each one of you here this morning.
If you would, turn back with me to the book of 2 Kings chapter
4. I wanted to read to you the first
seven verses of this chapter. The first seven verses. 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 orals stayed. Then she
came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the orals,
and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest."
Well, this is just one of the interesting stories that we have
in this fourth chapter of the book of 2 Kings. And we see how
that the faith in every instance of these people that are involved
with Elisha, they have been recipients of blessing and help, but we
see that their faith was greatly tried in every instance. Now
you remember the story of the Shunanite woman, we read it to
you a few moments ago, who had provided the man of God, her
and her husband, had provided him a little room on the wall.
And he came there and stayed, and of course he was very grateful
for what the Lord had provided by their hands, and so he wanted
to do something for them. And so he called the Shunanite
woman and asked through Gehazi, his servant, to ask her what
it was that he might do for her, what could be done for them.
And she didn't have any suggestion. And so Gehazi said she doesn't
have any children, and her husband is an old man. It's going to
take a miracle if they ever have a child. And so the prophet Elisha
said, about this time next year you're going to hold in your
arms a little baby boy yes you will and she said now don't deceive
me old man of God don't deceive me and of course you remember
the story that God did bless her and she did have a son and
in a little while the son became ill and the son died And she,
of course, remembered the words of the man of God. She knew that
it was a miracle that she received this son. And so she said, I
will go to the man of God. And so she asked her husband
to send a young man and to saddle an ass. And that all came to
pass. And she went. And when the prophet
saw her coming, he said, there's the Shunammite woman, go down
and see what the problem is, and ask about herself, and ask
about her husband, and ask about the child. And he did, and she
said all is well. All is well. And it doesn't make
any difference, beloved, if our child be laid at home dead, whatever
our circumstances be in our lives, if we're children of God, if
we're in Christ Jesus, If we are one with Christ, married
to Him by faith, if God has taken up our cause and our case, if
we truly belong to God, all is well, regardless of what appears
to be wrong around us and in our lives. All really is well. And I sure appreciated what she
had to say. All is well, she said. And then,
of course, She got a hold of the man of God by the heels,
and said, you remember the words, she said, did I ask you for a
son? No, I didn't ask you for this blessing, but you gave the
blessing. Through the Lord, you sent this
blessing into my life. And you remember the words, she
said, she reminded him, did I tell you not to deceive me? and so
immediately he sent Gehazel with his staff and then he came and
followed the woman to the house and you remember the rest of
the story but there was a great miracle took place and the child
was raised from the dead the child was restored to life and
this was a miracle indeed but you see how the faith of this
woman was greatly tried as she received the blessing and then
the blessing was taken away and the child died and then as she
waited upon the prophet and waited upon the Lord to see what was
going to come to pass and the Lord did restore life into that
baby and then there was a drought in the land and the prophets
they needed something to eat the school of the prophets and
so there was a man who went out Elisha said you put on that big
pop and we're gonna make some soup and so the one of the prophets
went out and he got a bunch of herbs and gourds together and
He got a wild vine. He didn't know what it was. He
came back. Preachers don't know much about
cooking. I never met one that could cook. But anyway, here
he comes back and he cuts up all of this stuff into this pot
and poured whatever water and stuff in there was necessary
and started cooking that up. And so then Elisha said, serve
it, serve it to these men. And they started serving it out
and they tasted of it and they said, while there's death in
the That pot, that stuff isn't fit to eat. He said, you can't
eat that. There's something wrong in that pot. So Elisha, he takes
some meal and he just throws it into that pot. And immediately
that pot of food is good. And he says, serve it. And they
took it and ate it. And nobody received any harm. What a miracle it was. But if
you would have been there, I wonder if you would have ate that pottage
after the meal, even after the meal had been thrown in by the
prophet Elisha. Would you have eaten it? Well,
you would have wondered about it, I'm sure a great deal. Said,
I don't know whether that stuff is still any good or not. But
their faith was greatly tried, but they went right on and ate
it. And then after that, there was a fella, and I like this,
there was a fella that came to Elisha, and the scripture says
he came from a place that you can't hardly pronounce, Baal
Shaloshar or whatever that is, and he brought the man of God
bread, the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley, full ears of corn
in the husk thereof and he said and Elisha said to him here this
fella comes up here to this little sack of groceries and he comes
up and he says to and Elisha says to him said just give unto
the people that they may eat just pass this around just start
passing around and the fellas said to him what Should I set
this before a hundred men? Should I set this out before
a hundred men? Why, they're just a little sack
of groceries. I carried them myself. There's not enough here
to feed all these people. They're in any way. And Elisha
said, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord,
they shall eat. and shall leave thereof." The
Lord just spoke in his ear and said, these people are going
to eat before they leave, Elisha. These people are going to eat.
