says he's a valiant warrior.

It says in the last part of verse number five, verse one of chapter five, he was a great man. Everybody respected this guy. He was the soldier and he was the man who gained respect and now he was a captain of the Syrian army. And yet God had granted him victory because God was doing something in Naaman's life way before they ever captured the little girl from Israel. Way before he would ever make his journey to Israel and way before he ever contacted leprosy. God was already working in the life of this man to draw him to himself.

So the Bible makes it very clear that because of the sovereignty of God, because of the Lord God of Israel, Naaman was a victorious warrior. See, we think that we win battles because of our athletic prowess or because of our ingenious battle strategies. No, you win battles because God allows you to win them. That's the only reason anybody wins anything. We got to realize that God is in complete control of all things and God makes it very clear. I love what it says in Jeremiah chapter 10, verse number 23.

Jeremiah says, I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Jeremiah says, I know, I know that no man directs his own steps. I know that whatever a plan a man might have, that plan is subject to the sovereignty of Almighty God. Jeremiah says, I know that. The story of Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army gives evidence of the fact that God was in complete control of all the events. This man was highly respected. He was a great warrior. He was respected by the king.

He was the king's number one man. Yet the Bible says he was a leper. He was a leper. And lepers in scripture, leprosy becomes an analogy. What happens to somebody physically is an analogy to what happens to someone spiritually. Now, while there is no direct reference in the scripture that says these are parallel, what you do is that when you study leprosy and you study man's iniquity, the parallels are exactly the same. For instance, leprosy was defiling of every person. It defiled them. If you read Leviticus 13, Leviticus 14, God has strict laws as it pertains to leprosy.

So strict that it gives details concerning what people can and cannot do. And one of the requirements is that they have to walk around saying unclean, unclean, unclean, so that no one in their presence comes around them. That's why the lepers in the New Testament, when they came to Christ, they said, if you will, will you make me clean? Because they're so unclean, they are defiled. And that's the way it is in the life of a man, a woman who has not given the life to Christ. They are unclean. They are impure and they need to be made pure.

They need to be washed. And that's what's so significant about the whole story of Naaman, because if he goes down to the Jordan, he dips himself in, he'll be washed and he'll be cleansed. So everything that happens with Naaman is symbolic of what happens when someone gives their life to Christ and truly understands saving faith. This man was defiled. Not only does leprosy defile a person, leprosy is that which disfigures a person. If you've seen pictures of those with leprosy, people become very, very disfigured.

Sin does the same thing. Sin disfigures the character of a man. Sin disfigures the countenance of a man. Sin disfigures everything about the man, just like he did with leprosy. But notice this, sin or leprosy is that which is deadening to man, because the extremities of a man's hands and feet would become numb and deadened, and rats would come and chew on their fingers, and rats would come and chew on their toes, and they would not even feel the fact that that was happening because of the numbness caused by leprosy.

So true that in the life of an unbeliever, he is so numb to the things around him, his heart becomes cold and calloused, hard to the things of God, numb to the things of God. So unless God steps in and does the work, that person will never come to saving faith. Also, leprosy was disassociating. That is, it would banish you. It would cause you to be separate from everybody else. And if you read the study of Moses and Miriam, Miriam was cast out of the camp. Uzziah was cast out of his palace into another house because they were banished someplace else.

Sin banishes us from the presence of God. Sin keeps us out of God's presence, and only when we are washed and cleansed can we be in God's presence. Sin is that which is also very, I mean, leprosy is that which is very, very deadly because Naaman was going to die. Leprosy killed the man, as sin kills the man. In fact, the Bible refers to those who have leprosy as sepulchers, and the Bible talks to us about sin when it says in Romans 3.13 that the unbeliever, their throat is an open sepulcher. In Matthew 23.27, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees.

Yes, you are like whitened sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. Leprosy can only be healed by God. Sin's defilement can only be healed by God. He is the one who saves to the uttermost. So the Bible gives us this illustration of a man who has all the externals that make him great. He has position. He has power. He has respectability. He has everything a man could want except he's a leper. He's defiled. He will soon be disfigured.

He is going to have to be disassociated from everybody he is with. He's not quite there yet because he's still with his men. And while he was not a Jew, he did not abide by the laws of Leviticus 13 and 14. So in Syria, things are different than they were in Israel. And his leprosy was located in one spot based on verse number 11, when he says that he thought that Elisha would come out and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. So there was specifically a place where the leprosy had begun to take its evil root in this man's life.

And yet he was going to get to a point where that leprosy would begin to eat away at his fingers and his ability to use a sword and to draw his bow and to hold a shield. He would not be able to do that. So he knew he was going to die. He needed to be healed. But what was he going to do? That's point number two.

