In Dr. Joel Beeke's sermon, 'Learning From the Shunammite Woman's Great Faith,' he explores the profound faith and submission demonstrated by the Shunammite woman in the biblical story from 2 Kings 4:8-37. This woman, described as 'great' or 'mature' in faith, provides hospitality to the prophet Elisha and is later blessed with a son despite her initial childlessness. When her son unexpectedly dies, she exhibits remarkable faith and composure, believing in God's power to restore life. Dr. Beeke emphasizes the woman's contentment with her life, her submission to God's will, and her unwavering trust that 'it shall be well.' The sermon highlights the importance of expectant, submissive, and applied faith, urging listeners to reflect on their own spiritual growth and submission to God's sovereignty. The Shunammite woman's story serves as a powerful example of faith in the midst of trials, teaching believers to trust in God's providence and remain content with their circumstances.

2 Kings 4 verses 8 through 37. Hear the word of God. 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 passes 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 comes 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 Shunammite. 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? Wouldst 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 that Elisha had sent unto her according to the time of life. And when the child was grown 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 a lad carry him to his mother and When he had taken him and 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 to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward, slag not thy writing for me except I bid thee. 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 that 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 my husband is it well with a child? And she answered, it is well. When she came to the man of God to the hill she caught him by the feet But Gehazi came near to 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 then she said did I desire a son of my Lord did I not say do not deceive me then he said to Gehazi gird up thy loins and take my staff in thy hand and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not.

And if any salute thee, answer him not again and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, His Lord liveth and as I so liveth I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. 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 awake.

And when Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead and laid 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, put his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, 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 and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, call the Shunammite. So he called her.

And when she was coming into 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. May God bless the reading of this beautiful story to our hearts. Let's pray. Lord God, we ask now for thy Holy Spirit, for insight, for guidance, for divine benediction upon this church, upon pastor and people alike. Lord, let thy kingdom come in these moments and teach us deep and sweet lessons about the true childlike submission that faith can garner and bring into our lives and Use that faith, submissive faith, expectant faith, growing faith, maturing faith, to thy honor and glory.

Help us, oh God, to expound the essence of this story in its spiritual essence for the benefit of our never-dying souls. Also Lord, let it reach the children here, the young children, this fascinating story. May they never forget it and may it lead them to cry out to thee for saving faith and to know thee from a very young age and to serve thee and fear thee all the days of their life. We pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, it's an honor and a privilege for me to be among you this morning.

I've been many many times at the NCFIC conference with Scott Brown but I believe this is the first time I've ever preached in his church, your church, and it's just great for Mary and I to to be here. Today I want to take you to a little city five miles north of Jezreel in Israel called Shunem. Today it is still a poor small village surrounded by orchards and cactus hedges and is called Solon. One of our trips to Israel we were in the area there and we had a little bit of extra time and the bus driver said to us, I was leading the tour, is there anything you want to do? We got an extra hour and I said well aren't we in the area of Shunam?

He said oh yes there's archaeological remains there and it's a good place to go. So he went there and sure enough, this little village called Solam and the archaeological remains of Shunam are just connected. It's just a little hamlet of a few hundred people, but what was interesting to me was from the archaeological remains you could see Mount Carmel 15 miles away. And of course it's to that Mount Carmel that the prophet Elisha often came. He had a little seminary there we would say today.

He was training a school of prophets and he would frequently visit there. Apparently, he lived some 20, 30 miles away from Mount Carmel, and he came to know a couple there in Shunam who decided to give him some rest as he would walk back and forth to his seminary. And the attention, the spotlight of this story actually falls not on the man but on the woman called a great woman Or in Hebrew you could translate it a mature woman. Now scholars have debated is this woman called great because she's very wealthy financially? Or was she called great because she was a woman of great faith?

Well, perhaps it's both, but it's certainly the latter. She manifests herself in this chapter as a woman of great faith, mature faith, and faith that even grows through the great trial that comes her way, a trial that would be enough to send most of us into a tailspin of grief and hopelessness. Now, this woman already shows her greatness when Elisha, who's laying in the little room that she's provided for him with the agreement of her husband thinks to himself, I really should thank this woman and return some gift to her. So it was the common rule in those days that Elisha wouldn't speak to her alone so he calls Gehazi and speaks to her, speaks kind of through this mediator to her. What can I do for you?

