The Leprosy that is Sin
A Sermon on 2 Kings 5:1
Originally preached Feb. 14, 1960
Scripture
1Now 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 in valour, but he was a leper.
Sermon Description
In the Old Testament is the story of a man named Naaman who had leprosy and was healed by God. In this sermon on 2 Kings 5:1, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones focuses on the truths that can be found in this story and its relation to sin and people today. First is that sin, like a spiritual leprosy, can eat away at lives until it has complete control. It robs of the fullness and perfection of life that God originally intended for His people. Not only that, but no human can cure sin, just as no human was able to cure Naaman’s leprosy. Too often, people look to all the wrong places to solve this problem, but the things they do find are inadequate and fail in solving anything. They become so busy searching for something to heal them that they lose sight of the one true person who can: the humble carpenter who came down from heaven to bring salvation. Just as in the story of Naaman, the healing came from a humble person that the world would least expect to have success. Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes by stating that once the Christian has received this salvation, they must waste no time in sharing it with the rest of the world.
Sermon Breakdown
- Sin is something which spoils life. It detracts from happiness and wholeness.
- Sin causes positive unhappiness and pain. It makes life ugly and offensive.
- Sin is no respecter of persons. All are subject to it.
- Men at their best and highest cannot deal with the problem of sin. Physicians, kings, governments, philosophy, education, culture have all failed.
- Man is ignorant of the only way to deal with sin. The solution has been there the whole time but man looks to "great" solutions and misses it.
- The solution to sin is in the "little maid", the unknown, the unexpected - in Jesus Christ.
- The world looks for great, grand solutions but God's way is through the small, weak, and foolish.
- The solution is in the testimony of Jesus Christ and his power to heal and restore. We must point people to Jesus.
- People must go to Jesus, trust in his power, and they will be healed and saved.
Old Testament
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.