It fell on a day that Elisha
passed to Shunam where was a great woman And she constrained him
to eat bread And so it was that as oft as he passed by he turned
in thither To eat bread it fell on a day You saw that coming
didn't you knew that was? Something there it fell on the
day and God has ordained every second
of every minute of every day of every year. And most of it, to us, seems
uneventful. This day, I'm sure, was one that
this woman remembered when she met the man of God. Her life
was never the same again. But for us, the days often pass
by in a blur and nothing happens that we'll ever remember. But
it's not that way to God. You ever think about that? I
don't think I've ever really thought about that. It's not
that way to God. It's just a blur to us. But every
second, every day is a thousand years to Him. Every second's meaningful and
consequential. Because he's causing intricate
details of his purpose to develop and to unfold in each second
all over the world. Hard to wrap our minds around
that. This day in this Shunammite woman's
life would be one that she would remember. And there are days
in our lives that we will remember forever, but not most of them. Not most of them, but every one
of them. All of our seconds are in the
hand of God. And every one of them is important. We need him every second. We're not told specifically why
she came to constrain Elisha, to come and eat with her and
her husband. In verse nine, it says that she
perceived that Elisha was a holy man of God. But maybe in verse
eight, she had some reason to begin to suspect that there was
something different about him. One thing's for sure, we can't
know The reason because it's not given
here But what's pictured here is something that we can be sure
of Elisha being a picture of christ our prophet And this woman
being a picture of a needy sinner We're taught here that when the
lord saves the sinner it will fall on the day that that sinner
will need and seek and constrain the Lord. That's what's gonna
happen now. It's gonna fall on the day. I
don't know when, I don't know where, I don't know the circumstances
of it, but if the Lord's gonna save you, it's gonna fall on
the day that you're gonna need him. You're gonna perceive him
like you never have before, and you're gonna constrain him. The woman with the issue of blood,
before she was ever healed, she fought through the press, saying,
if I can just touch the hem of his garment. Blind Bartimaeus,
before he was ever healed, cried, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. The Canaanite woman wouldn't
shut up, would she? They tried to get her to shut
up, but she constrained the Lord to stop and speak with her. She
constrained him to hear her cry for mercy. The disciples in Luke 24, it
says in Luke 24, 27, beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
Christ expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village
whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. They still didn't realize who he was at that point. He
preached himself to them, but they didn't know who he was yet.
And when they drew nigh unto the village, he wished him well
and was about to go on his way. He made as though he would have
gone further, but they constrained him. They knew something was going
on. They said later, didn't our hearts burn within us? I think
that's how this Shunammite woman was. Why would she ask him to come home and have dinner
with her family? But they constrained him, saying,
Abide with us, for it's toward evening, and the day is far spent.
And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as
he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and
break, and gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they
knew him. They knew him. And that's what
happened with this woman in our text. In the same way, she constrained
Elisha, and in the breaking of bread at her house with him,
in verse nine it says she perceived who he was. What a clear and
beautiful picture of our Savior. This is God's prophet. And it doesn't say that when
she found out who he was, when she perceived that he was a holy
man of God, that she kicked him out. No, she did everything she
could to spend as much time as she could with him. If you ever find out who the
Savior is, you're not ever gonna be without him, not for a second.
Not for a second. You'll constrain him. It'll be
important to you. Oh, she wants to spend as much
time. Remember, Elisha in this story
is the Lord Jesus. Salvation is not just an experience. She didn't just meet him and
be impressed that he was a man of God and that he spoke the
truth. His words weren't like others. They said that about
the Savior. No man ever spake like this man. There was something
about him that she couldn't resist. She wanted to have dinner with
him, and then she wanted to often have dinner with him, and then
she wanted him to stay, come and stay. Salvation's not just an experience. It's a lifelong constraining
of the Lord. Lord, don't leave me. Don't pass
me by. Don't leave me to myself. Lord,
hold me, keep me close. Keep me close. Don't let me go. And you know, we, I feel like
often I come across in, in, denouncing the way that religion
does business and how that they, you know, somebody comes in and
gets saved and then you may not see them again, except maybe
at Christmas and Easter. I was in that. Maybe that's a
little bit of an excuse. I was in that for many years
of my youth. I grew up in that. And I saw how that it was just
treated like an experience. It was like something come down
there and get that taken care of. So you go to heaven when
you die, and then, you know, everything's great from that time forward.