Say now to her, verse 13, you've been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? Now let's personalize this a bit. Let's say that you're in Old Testament times now and you have a prophet of God come to you and say, I'll do anything for you basically that you want.

I'll even go to the President of the United States of America. I've got access to him. And what would you like? If you could pick anything you like in your life that you would want, what would you say? I mean would you have a long list?

Would you have two or three things on the list? I mean how many of you would have nothing on the list? That's what this woman had on her list, nothing. She said, I'm content among my own people. Wow.

There's something so precious about this confession. May I call it a confession of faith? You see, she's content. She knows Elisha's God. She's just content with what he's given to her.

She's not looking for anything else. She's content with her lot and portion in life. You know, we are just prone to be complainers, aren't we? Grumblers, murmurs in the wilderness of this world. There's always things we want that we don't yet have.

It's part of our materialistic age, but more importantly, it's part of our fallen nature. Always wanting to grasp instead of to give, always wanting something and forgetting that contentment with godliness is great gain. She's content. I had a very God-fearing mother and she was one of the most content people I've ever seen. In fact, this woman reminds me of her.

And as a boy, children, I would sometimes come to my mom and sometimes I would complain a little about something or I was feeling sorry for myself for something. And she would always say to me, well, it could be worse. And so one time, and this is, don't ever do this to your mom, wasn't right of me, but one time I got a little upset with her, and I said, Mom, you could always say that it could be worse. And she said, that's right. It could be worse, could always be worse.

And I said to her, if you could be any age you wanted to be, what would you want to be? And she said 42, and she was 42. I said, what a coincidence, that's just what you are. And then she turned and she looked at me and she said something I never forgot children, I hope you never forget it either. She said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content." She was quoting the Apostle Paul.

You see when you can live like that, then you're always content inside. You have what the Bible calls blessedness. Blessedness means real happiness from inside out. Happiness that's not dependent on the things that go on around you. That's real joy.

So you see right away, right away we understand this is a great woman, a woman of great faith. And so in this sermon which I'm I'm titling learning from the Shunammite woman's great faith, I want to look with you at three things. First, her expectant faith for the future. Second, her submissive faith concerning the past. And third, her faith applied to the present.

Now the amazing thing about this woman is that as she faces the future, as she gets this wonderful question, I'll go to the king, I'll go to the captain of the hosts, tell me what you want. And she responds in such a beautiful way, what I haven't told you yet, But you heard it, she had no child. And if you were a woman in Israel in those days, you wanted to bear either the Messiah or the seed that would lead to the Messiah. In fact, today to be childless is a great burden for women. It's a tough burden.

But in those days it was more than a burden. Because if you couldn't have children, you couldn't have the seed that would issue forth in the Messiah, the long awaited Messiah, so it was considered even a kind of curse of God. And now if you start to think about this woman's faith, it just becomes bigger and bigger doesn't it? I'm content to dwell on my own people? Well why didn't she say I want a child?

No, she had learned, you see, to bow under God's ways. She had learned to embrace the crosses that God had given to her. I'm not saying it was wrong for her to pray for a child, but I'm just saying she is so comfortable with God's providence over her, so settled in bowing under God's sovereign will that she doesn't even mention her big cross to Gehazi. Isn't that amazing? But Gehazi hears about it that she has no child and So he mentions it to Elisha and somehow under divine revelation, God informs Elisha that he will provide her with a child a year from now and he tells it to the woman.

The woman is amazed and she says, well, don't lie to thy handmaid. Now, that's not unbelief here. She's just being realistic. She hasn't had a baby all these years and maybe she's even a bit past age now and it just seems so hopeless. I mean, she has long ago settled in her mind that this is the burden she had to bear.

She's reconciled with it. And this prophet is going to say, you're going to have a baby now, a year from now? Don't lie to me. Well, she gets pregnant and she has the baby and the boy grows up. Can you imagine what this boy meant to this woman?

This is a son of promise. This is a child given through the prophet of the Lord, which by extension in her mind, of course, meant from the Lord Himself. This is a special son. Would this son be in the line of the Messiah? Would his descendants be the Messiah?

Would she be one of those blessed women who would be in the line of the generations of the Messiah? It was amazing. But as the boy grows up, he begins to work in the fields with his dad and one day he's working with his dad and it Appears he got a sunstroke and he says to his dad. Oh my head my head And his dad thinking it wasn't too serious Said well called someone said take him home to his mother So the boy went home to the mother, said to his mom, and sat on her knees till noon, and then, what does the Bible say? And then died.

