Good evening, everybody. As always,
it is my pleasure to be with you tonight. It really is. If
you would, turn to 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4. Our text is
going to come from the first seven verses. I want to start
by reading them. Elisha is the prophet at this
time. 2nd Kings chapter 4 and look at verse 1. It says, 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 creditors 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? Now, two questions are asked
there, and they're real simple questions. What do you want? What do you
have? Two very simple questions. 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, don't miss
this description, even empty vessels. Borrow not a few, borrow
a whole bunch of them. 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, stopped flowing. 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 on the rest. Now the theme of this story is
very simple. Very, very simple. And it's twofold.
Here's the theme. If you have Christ, you have
everything you need. Presently, right now, if you
have Christ, you lack absolutely nothing. And this is common amongst
everyone who has Christ. Everyone who has Christ has this
one thing in common, They don't have anything else. To have Christ
is to have nothing else at all. Now let's dig into what's being
said here and Lord willing we'll see that that indeed is the case. And I want to begin by talking
about this widow. Now what's the information we receive about
this widow? We find out that she is destitute. She is poor. Her husband died and her husband
left her with absolutely nothing. Nothing but this pot of oil.
Not only is she destitute, but to add insult to injury, she
is in debt. Not only does she not have anything,
she owes. And I will, for a second, just
speculate on the financial situation that her and her husband were
in before he died. I'm sure it was very poor. And
I have no doubt that he had to borrow money to put food on the
table to provide for them. And when that man died, she inherited
that debt. That debt was hers. She was in
debt through her union with somebody else. And the consequences of
that debt were very severe. Bondage. The creditors were coming. I'm going to take her sons. They're
in bondage. They can't get out until the
debt is paid. Now, I think everybody in this
room, just from that description, knows exactly what that's an
illustration of. That's an illustration of our
fall in Adam. What happened in the garden?
Adam disobeyed God and he died. Rex just read it, Ephesians 2.
Dead in trespasses, in sins. That's what happened when Adam
disobeyed God. He died. He died spiritually.
He lost that uprightness. He lost his innocence. He took
on a sinful, wicked nature that could do nothing but hate God
and flee from Him and could not believe. And you know what happened?
We inherited that. Adam died just like this man's
husband died, except Adam didn't die physically, not for many
years, he died spiritually. And as that woman inherited that
debt from her husband, after he died, we inherited that from
Adam. That same wicked, evil nature, we all inherited. That's the truth of human nature.
That's the way we are born into this world. And the consequences
of that nature is this, it's bondage. We are born into bondage,
bondage to sin. We can't stop. We can do no other
and complete and utter bondage to sin and bondage to a law we
can't keep. That is the state of every man
born in this world save the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Lord
does not intervene on our behalf, we will perish. And that is the
truth of the matter. Now, if I'm a guessing man, someone
who is listening right now is asking this question, is that
fair? Is that fair? It does not seem right that I
am condemned because of the actions of someone else, that I have
inherited this debt from my first father. Perhaps if I wasn't born
with this wicked nature, perhaps I'd have a shot. Is this fair? All I'm going to do is read this
scripture. It says Romans 5 verse 12. It says, Wherefore, as by
one man, that one man is Adam, wherefore as by one man's sin
entered into the world. Now I want you to think about
this for a second. Until Adam disobeyed God, there was no sin
in the world. It wasn't until he ate that fruit, until he made
that conscious decision, I will not have this man to rule over
me. I'm going to be my own God. I'm going to disobey. Sin wasn't
in the world. The world was perfect. No weeds,
no disease, no pestilence. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world and death by sin spiritual death and so death
Passed upon all men nobody escaped this But listen to this for that
all have sinned It does not say for all inherited the sin of
somebody else. It says for all have sinned. When the Lord made Adam, you
know who he made? He made the entire human race. We all share
a union with Adam because we were all in Adam. Where did Eve
come from? Came from his rib. Came from
Adam. Where did you come from? Where did I come from? From Adam.