And so when I denounce that kind of thing, I feel like I'm harsh
about it sometimes. But the truth of the matter is,
for those that we love, we long for this for them. We long for
true communion with the Lord. Don't just pop in every once
in a while and think that everything's okay. Those who know the Lord,
they want Him with them all the time. If He said, where two or
three are gathered in my name, there I am, there they are. And this is not about church
attendance. It's really not. Don't think of it that way. I'm
talking about decades now. I've known most of you for decades
now. And if something comes up, you're
not here once in a while. That doesn't mean anything because
for decades you've been faithful. Why? It ain't because of me. I know that. Lord's given me
enough grace to know that. It's because you want to be with
him. You want to hear of him. You want him to stay. You want
to hear from him every time you can. You want to be with his
people. He uses his people to be a comfort
to me and to you. Thank God for those who know
Him like we do and that we can fellowship together in Him. I
know I sound harsh sometimes. I'm not consigning anybody to
hell. I want them to know the Savior. You can't explain it, can you?
You can't explain it to them. You just can't. You've got to
live it. You've got to know him. You've got to know him if you're
going to want him all the time, like this woman did, all the
time, continually. They constrain him, don't go. And this woman, she constrained
and lashing. And while the breaking of bread,
while they were having dinner with him, and I guess maybe after dinner,
she said to her husband, this is a man of God. God's with him. He speaks for God. This is not
an ordinary man. This is somebody, this is God's
prophet. And what a picture of the Savior. He is in that. You're going to constrain him
your whole life. You're going to seek him your
whole life now, all the time. And we know who sought who first,
don't we? But you're going to seek him.
You're going to need him. You're going to constrain him. You're
going to beg him. Don't go. He said you'll find me when you
seek for me with all your heart. And when we come to this house. I'm thankful for a nice place
to worship the Lord, but it's not about that. It's not because
we just like to be together, though we do know, but the Lord
has been pleased to oft meet with us here, hadn't he? It could
be anywhere. It's not the place. But look
at verse eight again. She constrained him to eat bread,
and so it was that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither
to eat bread. The Lord said, I'll be there.
I'll commute with you there. The breaking of bread here pictures
the preaching of the gospel. The bread of life is broken in
the preaching of the gospel. And we're spiritually nourished
and delighted and comforted. And in that breaking of bread,
he reveals to us more and more who he is, who he is. And we just want to be with him
more and more. We beg the Lord to come in with us and that we
may dine with him. Don't leave. Don't go. Stay with
us. That's the consequence of us,
by his revealing grace, knowing who he is. That's why she invited
him home. That's why she constrained him.
She had some idea who he was. And that's us, isn't it? We just
have some idea who he is. A little bit more maybe than
than when we first believed. But we have some idea who he
is. That's where she was. And she said, no, you've got
to come home with us. You've got to eat with us. We
need to spend some time with you. As oft as he will come by. The
Lord's coming by now, isn't he? He's coming back here. May not
be forever. May not be that long, may not
be that long. I pray another generation that
the Lord will stay with us, that he'll pass through here. But
often he moves on, doesn't he? He moves on. Are you of a heart to constrain
him? I believe by his grace I am. The Shunammite may not have had
much knowledge of Elijah that day, that first day yet, but
she didn't constrain anybody else to come home with her. So
she knew something. And that's me. I know something
about him. I know something about who he is. By his grace, he's
revealed himself. We can never know the Lord at
all. I mean at all Unless and until
he reveals himself to us No man knoweth who the son is
But the father and who the father is but the son and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal it He does that in the gospel Saw
that this morning, didn't we? She was a great woman. I want
you to notice this, please. I pray the Lord will teach this
to us. To the world, that would mean that she was wealthy, likely,
and of some stature in this world, maybe some kind of a politician
or something like that. To God, look what it means. What
did this woman do from start to finish in this story? All
she did was serve. That's what greatness is to the
Lord now. He said, those of you that will
be great among you, be your servant. Yeah, that's where she was. She
was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was Paul's title.
