Hebrews 11 in verse 32. And what shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith, now skip to verse 35, women received their dead, raised to life again. Let's go ahead and pray. Brother Crowder, if you'd lead us in prayer, please. Father in heaven, we do thank you for the day, for your goodness to us down through the week. We thank you, Lord, for a place that we can come at midweek or where we find a need or to be lifted up again by your word. We can read and study, but it's not nor never will take the place of preaching. We thank you for that and thank you for the for the hill is so faithful to preach to us that which we need. We pray you bless us this evening as we meet. We thank you already for the prayers and the song and for the brethren here. We pray Lord for those of our membership that are unable to come because of their age and various things. We pray for them. Yes, you go with us. We pray Lord that you be with us and the consideration of all these things that our pastor just mentioned. Help us, Lord, to write them down, to remember them, to pray them before you that we might find your will and purpose in all this. We just, as we seek to follow you and to seek to please you in our lives, forgive us, Lord, where we failed, show us our sins. Help us, Lord, to confess them. We might be forgiven. We might be pleasing to you. Go with us through the rest of the service. We're going to look tonight at Hebrews 11 35 on the phrase Women receive their dead raised to life again and again, we find that the Holy Spirit takes a look at the exploits of faith and he says, as he said in Daniel 11.32, but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And that's exactly what we've been studying this entire chapter is that they knew their God and they did exploits by faith. And God hasn't changed and So there are still exploits that are to be done by faith. And we look at this tonight and again in our lesson, we find that the Holy Spirit refers unto two particular instances that took place, one during the ministry of Elijah and one during the ministry of Elisha. And you can look here, and I'd like to point out in particular before we turn over there, but I'd like you to notice here that the Holy Spirit, how He guards the Scriptures. Because in verse 35, it doesn't say that a woman received her dead raised to life again. It says women, plural. And we read in the Old Testament, which we're going to turn and look at, two instances of where one woman in each case, so plural, received their dead, raised to life again. Do you see how that the Lord attests to and gives credence to the accuracy of the Old Testament? It doesn't say a woman, it says women, plural. To women is plural, isn't it? And this is not just, well, it's the translation. No, it's literally that way. When it was recorded in the original manuscripts, it was in the plural form. And so the Holy Spirit here is attesting to the reality of what took place. We can read in 1 Kings 17, we can read in 2 Kings 4, and people look at that and say, well, that didn't really happen. The Bible here in Hebrews 11 gives credit to it, adds weight to it, and holds it up as being a reality. So the Holy Spirit guards the Scriptures. and attest unto their veracity, the truthfulness of them. So let's turn over to 1 Kings chapter 17 first, and we're going to look at Elijah's faith. Elijah's faith. And I'm calling it that because as we read in your hearing in Hebrews 11 in verse 32, that it said, and what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of, and then it listed all those individuals, and then it concluded with, of the prophets. It didn't talk about this woman of Zarephath, or however you pronounce it, and then the Shunammite woman later, it said, who through the faith of these prophets. Now most of the commentaries that I read after, they referred unto the women as having faith, but the Scriptures in Hebrews tells us that it was the faith of the prophets. Not these women. And so when we look at this, and I think that it's really borne out very clearly. So 1 Kings 17, and let's read verse 1. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dune or rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there." And again, this is a place of Gentiles. And so he sends them out. And we find here, he goes on, "...and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." Excuse me, verse 10. So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks, and he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. And now notice, notice how casual that just comes out, isn't it? Remember that. In the next verse, verse 13, Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, and notice again, She's not of the tribes of Israel. She's not a native. And he refers it. He says, the Lord God of Israel, and she had said earlier in verse 12, and she said, as the Lord thy God liveth. So here is a woman who's not saved. Here is a woman that God has commanded that she would supply for the needs of His prophet. I mean, he can do whatever he wants, can't he? And so he says this in verse 14, Elijah addressed her, For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which He spake by Elijah. So here they were. And again, they ate many days. And the crucible didn't fail, and the barrel of meal didn't fail, and they were able to have bread, weren't they? And God sustained them. Let's keep reading in verse 17. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? Now it's interesting that a few verses ago and many days before that, she seemed to be just content that they were going to die. But now that the cruise of oil hadn't failed, and the barrel of meal didn't fail, and they had lived for many days and her son dies, now she lays it at Elijah's feet and basically says, it's your fault my son's dead. If God hadn't chosen for her and her son to sustain the prophet, they'd have died many days ago. Isn't it something how that God, through His grace and mercy, provided for her and her son to continue to live many days, and then when her son dies, she's all upset at God's prophet? As if he had anything to do with it. Again, if God hadn't set Elijah there, they'd have died many days before. Isn't it something how people conduct themselves? So in the next verse, verse 19, And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and I ought to say this, there was nothing untoward, nothing perverse that took place here. And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Now isn't it something that the fact that the oil didn't expire and the meal didn't expire, according as Elijah had told her it wouldn't, that didn't convince her. But the resurrection of her son did. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is evidence that God has received His work. That it is completed for our salvation. That we are justified by the resurrection of Christ. Romans 4.25 tells us that. How do we know that God accepted that sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Because He raised Him from the dead. That's how we know. Because the Scriptures bear that out. That He received Him unto Himself. Now this whole chapter of 1 Kings 17 is filled with faith of Elijah. The widow woman did not display faith at all. She didn't display faith when he said, give me something to eat. And she didn't do it at first, and he had to tell her, and then she did it. And we find again here in 1 Kings 17 again, that the woman doesn't have faith. She said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? And she flat out says in verse 24 that it was almost as if she was mocking him because she doesn't say until verse 24 that, now I know that you're a man of God. And it's kind of like, say, oh, you're a man of God, then how come my son's dead? Kind of like what they said to Christ, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. If you're a man of God, then how come you couldn't take care of my son? And Elijah says unto her in verse 19, Give me thy son. And he takes the young man and he goes and he lays him down in his bed that he had up in a loft. And notice verse 20 and 21. And he cried unto the Lord. And then in verse 21, "...and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord." This, in and of itself, displays Elijah's faith. That he cried out unto God. That he poured out this petition and prayer and supplication for this child and this woman and that he interceded on their behalf. Elijah believed that God had the ability to restore this young man's life. Because he says flat out in this, verse 21, when it says, "...and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again." Elijah believed that God had this ability to do that. Elijah was no doubt well schooled in the Scriptures. And Elijah had been taught as an Israelite the grand and glorious resurrection picture that took place in Isaac on Mount Moriah when he was lifted up off of the altar. He had been taught concerning the resurrection. So he knew that God had the ability, the power to raise from the dead. And he cries out unto the Lord here in this way, and speaking unto the Lord alone, he intercedes that God would quicken him. That the soul of this child at God's pleasure would return, and the woman would receive her child raised from the dead. And that's exactly what took place. He trusted in God. He trusted in what God's Word had already revealed. Again, Israel, I mean, they had the parchments, they had the writings of these. It was available to them. There were prophets that were well-schooled in these things. Remember, Moses had recorded all of this stuff, and he had charged Israel in Deuteronomy, you need to go over these things. You need to read them, they need to be committed to memory, the Proverbs tell us, the Psalms tell us, they're supposed to be written on our hearts, all of these things. You know, it should be for you and I that Abraham with Isaac on Mount Moriah is essentially Sunday School 101. You know, it's amazing today that I talk to people, and again, these are even folks who've been to church since they were my kids' age, and they don't understand David and Goliath. They don't know about Joseph. I mean, they think he had a coat that was a Technicolor Dreamcoat. instead of one that was of many colors. Elijah knew the Scriptures. He knew the God of the Scriptures. And he trusted Him. And he pours out this petition unto Him. You see, Isaac was not literally slain. This is the first time in Scripture where one that was actually dead is raised to life. And it occurs again with Elisha. Turn over, if you would, to 2 Kings. Secondly, Elisha's faith. 