I've titled the message this
morning, It Is Well. And I thought that was a very
fitting song. It is well because of what Christ has done. Not
by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to
His mercy. It's all of grace and mercy,
isn't it? Come with me to 2 Kings 4. 2
Kings 4. You'll notice that this is the
same chapter that we were just in prior. But as I was reading
through Second Kings and one thing that going through the
books of the Bible has caused me to do is read the entire chapters
thus far to see where the Lord would have us to. And he's there's
so many accounts in these we could spend. multiple weeks on
each book, and we know that to be true. We can never exhaust
the vastness of the Lord's Word. That's the way he's made it.
So every time we come back to this fountain to drink, it's
new. Every time we come to this table to eat, it's new. But this
is what the Lord's given me in 2 Kings 4 for both hours, and
so therefore, we're delighted to see the gospel twice in the
same chapter. For some reason, And I say that
kind of sarcastically. We know the reasons of the Lord
doing everything that he's ever done, but for some reason, the
Lord's called Elisha to go from Mount Carmel to Samaria multiple
times. The only conclusion, the Lord
doesn't really tell us why he's going back and forth. So the
only conclusion we draw is that the first instance that you saw,
he was traveling. The first hour we saw the woman
that came to him, the widow woman, he was traveling at that time.
And therefore, God was able to save her and her children. And
we see now he's departing again, he's traveling again. The only
conclusion we can come to is God's ways are his ways, and
our ways are not his ways. His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. His ways are above the heavens. And so we do have
one reason that was given in verse one of chapter four, the
widow woman, that's one reason why Elisha was walking, but we
have another reason in verse eight. God uses his means to
get his people, and he does it by the preaching of the gospel.
So let's look here in verse eight, in chapter four, in verse eight,
it says, it fell on a day. Now I love the wording that the
Lord uses there. It fell on a day. It came to
pass, is what the Lord's saying. It's the same wording as used
whenever Ruth falls on Boaz's field. Her hap fell on Boaz's
field. I love that, the way that the
Lord does this. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem. where was a great woman, and
she constrained him to eat bread, and so it was that as oft as
he passed by, he turned in thither to eat 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
and 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 a day
that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay
there. And he said to Gehazi his servant,
call this Shunem, this Shunemite. And when he had called her, she
stood before him. And he said unto him, say now
unto her, behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this
care. What is to be done for thee?
What is thou be spoken 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,
Nay, my Lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid.
And the woman conceived and bear a son at that season. And Elisha had said, that Elisha
had said unto her according to the time of life. It came to pass, Elisha in the
fullness of God's time was traveling in front of this lady's house.
It came to pass that she saw him and perceived that he was
a man of God. This woman is a believer. I'll
just go ahead and tell you that. We'll find that out a little
later on. But the perception that she had
was given to her by the Lord. The Lord had to give her that
understanding that this man was indeed a man from God. The scripture
calls her a great woman. Now I'm reminded that Noah was
called a righteous man. But before Noah was called a
righteous man, it was because he found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. This woman was called a great woman. And what did the
Lord mean by that? Well, it's the same definition
as important woman or precious woman. She was one of God's sheep,
so she was of vast importance, wasn't she? Just so happens,
and I love the way that the Lord calls it, for some men, they
would say, well, this example of something that just happened
to me yesterday that I had no idea what happened, we ran into
Linda, over down in Redding, and we hardly ever go to Redding.
But if we hadn't had to take one ornament back because it
was cracked, we'd have never went to that side of the store because
we were ready to check out. And I was done with that store. I was ready
to leave. And it just so happens she's staying there. So here
we get to see one another. We're rejoicing in the Lord right there
in Michaels, introduced to one of her friends. And it just so
happened that we were there. Well, that was the Lord that
did that. And for what purpose? He's the one that knows. Nothing
else. We got to see a dear sister and
rejoice for a moment in the Lord's providence and bringing us here
and being together. But it's the same as this instance
here. where Elisha had to be at the
right place at the right time to meet this woman in order for
God's providence to take place. And that's exactly what happens
to you and I every day, every second of our lives, the Lord
is causing us to be exactly where we are supposed to be for the
furtherance of his gospel and the salvation of his people.
