The Salvation of a Stranger

I wonder if you have your Bible with you tonight, could you turn

with me please to the Old Testament Scriptures and to the

second book of Kings, Second Kings and chapter 5, very, very

familiar portion of God's word, the story of a man we sometimes

call General Naman when we're speaking to the boys and the

girls. But I want to preach tonight on

what we've called the salvation of a stranger, and I'll show you

why in just a moment or two. But Second Kings chapter 5,

2 Kings 5 · chapter mention

commencing to read at verse one, the Bible says now Naaman,

captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with

his master, and honourable because by him the Lord had

given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man and

valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by

companies that had brought away captive out of the land of

Israel. A little maid and she waited on

Naiman's wife. She said unto her mistress,

Would God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria,

for he would recover him of his leprosy.

And one went in and told his Lord, saying Thus.

And thus said the maid, that is, of the land of Israel, and the

king of Syria said, Go to go, and I will send the letter unto

the king of Israel. And he departed and took with

him 10 talents of silver, and 6000 pieces of gold, and 10

changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the

king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee,

behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that

thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

Came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that

he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make

alive, that this man does send unto me to recover a man of his

leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you,

and see how he seeketh A quarrel against me.

And it was so when Alicia the man of God, heard that the king

of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king,

saying, Wherefore hast thy rent thy clothes?

Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a

prophet at Israel. So Naaman came with his horses

and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of

Alicia. And Alicia sent a messenger on

to him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh

shall come again to thee, and thy shalt be clean.

But Naman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I

thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on

the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the

place, and recover the leper. Are not Habana and far power

rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?

May I not wash in them and be clean?

So he turned and went away in a rage, and the servants came

near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet

had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have

done it? How much rather than when he

saith unto thee, Wash and be clean.

Then he went down and dipped himself 7 times.

And Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, this

flesh came again like onto the flesh of a little child, and he

was clean. He returned to the man of God,

he and all his company, and came and stood before him.

And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God and all the

earth but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take

a blessing of Thy servant. We learned our reading there at

verse 15. May God bless to us as He always

does, the public reading of His own inspired and His infallible

Word. Let's just by briefly in prayer

again and ask God's blessing upon the ministry of His Word.

Father in Heaven, we thank Thee again tonight for all Thy

goodness to us. We thank Thee, Lord, again for

the offer of the gospel. We thank Thee that the Bible

says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall

be saved. And we thank Thee for this

incident, this story, and the word of God that tells us in the

life of Naaman. The Naaman obed and went down at

the message of the man of God and dipped himself seven times

in the Jordan, and he was cleansed from his leprosy.

Lord, we thank Thee tonight that our God is able to cleanse men

and women from their sin. What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Lord, may some precious soul or

souls come to know Christ, be cleansed from all their sin, be

filled out and ready for heaven, and for whom bless us now.

Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost I take the promised Holy

Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the

uttermost I take. Thank God He'll undertake for

me. Be with us now, Lord, as we with

honour Thy presence, for we ask all these things in Jesus name,

Amen. Amen.

Now, as we said, I want to think with you for a moment or two in

the closing minutes of our service about the salvation of a

stranger. I say that because the Bible

tells us of at least two people who were called naman.

In the book of Genesis, chapter 46 and verse 21, we're told

Genesis 46 · chapter mention

about some men who were the sons of Benjamin, and among them was

a man by the name of Naaman. He was a Jew.

This man, Naaman was captain of the host of the king of Syria,

and he was a Gentile. But our blessed Saviour the Lord

Jesus Christ, when he was preaching, he said in Luke's

Gospel chapter 4 and in verse 27, Jesus said and many lepers

were in Israel in the time of Alicia the prophet, and none of

them was cleansed. Saving Naaman the Syrian.

Jesus said there were many lepers even in the camp of

Israel in the days of Alicia the prophet, but he said none of

them was cleansed except this man, Naaman the the Syrian.

So that gives us a wonderful hope.

