You take your Bibles and turn
with me to 2nd Kings. 2nd Kings chapter 4. 2nd Kings chapter 4. And the title of this message
is Practical Faith and a Two-Fold Picture. Practical faith and
a two-fold picture. Now here in verse 8 of chapter
4, it says, And it fell on a day, and Elisha passed to shoot him. And there was a great woman,
and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, as oft
as he passed by, he turned in thither and ate bread. And she
said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is
a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make
a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for
him there a bed, a table, and a stool, and a candlestick. And it shall be, when he cometh
to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on that
day that he came thither, and he turned in to the chamber,
and lay there. And this is the first part of
this. It's a practical faith. Practical faith, as it is taught
by this woman, this great woman. Now this word great means that
she had resources. Her husband was of prominence
in the area. She was a great woman in her
place, her community, a woman of renown. Now in this passage
of Scripture, we are told that this woman, as we will see, is
a woman not only great among her people, but great in faith.
Great in faith. She was one who heard the gospel
from the prophet Elisha and believed his word. And as a result of
her believing, as a result of her receiving the word and the
man of God into her home and eating bread, she believed the
gospel. She believed. She said, I perceive
that this is a holy man of God. How did she perceive that? By
his word. By his preaching. by His talking
to her. And she was so moved and constrained
by this man of God that's to stay in her home, that when He
passed by, she always gave Him bread. And it was not enough.
It was not enough just to feed the man. She was compelled then
in love and pity for Him to provide a room, a place for Him to lay
His head, a place for Him to rest, to eat, to study. And so that in verses 9, she
compels her husband to add this room, to put this man up. And so we may see by the actions
of our heart every believer in Christ for the servants of God. By the actions of this woman,
she showed great love to this man. Great love for His Word
and great love to God by her making provisions for Him. And true, this is a practical
truth for every believer in Christ. Every one of us who believe on
Christ, we know this. We love God's Word. We love to hear God's Word, and
everyone that is of God surely has a desire to support and keep
the Word of God in their place. All of God's people love and
care for the Gospel, therefore they always care for the man
of God. The Word of God is clear It is
a message clear to all sinners, all who stand in need of salvation,
that salvation is by grace, without merits of works or law. It is
a message of perfect righteousness and peace. This is the message
we love. This is the message this woman
loved. She loves to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is our message. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Simple,
plain message. It is our message, our gospel.
But how can one call on Him unless he believes? And how shall he
believe on Him in whom he's not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And what does God say about His
messengers? What does God's people say about
His messengers? How beautiful are the feet of
them that bring the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings
of good things. This is the gospel we bring to
you. We bring a message of peace. We are ambassadors of peace. Our gospel is one of peace with
God, not with man, not by the law, not by religious works,
but by grace through the blood and offering of the Son of God.
This is our message. Behold, the Son of God, the Lamb
of God, hath bare away the sin of the world. See how God hath
made Him to be the propitiation for our sins, that God in grace
sets the prisoner, the captive, free. God takes the righteousness
of Christ that He has merited and earned and imputes that,
charges that to His people. He takes the blood of the offering
of Christ who offered Himself without spot and blemish to God
and made Him to be sin for us. And now His righteousness is
made ours through faith in Him. Through faith in Him. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Is this not glad tidings of good
things? Now it is if you're a sinner.
If you're a sinner, this message is good news to you who have
no hope, to you who have no righteousness, to you who have no spiritual
bread to eat, no spiritual offering to give. We have nothing. This
is a message that provides everything for us. I like that message that
the Lord preached concerning the wedding feast. He said this,
go and invite them to come. All is ready. You know, it's good to be invited
to a place when you don't have anything to bring, if everything's
provided. Christ provides everything you
need. This is glad tidings of good
things. We preach to you mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
came into the world to save sinners. Sinners. And every sinner that
comes, listen, he will save. Without doubt, he will save. I know the flesh kicks against
that. The flesh is saying, surely there
must be something I must bring. Surely I must make myself ready
to come. No, if you tarry till you're
better, you will never come at all. Come now, as you are. Come now, right now, forsaking
all and following Christ. Fall down at His feet and He
will save you. He will give you the desires
of your heart. What is it? What is it you want? Sinners need mercy. Sinners need
peace. This is our message. This is
the message of God. All who believe on Him and hear
our gospel by the means of the Holy Ghost, He gives life. And
we praise God then for the man that God sends with such a message.
Why, this is the means God's chosen to save sinners, isn't
it? Is there any other means you can think of in Scripture?
