Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. We'll start
with verse 35. And as you're turning there,
I think everyone probably knows, Janet went into the hospital
on Tuesday, and they admitted her. They've been running some
tests and she's still there at least through this evening. And
mom just received a text and let me read it that they have
scheduled her for a procedure tomorrow to do something with
the bile duct. Is that what I read? Clean out
the bile duct, something along those lines, but they still don't
have the results of the MRI. The doctor hasn't come by yet
today, but they're still expecting the doctor this evening. So Janet
will be in the hospital at least one more evening, and then they'll
do that procedure tomorrow, and we'll go from there. So keep
them in your prayer. Read with me, if you would, Romans
chapter 8, starting in verse 35. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We'll
end our reading there. Okay, if you would, turn in our hymnal
to song number 176. We'll sing, Break Thou the Bread
of Life. break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me. As thou didst break the loaves
beside the On the sacred page I seek Thee,
Lord. My spirit pans for Thee, O living
Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me. As thou didst bless the bread
by Galilee, then shall all bondage cease, and I shall find my peace, my
all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that
saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
Thee above. Teach me to love thy truth, for
thou art love. O send thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word, and in thy book revealed I see the Lord. OK, if you would now turn to
song number 299, Day by Day. Day by day, and with each passing
moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise
bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond
all measure Gives unto each day what he deems best Lovingly it's
part of pain and pleasure mingling toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is
near me with a special mercy for each hour. all my cares he fain would bear
and cheer me, he whose name is Counselor and Power. The protection of his child and
treasure is a charge that on himself he lay. As thy days thy strength shall
be in measure, This the pledge to me he made. Help me then in every tribulation,
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord. That I lose not faith's sweet
consolation Offered me within Thy holy Word. Held me, Lord, when toil and
trouble meeting, Ere to take as from a father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments
fleeting, Till I reach the promised land. with our pastor being with Janet. We're very pleased to have our
brother Mike Walker and Sandy from Millsite to be with us.
Mike's the pastor in Cottageville. You all know Mike. Mike's been
here with us before. We're thankful that Lord has
given you a love for his people to come preach and a friendship
with us that you've come specifically to preach for us. We appreciate
you. Let's pray together, and then
you come preach the word to us, OK? Our Holy Heavenly Father, we
pray together that you be with us this evening. Send your spirit
that we worship your name in spirit and in truth. Be with
our brother as he comes to deliver the message from you and strengthen
him, leave him not alone in this pulpit, but be with him and give
him a word from you. be with us that we may hear and
that your word be imprinted in our heart that we may hear. See Christ again in this place
this evening. Father, you know our need. Our
need is Christ. We pray that we see him worship
again this evening. Father, as we just sung, the
heir to take is from a father's hand and we come to you as our
father you also know our needs. Here, even now, we pray that
you be with us. We pray specifically for those
that you know are in heavy trial, both in this congregation and
also out. We think of them, pray that you
be with your sheep in comfort and lead. We think specifically
of our pastor, and we think of Janet, that you be with the doctors,
that you heal according to your will, that you comfort and be
with them as you promised and as we know that you are. Father,
we pray these things, that you be with them. Bring them back
to us in your time. Heal according to your will.
We thank you for this privilege of being together this evening.
We thank you for our brother coming here to deliver your word.
And again, we pray that you be with him. We pray these things
thankfully in Christ's name alone. Amen. Good to see everyone this evening. I noticed as the brother read
there from Romans, talked about, spoke of trials. He knows what
we need, and his grace is sufficient, it always is. And in the songs
we sung about trials, and he's always there to reveal himself
to us. He reveals himself, he makes himself known. And I pray
that that's what the Lord would do tonight through his word.
I think it's ironic that I believe that this is the passage the
Lord would have me look at. You want to be turning to second
Kings chapter four. Kindly ties in with everything
so far. This woman was, she was in, if
you want to say a pickle, whatever it was, she was in a city trial.