That's the kind of God that we serve, the God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the sovereign. It's all his time and all things
are done according to his time. This woman had on her heart,
the Lord had laid on her heart to give, to give unto Elisha. The Lord's people are the most
giving people on the face of the earth. Did you know that?
Do you know why that is? Because whenever you've been forgiven,
you're more likely to forgive. Whenever you have been given
something. Scripture says it's more blessed
to give than to receive, but receiving the gift of God causes
us to want to do for Him, to give back to Him. It causes us
to want to come to service. It causes us to pray for one
another. It causes us to spend time looking unto Him and also
giving unto the church. This is all what the Lord does
for the furtherance of His gospel. He puts it on our heart to give,
doesn't He? And we do, we give unto the Lord. Some of us more
than others, as often as we can, as much as we can, and sometimes
it's in time. You know how valuable it is for you to give your time
in prayer unto the Lord? That's giving unto the Lord.
That's dedicating time unto Him. That's pray for me. If you have
nobody else to pray for, pray for me. Pray for my children.
If you have nobody else to pray for, pray for me and my children,
my wife. Pray that the Lord would keep us together here. Dedicate
your time unto the Lord. It will not return void. He'll
use it. He'll use it for his glory. She
had a desire to give a heart to give. Lord, give us life, didn't he?
He gave us life. In giving life. We become. Obsessed with him. If I can put
it that way, we become addicted unto him and the Scripture talks
about this in 1st Corinthians 16. Paul said they have addicted
to the ministry of the saints. Would you like for that to be
our accusation? The church and only, well, they've
addicted themselves to Christ. Wouldn't that be a good accusation
to have? Well, that's what this woman did. She wanted to serve
the Lord and she did it wholeheartedly unto him. She didn't do it for
gain. As a matter of fact, she's asked, what would you have me
do? Do you want me to tell you the name before the king? Would you like
to live in the palace is what Elisha was saying. Anything that
she would have said there Elisha could have done that according
to the word of the Lord. What did she ask for? Nothing.
She asked for nothing. She didn't do this for personal
gain. She didn't do this for personal
recognition. And much is our giving in our prayer, isn't it?
We don't do it in order to be recognized. We don't do it in
order for someone to see us. That's what the Lord even spoke
of. When you give alms, do it in private. Do it in secret.
Don't let anybody else know. Don't let your right hand know
what your left hand does. When you pray, don't pray open for
everyone to hear you. Go in your closet and pray secretly
unto the Lord. And if you do it in secret, the
Lord will reward you openly. She did this thing in private.
She did this thing in secret. unto the Lord, and the Lord got
all the glory in it. Isn't that glorious? And he does.
He gets all the glory in all these things. We don't preach on tithing because
if we preached on tithing, we would make it a work, wouldn't
we? If I get up here and I tell you a percentage that you should
give unto the Lord, then the first thing you're going to do
is make certain that you give that. All we're doing is making it work.
I'm not telling you what to give unto the Lord at all. But I know
that the Lord's people do give, don't they? They give what they
can, their time, their prayer, their money, whatever it is.
And that's exactly what this woman did. It's exactly what
she did. We look to Christ to provide,
don't we? We look to Christ to provide.
I've been in churches where they literally preach on tithing and
they'll tell you, you better be giving this and you better
be giving that. Or, oh, you Lord would cause your appendix to
go out and put you in the hospital. If you don't give unto him, he'll
get your tithe either way. Brethren, that is not what we
declare. We declare it as finished. We declare a sovereign, successful
savior that gave his life for his people. We don't preach tithing
and we make it a work. We preach that it is more blessed
to give than receive, but we preach Christ is all. over and
over, and we look to Christ and know that He will provide and
meet our needs. Look at what He's already given
us here. The church that He gave. I know that you all may have
thought about getting a church at one time, but I don't, and
you can correct me after service if you want to, but I don't believe
anybody in here believed when you were giving all those years,
the 10 years or however long you were meeting, that you were
gonna have this church and that a boy from Tennessee was gonna
be your pastor. You didn't perceive this. This
is of the Lord. He did all this. We rejoice in
these things, don't we, brethren? We give unto the Lord and he
provides all, he provides all that we need in Christ, doesn't
he? The Lord will provide for his people and we rest. Now in
verse 11, it says, it fell on a day. I'm reminded of Isaiah
chapter 46 in verse nine. He tells us, remember the former
things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there is none like
me. declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasures. I will do all my pleasure. What
is his pleasure? It was glorifying his son, wasn't
it? For his people. That's exactly what his pleasure
was. We are the pleasure of the Lord. He took, did it not please
the Lord to bruise him when he made a solemn offering for sin?