And so the Lord spoke and said, they'll eat and then leave. And
Elisha said, well, that means that whatever there is here to
eat, God's going to bless it so that everybody is going to
eat before they leave. That's what it means. And you
see how this man's faith was greatly tried. And so he just
sent her out there, and so he said it before them in verse
44, and they did eat, and they left thereof according to the
word of the Lord. Now that's a blessing to me to
see how that the faith of God's people were tried here in this
chapter, and to see that very often God may bring us into circumstances
where that he's going to say to us well you are in trouble
but there's a way out and you follow me and I'll deliver you
and I'll bring you out now let's get back to this story in the
first seven verses we didn't talk about that we've read it
to you but we didn't talk about it now here in this in these
first seven verses here's a widow of a prophet And the prophet
has died and she is left in destitution. She's left in debt. And I guess
the best of men may die and leave their families in debt and leave
them in poverty. But this man had left his wife
and his children in debt and distress. from which we might
learn this lesson that holy men may be in the worst of circumstances,
and yet that in and of itself is no proof that the Lord has
forsaken them or that the Lord had forsaken them at the time
of their death. You cannot judge a person's character
by his position in life. What he has or does not have
does not mean the man is either holy or he is unholy. Now a lot of people think that
if you have in this world, that means that God has richly blessed
you and that you have because of the grace of God. But beloved,
it's not so. Remember old Lazarus as he was
at the rich man's gate full of sores and the Bible says the
rich man died and he went to hell. And he had all this world's
goods. He was clothed in fine purple. The Bible said he fared sumptuously
every day. But, oh, Lazarus, there he was,
full of sores, there at the gate, just eating the crumbs that fall
from the master's table. And here he is in this condition.
Yet the Bible says he died, and he went to Abraham's bosom. meaning
he went to heaven, he went to glory. And so, beloved, you see
from that that what a man has or does not have does not prove
whether he is or is not a child of God. Poverty is no sign of
grace, neither is riches a sign of God's favor or God's mercy,
because there are those that have their portion in this life
only and have no inheritance in the life to come and remember
that when you look around and you see sometimes people just
doing all so well in this world it may be that God has given
them their portion in this life and they have nothing in eternity
they have no heaven to go to all the heaven they'll ever see
is what they have right here in this life But those that are
the Lord's children, they may be poor, and Scripture says the
Lord has left in the midst of the land a poor and afflicted
people who trust in the Lord. And those people have an inheritance
to come. Now, as a general rule, true
religion is more often found, I think, among the poor than
among the rich. The scripture says, the poor
have the gospel preached unto them. Those that are rich in
faith, James says, those are God's people. Now, let this encourage
those that may be here this morning in low and afflictive circumstances
You are where prophets and where saints of God have been in times
past, are now and have been in times past. Now, God is able
always to lift a man up. There's one thing that we ought
never to question as long as we live, and that is the ableness
of God to bring us out of whatever circumstances that we might have
come into. And we see that God marvelously
delivered these people here in this chapter, and we see that
God did deliver this woman, this wife of the prophet, who her
husband had died and left her in great debt. So the Lord is
able, regardless of what your situation is, He's able to raise
you up, and regardless of how poor you are, you're not as poor
as your master was when he was here in this world. The scripture
says, boxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the
son of man hath not a place to lay his head. So regardless of
how poor you are, you're not as poor as the Lord Jesus Christ
was when he was here in this world. So seek to be rich in
faith, and bow before the determination of God's providence and ask for
the grace of God to be patient under your afflictions. Now this
sorrowing widow went to God through the prophet. She spoke to God,
