Our Bible should turn back with
me to 1 Kings. 1 Kings 17. I'd like to look at verses 17
to 24 now to finish this chapter. This place where Elijah now resides
by the grace of God, is the home of a widow woman. He is staying upstairs in a loft. We will find that in a moment.
But this is a place where God has chosen to reside, a place that we just read about
in Luke chapter 4, that God sovereignly chose. a prophet. Oh, by the mercy of
God, I think to myself, it just does not cease to amaze me that
God would raise up a candlestick in Katy, West Virginia. I mean it. I think where in the
world is Katy, West Virginia? A hole in the wall. a spot on the pavement. But where God has been pleased
to raise up a people. I'm looking at some folks this
morning that God has been pleased to call and keep and sustain
every day, many of you, for over 50 years. Isn't that a miracle of God's
grace that you're still here? A famine was the means used to
get Elijah where he was. God sent a famine. And of all the other reasons
that God would send it, I don't know of all the other reasons,
but I know one. Because there was a poor widow
woman that God was going to show mercy to. So He sent a famine and dried up everything else. For I know for this widow woman,
her son. You know, material poverty was
found in that house. And isn't it sad that we put
so much weight on making money? I'm just as guilty as anybody
in here. Everything's about money. It's
but for the grace of God that God Almighty would guard us from
being consumed by the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this
world that do one thing, they choke the Word. That is what
God said. But even in that house where
mercy was found, just a poor widow woman, and on day one and
on the last day until God sent the rain, This is what we looked
at last time. This is all she had. She had
a handful of meals, a little oil and a cruise. That's all
she had. And I'll bet you every day, by
the grace of God, she said, I can't believe that we're still here.
This is all we've got. That's all we need. But from
this passage that I'm going to just look at as we go through,
here's the first thing I know. in the houses where God has shown
mercy, compassion. Death is universal. And the reason is because of
sin. 1 Kings 17, verse 17, 18, it
came to pass after these things, after everything that we just
looked at in the first service, 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. His sickness was so bad
that he died. 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, the Scripture says, wherefore,
as by one man's sin, I'm sorry, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men that all have sinned. This boy got sick, and his sickness,
his illness, the Scripture says, was so sore, it was violent and
strong is what that means, so sore, that he died. Here is a picture of spiritual
death. Universal death and the total
inability of man. Now, let me ask you this. What could that boy do? Now,
what could he do? He's dead. He's dead. You could
speak to him. You could try to appeal to his,
you know, his intellect. You could try to appeal to his
will. You could promise him the moon.
If you just take one step toward the Savior, my friend, you'll
find His arms open wide. He's dead. He's dead. Men that tell men that they have
a free will, God says they're dead in trespasses and sins. Somebody's lying. And it ain't
God. This boy's dead. There was no
breath in him. There was nothing there to respond. There was no life, no faith,
no desire. The only thing that was there
was death. And this widow, you know the thing that was brought
back to her mind? Sin. That's what she said. 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? She said, It's my fault. It's my fault. This boy came
from my womb just like me. I'm guilty. I'm the sinner. I don't have anybody else to
blame but me. Do you ever notice that man by
nature is always wanting to blame somebody else? You know, that
started in the garden. Remember that? Adam says, the
woman that you gave me, you're going to blame Eve and going
to blame God. It wasn't my fault. I'm just a victim of circumstance.