He'd been to college now. He had all kinds of I'm sure
honors attached to his name. You know what he called himself?
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. There's no higher honor than
that. There literally is no higher honor than that. People look at service, I fear,
in the scripture about, oh, here we have to serve, serve, serve,
serve. But that's just, you know, we
have to do that in order to get to the place where, you know,
we're big shots in here. No, it says his servant shall
serve him. That's what we're gonna do. And
that's always gonna be the glory. The glory is to be his servant,
to be his servant, to praise and adore him, to do whatever
he says. What will we do in heaven? Whatever he says. That's what
we're gonna do. That's what the angels do. I
wish we could do that now, don't you? Oh man, what an honor to
serve. the Lord. She served. Come eat
with us. Come eat with us. Come every
time you're by this way. Here we made a bed. We made a
bed and a table for you so you can rest here and work here.
Stay with us. She served. She was a great woman
by the grace of God. The Lord say in Matthew 25 34
then shall the king say unto them on his right hand Come you
blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world for I was hungry And you gave
me some need oh Man Religion thinks that they've
got to conquer the world, you know Lords already done that
It's right here. He's doing exactly what you you
don't need you for that He said I was hungry and you
gave me something to eat when did we do that what we when did
we do that? When one of my little ones was
hungry You cared So in other words by his own
grace We are approved He blesses us because of what
we've done and what we've done is because of what he did And we didn't that we haven't
done anything ever that's why we say Lord when did we when
did we serve you? We did nothing but disappoint
our whole I we were losers. We've done nothing worth doing
and but all of his goodness, all
of his mercy, all of his, it says multitudes would come to
him in the evenings of sick and lame and diseased, and it says
he healed every one of them. When he did that, that was us
doing that. He is for us our righteousness, our
good works, our good deeds. Was sick and you visited me I
was in prison Whose great is who the Lord calls
great not this world Because he's the one that makes him great And she said unto her husband
verse 9 behold now I perceive that this is an holy man of God
which passeth by us continually what a blessed word continually
I She constrained him to come and
have a meal with them. And then he come by all the time
after that. You see how this picture is salvation. The Lord brought her to that
place. He revealed himself. He gave her a glimpse of who
he was. And she said, come home, come
home with me. Now this is a picture of the
effect of salvation, right? The picture of the cause of salvation
is Zacchaeus. When the Lord said, I'm coming
home with you. Is that what he said? You come down. You come down because I've got
to go to your house today. That's the cause of salvation.
The effect of it is Lord, come, stay, stay, don't go. And he comes continually. He
gave her a taste of who he was in the city on that memorable
day. And then she hungered for his
presence. She constrained him to eat with
them as often as he came by. He was welcome there and they
delighted to have him or she did. We don't hear much about
her husband. Delighting in him, but she did. As often as he came by, but how
often did he come by? Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Continually he came back, continually. He hadn't left us alone yet,
has he? Hadn't left us yet. And she said in verse 10, let
us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall. This is God's
man now, we're gonna hear from God. and let us set for him there
a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick and it shall
be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in. Let's just,
let's make sure he stays. Let's do what we need to do.
Let's do what we can to make him stay. Let us so, by God's grace, arrange
our lives in such a way that even when the meal is over, we
insist that the Lord stay all night with us. Do you just go
from here and forget the Lord? No, even when the meal's over,
Lord, stay. Stay the night. Stay with us. This is a timely lesson now,
folks. Salvation's not a knee-jerk reaction to something bad happening
to you in your life, or you want to just get religious for a little
while because, you know, it's been tough, you know. Salvation's
not you stopping in six times a year to visit with the Lord
when you happen to be passing by. This breaking of bread is the
communion that the Lord promised, that where two or three are gathered
in his name. He said, there I am, continually. Those who know him cannot live
without that. We constrain him to stay with
us. Let me ask you a question. How
often do you think, just getting a feel for this Shunammite's
disposition toward Elisha here in the story, how often and for
how long would Elisha have been welcome to sleep in that bed
and work at that table? Does it sound to you like in
this story that she ever would have said, enough's enough? What about you? Enough enough
There's no such thing as enough Of Christ He's enough he's sufficient
but Got to have him all the time
now Verse 11 and it fell on a day
that he came the other and he turned into the chamber and lay
there and And he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite.
