Would you turn to 1st Kings Chapter
17? Beginning in verse 17. 1st Kings
17 and it came to pass after these things. And that was the. reference to the cruise of oil
and barrel of meal not failing, we considered that last week.
And it came to pass that after these things that the son of
the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness
was so sore that there was no breath left in him. He died,
and he died suddenly. And she said unto Elijah, what
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto
me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, give me
thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon
his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and
said, O Lord, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said,
O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into
him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and
he revived. And Elijah took the child and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, see, thy son
liveth. And the woman said to Elijah,
now by this I know that thou art a man of God. And the word
of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you and praise
you for the gospel of thy dear son. And Lord, we ask in his
name that you'd be pleased to meet with us, to speak in power
to our hearts from your word, for your glory, and enable us
to see something of the glory of thy dear son. Enable us to
see thy glory in his face. Give us the grace to worship
him, to exalt him, to trust him completely. May his name be exalted. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing. And Lord, how we thank you for
the forgiveness of sins. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now I'd like to read verse 24
once again. And the woman said to Elijah,
Now by this, I know that thou art a man of God, and that the
word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Now didn't she know
this before? She had seen this miracle, Elijah
making, well, God through Elijah, making food, meal, and so on
come forth out of the barrel, the not failing, And she had
experienced this for over a year, and I'm sure every day she was
amazed by it. She'd go back to that cruise, get the meal out,
the oil out, cook. Every day for a year, she saw
a miracle of creation. Matter brought into the universe
that was not there before. She experienced all this. But
doesn't she believe he's a man of God? Because she says by this,
Now, by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the
word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Now, what this lets
me know is that seeing a miracle, and she saw one, didn't she?
Seeing a miracle never produces faith. Let me repeat that. Seeing a miracle
never produces faith. How many people saw the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Many. Did it produce faith in
anybody? No. You see, faith is not the
product of human nature. Faith is the product of divine
grace that gives you a new nature. You know, if you believe one
time you found yourself believing, That's when you believed, you
found yourself believing. As long as you're trying to believe,
you never believe. I can remember trying to believe.
It doesn't work. You find yourself believing because
faith is the gift of God's grace and that's the way it works.
You find yourself believing. Now let's look in verse 17. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell
sick. And his sickness was so sore that there was no breath
left in him. Now, perhaps she thought, I've
got it made. Everything's fine. I'm provided
for. And she didn't know that this
special trial was in front of her, that she was going to lose
her son. And it came to pass, it happened. Evidently, this was a quick sickness
and a quick death. He wasn't alive very long. He
got sick and he died. And she's now facing, I suppose,
the greatest trial of her life. But I love the way this verse
begins, and it came to pass. God purposed it. It came to pass. Isn't that true of everything?
It sure is. God purposed it. It came to pass. And this woman reacted the way
we always react when something happens. I've done this, you've
done this. And she said unto Elijah, what
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto
me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Now, this
is our response. What is the Lord doing to punish
me? When something catastrophic takes place, we think I'm being
punished for my sin. I can remember thinking the whole
time Lynn was pregnant that my, whoever, whether a boy or girl,
we didn't know at the time, but I was convinced that my child
would have spina bifida. I was convinced of it. And the
reason I thought that would be the way it would be was the Lord
was gonna punish me for my sins. What a horrible way to view the
Lord. And yet, even now, anything that
happens, I'll think, am I being punished? Now, the thing that
is, there is no punishment for sin to the believer. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
All sin has been punished. It's all gone. It's been punished. Now the Lord chastens, and I
wanna be chastened. I don't wanna be chastened, but
I do. Because the scripture says, whom the Lord loveth, he chastens.
I wanna be somebody the Lord loves. And so in that sense,
I wanna be chastened. I wanna be continually brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But as far as punishment, there
is therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, what a blessed thought. But
this woman still, she responds the way you and I respond, what
am I being punished for? And we're thinking such harsh
thoughts of the Lord and thinking something like that. It's just
not right. But notice the way she says this.
What have I to do with thee O thou man of God, what have I to do
with thee? Now, have you heard that before?
Think about that. In the New Testament, you remember
the Gadarene demonic? What have I to do with thee? What connection, he's saying,
is there between me and you? You're holy. I'm unholy. You're good. I'm bad. You're altogether lovely. I'm
altogether ugly. And that's what that man was
saying. What connection is there between me and you? You see,
when somebody sees the Lord, that's when they see themselves.
Not until then. If you ever see the Lord, if
you ever see who he is in his holiness, in his glory, in his
greatness, you're gonna say, what have I to do with thee? What connection is there between
me and you? That's what this woman is saying.
She sees her sinfulness and she says, art thou come to call my
sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Now this thing of, If
my sin, I wish I could say this the way it ought to be, but if
my sin is remembered in any way, I'm toast. I don't have a chance
if my sin is remembered in any way. And here's the glory of
the gospel. The glory of the gospel is that
Christ actually put away sin so that there's nothing there
to remember. And when God looks at me in heaven,
he's never gonna say, I remember what he did. No, I never did
it. That's what justification is.