Tied. You know, The Bible often says things so simply. A lot of us have a tendency maybe to fall into exaggeration sometimes in our life. We make too big a deal of things. The Bible, if anything, has de-exaggeration, if I can coin a word.

It just says it simply. I mean, this is huge. This is overwhelming. He sat on our knees till noon and then died. This woman's life is turned upside down, don't you think?

The depths of that blow can only be understood by parents who have gone through the same experience and tragically, suddenly, astonishingly lost a beloved child. But this child is doubly special being a promised child from the Lord. Now what will she say? Now to realize that death is always the voice of God, and now to embrace this huge cross she'd grown to love the Son, to bow under the pure, radical sovereignty of God. Oh, what special grace this woman now needed.

He died. You can almost imagine all the thoughts going through her mind right away like a flood, one tumbling out after another. Isn't this the child of promise? A child of prayer? A child given in love?

A child given as a token of the Lord's favor? Did the Lord just do all this now to torment me? Am I living in the disfavor of God? Have you ever been there? Facing incredible trials and riddles and questions?

Now God is sovereign and some of his people, he gives a lot of these riddles and questions. My dad used to say, some children of God seem to go down into the grave with more unanswered riddles than answered questions. Why? Why must this be so? It's Psalm 42 that you read.

Why? Oh God. It's amazing this woman had the wherewithal to do anything at this point. Just not go to her bedroom and curl up in a ball and want to die. This son, this only son, dead.

Well what does she do? I want you to follow this carefully now. Verse 21. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. All three of these actions in verse 21 are actions of faith.

Let me explain that. First she laid him on the bed of the man of God. You need to understand this woman is not rebellious. We'll see that in a moment. She's not rebellious.

And to lay the dead on a bed was to defile the bed, even to defile the room. And she had utmost respect for Elisha. Now if she was doing this as an act of unbelief out of enmity and saying, okay, I'm getting back at this man of God. He gave me this son only to take him away again. And this is all mockery to torment me.

I'm going to get him back. I'm going to Defile this room I made for him. I'm angry. No, no, that's not her spirit She believes That the God of Elisha can raise this boy from the dead That's how she dares by faith to put this boy on the bed of the man of God to defile that room because she believes that this death is only temporary and that the room will not be defiled in the end. Second, she shuts the door upon him.

Now you need to understand that in Bible times, because of the hot culture, if someone died, they were buried the same day before the body would become a stench and would pass infection onto others. And so the first thing you have to do when someone died is you had to go out and call all these mourning women. They would call a group of mourning women, women who were hired to lament and to mourn at a funeral and to cry, actually literally cried. And they would collect their tears in a bottle and then later they would put that bottle somewhere maybe in an open window and they'd say, You can see how much my loved one was grieved. Look at all the tears.

That was the custom. I mean, that seems foolish to us, perhaps. Maybe about as foolish as covering a coffin with flowers. I mean, that's our custom, or many places. What do flowers have to do with death?

What do tears have to do with death? So there's customs in different cultures. You could say they're good, you can say they're bad. This is just what they did. But this woman doesn't do that.

She actually shuts the door upon it now she makes no preparations for the funeral this is astonishing why well she's operating by faith, by great faith. And this is the big one. She shuts the door upon him. She doesn't even tell her own husband that the boy is dead. Now you can debate that one for a while.

But because she has so much faith, I would argue, because she has so much faith, she's entrusting this boy to the God of Elisha. But she's got a huge problem. Elisha is 15 miles away and she needs to get word to him. So she shuts the door upon him. Now if anybody opened that door And it came to be known that this boy was left by his mother, and she was going to travel 15 miles away to Mount Carmel to see the prophet when she should be burying the boy.

Imagine what would happen to her reputation. I mean, today they call it child abuse. They would. The enemy would. But this woman has so much faith, she shuts the door upon this boy in faith that God would raise this boy from the dead.

And then she went out. She went out by faith to find Elisha. But that was also a trial because it wasn't kosher in those days for a woman to travel 15 miles like that alone without her husband. But she sends a message to her husband, just this, it's a Christ message, send me I pray thee one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come again." Our husband's very surprised, of course. He says, well, why would you go to him?