2 Kings 4. I'm not going to read all of this. It's rather lengthy, but I'd encourage you to read beginning at verse 8 down through verse 37 concerning the great woman of Shunem. But I'd like to read beginning at verse 18. Elisha had come and he'd passed through there and she had taken and she speaks to her husband concerning this and they built Elisha what's called pretty much nowadays as a prophet's quarters. And churches will have prophet's quarters where they have a room if a minister is coming through or if they have a guest speaker and they'll lodge him in there. She builds a room on the side of her house. So he has a place to stay when he passes through and it's got, I think if I remember correctly, it's got a table and a chair and a place for him to study and a bed and to lie down. In doing this, Elisha tells her that you're going to have a son. She was barren. and her treatment and her faith in God of Israel toward His prophet, God bestows upon her a son. Well, in verse 18 it says, 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 Elad, 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. In verse 21, 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. So she says, I need to go talk to Elisha. Skip down, if you would, to verse 27. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet. Gehazi is Elisha's minister. He ministers unto him. 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? I'm sure you've heard the expression, it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. This woman is saying, it would have been better if I had never had a son than for me to get one and then him taken away. She says unto him, did I desire a son of my Lord? Notice how she addresses the prophet, calls him my Lord. Notice the great respect that she has for him and the reverence for the office that he holds, the prophet. But she says, did I ask you for this? She said, didn't I say don't deceive me and tell me I'm going to have a son? She got one and then he died. Verse 29, 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. Elisha says, you go and you ignore everybody else because this is the most important thing I'm sending you on. To go tend to this child. And verse 30, 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 awake. 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, now notice, 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 for him. And again, nothing perverse took place there. Verse 35, Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro, and went up, and stretched himself upon the child. And the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call Isshunemite. So he called her, and when she was come in unto 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. The child was dead, wasn't he? And Elisha came, and notice what he did. Verse 33, he went in therefore and shut the door upon them, Twain, and prayed unto the Lord. He prayed unto the Lord. Look over in James chapter 4. James chapter 4. What we're being taught here Predominantly, again, it's not the faith of these women, it's the faith of the prophets. Because again, the Holy Spirit, as we said, He guarded and said that the women received their dead raised to life again, but when you compare Scripture with Scripture, and you rightly divide the Word of Truth, and you go back to who the Holy Spirit is referring to, He's not referring to the women, He said the prophets who threw faith. and women received their dead to life again, or raised to life again. It was through the faith of these prophets that this was done. In James 4 and verse 2 it says, You lost and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. That's in reference to prayer. We have not because we ask not. And then he goes on in verse 3. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your loss. So there are two things right there that hinder prayers. Number one, we don't ask God. And I'm not talking about the false Pentecostals, the pseudo-charismatics, and the unholy rollers, where their idea is, well, you didn't have enough faith. Here, there wasn't any faith because they didn't even ask God. These displayed their faith and that they put everything into the Lord. Lord, here's the situation. let not this soul, or hinder this soul not to return unto this boy's body. We don't know the specifics of what Elisha said, but we do know that he prayed unto the Lord. And in verse 3 again of James 4, you ask and receive, not because you ask a message, ye may consume it upon your lust. That's the motive behind our petitions. Turn over to 1 John chapter 5. And again, let's not get like Job's friends and say, well, I prayed for this one time and it didn't happen, so therefore, it must be because I asked to miss. You know, I prayed three times for God to remove this thorn in the flesh and it wasn't removed. So therefore, His grace will be sufficient for me. There's a story that Christ related unto some and He talked about a woman who was unfortunate in her praying. And she went to an unjust judge and she continued to go to him. And the unjust judge said, I'm getting tired of her, I'll just do what she asked me so she'll leave me alone. And Christ said, how much more just is your father than the unjust judge? What an encouragement to continue to pray unto God for the things that we desire. God's answer may be, not this second. His answer may be, you need to keep asking me because