I invite you to turn this morning in the scriptures to 2nd Kings chapter 5, 2nd Kings chapter 5. As you know that over the last, the previous week we were at our young adults at RYS and I had done, I'd filled in on one of the workshops and this was the title given. I talked to a few of the elders and since many of our young people did not hear that address, the elders thought it would be good for me to do this here this morning to take a workshop and turn it into a sermon so I'm giving it my best effort. So we're going to be looking at 2 Kings chapter 5 and the well-known story of Naaman. And we'll read together verses 1 through 16. I'm sorry 19. This is the word of the Lord. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians, on one of their raids, had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went in and told his lord, Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And 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 sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elijah's house. And Elijah sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away saying, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon 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 a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? He has actually said 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. and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him and said, Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel, so accept now a present from your servant. But he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any god but the lord in this matter may the lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of ramon to worship there leaning on my arm 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 manner he said to him go in peace and there will end this morning the reading of god's word the um title that i was in description that i was assigned that was written by a pastor the title was the upside your upside down life and it was believe in yourself this modern gospel promises us the fulfilled life we deserve but instead makes us miserable depressed and lonely the way up is down jesus's gospel reminds us of our sinful unworthiness yet in his love he meets us at our lowest from him we learn the joy of walking humbly with our god so that was the title and the description that was assigned to me and it really is capturing the sort of backwardness of everything in this life that we experience as as believers that according to natural reasoning according because of the sinful nature what we're going to see in this particular passage is this very truth of an upside down life and how God turns the wisdom of this world on its head the issue if we can boil it down in our day and I like how this was presented is that there are two Gospels that are coming to us. One that appeals to the sinful human nature. One that the sinful human nature finds very attractive that exalts the self. And then there's the Gospel of God that says the way up is down first. And there Christ comes and meets us where we are helpless when all of our desires have failed us. The first gospel, which is no gospel, as Paul would have said, tells us to determine who we are going to be. Tells us that to have the fulfilled life, you have to look inside of yourself to find something that will bring you happiness and fulfillment. That's the gospel of our modern age. The gospel of Christ tells us the exact opposite, That to find true life, we have to completely turn outside of ourselves. To find any kind of hope, we have to look to Christ. If you remember this, and this is an important principle to really expose things in our day, all false gospels tell you to look inward. All false gospels tell you to look inward to find the solution to the misery that we're all experiencing. this is every major world religion this is how they tell us to handle things every pagan religionist even like joel osteen tells us to go inward that is a hallmark of a false teacher that's a false gospel how does this gospel showcase itself today it says in turning inward you are to find your identity. You are to find the identity that you choose. And you are to live and declare that identity. And you are to champion that identity. And everyone is to support you in that identity. This is so common to our day. It seems elementary now to even say these things. But it's important that we put it in these categories so people understand. Jesus, of course, says when you turn inward you're going to find something bad. out of the heart proceeds what murder adultery fornication staffs witnesses so if you're going to turn inward you're going to find all the faulty passions and desires that govern the heart so what does it mean then that the way up is down it means the inward self has to be brought to a place of death and you need to be raised up new by somebody else to take on his identity. When you're at your lowest is where he meets you. I don't know how much you've thought about the story of Naaman the Syrian. It is a favorite of mine from the Old Testament. I probably sound like a broken record when I say something is my favorite, but this one really is. It is a powerful passage, a wonderful text to help you understand this basic principle. And I love narratives. I love stories. I think it's really remarkable when God says that his word is living and active and that all scripture is profitable. These stories are written by the living God and they speak directly to our context in a way that we should all stand back and say, amazing. They're alive. They're true to this day. And that is 2 Kings 5 that I thought fit nicely into this little write-up that was given to me. Notice how the text begins this morning. Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor. Because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. Some of the old translations say he was a mighty man of valor. Quite a man. Quite a man. He's everything, if you're looking back into the ancient world and looking at an ancient text, he's everything everyone wanted to be. With just a few sentences, you have captured the greatness of Naaman the Syrian. Every accomplishment that one could only dream of accomplishing in this life. He was commander-in-chief. He was a warlord. He was powerful. of the great Syrian army, an unmatchable army of the day, a military giant. Think of all the military giants that we still study and look at their tactics and think of Patton and all these guys that we look at who we find fascinating for their skill and genius on the battlefield to fight the battles. You notice he was great and honorable. Lifted up is what it means. Everyone respected Naaman the Syrian. When he walked by, you bowed. Great man. This lifted up status was even in the eye of the king of Syria. Because you'll notice the little inclusion there. That by him, the Lord had given victory to Syria. This man, without knowing it, all of his successes and all of his accomplishments in life were something the Lord had given. So in other words, the conquering that went on, the victories, the Lord himself had intervened and blessed. But this man took the glory. Mighty man of valor. He means strength. He was wealthy. The text is indicating really nothing more that Naaman could have accomplished in life. Naaman was the guy. If you could pick somebody you would ever want to be like, who would it be without any consequence? Who would you pick? I hope nobody says Elon Musk. I don't think that's a good choice, by the way. The text is indicating that Naaman accomplished everything. One day, he looks down at his arm. And a little white patch appeared. And he looks at that patch. And he says, this is not good. And so he goes to his doctor. And the doctor looks at the patch. And he says, Naaman, I've got really bad news for you. You have leprosy. You have leprosy. After that long list, there it is. But he was a leper. A guy who had everything, had made every accomplishment you could have, popular, valued, one great problem. Leprosy. It was an infectious, disgusting disease. I think we've all but eliminated it in our modern medicine. There are pockets in the world, of course, in the poor countries of the world where this still exists. but it was characterized by large scabs and sores where the skin would turn white beneath. Eventually what would happen, it smelled so bad too, that if you've ever seen pictures of lepers, you can look, that begins to cover the body and what begins to happen is major portions of limbs would fall off of your body. It would simply rot them away. Highly infectious. This is why every time in the New Testament you came across a leper, they were put way outside the camp. Leprosy terrorized mankind since the biblical times. It was recorded as early as 600 B.C. in India, China, and Egypt. Not really a cure. Disfigured, it would often hang on for a long time and the quality of life would be so awful as you were ostracized leading to a really bad death. Well, here's God giving us a powerful illustration. A powerful illustration of what our sin is like. Anyone, as the Old Testament said, with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face, and cry out, unclean, unclean. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone. They must live outside the camp. Now, it's important to say, because of all the sickness in the Bible, it's always sort of, in my estimation, looked at leprosy in a special sort of way to capture the greatest problem of humanity. the scriptures use sickness to teach us this it doesn't and it's always been the sort of perennial question well what do you mean if somebody's sick like this they're a bad sinner and worse than others no that that's not what we're saying at all what we're saying is it's illustrative it's teaching us something about us and jesus did this all the time he did this with say um deafness where he would use this as an illustration to teach who is really hearing him or blindness with Bartimaeus who is really seeing him and so these things were used constantly in the scriptures to teach us spiritual realities this is an extremely important point though Naaman had accomplished everything in life his condition rendered him an unhappy man what to do what to do back to our text back to our context two gospels pitched to us modern gospel promises that us the fulfilled life we deserve the reality is when you believe in yourself and choose your identity based on sinful desire that i'm speaking specifically this is really aimed to our young people today i don't typically do this so it was an opportunity that's why the elders wanted us to to me to do this today when you do that this is all pitched as for you a solution for you to be happy and fulfilled but what's the problem sin a defiled heart modern gospel says it's good in there I mean I said this I think Dr. Godfrey said it he's so tired of hearing our president say I believe in the fundamental goodness of humanity it's a tired old line just stop it you can't solve this problem this was the woman at the well when Jesus went right after the heart she fought him she fought him she would have none of it I don't have a husband yeah you've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband, somebody else's. Everyone right now wants an identity. You notice in society it's all about that. Of course