as it were, through the prophet. Now this was the way that people
in that day and time with broken hearts and special trials would
speak to God. They would speak to God through
the prophet of God. And this woman, being that her
husband was a prophet, she was well acquainted with this way,
and so she speaks here to Elisha. and tells Elisha, her case, that
her husband's dead and the creditors are here, they're going to take
my sons and they're going to make bondment of them until the
debts are all paid. But now we have another mediator. We don't have prophets as such,
seers, as Elisha was in the Old Testament in these days. We do
have men who are preachers of the gospel and we're not saying
that there's no place for sharing and requesting of preachers and
other people of God, sharing with them our needs and our situations
and our prayer requests. We're not saying that. But we're
saying that we have another mediator. And the Bible says this mediator
is Jesus Christ the righteous. And every believer is a spiritual
priest and can come directly to the Lord Jesus Christ in the
time of trouble and take their burden and cast it on the Lord. So it's not necessary that you
come to me and say, Preacher, I'm in great need. Would you
talk to the Lord for me? I might do that, but you can
talk to the Lord too if you're in Christ, because we have a
mediator. We have a go-between. We've got
somebody that we can go to, and then he goes to God Almighty
and requests that which we need in our lives. Jesus is the mediator. Now this widow went to the prophet
And so let us go to that greater prophet, even Jesus our Lord,
without hesitation and without delay. Come boldly, Paul said,
to the throne of grace and make your request known and make your
need that you might have your need supplied in the time when
you're pressed. God was pleased to ordain here
by his servant a way of escape for this poor woman. He asked
her in verse 2, he said, what do you have in the house? What have you got in the house?
You're in desperate need. What do you have in the house? Now it's a rule of God's providence
that his children should cry to him in the day of trouble
and that he would graciously, in the day when they cry, in
the day of trouble, that he would deliver them. In Psalm 50 and
verse 15, it says, Offer to God your vows and call unto me in
the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify me. In the day of trouble you call
at Psalm 50 and verse 14 and 15. But you call unto me, and
I will deliver you, and thou shalt glorify me. Now God never, never neglects
the children of His own house. God will provide for His own.
David said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Now whether your trouble be temporal
or spiritual, if you leave that trouble with God, if you pray
and walk in the fear of the Lord and trust in His name, sooner
or later, in some way or other, He must make a way of escape
for you. He promised. In the book of I
Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13, There hath no temptation
taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tested above what you are able
to bear, but will with the testing make a way of escape that you
may be able to bear it. That is the promise of the Word
of God. Now others, if we lean upon the
arm of flesh, were told by the old songwriter that the arm of
flesh will fail you, and you dare not trust your own. If you
lean upon men, and if you lean upon others here in this world,
they will fail you, but the Lord never, never will fail His own. Now the way in which this woman
was delivered was one which exercised, it proved and exercised and strengthened
her faith. She, her sons, had to go and
borrow empty vessels of her neighbors. Can you imagine, here this woman
and her two sons, they start out and they go down the streets
or the roads or I don't know how sparsely populated the area
was in which they lived, but they had to go out and borrow
every empty vessel they could find. Every bucket, every bottle,
every vessel that was available, they were to go out and to borrow
it. Now, beloved, this would be quite
trying, I think, to an individual's faith. It was strange indeed,
I'm sure, to the woman. And she was acquainted somewhat
with the ways of God, but this was strange to her. And I'm sure
that the neighbors, that they thought it quite strange. How
could this be the thing for these people to do? What do they want
these empty vessels for? They're not asking for anything
except empty vessels. They're not asking for anything
to be in them. All they want is empty buckets.
