Good evening. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 449. 449. ? To God be the glory ? Great things
he hath done ? So loved he the world that he gave us his Son
? Who yielded his life in atonement for sin and open the life gate
that all may go in. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! ? O come to the Father ? Through
Jesus the Son ? And give him the glory ? Great things he hath
done ? O perfect redemption the purchase
of blood, to every believer the promise of God. a a a a a a a a O rejoice, O come to the Father,
through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he
hath done. Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But beautiful and higher and
greater will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. Be seated. I'm gonna read about
three scriptures from 1 John chapter five, 1 John chapter
five. We had such a wonderful meeting.
Had a wonderful day today. Just absolutely wonderful. Good,
good day. This is so plain. 1 John 5 and
verse 10. 1 John 5 and verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son." Well, where's the record at? All of the Old Testament,
all of the Gospels, all of the letters. God gave a record. He recorded His Son. everything
in this book's about Him. To Him all the prophets give
witness. And this is the record. This is what God put on record.
That God hath given us, to us, eternal life. And this life is
in His Son. God said, that's why He said,
that's what I want heaven and earth to know. I want everybody
to know that's in sound of My Word. is eternal life. God hath given it to us. We didn't
earn it. We didn't deserve it. We wasn't
worth it. But God gave it. And He gave
it in His Son. And He that hath the Son, I love
this right here. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath the Son, He's got
life. Oh, my. And he that hath not
the Son, here's the opposite of it, hath not God, Son of God,
hath not life. God said, if you got Christ,
you got life. If you don't have Christ, you
don't have life. And this is the reason. He said, these things
have I written unto you as a reason that I wrote these things. The
reason I wrote, written these things unto you that believe
on the name of the Son of God. that you may know that you have
eternal life, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Now you can't make it no plainer
than that. That's what God said. I love that. I just love it.
I just love it. I know where life's at. I know
who gives it. And I have the witness. You know
when I have the witness? When these fellows are preaching.
When I read God's blessed book, I have the witness. God bears
witness to my heart that I'm the child of God. Our Father, oh Lord God, in the
blessed, blessed name, of the name that's above every name,
the name that you gave, the salvation's only in His name, life is in
Him, hope is in Him, strength is in Him, grace is in Him, Mercy
is in Him. Long-suffering is in Him. Forgiveness
is in Him. Redemption is in Him. Oh, Lord
God, we come to that name that's above every name to bless Your
holy name and, Lord, to thank You. Oh, how we bless You that
You give us this wonderful time to worship. Thank You for what
we've heard. Oh, we bless You that our hearts
have been so blessed Our souls have been so fed. We have been
so encouraged by your precious word and the fellowship of your
people. And Lord, we're so thankful for it. Thankful for these men
you sent to be with us. Thank you for what you've taught
them. And Lord, I thank you for this congregation. I thank you
for those. Oh Lord, you saved by your precious
grace. And Lord, now we pray for this
service. Oh God, we need you tonight.
Oh, Lord, we need you tonight. We pray that you'd come down
among us. Oh, Lord, come down in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Come down in the presence and power of the Spirit of God. Open
the Word of God to our minds, our hearts, our understanding.
Not only bless the preacher to preach, but bless us to hear.
And Lord, now we pray. Oh, Lord, we pray for our sick
brother, brother and sister. Oh, Lord. God bless them, oh Lord. Lord, you're the only one that
can do anything for any of us anyway, but oh Lord, we pray
that you do something special for them. Hold them by your grace,
give them an abundance of grace, give them an abundance of strength,
and oh God, increase their faith and their blessed hope in Christ.
Lord, meet with us tonight. open hearts, save you people
in this place. We're asking in our Lord Jesus'
name. Amen and amen. Hymn number 256. 256. When peace like a river ascended
my way, when sorrows like sea pillows roll, My soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well. Though trials should come, Let
this blest assurance find home. That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, And hath shared His own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, Oh, the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. When, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trial shall resound, and
the Lord shall deceive. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well with my
soul. It is if Christ is your life.