Was he not satisfied? That's his pleasure. The Lord's
gonna do whatsoever he wants to do with whosoever or whatsoever
he wants to do it with. He is sovereign in all this,
and he gets all the glory. Everything that comes forth out
of you and I, he gets all the glory for it. He does whatsoever
he pleases, and in the fullness of time, God has purpose, it
comes to pass. And that's exactly what happened
to Elisha. That's why we're here this morning. It came to pass.
We woke up this morning and we come to the Lord's house because
it came to pass. He put a desire on your heart.
He lets your vehicle arrive here safely. He allowed you to sit
right here, breathing his air, keeping your heart beating. What
a God we serve. What a God, and not only that,
but he laid down his life for you that you might have eternal
life. This is the Lord I'm talking
about. He allowed you to be here. In the heart that he gives you
and I, it's the same heart that he gives every believer. Look
at verse 12. And he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite. Call this Shunammite. And when
he had called her, she stood before him and he said unto him,
Say down to her, behold, thou has been careful for us with
all this care. What is to be done for thee?
Wouldst thou be spoken for the king or to the captain of the
host? And she answered, I dwell among
my own people. And I've already mentioned this
to us a minute ago, but look at the heart that the Lord gave
this woman. We looked earlier at first John chapter three,
and it said, behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed
upon us. But we can see that love in each other, can't we?
We love each other. We truly do. Now, I know that
our love is conditional, just like God's love is conditional.
We must be found in Christ. But we genuinely love each other.
I was sitting here listening to everyone's conversation. There's
no animosity or contention. What a wonderful gift from the
Lord to be able to just fellowship with one another, genuinely care
for one another and love one another. That's of the Lord.
The Lord did that and he gets all the glory for it. This love
that she had in her heart for the Lord caused her to not be
desirous. of things. She could have asked
anything. She could have asked of money.
She could have asked of land or houses. She could have asked
of anything, but she did not. Why? Well, we find in Proverbs
chapter 30, Solomon said, give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food convenient for me. Are you content with
what the Lord's given you? Are you content with what the
Lord's given you? The Lord makes you content, doesn't he? He makes
us content with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we work? Absolutely. Do we try to get new things?
And we were shopping yesterday for Christmas items. So I'm not
implying that we don't want new things, but are you content?
Are you content with Christ? The answer is yes, if you've
been made a believer. You're content with his finished work.
He's all. that you need. He's all my desire,
and that's what's in the heart of this woman as well. This is
why Solomon's saying, don't give me poverty nor riches, but feed
me with food convenient for me, that which you have purposed.
It's a bowing of the heart unto the Lord's purpose. Whatever
he has purposed, we say truth, Lord. Give me that which is convenient
for you know better than I know. His ways is not our ways, and
we bow to his ways, don't we? Over and over and over he causes
us to confess, truth Lord, I should not have even spoke of such things.
I didn't know that I was ignorant and unlearned until I saw your
face and you gave me repentance. I didn't know I was dead and
trespasses and in sin until you caused me to be alive. And that's
what he does for his people, constantly bringing them back,
constantly reminding them, feeding us the food that is convenient
for us, that which he's provided. Solomon says, here's the reason,
either give me poverty nor riches. If you give me riches and I be
full, I'll deny thee and say, who is the Lord? But if you give
me poverty, I'll be poor and I'll steal and I'll take the
name of the Lord in vain. The Lord has given you exactly
what you should have. How do I know? Because he's the
sovereign God of this universe. If you were meant to have more,
he would give you more. The Lord knows, the Lord knew that if
he gave me more riches than I have, that I would not need him like
I ought. I would not remember to beg for
mercy. I would not remember to beg for
the Lord to meet the needs of this life. We are to pray for
our physical needs that the Lord meet it. Christ said, give us
this day our daily bread. That's physical and spiritual.
