Second Kings, chapter 4. Let's read verses 1 through 7. Like I said, in Philippians 4,
19, it could be read that, "...he shall supply all your needs."
He would fill to the brim, nothing lacking, because Jesus Christ
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in
Him. Everything that we need, everything,
everything is found in Him and Him alone. That's right. And if you ever learn that, if
you ever learn that, only God teaches you that. Our Lord looked
at Peter and the disciples one day. He said, whom do men say
that I am? He said, well, some say you're a great prophet or
Elijah or somebody else. He said, but whom do you say
that I am? And Peter said, Many times he missed it. Many times
he flat missed it. He didn't miss it this time.
He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and
he said, Flesh and blood didn't teach you that, but my Father
hath taught you that. It is a revelation of God Almighty. And here in 2 Kings 4, we see,
I believe, this passage illustrates Philippians 4.19. It says, Now
there cried a certain widow 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 and 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 thou shalt
pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that
which is full. So he went from him, 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
another vessel, 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, and thou and thy children of the
rest. Here we see here this woman,
she comes to Elisha the prophet in great need. Her husband has
died and he's left to dead. I know many times we bring things
upon ourself and just because a man dies in poverty doesn't
mean that he died under the wrath of God. Many times people misjudge
things. If they'd have been looking at
Paul sitting in a prison cell, they'd say, well, surely he's
done something wrong. That's not the case here. This man was
one of the sons of the prophets, probably one of the 7,000 that
did not bow to the image of Baal on Mount Carmel. He was one of
the sons of the prophets, and he died. His wife said, you know
how he feared God. He served God. He was thy servant.
And he died, and he's left to debt. And the creditors have
now come to collect the debt. She don't have any money, no
way to pay the debt, and they said, we're going to take your
two sons, they're going to be our servants, and they're going
to work off the debt. I hope I'm not straining the
scripture, but I must make a comment on this right here about this
debt. When Adam sinned, wherefore is one man's sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned. These sons were in the loins
of their father, And when their father died, that debt came to
them. Man is responsible for a debt
and the debt has to be paid. We live in a society where people
think that they can just run up a surmountable amount of debt
and it doesn't matter. Nobody has to pay it. It's not
that way with God. The debt has to be paid to the
full extent of the law. That's right. to the full extent
of the law. The law must be satisfied. And
if Jesus Christ had died for every man that would ever live
upon this earth, their debt would be paid and they would be no
reason for anyone to go to hell. That's right. But I'm glad to
not that he paid the debt for somebody. If he paid your debt,
it's paid. There's not anything else left
for you to do. It's paid. It's paid. Paid. That's the good news of
the gospel. It's paid. He didn't do part
of it. Now leave a little bit up to
you. It's paid. Thank God it's paid. It's paid. It's paid. And he paid it. He
paid it. He paid it. But here we see this
woman. She's in a Desperate, desperate
situation. And you know when we cry to God?
When we're desperate. Desperate. Can you imagine how
she felt? You imagine them coming to your
house, you that have children, and they say, we're going to
take your children. We're going to take them into bondage. That's
right. She's desperate. And I tell you,
it's a sad fact, but it's the truth. None of us don't cry out. I'm talking about really cry
to God till we get desperate. Desperate. Needy. Needy. Every time we come to the house
of God, how should we come? Needy. In the book of Revelation,
it talked about the lay of the sea in church. They said they
have, we're rich. and increased with goods and
have need of nothing," is what they said. They've got so much,
we don't need him. But he said, little do you know
that you're wretched, miserable, poor and blind and naked, and
naked. But this woman cries from her
desperation, desperation. This woman comes to the prophet
like as we come to Christ, our great mediator, come to him asking
for mercy, asking for mercy. God was pleased through this
prophet to provide a way of escape for this woman. She saw no light
at the end of the tunnel, no way out. And you know what he
told her? He said, what have I to do with
thee? He said, I can't help you. What
he's saying is, I'm poor myself. Listen, I don't care what preacher
it is, he needs help too. Religion says just the opposite.
