Now by the help of God, dear
friends, I bring before you a word to be found in the eighth chapter
in the second book of the Kings. And we read the latter part of
verse five and verse six for our text. The eighth chapter. in the second book of the Kings,
the latter part of verse 5 and verse 6. And Gehazi said, My Lord, O King,
this is the woman, and this is her son. whom Elisha restored
to life. And when the king asked the woman,
she told him. So the king appointed unto her
a certain officer, Sion, restore all that was hers. and all the fruits of the field,
since the day that she left the land, even until now. Well, dear friends, just a personal
word to preface one's remarks today. counted a great honor
and a privilege to stand in this pulpit again. And you have now
a dear pastor over you. And so, in the purposes of God,
the Lord has moved me to another cause to help them in their great
need. But I can assure you, my dear
wife and I have not forgotten you and do not want to forget
you. And I just want to speak this
word for you as a cause and interest here. I endeavoured to speak
from it on Thursday night at Hanover. And it's this, the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. No greater blessing, friends,
could there be. Well, come to the text, then
we consider the reading first concerning this godly woman,
who lived in Shunam. And Elisha passed by her dwelling
place fairly frequently. If you look at a map, then the
names that are mentioned regarding where Elisha had his ministry,
you will see very clearly. And of course Shunem was a part,
Jezreel, Jericho, Mount Carmel. These were places that he frequented
for the purpose of his ministry. And so this is clearly seen,
dear friends, throughout the Word of God. Each prophet had
their own particular work to do. The Apostle Paul, we have
a detailed account of all the places he went to under the influence
of the Spirit in his ministry. We have a detailed account of
the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever he went and the miracles he performed. And if you consider the places
he went, then his ministry was very, very extensive. to meet
the cases of all the Lord's dear people. And of course it's the
same today. People ask the question, where
are you preaching today? I was speaking to a person yesterday
and they said, where are you preaching today? It's something
that is done, isn't it? And the sphere of usefulness,
you see, is under the hands of the Lord. And then The Lord has
appointed pastors and a pastor over you here. So things in that
sense change. But the work of God goes on.
The purposes of Jehovah are being fulfilled and the purposes of
God will always be fulfilled. And there will always be the
ministry. So this was a place where Elisha
passed in his various miracles and ministry that he performed.
Now, Elisha, as you know, succeeded Elijah. And Elijah was a great
prophet. And he performed a number of
miracles. I believe I'm right in saying
that Elijah performed seven miracles. Now, his successor was Elisha. And if You are with me when I
ascend to heaven, then your desire will be fulfilled. And what was
that desire? Well, Elijah said to Elisha,
ask what I shall give thee before I be taken from thee. And what
did dear Elisha ask for? A double portion. of the Spirit
of God, a double portion. And you see this wonderful effect
in the life of Elisha, in the miracles that he performed, because
he performed 13 miracles, literal miracles. And we read of one
this morning when he raised this child that had died to life. And of course, others have done
the same. Peter did, Elijah did. And it's a very deep, profound
matter. And I would not speculate for one second whether
their spirit returns to glory and comes back again. I don't
know. We're not told. But what it says
before us, friends, is this. the resurrection of Christ. That's
what it said before us. Resurrection. It was all a type
of that which should come. Now Elijah then had a double
portion because he witnessed, he witnessed dear Elijah going
up to heaven by a whirlwind, those chariots of fire and chariots
of horses. Now that was a type of Christ. Elijah's ascension was a type
of Christ who would ascend from Mount Olivet. Now who witnessed his ascension? The apostles. They witnessed
his ascension. And what did they receive? A
double portion of the Spirit of God. They receive the divine
anointing of the Holy Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost. You see, these things are types
of the glory of Christ. Now, Elisha performed 13 miracles. Moses performed 20, the Lord
Jesus performed 37 actual miracles. But his miracles are going on
to the present day. If you and I, friends, obtain
and have the grace of God, that's a miracle. It's a miracle. This beginning of miracles to
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and
many believed on him. Everything that Christ does is
a manifestation of his glory and people believe his chosen
belief. So Elisha was favored with a
double portion. And you see that in all that
he did because He succeeded Elijah in this. Elijah knew times of
depression. When Elijah slew the prophets
of Baal, there was the strength of Almighty God. But what about
when Jezebel said, Jezebel said, tomorrow about this time, your
life will be like the life of one of the prophets of Baal.
