Verse 17 says, 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. 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 stressed 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 in
to 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 that the
word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Our subject is the
assurance of faith. The assurance of faith. And we're told in Hebrews 11,
35, that it was by faith that this woman received her dead
child raised to life again. We're told it was by faith. It
was by faith that she received this dead child to life again,
just like we saw with the Shunammite woman. Now God had given her
faith in the Lord. We saw this last time how that
he sent Elijah there and she had just a little meal and a
little oil and she believed the word of the Lord that Elijah
delivered to her and she gave that to Elijah first. And so
the Lord sustained her, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither
did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which
he spake by Elijah. Now Christ is the bread from
heaven. He's the meal that never runs out. He's the bread from
heaven. And the spirit of the Lord is
the oil of gladness. He's the oil of joy that never
runs out. He's our life according to the
word of the Lord. Now God gives us faith in the
Lord Jesus. And He's going to grow His child
in the assurance of faith. He's going to grow us in the
assurance of faith. And that's where she's going
to end up. Now at the end, verse 24, the woman said to Elijah,
Now by this I know. The word is I'm assured. I have
assurance that thou art a man of God, that the word of the
Lord in thy mouth is truth. And when the Lord gives us life,
when He regenerates us and gives us faith in Christ, we have assurance
in Christ. We have assurance in Christ.
We believe on Him. We trust Him to be our salvation. But we're so apt to seek for
assurance in other places besides Christ. We're so apt to look
for assurance in ourselves, in the gifts God's given, in the
fruit He's produced, in earthly blessings. So God is going to
grow us in the assurance of faith. He's going to grow us in the
assurance of faith. How so? The same way He did this
widow. God sent this woman great trouble
to grow her in the assurance of faith. That's what this is
about. It's for her sake that he's doing
this, to grow her in the assurance of faith. It says, verse 17,
it came to pass after these things. He'd given her all that great
blessing. Now you think, you go a full year, and this barrel
of meal never runs out, the cruise of oil never runs out. Every
day you go there, you got meal, you got oil. It would be real
easy to start finding assurance in that barrel. in that cruise
of oil, and in yourself, and in Elijah as a man, and in these
other things. Well, the Lord is going to make
certain that our assurance is in Christ alone. After God had
worked that grace for, God worked more grace for. This was grace. What was it? God made her son
to fall sick and die suddenly. You mean that was God working
grace for her? Yes, it was. Absolutely. Christ said the life of a believer
must be full of tribulation. It's not just that we're going
to happen to run into trials. No, it must be. This is God how
He keeps us, looking to Him only. It must be. It must be. But it's for this purpose Christ
declared that in me you might have peace. That's the purpose. That in Christ we find our peace,
our assurance. Beholding that Christ truly is
our life. God's going to make Christ the
assurance of our faith. He is our assurance. Christ. He's going to make us know more
assuredly so that we're of good cheer that Christ has overcome
the world and we've overcome the world in Him. He's going
to keep us assured in Christ alone. God our Father only chastens
those He loves and He does it for this reason so that our assurance
remains Christ alone. Christ alone. Now first of all,
God chastens to keep us from having assurance in ourselves
or in any of His blessings that He's given us. He says in verse
18, when He brought this child down suddenly, now you can just
know how sorrowful this was and just how tragic this was to her.
Now here's her reaction, verse 18, 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 her
response is much harsher than the Shunammite woman's was. The
Shunammite woman said it as well. God had given this woman and
her son life by his word that he had delivered by his prophet.
He had given this widow spiritual life and faith by the word which
he delivered by his prophet. But after he sustained her for
a full year, she probably doesn't think she's going to have anything
else to worry about. And all of a sudden, her child
dies. God took her child suddenly. And her response was, what have
I to do with thee, O thou man of God? This is the same as that
Gadarim. Same meaning as the Gadarim.