And when he had called her, she stood before him. Now it goes
back, it kind of tells that general part, and then it goes back to
before he called her. Did you notice that? He's still
talking to Gehazi now in verse 13, without her there. And he
said unto him, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful
for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee?
Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of
the host? Would you like some special consideration
with the king himself or somebody important? And she answered,
I dwell among mine own people. In other words, she got no business
She's not interested in that. And he said, what then is to
be done for her? Seems like she was just satisfied
with spending time with him. But Gehazi answered, verily she
hath no child, and her husband is old. You see here the relationship
between the Savior and the sinner. She couldn't do enough for Him
or have enough of His company. But all along, this is Him doing
for her. This is Him showing her who He
is. He was who she desired. Because
of who He is and what He did, I'm sure the words that He spoke,
the Word of God, the truth, was priceless to her, she couldn't
do enough for him. And he's laying there thinking,
what's his side of the story? He's laying there thinking, what
can I do for him? You remember David, when he pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, is there any of the house of
Saul that I can have some mercy on? The Lord is pictured that
way in the scriptures. He's always, this is gonna be
too good to be true now. You're not gonna buy it because
it's too good to be true. He's always thinking about you.
He's always thinking about you and what he can do for you. Now,
he doesn't have to think about it. Let me be clear about that.
He don't have to think about it. He knows what you need. He
knows this inside out and he knows exactly what we need, but
you see the picture here. He's laying there thinking, what
can I do? What more can I do for her? Do you have any idea? You who
have constrained the Lord to be with you continually, do you
have any idea how much he loves you? It's hard to get a hold of it. Quit looking at yourself and
look at Him. That'll help. The more you look
at yourself, the more you're not going to believe it. You're
not going to believe it. He's the one who drew you with
cords of loving kindness. He's the one who first constrained
you. His love constrains us, for we
reckon that if He died for us, then we ought to live for Him.
That's what she was doing. She was just serving Him because
He constrained her. And now He's pictured us thinking,
what can I do? Is there anything the Lord has
not done for you that needs to be done? Has he left anything undone? There's never a time when the
Son of God is not thinking of you, and I know that's a human
way of saying it. Stuff doesn't cross his mind
like it does ours. We love him because he first
loved us, and there is no time ever He's not thinking of you
and doing for you everything That needs to be done blessing
you working all things for your eternal good he that spared not
his own son But delivered him up for us all how shall he not
also with him freely? Give us all things What can I
do what can I do for her what a picture It's interesting that her need
is voiced someone else She never even asked for a son. Oh, she
needed one. She she certainly wanted one. She was delighted But this is
how gracious our Lord is he doesn't just give us what we asked for
He gives us what we need he knows what we need then And he gives
us all of it every bit of it. I Listen to Ephesians 3 20 Listen to this we'll think about
this when you lay down tonight Now unto him that is able To
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think According
to the power that worketh in us Unto him be glory Can we say
that from our hearts The one who is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think to him be glory in the church
among his people. By Christ Jesus all of our blessings
are in Christ and by Christ. Throughout all ages world without
end as long as we have breath Praise the Lord thank him He's
already done abundantly above all that we could ask her thing And then the simple spiritual
lesson here also in that in that this picture salvation this whole
story pictures what happens when a God saves a sinner in the sense
here that she was dead inside. That was her problem. That was
what the Lord was going to do for her, was going to create
life inside of her. He gave her life in herself.
