All right, let's turn to 2 Kings
chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4. When a sinner is filled, so as to be persuaded that because
God the Father delivered up His only begotten Son for you. When you're persuaded of that,
filled up by His grace and persuaded of that, we'll serve Him because then
we know our Lord will provide everything for us. Everything. He's already done that. 2 Kings chapter 4. Let's begin
reading. We'll read verses 1 through 7.
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the
prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead,
and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. And the creditor
is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha
said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast
thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid
hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Then he said,
Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou
shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt
pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that
which is full. So she went from him, and shut
the door upon her and upon 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,
and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. Now, the first verse says here
that this widow woman had a husband who had died and
he left her in debt, her and her two sons. Now it would be
easy to jump to the conclusion when you read that, that this
man had a bad character. But notice what's said about
this man there in verse 1. She was the wife of one of the
sons of the prophets." The word there, son of the prophets, means
he was a disciple, he was a believer. And his wife held him in high
regard. She says to Elisha, thy servant,
my husband, is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant
did fear the Lord. Twice she refers to him as thy
servant. Some think her husband was Obadiah. Obadiah, back in 1 Kings 18.
I'll show you that, 1 Kings 18, verse 3. Ahab called Obadiah,
which was the governor of his house. There was a famine going
on. Now the parenthesis tells us,
now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. For it was so when Jezebel cut
off the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took a hundred prophets
and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water. In serving the Lord, this man
had left his wife unsearchable riches. For she had obviously
been taught by her husband the gospel and obviously believed
the Lord because she came to Elisha, the prophet of God. Elisha was a prophet, but he
stands here as a great type of Christ Jesus, the prophet, the
prophet. And in this chapter, Elisha,
or through Elisha, there's going to be other miracles that are
going to be done. A son is going to be given to
a Shunammite woman. This child is going to die and
Elisha is going to raise the child again. At Gilgal, he's
going to heal poison that's in a pot. He's going to feed a hundred
men with twenty loaves of barley and ears of corn. He's a type
of Christ. Well, she said here in 1 Kings
4.1, at the end there, she said, the creditor has come to take
unto him my two sons to be bondmen. We had a debt we couldn't pay.
The wages of sin is death. We couldn't pay. We couldn't
pay. We were the lawful bondman of
Satan and of sin. We sold ourselves for nothing,
absolutely nothing. We were unable to redeem ourselves
from bondage of guilt and from the bondage of the power of sin.
But God himself paid everything for his children by his son.
Everything for you who believe God, God paid it. He paid it
all in his son. And believe in God, her husband
served God knowing that he gave his own son to be his surety
and would provide his every need in this world. You see, a true
character, the true character is not to be judged by how much,
how many possessions a man has or doesn't have. It's not to
be judged by the status of life. She says here, Thou knowest that
thy servant did fear the Lord. Her husband's character was great.
He was great because he feared the Lord and he served the Lord,
though he lived poor and he died poor. But this man lived on this
promise. This is what Jeremiah 49.11,
this is what the Lord said. leave thy fatherless children,
I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me."
Now it takes believing God to serve God in your generation. Even if through the providence
of God you're left as a debtor and your house is left as a debtor.
This wasn't from mismanagement. This wasn't from this man living
a frivolous life. This man served God and he feared
God. But this was done in this case
to show us, that God might show us, how He provides for those
that He's put in Christ, who He's brought to put all their
trust in Christ, and who serve Him with every means that He's
given to them. Now, that's what her husband did. Now, don't misunderstand
this, that this woman was being shown this favor simply because
of her husband. This woman believed God. She believed God. She says here
she called herself Elisha's handmaid. She said, I'm your handmaid.
And she came to him trusting he would give her a word from
the Lord that would help her. She believed Him, and He did. That's exactly what He did. And
from what we see here, we learn who God uses, how He uses them,
and what He does through them. Here's the first thing. The Lord
uses empty vessels. Verse 2, And Elisha said unto
her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the
house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house,
save a pot of oil. Then he said, go, borrow thee
vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not
a few. Now she didn't have anything
in this house but a pot of oil. That's all she had. She probably
had sold everything else in her house. Like the woman with the
issue of blood who had paid everything she had and she was nothing better.