Is there any other means that you can provide proof for that
God saves by, except preaching? I know there's not. God always
sends a man to preach Christ. Now, there is no salvation in
the man. There is no effectual power in
the preacher. The message is The power. The power comes from the message
and the Spirit of God taking the message and effectually,
powerfully infusing it into the soul of the sinner to whereby
his eyes are opened and he sees who he is, what he's done. He
looks to Christ and flees to Him for refuge. And then we say
to the man that God sent, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace. And like this woman, she showed
gratitude. Did she not? It's a very practical
thing she did, isn't it? She saw the man of God had a
need. And what did she do? Out of love, he did not ask,
he did not plead, he did not chide her. He would have been
content with the bread that she gave. But she was not content
with the bread she gave. She had more, and she desired
to give more. And giving She did. She gave to his needs, his necessities. And such giving surely is a token
of our love and appreciation toward the gospel. Make no mistake,
there are those who refuse to support the men of God, those
who have little love for Christ, and they have little love for
the gospel that we preach. So what then is the result of
little love? There's little given toward that
work. There's little given toward that
work. And I'm not talking just about money. I'm talking about
time. I'm talking about effort. Things
that need to be done. This is what this woman did.
And you know what? I'm telling you the Lord blessed
her for it. Did he not? We're going to see here in just
a minute, the prophet is going to ask her, what should I do
for you? What could I do for you? And the Lord puts it on
his heart through the servant. He said, she's without a child.
And then God, by grace, gave her what she had need of, what
she wanted. Now true believers in Christ I know this, in our day there
are some believers in Christ who have departed from this.
They have loved the gospel for many years, they've supported
the gospel for many years, but because of The world, the flesh, things
of the world have allured them away and they've separated themselves
from the support of the ministry of the gospel. For houses, for
lands, for families, for the pleasing of the flesh, if not
financially, especially leaving the fellowship bodily. Now you
say, Pastor, I never would do that. That's what they said.
That's what they said. Let us be warned about this.
If we love the gospel, we should support the ministry of the gospel.
We should continually do this. When? How often? All our days. All our days we should support
it. Wherever the Word of God is preached, we should be faithful
to that assembly. Why? For ourselves, yes. For your own souls, yes. But
not only for you. Remember, it's not about you.
It's about the other person. It's about your brothers and
sisters around you. Remember, we don't have to attend
worship to be saved, do we? We attend worship because we
are saved. But yet we attend mainly for the effect of others,
for the help of others. You don't realize just what being
here does for the others. Word of God is clear. God commands
us not to neglect the assembly of ourselves together. Don't
neglect that. Why? Because you neglect to encourage
your brother. You neglect to encourage your
brother by missing this. By missing this very practical
and simple thing that we could do. Is it not simple? Is this
just being here? Just being here, you don't realize
that I would take that over any amount of money. Just being to
see your face encourages the man of God. It does. I mean, you want to support the
ministry, and yet I know even some believers that if the church
were to disappear, they wouldn't even miss it. They would come
back, it'd be gone and they'd turn around in a month and they'd
say, well man, when did they close down? Well, if you'd have
been here, you'd have known. But it's a very practical thing.
This woman and her faith showed great love. Great love. Let us
do the same. Let us do the same. It's a very
practical lesson, but there's a greater lesson. And I'm just
going to move on. There are two pictures given
in this passage of Scripture regarding the salvation of sinners. Two pictures. First of all, the
picture of the woman is a picture of the church, of God's people. And then, this woman who has
this son by the gift of God, he also is a picture of how God
saves sinners. Now look at your text again.
See this. She practically gave this, and
in verse 12, Verse 11, and he said, It fell
on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber,
and he lay there. And he said to Gehazi, his servant,
Call the Shunammite. And when he had called her, she
stood before him. And he said unto her, Say now
unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this
care. What is to be done for thee?
What hast thou bespoken for to the king? Or to the captain of
the host? And she answered, I dwell among
my own people. And he said, What then is to
be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily,
she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she
stood in the door, And he said, About this season, according
to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said,
No, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid. And the woman conceived and bare
a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her according to
the time of life." This woman, she had done so much for him
and he desired to do something for her. And he said, what is
it that can be done? And this woman was barren. This
woman was barren. She had no child. She was lifeless in her womb. This, my friends, is a good picture
of us by nature. A good picture of all of us by
nature. As this woman was barren in her
womb, lifeless, helpless to give life, our nature, too, is as
a desert, incapable of producing or sustaining any spiritual life. She's a picture of us. But notice that this woman, she
doesn't at first mention her need. Notice this. He asked, what can I do for her?