She was in a trial in situation. He didn't know hardly which way
to turn. Herein, if you've turned to 2 Kings 4, verse 1, Then there
cried a certain woman, her name's not mentioned, of the wives of
the sons of the prophets, unto Elisha. Remember, Elisha was
the prophet who came after Elijah. And saying, Woman, thy servant,
my husband, is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant
did fear the Lord. And the creditors come to take
unto him my two sons to be bondmen. You see the situation. Her husband's
died. He's left a debt. And the creditors
have come to the house to collect the debt, which has to be paid. And she probably says, I don't
have any money. I don't have any means of paying
this debt. Do you have any children? Well,
I got two sons. We'll take them. Under the law,
that's what it said, the debt. The law was unbending. We would
read that and we would kindly cringe and we would say unfair. But you see where the woman's
at. Unless God helps her and intervenes, she's not only lost
her husband, But she'll be by herself a widow, and she'll lose
her two sons. And that's why she came to the
prophet. And Elisha, verse two, said unto
her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast in the
house. And she said, thou hath a handmaid, hath not anything
in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, go. She said, now
go, borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels, barring not a few. And when thou art come in, thou
shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt
pour out unto those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that
which is full. So she went from him and shut
the door upon her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her,
and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the
vessels were full, that she said unto her son, bring me yet a
vessel. And he said unto her, there is
not a vessel more, and the oil stayed. Then she came and told
the man of God. And he said, go, sell the oil,
pay the debt, and live thou and thy children on the rest. This woman, her husband, died,
left her alone, And he left her with something she may not have
been aware of. He left her with a debt. He had
accumulated a debt. And this man was a believer.
Most believe that this man, though his name is not mentioned, probably
was Obadiah. You remember when King Ahab ruled,
him and his wicked wife Jezebel. You know what Obadiah did? He
took 50 prophets and put them in one cave. He took 50 prophets
and put them in another cave, and took care of those men. Because if he hadn't, if Jezebel
hadn't found those men, she would have had them killed. And some
believe this man of his own expense, it's not that he was not a good
manager, but he accumulated this debt. And you imagine when they
came knocking on the door, she goes to open the door, all she
has in the house is a pot of oil. And they said, she maybe
said, why are you here? We're here to collect the debt.
What do you mean what debt? I don't know any debt. Let me
tell you, every one of us, apart from Grace, are in debt. When
Adam sinned, when he fell in the garden, he brought upon all
mankind a debt that has to be paid. God just can't look beyond
it and say it never happened and just forgive the debt. No,
the debt has to be paid for. And they came. And I could see
her say, surely you're not going to take my sons. You imagine
how she feels. It's the only thing she has.
And we come to take them. unless you can pay, you or someone,
pay the debt. It says here that this man feared
God. Even though he served God as
a luscious servant and fearing God, he lived poor and probably
died poor. And Jeremiah 49, 11 says, leave
thy fatherless children. I will preserve them alive and
let thy widows Trust in me. I believe her husband probably
taught her about the things of God and hopefully she was a believer.
And the Lord taught her. He taught her when he was alive
and he taught her even when he died. What's she going to do?
What is she going to do? Trust in the Lord. What are you
going to do today? What are you going to do tomorrow?
We are forced to trust in him, not in ourselves. Pure religion
and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit
the fatherless and widows in their afflictions. This poor
widow, she knew where to go. What am I gonna do? Elisha the
prophet's a picture of our Lord, who is the prophet. Isn't it
amazing and grace that God provided her with a prophet that she can
go to. What? Lord, what am I going to
do? I don't know what to do. I don't
know the answers. All I know is there's a debt
and I have no way of paying it. Man, when a person sees themselves
in that condition, lost and undone without God, hanging under this
big burden of sin, where are we going to go to? You'll run
to Him. You'll run to him. She's desperate. The wages of
sin is death. We've sold ourselves for nothing.
She had nothing. We can't deliver ourselves out
from under the demands of the law. This is what religion thinks
and tries to do. They think by their efforts and
their motives and all the things that they do that they can somewhat
pay the debt and be out from under the condemnation of the
debt. And it never works. There's only one that did assume
the debt, and there's only one that fully paid the debt. But the law These creditors demand
to be paid. She's desperate and she believed
God, that's why she came. God makes us willing in the day
of his power. She's willing, she came, she
come desperate, she come willing. It's like the woman with the
issue of blood. She had suffered many things of many physicians
and yet grew worse, not any better. But what did the Lord use to
supply this woman and her children's needs? What did he use? We read here, she said, the prophet
asked her, said, what do you have in your house? She said,
don't have nothing but a pot of oil. I could see her husband
say, if you ever have to get rid of everything, don't ever
get rid of that pot of oil. Don't ever get rid of the grace.
