2 Kings — Chapter 5

The Leprosy that is Sin

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.