It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. Now, she doesn't lie to him, but she just says, Shalom, in a future tense. It shall be peace. Don't worry about it, it shall be peace. See, she's exercising that faith, She's saying the Lord will make everything well.

Shalom. So this is really the text of this sermon. The two shaloms that she utters here and in verse 26, we'll get to in a moment. Shalom, verse 23b. Shalom, verse 26.

Peace. But this is future peace. She's not saying it's all peaceful now. She's got a dead boy at home. But yet she's saying it shall be peace.

You see, this is great faith, expectant faith for the future. Just one word. She just answers her husband one word shalom I wonder do we know what this means to have expectant faith for the future you're faced by some great mountain some great trial Do you understand what it means to just simply say, Shalom, I just trust God, it shall be peace. How do you do that? Well, I've failed on that many times.

You too? When the troubles are coming thick and heavy and there are too many, so you say, so you think, God makes no mistakes. And they seem to overwhelm you. Do you know what it means in the midst of that, to be given Holy Spirit grace inside? That you say, shalom, all things shall work together for good to them that love God.

Clinging to the promises and believing even though you can't see the way out. Same with David in Psalm 42, why art thou cast down all my soul within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who's the health of my countenance and my God. Shalom. See when you surrender everything over to God, you believe God will make all things well.

This is a God-given, a God-centered, a God-fulfilling expectation. To say it shall be well in times when everything seems against us, when troubles overwhelm us, when difficulties are multiplied, when questions are abundant, when we have brought ourselves into pits from which we have no ability to climb out on our own. Oh what faith this is And so for five hours She's she's telling her servant drive that donkey as fast as you can. We got to get to the prophet. We got to get to the prophet.

So she went, the Bible says, so she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. I love those words, so she went. You know, This whole story is a moving story. Things are moving in a trajectory. She went out, and now so she went.

And then later on it says again, she went. And then later on when the boy was resurrected from the dead, she took up the man, she took up the boy, and went out. Went, went, went, went. Christianity is a historical religion it's it's a moving religion God speaks to us through Providence through Providence in wonderful ways trying ways So she went you can just picture those five hours Shalom shalom shalom. She's probably saying to herself, clinging to those promises.

So she doesn't despair. Won't you wonder if, when she was going on, if Satan was there, just saying, Are you a fool? You're leaving your dead son at home? What are you doing? I don't know.

I don't know that. So we better not speculate. Maybe it was just pure faith and she had so much overwhelming joy in God that she didn't worry at all, maybe. But I don't think so. I don't think so because of the way she responded to Elisha when she met him.

But we'll get there, we'll get there in a moment. But Elisha sees her from a great way off. He sent Gehazi to her with these words, 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?

And she answered, shalom. I mean this is amazing. God did not show Elisha what was wrong so he asked naturally. He has a certain affection for this woman, a certain he likes her very much, she's a good friend in a very healthy way, and so he wants to know about her husband, he wants to know about her, he wants to know about the boy. And she says it is well.

But now she uses shalom in a past tense sense of the word. It has been well. She's looking back at the past and she's saying everything up to this moment is well. Now this faith goes even deeper because her son is dead at home, you understand. Which leads me to my second thought.

Not only her great expectant faith for the future, but her great submissive faith concerning the past. You know, almost every day people ask you, isn't that true? How are you doing? And what do you say? Well, I had a grandfather who was a very literal man.

Everything was black and white in his life and somebody asked him how he was. Maybe in the back of the church, you know, He'd come to church quite early. And the whole church learned not to ask him how he was because if they asked him how he was, he would tell them every detail of every ache and pain he had because, well, you asked me how I was, how I am. And I'm going to tell you how I am. You're sincere, aren't you?

We just do it as a greeting today don't we? How you doing? I'm doing well. Doing well. Even when you're not doing well.

Are you lying? No, not really. You just you realize that people don't want to hear all your little problems and and so it's just kind of a cultural thing. You just say, doing well, you too? Yeah, doing well.

Okay, good. But you're not really open with each other. You don't spill your guts out and tell all the problems you have going on in your life, do you? But if you're only boy or dad at home, someone said to you, how are you doing? You burst out in tears, won't you?

Not doing well, not doing well. My son died this morning on my lap. Oh, enough to take the breath out of everyone but she says it is well how is that possible this is true spiritual profound submission. Isn't that something you want? I want a whole lot more of that.