Adam was the federal head. Adam was the vehicle. But this
is what happened when Adam disobeyed God. Human nature in union made
a conscious decision. We will not have this man to
rule over us. We will be our own God. Here we go. You did
that and I did that. You know what that means? That
means this sinful state I find myself in and you find yourself
in, that means there is no one to blame. That means I can't
blame Adam. And I tell you what, if I have
someone to blame other than myself, that means I'm not really a sinner.
If I can blame Adam and say, well, he messed up and it's just
charged to my account, then I'm not really a sinner. That means
Christ is of no effect to me. And if I can blame the sovereignty
of God, why did the fall happen? Did it happen according to the
purpose of God? Did it happen? Then it happened according to
the purpose of God. Because that's why everything
happens. But if I'm a victim to Adam, or I'm a victim of the
sovereignty of God, that means I am not really a sinner. And
I have not seen things the way they really are. Because if I'm
ever given eyes to see things as they really are, I will see
this, that my condemnation, my sinful state before God, I'm
no victim here, I'm just getting exactly what I deserve. I have
the nature that I earned. Now, this woman was just like
this, just like everybody else, just like the entire human race.
She was a fallen, wicked, evil person, but this woman had one
thing going for her. You wanna see what it is? Look
at verse one. Now there cried a certain woman. Now how many times
in Scripture do we read that? The Lord came to a certain man. He came to a certain woman, and
I looked this word up. I want to know what it really
meant. I looked it up, and this word, more than anything else,
more than is translated into any other word, it is translated
into this word one, 687 times. 687 times in the scripture, this
word certain is translated into this word one. This woman had
one thing going for her. One thing made her different
than everybody else. She had only one thing. She was
a one. She was a chosen one. She was
one who had the very love of God upon her, and it had always
been there. He loved her with an everlasting
love before the foundations of the world were ever built. She
was one who was elected. She was one who was given to
Christ in that covenant of grace, Christ agreeing to be her surety.
And she was one for whom, when the Lord was hanging on the cross,
it was her name and her person that was on his mind and on his
heart. What made the difference? She was a one. She was a certain
one. She belonged to Christ. Now,
what makes the difference between a man who is saved and a man
who is lost? A man who is made righteous and a man who is left
in unrighteousness. What is the difference? I want
to read you this. I think this is one of the most
clear verses of scripture you can come across. Just listen
to this. This is John 1, 12 through 13. It says, but as many as received
him. To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which
were born. They're made this way. They were
born not of blood, not because of their association with somebody
else, and not nor of the will of the flesh, not because they
persevered and they did good and they abstained from doing
evil, nor of the will of man, because they made a good decision.
Not any of that, but of God. What makes a difference? A man
is either of God or he is not. And this right here shows us
something. This woman was certain. She was going to receive mercy.
She was going to receive great grace and it was for this reason
she was a certain woman. She was of God. But in and of
herself, she was just like everybody else. I want you to notice what this
woman did. Look at verse 1 again. Now there cried. This woman was
a crying woman. And everyone who is of God, they
do the exact same thing. They are caused to do the exact
same thing. They cry unto God and they cry
for mercy. I need mercy. I need it to be
withheld from me what I rightfully deserve and what I rightfully
have earned. And this idea of mercy, I have
never cried for mercy unless it comes with this idea. He doesn't
have to show it to me. If he withholds mercy from me,
he's right, he's just, he's fair. My sin, my fault. She cried for
mercy and she came on a particular grounds. I find it very interesting. She comes on the grounds of merit. Somebody's merit, but it's not
her own. She comes on the grounds of the
merit of her husband. Look at verse one again. Now
there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the
prophets unto Elijah, saying, thy servant my husband is dead,
and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. What is her appeal? What is her
appeal when she comes to Elisha? She comes on the ground of merit.