And that talks to us about the compassion of Naaman's maid. From the condition of Naaman, the man, to the compassion of Naaman's maid. It says, now the Arameans had gone out into bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel. And she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria. Then he would cure him of his leprosy. This is just the most amazing part of the entire story. Because it all deals with the providence of God.

Syria would come over into Israel and they would raid little villages and homes. In the raiding process, they would take the children captive because he would use them as slaves. And evidently this little girl had been taken captive at one of these events where they would come over and maraud all these different places in Israel and take this little girl captive. Now, whether her parents are alive or not, we don't know. Maybe they died in the raid or maybe her siblings, if she had some, died in the raid.

We have no idea. All we know is that God in his providence allowed Syria to cross the border to raid villages in Israel and take little children captive. So when Jesus shares the story in Luke 4 about how there were many lepers in Israel who were never healed. Oh, but there was a pagan captain who would lead armies over to capture your children. Oh yeah, he was healed. He was healed. And that would incite the Jews to tremendous anger. But this deals with the providence of God. God's at work. God's at work in Naaman's life and Naaman doesn't even know it.

God was at work when he calls him to win the battles. Now God's at work in his evil efforts to bring little kids into his home, into other people's homes to be used as slaves. God is going to work out his providence and cause great things to happen. Now in the moment, that little girl had no idea what God was doing. I'm sure there were many tears shed as she laid in bed at night all alone. I'm sure she wondered why her God would allow this to happen. She was a woman of faith. She was probably one of the 7,000 that had yet to bow the knee to Baal.

Her parents probably were one of the 7,000 who had yet to bow the knee to Baal because she believed in Elisha. She believed in the God of Elisha and she knew what Elisha's God could do. So I'm sure there were questions. Why? Why have I been taken from my family? Why am I all alone in this Syrian captain's home? Why is it God did this to me? That's very important because you see, God is always at work. God just never does something to cause you a problem. There's always a method to the plan and purposes of God.

And while this little girl didn't know it at the time, God was going to use her in a mighty way. She has no name. We know what her name was, but her name is irrelevant compared to how God uses her to fulfill his great plans. But the providence of God was working in Naaman's life well. He was a captain and she was captive. He had a great name. She had no name. But the providence of God was at work in Naaman's life and he doesn't even get it. But God is working and God's doing something unique. And as great as Naaman was, he was still a leper.

But the little girl, she was clean. So when you think about the providence of God, which providence of God would you rather be in Naaman's shoes or the little girl's shoes? The little girl's shoes, because she's clean. He's not. See, well, that just doesn't seem to be very fair. Let me tell you something.

When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, that wasn't fair either, but it was just. And it pleased the father to crush his son. Why? Because through that most tragic of all events in the history of the world brought salvation to people like you and me. That without that, there would be no salvation. So in the midst of this tragedy with this little girl being separated from her family, from her siblings, from her nation, from her people, taken to a pagan nation all alone by herself to serve this pagan captain, God was doing a great work.

And we've used her to demonstrate her faith, to demonstrate her forgiveness. How easy she could have said, you got leprosy. You know why you got leprosy? I'm going to tell you why. Because you took me. If you left me alone, you probably would be clean today, but you got leprosy. Too bad for you, big fella. You're going to die. Guess what? I'm going to live. That's most of us would act, right? But no, she's not that way. What does she do? She returns good for evil. She demonstrates faith. She has great compassion for a master.

Now, would you? The man who stole you from your family, the man who might've killed your family to get you out of that house, would you have compassion for him? She did. And she had no idea how God was going to use her. But she goes to name his wife and says to her, I know a guy. I know a guy who can heal your husband. I know the man. I want to tell you who he is. And my master, your husband needs to go there. See, this is foreign to us because we're not that way. We got to ask ourselves the question, how come we're not that way?

Why are we so nasty? Why are we so belligerent against those who have wronged us? Why are we so unkind to people? This little girl, how long has she been with them? We don't know. But here she shows forgiveness. She shows grace. She shows mercy. She shows kindness. She was earnest in her plea. She was sincere in her plea. She knew the prophet who could heal Naaman. How did she know? Some way, somehow, her parents had to teach her, had to explain it to her. Maybe they knew Elijah, and now they know Elisha.

And maybe they, not maybe, probably so, they're one of the 7,000 who have yet to bow the knee to Baal, and they would teach their little girl about the faithfulness of God, the greatness of God, the purity of God, the holiness of God, and that men like Elijah and Elisha would represent that God to Israel. And Israel has turned their back on the Lord God of Israel. But we must follow no matter what. And then their house is raided, and maybe their parents, her parents are killed, and she's taken captive.