I'm teaching you to rely and to depend upon me. In 1 John 5 and verse 14 it says, And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Boy, that's a big thing, asking according to His will, isn't it? We don't always ask according to His will, do we? I mean, we're not always like Christ. We might say the Word, not my will but Thine be done, but it might just be words rolling off our tongues and not really the sentiment and meaning of my heart and my soul. We might say, as Saul of Tarsus did, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And then if God were to show us through the Word of God or impress it upon our spirits and our hearts, we might say, yeah, I didn't mean that. There was a lady who, she had been praying. The church, this is a real story. One of the Lord's churches. They were having revival services. You know, the old kind where you don't set an end date. You set a start date and you just keep going until the Lord's not in it. there had been prayers that were made, and one of the things that she had been praying for, that the Lord would raise up workers to go into the fields that were white with harvest. And there were well-known needs, that there were needs of men to go into foreign fields. There's always needs in the local fields just as much as there's in the foreign fields. At the close of one of the services, The Lord had been dealing, unknown to her, with her son, who said that the Lord had been burdening him to go overseas and tend to that work. And her prayer went to be, no, not this Lord, not mine. See, she had been praying that God would raise one up, but when it came to it being her own, things changed, didn't they? Her prayer was not exactly, as it says here, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. She wanted someone, just not who the Lord was working on, because it was her own. And in verse 14, he continues, according to His will, He heareth us. Verse 15, and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. And so here we find that Elijah and Elisha, here they were in tune with the will of God. Evidently they were, weren't they? Because they received the petitions that they desired of God. Evidently they did not ask amiss. And we know that they asked because we read it. How many of our own petitions are not by faith? How many of our own petitions are not in accordance with His will? These were. And they did exploits. They knew their God. These here as prophets had done this. Turn over to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. What is the application to you and I today? These two instances are testimonies of the power of God to raise the dead unto life. And here in John chapter 11, we find that Jesus speaks unto Martha, and let's begin reading at verse 21, and it says, Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." Boy, what a statement to make about an individual. And in verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. And Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She goes, I know he's going to rise then, but that's not what Christ was talking about. And he says unto her in verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Christ was speaking metaphorically. He was speaking not only at the fact that Lazarus was literally going to rise from the dead momentarily, but He was speaking about salvation. The Scriptures teach us through and through, and I know that you know this, but the Bible tells us that sinners are what? dead in trespasses and in sins, aren't they? They're corpse-dead. They're spiritually corpse-dead. The Scriptures tell us concerning them and it bears out the deadness that they are when it says in John 3.19, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They love darkness. Scripture says in John 5.40, And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. They are so dead that their will is not to come. The will is depraved. The will is filled with sin so that they love darkness. The soul has been so corrupted in the fall that the soul, the will, it's all bent toward sin. And then their ability in John 6 and verse 44. You cannot come to me, He said. The word can is the word of ability. And I reiterate this, I think I've said this here before, I've said it a hundred times in Kansas. When the kids say, can I get a drink of water? Or can you do this for me? I always tell them, I don't know, can I? Because they just ask me if I have the ability. It's kind of like the teacher, you know, when you would be annoyed, you'd ask the teacher, can I go to the bathroom? And they would say, I don't know, can you? You just ask the teacher if you have the ability to go to the bathroom. But if you say, may I, you're asking permission. And the English is that important. Because Jesus said, no man can come to me. No man has the ability to come to me except the Father draw him and I will raise him up. The last day. Why can't they come? Why don't they have the ability? Because they're dead! That's why. They're as dead as these two boys were. But you know, they were received by their mothers when they were raised to life again through the faith of two prophets. You know what a prophet is? Somebody who declares God's Word. Does not the Bible tell us in the Scriptures that the church is to preach the Word? To preach repentance unto every creature? Is not this world, as