I'm going to have you killed. Where was his strength? Gone. He fled. And he wished that he
could die. Now Elisha was in the pair of
the Spirit all the time. And friends, this is the secret
to death. especially the prophets of the
Lord and the ministry of the Word. The sacred is the anointing
of the Spirit. So he could prophesy. He had the spirit of prophecy. He had the spirit of work and
of miracles. And the Apostle Paul speaks of
this in his epistle, the diversity. The different gifts. It's the
same Spirit. And it's for the benefit of the
Church of God. Because those who have the Spirit
exercise the benefit and the blessing of the indwelling of
the Spirit in different ways for the benefit of the whole
Church of God down to the end of time. Diversities of operation. But it's the same Spirit. And
here we see with Elisha, you see, he passed this while. And
this woman at Shunem, you see, she perceived that this is a
holy man of God, which passes by us continually. She perceived. She had a perception. His walk,
his conduct, his deportment was in keeping with his office. And so she knew, and she said
to her husband, you see concerning which path is by us continually. Now this dear woman was given
to hospitality. She certainly was. She desired
to care for this dear man of God as he passed her way, as
he did oftentimes in his ministry. And so she made provision. Her
husband and her made a little chamber and a bed and a table
and a stool and a candlestick. It shall be when he cometh to
us that he shall turn in thither. What a wonderful provision. Not
selfish. No, not selfish. Opened her home to the man of
God. Beautiful, isn't it? And the
Lord was mindful of this. She did it because of the love
to truth, the love to the Lord, and the love to the Lord's servants.
That's why she did it. There was no secular or political
agenda with this godly woman. It was all to the glory of God.
And she did it out of the love of her heart. She loved the Lord. She loved Elisha. And so the
question was put, what should be done for her? Gehazi, the
servant of Elisha went to her and said, Say thou unto her,
Thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to
be done for thee? What is thou bespoken for to
the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I
dwell among mine own people. She was perfectly content with
the Lord's provision. And she dwelt amongst those who
were of a like mind. and love the same truths and
doctrines. So she was very content to remain
as she was. And she did not take promotion,
if I can put it that way. What is there be spoken for to
the king? What a promotion that would be.
If the king favoured her in the court and gave her some very
honourable position with her husband? No, no. Seekest great things for thyself,
dear friends? Seek them not. The honour and
glory of God was her chief concern. Friends, is that so with us?
Is the Lord first? Oh, she loved the Lord and she
loved his servants and she loved the Lord's people. And friends,
if we love the Lord, we shall love his people and we shall
love his servants. Why? For the truth's sake. So she didn't have a child. So Elisha says, well, you will
have one. There's a spirit of prophecy
from heaven. Oh, don't deceive me, she said. No, she wasn't deceived by Elisha. And so what he said, that they
would have a child, the day came and the child was born. And then, you see, as a child,
he died. As I read that verse, My head, my head. My mind went back to my late
dear mother. They were having breakfast one
morning and she said to her husband,
my father, she said, my head, my head. That's the very words
she uttered, the last words she uttered. And father put her onto
the settee. She went unconscious quickly. She died the next day. A massive
brain hemorrhage. But that's where she said, my
head, my head. That's just what this lad said.