Amen. Well, we're just delighted to
have these preachers here. I am. I was so greatly blessed
last night. Chris, we talked about your message
I don't know how many times today and really appreciated it very
much. And you come and bring the Lord's
message. I'd love you to appreciate you, brother. Loved hearing you
preach. You know how the Lord taught
H.G. Spafford. He said, Lord, you've
taught me to say it is well with my soul. You know how he taught
him to say that, don't you? And the way you learn to say
that is to learn that it's the truth. It is well. If all I have
is Christ, I have everything. We're learning it. We're learning
that. I pray we're learning that. Let's
look at 2nd Kings chapter 4 tonight, and I'm thankful for all of you. I'm thankful for your pastor. You know, you have a faithful
pastor for all these decades. By God's grace, by God's great
favor, we all would have quit 100 times if it wasn't for his
grace. Maybe 101, huh, Donnie? Maybe
101. The Lord lifts us up, and you
know He, to a great extent, uses you to do that. And I want you
to know that. 2 Kings chapter 4, verses 1 through
7. 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. This woman's husband
was dead. That's the wages of sin. Our
first lesson in this story is a lesson about sin. Because of
sin and its consequences, this woman was destitute. That's us. We're the widow woman. What's
she gonna do? Her creditors are demanding of
her that which is most precious to her. The Lord said, tonight thy soul
shall be required of thee. That which is most precious is
required. There's a legal problem you see
brought about by seeing and its consequences. There's a demand
upon her to produce. And her inability to produce
what she owes is going to cost her that. Which is most precious. Our creditor is God and we have
nothing to pay. We have nothing. We owe a debt
that we can't pay, and we owe it. We owe it. It's due unto
God. Perfect obedience, perfect service,
perfect love to Him. In Luke chapter seven, Brother
Billy last night, I believe, referred to this If you want to turn over there,
Luke 741. I want to look particularly at
this. Parable that our Lord told in
these circumstances where this. Sinner woman came in and was.
Washing the Lord's feet with her tears with with the hairs
of her head and her tears. And did not cease to kiss his
feet. But look at verse 41, there was
a certain creditor which had two debtors and one owed 500
pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. Lord didn't make
it a hard question, did he? You didn't make it a hard question.
The hard truth, though, is that we're on the wrong end of that
question by nature. Simon answered and said, I suppose.
And then the Lord said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. Our
problem is not that we don't know the truth. The problem is
we hate it. People's problem is that they
don't, it's not that they don't understand the doctrine of election
and the sovereignty of God and predestination, those things.
It's not that they don't understand them. A child can understand
that. You should be teaching that in Sunday school. Simple,
clear truth of God, who God is. It's who God is, how can you
not teach that to our little ones? The problem is we hate
it by nature. Because we're God in our own
minds and hearts by nature. That's what happened in the garden.
He wasn't just eating the wrong piece of fruit. Satan said, you
shall be his gods, and that sounded real good. You'll determine what's
good and evil. That sounded real good. And everybody
in this world is strutting around like a bunch of little gods.
That's their problem. Because there's somebody on the
throne that's not gonna stand for it. There's somebody on the
true throne of heaven and earth. But he frankly forgave them both.