Don't ever turn loose of him. I mean, you know what I'm saying.
He has us. But he said, don't part with
this. To those that believe, he is
precious. He is precious. She said, all I have left. She
may have sold everything, probably even the bed they slept on. It
has nothing, nothing in the house. The house is empty except for
the pot of oil. I can see, like I said, her husband
saying, don't ever part, don't ever part with this pot of oil. Don't ever turn your attention
away from Christ. Don't do it. No matter how hard
it gets, and you don't know what to do, you look to him. To those that believe, as I've
already mentioned, he is precious. Our God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory. What she had, God gave
her. Said her husband could have given
her the oil and he may have told her how precious that it was,
don't ever part with it. But the Lord gave it to her.
The Lord has given you, if you're His, a knowledge of who He is. And He's give you a knowledge
and a heart for Him because He is. He's precious. Everything
else may be gone. But He said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. You say, well, it's just a pot
of oil. It may seem small, but don't ever despise the day of
small things. She may have thought, well, what
can the oil do for me? She may have thought, well, it's
just insignificant. She had a pot of oil, and that
was everything she had, and that was everything she needed. Everything she had, and everything
she needed. But what's this woman, what did
the prophet instruct this woman to do? So you see this scenario,
you see where she's at. The prophet said, notice that
two-letter word. He said, go. He said, you go to your neighbors
and you borrow some empty vessels. Empty pots, different sizes,
different shapes. It doesn't matter. You go to
your neighbors and borrow some vessels. And don't borrow just
a few. You borrow as many as you can
find. Can you imagine how humiliating
this would be to go up onto somebody's porch, not to borrow full vessels,
but to borrow empty vessels? If it had anything in it, it's
not fit. It had to be totally Empty. She didn't argue with him. She
believed what he said. God spoke to her through that
and she went. Her and her sons. I could see
her sons walking up on the porch, knocking on the door. Y'all got
any empty vessels? Empty vessels? Yeah, we got a
few here we ain't using. You can have them. It doesn't
matter what they look like. You know what we have? God has
put this treasure in an earthen vessel, that the
excellency of him may be of God and not of us." So they go borrow
vessels. What in the world are we gonna
do with a bunch of empty vessels? What can they do? How can these
vessels, we could sell the empty vessels and it ain't gonna be
enough to pay the debt. Who would want them vessels?
They're just something insignificant. Don't despise the day of small
things. We don't know how many they gathered. They gathered
as many as they could find. Now what are they to do? The
prophet said, when you go get all those vessels, you and your
sons take the vessels in the house and shut the door. This is between the woman and
her children and her God. When she shut out the door, she
shut out all distractions. You know, there's a lot of things
that try to distract us from our Lord. She come in with, this
is serious. She knows it's serious. You know
what we're doing right now, trying to gather together and worship
God is very serious. Always serious when God meets
with his people. She takes our Lord at his word. His ways are not our ways. And
she did what she was instructed to do. And she's going to be
taught that she has nothing. And that all the vessels must
be completely empty. I could see her shaking her head.
This is what he told me to do. I don't have all the answers.
I don't know what he's going to do. But I'm just, you know
what? I'm going to walk in the light
God gave me. And when he gives me some more,
I'll obey him by his grace. So she goes and she shuts the
door. And the reason she did this,
Elisha's not here. The creditors are not here. The
neighbors are not here. And there's no one here. can
say they took credit for what God is getting ready to do. He
always does things in such a way that he does get all the glory. And you know, that's what we
want. We want him to get the glory. We're just, you know who
we are, we're just empty vessels. That's all we are, all we are. But we're his vessels. This was for her and her sons. It was for their eyes only. They're
getting ready to see God do something. Nobody else sees it. It reminds
me, when our Lord was coming or going to Jairus' house, his
daughter, remember, was six. She was 12 years old. And while
he was on the way to Jairus' house, the woman with the issue
of blood, who had had the issue 12 years, she crossed his path
and he touched her. where she touched him and he
healed her and set her free. And the servant come from Jairus'
house and said, don't worry, the master, the girl's dead.
But you know what our Lord said? Only believe. And you'll see
the glory of God. And when he comes to the house,
everybody's just, you know, they would pay people to mourn. They
would give them money to mourn. Y'all can't just sit and say,
oh, you know, there's no hope, you know, she's dead, she's gone.
