Turn to 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 4. The life and miracles of Elisha. This is lesson number 7. 2 Kings
4 will be in verses 18-37. Now, you remember this, last
week we talked about the Shunammite woman, and the grace of God was
obviously in her heart. She showed kindness to the man
of God, to the prophet, to the preacher, however you want to
phrase it, and she didn't ask for anything.
She just opened up her house, her food, and then she opened
up another room, or built another room, however she did this, but
she opened up her home. And we are to be hospitable. We are to show hospitality, especially
those in the household of faith. Some have entertained strangers,
have entertained angels, unawares. So, she wasn't doing it for gain. She wasn't doing it for righteousness.
She was already righteous. She believed in God. She believed the account
was written of God. She believed in a promise that
through Abraham, the seed, there was going to be a Messiah. And
so, Elisha asked her in the last lesson, what do you want me to
do for you? And she said, I'm fine. Do you want me to get you
anything? I'm fine. She was content. And that's another
characteristic, a fruit of belief. Content. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. She wasn't running all over seeing
what her neighbor had, and she had to have something better,
and this and that, like we see so much. She was content. And then the man of God asked
his servant, and his servant said, well, she doesn't have
a child. So he just, out of nowhere in a sense I guess, because in
this time, to be without child was a reproach in Israel according
to historians and according to the Scriptures. So he gives her
a child. And she says, not doubting, but
she, don't lie to me. Don't tell me this. Don't lie to thy handmaid." He wasn't. He was gracing her with
this miracle. So she conceived a son according
to the time of life. And when the child was grown,
it fell on a day that the child went out to his father, to the
reapers. And he said unto his father,
my head, my head. And the father said to Elad,
carry him, my son, to his mother. And when he had taken him and
brought him to his mother, the boy sat on her knees till noon
and then died." Now this boy is not a young child, but it
doesn't make any difference. This is their only child. So
it's really mute. It's tragic. It's who can bear
it type of thing. It's just very difficult. So the child is sitting there
on his mother's knees and dies. She went up and laid her son
on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and
she went out and she called unto her husband and said, send me,
I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses that
I may run to the man of God and come again." And her husband
said, wherefore will you go to him today? It is neither a new
moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it shall be well. It shall be peace. Then she saddled
an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward slack, not
by riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came unto
the man of God to Mount Carmel and came to pass. When the man
of God saw her far off, he said unto Gehazi his servant, Behold,
yonder is the Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet
her and say to her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy
husband? Is it well with thy child? And
he did so, and she answered, It is well. And when she came
to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet. And
Gehazi came near to thrust her away, and the man of God said,
Let her alone, for her soul is vexed, or troubled or bitter
within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not
told me. Then she said, Did I desire a
son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive
me? Then Elisha said to his servant,
Gehazi, gird up thy loins, take my staff in your hand, and go
thy way. If thou meet any man, don't salute
him, answer him not again, lay my staff upon the face of the
child. And the mother of the child said, as the Lord liveth
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. The prophet,
I'm not going to leave thee. Gehazi rose and they rose and
followed her. Gehazi passed on before them
and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither
voice nor hearing. whereof he went again to meet
him." That is, Gehazi went back to the man of God. And he told
him, he said, the child is not awakened. Then Elisha was come
into the house, and behold the child was dead and lay upon his
bed. He went in and therefore shut
the door upon them both and prayed unto the Lord. Elisha went up and lay upon the
child and put his mouth upon the child's mouth, and his eyes
upon the child's eyes, and his hands upon the child's hands,
and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the
child waxed warm. Then he returned and walked in
the house to and fro, and went up and stretched himself upon
him, and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his
eyes, and he called Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite. So
Gehazi called unto her and when she was come in unto him, he
said, take up thy son. Then she went in and fell at
Elisha's feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her
son and went out." Troubling trials and difficulties
of life indeed for this woman was barren in Israel and then
had a child in I don't know how many years, more than a few years,
the only child. If he's old enough to go out
with his father to the Reapers, he's not a little boy, then he
dies. Something happens. He says, my
head, my head, And he dies. The first thought I had here
is, the saints of God must expect tribulation. This is the mother's
only son. Now he lays dead or dying at
her knees. In verse 20, till noon, then
died. I can't imagine the grief and
toil of Saul here. She lays him in the prophet's
room and she's about to go to the prophet
to remind him of God's promise to her. That's all she's got. A promise
of life when she didn't ask for it. So I can't imagine the grief
and the toil of her soul, yet, yet, yet, She was more importantly a believer
in the God of all promise. And this would have taken much
of her fear, her doubt, and her struggle from her. Verse 23, she says, I'm going
to meet the prophet. And he says, don't go. It's not
this time, that time. She says, I'm going anyway. She
said, it shall be well. Now only somebody who has seen
the sovereign grace of God and has given them something that
we don't deserve and don't ask for, salvation, can understand. I can't understand the grief,
but I can understand a little bit. We don't grieve like the
world grieves. Her faith. She was like Abraham. Abraham of old. He plunged the
knife in his son. Believing, says the scripture,
that God was able to raise Isaac up because He had promised through
this son the seed would come. So, yes, she was grieving, but
I say she was believing. It's the fact of the matter. She was grieving, but yet through
it all, she saw the grace of God. She said before she even talked
to the man, she told her husband, it shall be well. Now at our end, now life is full
of trials, but we have His word of promise that it shall be well. It shall be well with us. It
is given unto us not only to believe, but to have persecutions
and sufferings in this life. I cannot emphasize this enough.
