Naaman clearly hoped that the Man of God could heal him but unless he was obedient and did what the man of God instructed him to do, he could not be healed. For him, the evidence of his faith would be that he was prepared to be obedient to the man of Gods’ instructions.

We hear a great deal in this world about us all having choice. "God has given us all a choice" we hear, but the Gospel is actually presented for the obedience of faith. If God tells us in his word to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, it is a serious thing not to obey that word. In Acts 17 Paul says that "God is now commanding men everywhere to repent". That doesn’t sound like choice does it?

This is an aspect of the Gospel that is not often emphasised. Paul speaks in the early days of Christianity in his epistles of "Some who had not obeyed the glad tidings" as if that was an extraordinary thing in those days that some who heard the gospel should not obey. It suggests they were in the minority. Today, alas, it is all too normal and the Devil promotes this idea that we have a choice in these things.

What is so lovely in this scripture to me is not just that Naaman was obedient but that God used the most unlikely persons around him to encourage him to be obedient. His help came from the most unlikely sources, this little girl and his own servants.

I have got a really soft spot for Naaman. He so often gets a hammering in preachings when this scripture is taken up but we are told by the spirit of God that he was a great man, an honourable man, but a leper. He had a condition that underneath all the outward appearance was destroying him, working away in his system. Leprosy in the New Testament language refers to our sinful condition

Well, God had his eye on Naaman. Jesus said in Luke’s Gospel that "There were many Lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian". He is singled out in that way as the object of God’s sovereignty but he needed to be obedient to Gods word to realise that.

Faith and obedience, Gods sovereignty and mans responsibility go hand in hand. You cannot divorce them and those that do fall into error. The great ecclesiastical conflicts around predestination have resulted from one of these truths being pressed at the expense of the other and Gods sovereignty and man’s responsibility being divorced. They cannot be divorced. They are like the parallel lines of a railway track which appear to meet in the distance.

Naaman was very bothered by his condition. I wonder if we have yet been really bothered about our sinful condition. We learn from Paul that in his death Jesus, as our substitute, suffered the punishment for our sins but we also learn that in his burial, vicariously (that is, in our place) God put out of his sight for ever the man that was responsible for those sins and in the resurrection of Jesus and through the gift of the holy spirit we can be set free from the bondage of our sinful condition. It has often been said that deliverance now (as distinct from eternal salvation) is a thing little understood by Christians. Most can grasp the significance of Jesus dying for us and being raised for us but his being buried for us is not so easy to grasp but that is the route to deliverance.

Well, Naaman had to learn that the cure for his condition lay in God’s hands but I think that if he were preaching here this morning he would also tell you that if it had not been for this little girl and his own servants he may never have been cured. If he were here today I think he would draw attention to this maid and his servants and would say "You know, if this little captive girl of mine had not cared about me and spoken to my wife about the prophet in Samaria and my wife not told me, I would still be a leper and if my servants had not persuaded me to follow the Prophets instructions, I would never have been cured"

This little girl was a captive. Taken from her home, probably wrenched from her parents and her friends. She had every reason to hate Naaman and yet extraordinarily, she seemed to have real affection for him. "Oh that my Master would see the Prophet who is in Samaria" she said.

It was an unlikely channel through which help came to Naaman. Sometimes God uses unlikely channels rather than orthodox channels and we have to be careful not to dismiss them because we are too proud to listen. We may be dismissive of some people and consider them insignificant.

We may think of others as not very intelligent spiritually or very bright, not quite in our league you know! but help can come from very unexpected quarters sometimes. Have you ever experienced that? I have.

Well, we know the story, Naaman went to see Elisha. He went in his fine Chariot, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6000 shekels of gold, 10 sets of clothing and a letter from the King and his whole retinue went with him. He drew up outside Elisha’s house and waited. Nothing happened. You can just imagine the scene can’t you and then he gets a message which effectively says "Go and jump in the river"

Oh dear. That really upset Naaman. "I thought he would at least come out to meet me, call upon the name of his God and wave his hand over the leprous place on my skin and heal me" he said, "And anyway, why do I have to wash in the Jordan, why not the Abarner and Pharper rivers. Won’t they do?"