She had sold everything in the house, but she still didn't have
enough to pay her debts. She had this one pot of oil.
The Lord had given her that one pot of oil. Some said she might
have been keeping that to anoint her at her burial. I don't know,
but she had a pot of oil. She had something. The Lord had
given her something. When his child is anointed by
the Spirit of God with the oil of joy, with the oil of gladness,
it may begin small, but our Lord, through his anointing, is able
to make plenty little and little plenty. That's the God we serve. That's what he's able to do.
She was to borrow vessels from her neighbors. We don't really
like to have to ask somebody for something like this. But
this is what God does when he brings us to trust him, is he
humbles us and he makes us importunate. He makes us helpless in ourselves. And that's what she was gonna
have to confess here, that she had nothing, that she could do
nothing. She didn't even have a pot to
put this oil in, in this house. Elisha said for her to borrow
all the vessels that she could borrow and said that they were
to be empty vessels. Absolutely empty. I read to you
Philippians 4.19. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If I'm going to supply all the
water that's in this cup, then this cup's going to have to be
empty. It's got some water in it now, and if I put water in
it now, I've just added to the water that's there. If I'm going
to supply all the need and fill this cup to the full, this cup's
going to have to be completely, absolutely empty. Empty. And if you come to God, come
to Christ, expecting Him to add to rather than supply all your
need, you're not going to get anything from God. He's not going
to supply you with anything. You see, you have to come to
Christ empty of all merit. You have to come to Christ empty
of all goodness. You have to come to Christ empty
of all power. Now, that's just how it is. If God's going to supply all
the merit, if He's going to supply all the goodness, if He's going
to supply all the power, we've got to come with none. Absolutely
none. God does not give seeing men
sight. He gives blind men sight. God
doesn't clothe those who have clothed themselves. He clothes
those who are absolutely naked. He doesn't make rich them that
are increased with goods and have need of nothing. He makes
rich those who come to Him absolutely bankrupt. And believers continue
right where they started. They continue in Christ trusting
Him to provide all our need in this life as we serve Him. If
we think by our power that we can provide our need in this
life and He just adds to the extra, we'll get nothing from God. We
have to be made to know everything we have, he's given it. Take
a man who has a job. If you have a job, God gave you
the job. If you get up in the morning
and go to work, God gave you the ability to get up and go
to work. If you make it there, God gave you the grace to make
it to that place. If you're able to do that job
and stand in favor with your boss, God gave you that favor
with him. If you're able to do the job
heartily as unto the Lord, God gave you that heart to do it.
If you keep that job, God gave you that job and kept that job
for you. And the same God who gave it
can take it away. Any of that, anything we just
talked about, He can take it away. That firefighter that was rushing
over here just a minute ago, we were sitting at this stop
sign and he had his light flashing, was honking his horn, he come
down beside all of us. And that man right in front of
him at the stop sign pulled out and popped him right in the side
of his car. It could have been worse than
that. But that didn't happen. We call that an accident. That
didn't happen by accident. Didn't happen by accident at
all. Paul said, as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing. He said, as poor, yet making
many rich. He said, as having nothing, yet
possessing all things. That's how we live in this life. The number of vessels that Elisha
told her to bring here were not a few. Look there at the end
of verse 3. Borrow these vessels, not a few. Not a few. Many. Bring many. Get as many of them as you can
find. Get as many empty vessels as you can find. She only had one pot of oil.
She only had one pot of oil. The Lord's word to her was, you
go out and get as many empty vessels as you can round up. Faith expects great things because
a great God told us to expect them. The Lord said to Sarah, she was
old, her womb was shut up, And the Lord said to Sarah, said
to Abraham, Sarah's going to have a child. And Sarah heard
it, she laughed. And the Lord said, is there anything,
anything too hard for the Lord? Anything. John 6, let's look over there
real quick. John 6. This is that account of the Lord
when He was standing before the multitude. He was standing there
before that multitude. It says in verse 5, When Jesus
then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company come unto Him,
He saith unto Philip, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this He said to prove Him. For he himself knew what he would
do. Listen, if the Lord has asked
you a question, made you to ponder a question in your mind about
how am I going to be provided for? He's just put that question
in your mind for you to try. He already knows what he's going
to do. He already knows what he's going to do. Philip answered,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every
one of them may take a little. We don't have enough to feed
these people. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,
said to him, there's a lad here which hath five barley loaves
and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? Jesus
said, tell the people to sit down. Tell the people to sit
down. And he fed them all. He fed every
one of them. Just like he was about to do
with this little pot of oil right here. The Lord took a little
handful of people, he called out when he walked this earth,
fishermen and folks that religion turned thumbs down on and didn't
think was anybody, and he turned the whole religious world upside
down with them. That's right, using just a few.