And he said unto her, what shall be done? You've done all this
for me. What can I do for you? He said, would you want me to
speak to the king on your behalf or call his captains because
of some grievance? And she said, I dwell among...
I'm content. I'm content. I don't have any
need. I don't have any need of the
king or his captain. We as preachers of Christ set
before you the king. Every Sunday I set before you
the king. Every Wednesday midweek service I set before you the
king. The king is Christ. Jesus Christ is the king. He
is the king of His kingdom. You see, unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the
government shall be upon His shoulders. He shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. And of His kingdom there shall
be no... it shall always increase. His
kingdom. He's a king. Now listen, should
I beseech the King on your behalf? Would you like to know the King?
This is what we preach. I know the King! Should I show
Him to you? Christ is King. Christ is King. We proclaim the King, the King
who shall judge all men. And listen, I want you to see,
you have rebelled against the King. You and I have rebelled
against a sovereign Lord who must and will be just and punish
all sin. He will destroy all of His enemies. Over in Luke 14, our Lord said
this. Luke chapter 14 and verse 31,
I'll read it to you. He said, Or what king, going
to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth,
whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while another is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadage. and desires conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever be of
you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
You see, we compel you as sinners to forsake all you have. Forsake
all you have. Why? You are making war with
the king you cannot win. I've got a king. How can you
meet Him with 10,000 when He has 20,000? You cannot. You will die unless you send
ambassadors, unless there is peace made. And I'm telling you,
the King has already sent ambassadors. I am an ambassador for Christ
as though the God did beseech you by us. Be you reconciled
to the King. Forsake all you have. What are
the conditions of peace? What are conditions of peace?
Absolute surrender. Not partial. Absolute, unconditional
surrender. Those are the only conditions
of peace. You see, God has already made a sacrifice acceptable for
sin. You must submit to that sacrifice. You must believe on Christ. You
must forsake all and follow Him. Seek peace and pursue it. We
commend you to God, show you the King. Not only the King,
but we also present the Captain. Is not Jesus Christ the Captain
of God's salvation? You see, I'm asking you, do you
need to be delivered? That's what he was saying to
this woman. Do you have a grievance? Do you need to be delivered from
some enemy? Some trouble? I know the Captain. I know the Captain of the army.
He'll be down here in a moment to deliver you if you have need.
Friends, I know a great captain. You're captive. By nature, we
are captive to sin. By nature, we are captive to
Satan. We are tossed about by his will. You need to be delivered from
that. Jesus Christ is the only captain
of God's salvation. He will conquer. He has conquered. I thought about those, some of
those, you remember those Japanese soldiers they found in those
caves after the war? They didn't know the war was
over, they didn't know they lost. Friend, the war's over. I know
the captain. He's already conquered. Do you
need to be delivered? He'll come and get you. He'll
take care of you. He'll cut asunder the iron bars
of your sin. He'll deliver you and set you
free from the justice of God. You need the captain. You know
what this woman said? No, that's alright. I'm content. Isn't that what we said? When
you heard the gospel and you were in your own nature, isn't
that? I dwell among my own people. My people will protect me. My
people will keep me. I don't need the king of Israel.
I don't need the captain of his host. I'm content. I'm content. She was content until something
was exposed. Something was hidden. that she did not want to be seen.
And this, obviously, we know that Elisha here is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ because he's the only one that can give
life. But this servant Gehazi, I believe here is a picture of
the Holy Spirit. He reveals something. He reveals
something about this woman that she concealed, that she tried
to hide. He said, she is without child. She is barren and her husband's
old. Now is this not what the Holy
Spirit revealed to you that you and I by nature are lifeless? And our old husband, the law,
is too old to give us life. The law could not give us life.
It's not capable. It was like this old man. He
was past the time. He could not do it. He could
not give her a seed. And neither could the law give
us life. This is a picture for us. This is us He's talking about.
We were barren and lifeless. And then, by grace, the Spirit
of God came in Christ and He said to us, Will you live? Will
you live? And what'd she say? Don't lie to me. Don't tease me about this. It's
something very dear to her heart concerning this son. She said,
don't say it and then not do it. Isn't that how it came to us?