Do we see that? Both. Lord, feed me that which
is convenient for me to eat. Don't give me too much because
if you do, I won't remember to pray and thank you. I won't remember
to come begging before you, but don't withhold too much from
me because I know my heart. It's deceitful of all things
and desperately wicked and I'll start stealing. I'll start stealing. This is what Solomon's saying.
First Timothy chapter six, verse eight says, and having food and
raiment, let us therewith be content. You imagine being content
with just food and clothing. Christ was content with whatever
the Lord had given him, wasn't he? He said, the foxes have holes,
the birds of the air have nests, and the son of man had no place
to lay his head. Why? Why did the Lord purpose him
to be born in a manger, in a cattle trough, a feeding trough? Think
about that. He didn't come here for an earthly
kingdom. He come for a spiritual kingdom.
So what am I trying to tell us this morning? Be content with
Christ. No matter your circumstances
in life, no matter what you have physically, be content with Christ. He is all. Be content with Him. Just as this woman, and you are.
If you're the Lord's people, you're content with Christ. You're
content with Him. We certainly work, brethren,
because it's our curse. By the sweat of our face, we
certainly get things. So I don't want this to be a,
this is not a work that I'm preaching that we, that we should not work
anymore or that we should, no, certainly not. We work. We work
with our hands because that's how the Lord's ordained as our
curse. And we look unto Christ to provide. We don't work for
salvation. Christ is all in salvation. We
work with our hands and we look to Christ to provide physically. We know that the Lord will provide
because Matthew 711 tells us, if you then being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that
ask them. Christ even told us, ask and
you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall
be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. Everyone.
And he that seeketh, findeth, and him that knocketh, it shall
be opened. Why is that? He's made you ask. He's made you seek. He's made you knock. He's made
you to know that Christ is all. And you're content with him,
aren't you? You're content with what Christ is and what he done. The Lord says, seek you first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things will
be added unto you. What things? Well, whether it be financial
needs, whether it be physical confrontation with loved ones,
whether it be contention, strifes, whether it be pain, whether it
be sickness, whatever it may be, seek you first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these other things will
be added unto you. Rest in the finished work of Christ, looking
unto Him, begging, For whatever need that you have, knowing that
our Heavenly Father said, if you being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your kids, your children, how much more shall
your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.
God has never turned away a mercy beggar. Never. We've been made
to have a need, haven't we? And then what we really come
to the Lord and pray for is Lord, Have mercy upon me, the sinner.
I know I put myself in this circumstance, in this situation, because of
what I am. I know that everything that's going on around me is
because I've messed it up. Lord, save me. Over and over
in the scripture, we see that being the case, don't we? The good news of the gospel,
brethren, is it is well, no matter what circumstance you're facing,
no matter what you're dealing with in life, no matter how difficult
it is, it is well with your soul because it is written in the
Lamb's, your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and
Christ hath put away your sin. That's what I'm trying to remind
us of this morning. It's not circumstance that we come to
the Lord for often. We probably should come more
than we do, because we can't exhaust the Lord's mercy and
grace. He has much, the supply is more than we could exhaust. We come before Him, sure, with
physical things, but we come begging Him for salvation, don't
we? We come asking him Lord save me. Lord save me and he's never
going to grow tired of you coming and asking of that. Did you know
that isn't that good? My daughter is asking me for
things all the time. We go to a store. Can I have this? Can
I have this? Can I get tired of hearing it? God's never going
to be tired of you coming to him saying Lord, it's me again. Lord, I've gotten myself in a
situation again. Lord have mercy upon me again. Lord save me again.