I want to be able to bow to God's ways whatever comes. But I'm so far from it sometimes. But I want to know, I want to know how to do it. By the grace of the Holy Spirit. I recognize of course, and I'm sure you do too, if you've been on the way very long as a Christian Hey, you can't do this on your own.

This is a spirit work grace How what does the spirit do? What does the spirit do when he gives true submission. And I put it this way, it's a four-step process. Number one, when you are truly submissive, the very first thing you do is you acknowledge the Lord. You say it is the Lord.

It is the Lord. 901, 11, and I think there was a Larry King had on his show five ministers. One of them was John MacArthur. There was a Jewish rabbi, Roman Cac, I think, and a few others, and he asked them all. The day or two days after 9-11 said, where was God in all of this?

And the first four said, well, God has nothing to do with this. God would never do anything like this. God would never allow anything like this. John MacArthur says, well, if God has nothing to do with us, then we have an impotent God, we've got a huge problem. God has everything to do with us.

It's in His sovereign will for reasons we may not understand now. You see, it doesn't help someone to say when they're going through big affliction, well, God has nothing to do with this. No, the first thing you say is, it is the Lord. It's the Lord. You acknowledge the Lord.

To the Lord belong the issues of life and death. Psalm 68 verse 20. The Lord killeth and the Lord maketh alive. For Samuel 2 verse 6. I was dumb with silence, I opened up my mouth because thou didst it.

Psalm 39. Let Shimei curse for the Lord hath been in him to curse David second Samuel 16. It's the Lord That's where you got to begin in submission But secondly Submission justifies God It doesn't only acknowledge God it justifies God. It doesn't say only it is the Lord, it says it is right, it is right. When I look at who I am and who I have been, God is just in all his ways.

That's what true submission says. It is well. When Aaron heard about the fire that came down from heaven to consume his two sons. The Bible says he held his peace. Why?

Well, he realized he deserved nothing better. When Eli lost his two boys, he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. They justified God. When David's throne was taken over by his own son, he said, behold here am I, let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto him." When Job lost all ten children, he said, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Away.

You see where God's sovereignty and our sinfulness meet in His providence, a believer may justify God. We never get as bad problems from the Lord as we deserve. You know one day I was in Grand Rapids, our hometown, in Butterworth Hospital, stepped on floor one of the elevator and a lady stepped on with me and said, what floor do you want to go to? She said, seven. And I said, oh, I'm going to seven.

So I pressed the seven button. I thought, well, I've got about a minute and a half here to evangelize her, right? So I said, good weather today, isn't it? She said, oh yes. I said, you know, people complain about the weather all the time, it's a good thing the Lord's in charge.

Oh yeah, she said, good thing the Lord's in charge of everything. She said, you know my mom always told me anything above ground is the mercy of God. Wow. I'm thinking anything above ground. So she's saying anything above death and hell is the mercy of God.

Suddenly I realized she's evangelizing me, which was great. I needed to hear that too Because once you realize that, you see, once you realize that you deserve nothing but death and hell, then everything is the mercy of God. And you justify it. You say, it's not nearly as bad as what I deserve. So by nature what happens when something bad happens to us?

Well our first response is, me? Why me? I mean that happened to me a few months ago when I was the first person in my entire church to get COVID. That's my natural response. What?

I've got COVID? Not a good response. Our response should be why not me? Why not me? I deserve death, I deserve hell, I'm a sinner.

So true submission you see doesn't only acknowledge God by saying it is a Lord, doesn't only justify God by saying it is right, but thirdly it also approves of the Lord. That goes a lot deeper. It approves of the Lord. It says, it is well. That's what she said, it is well.

She just didn't say it's just. It is well, you see. When you really bow under God's ways, then you know, you really believe that all things work together for your good, that God makes no mistakes, that everything He does is right and is best for you in your life. And you say, Shalom, Peace, it's well, even with a dead son at home. Which is actually the place where Job got, he didn't only say the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, he didn't only justify the Lord, he actually added, didn't he, Blessed be the name of the Lord.

It is well. You know, we have an elder in our church who, he had this very bad knee and he got a knee surgery and we thought it was all taken care of and he got infection in his knee and he had to go back for another surgery and I forget how many surgeries he had but finally the doctor said to him if you have one more we're gonna have to we're gonna have to take take your leg above your knee take it off and we just praying for him and so he had that surgery and came out well well we were so happy for him and then a couple months later he he called me up one day and he said, Pastor, I want to let you know the infection is back. I said, really? I feel so bad. Oh, no, no, no.