When Christ came to that demoniac, when he saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him and with a loud voice said, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God most high? I
beseech thee, torment me not. And that's exactly the heart
she, that's what she was saying right there. She's probably heard
of Elijah declaring the sin of Israel. and that he had prayed
and God withheld rain and now she thinks he's come to do the
same to her. Are you come to call my sin to
remembrance and to slay my son? She's accusing Elijah of mocking
her. She's saying, you did me good
and made me think you were doing me good only to call my sin to
remembrance and slay my son because of my sin. And yet in the midst
of our unbelief, we see a flicker of faith here. She calls Elijah,
O thou man of God. She's all jumbled up here. She's
full of unbelief, but she still has faith. The Lord, we're told
in Hebrews 11, it was by faith that she received her child from
the dead. She knows what God did for her
through His word spoken by Elijah. She knows this. The Lord saved
her life. He sustained her and her son's
life and her whole house now for a full year. But she's so
overcome in sorrow, she thinks, in her unbelief, she's saying,
it was only to trick me. It was only to bring my sin to
remembrance and to slay me for my sin. Now, believer, let me
ask you something. When the hard trial comes, have
you ever had those thoughts? Have you ever thought that after
all that God the Father has done for you in Christ, it's only
to bring your sins up again and to slay you for them? We probably
wouldn't admit that we think that, but we do. Certainly do. Christ put away the sin of His
people. He completely, thoroughly put away the sin of His people.
And God says, I remember your sins no more. They're gone before
God. but God will keep us from having
assurance in anything of ourselves. Now, how do we see that in this? After the Lord works this work,
that we're gonna see him work here, after he's done this work,
and she looks back on how she reacted to this trial, and these
harsh words that she spoke to Elijah, She's not going to have any assurance
in herself. Because she's going to say, in
my flesh dwells no good thing. That's the purpose. That's the
purpose. He's going to keep us from finding
assurance in his gifts, from having assurance in our faith,
or the meal, or the cruise of oil, or whatever blessings God's
given to us. He's keeping our assurance being
Christ alone. When this is all done and she
looks back on how she responded when the trial started, she's
going to say, I can't trust me. I can't trust me. I can't have
assurance in me. How's he going to bring her assurance
to Christ? Well, when our Lord sends trouble
by his irresistible grace, he going to make us cast all our
care on Christ again, like it's the first time we ever did it. It says here in verse 19, he
said to her, give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom.
It means he seized him, he took possession of him. And he carried
him up into a loft where he abode and he laid him upon his own
bed. Now you just look at Christ here
in Elijah. He said to her, he didn't respond
at all to what she said. In fact, The old covenant shows
us what we are in our flesh and we read here how she responded.
The everlasting covenant of grace under the blood of Christ. You
go to Hebrews 11, God does not mention her response. God says
by faith she believed God and she received her child from the
dead. How can that be? We see nothing but unbelief in
this woman. He doesn't mention it. He said
she did this by faith. It's by Christ and what He does
for us, sustaining our faith, that we have assurance in Him.
Now watch what He does. He came to her and He said, Give
me thy son. And He took him out of her bosom. Now her son is an extension of
herself. This is her flesh. This is her. So the son's going to be brought
to life again. But what God's doing, He's doing
for her. He's doing it for her. It's the
woman the Lord's dealing with. He's growing her in faith in
the Lord. He's keeping her assurance being
the Lord alone. Now she, by this chastening,
by her son dying, she's become sick, spiritually sick. She's
at a state, a low state right here. Her inner man appeared as dead
as the child. She doesn't appear to have faith
at all. The Lord brings us to this state
on purpose. This is what He does by His chastening,
loving hand. It's on purpose. He comes to
us then and He says, give me yourself. Give me your heart. Cast all your burden on me. We wouldn't do it if He didn't
come to us. and sees us, irresistibly by His grace, just like Elijah
came and seized this child from her. That's what He's going to
do for us. He's going to take us to Himself
just like Elijah took this child to his bosom. Christ does this. And He makes us behold Him and
what He's done for His people. He makes us behold Him. Christ
lifts our heart to Him on the cross and then He lifts our heart
to Him seated at God's right hand. He carries us up by faith
to where He abides at God's right hand just like Elijah carried
his child up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his
bed. The Lord is going to carry you