But she's known the truth that will solidify her faith, that amidst her adversity, she can still stand for the glory of the King. Can your children do that? Because you taught them the Word of God, to believe in God, to trust in God, to obey God? So she goes to her mistress and says, I know a guy that can do this, and he can bring healing to my master. Apart from her, he dies as a leper in his sin. Except for the providence of God working in Naaman's life and the little girl's life, he never comes to saving faith.

And God does this so that when he stands up in a synagogue, he can use this story as an illustration as to the rebellious nature of the Jewish people in his day. So we've got to get out of thinking that what's happening to me is happening to me, and to realize that what happens in me is more important than what happens to me. And to realize that there's a bigger picture, there's something bigger at stake than my little world. As great as I think my world is, it's nothing compared to God's kingdom, God's plans, and God's purposes, and how he's working out and orchestrating the events of life to bring about something greater than I can ever begin to imagine.

This little girl is listed in scripture and is always there, even though we don't know her name, because she was willing to be obedient to God and to follow his word and be sensitive to the man who had so desperately wronged and abused her and her family. What a story. It's the story behind the story. It's really the story behind the story that's behind the story. It's so far tucked away that most people never even deal with it, but it's so paramount in the whole scenario of what's taking place in this captain's house and life.

And so you move from the condition of Naaman's life to the compassion of Naaman's maid to the conflict and confusion around Naaman's cure. Look what happens. Naaman went in and told his master, saying, thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel. He goes back and he relays to the king what the girl said to his wife. Then the king of Aram said, go now.

You've got to go now. You're the MVP of Syria. You're the MVS, the most valuable soldier of Syria. You got to go. There's nobody more valuable than you are. I need you to lead my armies. I need you to be the man next to me. I need you healthy. You got to go and you got to go now.

If she said there's somebody in Israel who can bring healing to you, you got to go. So I will send a letter to the king of Israel. Why the king of Israel? She never mentioned the king of Israel. Jehoram was a bad king, an evil king. He wasn't one who followed the Lord. But he says, I'm going to send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed, took with him 10 pounds of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothes. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, and now as the letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman, my servant, to you that you may cure him of his leprosy.

So here is Naaman. He takes his entourage of soldiers with him. He brings all this gold, all this silver, all these changes of clothes, and he goes to the king of Israel. Now you can imagine what Israel's thinking. They know about how this army has come over the border and raided their villages. He goes from Damascus to Samaria. He travels 100 miles to get to his destiny. Everybody in Israel sees him. They got to be scared. But he goes to the king of Israel, and he presents a letter from the king of Aram to him.

And this is the confusion. This is the conflict. So when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes. Oh my, he says, am I God to kill and to make a lie that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me. He wants to go to war with me. He is sending Naaman to me as a joke to say, okay, I'm going to give you all this if you cure him. I can't cure him if I can't cure him. They're going to come to war against us.

He has no idea about the ministry of Elisha. He should know because Elisha helped him earlier in our study to defeat the evil kings. But yet he has no concept of the sovereignty of God. He has no concept of the providence of God. He has no concept of how God works in and through his people. He's just not there. He doesn't fall on his face before God and say, oh God, what do I do now? Because he doesn't believe in the Lord God of Israel, but he's confused. What am I going to do? I can't heal this guy.

Nobody is healed of leprosy. People die from leprosy. What am I going to do? There's nothing I can do. So verse eight, it happened when Elisha, the man of God heard. Now, how did it happen that Elisha, the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes? How did he know that? Somebody had to tell him. Who told him? God told him that he sent word to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me and he should know that there is a prophet in Israel. In other words, all the prophets of Baal are false frauds and phonies, but there is a prophet in Israel.

Yoo-hoo. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. There is a true prophet in Israel. Sent him to me. So, so beautiful. And so it says, verse nine, so Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Okay. So now he goes to Elisha's house. You can imagine the scene, the horses, the chariots, the truckloads of, uh, of gold and silver and garments. There he stands. Okay. Knocks on the door, but Elisha doesn't come to him. Elisha never even introduces himself to him. Instead, Elisha sends Gehazi, his messenger to the door.

And it says, Elisha sent a message to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you. And you will be clean. Wow. And it says, but Naaman was furious. Why was he furious? Because Elisha disrespected him. He disrespected me. He doesn't even have the decency to come to the door and talk to me face to face, man to man. Instead, he sends his messenger. You've got to be kidding me. But you see, Elisha knows what he's doing. Elisha wants them to know it's not the messenger who heals him.