They don't want anything in them. They just want these empty buckets. They don't want anything in them.
They just want these empty vessels. Now, unbelief might have said,
how can this thing ever work? How are these people going to
be delivered with these empty jars? These empty fruit jars
and these empty buckets, how are they ever going to be delivered
in that way? Now you see, this is why I like this. It's because,
you know, man with all of his wisdom and his intelligence is
repudiated right here. It really is. You take man, human
reason and carnal sense, greatest enemies of the child of God,
they're always getting away. When a man ought to be walking
by faith, his old flesh says, that'll never work. Oh, we can't
do that. That isn't possible. I mean,
isn't that kind of a foolish way to go about trying to be
delivered? Well, nevertheless. They tried their faith, but they
did it anyway. And how are you going to be able,
even if you get all these vessels and you get them all lined up,
well, are you going to pour out of that one little jar, and you
think that one little jar, what comes out of that one little
jar is going to fill up all them vessels? You think that's going
to happen? Well, you see, beloved, that's the trial of faith right
there, the trial of faith. You believe what God says. If
you believe God, if you can trust God, if you can depend upon God,
and if you're given to it, come what will, out of that little
jar is going to come enough oil to fill up every vessel they
were able to borrow. Every vessel is going to be filled
up. Elisha said, you go borrow them, and you shut your sons
and yourself up in that room, and you start pouring. And there's
going to be, there's going to be a miracle take place. Now then, the prophet has, the
neighbors might say, he's mocked you, he's going to make a fool
out of you, but she did what she was told, she believed God,
she did it in faith, and the result answer to the end. Now God delivers his people and
his servants in ways that, as we said earlier, always seem
to exercise their faith. Faith must be tested. Faith must
grow. Faith must be made strong. Faith
must come to full assurance. Expect Believer that God will
bring you through whatever He has allowed you to come into. Expect that He will bring you
through it, but do not expect Him to bring you through it in
the way that your own fleshly mind thinks it should be done. Don't think that God's going
to bring you through it like your neighbors think, that it
ought to be done. You cast yourself upon the Lord.
Don't make a map for God to follow in delivering you out of your
troubles and out of your trials. The old song says, he plants
his footsteps in the sea. Don't provide a vehicle for God
to use. He rides upon the storm and God
has a way of his own and he does as he pleases. and you be content
to stand still when you're in trouble and see the salvation
of the Lord. Be content to wait upon this
God because He is able. Now so much than for these surface
truths that we find here. There's lessons that we learn
here, and these lessons are valuable that we've given to you, but
I want you to turn now to another verse of scripture in the New
Testament. It's found in the book of Philippians,
and it's the fourth chapter, Philippians chapter 4, and I
want you to look at verse 19. Look at verse 19, where the scripture
says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Listen to that promise. This
is the Apostle Paul writing to the Philippian church. He says,
but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Now, the best translation of
the Greek which I think nearly touches the meaning here of this
verse is this. Let me give it to you. My God
shall fill up all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. Now when we join this particular
verse to the story that we've been talking about this morning,
then we have our text. I want to talk to you just briefly
about four things here this morning as we try to sum up and as we
try to get together in our thinking the lessons that we're talking
about. There are four things that I
want to talk about briefly. Number one, the empty vessels.