That gives us a hope, as the old hymn writer says, that is

steadfast and sure. That speaks about the Amazing

Grace of God, that God so loved the world that He gave His only

begotten Son. It doesn't matter whether it's

Jew or Gentile or Protestant or Catholic or educated or

illiterate or rich or poor. But thank God all may come and

seek the Lord for salvation. And thank God they are assured

of that welcome by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to think with you tonight about this man name and this

mighty man, this courageous man, this man of valour, this captain

in the host of the King of Surrey.

But I want to just to think it in a very simple way.

In the Bible, when God would draw our attention to something,

he often uses the word behold. Behold for instance, the Bible

reminds us that Psalmist says behold I was born in sin and

shapen in iniquity. Reminds us of our state before

God. We were born in sin and shapen

iniquity. John the Baptist, when he

preached at the Fort of Jordan and he saw the Lord Jesus

coming, he pointed to Jesus and he said, behold the Lamb of God

which taketh away the sin of the world.

And that word beholdeth it grabs our attention, grabbed the

attention of the people. They turned, they looked to see

the one who was coming, the Lamb of God who would take away the

Son of the world. The Bible reminds us in the Book

of Revelation that the Lord Jesus Christ said to the people

in Revelation chapter 22, Behold, I come quickly.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

We know not the day nor the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ may

come back again. We knew not the day or the hour

when you or me may be ushered out into God's eternity.

Therefore, as the Bible teaches us, behold, now is the accepted

time, and now is the day of salvation.

When should a man prepare for eternity now?

When should he get right with God now?

When should he seek the Lord now?

Because now is the day of salvation Today the Bible says,

if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart.

And I want to take that word, behold, and just three mentions

of it there in the story of Naaman and see how it applies to

his life. You'll notice first of all, what

I might call behold, the misery in his life.

In verse 6, Naaman goes with a letter from his king to the king

of Israel. And the letter says, Now when

this letter is come on to thee, behold, I have sent, I have

therewith sent Naman my servant to thee, that thou mayest

recover him of his leprosy. And the word behold draws our

attention to the fact first of all of the misery.

And Naman say he was a leper. The Bible says in verse 1 he was

captain of the host. The Bible says in verse 1 he was

a great man with his master. It says there in verse 1 of

chapter he was honourable. It says he was a man who had

known victory, for by him God had given deliverance unto

Syria. He was a mighty man in valour,

but he was a leper with all these great and glorious and

good things in the life of this man.

Naman, the Bible says he was a leper.

It's great to read the story about our dear brother, the late

Doctor Bill Woods, and how Doctor Bill went out with the

Akri Gospel Mission and I went to the land of Brazil and how he

studied in a foreign language and became a doctor.

And, and I was commended by the late Her Majesty the Queen.

And he was commended by the Brazilian government because

through his programme, the disease of leprosy was almost

eradicated throughout the Agri region.

But way back in Naman's day, there was no cure, there was no

hope. A man had a leprosy.

It was a death sentence. We don't know when or where or

her. But one day, when Neiman was

perhaps at home and taken off his uniform and all the marks of

the office that he held, he discovered the plague of leprosy

in his body. Behold the misery in his life.

He was a leper. He had many other things.

He could speak with the king. He had popularity amongst the

men of the soldiers he had. He was a brave man and a great

man and power and probably wealth along with it.

But he was a leper. And so the Bible reminds us that

no matter how well we do in this world, whether we be well off or

whether we're we're poor, whether we are the most educated

person or the most illiterate person, the Bible says that all

have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We have one thing in common. There is one common denominator

that every man and woman born of Adam's sinful and fallen ruined

race, we are sinners before God. And the Bible says the soul that

sitteth it shall die. The Bible says it is appointed

unto man wants to die. And after this the judgement.

So one day Neiman discovered that he was a leper, that there

was a death sentence upon him, no cure.

But then was a little girl who was a slave who had been taken

away from her home in the land of Israel as she'd been captured

and taken into Syria, as she was made to wait upon Neiman's wife.

But with all credit to that little girl who was taken away

from her home and her family and from her religion, even there in

a foreign land, even there as a captive, she was faithful to

God, faithful to the Lord Jehovah God.