I never did it. I stand perfectly righteous before
God. And this is the only hope that
the believer has, the non-remembrance of sin. Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. Verse 19. Before I go on, I was getting
ahead of myself in my notes. This typifies something. This
woman thought her sin brought on her son's death. Now, in the same way, Adam's
sin has brought on my death. Now, it's important for us to
understand What was taking place? That's what she was saying. She
was saying my sin has brought forth his death. When Adam sinned,
somebody else sinned. I did. Now I was united to Adam. Understand this, Adam's sin was
not simply charged to you. You were innocent and then it
was charged to you. No, not at all. Wherefore, by
one man's, well, Romans, hold your finger there, turn to Romans
5.12. I wanna quote this, because this is so important. Romans
5.12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. When Adam sinned, you
personally sinned. You were in him. God only deals
with two men, Christ or Adam. When Adam sinned, you sinned. God didn't impute his sin to
you in your innocence. That wouldn't be right. You actually
sinned and God imputed Adam's sin to you because you were the
one that did it. and his evil nature has been
imparted to you. The reason you're born into this
world sinful, the reason I'm born into this world sinful is
because Adam's sinful nature was imparted to us. We have his
nature. But here's what is glorious about
this. If Adam and me can sin at the
same time, even though I wasn't born, Here's what's glorious. When Christ kept the law perfectly,
I did as well. You remember when he said to
John the Baptist, I love this. The Lord came up to John the
Baptist and said, baptize me. And he said, I have need to be
baptized to thee. And he said, suffer to be so now, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now just as I
sinned when Adam sinned, when Christ kept the law, everybody
he represented kept the law as well. And that's the gospel,
isn't it? That's the gospel in this. Now let's go on reading now,
verse 19. And he said unto her, give me
thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode. He was living
in this woman's attic. And remember, he was in hiding
at this point from Ahab and Jezebel. And he was in the city of Sidon.
That's where Jezebel was from. I think that's glorious. Jezebel
was from Sidon. And here he is in her hometown. I love the way the Lord does
things. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God,
hast thou also brought evil upon this widow with whom I sojourned
by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon
the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord,
my God, I pray thee, let this child's life come into him again. Now here we see Elijah as a great
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says in verse 19, he
took him out of her bosom, the word is actually he seized him.
He seized him. He grabbed him and he took him. And what that pictures is irresistible,
invincible, seizing grace. Don't you love seizing grace?
He seized him. He took him. And that's the only
kind of grace that'll save me, grace that seizes me and overcomes
me and does something for me. Seizing grace. He took him. took
him, and the scripture says he stretched himself out upon him
three times. Now, turn with me to 2 Kings.
Elisha did the same thing, 2 Kings 4. Now, the word stretched out is
literally measured, meted. He stretched himself out till
he was the exact same. Evidently, this was a young man.
It wasn't just a child, it was a young man. And he stretched
himself out. Maybe this young man was bigger
than Elijah, but he stretched his body until he was perfectly
even with this man. Same way. Now look in 2 Kings
4, beginning in verse 32. And Elisha was coming to the
house. Behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. He
went in therefore, this is Elisha, not Elijah, he went in therefore
and shut the door upon them, Twain, and prayed unto the Lord,
and he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon
his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon
his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh
of the child waxed warm. Now here's the picture. Elijah,
same thing, Elisha, he stretched himself on the child to where
he became even with the child, eye to eye, hand to hand, foot
to foot. He became even with the child. Now the child was dead, there
was no warmth in it. Elijah became one with the dead
child, eye to his eyes, hand to his hand. feet to his feet,
which represents becoming one with the child. And notice he
did this three times. He stretched himself on the child
three times. And the child's warmth came back,
the cold dead flesh, the warmth came back, the breath came back,
he lived. Now what is the significance
of this? This stretching himself on the child three times, and
he did it three times. He stretched himself out, relaxed,
stretched himself out again, relaxed, stretched himself out
again to where he became one with the child. What's the significance
of that? The Lord stretched himself out upon me when he obeyed the
law perfectly. I did too. The Lord stretched himself out
upon me when he took my sin. and my sin became his sin. So that he actually bore it in
his own body and he became guilty of it. Now understand this, Christ
was not punished for my sins. Yes, he was punished for my sins.
