Elisha had Caused this woman
to have a child to begin with and then the child died and a
lot a Elisha was able to miraculously
bring him back to life And all of that of course beautifully
pictured the gospel and that only God can create life or cause
life to be produced. And this passage also is a very
clear, beautiful picture of the gospel. Elisha, again, pictures
Christ in this story as God's prophet, as God's spokesman.
but also the preacher of the gospel because, and that's not
a strain at all upon the integrity of the text to say he represents
Christ and also the gospel preacher because the gospel preacher is
an ambassador of Jesus Christ. They have the same message. And
the preacher himself doesn't have any power, but he preaches
the power of God. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. And so picturing both here, we'll
see the gospel again, clearly. Representing the Savior for God
unto sinners like himself, those who speak for God, and
that's Elisha here, 2 Corinthians 5.20, now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. When it's
a true preacher of the gospel preaching, it's God speaking.
And we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. That's
the message. Be reconciled, come to Christ. And then as God's spokesman, Elisha tells this woman of impending
judgment. And we see that in the scripture
too. The Lord has charged his prophets and preachers that if
we don't tell people, warn people of their condition before God,
and tell them how to get to the city of refuge, tell them how
God saves sinners by his son and what he did, that we'll be
held accountable for that. And so Elisha tells her, he warns
her of Deadly wrath to come no doubt thousands will die in this
famine as in a seven-year famine His serious judgment temporal
judgment from the Lord and so he's warning her of deadly wrath
to come and Tells her to seek a safe refuge from the judgment
of God. That's what a gospel preacher
does That's what's happening in this story in a spiritual
sense. I Gospel warns of the just judgment
of God Whatever God called for this
famine about he will have had a very good reason to as he always
does And he calls also For the just
judgment of the law against sinners And he sends forth his gospel,
though, into this world to warn people of impending wrath, of
impending justice, and tells them to take refuge the only
place a sinner can, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rock
where God hides sinners in the cleft of the rock, where we're
not only safe, but we see the glory of God from there. Christ
In Christ while The rest of the world is a desert all of the
mercies of God rain down upon sinners in Christ You take refuge
in him alone, and so that's the picture here. She heard that
gospel and By God's grace she obeyed it She really heard it
She really heard it. I've used this illustration to
you many times. I think it's a pretty good one
when it comes to warning of death, warning of destruction, and whether
you're gonna hear it or not. In a burning building, in fact,
that illustration is used in scripture. If you're in a burning
building and you're disoriented, you're inhaling smoke, it's dark,
you're disoriented, but someone is able to come in and find you
and say, get out of this building. And maybe they don't have time
to pick you up and take them themselves. But in the spiritual
version of that, I can't do that. I can't do that. All I can do
is tell you, get out, get out of this building. You're a goner.
You've got to get out. You've got to find a safe place
where there's no smoke, no fire. And if you hear me, you're gonna
do that. If you don't do that, then you're
just too far gone. You're not hearing me. You're
not hearing what I'm saying. Now the Lord does pick us up
and carry us out. But that's his business. We come
and we warn. We warn sinners of the wrath
to come. As Elisha did here. God's gonna dry up his mercies
now. He's gonna judge this world. And he'll be just in doing so.
But there is a refuge even now for those that hear. And she
heard him. She was a doer of the word and
not a hearer only. Look at verse two, the woman
arose and did. She did. How many times have
we seen that in the scripture? Do the gospel. Don't just agree
with it, do it. Trust Christ, flee to Christ,
look to Christ, bow to Christ. Don't just agree that that's
what a sinner should do. She did after the saying of the
man of God. And that's the only person that
you want to listen to, is somebody who you can, if you do what they
say, you'll be doing what God says. Opinions are meaningless
Our own thoughts are disastrous and she went with her household
everybody she loved and Sojourned in the land of the Philistine
seven years the land of the enemy But there was rain there there
was water there. There was life there even there All that Hear the man of God,
all who hear the gospel preacher and the message that the Lord
sends him with, I would to God that they would arise and do
what he says. Do what the preacher says because
what the preacher says is come to Christ. Look to him, bow to
him. That's just not words that we
throw out there now. Looking to Christ is bowing to
Him. It's I'm not in charge anymore. I never was, I just thought I
was. I bow, I'm gonna honor Him now. I'm gonna do what He says. I'm
gonna worship Him. And I was thinking this, My brother
Bob was reading this morning that when the Lord said that
he's the vine and we're the branches, you think about that and you,
think about how you fit into that. The branch gets all of its life
from the vine. Its oneness with the vine is
its life. Does that describe us? Or do
we just have our life outside of Christ, but we just kind of
duck in every once in a while and hear and agree and think
everything's great? Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ
is life. It's all of our life. It's where
we live. We live in him. We abide in him. Or we bear no fruit for God.