Our Lord commanded us to go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. You think, well, we only have
a few here. Well, he commanded us to go into
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And he said
this, I'm able to save unto the uttermost all, all that come
to God by me. All of them. Our Lord will provide
all things necessary as he does it. And who was it that gave her
neighbors a heart just to hear this knock at the door and her
boy stand and say, my mama was sent me over here to get an empty
vessel from you. And they just said, OK, here,
take it. The Lord can turn He can turn
the king's heart, if he's pleased, and use him to bless his church,
or he can turn the pauper's heart, if he's pleased, and use it to
bless his church. And he might save them in the
process, or he might not save them in the process. But when
he's done, those that he saved are going to be ones that he
put in the house and provided all things for. And when he's
done building the house, he'll just take the scaffolding down
and be done with it. Here's the third thing we see
here. The Lord shall receive all the glory for this work of
grace. All the glory for this work of
grace. I'm sorry, this is the second
thing. The Lord shall receive all the glory for his work of
grace. Verse four. And when thou art come in, thou
shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and thou shalt
pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that
which is full. Now she and her sons had to shut
the door for a reason. They had to shut this door for
a reason. None of those creditors, none of those creditors who were
trying to get get her children to be bondmen. None of those
creditors were going to be able to take credit for any of this. Elisha was not going to be able
to take credit for any of this. None of her neighbors were going
to be able to take credit for any of this. The only ones that
were going to be behold this work take place was the bride
and her children. and they were going to be made
to see that God did this and nobody else did this. It was
for them, themselves, to see God will get all the glory for
doing this. All the glory. Sometimes it's
good to shut the door. Sometimes it's good to shut the
door, and by that I mean shut the door to to any distraction,
any influence, anything that would distract you from beholding,
this has been performed by God alone. This is the work of God
alone. Paul said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the power may be of God and not of
us. Earthen vessels. So first of
all, she was taught here, this thing was going to be done by
God's grace alone. Alright, here's the third thing.
She was to use what God had given her, believing God that He would
provide what He said He would provide. Now, she was to pour
out that which the Lord had given her. That's what she was to do. Elisha merely gave her the word.
He told her what the Lord would have her to do. That's all he
said to her. It must be obeyed by her, willingly. It had to be poured out by her,
willingly. Not by Elisha, not by anybody
else, but by her, willingly. Matthew Henry said this, we're
never straightened in God, in His power and bounty and the
riches of His grace. All our straightness is in ourselves. It is our faith that fails, not
His promise. Not His promise. It was promised
her that the oil would be provided as she poured out the oil that
He had already given her. It was promised her that the
oil would be provided, and she poured out the oil that He'd
already given her. What do you have that you didn't
receive of your Heavenly Father? As believers, what do we have
that we did not receive of our Heavenly Father? Well, why did He give us what
we have? The answer to that question,
by the way, is everything. Everything we have, we have of Him. Why
did He give it to us? Why did He give it to us? He
gave it to us to use the spiritual riches and the temporal riches.
He gave it to us to use for His glory. For His glory. That's why He gave it. He promised
that His grace will never cease. It will never cease. Look at
Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ who we trust, who we believe
is all our acceptance with God. This is Him speaking. Let's see
what He said here. Luke chapter 12 verse 15. He said unto them, Take heed
and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. Now this is a parable. But if
the ground of a rich man brings forth plentifully, who gave it?