Save me Lord save me. He's not going to get tired of
that. Why? Because he's put that cry in your heart. He knows because
he became, it behooved him. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be made a faithful high priest,
a faithful high priest for his people. He knows your infirmities. He knows the afflictions that
you're bearing. He knows because he bore our
sin in his own body. He knows everything about you.
and he put away your sin and says come unto me. If you're
laboring and you're heavy laden, whether it's physical or whether
you realize that you're a center, come unto Christ. Cast it at
his feet. Say Lord have mercy upon me and
he will abundantly pardon the scripture said. He will abundantly pardon because
he is the one that's made you cry out that. Elisha. leaves shortly after
this. We find ourself in verse 18. Her having the child, and it
says in verse 18, and when the child was grown, it fell on a
day. It fell on a lot of days in this
chapter, didn't it? I'm finding that interesting,
and it's just us needing to be reminded that it's the Lord's
timing. It's the Lord's timing. And when the child was grown,
it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the Reapers,
and he said to his father, my head, my head. And he said to
the lad, carry him to his mother. When he had taken him and brought
him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then
he died. And she went up and laid him
on the bed of the man of God and shut up the door upon him
and went out. And she called him to 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 to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.
And she said, it shall be well. It shall be well. Then she saddled
an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward, slack not
thy riding for me, except I bid thee. Do we understand why things
happen the way that they happen? I mean, really, can you explain
it? Can you explain why things happen the way that they happen,
the world that we live in? Everything that's taking place. We understand
that God is sovereign and God is purposed all things and we
bow to that, do we not? But we don't understand why things
happen the way that they happen. The Lord had given this woman
a son. She didn't even ask for the sun. Back in this time, we
must be reminded here that the Hebrew women desired a son more
than anything else, because it was the possibility of the Messiah
coming to save the Lord's people. She would have wanted a son dearly,
but her husband was past the age. It says he's an old man.
But the Lord gives her a son. The Lord gives her a son. And
now she has this child. She has this child and no doubt
she would love the child and she would have been crazy about
the child. You can imagine how much even
Abraham loved the son of his old age. How about Joseph? That's a good example as well.
Joseph being born in Jacob's old age to the woman that Jacob
actually loved. He didn't love Leah, he loved
Rachel. And so we see him getting the coat of many colors and being
put up on a pedestal more than his other brethren. This young
man would have had all the love from this woman. We can see that,
can't we? And yet the Lord causes him to fall and hit his head
and die. She held him, physically held
him in her hands until he died. Why would the Lord allow something
like this to happen? What is the lesson here? Why
is this account in the scripture? We're gonna find out. But I wanna
stop on just a moment to ask us, do we understand these things?
No. We just believe Christ, do we
not? Do we figure things out? We try to figure things out,
don't we? Most of the time, I find myself the more figuring out
of things that I try to do, the worse I make my situation. We
can't figure things out. His ways are above our ways.
If If you get nothing else out of the message this morning,
what I'm trying to get across to us is look to Christ and rest
in Him because He's doing everything exactly as He's purposed it for
the salvation of His people. No matter what you're facing
in life, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to, has saved His people
from their sin. Rest in Him. We can't figure
things out. We can't understand these things.
We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in Him. Our life's
most minute circumstance is ordered by our God. Abraham believed God. The Lord said, you're gonna have
a son. And he laughed, and he's hard, but the Lord caused him
to believe God, didn't he? The Lord said, I'm gonna tempt
you, and he took him up to offer up his son, and we heard about
this Wednesday, but Abraham believed God. Why did Abraham believe
God? God made him believe him, didn't he? Believe God. If you
can, you will. If you can rest in Christ, you
will, because He's made you a mercy beggar. Rest in Christ. No matter
what you're facing, rest in Christ, knowing that your sin has been
put away. We have the one thing needful,
the one thing that we can't cure, our death that we owe, and yet
Christ Jesus put it away. And the rest of the circumstances
that we're facing are the orderings of our Heavenly Father, which
gives good gifts unto His children. It's just goodness and mercy.
No matter how bad it may seem, it's just goodness and mercy.