She comes on the grounds of the merit of her husband. He feared
the Lord. Everybody who is of God, they
are called to do this exact same thing. We cry out for mercy and
we come with this appeal, the merits of our husband. He feared
the Lord. That idea of fearing the Lord,
when it refers to Christ, is talking about obedience. He feared
his father with that reverent fear, that loving fear so much
that everything his father gave him to do, he did. He said, go,
live for them. He lived perfectly. Go, die for
them, be made sin for them. He went. He was made sin. He died on the cross, putting
away our sins. Do everything that is necessary.
Believe me perfectly. Everything that's necessary to
save them, do every bit of it because he feared his father.
He feared the Lord. We are saved, and when we come
to the Father, show us mercy. On what grounds? The merits of
my husband. Perfect obedience in every way.
Look what he did. That's the only grounds we come
on. Now look at verse two. And Elijah 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, avoid. Now, two questions are asked
here. The first question is this, what
do you want? What is it you want? What do
you want me to do for you? That was the first question.
I find it interesting she doesn't answer this question. She doesn't answer
it because she had already answered it. The answer to this question,
what shall I do for you, what she wanted Elisha to do for her,
it was presupposed by her need. and her need had already been
stated. This is what this woman needed. She was poor. She needed
that which was necessary to live. She needed her debts paid. She
was in deep debt. She needed all her debts paid,
and she needed freedom from bondage. That's what she needed. Every
man, without exception, has these exact same spiritual needs, but
not every man knows that. When the Lord reveals himself
to a man, what he finds out is these needs, this is exactly
what he needs. This is what I need. This is
what every elect child of God needs every single time. Number
one, I need that which is necessary to live before God. What is it
that I must have and I must be to live before God? Him look
at me and say, you're going to live and not die. Righteousness. Righteousness. I must be righteous
to live before God. And this is what I thought of.
2 Peter 2.5, it refers to Noah in a very interesting way. It
refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness. And I think
it's interesting because I've read through Genesis and I haven't
seen any of his messages. But it says that. It says he
was a preacher of righteousness. What does it mean to preach righteousness? Well, this is what the world
thinks it means. You better be righteous. You better find some
victory over sin, be putting down sin. You better start working
hard, keeping the law. You better make yourself righteous.
You better be righteous or God's going to get you. That's salvation
by works. And that has absolutely nothing
to do with the preaching of righteousness. This is what it means to preach
righteousness. That's who God is. He's righteous. That's His
standard. That's what He demands. The only
thing He accepts is perfect righteousness. And there's only one. the very
righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's it. Anything a man would
bring and anything would say, this is my righteousness. Look
at what I've done. This is my righteousness. It's
nothing but filthy rags. There's only one righteousness.
It's the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now trust that
righteousness. Look to Him and His righteousness and look to
it alone. That's it. That's what it means
to preach righteousness. That's my first need. I need
to be made righteous. I need to be made the very righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. That's what I need. A real righteousness
before the Father because I can't come up with one. Second thing
she needed. She needed her debts paid. So
whatever elect child of God needs, he needs his debts paid. I racked
up a great debt, a sin debt. I'm deeply in debt and there
is absolutely nothing I can do to make up for that. There's
nothing I can do to make up for what I've done and what I've
said and what I've thought and the evil imaginations that have
come out of my heart. There's nothing I can do to dig
myself out of debt. You know what I need? I need
a kinsman redeemer. I need somebody who's bone of my bone, flesh
of my flesh, both willing and able to take on all my debts
and redeem me, restore back everything I lost. I need Christ. I need
to Him live for me, to have borne my sins in His body, to have
died for me and satisfied everything God demands of me. I need all
my debts paid so when the books are opened, there's no record
of it anymore. It's not just blotted out where
it used to be there and they marked it out with a marker.
It's gone because the sin's really gone. That's the only way I can
be accepted by God. If I'm sinless, there is no more
debt. And she needed freedom from bondage. I need the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. I need Him to wipe out all my
debts, my sin debt. And here's how I need it, with
absolutely no strings attached. With no bondage whatsoever. With
absolutely nothing needed from me. It just freely given because
if anything's put on me, if there's something I have to do, it won't
be. It has to be all by grace. But here's the beautiful part.