And spiritually speaking, we're the same. He does the same when
he saves us. He creates life within us. You can do all the outwardly
moral stuff that you can think of, but salvation is life from
the dead. That's what it is. And only Christ can give life.
Without him was not anything made that was made. He said the Father has given
me authority like he quickens the dead. You give me authority
to give life to him so ever I will. Being a servant of Jesus Christ,
as Paul often referred to himself, always accompanies salvation.
The Lord's not gonna save you, and then you're not serving at
all. We're pitiful servants. We're unprofitable servants.
You can't do anything for God. David, in that psalm we read
not long ago, I forget exactly where it is, but he said, what
shall I render unto the Lord? I'll take the cup of salvation.
What am I going to do for God? I'll just keep taking what he
gives. And that's what honors the Lord,
not you. I know that bearing fruit, he
gets glory from us bearing fruit. But that's because we abide in
him. That's life that he gives. That's produce. That's the fruit
of the spirit, not the fruit of the flesh. So she needed something that
she couldn't, she had no power over whatsoever, but the Lord
did. With men it's impossible, but
with God all things are possible. And he said, call her, call her,
and when he had called her, here's her part in it. You see that
there in verse 15? Here's her part in it. She stood
in the door. She just stood, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. She just stood there. She didn't
say anything. She didn't do anything. And he said, about this season,
according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. Isn't that a beautiful way to
say that? He didn't say you're going to have a baby. He said,
you're going to put your arms around your boy about this time,
according to the time of life. And it was too good to be true,
wasn't it? She was just like us. We'd go
around. He wouldn't even be able to stand
us, would you, if we really knew how much he loved us? You wouldn't
be able to stand us. We'd never shut up about it.
It was too good to be true. Nay,
my lord, thou man of God, don't lie to me. Don't lie unto thine
handmaid. Servant. Servant. And the woman conceived and bare
a son at that season that Elijah had set unto her according to
the time of life. It fell on another day that she
gave birth to a son. He called her and she came she
just stood there It says she stood in the door in verse 15
in verse 12, it said she stood before him That's the same thing. He's the door The Lord promised
her life And he gave her life Salvation is according to the
life-giving promise of God in the New Covenant And then in
the time of life, God performs that which he promised. The covenant
promises are made to all of his elect before they're ever born. And those promises are fulfilled
on Calvary. And again, when it falls on a
day that God saves that sinner. The time of life, what is that? What is the time of life? Paul
called it when it pleased God. In Ezekiel 16, it's called the
time of love. The Lord said, now when I passed
by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time
of love. And I spread my skirt over thee
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee. About
this time, he said, you're going to embrace the sun. I swear unto
thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
oh, and some of my favorite words in all the scripture, and thou
becamest mine. The time of love, thou becamest
mine. We've always been His, but the
time came when we found out about it. And bless God, we've never
been the same, and we don't ever want to be without Him. Lord,
don't ever, ever, ever leave us. I don't know how to say it, but we truly don't sorrow like others. I'm like you, I'm sure that most
of the time I'm able to take my mind off of things that hurt,
off of things that give me great sorrow. But every once in a while, it just kind of floods in, doesn't
it? And my heart will break, and
I'll begin to... You know, crying is not a voluntary
thing, is it? You just break. You just break. But by God's grace, that never
happens when my mind doesn't go to the Lord Jesus and how He's our
rock. We curl up in His hand and everything's
fine. It's still heartbreaking, it's
still sad, it's still painful, but it's okay because it's Him.
It's Him. And I thought, what in the world
do people do that don't have the Savior? What do they do? And I know that sounds like I'm
being all spiritual and everything, but you know what I'm talking
about. We take refuge in Him in the stone. I guess I'm getting soft in my
old age because I wish everybody I knew had that refuge. And I think of what Paul said
to Agrippa, I would to God, that you were all together such as
I am, except these bonds, except this sin, except this body of
death. And so I pray that the Lord will be gracious to
us and continue to teach us who He is. And so that we just want Him
more and more. Just be with me, Lord. Just be with me. I don't need a word put into
the King. I don't need anything but what
you are to me. May we truly believe that. By His grace, let's pray together.