We found out we were barren, we were stripped, exposed of
our sin. And the man of God said, only
believe. Only believe on Christ. And we
said, don't lie about this. Is that so? Is it so? And he said, this time next year,
you will have a son and you will hold him in your arms. You listen. The moment you believe, he will
give you life. Matter of fact, if you ever believe
it is because you've already been given life. And faith is the evidence of
that life. Faith is the evidence of that
life. This woman is a picture of us. She is a picture of all
who believe on Christ. The Scripture says, as God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what happened to us?
God says, let there be light, and there was light. When light
came, it exposed us of our barrenness. When light came, it gave us the
seed of life, the Word of God. We fled to Christ and we were
saved. That's our experience. What's
this woman? She's a picture of that. A picture
of you and me. But now I'm going to give you
a greater one. God's always one-upping himself
in this book. He's always giving us a picture.
And then he says, I'm going to give you even a better one. I'll
give you another way to look at this. And he does so by this
son. Look at this now. She gets this
son. Look at verse 18. And when the
child was grown, He was not a man, but he was old enough to go out
into the field with his father. And it fell on a day that he
went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his
father, My head, my head! And he said to the lad, Carry
him to his mother. And when he had taken him, he
brought him to his mother. He sat on her knees till noon,
and then died. And she went up and laid him
on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and
went out. And she called unto her husband
and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one
of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again.
And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go unto him today? It is neither
new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
And she saddled an ass, and said unto her servant, Drive, and
go forward. Slack not thy riding for me,
except I bid thee. And so she went, and came unto
the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the
man of God saw her afar off, he said unto Gehazi his servant,
Behold yonder is a Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet
her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with
thy husband? Is it well with the child? And
she answered, It is well It is well. And so then, she comes to the
prophet. She came to the man of God on
the hill, and she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came
near and thrust her away, and the man of God said, Let her
alone, for her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath
hid it from me, and hath not told me. And she said, Did I
desire a son of my Lord? Did not I say, Do not deceive
me? Then he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins and take thy staff
in thine hand and go thy way. If thou wilt meet a man, salute
him not. If any man salute thee, answer
him not again. And lay my staff upon the face
of the child. And the mother of the child said,
As the Lord liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose and followed her. And
Gehazi passed before them and laid the staff upon the face
of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore,
he went again, and met him, and told him, saying, The child is
not awake. When Elisha was come into the
house, behold, the child was dead, and lay upon his bed. 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 to his mouth,
his eyes to his eyes, his hands to his hands, and he stretched
himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro, and
went up, and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed
seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi,
and said, Call the Shunammite. So he called her. And when she
had come unto the hymn, she said, Take up thy son. Then she went
in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground,
and took up her son, and went out. Now here is another picture. You are the son. You are the
son. The woman is the church. The
woman is the church. Elisha is Christ. And the servant and the staff
are the law. Now see this. We by nature were
dead. We were dead. Isn't this what
happened when we came into the church? We thought we were alive.
Paul says, I was alive without the law once. When the law came
and sin revived, what? I died. He realized something
about himself. He was dead. But this is what
we are by nature, dead in trespasses and sins. So we're as this boy.
We're laid out upon our mother's lap. We're laid out in the church,
dead. in trespasses and sins. And what
is the heart of the church? The heart of the church is this,
that you should live. That's what the heart of the
church is. The heart of this mom is, I want my son to live. So
what does she do? She goes to the man of God. Believer
in Christ, what do we do for the lost? We bring them in, set
them upon our knee, and what? They die. They die. You come to the church, a sinner,
a lost sinner comes to the church, he's going to come to die. If
there's any hope for him at all, he'll come to die. And what did she do? She said,
get me that servant, and she drove, she said, you ride as
fast and as hard as you can. Don't spare for me. Isn't this
what the church says to getting to Christ? Get Him to Christ. That's what we should do. Every
time I preach, I want to get you to Christ as fast as I can.
Point you to Christ. Why? There's only life in Christ.
There's only life in Christ. And as she comes, she knows that
her son is dead. And what does she say? All is
well. What does the church say? Although they're dead, all is
well. Why? Because Christ gives life. Christ
alone can give life. He gave life to me. This woman
was barren. She experienced life. I know
this, that there's life in Christ. So what does the church do? We
say, get them to Christ. Move them to Christ. Point them
to Christ. That's what we do every time. That's why we preach
Christ. Nothing but Christ. Always Christ. Why? Because there's
only hope and life in Christ. And so then she gets to the servant
of God and notice this. He doesn't go first. He sends
his servant and the staff. He said, take my staff and go
and lay it upon the face of the child. And so the servant obediently
goes and he takes the staff of the prophet and he lays it on
the face of the child. And what happens? Nothing. Nothing. Oh, this is a picture of the
law, isn't it? Cold, dead, stick. All the law could do is beat
a dead man. That's it. The dead man won't feel it, but
that's all the law is good for, is to beat a dead man. It can't
do anything else. Curse him. Cursed. Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. That's what the law does. You
lay the face of the law on the face of a man, and he cannot
feel it. He cannot know it. He cannot
have life by the law. The law cannot give life. Yet God sent it. Isn't that right? God sent the law. The law has
a very specific purpose. You know what the law shows us?