And so he died. And the dear woman's vexed in
spirit. She believed then what the Elisha
said, and now the child's died. Whatever shall I do? You know,
sometimes, friends, the Lord appears in a wonderful way. and
grants the fulfilment of a promise or some expectation or some exercise
of soul and all is well. And then after a little while
as if death is stamped upon it. But the Lord performed this miracle
through Elisha as it had the spirit of miracles, the prophecy
and the spirit of miracles. And so, you know, the account
The child was raised to life and she knew there. She went in and fell at his feet
and buried herself to the ground and took up her son and went
out. You have the same for principle
with Elijah. You see, that godly woman said
to him, Now I know that thou art a man of God and that the
word in thy mouth is truth now this account in chapter four
is well known I would judge by us all but when you come to the
eighth chapter then it's not so well known and I have to include
myself Because reading at home, we're reading through the second
book of the Kings now. And of course, chapter four,
we're well conversant with. But I'd forgotten until recently
about chapter eight, the first six verses. Because it's a continuation
of chapter four. It's not in Chapter 5, it's not
in Chapter 6, it's not in Chapter 7, but the continuation of this
godly woman is in Chapter 8. And this brings me to a very
important point. It shows, dear friends, to you
and me, the need to read the Word of God in its entirety. In other words, to take a book
and read through it from the beginning to the end. Because
sometimes you find this, that a case, and you are acquainted
with it, and then the Lord brings that same account, but a further
dimension of it in a later chapter. And if you hadn't continued the
reading, you would miss that wonderful account. And so in
our reading at home, the chapter 5, 6, and 7, and then we came
to 8. And I had forgotten this wonderful
account concerning this same woman. It's the same woman. Then spake Elisha unto the woman
whose son he had restored to life. It's the same woman. Now
in chapter 4 you see the first 7 verses are different. They're not the
same woman. The woman in the first 7 verses is not the same
woman in verse 8. They're two different cases.
Two different women. Two different experiences. And
so the need, friends, is to read the word of God in what I call
an ordered way. And then you don't miss these
various things, these various truths. Now, I have to confess
that it escaped my mind for a season. And yet, dear friends, I've been
endeavoring to search the scriptures For many years, in fact, before
your pastor was even born, I was endeavouring to search the Scriptures.
But I need to search it more and more and more. And in this
endeavour to do that, the Lord gave to me and brought to my
understanding this wonderful account. Let me just be very open in this
and personal, if you allow me this personal word. As I read
this, the case of dear James and Elsie,
the Lord brought before me. And I don't want to be a busybody
in other men's matters. It's not my province. But I cannot
help but say, as I read this account, it just seemed to speak
to me of their case so perfectly. Because this godly woman had
to go and sojourn wherever they can sojourn. And this is Elijah. The man of God who raised her
son to life is speaking to her. There's a famine. And he says,
Arise and go there with thine household, and sojourn wheresoever
thou canst sojourn. For the Lord hath called for
a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years. She was obedient to what the
man of God said. She was obedient. And so she
went into the land of the Philistines. Now the Philistines were those
who worshipped an unknown God. They worshipped Dagon. And it
may be said by some, what were they doing? leaving Israel where
the God, the true God of Israel is, and going into the land of
the Philistines where there's idolatry. Friends, premature
conclusions are not warranted in the Word of God. We must wait
upon the Lord to see His hand. So she went as directed by the
Lord through the prophet. And she was away with her household
for seven years. And so they sojourned in the
land of the Philistines. Seven years. A famine took them. And it came to me so beautifully
What took our dear friends from Hastings to Mombasa? What took
them? A famine. Not a famine of bread. No, but a famine of the hearing
of the word of God. Because that area was given to
witchcraft and idolatry and worshiping an unknown God. And James and
Elsie took the word of God to that place that was in a famine
of the true God of Israel. The Lord uses whatever purpose
he will for the furtherance of the kingdom of God's grace. He
did the same in the book of Genesis with Joseph. The Lord called
for a famine. They all had to get into Egypt.