you have. Racial identity, identity politics, changing one's sex, the largest is the sexual identity you choose for yourself that will make you happy. We all want a sense back of life. We all want a sense back of vitality and strength. Because of sin. And the world is over here saying to us all around. All day long voices come. They just come all day long to us. Ah, we have freedom for you. Freedom. You can have sex with whoever you want. You need to experience it. You need to live in it. It'll pay off. But this is constrictive. This holds you back. This wants to keep you in check. Isn't that what Marx hated about Christianity? The weak do nothing about their condition. But God does, and it's not just economics. We want life. So the pressure is to say, you know, True happiness is determining for myself what I decide about my own identity. That's what's going to bring it. I am going to be sovereign. I am going to be the one who determines reality for me, and that's the direction I'm going to go. So we're constantly, in response to this, turning away from God's design. That's why the whole culture is attacking Genesis, the beginning chapters right now. And says, this is the alternative that will fill the void. well sin i guess promises that nobody's nice sin feels good for a while is it paying out i mean that's a fair question does it make us happy for a while until it destroys you what did james say about sin when it's fully grown it brings forth death now is it paying out isn't it interesting I just read this and I don't know how it's extended beyond 2018 but I saw the statistic in ages 10 to 24 suicide increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 18 no experts can answer why hmm you can because when you're looking inward to define yourself by sinful passions and desires outside of in rejecting the law of God you know that's not an answer but it leads to death it's escalating the curse of death that's what it's doing it's escalating it all of us by nature trying to fill our hearts and we run to idols That's what we do. That's what we're good at. We're idol factory makers. Thinking that's a solution. We want to numb the pain of the unhappiness and the weariness that sin brings. That's why we're distracted. But what does Naaman teach us? Why is it such a battle for our young people to treasure Christ? Well, notice what happens to Naaman. Naaman has this problem of leprosy he can't fix. So this is the problem that has wrecked everything. So you read in verse 2 that the Syrians had, on one of their raids, had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. This little girl had been brought from Israel into the Syrian army. Think about that. All alone, and she looks at Naaman and can hear the discussions in the house. what are we going to do and she says to Naaman's wife you know only if he met the prophet in Israel by the way that's a good little nugget for our young people look at the testimony of a little girl and how God used that to solve the problem in this text letters will go from kings to kings and they'll try to solve all these problems and God turns everything on its head and a little girl speaks the truth. This is a real moment. The powerful, mighty commander of the Syrian army under direct commission comes now into the king and he says, listen, this girl is saying that if I go to the land of Israel, this prophet over there can heal me. Obviously they knew of the power of the God of Israel or you wouldn't send them. so this is exactly what happens. Letters start flying. The king of Syria sends a letter to the king of Israel. This is a shameful moment that the king of Israel doesn't know who to send him to. You're trying to pick a fight with me. I can't heal of leprosy. Look at this guy. Well, that's when Elijah steps in. Elijah says, tell him to come to me. There's a prophet in Israel. So you can imagine the scene. Here comes this great commander and all of his war chariots must have looked even greater than the Egyptians and the advancements that were made. And he comes, and this is the most respected figure of the time, and he comes with all of his war chariots and all of his generals and all of his army and he stops at the door of the lowly pastor's house. Knock, knock. Elisha's in the back. Tells his servant, hey, go tell Naaman to go dip seven times in the Jordan. He'll get healed. He doesn't even come out to meet him. So the servant comes. So notice again how God's working here. The servant comes out. And he says, great, Naaman, if you will go and dip in the Jordan seven times, you'll be healed. And you have to put yourself in Naaman's shoes for a minute. What did he say? This is verse 11. Naaman is furious. And he went away and he said, now listen to how everything's on his terms here. Here's how it's going to go if I'm going to follow this God. Indeed, I said to myself, he will come out to me, which he didn't do. He will stand in front of me. He'll reverence me. And he's going to call on the name of the Lord is God. And then he's going to magically wave his hand over my leprosy and then it'll go away. That's what I said, and that's how it's going to go. Now, you understand how hard ministry is? This is why ministry is so hard right here. This is why pastors have a great challenge. Look at the anger. I'm thankful I don't have a church that's angry at me. Thank you. You love me, and you'll give me a hug later like I referenced earlier. I know. You're telling me, pastor, to believe in something that the entire world is going against. And every bit of my desire works against this. And the devil is assaulting me on every side. And the entire world is standing against me, and you want