Anybody who has those needs, they're filled. That's exactly
who has Christ. People who have needs just like
that. If you have those needs, make no mistake, your needs are
filled. You have the very righteousness of Christ. Your debts have been
wiped out and it's all free. It's free for nothing. Take the
water of life. You do it freely. Only one stipulation. Freely. That's it. The second question. He asks
this. What do you have? What do you
want? And what do you have? Look what
she says, look at verse two again. And Elijah 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. Now this is
the question. This is the question, what do
you have? Because here's the reality of
the situation. If you have anything in addition to Christ, you don't
have Christ at all. If I have Christ and my quote-unquote
righteous living, I don't have Christ at all. If I have Christ
and my so-called free will, I don't have Christ at all. Free will
is the oldest lie that has been told. You can go all the way
back to the fall and you can see the devil tempting Eve with
free will. It's the oldest lie that has ever been told. If salvation
was up to the free will of the natural man, you know how many
people would be saved? Nobody. Because this is the natural will
of man. I will not have this man to rule over me. No, the
will has to be changed. A new will has to be given. And
truly, the Lord says, my people, they'll be willing in the day
of my power, but it takes His power. His power to bring you
to your knees and say, no, my will, not yours, and change your
will. It's the oldest lie that has ever been told. But if I
have Christ in my decision, I have not Christ at all. If I have
Christ in my giving, I have Christ in my church attendance, Christ
in my preaching, Christ in my best intentions to get better,
then I have not Christ at all. The only one who has Christ is
the one who has absolutely nothing in the house but him alone. That's it. This is the commonality
between everybody who actually has Christ. They don't have anything
else. Now I want to give you a parable
that sums all that up. Turn over to Luke chapter 14 real quick. Given the context of this, a
man who was a Pharisee invited our Lord to have a meal with
him on the Sabbath day. So our Lord's sitting at the
table and he's teaching while he's there. Now look at verse
12 of Luke 14. This is our Lord speaking, he
said, then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also
bid thee again and a recompense. be made thee." Now what he's
saying to this man is this, the feast of Christ, this feast that
every sinner can feed off of, it's not for everybody and it's
not for these people, it's not for people who can recompense
him. Here's the idea behind recompense, you give to me and I give back
to you. It's not for those that can recompense God. He does for
me, I do this for Him in return. He does His part, I do my part
too. Everything's swell. It's not
for those who can recompense Him. But who is the feast of
Christ for? Look at verse 13. But when thou
makest a feast, here's who you call, call the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot
recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection
of the just. This feast of Christ, who's it
for? It's for the poor. Those people who are absolutely
bankrupt of any righteousness. I can't even take the first step
toward keeping the law. It is absolutely impossible.
Personally bankrupt of righteousness. Mamed and lame, you know what
that means? Impotent. Spiritually impotent. I can't come up and meet the
demands of God. I can't meet the demands of spiritual
life belief Faith Repentance all those things apart from Lord's
work for me enemy. Those things are impossible absolutely
impotent the lame and the poor and finally this the blind and
Those when they look inside themselves, they can't find any reason that
the Lord will show mercy to them. Those people right there, those
are the people who are at the feast. Those are the people who
the feast is for. The feast of Christ is for the
poor, it's for the maimed, it's for the lame, and it's for the
blind. And if that's you right there, I say this with all confidence,
Jesus Christ died for you. And this is an amazing thought.
How confident, how, why can you be so confident in that? And
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. It's sure. If you're poor and
you're maimed and you're lame and you're blind, the feast is
yours. I was gonna say you're invited
to the feast. You're not invited. You're commanded and you're called and
you're pulled and you're dragged and you're sat in front of food.
And you eat, and that's the way it is. All right, look at verse
three. Then he said, go, borrow thee
vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not
a few. Now, once again, look at the
prerequisite there. To be a vessel which will be filled by this
great pot of oil, what's the prerequisite? You have to be
empty. And it couldn't be a vessel that
had a little bit of liquid in it. And you couldn't be a vessel
that had some residue in it. You had to be an empty vessel,
bone dry, absolutely nothing inside you. And you know what?