Now, our sister believed God, and she rides to Elisha about
30 miles. I mapped this out. I was curious
to see how far she had to travel in order to get to him, and it's
about 30 miles. She had a need. I don't know who drives the farthest
to get here, probably the Yerkeses, I would imagine, but the need
that the Lord gives you, he will, supply what is necessary to meet
that need. He's given us vehicles in order
to drive here, and they've gotten us here safely, right? The need
that he's given us to get here, he's provided the means wherewith
we can have that need met. And it's the same in salvation.
The need that you have, the need of your sin being put away, he
provided. Not only did he provide your
spiritual needs, he's providing your physical needs also, isn't
he? He's given you a roof over your head. He's given you food
on your table. I've never looked in my pantry and not had at least
a can of beans or something. The Lord's always, it might not
have been filet mignon or something that I would have preferred to
eat, but he's always provided, hasn't he? Your entire life,
look back over it. Everything that you've ever needed,
he's provided. Why? Because he delights in showing
mercy. You know, as well as I know,
that if we were left to ourself, our cabinets would be bare, we
would starve to death, and we would die and go to hell because
that's what we deserve. And yet, He's given us a roof. He's given
us food. More importantly, brethren, he's
given us his word and the gospel wherewith he has saved us from
our sin by the death of his own self, his son. He's given us
his son. She had a need, just like we
do, and she came to the only one that could help, the only
one that can help, Elisha. Now in verse 25, 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, to Gehazi,
his servant, behold yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray
thee, to meet her and say to her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband?
Is it well with the child? Now this is where I got the title
for our message. And she answered, it is well. Now, I want to remind us that
her son just died in her arms, but she says it is well. The only way that you could say
that is if God given you the faith to believe God. Abraham
believed that God would resurrect his son if the Lord took him
because God had promised that his seed would bring the Messiah.
It would come through Isaac. So the Lord knew, or Abraham
knew God had said that and God cannot lie. Therefore, if I slay
him, the Lord's gonna resurrect him. Abraham believed God. This
woman believed God in so much that she said, it is well with
my husband, it is well with my son. I want us to think of this
just for a moment. Every one of us has loved ones
or someone that we know that we're close to that do not believe
the gospel. And if you're asked, is it well, I want us to be able
to say it is well because whomsoever the Lord hath died for, he will
get them. He will bring them unto the knowledge of his truth.
This is the rest that this woman had. It's well because the Lord
hath ordered it. The Lord hath done that which
he believed to be good. And you and I bow to that, don't
we? She wasn't rejoicing. We can
see that plainly in the next verse. And when she came to the
man of God to heal, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came
near to thrust her away. He thought she was going to attack
him. He thought that she was attacking him. And the man of
God said, let her alone for her soul is vexed within her. And
Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me. Elisha didn't
know. what was happening, what was
transpiring, but he could see by the expression of her face. That's the only way that he could
have known that something was wrong at this point, because
she said, it is well. And the Lord had hid that, that child
dying from him. So she's latched ahold of his
feet and he recognizes that she's vexed, that she's hurting, that
she's in agony inside, he sees that. And yet her confession was, it
is well. It is well. What is your confession? Whenever you hear this glorious
gospel, truth, Lord, no matter the circumstances in my life,
truth, Lord, you are doing that which you have purposed. And
we bow to that, don't we? No matter how vexed we may seem,
we know something of being, of struggling inside. We know something
of sorrow. We've had loved ones that's passed and different things
that's happened in our lives. We know what it is to hurt. And
yet, what was our confession through all of that? Lord, you've
done that which is good. Lord, you've done, I can tell
you firsthand, having buried a daughter, that as soon as that
happened, I had no idea what the Lord was doing, but I did
not know who God was at that time. I was in false religion.
I can look back and rejoice in the death of my daughter because
that was the first stepping stone of the Lord bringing me to the
knowledge of the truth. My wife will tell you the same thing.
It was because of that the Lord opened up my eyes unto him. I
began to question who is God and his sovereignty. I was told
that she died because of my sin. She was conceived out of wedlock.