One owed 500 pence and the other 50. And he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me therefore which of them
will love him most? And I like the way the Lord did that. That's
an understatement, and don't you like the way the Lord does
things? I catch myself saying something stupid every once in
a while, like every 10 seconds or so. Oh boy, but boy, he shows us,
doesn't he, what just... Simon gave, you know, this brilliant
answer, and the Lord turned to the woman. He turned to the woman
and said to Simon, you see this woman? I entered into your house
and you gave me no water for my feet, but she hath washed
my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came
in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. The Lord didn't miss all
of that, did he? He didn't miss it. Boy, I wonder
how much in my life he don't miss. You didn't ever kiss me, you
never gave me a kiss. My head with all thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, I say unto thee her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. Now you know religion would take
that and say, you see now, she loved the Lord a whole bunch
and the Lord forgave her sins for it. That's not the story,
is it? Why did she love him so much? Oh, because he forgave her. How
much did he forgive her? Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. Every bit of it. And He said to her, your sins
are forgiven. Your sins are gone. Have you
ever heard anything better than that? That's what your preacher
gets up here and says now. On the authority of God's Son,
you look to Him. You lay out your heart before
Him. You trust Him. You believe on Him. You cast
your soul upon Him. Your sins are gone. Your sins
are gone. The Lord said when he healed
that paralyzed man, he said, I did this the way I did it so
that you would know that I have power on this earth to forgive
sins. He has that power tonight. He can forgive your loved ones
of their sins. He can forgive you of your sins. The Lord used this analogy, though,
didn't he? Sin is a debt that must be paid. That's our text. And we don't
have anything to pay. Nothing. Our only hope is forgiveness. How much has he forgiven you? That's the question. Forgiveness
comes at the cost of the very blood of God. The cost of his own precious
blood. But for us, it's free. It's free. I will love them,
and don't ever forget what the definition of love is. A lot
of people have tried to define love over the years. A lot of
songs have been written about that, haven't they? The Lord
says this about it, herein is love. This is what it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We're not only unable to pay,
but we're forbidden to try. because to try is an insult to
the very throne and honor of God. It's insulting. To try is to woefully underestimate
our debt and to show disdain to the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, which alone can wash away sins. Her inability
to pay was gonna cost her the unthinkable, the unthinkable. In gospel terms, that's your
soul. The creditor says to every sinner
who trusts in himself, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee and all the stuff that is important to you
is gonna belong to somebody else. Nothing to pay, rich or poor,
we all owe the same debt and none of us have a dime to pay,
nothing. What's she going to do? What
in the world is she going to do? You know what she's going
to do? Cry. That's the first couple of words
in this text, isn't it? She cried. She cried. That's the first thing we learn
about her. She's crying. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And you know, you don't call
on the name of the Lord this way. This is how you don't do
it. I'm ready to be saved now. I'm ready. I've got a decision.
I've made a decision, I have decided to follow, that's not
how you call on him. You cry from your heart for mercy. Mercy, mercy. She came to the right place too,
didn't she? She came to God on earth. That's his representative,
his prophet, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He represents the
son of God, God's representative, God's prophet. No man cometh
unto the Father, but by the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. She came
to the right place. I highly suspect this woman was
a believer, her husband having been a prophet, and seeing that
she went to God's prophet to cry in her hour of need, but
she represents anybody that needs the Lord. Is that you? She represents
the unbeliever and the believer. Elisha asked her what she had
in the house. That's a pretty good question
considering that she owes a great debt. And her answer is critical. Notice the language of scripture
is so precise, isn't it? Why didn't she just say, well,
I've got this pot of wool. I've got that going for me. That's
not what she said. She said, I ain't got nothing.
I ain't got nothing. Nothing. Your handmaid has not one thing
in this house except, except. I know that she had that one
thing, we know that now, but her answer was not simply, I
have a pot of oil. Her answer was nothing. Why?
Because this is the gospel. That's why. I don't have anything. I need righteousness before God
and I don't have any. I don't have any. I need an offering
for my sin and I don't have one. My very soul can't pay for one
sin. I need peace with God and I have
no means whereby to appease him. And you know the truth of the
matter is we don't even have any desire to if we did have
something. We wouldn't give it to him, would
we? By nature. I have nothing, I am nothing,
I can do nothing. These are the terms upon which
God reasons with sinners. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. What about, Lord? Your sins,
your sins, though they be as scarlet, though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool, they shall be as white as snow. What can
wash them away? Nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
She had one thing, like Job who lost everything, she had the
Savior in her heart. Don't you reckon? Sure look like
it. Sure look like it. To come to Elisha here is to
come to God for mercy. At that time, that's who he was. Now, he represented God Almighty
on this earth. Pictured by this pot of oil,
the Holy Spirit, pictured by oil all through the scripture.