If you were an empty vessel, you were filled. Look at verse
4 of your text, if I confuse you, sorry. 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. Now, this one was given both
a promise and a command. He said, you go out, you go out
and get a bunch of empty vessels, borrow them from your neighbors.
Not a few, you get many. You go get many empty vessels.
And this is the big part here. It was more than the oil was
in the pot. Get a bunch of empty vessels. Go inside your house
with your family. You shut the door. And as long
as there is an empty vessel there, it's going to be filled. Now,
a promise and a command. And this is the first promise
that was given this woman. It was the promise of creative activity. And this is the promise. This
is the promise of salvation. To all the Lord's people, it
is the promise of creative activity. Now, when she looked inside this
pot, she had this pot of oil. It was her only possession. When
she looked inside of it, as far as she can tell, there was a
finite amount of oil inside that pot. A gallon, a liter, a couple
of pints, I don't know how big it was. But to her eyes, upon
her observation, there was a finite amount of oil. So her son brought
her the first vessel, and she poured it and filled it. She
took that vessel, she set it aside, got the next one, poured
and filled. And all these empty vessels,
she didn't get a few, she got many. And after a while, she
would have found this. I've poured out more oil than
was originally in the pot. Supernaturally, the Lord caused
matter to come into existence. that was not there before. This
was a creative act. This is what the Lord does in
salvation for each one of his people. He creates something
new that was not there before. And this is what King David said
in Psalm 5110. He said, create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He did not
say, take this old heart and fix it up, make it better, refurbish
it, There's nothing you can do with this old heart. Nothing you can do with this
old man. This old man is not going to get any better. You
can't fix him up. He's not going to get any better in any way.
He is exactly the way he is. He is sinful. He is wretched.
He is God-hating. And as long as we're alive, he's
not going to change. But this is what the Lord does.
He gives a new heart. He gives a new man. He gives
a new spirit. And that man is perfect. That
man is holy. It is the very nature and the
spirit of God dwelling inside a man. And that's the man that
does. That's the man that believes. That's the man that's brought
to repentance. Something new is birthed into
this man, this child of God, that was not there before. The
promise of creative activity. And I think this is interesting. This is the creative act which
causes us to see that we are in fact empty. A man doesn't
know and cannot see that he is an empty sinner, void of righteousness,
until the Lord has given him this new man. It takes a new
man in Christ Jesus, a holy man, a perfect man, to see and to
own the sins of that old man. A man can't tell, he does not
know he's a sinner until the Lord gives him that new man,
until he breathes life into him. But this was the first promise.
This was the promise of creative activity. And this was the second
promise. The promise was this, of being
filled. And this is the promise the Lord
makes to each one of His people. You're completely full, full
up with Christ, and you lack absolutely nothing. You have
no needs, you have no wants, you are complete in Him. And there's a Psalm that winds
out, it just outlines each one of those things that we will
not want for. And you all know it very much.
Look at Psalm 23. Turn over there. Psalm 23, look at verse one. David says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, I shall not
be in need. Now, the Lord, he is not the
shepherd of all men. Jesus Christ did not die for
all men, but he is the shepherd of somebody. You know who he's
the shepherd of? Empty vessels. He is the shepherd of empty vessels. He's the savior of sinners. And
we have this blessed hope. Our shepherd, that one who leads
us and guides us and saves us, who is it? He says, the Lord
is my shepherd. That one who cannot fail, that
one who, when he promises something, he cannot go back on his promise,
that one who, if he purposes something, it must be because
he purposed it. Who is my shepherd if I'm an
empty vessel? My shepherd is the Lord, and
he cannot fail. And if He has filled me, if the
Lord is in fact my shepherd, everything that David says here
that I will not want for, I have. I'm complete in Christ. Look
at verse 2. He says, He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. Everybody who is an empty vessel,
whose shepherd is the Lord, you know what? They will not want
for rest. We have complete rest and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ
because of these words. It is finished. And when he said that, he was
speaking to the empty vessels. There's nothing left for you
to do. There's no works left to perform. You are completely
and utterly complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is nothing
left to do now but this, just rest. Just rest in Christ, in
his finished work. Look at the second part of that
verse. He leadeth me beside the still waters, We shall not want
for peace or calm. Isaiah 40 verse 1, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. There is real peace between every
empty vessel and the father because the reason for the father's anger
towards us, it's been removed. Christ bore the sin, Christ put
it away. Full reconciliation for everybody
he died for, it was made, and right now there is nothing but
complete and utter peace between the Lord's people and God the
Father. Complete peace, you can't be more accepted, you can't be
more loved by the Father. There is no wedge of enmity anymore.