Religion wants you to go to a preacher or a priest or somebody else
because they think they have the ability to help you. Isn't
that right? I don't care whether it's a Catholic
church or Baptist church or whatever it is, that's why they like to
be called reverend or doctor. They think that they have the
ability to help sinners and we don't. That's why Elisha said,
what can I do for thee? I can't help you. We all need
help. We all find help the same way
through Christ. But he did tell her something
to do. This seems so strange. He said, you and your sons go
to your neighbors and borrow some jars, vessels. Then he describes them. Empty
jars. And he says, don't borrow just
a few. You borrow as many as you can
find. I said, that sounds so ridiculous. To me, that describes the gospel.
It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them which
believe. To the world that looked foolish,
to the world us gathering here tonight looks foolish." And that's
why they say, well, the gospel just won't get the job done anymore.
That's why we've got to have something else. We've got to
have a puppet show. We've got to have some gimmick
or gadget or something to get people entertained because the
gospel just won't work anymore. I have news for this world. The
gospel still gets the job done. That's how God has always saved
His people. The only way He saves His people,
through the preaching of the gospel, and we leave it in God's
hands. The only way. The only way. We don't need a new way. This
is the old way. Walk thou in it. Walk thou in
it. Listen, the neighbors probably
mocked her, and they probably said, the prophet's just mocking
you. What can come from all these empty jars? Listen, God takes
care of us in ways that exercise our faith. Exercise our faith. Listen, God will bring you through,
but do not expect Him to bring you through in a way that human
reasoning would suggest, for that would not provide any development
for your faith. He plants his footsteps on the
sea, and he rides upon the storm. It's faith. Faith. You read again this week, Hebrews
chapter 11. Abraham staggered not at the
promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
God all the glory. All the glory. And he, and I
tell you this, if you have faith, God gave you faith. I'm talking
about the faith of God's elect. If you believe in God Almighty,
if you believe and trust His dear Son and hang your soul upon
Him, God gave you that faith. And if He gave it to you, He
will increase that faith. We want to trust in what we can
see. You know how we are? We want to trust what we can
see. Trust in empty jars. Trust in empty jars. She's just
doing exactly what God commanded her, and we do exactly what God
commands us to do, and preach His gospel, and we trust Him
for the results, whether we see it or not. Noah didn't he preach
for 120 years? How many converts did he see? When Jeremiah, that God told
him, he said, before you go, he said, they ain't gonna hear.
The world would say, well, why'd he even go? Because God said
so. If we never see a convert, our
main objective in preaching the gospel is not to get converts,
it's to glorify God if nobody comes. That's right. That's where the issue's at.
We're going to glorify Him, magnify Him. But He will bring us through
things that we must trust Him. And I tell you this, I try not
to relate personally a lot, but let me tell you this. was sick in the hospital for
two months. We prayed that God would heal
her. And let me tell you, he did. Maybe not in the way that
we had expected, but he did. I've heard my children make those
statements. That's a blessing. You know,
that's where peace is at. God don't make any mistakes.
We think, well, If we think He's going to heal someone, then God's
going to raise them up and restore them to their health. He, she's
healed the night. She's in His presence. No more
sickness, no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow. That's
how God works. That's how God works. And we learn to trust Him for
everything. In these empty vessels, And in
this oil that filled these empty vessels, we see the grace that
is in our Lord Jesus Christ. She was to gather together these
empty vessels, bring them into her room, and the empty vessels
were filled. As long as there were empty vessels,
the oil kept flowing till they were all filled to the brim.
When they were all filled, she asked for more. But there were
not another empty vessel, and the oil stayed. Not until every vessel was full. This little chorus from the song
says, Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power. till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more." Do we have needs? Do you ever
feel like your vessel's empty? Do you ever feel that way? Why? Because of a thing called sin.
But His oil will never run out as long as our vessel's empty.
But one day all of the vessels will be full and He'll take us
out of this world. Take a sound. As long as there
were vessels to be filled, this oil of His grace flowed. It never
ceased to flow. Listen, nothing else in the universe
restrains the flow of this oil but the want of vessels to receive
it. The vessels failed before the
oil failed. Our power of receiving will give
out long before God's power of bestowing. His grace flows. Amazing grace. His mercies are
new every morning. The Lord might bless you today
and you seem like, man, there's no trouble, everything's fine,
but what about tomorrow? Things can change awful quick.