It's the message that heals him. Elisha is smart. He's the prophet of God. He knows exactly that. He's not being rude. It's all about perspective. It's all about helping Naaman understand exactly what God is going to do. If he's going to believe in the Lord God of Israel, he's got to believe in the message that the Lord God of Israel gives, not the man who gives the message. So Naaman is furious, furious. Behold, I thought, did you now Naaman? There is a way it would seem with right into a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death.

They're never the ways of life. I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. I thought he was going to do it my way. I thought that my cleansing would come my way. I thought that my salvation would come my way. I am a captain in the Syrian army. I have all these soldiers with me. I have all these horses with me. All these chariots are here at my disposal. And I come to this man and I am disrespected by this man.

He won't even come out and speak to me. Instead, he says, travel 32 more miles to Jordan. Okay. I've already come a hundred miles. Now you want me to travel another 32 miles to the Jordan river. I'm not doing that. I'm not going there. That's not something I want to do. His pride takes over. See, he doesn't want to do what the message says to do because he's rebellious against that. In fact, he is infuriated against that. He was so, so prideful that he would not bow in submission to the message. Then go to Jordan.

There are rivers in Syria, in Iran that are pure and clean. And you want me to go down to the dirty murky waters of the Jordan and wash in that filth. And now you've got to be kidding. This is the most ludicrous way for anybody ever to be healed. This is the most ridiculous way for anybody ever to be cleansed. I'm not doing something as stupid as that. I'm not doing that. He's furious traveled a hundred miles and that's the message. No way. That's not going to happen. You know, I love what Donald Gray Barnhouse says when he says, everybody has the privilege of going to heaven God's way, or they can go to hell their way.

That's the only choice. You go to heaven God's way and everybody has that privilege or you go to hell your way. And Nehman says, I thought it was going to be different. I thought the cleansing would come a different way. I thought that he would come out and there'd be a show. There'd just be a show where he'd come out. He just wave his hand over the place of the leprosy and I'd be cured. Everybody would see that. And I could stand there and everybody would look, oh, and ooh, and all over the cure that I received.

That's not going to happen that way. You're telling me that travel another 32 miles to the Jordan, the murky waters of the Jordan and then dip in it seven times. Why not just dip once, maybe twice for, for humor's sake three times, but seven, what kind of message is that? He refuses, serious, which leads us, which leads us to the cleansing of Nehman's leprosy. Says are not Abana and Fapar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Can I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in rage.

Can I, can I be cleansed my way? That's always the cry of the unbeliever. I want to be cleansed my way, not God's way. I want to, I want to be saved my way. And yet it doesn't work that way. It's always the way of the Lord. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father had the prophet told you to do some great thing. Would you not have done it? How much more than what he says to you, wash and be clean? I mean, Nehman, seriously. I mean, he's not asking you to build a rocket and go to the moon.

He's asking you to just go down and be washed and be cleansed. That's it. It's not that difficult. It's a very simple procedure. And God is beginning to use, use two servants in the lives of this great man. First of all, a little girl, and then his own servants who traveled with him.

And then it says in verse 14, so he went down and ditched himself seven times in Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, this flesh was restored at the flesh of a little child. And he was clean, a complete transformation, absolutely pure. But before he could ever be cleansed, he had to submit himself to the message that the messenger gave. His unwillingness to submit to the message would only lead to his death, but to submit to the message would lead to his life. That's why Jesus uses this in Luke chapter four as a supreme illustration.

Israel would not submit to the word of God. The nation itself at the time was not submitting to the word of God, even though Elijah was there. And even though Elijah was there and they were the prophets of God, proclaiming the truth of God, they still were living rebellious lives. They still would not submit to the truth of God. So Christ would use this as an illustration, but there was a pagan captain who had to do the most ridiculous things just by virtue of the fact that he had to humble himself and obey the word of the Lord.

That's it. He did. He went down. You can imagine what must've been going through his mind as he dipped once and dipped twice, three, four, five, six, seven, and came up squeaky clean, squeaky clean. This man's leprosy was cured because he had been cleansed through his submission to the word of almighty God. That leads us to the conversion of name in the man. When he returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him, he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.

Now I know. Now I know that there is no God anywhere except your God, Elisha. Now I know. Before I had no idea, but the God you serve is the one true God. He pictures to us a man who truly was saved. His physical cleansing is a picture of spiritual cleansing, and he goes and he wants to give a gift. Please take a present from your servant now.

But he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will take nothing. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. He wanted him to know that God's gifts were the gifts of grace. He wanted to understand this was a grace gift. To pay for this, there's nothing you can give to obtain this. This is a grace gift. And Amos said, If not, please let your servant at least be given two mules load of earth. For your servant will no longer offer burnt offerings, nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord.

