II Kings 5:15  And 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: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16  But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17  And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18  In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19  And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

We have much to learn. Life is about learning. It is important that we learn the truth. Universities and colleges have lost their place. They have become brainwashing centres that promote a socialist doctrine. The lack of education that children get prior to university explains how they can endure (with pleasure for most) the lies being crammed down their throats in these places of “higher” learning.
For those who are saved, most Bible colleges are not any better than the secular universities/colleges. Most Bible colleges do not use the Bible. They use perversions and they are run by men and women who are lost and also pushing a corrupt doctrine in the form of humanism.
In the Old Testament, God’s design for instructing His people was at the temple and it was to be by the Priests and Prophets. Of course, in accordance with the sinful nature of man, the priesthood soon became corrupted and there were also many false prophets. However, God always had a few true priests and a few true prophets. God blessed mankind by recording Old Testament history for us to learn from. We need to learn of the authority and wisdom of God. We also need to learn how foolish man is without God.
Since the time of Christ, Israel was cut off from her special place in God’s economy. They were and are still God’s chosen people. However, they are not the venue through which He is reaching the world. Now it is the true local church. There is no need for a stand alone Bible college. The local church should be the college that prepares its people for living the Christian life. This is another reason why a true local church is so important. We need to be grounded in the truth. We need to know why we believe what we believe and we need to be able to help others to see the importance of the truth. We need to be sure we believe the Truth.
As we look briefly at the life of Naaman, we see how God was evangelizing His enemies. At the time of Naaman, Israel (the northern 10 tribes) had rejected God. They were steeped in idolatry. Jeroboam had set up two golden calves, one at Bethel and one at Dan. He encouraged the people to follow the imaginary religion that he and his assistants would develop over time. God limited his time of influence over the nation, however every king of the north was a wicked king. At the time of our text, the Syrians had been given the opportunity to grow into a somewhat powerful nation. Of course, had Israel chosen to walk in the fear of the Lord, the Syrians would not have grown as powerful and they would not have been a threat to Israel. However, since Israel chose to defy God, He helped her enemies to develop and He used the Syrians to punish Israel. They were no longer in control of their affairs. The Syrians were affecting how they would function.
We read in II Kings 5, that God had a young Hebrew girl taken captive by the Syrians. She knew that the God of Israel was much greater than the gods of the Syrians. She knew that in spite of the fact that she was a captive in a foreign land. She knew it was not God’s failure that brought her into captivity. She determined in her heart to be a light in a dark place.
Naaman and the Syrian king were excited to learn that there was hope for Naaman’s leprosy in Israel. Of course the king assumed that hope would come from the king of Israel. He also assumed that any man that might help the king of Israel would be under his control. Even in Old Testament times, there was a “separation of religion and state”. The king was to write him a copy of the law and he was to meditate in that law day and night. However, the king did not have the Biblical authority to tell the priests and prophets what to believe. They did usurp that authority over the false religious leaders.
In our text there was a man, Elisha by name, who was a true prophet. He was not under the control of the king. He taught the truth. He was an asset to the nation, but they did not know it.
God brought Naaman to Israel to find the help that only had one source of help. Leprosy is a picture of sin. It is invasive and deadly. It can be cured but is not always cured.
Man is born as a lost sinner.

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Man has no capacity of fixing his sin problem on his own.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is only one source to find help with this sin problem that man is born with. That source is God. Since the fall of man, many have developed their own version of God. Naaman lived in a land that did not have the true God, they had false gods. At that time, Israel had also chosen to replace the true God with false gods. You cannot mix truth and error and come out with truth. God is all powerful, but when a person chooses to reject Him and introduce error into His character and His Word, it destroys Who He is. It does not destroy Him, because He cannot be tainted in any way by man’s manipulations. However, man can replace the true God with his imaginary gods as he wishes. The good news is that God will set up roadblocks designed to help the ungodly person to see the need to change course.
Naaman had the roadblock of leprosy put into his path. He needed to turn to the true God to find the help he needed. The lost sinner needs to turn to the true God to find the help he needs to deal with his sin nature. Shrinks are worthless. They will only make matters worse. The blessing is when a person who is seeing a shrink, realizes this is not working and allows God to draw them to Himself. You cannot mix the work of a Shrink with the truth. The person will need to choose to either listen to the Shrink, or to God.
Elisha gave Naaman clear instructions and he needed to choose to either obey those instructions or remain a leper. Through some wise counsel, Naaman listened to the sound counsel and the result was that he was healed of his leprosy. He assumed that his response needed to be to pay for the help he had received. He was accustomed to earning his way through life.
In the spiritual realm, there is a place for giving to the Lord’s Work. God taught man the importance of giving Him the tithe, 10 percent of what he has. God also taught the nation of Israel the importance of offerings.
However, when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, He did not demand payment from them. He demanded loyalty to Him. They needed to know and accept the fact that He alone could bring them out of bondage and they needed to acknowledge that fact and serve Him out of gratitude, not for payment.
Back in our text, since Naaman could not pay for his deliverance, he wanted to be able to take two mule burdens worth of soil back into Syria so that he could stand on “pure” soil to bring his offerings to the LORD, and not to the pagan deities of Syria.
God showed us His power to deliver Naaman from his leprosy. Naaman would need much more true teaching for him to understand the importance of true faith in God.
The New Evangelical crowd might look at the life of Naaman and assume that the compromises they are involved in are justified because as long as they have some good soil to stand on they can participate in the paganism that permeates their system.
Naaman had the outward desire to be right with the LORD, but he did not have the inner convictions that would guide him in being right with the LORD. The same is true for the N.E. crowd. Some of them have the outward desire to serve the Lord, but they do not have the inner convictions to be right with the Lord. The only way they can receive that is to get out of the paganism they have adopted and into the truth. The truth is available.
God is merciful and He wants to help us all to know Him. He expects those who know Him to draw nigh to Him and learn of Him. That will mean a change of location and of employment for those who are not close enough to be able to attend a true local church faithfully. With the coming of the Internet, there are opportunities to find some good teaching there. That can be an addition to what a true local church provides, but it is not a substitute for what a true local church can and must provide.
Don’t settle for second best, when the best is available. Jesus promised to build His church on Himself, and He is still doing that today. He is doing that through true local churches which are governed by godly men who are under His authority. That is God’s design, and He has proven Himself to be well able to provide godly men in every generation. They have never been many and sadly, most people have chosen less than the best and thus the multiplicity of false religion.
No one will have an excuse for being careless with their lives. The Truth is always available and those who know the Truth have been commanded to go and give others the truth. It is important to listen to the Spirit of God and be drawn to the Truth. If you will do that, you will be set free from the bondage of sin. You are not the originator of truth. You must be the recipient of Truth and the Holy Spirit is the One Who will lead you to the Truth if you will let Him.
Pastor Bartel