GERLEYS DAVID CAUSIL CASTRO

75. Provide reasonably detailed notes for an evangelistic sermon based on the
healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5.1-14); and provide an explanation of the apparent
allowable compromise of verses 15-19.

BUT HE WAS LEPROSY

2 Kings 5: 1-10
I. How often is it seen in human experience that an otherwise perfectly
prosperous condition has an alloy, a drawback, which damages or spoils it for
its possessor.
We do not need to limit our observation to the lives of great men, written in history
or written in Scripture, who have made peace or war, and have left their names as
the inheritance of a country or the common property of all, and that, however,
scrutinized closely, they have been the object more of pity than envy, by reason of
some blessing denied, or by reason of some 'added penalty'. 'A great and honorable
man with his master ... a mighty brave ... but a leper' - could be the inscription, if we
knew everything, about many of those celebrities of which (to quote the great old
saying) ' every country is the grave. '
But is it not so in common life, in humble homes? Where is the house in which there
is no element of dissatisfaction, some unpleasant disposition, some unreasonable
temperament to endure, one particular thing that cannot be had or cannot be done,
an ever-recurring difficult task, an unpleasant future always threatening A taste that
cannot be indulged, or a whim that must be fulfilled? An ever-pressing dead weight
of nuisance and a promised relief always "a little further"?

II. I propose the example of Naaman as a wonderful lesson in dealing with

inconvenience .
What excuse did Naaman have for living a life of vain repentance, utter uselessness,
and sinful complaints! With what discomfort, with what anguish, with what shame
and mortification each act of his life, social, political, military must have been carried
out! How he must have felt himself a subject of observation or an object of ridicule,
among all those he addressed and all those he commanded! However, he did his
duty, mastered his energies, and ruled his spirit. You, who have in your health, or in
your work, or in your house, some similar inconvenience, it must be small compared
to his, go and do the same.
III. We take a step forward on our subject when we treat "the only drawback"
as "the only defect."
Of how many people within our own circle should we say, he is all this and that, he
is hardworking, useful, honorable, he is a great man with his master, he is useful for
his generation, but he has a flaw. Perhaps, it is fair and straight, but it is
immovable. He may be kind and loving, but he's not sincere. He may be excellent in
all but one relationship. Perhaps he is strict with himself, inflexible in the face of evil,
but he is also ungenerous, censorious, suspicious or even cruel. He may be
charitable, forgiving, good to everyone, but he takes the license he gives and his
character (in one respect) will not bear investigation. It is like the "unturned cake" of
which Hosea speaks: one side dough, the other side ash : he was a great man, brave
and chivalrous, but he was a leper.
Yes, the only fault is in all of us, and by it we mean the particular direction in which
the stain and bias of evil in the fallen creature works its course and finds its way
out. It is idle, it is ridiculous, to profess ignorance that there is no perfection in the
creature that once let the devil in and tried to exclude God, and this is the true
diagnosis of man, as we see and show him, a broken glass, a temple in ruins, in a
word (because no one can be more expressive) a fallen being. The only flaw is in
theological language, the sin that haunts us. Who doesn't have one like that?
IV. So, brethren, test the healing stream this day.
The disease that overtakes us is very deep and spreads very widely; it is a past
human cure, ours or our brother's; there is only One who has the secret, but One
who has the virtue. The forgiveness he offers, before offering cleansing, the
forgiveness of the worst possible, before inspecting the disease. The double cure —
first of guilt, then of power — is the enchantment of the water that is blood, of the
blood that is water.
Applications
(1) 'Here is the difference between the natural man and Naaman. Naaman knew he
was a leper; he hated his leprosy and wanted to be cured. Poor me! how difficult it
is to persuade the natural man, first to see and then to regret his leprosy; understand
that a creature can only be created to obey its Creator; and that when the nature of
a creature is so corrupted as to render it reluctant and unable to obey, then the
creature is condemned, and in its unwillingness and inability it bears the mark of
death upon it. '
(2) 'The dreadful illness that Naaman suffered must have been a terrible
inconvenience to his happiness and prosperity. Yet it was the occasion of his
greatest blessing. God's special mercy flowed to him from what he was probably
used to considering as his special curse. And it often happens with ourselves, that
the only thing that at one moment seemed to spoil our happiness is that to which we
later have the opportunity to look back as opening the way to peace.

2 Kings 5: 1 1 - 14
Naaman is healed.
I. How many people there are sufficiently desirous of salvation to have been
tolerant of a very onerous ritual, if the Gospel had prescribed it, who
nevertheless find in the scarcity and simplicity of its authorized observances
an excuse to ignore them altogether?
Obviously there is something in human nature not only to wake up to difficulties, but
to be flattered by demands. Suppose a man earns heaven through the punctuality
of observance, and he will consider each additional ceremony not just a new
encouragement but a new honor. And yet the same person cannot be made to
regard with due respect the moderate and quiet services of his own Church, the
humble instrument of preaching, or the two sacraments that Christ has ordained. If
you take your child to the pile, you agree with the custom of the world and not with
the word of the Savior.
He cannot see that the very simplicity of the sign is more an argument for than
against its divine origin. If man had ordered it, it certainly would have been somewhat
more difficult, more cumbersome, and more expensive. In the same way he refuses
to believe that there can be anything beneficial to the soul in eating a morsel of bread
or drinking a few drops of wine at the table of his Lord. Ask again: What can be the
connection in such matters between the body and the soul? He cannot believe - he
will almost put it in words - that it may be a matter of a moment whether or not he
performs that external act of communion which, however, he cannot deny is clearly
ordered and ordered in the Gospel. If the prophet, if the Savior, had asked him to do
something great, he certainly would have done it; but he cannot convince himself to
believe and obey, when the commission is so simple to wash and be clean.