He said, don't feel bad for me. My father must still have some lessons to teach me. It's okay. My father has lessons to teach me. You know that man at that moment was such a blessing to me.

You see, when you as a Christian really bow under God's ways and you can say shalom to whatever God does to you, your life is a bright witness and you will be known as a man or woman, a boy or girl or teenager of great faith. And you'll be a blessing to many people. That man was a blessing to me. Now in the end of the day, they actually did one more surgery and it did work and he didn't lose his leg after all, but The point is he was willing, he was willing to lose his leg because he wanted to be taught by his father. It is well.

But then finally, fourthly, the greatest step of submission of all is to cleave to the Lord. So Number one, you acknowledge the Lord, justify the Lord, approve of the Lord, and then cleave to the Lord as your greatest friend even when he seems to come against you as your greatest enemy. That is the very belly, if I may use that word the very heart is probably better word better very heart of submission. Now What do these four steps remind you of? Jesus, right?

Jesus, He went through all kinds of affliction but He would always say, it's my Father, it's my Father's will and whatever happened to him he had no word of complaint he justified the Lord even though he was sinless but he was burying the sins of his people so he who knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And He was at peace, at peace even on the cross, be nailed to it. He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. John, take care of your mother. Here's your son, Mom.

Mother. He's thinking of other people while he's on the cross. He's so at peace, it is well. And he cleaves to his God, even in utter despair. My God, my God, why hast thou, with a loud voice, forsaken me?

Wasn't a complaint. It was an overwhelming cry. But it was a cry of cleaving to God. As his greatest friend, even when his own father seemed to come against him as his greatest enemy. And you see, that's what God can do for you and for me to grant us true submission concerning all that's happened to us in the past.

Now there's one more point we need to cover here. We don't only need to understand what true submission is to live the Christian life rightly. We also need to understand what it is not, what it is not. And we see three things here in this story. Number one, submission is not a taking away of the censor feeling of the affliction.

The son of my hurried aunt Elisha fell at his feet, her soul was vexed, and still she was well. Isn't that interesting? We had a lady in our church who, well, her husband died but they actually had a very poor marriage. I didn't know all the details but I knew enough to know the marriage was not good. And she came to me about two, three years after her husband died and she said to me, you know the Lord has given me so much submission I have never missed my husband at all.

I'm thinking something's now something's not right about it. That's not submission. If you feel no pain there's no submission. Submission is while the pain is there, to bow unto the Lord. So this woman here, This woman here felt the pain.

She grabbed hold of Elijah and his feet, you see. And if you're not saved, my friend, this morning, this is precisely your problem. You are unconverted and unvexed. Untroubled that you're unconverted. That has got to change.

You've got to feel the pain of separation the pain of your sins the pain that you're not reconciled with God the pain that you're traveling unconverted to a never-ending eternity that you're hellbound. There's a gospel there for you, But the gospel doesn't impact, does it? Unvexed people. She's vexed. She needs the Lord.

Do you need the Lord? The Lord sends trouble in your life too, my unconverted friend. What do you do when trouble comes? What will you do in the day when cancer comes or you have a heart attack? What will you do in the day when you're lying on the gates of death?

How will you meet God? Are you going to stay unvexed all your life? Are you going to put all your heart, all your time, all your energy into the toys and trinkets of this world? No. It's a blessing when we know our sin and our misery.

We had an old minister in the Dutch tradition who used to say, our greatest misery is that we don't know our misery. Unconverted, unvexed, don't be that way. Submission is not taking away the sense or feeling of the affliction. Number two, Submission is not avoiding seeking for the reason of God's providential leadings. Some people say, well, you can't ask God why.

Well, that's true in this sense. You can't ask God why with a fist of anger, but you can certainly ask God why with open palms. Search me, O God, and show me, and rid out any evil way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Show me why. If Jesus asked the greatest why question ever, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?

And he was sinless. There certainly has got to be a right way to ask the why question to God. The right way is to ask it in submission, total submission. And so that's what the woman does. She says, verse 28, did I desire a son of my Lord?