we go out, as Christmas Evans said, the world is a graveyard? that there are dead men, women, boys and girls around about us, down this street, down that street, in our own communities, in your own subdivisions, that they are dead in trespasses and in sins? And the evidence here that they were raised to life again and their mothers received them, that women received their dead, raised to life again, it was done by faith, wasn't it? Remember what God told the Apostle Paul at Corinth? He says, I have much people in this city. And you know what he did? He stayed there 18 months preaching God's Word. He believed what God said, and he acted based on what God had said, didn't he? God told him, fear not, I have much people in this city. And he stayed there, and he preached, souls were saved, and a church was organized in Corinth. Well, salvation, as we know, the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But you know, the Word of God also says this, if you'll turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. In verse 13 it says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's exactly right. Verse 14, how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And that's not referring unto the preacher, that's referring unto God's people, His church, going forth and preaching the gospel. Just as another prophet went and preached to a valley of dry bones, and God raised him to life, didn't He? You who are here and saved by God's grace tonight, you too were once as dead as these two boys were. Yet by faith, someone preached the gospel to you. By faith, someone prayed unto God that life would come into your dead being. They said, oh, nobody prayed for me. Turn over to John 17 and read verse 20 with me. I know one person prayed for me. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed for me. here in what we refer to as his high priest intercessory prayer. Notice what it stated in John 17 verse 20, Jesus said, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That's referring unto me. Christ prayed for me to the Father. when he prayed and said those words. You see, it's not just the preaching of the gospel, there also has to be the work of prayer involved in the quickening Now, that's our part, isn't it? That's our part as a church. That's our part as moms and dads and grandparents and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and children to pray for ones that are on our hearts and souls and mind. That God would save them. That He would grant and He would give life. That He, by His Spirit, would quicken them. One lady told me I was conversing with her About her children and grandchildren. She's all I don't bother praying for him God chose him. They'll be saved. I Don't know what to say, I don't know how you can be that cold and indifferent Toward the spiritual needs of your own children and grandchildren Only a lost person would say that. God's predestination does not remove our responsibility and duty. Elijah and Elisha manifest that. Christ manifests that in that He prayed for me. and that He sent someone to declare the Gospel unto me." Aren't you glad somebody prayed for you and somebody took the Gospel to you? Aren't you glad somebody did those things that God burdened their soul and their heart and their spirit, that they were as Jeremiah, that it was as a fire in their bones and they couldn't let it go? By faith, we preach the Gospel. By faith, we lift up these dead individuals that God might quicken them by His power. By faith, we tell them what God's Word says. By faith, we hold them before His throne of grace, trusting that if it is His will in His appointed time, He will save them. This is what we are taught here. This is what faith that these two prophets had and that these were raised from dead unto life shows. Turn over to the 126th Psalm. Psalm 126. And notice what the Scriptures tell us here. You know, the Bible refers unto the Gospel as the good seed. And it refers unto those of whom the seed is scattered upon as the ground. There's four types of ground in the Scriptures. But you know, ground needs to be prepared, doesn't it? If it's going to receive seed. And I know that the Lord has His work in preparing the ground. But if you ever go out in these strawberry fields or these vegetable fields or whatever is being grown, and the same thing in Kansas with all the wheat, God's not out there driving one of those half a million dollar tractors plowing up the ground, is He? Because He has given work to His people to do. He put Adam in the garden to keep it and to till the ground, didn't He? and He put His church here on this earth to plow that soil and to sow the seed and to water it, didn't He? Just as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, yeah, I planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither is He that planteth or He that watereth anything, but God who gave the increase. Everything is under His glory. In Psalm 126 verse 5, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Boy, I tell you what, we need to plow the ground with the tears of our prayers and sow the seed and then water it with tears of our prayers. I mean, there's a hymn that I've heard sang and sang it before. How long has it been? And it goes on to speak about that you've been all night in prayer. When's the last time that we