II. The same tendency is exemplified in reference to the doctrines of the

Gospel.
Whoever has done something great will not do what is less; those who would be
willing to work hard in difficult conditions, to walk with sadness and fear on the path
of life before the Lord of hosts, if perhaps they could finally reach, with pain, care
and tears, the resurrection of the just, He will not accept the news of an accomplished
pardon, he will not close with the offer of a positively promised Spirit; and thus fulfill,
over and over again, the text description, 'If the prophet had commanded you
something great, wouldn't you have done it? How much more, when he says to
you: Wash yourself and be clean?
III. Yet another illustration, drawn from the requirements of the Gospel. —As
long as a person walks totally in darkness, the demands of the gospel cause
him little trouble .
They can be light or painful, the commandments of God are for him as if they were
not. If you stay with any of them, it is by chance. But when, if ever, you begin to feel
that you have a soul to save, how many times do you see that, in the pursuit of
something great, in the pursuit of something arduous and something new, you
completely lose the duty and the blessing that you were in? at his door, on his way,
if he could have seen them, and shows, unknowingly himself, a spirit of self-will and
complacency at the very moment when he seems to be asking with the utmost
humility, what is the will of God regarding to the.
How have whole systems of religion been founded on forgetting this principle? Men
have left the world or sought to make themselves miserable to others in it, simply
because they thought it necessary to do something great to please God! What is
asceticism in all its forms and degrees, the rejection of the simple comforts of life,
the prohibition of marriage and the command to refrain from eating meat, the
substitution of a system of self-torture for a spirit of temperance and gratitude? ? But
a neglect of the same prudent and wholesome precaution, that what God seeks in
us is not to do something great, but to strive to be pure and holy in the performance
of common duties and in the use of legitimate pleasures? How true it is, in all these
cases, that the easy is not always the small!
Application
'May my pride of reason be humbled. "Behold, I thought," said Naaman, "it will surely
come out to me." So I have my preconceptions of how to achieve my salvation. But
God's thoughts are not my thoughts; and, if I am to be blessed, my intellect must
become more submissive and humble. And may my pride of heart be humbled.
"Aren't Abana and Farfar , rivers of Damascus," Naaman asked, "better than all the
waters of Israel?" So I also imagine that I have at home the means and instruments
of redemption. I can make my own way to the City of God. I can build my own
character.
Should I take advantage of a method of deliverance that has been provided to the
greatest of sinners? Should I hate myself and repent in dust and ashes? Yes, I
must. Only the contrite and broken heart sees the face of God in love. "Then he went
down, and dipped seven times in the Jordan, and was clean." Blessed be God, in
the fountain full of blood "I lose all my guilt stains"!

THE COMMITMENTS OF LIFE

"When I prostrate in the house of Rimmón ".

2 Kings 5:18
Here we find Naaman giving an excuse, it is said, to disguise his religious
convictions, and Elisha accepting the plea. He is convinced that Jehovah is the true
God, but he is unwilling to make any sacrifices for his faith. What is this but to open
a wide door for all kinds of dissimulation, and to make convenience, not truth, the
rule of conduct?
Stating the point like this is not doing it fairly.
I. Even if Elisha accepted Naaman's plea, it would not follow that he was right. "An
inspired prophet is not equally inspired at all times."
II. Did Elisha accept Naaman's plea? —The evidence revolves entirely on Elisha's
words, 'Go in peace.' These words are the common form of eastern farewell. They
may have been little more than a courteous dismissal. Elisha may have felt that the
permission Naaman longed for involved a question of conscience that he was not
asked to resolve. Therefore, it would not sanction Naaman's inconsistency on the
one hand or condemn it on the other. He rejects the position of judge. Leave
conscience to do your job.
III. Who will say that this was not the wisest path to take? —The prophet saw
Naaman's weakness, but he also saw Naaman's difficulty. Put the worst construction
in your words and you will say that it eludes the question; Put your best, and you will
say that it exercises a wise tolerance.
IV. We can justly wonder to what extent Naaman should be excused in urging the
supplication of the text. "Superstition mixed with his faith." He was a heathen, newly
converted, newly enlightened. We can excuse Naaman, but we cannot pretend that
we are Christians in order to make his request our own or to justify our conduct on
his.
V. The Christian missionary preaches a religion whose very essence is the spirit of
self-denial, the daily taking of the Cross, and the following of Christ. "It is clear,
therefore, that he could not answer the man who came with the spirit of Naaman:"
Go in peace.
SAW. Two practical lessons follow from this topic. - (1) The first is not to judge others
by ourselves; (2) the second is not to make excuses for others.