I fear that many who And this was me for so long,
you know, I thought well, you know, I've made a decision I
walked the aisle and all that But Christ wasn't my life Abiding in the vine means we
don't have a life apart from him We just don't And that's what this is talking
about here to live in Him, to take refuge in Him, to bow to
Him, to look to Him, to worship Him, to honor Him. I'll say it
again. Coming to His worship gloriously
means that you learn of Him and take comfort if you know Him,
but it's also a question of His honor. If you dishonor the Lord in this
world, it's because you don't know Him. That's the only reason
you would do that. The woman arose and did. She did after the saying of the
man of God. This world is a desert. Come
out of it. Come out of it. Don't look to
the world. Don't plug into the world. Don't
be part of the world. It's a place of famine. Famine
of the word of God. a place of death without the
water of life. And your own soul is the same.
Our own soul is a desert. We have no water within ourselves.
You remember when the Lord said, if you come to me, then life
will flow out of you. You'll have a river of water
will come out from you. It's a integral part of you. The opposite is true now. We are a desert of death and
have no way to produce a single drop of water. We must come to
Christ and drink. He said, if any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink, John 7 37. And out of him shall flow a river
of life. Don't have any life-giving water
the world doesn't are you thirsty? Are you thirsty that's what our
Lord said if any man's thirsty Let him come to me She exhibited faith in action
And that's the whole message pretty much of the book of James
and Faith is not just a feeling. You hear all these illustrations
of faith, of jumping into your father's
arms and things like that. Depending on how that's presented,
that can be, I guess, okay. But faith is believing God. And
when you believe God, everything changes. Because you see, what
God is saying is radically different What God says precludes you just
being you anymore. You're not just gonna be able
to go on with your life once you believe God. If you're able
to just go on with your life, living for yourself and all the
things that people in this world live for, then you haven't heard
God. You have not believed God. Because
believing Him precludes that. Once you believe on Him, you
are a new creature. If you weren't you wouldn't have
been able to believe on him. That's his grace that gives you
the ability to do that So faith is action as much as love is
it's action not what we think of as Doing good deeds and things
like that. That's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about even We'll
use the example of the plowing of the wickedest sin. Even when
you're out plowing your field, you're not doing it the same
way anymore. You're not doing... It's not
the same thing as it used to be. Now it's thank you God for
this place. Thank you for what you've given
me. And Lord, please cause this ground to produce. Give me this
day my daily bread. It's not, boy, I've worked my
butt off this year. I'm gonna have a great harvest. You may
or may not, that's going to be up to God. You hold your hand
up to God and say, Lord, give me what I need or I won't have
it. I won't have it. Everything changes. She believed in action. You see
that? She left everything except the
people she loved. Believing in Christ is a heart
condition, but it will cause what we see in this woman. She
arose and did You're gonna live for him now because we don't
think the same way Paul said we reckon this way now And if
he died for us, we ought to live for him We don't reckon things
the same way we used to anymore The seven years By the way, faith without action
is not only dead faith, but it's you dead. Suppose she would have
sat there and said, I believe you, there's gonna be a famine. I believe you speak for God.
I agree, there's gonna be a famine. I think I'll just stick it out. She's a goner, she's a goner. And so many believe in their
head. But if it ever gets down here, you're going to act on
it. You're going to act on it. She arose and did. Faith without
action is dead. Faith without works, dead. The
seven years is perfect judgment. That pictures God's going to
be satisfied. Whatever it is you owe Him, you're going to pay. It may take
you eternity, but you're gonna pay it. Or Christ paid it in your place. Perfect judgment, but also for
her, perfect safety. Seven years. All seven of those
years, she was fine. She did just fine because she
believed God. Notice where she lived again. God makes it so
that even in the land of the enemy, we live in the land of
the Philistines right now, don't we? The world, the enemies of
God, we live among them. But the Lord's got us, doesn't
he? He's got hold of us, he's keeping it, he's providing for
us. The only reason he has a world is for us. It's just the truth. We're kept by the power of God
unto salvation, safe under the blood of God's Son. We live in
Palestine now in a spiritual sense, but we're safe and blessed
of God. That's her for those seven years.
God prepares a table before us in the very presence of our enemies.
My neighbors are Palestinians, Philistines, same thing. but God's gonna take care of
his own now. It don't matter where you're sojourning right
now, this is not our home. Verse three, and it came to pass
at the seven years end that the woman returned out of
the land of the Philistines and she went forth to cry unto the
king for her house and for her land. It's a very simple message in
that. It cost her something to obey
God. It cost her something, didn't it? It would have cost the rich young
ruler something, wouldn't it have, to obey the Lord? But would it really? Would it
really? Did it really cost her anything?