Egypt? It's a heathen place. The richest
of this world. Pharaoh's an ungodly king. Whatever going down to Egypt
for? Friends, there's the purpose
of God. What do we read? Joseph said
to his brethren, ye thought evil against me. But
God meant it unto good, to save much people alive this day. And
he also said this, be not grieved that ye sold me hither. They sold him. But God will send
him. God will send him. And this is
why, dear friends, we have to consider matters in their entirety. You can take the case of Ruth,
the Moabitish damsel. What was Elimelech and Naomi
doing, some have said, going down to Moab? A famine took them. But look at the purpose of God
in that matter. I know Naomi went out full and
came back empty. But she brought back dear Ruth,
the Moabitish damsel. And friends, here we have one
of a heathen land marrying a devoted, dedicated Jew, Boaz. The two came together by the
grace of God that could have never happened by man. But God
brought them together. They had a son, Obed, and he's
in the line of genealogy leading to the birth of Christ. Go down to Moab, friends. I've heard it said they should
have never gone. Friends, that's a premature view.
You've got to see the conclusion. That godly young woman, Ruth,
married to Boaz. Obed. Obed begat Jesse. Jesse begat David. David's greater
lord. David's greater son. So there this dear woman went
for seven years. I don't know how long our dear
friends there were out in Mombasa. Was it eight or nine years? I'm
not sure, but something in this region of years. Now, of course,
they left and everything over those seven years was gone. We're
not told what actually caused that everything to be gone. It
could have been that moving to the land of the Philistines,
and they were not natives there, of course, they were put under
tribute and had to pay money to the authorities in the land
of the Philistines to dwell there. It could have well been that,
because there were those in Nehemiah's day that had to pay tribute money
to the king. And they had to borrow money,
in Nehemiah's case, to pay the tribute money. It may have been
that. It may have been that those next
of kin seized upon the estate and took it for themselves and
sold it. We don't really know what caused
the loss, but God's decree, God's will, God's wise, God crowned
this godly woman. He crowned her with loving kindness
and tender mercy. And so at the end of seven years,
They come back. There's a meeting. Gehazi was
talking to the king. Because the king had asked him
about Elisha. Tell me, I pray thee, all the
great things that Elisha hath done. He was telling him. At that very moment, as he was telling the king how
Elisha had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman
whose son he had restored to life cried to the king. That very moment, friends, that
very moment, the perfect timing of God is seen so oftentimes
And when things are trying and difficult and perplexing and
vexing, as it was to this woman before, everything seems dark. Everything seems shut up. Everything
seems impossible. What grace we need to hold on
our way and to wait the Lord's perfect time. A perfect time. And this was
perfect timing. Man could have never done it.
God did for a divine purpose. And this dear woman came, you
see, and came back and cried to the king for a house and for
a land. And then Giza could say to this
woman, say to the king, this is the woman and this is her
son, whom Elisha restored to life. She cried. to the king
for a house and for a land. It had gone. You see, friends, whatever pathway
the Lord's people are in, there is always a case in the scripture
identical And it is there for the encouragement of the Lord's
people in their tribulations today, because we are to plead
what God has done. These cases on record, they are
true accounts. But they're not there just to,
if I can express it thus, to read something that took place
and leave it there. The Lord's people in their need,
in their great need, plead. Plead. What the Lord has done
in the past. And they say, Lord, thou hast
done this and thou art the same yesterday, today and forever. Do the same, dear Lord, for me. Flayed his word, friends. The
Lord is glorified and honoured thereby. And so the king knew
all what had taken place through Gehazi, the servant of the Lord. Now the king, total authority,
total power, total control within the kingdom. And the heart of
the king is in the hand of the Lord. Yes, a king. They exercise the
authority God gives them in the kingdom, but their heart is in
the Lord's hand. And he moveth it whethersoever
he will. And almighty God moved the king's
heart here in divine favor to this godly woman. She went out full. Well, she went out and she was
full, but she came home and she needed the Lord to restore. And
this lovely word, so the king appointed unto her a certain
officer. And these officers were eunuchs. And I feel this is a very important
point to bring before us. Here is an officer to attend
to this woman's case. And those people in that position
were eunuchs. And the reason was this, dear
friends. So that there would be nothing of a licentious nature
to harm what God would do for this godly woman. So the officer
was a eunuch. You see exactly the same in the
case of the Queen of Ethiopia recorded in Acts. Candace, the
Queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had the charge of
all her treasures. Everything was committed to his
trust. But nothing of an untoward or
unsavoury nature could ever take place because he was a eunuch.