I was told many things and began to think, is it all my fault? And truth of the matter is, is
it became apparent to me that I am the man. I am the man. The Lord did not kill that little
girl because, or allow her to die, I'm sorry, because of my
sin necessarily, but death came because of sin. Do we see that?
The Lord did that which he purposed before the foundation of the
world, and it caused us to be put on the path to come to the
knowledge of the truth. And that's exactly what he's
doing in your life. and that's exactly what He's doing in your
loved one's lives. If the Lord died for them, He
is going to get them rest this moment by saying, it is well. That's the message this morning. She asked Elisha a question in
verse 28. Then she said, did I desire a
son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive
me? And he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins and take my staff
in thine hand and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute
him not. And if any salute thee, answer
him not. Again, I lay my staff upon the
face of the child. And the mother of the child said,
as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee. And he arose and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before
them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there
was neither voice nor hearing, Wherefore, he went again to meet
him, and told him, saying, the child is not awakened. And when
Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead, and
laid upon his bed. And 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 upon
his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon
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. The child opened
his eyes and he called Gehazi and said, call the Shunammite.
So he called her and when she was coming to him, he 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 we could read this and say,
this is a wonderful miracle, certainly, but this is a gospel
message that happened right here. We see that Gehazi, the servant,
having seen the woman, knowing the situation after she confessed
it, knowing that the child was dead, Elisha says, go, take the
rod, my rod, and bring the child back to life by putting it upon
his face. That's the law, isn't it? The law cannot redeem. The
law cannot redeem. This rod, this rod of justice
has to be satisfied for you and I to be made alive. How did the
Lord make us alive? Did he not come where we were
dead and could not move, dead in trespasses and in sin, and
lay upon us? and our hands, his hands, our
lips, his lips by substitution on the cross of Calvary was not
the wrath of God poured out upon his son in our stead as he was
our covering. As he was our covering, he said,
we hide under the shadow of his wing. I believe the young ladies
learned a little bit about the wing this morning, hiding under
the shadow of his wing. That's exactly what happened. The shadow,
we were over, He overshadowed us. And God poured out His wrath
upon His Son. And He who knew no sin was made
sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him." Well, then what
happened? You and I were called at the
appointed time. When the fullness of time came,
we were called and we sneezed seven times. What does that mean?
Well, that sneezing, I was trying to understand or trying to figure
out why, Did the Lord purpose for him to say he sneezed seven
times? We sneeze because of an irritant, don't we? An irritant. We sneezed because we were getting
rid of all of our self-righteousness. Our confession was no longer
that we had any righteousness before God. Seven's the number
of perfection, isn't it? We sneezed because Christ's perfect
work, it's our confession, it's what the sneezing represents.
Our confession is seven times as the number of perfection.
The sneezing represents getting rid of all, becoming an empty
vessel, the Lord emptying us. We don't really control sneezes,
do we? I mean, truthfully, you kinda can. Especially in church,
you try to hold it in and you make all kinds of noises in doing
so. But if you're gonna sneeze, most of the time, it's gonna
come out. And that's exactly the point, is the Lord drew every
bit of that self-righteousness out of us and caused us to confess
that his perfect life was our righteousness before God. That's
what the sneezing here represents, I believe. This is the same confession
that is in every believer when he gives us life. We renounce
all of the former things that we thought. We no longer say,
like Naaman, I thought that he would do this, or I thought he
would do that. We rest. because it is finished. We rest
because it is well. We have been made to know it
is well, no matter what we are facing. The sneezing represents
the removing of any hope in ourself. The sneezing represents that
we have been made to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid
upon us. He gave us life. He causes us
to confess Christ is all. We know it is well, don't we?
It is well. I would like to sing that song
again. We're not going to, but we could. It is well. No matter what you're
facing, brethren, I know that our need is Christ, no matter
what it is you're facing. Our need is Christ. Lord, have
mercy upon me, the sinner. Lord, save me, save my children,
save my grandchildren. Somebody said, you don't have
any grandchildren. I'm already praying for them. I hope to have grandchildren. I'm already praying for them. Father, thank you for your Word.
Thank you for making us know it is well. Because it is finished. It's in Christ and we pray, Amen.