Let's see about that. It did. And you know, I thought about
this. This is almost shocking to think about. But do you know how many sinners
have rejected the Lord, disobeyed
the Lord, said, like every fool in his heart, no God for me,
because of material things, because of material considerations? Isn't
that what the Lord said would happen? The cares of this world,
the concerns of this world will choke out the seed. How many
people go to hell the same way that rich young ruler did? Over
stuff. Over stuff. That's how messed
up we are. He walked away, the rich young
ruler walked away from the one who owns everything and freely
gives. because he thought he had some
stuff that he could not part with. Isn't that incredible? Do you
know anybody like that? He just simply wasn't able to
give up his stuff. How many refuse to worship and
honor this God we preach in this world because of a job? And you think about it now, you
can say, well, you know, there's a lot of believers out there
that just don't have any place to worship. I'm not so sure about
that. I'd be careful saying that. Believers always have a place
to worship, don't they? I'd be careful about that. They refuse. to worship and honor
God in this world, in the one life that God has given us on
this earth, they're not gonna spend it honoring Him because
of their job. You telling me that that's a
believer? It might be, but I'd be careful about that, just assuming
that. You see how petty we are We look
at Judas that sold the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver,
and we say he sold his soul cheap. There's a lot of people that
have sold their souls cheaper than that, way cheaper than that.
And we've sat and watched them do it. Again, there's a reason why the
Lord said, the concerns of this world. Oh, but I've got such
a good job, I've gotta make a living. It chokes out the seed. It chokes
out the word of God from your heart. That's exactly what he
was saying. How many will not worship and
honor God in this world because of a family member? There's a reason why the Lord
Jesus Christ said let the dead bury their dead There's a reason
for that There's a reason why he said
who is my mother who is my brother who is my sister The Lord had given this woman
faith and Saw that in the previous in the
story of her son and how he died and the Lord Restored him unto
life. The Lord showed her that he gives
life and he takes it away Is that what the Lord showed
Job on the ash heap He reveals to us that he's God
Job said I've heard of you by the hearing of the air, but now
mine I see thee God gave them faith, and he tried
that faith. I'd say he tried Job's faith,
wouldn't you say? He knows how to do it. He tried
Job's upon the ash heap, and he tried this woman's in this
famine, in the report of this famine. Will she trust the Lord,
even though it means losing everything that she cares about in this
world? If the Lord gave her faith, she
will. She will, she did. And this woman left her home
and her land and her work, her love, whatever she was doing,
everything, because the Lord told her to. What else does it take? Just mentioned the rich young
ruler turn with me if you would to mark chapter 10 Mark chapter 10 verse 17 This is right after Well actually we'll read we'll
go ahead and read the story verse 17 of the rich young ruler, but
it's what happened after he walked away that I wants to see particularly
a When he was gone forth, our Lord was gone forth into the
way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him,
good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is
none good but one, and that's God. Boy, he started from the
beginning with this fella, didn't he? You'd think him saying, well,
you gotta keep the law would be an early start because that's
basically what has to happen. You've got to honor God's law
perfectly if you're ever gonna see God. That's why we need the
Son of God as our substitute, our representative. But he started
even before that. He said, why are you calling
me good? Only God is good. Only God is good. And then he
said, thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not
kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor
thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto
him, master, all these have I observed from my youth. Can you imagine
saying to the omniscient lawgiver himself, who knows that you've
never even come close to honoring him in any of that. Can you imagine
saying that to him? Being that blind, we can imagine
it, can't we? Pretty easy. Then Jesus beholding
him loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and come take up the cross and follow me. You see what the Lord
was doing when he said, there's none good but one, and that's
God. Why are you calling me good? Clearly this man didn't believe
that the Lord was God or he would have left everything and followed.
Don't you reckon? It was God speaking. Take up the cross and follow
me. And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he
had great positions, stuff. Exactly what you think it is
a nice home and whatever you know horses and Jesus looked
round about and saith unto his disciples how hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdom of God The disciples were astonished
at his words and But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children,
how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into
the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus,
looking upon them, saith, With men it is impossible, but not
with God, for with God all things are possible. Then Peter began
to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. We've done what you told this
young man to do, to sell all that he had and come follow you.
We've done that. And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my sake, and the gospels, that he shall receive
in hundredfold now in this time houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and
in the world to come eternal life. If that rich young ruler
had sold everything he had and given it to the poor and followed
Christ, would he really have lost anything? Did this woman really lose anything? We read the end of the story,
didn't we? May God teach us something tonight.