Set them out in a row, all your need, but my God shall fill up
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Secondly, who's gonna fill them
up? Well, Paul said, my God shall fill up all your need. And thirdly, after what fashion
is he going to do it? Well, it's according to his riches
in glory. And then fourthly, by what means
will he do it? And it is by Christ Jesus. that
he will supply all of our needs. Well then, first of all, set
out the empty vessels, all your needs. Now, I don't suppose that
we need to go out and borrow other people's needs this morning,
for we have enough of our own. I'm sure that everybody here
this morning could sit and talk maybe for hours on end about
their needs. Needs they have, the varied needs
that they have. Needs for the body, needs for
their soul, needs for themselves, needs for their family, needs
for the present, needs for the future, needs for time, needs
for eternity. needs for earth and needs for
heaven, all kinds of needs that we could just sit and talk about
all morning long. So we don't need to go out and
borrow anybody else's because it seems like that as many minutes
as there are in the day, that many needs that we all seem to
have. Now I couldn't begin to tell
you this morning In the little time that I have here, and being
that I have the floor and am doing the speaking, I couldn't
begin to tell you my own needs. But I know that they're enormous,
and I know that they're increasing as the years go by. Needs as
a man. needs as a husband, needs as
a father, and needs as a pastor. The fact is, every position that
we find ourselves in, it just seems to add to our needs. Well, it puts God in no straits
for us to have needs. I want to say that. It doesn't
put God in any bad position for us to have needs. Somebody suggested
one time, In my hearing that, you know, one of the reasons
why they couldn't pray very fervently about their needs was because
there are so many needs all over the world. They know of so many,
many people that have so many needs and their needs are more
than our needs may be. But beloved, listen, it doesn't
put God in any straits. God's not poor, and it doesn't
put God in any strait for you to have a need. And remember
that. You're not about to burden the Lord. You're not about to
put pressure on God to where He can just barely make it if
He does what you need for Him to do. God can abundantly supply
your need and can supply everybody else's need at the same time. For there is just so much more
room for the Lord to work His miracles of grace, His bountiful
grace, if you have the more needs you have, just that much more
room for God to work. It is when the vessels are empty
that there's room for God to work. Not even God can fill up
a vessel that's not empty. What are we saying? All of our
needs are occasions for blessings from God. And you come in here
and you say, Preacher, I was all weighted down for my needs,
and you tell me that every need that I have, that is just an
occasion for God to bless me? That's exactly what I'm telling
you. The more needs you have, the more blessing you will get
from the hand of God. God has promised to fill up all
your needs. And what? The more that we are
in need, the better. Yes, I would have your faith
believe that same, that strange statement, that the more needs
you have, the better off you are, because God will work. on your behalf. Your poverty
will be your riches, your weakness your strength, your abasement
will be your exaltation. Your extremities shall be an
opportunity that God will use to show the riches of His grace. And God will fill your every
need. He will fill it till your cup
runs over. Don't weep over your empty jars. Set them out. Set them out. Just like this
woman and her sons. Why they brought them jars in
that room and they set them out there and they started pouring.
and the vessels were all filled up. Now some of your empty vessels
are big, they're growing bigger all the time, your family may
be getting bigger, and you may have more people sitting around
your table now than you did a while ago, and you may have more infirmities
now than you did a few years ago when you were a little younger,
but whatever a person wants when he is young, I think he wants
it more when he's older. The older you get, And when you
begin to see that eternity is growing very close, you know,
because the young may die, but the old must die. They must die. And so we're definitely facing
eternity, some of us, and whatever we wanted when we were younger,
we want it more intensely now. I think we have a greater need
for love to God, more patience, more resignation in the light
of what God is doing in our lives, more grace, more humility, more
charity, and more wisdom, more holiness. All these are great
needs we have as we see eternity drawing near. We desire more
faith. We desire a brighter hope. And
in prospects of death especially, we need more courage and we need
more boldness, simple childlike confidence in the Lord Jesus
Christ to face death. The older we get, the vacuum
within our spirit expands and enlarges, and we cry out, more
knowledge of the Scriptures, more of the Holy Spirit, more
power to serve God and to do what is right. We want more and
more, and the mercy is, my God shall supply all your need according
to His riches in glory. by Christ Jesus. The promise
is to God's people. He is speaking to these Philippians
here who are believers. Well, while the oil is flowing,
you get out the vessels and don't hide them in the back room and
worry about all your needs next week, but bring them out and
ask God to fill them. And my God, Paul said, and I'll
tell you this, that if it wasn't for the promise that Paul gave. I wouldn't have any message this
morning. He gave a message. He said, but my God will fill
up. He will fill up all your needs.