And here's the sovereignty of God displayed, friends, in this. It was the same with Ruth when
she came back from Boaz. And she gleaned in Boaz's field. She wasn't to be in any fear
concerning the reapers, because Boaz gave the reapers a charge,
have I not charged the young men that they touch thee not? And when thou art the thirst,
come to the vessels and drink of the water which the young
men have drawn. Boaz was a type of Christ and
he would not allow anything of a sinful nature to take place
in his field. It's God's provision. It's God's
safety. It's God's goodness. So this
officer can attend to her case and the woman has no fear of
a servile nature whatsoever because God is going to restore to her
all That she lost. Restore all that was hers. Everything that was hers. And
all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land.
Even until now. What a restoration. What a beautiful
word. Now, restore is a wonderful word. You can't restore nothing. You
can't restore nothing. You can only restore that which
you had in your possession, and then it was lost. So whatever
remains, then it can be restored. The Lord restores, and we have
these accounts in scripture of restitution. It's wonderful. So this dear woman, she suffered
no loss. Because the King, and of course,
it's a type of the Lord Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. He restored everything to that dear godly woman in her
household. Nothing was lost, nothing. From the day, mark the words
friends, since the day, that she left the land, even until
now. And that's the end, you see,
of concern in this wonderful account in this godly woman.
So, dear friends, how good it is that rather these scriptures,
to make the cases of all God's dear people, whatever it is,
it matters not, Our unbelieving hearts limit the power of God.
Mine does. Yours does. But living faith
believes that what God has said is able to perform. She cried
to the king. Cried to the king. And that cry
was heard. And there was a sympathy. You've
sung that beautiful hymn. Touched with a sympathy within. He knows our feeble frame. And
the king was touched with a sympathy within. King Jesus was touched
with a sympathy within. And the earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof. And so he restores. And he hath,
I say, my Lord, O King, this is the woman, and this is her
son, whom Elijah restored to life. And when the king asked
the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her
a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the
fruits of the field, since the day that she left the land, ever,
until now. Amen. Let's sing our final hymn this
morning from Gadsby's hymn number 850. 850. Ye souls that trust
in Christ to rejoice, your sins are all forgiven. Let every Christian
lift his voice and sing the joys of heaven. Hymn 850, tune 101. Peace moves the trust in Christ,
rejoice. Your sins are all forgiven. Let every Christian lift his
voice. And still in the joys of heav'n
Amused at earthly happy days, ? Blessing in a more joyful house
? ? Where God unveils his blissful face ? ? And loves and laughs
and smiles ? Where Jesus died, the man and God, Triumphant from
his loss, Walks in rich garments, gives ? And chose his glorious cause
? ? When praises in a sound was raised ? ? In heaven, in earth,
and on high ? ? Ignore the rich wonders of all His face ? ? And
Jesus leads the song ? ? Where saints are free from every load
? O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the
bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag
was still there. ? As the golden river ? ? Bring
a little grace to us ? ? And tell you, Lord, we're watching
thee ? ? While we hear you weep ? Jesus, our dear Redeemer died,
and we might be forgiven. Those that we might be justified,
And now may thy grace, Lord Jesus, the Father's love, the communion of thy Holy Spirit
be with us all now and forevermore. Amen.