Did I not say, do not deceive me? I'm asking why I don't understand it all. It's not the why of unbelief, it's not the why of rebellion, it's the why of faith that seeks understanding. And finally True submission is not sitting back with indifference and folded arms and saying, well, the Lord's gonna take care of it, He'll take care of it, or the Lord's gonna convert me, He's going to convert me. No, no, there's an earnest praying, there's an earnest waiting, there's an earnest striving, there's an earnest longing, there's an earnest cleaving, even in the midst of shalom.

So Elisha tries to sing Gehazi ahead with his staff but she says oh no no as the Lord lives as is and as thy soul lives I will not leave thee you must come with me Elisha because you see she sees in Elisha the servant of God. She sees that God works through his prophets. She's known that. She's experienced that. So Elisha arises and follows her.

And we know the blessed outcome. He prays, he stretches himself upon the child, the flesh of the child waxes warm, sneezes seven times, opens his eyes, and Elisha delivers him to his mother. And then you have these two wits again. Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, took up her son and went out. Shalom.

It shall be well for the future. Shalom, it is well with regard to the past. Shalom, the Lord has made it well in the present. She walks out with her son, matured in faith far more than she had ever been before. The great woman is now a greater woman of faith than ever because the Holy Spirit brought her through this long tunnel of affliction in a way that brought God glory and did her soul good.

Which in conclusion then leads me to my third point briefly now. Is it well with thee? Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your wife?

Is it well with your children? And don't please don't give me the pet answer. Oh yeah, everything's well. I'm asking you this for your soul, for your never-ending eternity, is it well with your family? Is it well with everyone in your family?

Now my dad used to pray at our family table so many times with the tears streaming down his face and he'd say, Lord, I can't miss anyone in this family. To be prepared for the heavenly mansions above, let us be an undivided family, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then when my youngest sister was the last one converted, she was about 20 at the time. And when she got converted, I still remember my dad changing the prayer and saying, Lord, now that all of our children have been saved save every one of the grandchildren Lord they all need to be brought in is it well is it well with your grandchildren And if we have unconverted people in our families you see we've got lots of praying work to do But also is it well not just in terms of the state of your soul But the question here is also is it well in terms of your sanctification the condition of your soul is it well with you? Are you just resting in the fact that you were once converted?

But are you growing in grace? Are you satisfied with your spiritual progress? Or are you still growing in learning to depend upon the Holy Spirit's work within you? Are you growing as the brother prayed in prayer moments ago that Christ would increase and you would decrease? That's really what growth and sanctification is all about, isn't that so?

Is sin still your greatest burden? If it's well with you, said John Owen, indwelling sin will be the greatest burden of a Christian. It will grieve you that you still dishonor your Lord. Is your conscience still tender? Or are you like the practical antinomians that abound by the millions in America today?

Oh I'm saved by grace nothing to worry about me and they talk about their past sins lightly and glibly and they seem to live worldly lives it seems like they have Christ in one hand, the world in the other. Is that the kind of life you live? Is it well with you? Is it well with you? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity?

Is He everything to you? Is He your justification, your sanctification, your assurance, your perseverance? Do you have this faith that is strong in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it well with you? Does your husband have it?

Do your children have it? Is it well with you? Is the world being increasingly crucified to your hearts? Are you living antithetically to this world? Is Jesus Christ teaching you to become less self-centered and more God-centered?

Are you poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty after the righteousness of Christ? Do the beatitudes live in you? Is it well with you? Are you going daily to your Savior? And are you growing in your marriage spiritually?

Are you growing and building up your children in the most holy faith? Apply, apply this woman's faith to your present today and go to your homes and think about it after lunch and get on your knees and confess every area of your life that you can think of that is not well with the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you Make it well with you that your soul's condition would be vibrant and alive and robust in faith for Christ. Amen. Great God of heaven, we thank thee so much for thy amazing mercy shown to us. Thou art a wonderful, wonderful God.

And what an example we've seen of how thou art able to work great faith in the most overwhelming of all circumstances. Oh Lord, please grant us great faith. We would be men and women, teenagers and children, who would really believe in Thee and surrender all that we are into Thy hands. Heavenly Father, in all our trials, may we say like that elder in my church, my Father must have more to teach me. And may we bow under thee and trust thee in all our ways oh please magnify our faith in the triune God help us to fall out of love with ourselves and into love more and more with thee, to find in thee all our life, all our hope, the object, the sole object of our faith, Lord Jesus, so that we could say with Paul, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for watching!