You're dead. That's it. A boy was sleeping, you lay a
stick on his face, what is he going to do? He's going to get
up. Put a stick on a boy's face, he's going to get up. He's not
dead. If he's dead, what is he going to do? Nothing. That's
what the law can do. It can do nothing for the dead.
It can only kill you. That's all it can do. But you're
already dead. You're already dead. So what
then is the hope? The hope is that Christ come
and give you life. I like this. Look what the woman
said. He sent the servant, but look
what the woman says. Verse 30. And the mother of the
child said, as the Lord liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not
leave thee. He said, I know you're going
to send the law, but I'm not going with the law. We don't preach
the law, do we? We preach Christ. Why? Because
that stick is not going to give that boy life. If there's any
life at all, it's going to come from the man of God. It's going
to come from Christ, the man of God. And she said, I'm staying
with you. And what does the church say?
I'm staying with Christ. I'm preaching Christ. Paul said,
I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Why? This is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. The gospel of Christ
alone can give life. So where does the church stay?
Where the woman stay. She stay with the man of God.
We stay with Christ. We stay with Christ. And so now
then the law comes in, it cannot do the work. Now look at verse
32. And when Elisha was come into
the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut
the door upon them twain. I want you to pay attention to
this. If Christ is ever going to save someone, He is going
to get them alone. He's going to shut out every
other hope, every other joy, every other pleasure, and He's
going to show you the deadness of your own nature. He must get
a sinner alone. Go to Hosea. Look what God does
when He shuts the door. This is pictured in Him shutting
the door in Hosea chapter 2. Remember, Gomer's a picture of
us. She's that whore, married to the man of God. And what does
he say? He's given her all this corn
and wine and stuff, and she still went after it. She thought it
was her lovers giving her this stuff. And he says, verse 9,
Therefore I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof,
and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and
my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
my hand. I will cause her mirth to cease,
and her feast days, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemn
feasts, I will destroy her vines, her fig leaves. Therefore, she
has said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me,
and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall
eat them." What is he going to do? He said, I'm going to destroy
all her sin. All that stuff that she had so much pleasure in will
now become ashes in her mouth. Is that not what happened when
Christ shut the door on us? Shut us up to ourselves. He showed
us who we were. He showed us, exposed us. What did He do that for? Verse 14, Therefore behold, I
will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,
a place of solitude, alone, no help. I remember Donnie Bell telling
me of a man one time, an old man, lived out on the farm pretty
much all by himself and he had heard the gospel preached and
he called Donnie to come. Found the old man in his barn,
he was over there weeping his eyes out. And he said, well I'm a sinner. I've got no hope. What do I do? And Donnie said, believe on Christ. And he turned and walked away
and left the man. And as Donnie turned around the
other side of the barn, he began to smile. Why? Because that's the one Christ
saves. The dead. The sinner who has
no hope. That's the one He calls and gives
life. But first, He must shut the door. He must shut us up to ourselves. To all hopes and dreams of self-righteousness
and the vanity of our gods. Now look at this. He shut the
door. Notice this. He prayed unto the Lord. You see, our Lord
Jesus Christ is our great High Priest and He makes an intercessory
prayer for us. He is the one who intercedes.
There we were, dead in our sins. And notice, before life was given,
intercession was made. When Jesus Christ came into the
world, He came into the world to be our mediator. Our high
priest, Job, said, oh, that there was a dazeman, one that could
stand betwixt me and God. I tell you, there is a dazeman.
There is one that stands between you and God. There is only one
mediator between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. He's the
one that prayed. He's the one that offered prayers
and sacrifices unto God for our sins. He prayed for us even before
we had life. He interceded for us on our behalf.
And listen, He went up and lay upon the child and put His mouth
to His mouth, His eyes to His eyes, His hands to His hands. What is this but Him becoming
a man? put His mouth to mine, His eyes
to mine, His hand, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. You see the prophet laying out
on the child, interceding for the child, praying for the child.