me to go there. You can heal. this heart, that way. So here come the chariots. Here comes the presidential escort. Go to the Jordan. I'm not going to that filthy Jordan. There's nothing attractive to that Jordan. Listen, are not the Abana and the Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the waters of Israel? When I was last week, or the week before, in Minnesota, the last place I really want to go, I said to them, I could go out to the ocean side, beautiful ocean, and dip there instead of having to come to Minnesota or Michigan. Who wants to go there? Some of them laughed and some of them got a little angry at me. I was really interested. I'm not stooping there. the mighty nations of Egypt and Chaldea and Syria, they're better than Israel. I'm not stooping down to a little strip of insignificant water in the Jordan. Notice how backwards everything is here? A little girl, a servant, a preacher, a lowly little strip of water. You have all these offers from the world. They promise you something great. They promise you happiness. They promise you identity. And some of you young people are about ready to go out of your parents' house. And you're going to go to college. And you know what? All these offers are going to be set in front of you. And we've been trying so hard to tell you to go to the Jordan. To look to Christ. It's why you've had in covenant youth training the way you've had. Look at parents who love you and care about you and train you and give you Sunday school and give you around the table gathering and care this much. What do you think it's about? Is it just because you've grown up in it, you don't realize what you've been given? Is that it? Do you have to test the waters elsewhere? Naaman storms off in rage. I had, when we were leaving for RYS, I was sitting at the airport, and a gal from Ireland was there, and she asked what all these young people are doing and why I was so, we got to talking, and she says, well, I just want you to know I'm an atheist. And I thought to myself, why in the world do you need to volunteer that to me unless you believe there's a God, right? I don't understand that mindset. but so we went and talked, we talked for a little while and I began to explain the gospel and she got up, oh, my brother's calling, got to go. I think that's the most bigoted thing I've ever heard. Told her I'd pray for her. Naaman storms off in her age. But again, a servant comes up. This just keeps happening. You know, you have all these teachers in your life and all of a sudden somebody, The voice comes again. It just keeps coming. That's providence. My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, wouldn't you have done it? All he's saying to you is wash and be clean. Yes, he says a great word. It means something difficult to carry out. if he would have told you today in all your misery to go climb Mount Everest to get healed, I think you'd have tried it. It's kind of like the woman with the flow of blood who came to Jesus. There's that little inclusion right after. She had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. You just keep spending. If he'd have told you to spend all your money, you would do it, wouldn't you? If he would have told you to go rich young ruler and give all your money to the poor, well, not really. He didn't do it, did he? All he's saying is washing the Jordan. You see why life's upside down. We're all trying to help people to recognize the great lie of the world that the human heart's good and to accept God's assessment, it really comes down to this, that the human heart is desperately wicked. Who knows it? And here's Christ. At our lowest, He comes to us. be honest with me i think um as i said to them the other day a lot are really discouraged i think we haven't quite understood the discouragement of our young people today they have no direction i think coming out of covid did not help things at all and all they're hearing and we have to be careful of this i have to be careful of this because all they hear from us is how bad everything is culture's bad everything's bad everything's falling apart everything's going to ruin in a handbasket and do we stop and say wait we have the greatest answer in the world which is the victory our faith and i think a lot of our young people right now want to give up think of all the problems pornography makes them feel disgusting they're stuck in sin they want answers and the three sworn enemies are coming at them and boy they offer the Vegas strip what's our message do you know how much Christ loves you he's true he loved you so much that the glory that he had with his father before the world began he set aside and he took on a human nature and he came down here to identify with you in sin becoming sin for you and he took all your sins that have polluted you and defiled you and that make you feel guilty and he carried them carrying your burdens and sorrows all the way to the cross and He made atonement and He rose victorious over the grave to tell you, I've got it. I'll give you purpose. I value you. This world doesn't value you. I'll give you an identity that matters. I'll make you look like me. how many of our young people here have not professed faith? And I ask the question, what holds you back? You have a few choices. Sin? And you just think you're not good enough to come? And what does the Lord say to you? Come to me. Confess your sins. I'm faithful and just. Forgive you your sins. and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. And when you stumble, every time you have access, come. You're never good enough. You never will be. It could be fear. You fear the elders. These guys? Why would you fear