The oil still flows into who? Empty vessels. Empty vessels. This is true of our providential
circumstances. As long as we have needs, we
shall have them supplied." You know what David said? He said,
I've never seen the righteous forsaken or ever seen them begging
bread. He said, don't take thought for
your food or raiment or the clothes you should put on. He said, look
at the birds. He said, I feed them. I'll take care of you. Ain't that what he said? He said,
don't be like the Gentiles are. He said, they worry about everything.
We're resting in Christ. We're His. The children of Israel
wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Who fed them? He did. How did He feed them? He sent
manna every day. You know what we would have liked? We would have wanted Him to send
the whole week's worth so we could have hoarded it up. It
took faith to trust God. Well, He sent me manna today.
He'll send me manna tomorrow. when he fed the 5,000. That was
just men. That's besides women and children.
He fed them till they were full. And then he said, now you go
get up the fragments. And they gathered up 12 baskets full.
His grace never runs out. Never. Never. The only thing that this woman
had was a supply of one pot of oil. But this continued to stream
forth as each vessel was placed under this pot. Grace poured
out. This is also seen in regarding
God's grace, God's saving grace to sinners. As long as there's
one person unsaved, one person seeking God's grace and mercy,
one empty vessel, the oil will flow. As long as there's one. What's the only requirement?
The vessel had to be empty. Empty. I can just see as the
boys go, borrow the vessels from the neighbors. The neighbor probably
said, here's a vessel. It's got a little bit of oil
in it. Somebody says, well, let me fill up the vessel before
you take it. If it has any oil at all in it, it disqualifies
it. It must be empty. empty. A full Christ is for empty sinners,
and for empty sinners only. As long as there's really empty
souls, there'll be oil to go forth. The problem today is people
just ain't empty. They've got everything they think
they need. He didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. He didn't come him that thinks
he's well, but those that are sick. Listen, it's not our emptiness,
but our fullness which can hinder the flow of grace. What did he
say? He could not do many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. Their unbelief. A man asked Mr. Spurgeon, that great preacher
of the gospel one time, they asked him this question. said,
Do you not think the greatest hindrance to salvation is our
sinful self? He said, Oh, no, I don't. The
greatest hindrance to salvation is your righteous self. You have family members. I do. You have friends. I do. Most all of them are religious. They think they're righteous. And they don't think they need
Him. Oh, that God would make them
empty. Empty. And the oil would what? Flow. That's when it flows. All through this book, it's the
same. When you read Psalms 107, it says, when they come to their
wits end, then they cried unto the Lord. He brought them to
their safe haven. When we're empty, we come as
beggars, poor. empty, have no righteousness
of our own. God allows you to see that. Then
you come to Him begging for mercy. And you know what He does? He
fills your vessel to the full. And He fills, listen to me, every
empty vessel. He does. He'll save every sinner. That's right. Everybody that
he makes aware of their sin and their need and their depravity,
he'll save every one of them. He will. He will. No man is too
bad to come to Christ, but many are too good. I think it was
Maurice Montgomery said one time, you know, if God would open the
eyes of sinners and they seen their self as who they really
are, they would be a stampede of people running. to him. Why? They're empty. Empty. Empty. Some people may say, well, I've
done not have any good works in the past, but I believe I
can do some in the future. This time of year, everybody
makes New Year's resolutions, don't they? Say, well, I'm going
to read my Bible more. I think I'll pray more. I think
I'll be more faithful to the church. Now, we should do all
those things. But we can't in our own strength. We can't. But you know, people, there's
a man in my church, he called me last night and he said, there's
this young man, he said, I've been inviting him to church.