He became one with the child. And so it is with Christ. He
prayed for us in eternity. He delighted to save us in eternity,
but then He came. He came and stretched Himself
out on us. He said, these are my sons. I
think of that time that Moses and Aaron, God was sending the
pestilence through the land, destroying them. And there Moses
said, take up censer from the altar and stand between them. Between life and death stood
Aaron. Between life and death stood
Christ. The judgment of God and the sinner. He interceded. He laid Himself
out. You see how He laid Himself out
on the tree when God there in the darkness imputed your sin,
your iniquity to Christ. He laid Himself out in your stead,
in your place, and bore your sin and iniquity, your troubles
and griefs. I remember an illustration of this.
There was a chieftain A strong, just Indian man ruled over his
tribe with great nobility. And there was a thief among the
tribe. And a law was put out that the
thief, whoever it was, should be caught and whipped with a
hundred stripes. And they searched out the thief
and it came to be his own mother. frail, old woman. The chief had a quandary. He
couldn't know what to do. He was a just man and she must
be punished. Yet he loved her, cared for her,
and surely the hundred stripes would kill her. So the next day he sat on his
throne in his judgment robe He strapped the woman to the pole
and commanded the executioner to begin. But before he could
lay the first stripe, he halted him, disrobed himself. He wrapped himself around his
mother and bared his own back to the smiters. and commanded
the executioner to execute judgment. And she went free. How much greater was our chief
who laid himself out to bear the stripes of God for
our sins. Look what happened. Verse 34,
And the flesh of the child waxed warm. Notice this, he wasn't
raised yet. He was prepared for it. But he
was not yet raised. Believer, when Christ was righteous,
we were righteous in Him. When He died, all of us died
in Him. When He rose again, we all rose
in Him. But as of yet, we have not yet
received life. We were warm. We were ready for
it. Notice what He did. He said,
then He returned and walked to and fro in the house and went
up. Isn't that what Christ did? He went up. He went up to glory. He went up to glory to sit on
the throne. He went to and fro, moving all things in time and
eternity. For what? To raise you from the
dead. That's what He was doing. He
was moving all things, making all things ready for your time
of love. And notice this, He went back
up and He stretched Himself upon him again. Now is this not a
picture of what happens to us when He comes and stretches Himself
around us in the robe of His righteousness? He covers us with
Himself. Do you not know that you are
the temple of God? That God dwells in you? Do you not know you are one with Christ? How can I know? How do I know that that sacrifice
was mine? This child, you knew he was alive
when he sneezed. Well friends, you know you're
alive if you believe. Do you believe on the Son of
God? You're alive. You're alive. Why? He stretched
himself out on you. He is our refuge. He is the one
that stands between us and God. I put it in the bulletin. In the Beloved, accepted am I,
risen, ascended, and seated on high, saved from all sin through
infinite grace, with the redeemed ones accorded a place. In the
Beloved, God's marvelous grace calls me to dwell in this wonderful
place. God sees my Savior. And what? Then He sees me. in the Beloved, accepted and
free. Isn't that what happened when
Elijah strayed? What did God see first, the child
or the prophet? The prophet. Who does God see
first? You or Christ? He sees Christ. And He sees you always and only
through Christ. Then what does He do? Look at
your text again. What does the prophet do? He presents the child
to the woman. What does God do to the elect?
He presents them to His church to care for them, to raise them
up. Do you see the necessity then
of the continuation of preaching and supporting the ministry?
What? For the children. For Christ, for His elect, for
His people. He presents the child to her. But notice what she does. She
fell on the feet of the prophet. I'm glad you're saved. But I
don't praise you. I praise Christ. The church gives thanks to Christ. For what? The salvation of his
people. Our Lord said this, For man hath a hundred sheep,
and one of them is lost. Doth he not leave the ninety
and nine, and go out into the wilderness, and find the one
that is lost? And when he hath found him, he laith him on his
shoulders, and carrieth him home. and tells his friends, I have
found this one that is lost. He said, even so, does God leave
the ninety-nine just people who have no need of repentance and
finds the one that does? And he carries him all the way
home and he said, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one
sinner that repented than ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
See, there's rejoicing. Church rejoices. The church rejoices. Wouldn't you like to see many
come? Would you like to see many come? I would. I would love to
see the Lord open the door of many hearts that many sons would
be saved and brought to life. Let us therefore by faith then
support the work of the ministry for that purpose. See a practical
truth and a two-fold picture. Can you see yourself there? More
importantly, can you see Christ? There. I pray God will bless this to
you. Stand, be dismissed, and pray.