It's been removed by Christ himself. We won't want the peace and calm.
Look at verse three. He restoreth my soul. Everything
we lost in Adam, it's restored to us in Christ. Adam could walk
around, he could look God directly in the eye with absolutely no
fear because he was upright and he was innocent and he was without
sin. He had full favor with God. He had all the blessings that
God had to offer, gave it to him right there. And everything
we lost in Adam, we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is
now, presently, we've been restored. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His namesake. We don't want for righteousness.
I love how it says there, He leadeth us in those paths. What
did Christ do when He came to this world? He walked the paths
of righteousness. Everything He did, He did in
perfect righteousness. He honored God's holy law completely
and perfectly. And you know what? When He walked
those paths, He led us along in it because we were in Him. Just as much as I died in Adam,
and it really happened, and I'm really responsible, when the
Lord Jesus Christ kept the law, and he led us in those paths
of righteousness, I kept the law. I really have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ, and it really is mine, if I'm an empty vessel. Look at verse four. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff They comfort
me. We will not want for comfort
in death. Everybody dies. The end state
of everybody in this room is all the same. We've sinned, therefore
we must die. That's it. But we have this comfort
in death. It's the best day of our life.
What's going to happen? I thought about that. All the
people that the Lord brought back from the dead that He resurrected,
I wonder if anybody asked them, what's it like to die? You ever
thought it would be a good question to ask them, what's it like to
die? You've died. The Lord resurrected you. You
came back. What's it like? Tell me about it. Scripture doesn't
report it. Maybe nobody thought to ask. I would like to, though.
Nobody knows. It's an unknown what it's going
to be like when we die because nobody talks about it. But we
know exactly from the scripture what's going to happen. We open
those eyes. We'll be just like Christ. He
will be there. to receive us with open arms.
And we will be with our Savior. Things like pain, loneliness,
sadness, tears, death, sin, it's all gone. A glorified body and
true worship is finally going to happen. Now we try here. We try to worship. True worship
is going to happen. We're actually going to worship
our Savior and we're going to be with Him in this euphoric
state forever. It is the best day of our life.
We have this comfort in death. We're just passing through. Just
trying to get home. But we'll be home real soon. Verse 5. Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. We shall not want for protection
from our enemies. Who's my enemy? Who's my enemies?
It's my sins. Those are my enemies. I love
the symbolism here. In the presence of all my enemies,
I see these enemies real clear and sometimes not that clear.
The Lord says this, sit down at this table. He said, Lord,
look at all these enemies. They're going to get me. They're
all around you. Sit down at my table. All those enemies, they're
defeated enemies. There really are no enemies there
at all. Now we see our sin. We see something
of it. We don't see the whole picture.
We see something of it. And it seems very real and it seems
very present every single day. But the reality of the situation
is this. It is finished. Those enemies are defeated enemies.
They are no more. They've been put away. And he
says, now, you just sit at my table. See my cup? Watch it run
over. My mercy will never depart. Over
and over, just gonna overflow. Those enemies, they're all defeated
enemies. Our enemies can't hurt us. Complete protection from
our enemies. They've been slain. Verse six. Surely, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. What can I expect while I'm here?