Yes, he was, but my sin literally became his sin. He was guilty of it, he owned
it as his own. And that is what happened to
my sin. Christ bore it for the second
time. He stretched himself out upon
this young man. He became what he was. He became
even to him. Christ bore my sin and put it
away. And the third time he stretched
himself out is in the resurrection where he where all he achieved
became mine. Elijah. prayed for this young
man, Lord, restore his life. The Lord prays for me. The intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, can you imagine how glorious
it is to have Christ praying for you, mentioning your name
before the father? The high priest had the names
of all 12 tribes of Israel engraved on his breast. Elijah is a type
of Christ, he prays, he stretches himself out, he becomes one with
that child three times, and that child's life is restored. Back to 1 Kings 17, verse 21,
and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried
unto the Lord, You know, there's somebody else who cried to the
Lord. Do you remember it's said of the Lord in Hebrews chapter
five that he cried with strong cryings and tears? That said
of the Lord and he was heard and that he feared. Elijah cried
unto the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this
child's soul come unto him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah. You know, the Lord always hears the voice of Christ.
You know, one of my favorite thoughts is that when the Lord
said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Everybody
he prayed for was forgiven. I was forgiven. You see, that's
not a generic prayer. That's his prayer for his elect.
Father, forgive them. He wasn't making a request as
the father's equal by virtue of what I have done, putting
away their sins, establishing their righteousness. Father,
forgive them. You know what the father did?
He forgave them. And beloved, all your sins are
forgiven sins that are no more. And they'll never be brought
up in heaven because there's nothing there. That's the glory
of justification. There's nothing there to be remembered. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and
he revived. And Elijah took the child. and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, see thy son
liveth. Now, can you imagine the joy
he felt? at bringing that child down. No doubt he felt some responsibility. That's the way we are. He felt
some responsibility in this. Why have you brought evil on
this child? He didn't have the, is it because of me? He didn't
understand everything that was going on at this time, but now
he does say. I just love to think of him bringing
this child alive who'd been dead to his mother. See, thy son liveth. Look at verse 24. And the woman
said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and
that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Now didn't
she know before when she took the oil and the meal every single
day for a year? Didn't she know before? Well,
she says, now I know. This is assurance. Now with regard
to assurance, seeing her son alive, she knew, and this is
something she knew for sure, that this didn't have anything
to do with her. It was not brought on by anything
she did. Now, I hesitate to use the word unfortunately
because there's no such thing as fortune. God's in control
of everything. He's absolutely sovereign. but
it is sad to see people looking for a reason for assurance in
their own life. I have assurance because I see
more victory in my life over sin. I see God blessing me, I
see God doing things for me, therefore I have assurance that
I'm one of his, his blessing is upon me. Really? Do you really feel that
way? I can't relate. I just cannot
relate to that kind of thinking in any way. Somebody that comes
up with something like that, I just, I don't have any trust
for them. Read 1 John 1. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar. And that's talking about present
tense right now all the time. And when someone talks that way,
it's make-believe. That's all it is. The only thing
that gives any believer assurance is the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. When this woman saw her son brought
back to life, She could say, now I know. And the only, and
listen to me, I can't emphasize this strongly enough, the only
thing that gives a believer assurance is the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead. God accepted what he did, and
he accepted everybody he did it for. And that is my assurance. Nothing else. Nothing else. And I dare say this. If you find
assurance in your life, it is a false assurance. You are being deceived and deluded. If you get assurance, well, look
how good I am. Look, by grace, I'm giving grace
the credit like the Pharisee in the temple, Lord, I thank
thee. I thank thee, I'm giving you the credit. I'm not giving
myself the credit. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. And he starts talking about what
he did do and what he didn't do. If you gain assurance from
what you do or what you do not do, it is a false assurance. And if that's the assurance you
die with, you're gonna wake up in hell. I don't know how else
to say it. I wanna say that solemnly. The only assurance there is,
is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Now let me show
you that in the scripture. Turn to 1 Peter 3. Verse 21,
the like figure, He's talking about Noah's ark
and the water. The like figure wherein to even
baptism doth also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, not the act of going down under water and things
being washed away by water. Baptism doesn't save us in that
sense. You can be baptized a million
times and it won't put away one sin. He's letting us know that.
This is not talking about the physical act of baptism. He's
talking about a figure, a figure. The like figure wherein to even
baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. Now what is a good conscience? A good conscience Is a conscience
not that, you ever come in and someone says, I don't feel guilty
about that? You ought to. You've got a bad conscience.
You've got a seared conscience. Somebody says, oh, I feel so
guilty. That's not a good conscience either. That's just a guilty
conscience. One that feels no guilt is a seared conscience.
What is a good conscience? There's only one answer to that
question. A conscience that has nothing to feel guilty about. What is it that can bring you
to have nothing to feel guilty about? The resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. My sin became his sin. He paid
the awful cost. He put that sin away. He was
raised from the dead. God accepting him and everybody
in him and everybody what he did for them. And I've got of
good conscience, nothing to feel guilty about. Christ put away
my sin. Now that is what made this woman
say, now I know. Now I know. Resurrection from
the dead. By the resurrection of Christ,
God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with him and with
everybody in him. They have no sin. Now, that's how this woman said,
I know. And here, once again, we have
a beautiful illustration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.