We, by God's grace, it's only by God's grace, we can't conjure
up something, trials, we'll take a stoic view, I know I need to
do this, this and that, and then we fall. And we fall again. And
then we realize, God's given us the grace. He's given the
gifts. He's given the blessings. May I see Him in it. We are to
walk in faith. Believing God. Believing His
Word. Believing His Gospel. As this
book declares, it is well with the righteous. It is well with
the righteous. Are we righteous? Do we possess
the righteousness of Christ on our behalf? Then let us act like
it. Let us live like it. Let us adorn our profession with
this unfailing truth. He never leaves nor forsakes
us. He's promised life. He's given us life. He's given,
He can take away. We do not walk in fear. We do not let fear, whatever
the circumstance, faith is how we walk. Faith. Fear is just one big, it's a
spider web. It's an entanglement. No matter
what excuse we use, if we're not walking by faith, then we're
pitfalls, falling in a ditch, We get our eyes off Christ, all
these things. And Satan is not concerned about
these other churches that are not preaching the gospel. He's
concerned about the places where the gospel is being preached
and trying to cause disunity and disharmony and struggles
and trials. And he'll do whatever he can,
whether it's fear, whether it's lies, whatever it may be. He'll
do whatever he can to disrupt the unity and the gathering,
and the worship, or whatever you want to say, of the brethren.
The second thing I see here is found in verse 28. Then she said,
she goes to the man of God, and she tells Gehazi the same thing
in verse 26, it is well. But she really wanted to have
to do with the man of God, the prophet. And when she gets to
him, she says, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do
not deceive me? Kind of flipped us around. Did
any of us ask or seek Christ when grace found us? No. Did we ask for grace? Did we ask to be a Christian?
No. She didn't ask for a son. It
was just bestowed upon her. It was graced upon her. And you
know what? We don't seek Him. We never seek
Him. We didn't seek Him. We hated Him. But then, in the
fullness of time, He crossed our paths. Somebody told us the
truth. He crossed our paths with the
Word. He crossed our paths with the Gospel. And now, just like
this woman, she loves her son. She loves her son. But we do
not, by nature, seek truth at all. But since it has been given
to us, or since we have been made willing in the day of His
power, sovereign power, we petition our God in the midst of our trouble,
and He hears our cry. Or He gives us what's best for
us. Always. Always. However, I know... Let's turn to Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. I know this to be true. Romans chapter 8 and verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Scripture says we have not begun
to strive against blood or however that's phrased in Hebrews. But
the believer, the apostle tells us, and we have the same grace
as he did, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed. One thing is this time of suffering is since we believe,
it may be, if you're a young person, it may be 50, 60, 70
years you believe in the Gospel, but that's nothing compared to
eternity. Just comparing the two. If we're with Him in glory,
that will far exceed this short time. And then just the mere
fact of glory, which we have in Christ Jesus, which we don't
have a full understanding of, but when we see Him face to face, how will we even bring this up? Lucille. Lucille Gilliland. Mary Moppin. David Hall, John Sebaugh, Betty
Sebaugh. When somebody would die that
they knew or they grieved for just a short
while, but then they talked about the blessings of grace. They
talked about what God has done for them. And that's often the
case when people that we know pass away, whether friend or
family or brother or sister, it hits us. We grieve like everybody
else, but not like everybody else. Because as I said, we grieve,
but we are believing. And especially I remember Betty, she said as
much as she missed John, she dare not have him back. Because she knew that he has
what we all desire. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
2 Timothy chapter 3. verses 10 through 12. But thou, as Paul says to Timothy,
thou hast fully known my doctrine, the manner of life, purpose,
faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium, at Lystra, what
persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered
me. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Shall suffer persecution. If we tell the truth about what
we are and what our friends and neighbors are and what we're
sinners. If we tell what God is and how
He is in sovereign control in every single thing. There's nothing
that is not under Him. and that the only way sinners
can have life is through the sacrifice of Christ for them. People are not going to like
it. I read something, somebody said bulletin, and I never really
thought about it this way, but I guess it's when Scott Richardson
said either God governs or He is governed. I think this is
what he meant, but this is a different, he's talking about free will.