Jesus said, she ain't a dead, she ain't dead, she's asleep.
And you know what, they left him to scorn. But here's what
it said. Mark 5, 14, they left him to
scorn, but when he had put them out, y'all just leave. You won't witness this. You know
why they left? They didn't believe. And he said,
now y'all leave. He taketh the father and the
mother of the damsel. And them that were with him,
and he entered in where the damsel was lying, and he took the damsel
by the hand and said unto Tabitha Cumo, which is being interpreted,
damsel, I say unto you, arise. Not everybody saw it. That girl's
mom and daddy did. And some of the disciples did,
but not them people who was paid to mourn. They didn't witness
it. who witnesses this woman and
her sons were in that house. They were alone, but they were
not alone. You know who was in that house? He was in the house.
He was in the house. She has these here, so you see
the picture. She has these empty pots and
this is just a pot of oil and her two sons. She begins to pour
We don't know how big the pot was. It didn't matter. You can imagine trying to pour this,
and you start pouring it in a pot. Well, that pot's a whole lot
bigger than that glass. But he pours, and, hmm, it just keeps
on pouring. Well, he does something. You got another pot? Yeah, we
got another one. We'll bring it to him. And he's just pouring
it. Feels good enough. She pours till every pot was
full. You know when the oil stopped?
When the last vessel was full. Not till then. God's grace and
mercy will flow as long as there's a depraved, helpless, empty sinner. It won't ever stop. I could see her going, wow. Ain't
that something? I could see them little boys
going, mama, how did that happen? I've never seen anything like
this before. And God did it for this woman
and her children and for his glory. This woman's in a mess. OK, but now that she's got all
these vessels, Now what's she to do? Like I said, she walked in the
light that she had, and she came back, well, Elisha told her to
go, and she did that, she went and got the vessel, she came
and poured the oil, and now all the vessels in the house are
full. What's she to do now? He said,
you know all that oil? Eh, it's probably precious, you
know. Precious. He said, here's what
you need to do. You're going to take all them
vessels, all that oil, and you're going to sell it. What am I going to do after I
sell it? What am I going to do with all that money? First thing
you're going to do, you're going to go to that creditor, and you're
going to pay the debt. And I could see it maybe going
through her mind. Well, what if I don't have enough to pay
the debt? What if there's not enough oil to cover what the
debt is? But here's what the prophet said.
He said, you go pay the debt and then live on the rest. I
want you to picture this. I don't know how much the debt
is, but I'm doing what the prophet told me. They get all those vessels
together and they go to town or whatever and they go in there
where they have to pay the creditor. Said, how much is it? It's this
much. Well, then I could see the little
boys say, Mom, do you believe we got that much for that old?
We just had a pot. But they didn't end up with just
a pot. God's grace is sufficient. According to your day, so shall
his strength be. According to your day or whatever
you're facing, so shall God's strength and God's grace be to
you. But here's this woman. She walks,
I could see her walk up there and maybe to the counter and
the woman says, I'm here to pay a debt for a man named Obed-Edom. He run up a debt. He died, and
now it fell on me to pay the debt, and I'm here to pay it. You know what she did? She paid
the debt. Well, how did she pay the debt? She didn't have anything.
But God gave her something. And she knew it. But what I want
you to see, the first thing was, she couldn't just say, well,
I'm going to spend it all on me. No, first thing's got to
be done. First thing's first. The debt
has to be settled. The law has to be satisfied.
You know, that's what men want. They want mercy without justice. They just want God to forgive
them and God just can't forgive sin and look over sin. Sin has
to be paid for. This is a mercy seat where blood
was sprinkled to satisfy the law. We're not under the law
anymore, we're under grace. Flowing grace, marvelous grace. There's no end to grace. No matter
how many sinners that God has saved, the oil still flows. God always brings to pass what
he promised. The oil didn't stop till every
empty vessel was full. I love this song. Dear dying
lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all
the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Till every one of God's people,
every one of God's chosen elect redeemed people, till they all
come, they're coming. So she goes and pays the debt. Kind of ironic that I'm going
to read kind of what you read. In Romans 8, 31, if God be for
us, who can be against us? Was God for that woman? Well,
sure he was. Was he for her family? Well, sure he was. If God be
for us, It doesn't matter who's against us. I remember Jacob
when his sons come back from Egypt and they're telling him
about this man who rules over Egypt and was harsh with him,
you know. And he said, we was a bunch of spies. Now I lost my train of thought.