these guys? They love you. It's not that intimidating in the room, I promise. Apathy? I had a young person come up to me after one of the talks and said, Pastor, I don't know why I haven't professed my faith. And I said, what do you mean you don't know? I have no good reason. I said, well, then you're being lazy. Go profess your faith. He goes, you're right. That's where I was. It was complete indifference. Apathy. Unbelief? That'd be a really bad place to be. Do you believe? come to the waters. It's a huge battle in our culture over two Gospels. One says, follow your own way, believe in yourself, choose your identity, and it never pays out on what it promises. The other says, come to Christ, believe in him, profess faith in him, repent of your sins. And I want to make sure we understand, I think we hear repentance often and we think that's the biggest inconvenience. It sounds punitive and mean. repentance is the greatest way of freedom. Turn to him. He'll forgive you. He'll wash you. All we're saying is come to the Jordan. That's all we're saying. Naaman was being called to faith. Verse 14. You have to kind of read into the narratives. He says, I'll do it. He went down. He humbled himself. He kneeled into the Jordan and he dipped seven times into the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God. You can imagine, seven times I got to do this. And on the seventh time, God's number of perfection. His flesh became like that of a little child. Now, who said that? We need to become that. Jesus said that. He was washed in Christ. I love children. As I get older, I think it was J.C. Ryle who said he loved children. As I get older, I'm really loving and enjoying children more. I just passed over them before, but as I get older, I'm really starting to really enjoy them. But then they grow up. That's the problem. Children trust. They admire. They listen. They look at Dad in awe. he became as a little child that's how you enter the kingdom that's how powerful the blood of christ is to cleanse us from all our sins christ stretched out his hand to receive him and washed him and i want you to notice in verse 15 he returned to the man of god and all his aids and he came and he stood before him it's totally different man by the way and that's why i appreciated the conference the other night of those who are saying that if you have these faulty desires, you can't change. What an undermining of the gospel and of the power of the Spirit and sanctification. They're saying that, you know, in the Reformed churches. If you have the desires, you can't change. He returned to the man of God, he and all aides and he came and stood before him and said notice the confession now i know there is no god in all the earth except in israel please take a gift elijah says i'm not i'm not taking a gift he says well can i take two mule loads of earth back to the land i'm in that this is an interesting moment naaman being changed being washed having a new nature having been born again now has made the lord his god and now he has to navigate that outside of israel because you know in the old testament i can only worship god at the temple can i just take some earth look at the privilege you have this anticipates the coming into the gentile you're not worshiping on this mountain or that mountain you have come today to the lord and you worship him in spirit and in truth he's with you the lord is my god that's what this says that's what you need to know in all this search for acceptance all you have to first find think about this you have to first find your identity in christ to know the value of being a covenant child of God and that it is a giant lie to go search for that elsewhere. And that this God cares for you. This God loves you. And he has fulfilled everything that needs to be fulfilled in giving you this new identity as his salt and light in the earth through the life, death, and resurrection of his son. Your first identity as a fallen creature in Adam in pursuing your own will and following your own passions is over. Would you like to enjoy the second one? It's a lot better. When you appreciate that Christ has met you where you are, where you're broken, where you've made the pit and dug it yourself and covered yourself in the pig slop like the prodigal and eaten the pods of the pigs, he grabs you and he lifts you out of the pig slop and he washes you off. He throws a robe around you and he brings you into his kingdom and he calls you a son and daughter. You will only know that when you die to yourself. then you'll begin to know what a true identity in jesus is and it's a lifelong battle let me just say it's a lifelong battle come to the water says christ i'll save you i'll wash you i'll raise you up a new creature and you will know how satisfying it is to love the lord your god begin to in this life and in perfection in the life to come to begin to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us today, and thank you for helping us with this great account of Naaman to understand salvation, to expose all the lies that are coming at us. And I pray particularly this morning for our young people and adults. That they would see the blessing of being covenant children of the King. That they would embrace these promises. And that they, Lord, would as He who was in the heavens laughs, they would have the kind of strength to see clearly in our days of a culture gone wild in sin. May we all remain humble for we need your help every day for apart from the grace of God we cannot stand. Hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving for bringing us to the Jordan and washing us in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.