And he said he lives with this girl and he said they drink. And he said, he told me the other
day, he said he was going to get married and he's going to
quit his drinking and then he's going to come to church. Ain't
that how most people think? He thinks, when I get everything
right, then I'll come. You come just like you are. I
know people have perverted that great hymn, Just As I Am, but
how do we come? Just exactly like we are. Filthy, wretched, miserable sinners. Empty, needy sinners. And God's grace flows. If you can save yourself, Christ
won't save you. You don't need Him. You don't
need Him. You must be emptied of self in
all forms before grace will fill you. Christ does not need your
help. He does not need your help. Boy,
I wish I could have the ear of this whole world. Christ does
not need their help. And this is a sad thing. This
world is being told that God needs their help. That He's done
all He can do to save them, and now it's just up to them. Isn't
that right? And I tell you, that's sad. That's
sad. Give up once and for all, depending
upon what you have done, what you think you shall do, and just
look to Him. Look to Him. Some may say, I
don't feel anything at all. Still come to Him as empty, empty. And oh, that we would find more
empty vessels. When was the last time you found
an empty vessel? I'm talking about a true, genuine, convicted,
heartbroke sinner. I heard Brother Henry Mahan uses
told this story one time, said he was a lady in his church,
said her husband had worked for the town or something and he
was in this explosion, like to killed him. Well, you know, now
he's scared to death. And she said, he wants you to come see
him in the hospital. Well, Henry takes his Bible and
goes in there to visit the man and he tells him who he is because
he'd never come to his church. And the first thing Henry asked
him, he said, Mr. Such-and-such said, are you a
sinner? He said, I don't know if I'd say that. Henry closed
his Bible and said, I don't have anything for you. You know why? That man wasn't empty. That man
wasn't empty. He just got afraid of dying.
And that's not what the issue is. I remember when I was in
religion, people was always saying, if you died right now, would
you go to heaven or hell? Heaven or hell is not the issue. Christ
is the issue. Christ is the issue. And oh,
that we would find more empty vessels. And His free grace will flow. Listen. It doesn't matter the
size. It can be a little jar. It can
be a big jar. It doesn't matter the age of
the vessel, the shape of the vessel, and the condition of
the vessel. It only must be brought empty. Empty. When a sinner receives
Christ, he receives all the grace he wants till he's full. You
are complete, you are complete in him. Christ doesn't half feel. He doesn't say, now I saved you. Now I'm leaving it up to you
to sanctify yourself. People are told that. I'm telling
you the truth. I saved you, now I'm leaving it up to you. Now
you do the best you can. No, He fills us. There's nothing
lacking. Nothing lacking. As long, listen,
as long as there exists an empty, penniless, poverty-stricken soul
that longs and yearns after a precious Christ, there is a precious Christ
for that poor, longing, needy soul. Blessed is the man that
hungers and thirsts after righteousness, for he shall be filled. He shall
be filled. Are there any more empty vessels?
They sure are. You think He saved all the elect?
There's more empty vessels. When the last one is saved, we're
out of here. That's exactly right. The day
that God took Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah, judgment fell on
that place. That's what I'm saying. He's
got empty vessels. He's going to bring them. He will bring
them and He will fill them. They shall be saved. They shall
be filled. They shall be found in due time. He knows exactly where everyone's
at. He even sent Paul to Rome to
save people in Rome. He sure did. If we'd have been
sending Paul to Rome, we'd have sent him some other way. We'd
have sent him on the back of a stud stallion horse. That's
the way we would have sent him. But God sent him in chains. In
chains. Listen, are you dead? He'll give
you life. Are you sick? He'll be your health. Are you a beggar? He'll be your
riches. Are you lost? He'll be your Savior. And this could be applied to
any other spiritual blessing that we need. And we need spiritual
blessings daily. Every time I come to this book,
I need Him to open that book for me I don't ever get over
that. And when we come, and it seems
like we've come maybe many days and not saw anything. After a
few days, you know what happens? We get hungry. We come, you know
how we come? We come in desperate. God, I
need to hear you speak. I've come before and I've heard
you speak. I know you've spoke. God, would you speak to my heart? That's a spiritual blessing.
You know what he does? He fills your cup. He fills your
cup. As I've already said, unbelief
hinders grace. He did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. Something I noticed here that
Elisha told this woman, he told her and she did it. He said,
you get the vessels, bring them into the house, you come in,
your sons come in, and you shut the door. Why did he tell her
to shut the door? To shut out the hindrances. God can't do this. God can't
fill them empty jars. You ever heard those voices?
Have you? God can't do that. Yes, he can.