I don't know what it was. Jacob said, because they come
back and they said, that man said, we can't go back and get
corn until we take Benjamin. And Jacob ain't gonna turn loose
Benjamin. Because he thinks all them other boys may do to Benjamin
what they did to Joseph. You know what Jacob says? He
was looking at everything and he says, all this is against
me, Nolan. All of that was for him. Because
before he realizes it, he's gonna be going to Egypt. You know who
he's gonna see? Joseph. But he thought, and we
think all these things are against us. No, it's not against you.
If God be for you, who can be against you? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Freely. It's not by merit. It's not by worth. It's by grace. And you know, he has to keep
teaching us and showing us. So she pays the debt. What's she gonna do now? Well,
she has to live. Her and her children are gonna
live the rest of their lives on what was left. I always try
to picture things in my mind. I can see her. She goes in there
and pays the debt. And she tells them, boys, you
know, would y'all like to stop by the supermarket? Would y'all
like to get a soda or something? Would you like to get a pack
of napkins? Yeah, mama, we'd like to. We ain't had nothing
like that in a long time. OK, well, she goes in there.
Maybe get a whole basket full of stuff. Stuff she needed, some
flour and a little coffee and whatever she needed to live on.
Maybe a little cereal and a gallon of milk and a bottle of orange
juice. Mama, you think we got enough
to get this? Yeah, I think we do. And I could
see her, she'd take some little boys in each hand and she goes
walking up the road. I can see them little boys look
up to their mama, and they said, mama, is that creditor coming
tonight? No, he's not coming tonight.
Is that creditor coming tomorrow? No, he's not coming tomorrow.
You don't have to be afraid. You can lay down and sleep because
the debt's been paid. And you know what we're living
on? You know what we live on, Grace? God help us to never get to the
place that we don't live from God's hand. And he said, you go live with
him. I could see her lay down that night and I said, man, how
could I not trust him? How could I not trust him? The
church and her children live on the rest. They will have everything
they need as long as they are in this world. Whatever you need,
Whatever you need, not what you want, but what you need. You know why we need trials?
To cause us to trust Him. Our Lord made a promise, and
she trusted in the one who'd made the promise. And by her
trusting Him, she honored Him, And he said, those that honor
me, I will honor them. God takes care of all his spiritual
widows. His church will be provided for
in whatever trial they may go through. As long as there's one
chosen sinner left in this world, the oil of grace will continue
to flow. Now in Jacob's day, going back
to that story of Joseph in Egypt, you know why everybody lived?
You know what Jacob's hope was? There's a man named Joseph in
Egypt who is over all the storehouses. If you want corn, Pharaoh said,
you go to Joseph. Do you need him? Are you in need? Go to him. He will supply all
your need according to his riches and glory. As long as there's
one chosen sinner left in this world, the all of the spirit
of grace will continue to flow. He will fill every empty vessel. You know what? We look for vessels. I just don't find many empty
vessels. People say, well, I'm doing the best I can. Well, that's
not good enough. I'm trying to keep up. That's
not good enough. Just like that law and those
creditors, God's law demands perfection. It must be perfect
to be received. And what he demands, he gives. He made them empty. And then
he filled them. Is there any empty vessel here
tonight? May God pour his grace and his
mercy into your heart. I pray that was a blessing. Amen. Thank you, brother. I feel very
confident that was brought just here for us. I was sitting there
thinking to myself, I can't wait. Because I was blessed. I can't
wait to share this with Frank. I can't wait to share it with
Janet. I can't wait to share it with Stacey. So thank you, Mike. I appreciate
you. Thanks, Sean. OK, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 257. and we'll stand and sing, "'Tis
So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." 257. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise,
just to know, thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. Oh, how sweet to trust
in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood, just in simple faith to
plunge me neath the hill. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. Yes, it is sweet to
trust in Jesus. Just from sin and self to cease. Just from Jesus simply taking
life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Precious Jesus, O for grace to
trust Him more. I'm so glad I learned to trust
Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend, And I know that Thou
art with me, Wilt be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how
I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
oh, for grace to trust Him more.