Because he says, all the days of my life, what's going to happen
while I'm here just passing through? Goodness and mercy. That's what
I can expect. Romans 8, 28, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are thee called according to his purpose. It may not feel
good. It may seem not good at the time,
but everything, not separately, but together in union, is all
working together for the Lord's people, and it's all good. It's
all goodness. He is a good God, and he is too
kind to be cruel. And everything is working together
to bring us to this expected end, the very salvation of our
souls. That's what we can expect while
we're here, goodness and mercy. Because God, on behalf of every
empty vessel, has been satisfied. God is now just in showering
and pouring out his mercy upon his people. He gets to do exactly
what he loves to do, show mercy. And because Christ is our surety,
that faucet of mercy, that shower of mercy, it never gets cut off.
Just mercy. Mercy for yesterday, mercy for
today, gonna be mercy for tomorrow. Because the mercy He doesn't
look for a reason in me to show it. He finds the reason in his
son. And that reason is never going to change. All right, look
at verse 5 of your text. 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. I think it's
interesting, this thing of shutting the door. There's a lot of significance
to that, and here's what I thought of. I thought of Noah. Remember,
so Noah walks into the ark, the Lord commands him to. Noah's
wife goes in the ark, his sons and their wives go in the ark,
and all the animals, two by two, they go in the ark. And when
they were all inside the ark, here's what the scripture says.
It says, the Lord shut him in. Speaking of Noah. Big old door
on that ark and Noah and his family and all these animals
walked in and the Lord shut that door and Noah couldn't get out. He was sealed up inside that
ark and absolutely nothing could get to Noah. And this speaks
of the eternality of salvation and the eternal security we always
have had and always will have in Christ Jesus. That door was
shut before the world was ever made. Everybody who is in Christ,
we've always been in Christ. He's the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. And before any one of us stepped
foot in this world and committed one sin, he was already the slain
lamb for that sin. It's already been put away. Every
one of God's people has always been sealed up in Christ, eternally
secure. Always have been and always will
be. Not one's going to be lost. Along the way, everybody got
a purpose to save before the foundations of the world were
ever built. They're saved, no doubt about it. It's just playing
out in time now. Verse six, 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. She was pouring out this oil,
and as long as there was an empty vessel, There was oil for that
empty vessel to fill it to the very brim. And that oil did not
stop until there were no more empty vessels. How much grace
is in the Lord Jesus Christ? Enough to fill every one of his
empty vessels. And what is he doing in this
world presently right now? What has he done in every generation,
in every century, in every moment that is going on in this earth?
What is happening? He's calling out his empty vessels.
They're being birthed into this world physically. He's birthing
them into his kingdom spiritually, filling them with his grace,
setting them off to the side in death, and moving on to the
next one over and over. And one day, folks, there's going
to be no more empty vessels. The last one's going to be born
in this world. The last one's going to be born into the kingdom
of God. And you know what's going to happen? This is all over with. Everything's done. That's what
this is all about, the Lord just calling out His people. And we
see wars and we see rumors of wars and all these things, but
the exact same thing is happening that has always happened. Christ
is just calling out His people and filling them with His grace.
And that oil is never gonna fail. The oil of His grace will never
fail as long as there is an empty vessel. Verse seven. The conclusion of the matter.
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. She had one thing, just one thing. She had that pot of oil. And
that pot of oil provided her with everything she needed to
live and paid every one of her debts. Now, I want to speak to
MP Vessels right now. Right now, if you are an empty
vessel, you've got nothing to bring before God, just a sinner
deserving damnation, deserving the wrath of God, I want you
to know something. Jesus Christ is out for you.
You can be sure of that. If you're an empty vessel, He
fills empty vessels. Now, believe on Him. Come to
Him. You have this promise. I'm going
to read you this and we're going to end here. This is Colossians
2, 9 and 10. For in him, speaking of Christ, dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete. You're full. You lack nothing. In him, which
is the head of all principality and power. We'll stop there,
guys.