And people get so upset about God's sovereignty, they say,
well, you say we're just puppets. And in this catastrophe, the
pastor turned it on these people. He says, that's what you're saying
God is in your hands if you say you have free will. I never thought
about that, but that's exactly right. If they say man has free
will and he can reject God or accept Him, And what they say
is, God's up in the heavens. They're saying they've got God
over a limb and that they're pulling God's strings. So, it's
either one way or the other. If you believe in man's free
will, Spurgeon and Luther and all these men, they said if you
have any iota of the free will of man, you don't know the Gospel
right. That's just the truth. And we
know that to be so. We know that to be so. We know
that God states that these trials are not even to be compared to
the glory which we shall behold. He chose us and not we Him. And with the trial, He will provide
a way to honor Him and glorify Him in it all. Now, the third
thing I have is What this woman said in verse
23, it shall be well. And then again in verse 26, it
is well. Did it not turn out well? Did it not turn out well? Yes,
it did. Verse 32-36, And then Elisha
came to the house, and behold, the child was dead, and he laid
on his bed. He went in and shut the door. And what he does here, It reminds
me of that story that Henry told years ago about that missionary
in India or in Africa. He was walking from a village
and he heard this faint cry for help and he found it and it was
a man in the advanced stages of leprosy. I don't know if you
remember the story. Advanced stages of leprosy. Eyes were
gone. Hardly alive. Barely breathing.
And he looked at him and he said, if I could just lay on him and give him my eyes, and give
him my tongue, and give him my life. That's what Christ did. He gave
us all. That's the miracle. Death, the
boy is dead, but then he stretches mouth to
mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. And then he gets up and he's
praying and asking the Lord. Then a child sneezes and then
he opens his eyes. So there's the miracle itself.
Was it not true? Is it not well after all? As
with Job, if you remember, God took away his sons, but He gave
him double what he lost. Isn't that always the case? Be of sin is the double cure.
The corruption will give way to immortality, this vile body,
to one with no taint of sin upon it. And we see the very gospel
in this death to life. We see the gospel pure and free
to His chosen people. He's dead and now He's alive. Grace, peace, and wellness of
soul were once was lifeless, stillness, and unprofitable. The prophet literally laid his
body upon or laid his body, I'll say, for this child. We see free
substitution brought in by no other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is how he saves miraculously. Again, the mother, she's praying for
her son. But she reminds the prophet,
you gave me a promise. And God's promises are even greater
than the prophet. So that's all she had. That's
maybe all we have about our children is promise. But the woman couldn't do anything.
Gehazi, you would think the man of God's servant with the mantle,
his staff, which he had already used for a miracle, that didn't
work. And that's the gospel. When all
else fails, when our means, the Lord, you know, that woman with
the issue of blood, she tried, tried, tried, tried. No, I've
got to touch the hem of His garment. The last thing I see in here
is verse 37. She's not worshiping. She's not
worshiping Elijah because Elijah would have said like the angel
in, I think, Revelation, see that you do it not. Then she
went in and fell at his feet. and bowed herself to the ground
and took up her son and went out. This is the result, the
blessed result of God's miracle and promise believed upon. There's thankfulness, humility,
gratitude, and worship to the one great Jehovah God. Joy unspeakable. I can't imagine. Now I imagine like most of us,
the next day she says, you're not going out in the field with
your dad, you're going to stay here with me for a while. But
the result of God's miracle of grace, whether we receive it
or we pray for it and somebody else receives it, it's thankfulness,
it's humility, it's gratitude, and it causes us to worship.
Joy unspeakable. And I'll say this is what we
do every time we gather together. Every time we gather together.
Every time we take the Lord's Supper, we are thinking about
Him and His grace, His blood, His body, which was broken for
us, His blood which was shed for us. Every time we gather
together. Now you can do it privately,
and you should. You should with your children.
You should with one another. You can do it when you call up
a brother, ask how he's doing. That's something that we can
do. Every time we gather together,
every time we meet, let us be thankful. Let us show our gratitude
and let us honor Him with whom we have to do. Bruce, would you
close us?