Have you had the experience of somebody telling you that they were converted by a famous evangelist? It is difficult to know how to respond isn’t it? Do you say, "Wow" or "really" or "How wonderful etc etc" I came to the Lord as a result of a close shave with a number 17 bus which knocked me down and missed my head by inches. That was after weeks of refusing God’s speaking to me in other ways.
And I had no doubt God was driving that bus. If I were to say in response to the person who told me they were saved but a great evangelist that for me, it was a number 17 bus………well, it just doesn’t have the same ring about it does it?

Don’t refuse Gods word or appeal because it is not what you expected or doesn’t add to you in any way.

We know that the Jordan has a very special place in the scripture. In New Testament language it represents the death of Jesus and our death with him and it was a very special place for Elijah and Elisha.

It was the waters of the Jordan that Elijah parted with his cloak. It was there that Elijah was carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and it was there that Elisha received a double portion of Elisha’s spirit and then he too, took the mantle of Elijah and smote the waters and they separated for him too.

No ordinary river the Jordan. No ordinary death, the death of Jesus. It is our only way into blessing, into cleansing and there is no other way. Other rivers will not do. Other routes to God other than through the death of Jesus will leave us still leprous.

So he is angry but notice the affectionate way his servants speak to him. "Father", they say, "If the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, you would have done it. All he asking you to do is to wash in the Jordan". His servants, like the little girl also seem to have great affection for him but they were probably taking their life in their hands speaking to Naaman in that way but they handled it beautifully. "A soft answer turneth away wrath", we read in Proverbs.

He might have rounded upon them and said "How dare you talk to me like that. I didn’t ask for your opinion" but it speaks volumes for the man that he listened and went straight down to the waters edge and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and he was cleansed.

Seven times…. Imagine the scene. If his people were watching they might think the first dip was just a wash, then, "Look, He’s going in again"…..then, "Wait a minute, there he goes again"……….and so on, seven times. In my translation it says he plunged into the Jordan seven times. It doesn’t use this word ‘Dip’ and I prefer the word plunge. There are times, you know when we need to plunge in, take the plunge and no more so than when we need to get rid of sins and sin.

He went down. It takes moral courage to go down. It involves humiliation. You have to worry about people who just seem incapable of going down, of admitting they are wrong or have got something wrong and persist in maintaining a façade of correctness and flawlessness. In contrast, this brings out Naaman’s moral greatness. He went down.

Perhaps someone here needs to take the plunge today. Perhaps there is something God has been asking you to do to demonstrate your faith and as yet you have not been obedient.

It is very interesting that it is only after he has been obedient and comes up out of the water clean and cured that the man of God is prepared to meet him. It is obedience first, then blessing, then God comes close to him in the person of the Elisha.

Another has said "The order of things for a Christian is not obedience upon being blest but blessing upon being obedient. Not to wait for blessing in order to obey but to act on the command first and then blessing follows. That is faith. There would be neither faith nor need of faith if the blessing came first"

Finally, you see this great man, who in many ways has become like the little maid now, this man who arrived with horses, chariots, gold and silver returns with "Two mule’s burden of earth". What earth is that? It is the earth from the place where Naaman’s flesh became again as a little child, where he had to do with God, where he divested himself of all his pride and where he received grace upon grace and it was all free. The prophet would not accept any payment.

Salvation is priceless. Gods grace is amazing. Salvation cannot be bought, either with money, or through our own endeavours. The price has been paid by Jesus. and it is the pure grace of God that brings salvation but it is based upon the obedience of faith.

Well, I don’t want to dwell upon Gehazi but he represents a line of things that can mark any one of us. He is within the range of what God is doing but completely out of tune with it. It is an orthodox, religious line of things, morally inept, and aloof from these wonderful deep things that are felt in this chapter. He may have been Elisha’s servant but he didn’t have his spirit.

You remember that in the previous chapter when the child of the Shunammite Woman had died, Elisha gave Gehazi his staff and said, "Go and lay that on the boy". Gehazi did that but seeing there was no response he left the boy for dead. It didn’t occur to him to try anything else. Elisha, on the other hand, when he arrived shut the door and prayed over the boy. He then got onto the bed with the boy, put his mouth on the boys mouth, his eyes upon his and his hands on the boys hands and as he did so the boy’s body became warm and he revived.

Elisha identified himself with the lad. As Parents, we know from experience that if we want to retain our Children’s affections we have to identify closely with them. The same applies to the Church’s children, this Church’s children.

Then, in the chapter we have read, Gehazi looks to benefit himself from Naaman’s cleansing. He sees this extraordinary and powerful chain of events as an opportunity for personal gain