And she says, if my Lord naman, my master naman, she says to the

name of would God, my Lord were with the prophet, that is, in

summer, if he could get to the prophet and he would cure him,

he would recover him of his leprosy.

He is the prophet of God, the living God, the true God, the

one and only God, the one who is all power, the one who is

Creator and sustainer of all things, the one who can do

anything. And so they tell Naaman, But I

want you to notice the second behold.

You notice in verse 11 it says, But Naaman was wroth and went

away and said, behold, I thought he will surely come out to me

and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike

his hand over the place and recover the leper.

Want you to see the second behold.

Behold the mistakes in the human's life.

It's all about the misery in his life.

I think about the mistakes in his life, but of course it

started off when he told the king about this cure, about this

prophet in the land of Israel. And the king says, well listen,

I'll write you a letter, I'll put my seat on it, I'll send you

a letter and you go to the king. But the wee girl didn't tell him

to go to the king. He says, would God, my Lord was

with the prophet, that is in summer.

He went to the wrong person. And I wonder sometimes as we go

through life's journey, how many men and women, boys and girls,

young people have gone to the wrong person.

People may go to the cults, people may go to fortune

tellers, people may go to astrologers, people may go to

all sorts of people and groups and things in order to find the

meaning of life. But there's only one person, as

we said this morning, they're said to be, according to the

statistics, 4300 different religions in this world.

But as I said this morning, there's only one Saviour and

there's only one door and there's only one way, the Lord

Jesus Christ. So Damon went to the wrong

person. Sometimes people are depending

on the preacher or on a priest or a prelate or a Pope.

He went to the wrong person. And you'll notice also that when

he went in verse 5, the Bible says he departed and took with

him 10 talents of silver, 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes

of raiment. He has the wrong price.

He thinks that he can buy this cure.

He thinks that he can purchase that he can pay for health.

Sometimes people feel that they can buy their way or pay their

way to heaven. But as the apostle Peter said in

first Peter One and verse 18 and 19, we are not redeemed with

corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the

precious blood of Christ. We cannot equal the cost that

Jesus paid at Calvary. So we behold the mistakes in his

life. He went to the wrong person and

he came with the wrong price, and he's thinking about the

wrong place. And much of this is to do with

what he is thinking. He says, behold, I thought, see

the Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man,

but the end thereof are the ways of deaths.

And Namus says, I thought, I thought, I thought this prophet

would come out and he would stand and he would make a big

demonstration and he'd strike the place of the leper, and I

would procured. And he, he tells me to go down

to the Jordan River, the the muddy banks of the river Jordan

and dip 7 times. He says, are not the beautiful

rivers of Habana the far power rivers of Damascus?

Are they not more beautiful? Are they not better than Jordan?

So he thinks who's the wrong person and he comes with the

wrong price and he's thinking about the wrong procedure.

I thought he would come out not the river Jordan.

Remember the old gospel preachers of bygone day?

I think Doctor Paisley preached on one occasion about Nieman and

he calls it 7 ducks in a muddy river.

Neyman had to go and duck down 7 times in the river Jordan in

obedience to the command of the prophet of God in order to be

clean. But Neyman had to go and he had

to wait outside, had to humble himself.

And the prophet sent a messenger out and he gave him a message.

And then Neyman eventually, as the Bible says, he was wroth, he

was angry, he went away in a rage.

You know, sometimes people hear the gospel of Christ and they

say, well, I've been a good church man.

I, I have paid into the church. I've been a good neighbour.

I've been a good friend to my friends.

I, I, I have been charitable. I have been a good neighbour.

I have done this, that the other thing.

And surely God will have to accept me into his Kingdom.

Naaman had to go and divest himself of his uniform and go

down into the waters of Jordan. The servants were very wise.

That we girl who was a slave girl, she was very wise.

But Naaman's servants were very wise also.

They said, Master, if the prophet told you to do some

great thing, if the prophet had to come out and said to Naaman,

I want you to go and conquer this mountain, I want you to go

and do this. I want you to go and take so

many people and slay them. I want you to fight.