Christ gave it, God gave it. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow
my fruits? And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples,
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what
ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on." Isn't it just our nature to say,
to try to fence that, hedge that a little bit, and say, well,
now, wait a minute now. We do need to lay up store for
our kids. The man we're looking at in our
text, by God's providence, was not able to do that. He was through
persecution and other things, he was only able to serve the
Lord with what God had given him. Some say he borrowed to
feed those 50 prophets because he wouldn't take it from King
Ahab. I don't know, I don't know, but
he was doing anything even beyond what he had to help and serve
the purpose of the Lord. And what we're seeing here is
God provided for him and for his family. Even when he was
gone, he provided for his widow here. Now watch this. The life is more than meat and
the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens. They neither
sow nor reap. They don't plant gardens and
they don't harvest anything, which neither have storehouse
nor barn. They don't have anything to store
it into. You know, that would, we would just be beside ourselves
if we couldn't, if we didn't have have ability to plant and
to reap and even have a place to store it. We would think,
how in the world are we going to have anything? How are we
going to have anything? Well, the ravens don't have any
of that. Nothing. And how does he feed a crow?
God feedeth them. He feeds them. How much more
are you better than the fowls? And which of you with taking
thought can add to his stature one cubit? If you worry and worry
and worry, what's that gonna do? If ye then be not able to
do that which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider
the lilies, how they grow, and toil not. They spin not, and
I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass,
which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast in the oven,
how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? We're talking about faith here.
This is faith. You want to know what the issue
is? In all things that has to do with us, with all our, well,
but, but, but, but, all that stuff, you know what it is? The
issue's faith. That's the issue. That's always the issue. Faith. Faith. And seek not ye what ye
shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and
your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather
seek ye the kingdom of God." That's what this man in the Scriptures
did. That's what he did back in 1
Kings 4. That's what he was doing. And
that's what his widow was doing. That's what she had done. And
all these things should be added unto you. And that's what we're
seeing taking place with that widow woman. Fear not, little
flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Peter said you have an inheritance,
undefiled, reserved in heaven, prepared by Christ Almighty for
you. Sell that ye have. and give alms,
and provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure, a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not, where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." James said of those who save
up, and hold what God's given them today. For a rainy day,
He said this, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of
them, the canker and the rust, because they've just sat there
idle, He said there'll be a witness against you, and shall eat your
flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together
for the last day. And what he's saying there is
sort of a touch of irony. They thought they were heaping
them together to provide for them in the last days. He said,
you've heaped them together and they're going to be a witness
against you in the last day when God comes. Why? Because he's
given us everything we have to use for the furtherance of his
gospel. Somebody said to me recently, They said, you can't save with
what you're making. I hope, I really hope, y'all
understand, I'm not trying to save anything. I'm not trying
to save anything. I'm not sent to save. I'm sent
to minister to you. I'm sent to minister to your
wives. I'm sent to minister to your
children. That's all I want to do. I want to minister to you. That's all. Well, all right, let's look now at
the fourth thing. This is what we can be sure of. The Lord always
brings to pass His promises to them that believe Him. That's
right. You know, that's a simple concept,
isn't it? that if we don't ever believe Him, we won't ever find
out if it's so. Isn't that simple? But if we believe Him, we'll
find out He'll make good on every promise He's given us. Verse
5, So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon 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's not a vessel more. And
the oil stayed. The vessels, every one of them,
were completely filled full. Every one of them. This is not
a made up fable. This is not a story just to put
you in some idea of what God did. God really actually did
this with one pot of oil and filled up all those physical
vessels of oil. He actually did that. He actually
did that. When an empty sinner, by faith,
receives Christ, He receives all that God requires. He receives all that God commands. He receives all that God gives
of eternal life. There's no empty space left over. None. Nothing needs to be or
can be added to what Christ is. And what Christ has done, and
what Christ is doing, absolutely nothing. Turn to Colossians chapter
1. You don't need to put your hand
to it. You don't need to put your hand
to it whatsoever. If you are, it would be like
Uzzah trying to steady the ark. And he'll kill as dead as a hammer.
Colossians 1.12. giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet." You know what that means? Full. Completely
filled up, full as we can be with everything that God requires.
Meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Look at chapter 2. We were absolutely empty, completely,
totally, thoroughly empty. And from that complete and total
emptiness, all the way to we enter into His presence and glory,
our full fullness is Christ. and all our sufficiency is Christ. From absolute, total emptiness
to the fullness of God, all that we need is met in Christ. Look at Colossians 2, verse 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. which is the head of all principality
in power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ." That means Christ did
it, you didn't. "...buried with him in baptism,
wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." That means
God and His Son did it, you didn't do any of that. And you being
dead in your sins, that's all you did, was be dead in your
sins. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, meaning you couldn't even
make yourself come to God and believe Him whatsoever, hath
He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
past, present, and future, all of them. All of them. This is
what they ain't saying, Joe. This is what they ain't saying.