No. Men are sinners. Men are rebels
against God. And the first point of God's
mercy, God's going to bring a man, going to bring a woman to see
that they're the problem. David, in Psalm 51, is the evidence
of God's mercy. My sin is ever before me. Against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned. I'm a rebel. I'm a rebel. And that woman, aware of her
sin, aware of her rebellion, I don't know what that woman
had done. It could have been that that boy
came through her own sin. I don't know. It kind of looks
like that. But thou come unto me to call
my sin to remembrance. and slay my boy. But even this woman who greatly
desired for that boy to live. Look at verse 19. Elijah spoke
to her. He said unto her, Give me thy
son. He took him out of her bosom. She was holding that boy. Who
knows? Maybe, maybe the warmth of my
body, maybe Maybe if I hold Him tight enough, maybe if I caress
Him, maybe there is something there that will respond to my
voice. The Scripture says, But as many
as received Him, to Him gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor the will of man, but of God. I pray God have mercy. I pray
God save your kids, your grandkids, Kevin, Jeff, Bob, Chuck, Pat. I pray God save them. I pray
God have mercy. I pray Almighty God is pleased
to call them out of darkness, but I can tell you this. I can
ask and I can seek and I can pray, but I can tell you if God
chooses to show mercy, He will. And if the infinitely wise, good,
and just God leaves a man to himself, He is God. And the judge of all this world
is going to do right. So I know this, first of all. Death, physical death, and but
for the grace of God, eternal death, is the end result of all
left to themselves. Man's a sinner against God. Here's
my second point. I've only got two. Here's my
second point. salvations of the Lord. This boy was dead, and humanly
speaking, no hope of life. Leave him alone. Just leave that
boy alone, and he's going to stay dead. But here is a beautiful picture
in Elijah here. In that first message, Christ
was found in the little handful of meal and some oil and a cruise. That's a picture of Christ. In
this passage right here, Elijah is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. You know what that
boy right there needs? He needs life. He's dead. And here's mercy found. Verse
19. He, that is Elijah, said to her, You give me thy son. What could she do? What was that
woman going to do? Her boy is dead. And she's just
a poor widow woman. And she has nothing but the remembrance
of what she is in herself. I'm a sinner. I need God to do
something. Here's the evidence of true faith. He said unto her, verse 9, Give
me thy son. He took him out of her bosom. He took her out of the very bosom
and from the very heart of one that could do nothing. I know this. I know this. I know that God is going to have
to show mercy. I know this. I can sit here and
go over these notes and I can pray and I can ask God to show
mercy and grace and compassion and preach the gospel, but unless
the Lord takes it in power, and gives a new heart. I know this. Men can sit under the gospel
all their life and hear the same gospel that one right next to
them hears. And one is dead, the other is
alive. And what's the difference? The
grace of God. Give Him to me. And here the
Scripture says in verse 19, He carried him up. into a loft where He abode." Now remember,
here's Elijah's picture of Christ. "...And laid Him upon His own
bed." Oh, you know what? This thing is getting personal
now. Salvation is found in being alone with Christ. It's
found only in Christ and being alone with Christ. He took that dead boy and carried
him into a loft, carried him into his bedroom where he stayed,
mysteriously found in the eternal closet of intercession of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He tells us when we pray, he said, enter into your closet. And He says in the Father that
heareth in secret, He will reward you openly. Now
there is something that is being set forth right here that is
so wonderful and so glorious and so mysterious, we cannot
enter into it. But I am telling you, here is
a glorious picture of the Lord of glory taking those that are
His and everlastingly have been His, those that He has everlastingly
loved, and according to His everlasting covenant of grace, into that
secret place of God's mercy. And what happens there is indescribable. Even in the day of the crucifixion,
God Almighty caused the sun not to shine. Men were not going
to look on it. And God Almighty was doing business
with God Almighty. God with God. God satisfying
Himself. As Brother Scott used to say,
the Lord had to do something for Himself before He could do
something for us. God had to satisfy Himself. And
in that place, into that loft where He abode, laid Him on His
own bed, on His own place of rest, It's not for me to understand.
But I can tell you this, it's for me to believe. There was a man that came in
the book of Mark chapter 5. A man came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He told Him, Mark 5 verse 21-24,
a man named Jairus came Verse 21, when Jesus was passing
over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto
him. He was not under the ship. Behold, there cometh one of the
rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. When he saw him, he
fell at his feet and besought him greatly, saying, My little
daughter, she lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come and
lay thy hands on her that she may be healed and she shall live. And Scripture says, Jesus went
with him. Much people followed him and
thronged him. And then something happened that just Jairus, I'm
sure, humanly speaking, he just couldn't believe this. I just
can't believe it. I can't believe it. I just can't
believe it. A certain woman, which had an
issue of blood 12 years, and had suffered many things of many
positions, spent all that she had Nothing better. It grew worse. She heard that Jesus came in
the press behind and touched his garment, and she said, If
I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway
the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her
body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately
knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him
about in the press and said, Who touched my clothes? Jairus
was looking at this. My daughter is dying. My daughter
is dying now. His disciples said unto him,
Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched
me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this
thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. She sat there and started telling
him everything that had happened. Jairus. My daughter is dying. And she's telling him. She's
told him. She's given him her life story. How she'd gone to all these doctors. My daughter's dying. He said
unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace.