And that's the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. She had only
one thing, and only one thing was needful. Only one thing. Not only is Christ the only thing
needful, but Christ only is what you need. Only Him. What did Elisha tell her to do
then? Well, go and gather a bunch of empty vessels. That's faith, isn't it? That's
faith, empty, empty. But a vessel, a vessel, That's
suggestive, isn't it? That's suggestive. A vessel is
meant to be filled. That's what they're for. A vessel,
empty vessels. Bring as many empty vessels.
These are typical, of course, of her, her heart, and also all
who call upon God. She cried to God because she
was empty. The woman with the issue of blood was out of resources. She was done. She was paid out. It was only worse. Jonah cried
from the belly of hell. The leper was incurably rotting
away. He was desperate, not even supposed
to approach the Lord, much less anybody else, or anybody, much
less the Lord. But Lord, if you will, you can
have mercy. You can make me clean. The lame
man at the pool of Bethesda had no man. No man, what were his chances? Lazarus was dead. How about you? How about you tonight? How about me? A vessel with anything
in it was useless in this story. Christ will not be a supplement
to your life. He will not be a supplement to
your works. He doesn't meet you halfway.
He don't meet you at the first step. You don't take the first
step. You don't take any steps. You
lay there until the good Samaritan, I love these words in that story
of the good Samaritan, he came where he was. That's where the Lord will meet
you, right where you are, and do everything for you. Pour in the oil of his grace
and spirit, the wine of his precious blood. Lift you up, take you
to the end, pay your way, and say, if he ever owes any more,
put it on my tab. That's how the Lord saved me. Every good thought of yourself
has got to be emptied out. Every shred of hope elsewhere
must be wiped clean from your heart. The pockets of your soul
have got to be turned out and found to be devoid of even a
penny. You must be made guilty, bankrupt, dead, helpless, hopeless,
without strength. You must come to the place where
if God left salvation up to you, you would never see a single
ray of heavenly light. Spurgeon said, if I was able
to get right to the doorstep of heaven, if the Lord brought
me all the way there, if the Lord picked me up and brought
me to the gate of heaven and left one step for me to take,
I would perish right there. That empty, that empty, that's
how empty. They gathered every vessel they
could find and began from that one pot to fill them all. You
know, that's creation. So is this. That's what it is,
isn't it? It's creation. This ain't you
deciding something. This ain't you making some kind
of move or recommitting your life, whatever. God has to create a new you,
a new you. You must be born from above,
must be born of the Spirit of God, a new creature, a new creature
in Christ Jesus, created in righteousness and true holiness, Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Substance was created here that
didn't exist before and when God saved me a new creature came
into existence 2nd Corinthians 5 17 if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature Old things are passed away behold. All things
are become new. I've heard people argue about
that You know, well the old nature ain't new. They're not new about
the old nature You are completely changed your old nature is the
old nature and But just like the flesh striveth against the
spirit, the spirit striveth against the flesh, too. There's nothing
about you that'll ever be the same once the Lord Jesus comes
where you are. Everything's new. Even the old nature cannot do
what it once did. It cannot do. It's different,
too. It's changed in that way. If no other. Galatians 6.15,
for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. In other words, you keeping the
law, not keeping the law. Whether you do or don't, God's
got to make you new. And he does that by the one without
whom was anything made that was made. Still ain't. Still ain't. Only God can create. Salvation
is of the Lord. We have in this story only empty
vessels and full ones. And that's how it is in salvation.
You've either got everything or you've got nothing. You either
have Christ and you have life, which is... Life is so much more
than anybody realizes, isn't it? Life. Life. My beating heart
is a poor representation of what life is. Life in Christ. If you have not the Son of God,
you have not life. If you have Christ, you are complete
in him, complete, complete. You have all the righteousness
you need to stand before God. You have all the cleansing you
need to wash away every spot and stain. In Christ Jesus, We're
complete. Consider this. What was the vessel's
part in that? It was empty. That was its part. It was empty. It just received.