I want you. He would have done it, but it

just seemed to be so simple and it didn't align with Naaman's

thinking. Just to go and wash in the

Jordan 7 times. But the servants were very wise

and so eventually never comes. And so I want you to notice the

third. Behold the last one.

Behold the misery of his life. He was a leper.

Behold the mistakes in his life. Listen.

Behold the miracle in his life. Look at verse 15.

He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came

and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know

that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.

Thy therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant.

And the prophet of God said, as the Lord liveth before whom I

stand, I will receive none. He urged them to take it, but he

refused. Naman could witness thy a

miracle that happened in his life in obedience to the message

from God when he went to the river Jordan and dipped himself

seven times in the Jordan he was cleansed from his disease.

His flesh, the Bible says, was like the flesh verse 14 of a

little child and he was clean. He was cleansed and then thank

God he was confident instead of doubts.

He says, Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but

it is real and thank God he confessed his deliverance,

confessed it before others, and he consecrated himself on to

God. He turned from his idols to

serve the living and the true God.

You know, sometimes we want salvation, but we want it our

way and maybe sometimes we have it all worked out.

I remember dear woman, Roman Catholic woman came to me in the

Church many years ago when I was in Banbridge and she came to

know the Lord Jesus Christ as her own and personal Saviour.

Her boys had been saved at our children's meeting they

witnessed to their mum and she came and was saved.

And her husband who was a Protestant and a great man for

the, the loyal institutions, he came and he got saved.

And he said to me, Fred, you know, I always thought that I

would get saved 1st and then my wife and then my boys.

But he says the boys came and then she came and like, and

sometimes we have this all worked out in our heads, but God

steps in and God moves and name and had it all worked out.

He, he thought the prophet would come out and the prophet would

strike the place and he would be cured.

But God said go, go and wash seven times, just like the man.

Jesus says go and wash in the pool of silo go.

And the question is, are we willing?

Are we obedient to come to God? God's way Bible teaches us that

we are sinners, all of sinned and come short of the glory of

God. The Bible teaches us that

whosoever that means you, whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord, shall be saved.

That's all it takes. The old Gospel him says he's

only a prayer away. Just like Blaine.

Bartimaeus sat by the highway side begging.

He heard that Jesus was passing that way, and he cried out.

Jesus, thy Son of David, have mercy upon me.

And that call fell upon the lips of the Saviour.

The Saviour came, cleansed him, cured him from his blindness,

but saved his precious soul. And thank God tonight the

Saviour, as the old gospel hymn says, is waiting to enter your

heart. Why do you not come and receive

him? Let's go together.

Just a wee word of prayer as we bring our meeting to a close.

Thinking about Naman and the beholds in his life.

Behold the misery in his life and all the mistakes that he

made in his life. But thank God for the miracle.

Life was changed. Thank God tonight, if any man or

woman be in Christ, they're a new creation, new creature.

All things are passed away and all things have become you.

I am your servant for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake.

If I can help you to Christ, point you and show you the way.

I can't save you, but I can point you the way and show you

the way the one who can. The old hymn says, I know a man

who can, The God man, the Lord Jesus, He's able and mighty to

save. Just tell us of your need and

gladly show you from God's Word, God's way, how you can be saved,

how you can be sure that you're saved and know that it's well

with your soul for time and for eternity.

Father in Heaven, we thank Thee again tonight for the simple

message of the gospel. We thank Thee for the story

recorded in Thy word, this historical incident of Naaman

and how God cleansed them from his leprosy.

And Lord, we thank Thee that God is still in the throne and God

is still in the soul saving business, and that the Lord

Jesus Christ is able to save to the very uttermost all them that

come unto God by Him. So bless Your word as it's gone

forth we pray and bring sinners to Christ.

Restore the backslidden in heart.

No God, bless your people. Separate us now with Thy

blessing. Take us all to our homes in

safety and abide with us. May the grace of the Lord Jesus

Christ, the love of God, fellowship of the Holy Spirit,

rest and remain and abide with us all now until the Lord Jesus

Christ comes or calls. Amen.