All of them. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way. Nailing it to his cross. That
means the law is fulfilled. And we fulfilled it by faith
in Christ. It's finished. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new
moon, or of the Sabbath days. Those were shadows of things
to come. But the body, the image, the
fulfillment of those things is Christ. It's Christ. Now, this, brethren, is the character
of one who's been made holy, one who's been brought to see,
I'm holy. You know, when God gave the law
of the clean and the unclean animals, He said, I'm the Lord
your God, be ye holy. That was the first thing He said
to them. And they were holy because He's holy. And He said the second
thing He said to them was, and I've redeemed you out of bondage.
Therefore, be ye holy. He said, sanctify yourselves
and be ye holy. They didn't have to do anything
to be holy. They were holy. If they went
back, or if they turned out of that
way, they became unholy. So when he tells us, follow after
holiness, he's saying, Run the race set before you. Stay in
the way. Stay in the path God's put you
in. And turn not back. He's taken
us out of the bondage of the law. He don't say now go back
to it. That's to be entangled again
with that yoke from which we've been redeemed from the guilt
of it and from the power of sin in which it aggravated in our
flesh. and made known in our flesh.
We've been delivered from the power and the guilt and the dominion
of it. When it says, I'm dead to the
law, it means I'm dead to the law. Well, a man's got to be
justified by his works. If you read Galatians, you'll
find out that Paul's using justification the same way that James used
the word justification. A man is justified, not by faith
only, but by his works. But what kind of works are they?
Two things. Works of faith. Faith means we've
completely fulfilled the law because Christ fulfilled it on
our behalf. And love means we're doing things now because we know
what love is. And what is love? He loved us
and gave himself for us. What is love? We love Him and
give ourselves for Him. It's no longer about me. It's
about Him. Now that's But you're not justified
by works of the law. You're not going to manifest
your faith as real by turning in and going back and saying,
look how many Sabbath days I keep. Look how many holy days I keep.
Look how much I do this and I do that. That don't manifest anything
but your self-righteousness. How are we going to make it manifest
that we're truly holy? We serve Him by faith and love.
That's the rule of the believer's life, faith and love. Well, these vessels were all
filled full. And you know when that oil stopped?
You know when it was stayed? You know when it stopped? When there wasn't any more vessels
to fill. That's when it stopped. As long as God has one more chosen,
redeemed, empty center, the grace of God flows full and free. And as long as His vessels of
mercy are being used by Him in this earth to call out His sheep
through the gospel, everything that they need are going to be
provided for them through the full sufficiency of His grace
so that they have need of nothing. Need of nothing. Not only is
His grace sufficient to pay all our debts, But there's plenty
for Christ's bride and His children to live upon until the day of
grace ends. Completely. Look at verse 7. Look at Kings 4, 7. Then she
came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil,
and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. All her debts were paid, and
she had plenty to live off of, off of the rest of what was given. What'd she do? She just obeyed
the Lord and believed him, and he made good on everything he
said he'd do. It and walking by faith rather than sight, simple. Doesn't it take, it takes all
the worry It takes all the panic, it takes all the stress, it takes
all of that undue, unneeded baggage and weight that weighs us down
out of the way, just out of the way. How many times do we tell our
little children, Listen, if you'll just listen to me and do what
I'm telling you to do, you don't have to worry about anything.
I've got everything taken care of. Just do it. Do what I've
told you to do. And then there's a flip side
to this that you remember, too. When you were a child in your
father's house, did you get up in the morning worrying, oh,
I don't know what I'm going to eat? Did you get up worrying
and saying, I don't know what I'm going to wear today? I realize
there's some children that, sadly, have to worry about that. But
you who grew up where your fathers provided for you, you just didn't
have to worry about that. What's something that entered
your mind? It wasn't until you got to the point where you realized,
I'm in the world now, that you started worrying about those
things, right? But still, brethren, this is
what our Lord's teaching is. He that spared not his only son,
but delivered him up for each and every one of his elect children
of God, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more.