Behold thy plague. While he yet spake, there came
from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said to Jairus,
Our daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, he
said to Jairus, Be not afraid. Only believe. when there was no hope left,
humanly speaking. The Lord told him, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Elijah took that boy and he brought
him up into that loft where he abode, into that place, into
that glorious holy of holies where God Himself alone resides. Into the very place of the Shekinah. And the Scripture says in verse
20, He cried unto the Lord and He said, O Lord my God, hast
Thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by
slaying her son? Here is a type of the great high
priest, Elijah, and he lays his case before God. And as our great
federal head, the Lord himself, made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, living absolutely by faith as
we must, and establishing righteousness before God. casting all of his
care upon the Lord, the one that careth for his own. And Elijah intercedes for this
boy, for his mama. And the Scripture says in verse
21, that 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 unto Him again. Oh, in an act of absolute faith,
Elijah, as a picture of our precious Savior, stretched himself upon
the child three times. I looked that up. In fact, it
says in the margin, measured, measured. He stretched himself. He measured himself. with that
boy, associating himself with that widow's son and doing it
with importunity. He did it three times. Time and
time again. Oh, do we not see a beautiful
type of our Lord associating Himself. This boy was dead. And Elijah measured himself. He laid himself, stretched himself
upon that boy, hand to his hand, eye to his eye, nose to his nose,
mouth to his mouth. He stretched himself on that
boy. What a picture what this boy
is. He charged to me. And what I
am in my obedience, give to him. stretched Himself. Do we not
behold the beauty of our debt being made His? And hear the
perfect fulfillment of payment being made sin for us. The Apostle Paul said to Philemon
on behalf of Onesimus, back in the book of Philemon, if he has
wronged thee or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. Oh,
the mercy of God, the fullness of God's compassion as our Lord
stretched Himself, measured Himself to His people. Father, what they
owe, I have stretched Myself, measured Myself to them. And what they owe, I will pay. Measured according to His righteousness,
I have all righteousness. Measured with Him being my sin-bearer,
I have no sin to answer for. He has stretched Himself upon
me, hidden me by grace and mercy. And the Scripture says in verse
22, And Jehovah, the Lord, heard
the voice of Elijah. Heard the voice of Christ. And
the soul of that child came into him again. And he revived. God gave him life. God gave him
a new heart. I'm going to give him a new heart
and a new spirit. was praying. He was praying for
God's will to be done. But Elijah was praying for that
boy. That's what he said. He stretched himself, verse 21,
on the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said,
O Lord my God, I pray Thee, not everybody in Sarepta, not everybody
in Israel, let this child's soul coming to Him again. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, for they
are Thine." And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. And the
soul of the child came to Him again. He revived. Oh, may we remember. The Lord ever hears. Your precious
Son. Father, I will that those that
Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory, the glory that I had with Thee before the foundation
of the world." And verse 23 said, 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. Oh, the blessing of knowing that
he shall deliver his own. I thought of that precious passage
in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again,
behold, here is the Lord speaking, behold I and the children which
God hath given me." In that great day of deliverance and presentation,
when the Lord Jesus Christ shall present all of his own,
all of his bride, washed in his blood, cleansed from all stain,
rubbed in his righteousness." Elijah brought that boy down
and showed him to his mama and said, Your boy is alive. He lives. And the woman said in verse 24
to Elijah, By this I know that thou art
a man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."
Last Scripture, John 11, verse 4. Now I know. Now I know. John 11, verse 4. When Jesus
heard that, what? that one that he loved
was sick. He told his sisters, this sickness
is not of death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. That boy died for one reason. Well, he died because he was
a sinner. But he died with that prophet
there. that God Almighty might be glorified
in the resurrecting of that boy. You that know Him, you will readily
admit, I know, I know, Lord, there is no God but You. Only
You can save a sinner. Lord, have mercy on me for Christ's
sake.