in spirit and in faith and cause you to set your affection on
Him because He's going to head you into where you can't look
anywhere else. And by His grace, He's going
to set you on Him. And He makes you to behold Him
as your intercessor and as your advocate with the Father. Verse
20, And 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? Elijah interceded for the widow. The Lord His God had given her
good, and he also brought the evil
upon the widow. And it's just like Elijah's interceding
for her, Christ intercedes for those for whom he died. Elijah
only sojourned with the widow. Christ abides with us. He abides
with his children. Now, James tells us the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And we see
that here with Elijah. And every believer, by the grace
of God, we're gonna fervently pray for one another. The Lord's
gonna have us pray for one another. But our prayer is effectual fervent
prayer because Jesus Christ the righteous ever liveth to make
intercession for us. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He's the propitiation for
our sin. He advocates, He is the righteousness
with the Father, who the Father beholds, and for whose sake,
and by whom, and through whom, the Lord continues to show us
this great mercy He's showing to this woman. This is not for
her harm, this is not hurting her, this is for her good. It's
going to end in her good. It's for God the Father's glory. It's for Christ's righteousness
sake. And Christ, just like Elijah
is saying here, Father for your glory. He's just interceding
for this woman. He's just interceding for her. Whatever the Lord's willing to
do. Christ made Himself one with
His people. And it's by His life that we
live. He made himself one with his
people and it's by his life that we live. He is our life. It says here in verse 21, 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. When it says He stretched Himself
upon the child, it means He measured or meted Himself upon the child. It's just what we saw with Elisha,
with the Shunammite child. Christ made Himself one with
God's elect. He became us. Our sin became
His, and His righteousness becomes ours. And He enters in, and that
new man that He's created, is Christ in you. That new man is
so inseparably united with Christ. Christ is the life of our new
man. He is. Our curse became his curse so
that he put away our sin and his righteousness is our righteousness
through God-given faith. Now Elijah did this three times
and cried unto the Lord. In the Garden of Gethsemane our
Lord went apart, separate, and cried three times. We read in
John 17 that great intercessory prayer he made for his people.
And our Lord willingly submitted to God's will. He went to the
cross and laid down his life willingly for his people and
bore the wrath of God in place of his people to put away our
sin and make us the righteousness of God in him. So we're one with
him. And the scripture says, he cried
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and he was heard in that he feared the Lord. Verse
22, and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. Elijah prayed, Lord,
let the soul of this child come back into him. This is what Christ... He's doing this for the child.
But this is what the Lord is doing in the heart of the widow
woman. He's causing His Spirit to revive her and renew her and
give her assurance in the Lord alone. And that's what He does
for us when He's working His work of grace through the trials
He's seen. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah and the soul of the child came into Him again and
He revived. When the Lord turns us, you remember
how sad they were when Christ went to the grave. They were
like this woman. They thought it was all mockery,
that we thought this had been Him who was going to redeem us.
And they were weeping, they were sad, they were sorrowful that
Christ went to the grave. But on the third day, He came
out of that grave. He arose. and His people arose
in Him, righteous and holy and complete in Him, and we sat down
in Him at God's right hand. By Christ's intercession for
us, He not only regenerates us when He comes in the season of
His love, He continues to revive and renew us by His Spirit, keeping
Him being all our assurance. This is true revival. This is
true revival. Verse 23, And Elijah took the
child, and he brought him down out of the chamber into the house,
and he delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See,
thy son liveth. Now again, let me remind you,
Hebrews 11 says, By faith this woman received her dead, raised
to life again. Did we see much faith in her
at the beginning of this? Didn't see much faith in her,
did we? We see faith in Elijah, but God's
working faith in Elijah here to give us a picture of Christ
and what Christ does for us as our intercessor. Remember how
the disciples, when they were cast down and the women came
to the tomb, they were speaking in unbelief
just like this widow. just like this widow. And Christ
arose, and He came to them, and He showed Mary. He said, See,
thy son liveth. He made good on His promise to
His disciples, and this is the promise He makes to us. How are
we going to have assurance? Where is our assurance really?