Bring them vessels out and set them out there and they'll be
filled. Now then, the second thing is
this. Who is to fill these vessels?
My God, Paul says, will fill these vessels. Now, if it were
not for God, we'd be fools to be talking like we are this morning.
Isn't that right? because no man we will we did
there's nobody i don't know what you can go except to god to get
your needs supplied there's nobody else that is able to do it doesn't
make any difference we were talking about the richest man in the
world coming in this morning date was written out of the paper
about him and how many uh... billions of dollars he was worried
and uh... david suggested said now if you
were to pay it all on the national debt you would even be able to
tell And that scares you, doesn't it? You wouldn't be able to tell.
The richest man in the United States took all of his money,
nine billion dollars, and put it on the national debt, and
when they told you how much the debt was afterwards, it wouldn't,
to your ear, you wouldn't even notice a difference. Man is not
able to provide the needs of God's people. But Paul said,
but my God shall supply all your need. God can supply the needs
of His people. He is all sufficient, but nobody
else can. He only knows our needs. He knows what we have need of.
We're told in Matthew 6 and 8, before we ask. He knows what
we have need of. He can do it, and He alone. For
nothing, the Bible says, is too hard for the Lord. They that
wait upon the Lord shall not want for any good thing. Trust
in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37 and verse 3. God can
do it. There's no bounds to the goodness
and the power of God. Paul's God is the God of providence. And what a wonderful God that
is. Well, who are we? Well, we're
just a speck on the wall. That's what we are, just a speck
on the wall. But God opens up His hand, the
Bible says, and He satisfies the desire of every living thing. Think of that. Man, beast, all
the creatures of the earth, birds, the insects, your Heavenly Father
feeds and sustains them all every day. Now isn't that a marvelous
thing? I never get over that. I've quoted
that verse over and over and you know that I have. But I'll
tell you, I never get over that. God just opens his hand and satisfies
the desires of every living thing. That's the God that we worship. And there's a poem that says,
He that has made my heaven secure will here all good provide. While
Christ is rich, can I be poor? What can I want besides? Now
this text in Philippians 4.19 was on the front of Spurgeon's
orphanage. It was on the cornerstone, this
text. But my God shall supply all your need. And he was greatly
influenced by a man by the name of George Mueller of Bristol. And he had, I forget how many
of them, I think about six different orphanages. orphanages, and he
had approximately 2,500 orphans all the time that were in those
orphanages. And they were all fed, all those
children were fed by faith only. He just, George Mueller believed
God, he trusted God, he built them orphanages, and he put all
them kids in there, and whenever he needed bread, he prayed for
it. When he needed money, he prayed for it. He prayed up, and he just grew up and finally
left out of the other end. He fed and supported those orphans
by faith. And he didn't have anybody that
underwrote except God Almighty. God Almighty had led him and
caused him, and nothing was ever warning, where God was the provider. God provided every need that
they have. Well, the third place, in what
style will God provide his people's needs? Well, in a style that
becomes his wealth, according to his riches. There is, I think
there's more than one way, and you would agree with me, there
is more than one way to give a quarter to a beggar. There
is, you can throw it at him, you can just pass by and throw
it to him, or you can give him the quarter with a smile, or
you can say to him, here's a quarter, but don't let me see your face
again. Get out of here and get on down the street. Or you could,
you know, there are those who give miserly and grudgingly,
but this, the way God gives, is he gives according to his
riches the riches of his grace. I hope you never sit down at
anybody's table that begrudges you what you eat. That'd be a
terrible thing to have to go through. But I'll tell you, God
fills up the vessels not according to our standards, not according
to our deserts, but according to his riches. He gives like
the God he is according to his own godlike riches. That's how
God gives. It is according to His riches
in glory, which means that as rich as God is in glory, so is
He rich in giving. He never demeans Himself in the
mercies that He gives. Isn't that wonderful? God never
demeans Himself. He gives so as to bring Him new
glory. The fact is, brethren, God gives
gloriously. He gives like the God that He
is. And I wish I had more to give. I really wish I did. And
I'd like to have seed money. And I'd like to have more of
it. It'd be wonderful to be able
to give away. Just give it away. Listen, you can't out-give God.