Wow. Why does he want to do that? Because the pagans believed that if you were worshiping a God in a land and you left that land, that God remained in the land. It did not go with you. And so what he wanted to do was take two loads, two mule loads of earth back with him to his land. And in so doing, he would demonstrate to the people that this God of Israel is the God of all the lands. And he would erect his altar in Syria. And he would worship his God in Syria. And he would be a testimony to the true saving grace of God in his area.

This was a man whose testimony was strong. This was a man who wanted to live a righteous and holy life. And it goes on to say these words. In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Ramon. When I bow myself in the house of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant. In this matter, he said to him, go in peace. So he departed from him some distance. He said, look, I'm going to go back.

I want to let you know something, Elisha, that my master goes into a pagan area. He worships the pagan God. And I am his soldier. I am his guard. I am his protector. And I go in there with him and I kneel with him. But I want you to know I'm not kneeling down to worship that God anymore. I'm worshiping the one true God. And that's why Elisha can tell him, go in peace. Elisha can see the man's true conversion. He sees what God had done in his life. You know, God's grace is so amazing because Titus tells us that God's grace teaches us to deny.

Ungodliness and worldly pleasures so that we might live righteously and soberly and godly in this present age. Do you know that if you've experienced the grace of God, it's evident in your life. If you've truly experienced the grace of God, God's grace teaches you. It instructs you. And it teaches you to deny worldly pleasures. It teaches you to deny the lust of the world. And it teaches you to obey God, to live a godly life, to live a righteous life, to live a holy life. This was Naaman. This was Naaman.

Now I know that there is a God. He is the God of Elisha. He is the God of Israel. He is the only God. Now I know that. And I want to take back with me a symbol from this place so everybody else will know the God that I serve. He is being taught by the grace of God to live a righteous and a holy life amidst a pagan culture. Can you imagine the testimony he has with the little servant girl in his house when he goes back? Can you imagine the relationship that's developed between master and servant when he goes back to her and shows her how he's been cleansed, but how he believed in the message from the man of God and the message cleansed him, not just of his leprosy, but all of his sin.

And so God's grace is so magnificent because it works. Listen, if you've been saved, God's grace doesn't work in your heart. You don't stay the same. You're different because the grace of God is actively working in your life to teach you how to live a righteous, sober, holy life, to deny ungodliness, to deny worldly pleasures. But notice that grace, not only is it purifying, that grace is progressive.

It's progressive. It would be great if Nehemiah said, you know, I'm going to go back and I'm going to tell King Ben-Hadad, listen, I'm not going to the temple with you anymore. I'm not doing that. I'm done. I'm not compromising my faith for you, for anybody else. He didn't do that. Instead, he asked Elijah to pardon him, knowing that he'd have to go back and do that. But the unique element about grace is that grace is always operative in the life of the believer, so that there's always a progression towards Christ-likeness.

There is never a digression from Christ-likeness. If you say you've experienced the grace of God and you are digressing further and further away from God, you've never experienced that grace, because the grace of God teaches you to move toward godliness and holiness. It just does. And we've got a lot of people in the church saying they have experienced God's grace, but really they live a life of disgrace because they live in continuous sin and say, well, you know, the grace of God has forgiven me.

They continue to live in sin, but that's just an abomination to the Word of God. That's not true, because God's grace is at work. That's what I've been naming. What a beautiful story of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, the saving grace of God. God is so good, and God was working out everything to bring about the salvation of one pagan king, and he would stop at nothing to make sure it happens. He would stop at nothing. He would use the evil acts of that king to make sure it happened, because God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

God does that, and God did that in the life of Naaman, the pagan captain who was cleansed from his sin. Has God cleansed you from your sin? Have you experienced the grace of God? Have you believed the message of the gospel? Have you heard the message? Have you believed the message? Has there been a sanctifying work of the grace of God in your life so you're progressing more and more like Christ every single day? That's the story of 2 Kings chapter 5. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight, a chance to be in your Word. Truly, Lord, you are a great God. Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful illustration of your sovereign grace. Thank you, Lord, that we have a chance to read it and study it. Thank you for the providence of God, that little girl, that little maid servant who had no idea what was happening in her life when she was ripped from her home and made a slave in Naaman's house. But you did. You did. And all what you did was beyond what she could ever imagine would take place.

Same with Naaman. He had no idea what you were doing, but you caused him to bow in submission to the message. What he did, he was cleansed. And we know that we are cleansed and washed by the blood of the Lamb. We thank you for the cleansing power of Jesus Christ, our Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.