It just received. What was her part in her debt
being paid? Just that she owed it. Just that
she owed it. That's it. That's our part in
salvation. We need it. We need Christ. There's
no mention of how much money she made from the sale of the
oil because it's not about that. You know, if we were told a number,
you know what that would teach us? That Christ is a lot. That's
a lot. But what we are taught is that
Christ is everything. It was all she needed. Everything
she needed. What's important are the words
pay, and live. He paid his precious sin atoning
blood and we live. We live. In verse seven, Christ
is enough to pay and live. You ever think about that? You
know, when we get alone or whatever, we got a little time on our hands,
our minds drift off to different things, but it's rarely anything
worth it, is it? Every once in a while, I'd like
to just sit and think about the fact that the Lord paid my sin
debt for me, just paid my sin, paid my sin debt for me, what
he suffered for me, and why, why would he do that for me? And maybe learn something about
love. All of our guilt is gone, there's
no condemnation. Free from the law, that is a
happy condition, isn't it? Jesus hath died and there's remission. And the same oil that paid all
of her debt, it's enough to live on, isn't it? It's enough to live on from now
on. From now on, it's enough to live on from now on. You need
anything else? He that spared not his own son
for me, how shall he not with him also freely giveth all things?
And you know, when it says that Christ is all and that the Lord
has given us all in Christ, that doesn't mean we have Christ in
everything else because, you know, he owns everything and
he gives it. That means having him, you have
everything. Everything there is. Life, hope,
peace, redemption, everything you name. Forgiveness of sin? Guilt? You know, the psychiatrists
have one thing right. All of your problems are because
of unresolved guilt. What they don't have right is
what that guilt is and how it can be put away. You remember Jacob and Esau.
Esau said, I have enough. Jacob had sent a gift because
there was bad blood between the two. They were about to meet
each other on the road, and Jacob sent a gift ahead to appease
Esau and let him know that there's goodwill. And when they finally
met each other, Esau said, take your gift back. I have enough.
And you look up that word enough, and it means I've got a lot.
I'm doing fine. Jacob insisted he said you you
take this down. I want you to have it. I have
enough but that was a different word You look that one up in
the original language. It means I have everything I
Have everything I have Christ Christ is enough And I'll tell
you this in closing if Christ is not enough then you'll want
to argue doctrine. I Guarantee you sooner or later.
You're gonna want to argue If Christ is not enough, then you're
going to find reasons to be unhappy in the church. Just sitting there
and drinking it in, you think about the privilege that it is
to sit here in a place like that, nice, beautiful building, and hear from somebody You know,
you're just not hearing what Donnie worked up this past week,
these few days. You're listening to a man been
preaching the gospel for 50, I don't know how long, I don't
know how long. That's, that's, I'd love to do that. But it's not gonna be enough
if Christ is not enough. You're gonna find a problem.
Not gonna be hard to do either. Not gonna be hard to do. You're
going to find a reason to be unhappy. Some people go to a
different church every few years. You know why they do that? Because
it's not Christ they're looking for. That's not what they're
looking for. If Christ is not enough, you'll
find fault with others. Anybody? If Christ is not enough, sooner
or later you'll turn to this world for what you need. If Christ is not enough, you'll
find security in uncertain riches. But if you have Christ, he's
enough. He's everything. He's everything. And let's not ever act like he's
not. I'm so guilty of that. He's everything,
and I act like he's not. I'd like to act all the time.
Like I should, like he's everything. And I have him. God help us. The Lord bless y'all. Thank you
for having me. It's a blessing to my heart.
Pray the Lord will bless this. of all mine. Well, I tell you,
you got into my heart. You really got into mine. Oh,
boy. He really, really is enough. And if you ever start seeking
Him, you never stop. You ever start calling on Him,
you never stop. You ever trust Him with your whole soul, and
you'll never stop. Only time we'll stop trusting
Him is when we're with Him. We were with him. Thank you,
old Chris. That was wonderful and blissful. Empty vessel. God fill it. Well, take about
five minutes and go to the restroom. Do whatever you need to do. And
then we'll have another preacher, and we'll have a special. Take
about five minutes. Don't take much longer than that.