I'll tell you that right now. you cannot give God you can't
give to get but but you can't you're not going to have unless
you do the scripture says give and it shall be given to you
pressed down shaken together shall men give to your bosom
God is a gracious God and I wish there was more and I think some
of you here have proved that I think you've proved that that
when you give, it comes back. God gives it back to you. That
it does come back. But you don't give it to get
it. That's what I'm trying to point out. You can give it to
get it, but that's the way it works. And I'm saying that to
point out that the God of the Bible is a gracious God. And He's able to give. He's able
to put it right back into your hands. It's been proven over
and over again. and uh... some of these armenian
brethren puts us to shame they've seen the lord raise up huge sums
of money and uh... the lord put it into their hands
you can't deny that i heard about this one old boy that saw this
this uh... huge uh... catholic uh... uh... seminary And they didn't have
hardly any students in there. 35, 40 students, all they had.
Three or four acres of ground and great buildings, nice buildings. And this fellow was a Baptist
and he said, well, we need that. They don't need it because they
only got 35, 40 people. They can get by with just a little
something smaller than that. They said, we need it, we need
it bad. So he went out and began to pray to God. He said he took
his shoes off about every night for a month and walked all over
that place and prayed and prayed and prayed that God would raise
up the money and give him that place. Well, the Lord gave it
to him. It cost two million dollars. They raised the money and bought
the place. I'll tell you something, God's
not poor. He's not poor, and just because
me and you are, that don't mean the God we worship is poor. I
don't know. You know, I've said before, I
think that God gives us whatever we can handle. I kind of figure
He does, probably. But I will tell you this, God's
not poor, and I don't want anybody to ever get that depression.
He's able to do it. If He can take a little pot of
oil, and He can bless that, And you
start pouring that out. We've got so little of what we
need. Most of it. We've got so little. We've got
a little of it. But we need a whole lot more than what we've got.
We need a whole lot more. The power of the Holy Spirit.
We need a whole lot more. I wept yesterday. Prayed over
this message. Wept over this message. Because my heart breaks about
this. We've got just a little bit of what we need so much of. Just a little bit. And we got the bottle, and we
got a little bit in it. We just need to be filled, that's
all. Well, I'm telling you, brethren,
that the God of the Bible never demeans Himself for what He gives.
He's a God that is rich. Rich in glory. And He can give. Well, lastly, by what means does
the Lord fill our needs? It's by Christ Jesus. says it's
by Christ Jesus. And I think the Lord meets all
of our needs first by giving us Christ. And then when you
have Him, I think you have all really in Him and everything
that we need will be given because of Him. God will supply all your needs
First of all, by giving you Christ. Are you in Christ? Do you know
Christ? Are you believing on Christ? Are you trusting Christ?
All things will also come to you by virtue, now you get this,
by virtue of Christ's merit. By the virtue of His merit and
His intercessory work. You and I, we really don't deserve
any good things. Conrad and I was talking about
this the other night, about how that the Lord's been better to
us and we deserve that He be. And you and I don't deserve any
good thing, but He does. But He does. And, you know, if
we can ever come to the place where we're not so selfish, and
where we can just pray for His sake, Lord, you do this for your
sake. Do it for Christ's sake. Bless
us for Christ's sake. Put this in our hands for Christ's
sake. Lord, you deliver us for Christ's
sake. He deserves it. You and I don't
deserve it, but He does. I want His name honored. I want
His name glorified. God will not give it to you,
but He'll give it to Christ. He'll give it to His dear, dying,
risen enthroned son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, we need to use his name when we
go to the bank of heaven, because our name isn't any good there.