You will never be the loser for trusting the Savior. Honoring Him in this world with
your whole life It will never cost you anything that matters. You may lose the fellowship of
some that you now call friends or even some family members,
but you'll be a much better friend to them. And you may just gain a brother
or a sister before it's over. It may cost you a job because
you're gonna need to worship God. don't let many that Refuse
to willfully refuse to be any kind of an example to you If
you know the Lord you are going to need to be a member of his
church You're going to need to be The Lord Jesus Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it Do you think that being in the
Lord's hand, utterly dependent upon His gracious providence
is a bad place to be? Notice that it just so happened
that the timing of things was exactly perfect to facilitate
the prosperity of this woman Simply believed God. She just
believed God. Next thing you know, everything
is working out just right for her. I'm not saying that's gonna
happen in temporal things for you, but if you trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, everything is gonna work out just right for you. Anybody that would walk away
from the Son of God over stuff is a fool, a fool. How many do you think would have
said to the prophet? Yeah, we'll just write it. I
know there's probably gonna be famine, but I'm pretty handy.
We'll figure this out. We'll be fine. Thank you for
letting us know. We'll just stay here and write
it out. How many would have trusted their own ability to provide
for themselves? And let me ask you, do you wanna
ride it out in this world without Christ? You think you're gonna
do okay? Me and the man upstairs got a
good thing going. It's gonna be fine. Most do. Most do. When you young people are thinking
about what am I going to do in life, you know, think about this. Think about this. And the specifics of what you
do are not going to matter near as much. Nobody wants you young
folks that are sitting here. Nobody loves you more. And wants
you to be prosperous in this life more than the people sitting
next to you. The prosperity is not what this
world says it is. It's not what this world says
it is. As a final thought, this is so,
Wonderful, and let's, young and old, just take this to heart,
if the Lord would let us take it to heart. All of this happened
exactly the way it did. The timing was just perfect.
She was, you know, the king was curious about, you know, the
exploits of Elisha. Gehazi was there telling him
how he had, you know, the most remarkable thing is he raised
somebody from the dead. And just at the right time, she
came to plead her cause before the king concerning her house
and her land. And Gehazi said, there she is,
that's her. Think of everything that happened
for this woman. No famine, she never had to go
hungry. In all those seven years, she
never had to go hungry because she believed God. How about you?
David said, I've never seen it happen. Never seen it happen. No famine,
everything restored, even what her land had produced while she
was gone. Before everything completely
dried up, the land had produced some things and he said, restore
that too. Everything. She was more than
a conqueror. And look why. Do you know what
they were talking about when this woman showed up at the king's
court? They were talking about what
great things the Lord had done. Because you see, Elisha's name
is mentioned there, but God was just using Elisha. These are
the great things that the Lord had done. And here's the thing, in doing
great things, God did something great for this woman. Just like he said to Abraham,
in blessing, I'm gonna bless you. He did something great for her. Don't know what this woman's
life was like before she met the Lord But we know a little
bit about what it was like after she did don't we God gave her
a child that she never could have had any other way You know
we just read that and say that's kind of nice That was her life
That was her life God took that child away only
to restore him again to life. She experienced the things we
experience. The Lord gives and the Lord takes.
Do you know why he does that? Because he's the Lord. And bless God and thank him for
his mercy if he's determined to show you that. He broke her heart just so he
could mend it again. So she would know who God is
and she would trust him to always mend her. Isn't that what happens when
God saves a sinner? He breaks your heart only to
heal it. And so she trusted the Lord.
The Lord brought the storm just so he could calm it. So the disciples
would say, look who he is. Has the Lord done anything in
your life? Has he brought any storms? Any famines? Has he broken anything? And has
he been faithful in those things Heal your heart. Has He been
gracious to you? And what has your response been
to that? Can you talk about the great
things that the Lord has done for you? Or has it made you bitter
and rebellious and cold? By God's grace, we're able to
personally attest to His greatness like this woman. He kills and He makes alive. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy. He does great things. In fact, He doeth all things
well. He did the greatest thing that's
ever been done for me. He gave Himself for my sins. By His grace, by His grace, my response, the
response of my heart, because He made it so, is that I trust
Him. I trust Him. I need constantly
for Him to keep me and uphold me And he does. He has to. I need him to. To intercede for
me that my faith fail not. So much teaching in that where
he told Simon, I've prayed for you. Satan hath desired that
he might sift you as wheat. And it looked for a while there
that Satan had Simon right where he wanted him. Denying the Lord? Putting himself above his brethren
and bragging before the Son of God of his own faithfulness and
commitment Looks like Satan's got a hold of that one for sure,
but I've prayed for you That your faith fell not Well that begs the question doesn't
it what would have happened if the Lord hadn't interceded for
it It also begs another question.
What would happen to you if the Lord didn't hold you up every
moment? And me. I need him to constantly hold
me up and to pray and intercede for me because the greatness
is not in my faith. The greatness is the object of
my faith. Storms and famines come and go
And I'm safe in his hand Washed in his blood Find a place Find a place where his gospel
rains down where the words of eternal life are spoken And they never return to him
void and take refuge in the Savior. Trust Him. Trust Him. By His grace, may He make it
so. Let's pray.