were broken over a dead sinner that we prayed and we were overcome with their spiritual condition that we wept and sobbed over them? When Lazarus was dead, Jesus wept. And He knew He was going to raise them from the dead. How much more are those in your own family? You know, your good close friends. How much more of them ought we to weep over their spiritual condition than a physical one? Now here it says again, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. This isn't just handing out tracts. This is putting ourselves in the work. This is the prayer and lamenting over their spiritual condition. We have an entire book of this Bible of a prophet who wept over the condition of his own people. It's called Lamentations. And here these, Elijah and Elisha, through faith, prayed unto God, trusting that God could and would raise them from the dead. Boy, you think about it, Elisha said when he told that widow, he says, give me thy son. I mean, he didn't doubt it at all, did he? And Elisha, when he went that long journey, he went there, he sent Gehazi ahead of him. And he got in there, and he went up, and he entered, and he shut the door, and he prayed. And he stretched himself upon the young lad, and the Bible tells us this is a sadistic place, and he went down and he walked to and fro. And I can just imagine that as he walked to and fro, he was crying and petitioning out unto the Lord, not twiddling his thumbs going, what am I going to do now? What am I gonna do now? But through that, the prophets who through faith, there were women who received their dead raised to life again. Both of these prophets, when those women came to them, And I understand they had great grief, grief I know nothing of. But did you see how the prophets suffered with the baseless accusations that those mothers put on them? Elijah, it's your fault my son's dead. He'd have died many days ago if God hadn't sent him there. And then the Shunammite woman comes to Elisha and says, Did I ask you for this? Didn't I tell you, don't deceive me? Do you see how they ill-treated God's prophets? Do you see how it was the prophets who suffered here? You say, well, the women suffered. Yeah, they had two dead sons. But again, in Hebrews 11, this section is the sufferings of faith. Turn over to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. And let's read here some of the things pertaining to the days in which you and I, I believe we were born into these days. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, perilous times. In the last days, perilous times shall come. Well, they're not shall come, they were here when I got here in 1981. It was already in peril. And when you were born, it was already in peril. But look in chapter 4 and verse 1. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions. And you know, I'm sure you heard that saying when you was a kid, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names shall never hurt me. That's a load of garbage. It's a load of garbage. People are injured by words all the time. And those two prophets suffered at the hands of those women. But they were the ones with faith, weren't they? They were the ones who were suffering. And yet they continued on in the work that God had sent them to do. We're going to suffer as we walk by faith. You can't avoid it. If you're trying to avoid suffering, this kind of suffering, you are not going to walk by faith. The servant is not greater than his Lord. And Christ suffered immensely. Mocked, ridiculed. If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Come down from the cross if you're the Christ. Don't do what God's Word says to prove that God sent you. Do you see the absurdity of that? And Elijah and Elisha both just walked by faith. in the midst of that suffering. And we're going to have to, too. Doesn't it say of Christ in 1st or 2nd Peter that when He was reviled, He reviled not? All these prophets were reviled by these ladies. And again, they had immense grief, but that doesn't excuse it. They suffered, yet through faith, those two individuals who had wronged them, Those women were the benefactors of the faith of those two others. You here are benefactors of the faith of others who preach the gospel, who sent pastors or ministers out, churches were organized, from parents who taught you and raised you according to the scriptures, who drug you out to the woodshed to whoop your ear in or drug you to church when you didn't want to go, who taught you the Scriptures in their homes? You are the benefactors of their faith who said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Who will be a benefactor of your faith? That's the challenge, isn't it? So may God help us and give us great grace and strength and aid us that we'll go forth When we spoke about those folks who might be on your heart and your mind, or lost in sinful condition, who came to your heart and mind? Who first entered your heart and mind when that was said? You need to hold them up before God's throne of grace that He'd save them. You need to go and tell them the Gospel. You need to explain to them the way of salvation. That's your duty. God is in the saving. We're in the preaching and the praying. We're in the watering or the sowing and the watering. So may God help us that we will walk by faith. Let's stand and have a word of prayer.