That's why we pray in Jesus' name. When you finish a prayer,
you pray it in Jesus' name. Because your name isn't any good
at the throne of God. You're a sinner. Poor sinner. In need of being cleansed by
the blood of Christ. In need of being reconciled to
God. In need of being saved. You're
a poor sinner. And your name isn't any good.
Sinner man. That's your name. Sinner man.
That's all of our names. We're all sinners. But we use
His name. And that name's good at the bank
of heaven. That name is good. For Christ's sake, God will do
ten million things that he wouldn't do for my sake or anybody else's
sake. Now then, I want to, in closing,
say this, that God only fills empty vessels. If you got a rag
left, if you got anything in your vessels, then you don't qualify. You don't
qualify. Listen to me. The Lord receives
sinners only. You see, I don't want to be dependent
on God the Preacher altogether. I'd like to have a little security
in this world without having to be dependent on God only.
I don't want to be a fanatic and just say, well, I just trust
God, Christ, be in everything and
be a beggar. I don't hardly think I want to
live that way. You've got a problem, friend.
You've got a problem. I'll tell you this. God demands that you be empty
before he fills you. And it's better to drink the
water of life out of the inexhaustible fullness of God than to go on
pumping that dry well you've been pumping on for a long time.
It's better you just drink out of that well that inexhaustible
well. You can have everything through
Jesus Christ and nothing without Him. This is our plea. Jesus
first, Jesus in the middle, and Jesus last. We must present the
bleeding lamb before God each morning and every time we come
before God. Seek no mercy from God apart
from Christ. Lay hold on Him and you'll have
God's mercy and all you need in Him. Are you an empty vessel? The question is not whether Christ
can fill you or not. The question is, are you empty? None are excluded from this if
you're empty. If you're empty. If you're hungry.
If you're empty. Emptiness, get this now, is eligibility. Emptiness makes you eligible
for everything God has. Christ is the best God has. And
Christ is for sinners. That's exactly what makes you
eligible. You say, I don't feel eligible. If you're empty, you're
eligible. And if you're not, then you're
not. In this miracle in 2 Kings chapter
4, the only thing that was required was empty vessels. Wasn't that
right? That's the only thing he needed. Go out there and get
them empty vessels. That's all he needed. They're
going to get out of debt, and their problem is going to be
solved. All they need is an empty vessel. And that's all you need,
is to be empty. You study that, you think about
that. Well, in Luke 1 and 53 it says, He hath filled the hungry
with good things, and the rich He sent empty away. He sent the
rich away, but the hungry He filled with good things. The
songwriter said, Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never
lose its power. Can all the ransomed church of
God be saved to sin no more? Well, do you understand what
we're talking about? Now there's one old preacher that said this and
I'm done. He said, don't try to be a full vessel. Don't even
try to be half full. He said, but be an empty vessel
and Christ will indeed fill you. But don't try to be full. Somebody
said, I've been trying to be a full vessel. Well, don't try
to be a full vessel. or don't try to be half full.
The Lord will never overlook an empty, a truly empty vessel
because he's the one that emptied it. And he's the one that emptied
it. And so he's not going to overlook
it, he will Phil. He will. Yes he will. If you're dead,
he'll be your life. If you're a beggar, he'll be
your riches. If you're sick, he'll be your health. If you're
lost, he'll be your savior. You nothing, and Him all in all. Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we thank you for this time we've been able to
spend here together today, and we do ask that you might bless,
Lord, the Word, and I pray that for Jesus' sake, you will save
some poor sinner here and bring them to that place where they
plead their emptiness and ask you to fill them. Father, we
ask for our needs, and you know what they are. Lord, I just pray
that you might bless this church, and may this church see the supernatural
power of God. And as we read this chapter today,
our hearts have been greatly touched, and we long so much
to see again your good hand upon us, filling and blessing, healing,
bringing the past, great things that would make us to glorify
your name and rejoice in thee. In Jesus name we pray, amen.