Yes, he can. She's alone with him. Nobody
can't take the credit and say, well, if anybody else had been
in there, they said I filled up that jar. He did it. There's
no question about it. He did it. Pride is a hindrance
to grace. Soul poverty leads to fullness,
but carnal security creates barrenness, barrenness. The Holy Spirit delights,
He delights to comfort every hungry heart. And listen, this
also, these empty vessels being filled, has reference to our
prayers. The prophet told the woman to
borrow empty vessels, not a few. If she had borrowed a few, she
would have got little oil. That's right. But she borrowed
a bunch. And how many times do we come
to God with our needs? Empty. Lord, you must fill them. Pray for your children. Pray
for your loved ones. Make them empty. Make them empty,
God, that you may fill them. And you know, Paul, you know
what he said? I forget which church he was writing to. He
said, he said, pray for me that God would give me a word of utterance.
In essence, you know what he's saying? You pray that God would
make me empty and that he might fill me with his grace so that
I might speak to your heart. Pray for all God's people that
God would make them like empty vessels and ask God to fill them. God, keep us empty. The song
we sung, Come Thou Fount, says, Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Take this heart, O Lord, and
seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above. You know how our hearts
yearn after this world. God must wean us from this world.
And when we come to the house of God, we should come how? Hungry. Hungry. Empty. God would, God make me empty. God make me hungry. We don't
know much about being hungry. Not physically. Most of the time
we don't get hungry between meals. Especially when Gary stops and
buys a whole dozen of donuts. Most time we just eat because
we like to eat. But if you take an individual
who's not eat anything for three or four days, he's desperate. He's empty. His stomach's growling. And listen, he won't let anything
stand in his way. What would make a man drive for
miles just to hear the gospel? drive by a lot of other places
that they say preach the gospel. What would make a man drive a
long ways just to come to a place where he could hear the gospel
preached? I tell you what, he's hungry. He's empty. He's empty. Lord, would you fill
me with your grace? Remind me once again. Remind
me once again of who you are. Remind me of your righteousness.
Remind me of who I am, but remind me of who you are. The Shulamite
said, I'm black. That's talking about who we are
by nature. We're black by sin. But she said, I'm comely. If
we just dwell upon who we are, we'd leave depressed. But let
me tell you this, if God and the Lord Jesus Christ has made
you righteous, you're comely. And you know why? When you see
that, you know what it does? It fills your cup. It fills your
vessel. Empty. God make us empty that
he may fill us. And as long as we're empty, you
know what happens? The oil flows. I hear people talking about what
George Whitefield did. What Jonathan Edwards did. What
Martin Luther did. What Spurgeon did. You know,
they said Spurgeon, you know, that Metropolitan Tabernacle
would probably hold 5,000 people. He would tell those people on
Sunday morning, don't come back Sunday night. You'd say, why? He said, so 5,000 more can come. We still serve the same God.
God on the day of Pentecost filled 3,000 empty vessels, didn't He?
Ain't that what He did? He saved 3,000. We still serve
the same God. We still serve the same God.
He's still on the throne. He does all things for His own
glory and our eternal good. All things, all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. And I tell you what, we don't
know what's in store in the days ahead. But God might be getting
ready to make some people empty. And I tell you what, He has to
make them empty. You can't make yourself empty.
Try it. Then He does what? He fills them
with His grace. Let me close by reading verses
6 and 7. The Lord filled all these empty
vessels. And it said in verse 6, And it
came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto
her son, bring me yet a vessel." In essence, she's saying, is
there not any more empty vessel? Is there not any more? 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 listen, and he said,
go sell the oil and pay thy debt and live thou and thy children
of the rest. God's grace paid the debt. Can you imagine how she felt?
Who paid the debt? It wasn't by her efforts. It
wasn't by her good deeds. It was grace that paid the debt. And not only paid the debt, they
lived on the rest. How do we live? We live on grace. We live on His sufficiency every
single day. We're just poor and needy, yet
the Lord thinketh upon us. God help us all to keep before
us our need, our need of Him, and that every time we come to
Him for anything, we should come and God help us, God help us,
God help us to come empty so He may fill us with His grace. May God bless that to our hearts
and to his glory. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you are
the all sufficient God and that you are still a God
that sits upon the throne ruling and reigning over all things.
Lord, enable us always to see our need, to see our emptiness,
and see, Lord, that our sufficiency lies in you. Fill us with your
grace and with your mercy. And, Lord, we pray for those
whom we know who are lost and without you. Make them empty. Make them desperate. that they
would cry out for mercy and seek you with their whole heart. We commit all this, Lord, into
your hands, and we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And may God bless you.