Where is it? He said, yet a little while,
and the world seeth me no more. But you see me. Because I live,
ye shall live also. And this is the substance of
assurance right here. He's gonna make you see Him,
and make you see that because He lives, you live. Because He
lives, you live, believer. He's gonna bring us to the end
of ourselves. And He keeps doing this over
and over and over. Because we are so prone to look
for assurance anywhere but Christ. And He's gonna have all the glory.
And if He let us find assurance anywhere but Him, we will perish
in unbelief. So He's going to keep bringing
us to the end of ourselves and lifting our inner man to Him
at God's right hand to behold He is alive. Our righteousness
is a living Redeemer and He ever lives to make intercession for
us. If a leaf falls off that tree out there, somehow He's
working that together for the good of His people. Everything
is coming to pass in this world. He's working it for the good
of those he's redeemed. And he's going to keep his believing
children looking to him only and finding all our assurance
and all our confidence in him alone. And just like the Lord
brought her son to this widow through his prophet, Christ keeps
coming to us through his gospel and saying, see thy son liveth,
thy redeemer liveth, thy God reigneth. And here's the point. It's beholding
Jesus Christ, our righteousness, risen, living, interceding on
our behalf. that he revives us and makes
himself and only himself to be the assurance of our faith. Turn with me to, I'm sorry, read
verse 24 first. And the woman said to Elijah,
here's where she ended up, now by this I know, I'm assured,
I have assurance now. And this is what you're going
to say of Christ. Thou art the man of God. You're
the God-man mediator. You're my righteousness. And
the word of the Lord is in your mouth in truth. You're going
to keep Him being our assurance. Go with me to Hebrews 10. And look here in verse 19. He said there that He had one
offering He perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. And He's going to keep bearing
witness in our heart. He's going to keep on bearing
witness to us. He said there are sins and iniquities
I remember no more, so there's no more offering for sin. But
now look here, here's the assurance of faith right here. Having therefore
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. There's our assurance. Why did
Elijah go up there and pray to the Lord? Why did he have boldness
to enter into God's holy of holies? By the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us. Through the veil, that is to
say, He is that way. It's through His broken body
and shed blood. Through His risen ascension in
glorified human flesh. Through His flesh. And having
a high priest over the house of God. What does the high priest
do? He made gifts and offerings to
God for his people and he can have compassion on his people
when we're ignorant and out of the way. And this is what he
continues to do. Having this, having the blood
of Christ, having this new way that's him, and having him there
as our high priest, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith. That full assurance of faith
is him. It's him. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he
is faithful that promised." And that's what we see. Our Lord
worked for this woman. He faithfully kept her unwavering. Who was the faith of her faith?
When she was going to Elijah and she was so sorrowful she
couldn't see anything but her dead child and she was blaming
Elijah. Where did she get that from?
Where did that come from? It came from the garden. It came
from the fall. Blaming God. Who sustained her
faith? Christ did. Who sustains our
faith? Christ does. And why does he
do this? to make us see He's faithful, to make us see He's
our high priest, to make us see it's only by His blood alone
that we're righteous. Please don't ever find assurance
in yourself. Please don't ever find assurance
in anything, even anything He's created in you. Find it in Him. He's faithful, that promise.
He's gonna keep us finding all our assurance in Him. Let's go
to Him. Father, thank you for this word.
Pray, Lord, that you'd work this for us. Keep us looking to Christ. Keep us being assured that we
have full salvation in Him, that you'll never leave us, you'll
never forsake us. You're gonna keep us, keep us
renewed, keep us revived, keep us finding all our confidence
in Him alone. Lord, let us now come near your
throne of grace, by His blood, by His perfect righteousness. And hear us, Father, and our
high priest, we ask you. Lord, if there be any cast down
and unbelief, it's this poor widow. We trust, Lord, that if they're
yours, you're working it for your purpose. You're gonna work
this very thing in each of your people. You've promised us that
we must go through tribulation. You've promised us that you'll
keep us in good cheer, because you've overcome the world on
our behalf. You'll keep us looking to you, and by faith, make us
overcome. Lord, we ask you, fulfill this
promise for us, for Christ's sake. Revive, Lord. Forgive us our
sin, forgive us our unbelief, for His sake, for His righteousness'
sake. Send Christ our advocate, we
ask it.