Second Kings chapter four, I'd
like to begin reading in verse one. 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 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. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more. And
the oil stayed." Now, keep in mind, this is a creative miracle. Oil is being brought into the
universe that was not there before. Matter is being brought into
the universe that was not there before. And when did it stay? When there were no more empty
vessels. 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. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask in his blessed high and holy name
that we might be enabled to worship thy son, that we might be enabled
to hear the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, that you
would say To the heart of every one of your children, behold,
I am by salvation. Lord, we confess our sins. Lord, we're. Asking for the grace
to confess our sins. Teach us what it means to. Take
sides with you against ourselves. Lord, we ask that You would reveal
yourself to each person here according to your will. We pray
for our children. You'd reveal yourself to them.
We pray for all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
we pray for those who are sick and hurting. We ask that you
would use those things for their good and your glory. And give
us grace to all love one another more and be compassionate. Lord,
bless our homes for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Now, there was a poor widow whose
husband had been one of the sons of the prophets. He was a God-fearing
man, but he left his wife destitute. He died and left her nothing. Now, how did that take place? We're not told. But this gives
us some idea of what the death of Adam did to us. It left us
insolvent. It left us without anything. It left us destitute. This woman
was destitute and the creditors were gonna come and take her
sons and make them bondmen. Now, she comes to Elisha with
her problem And Elisha said, what do you have? And she said,
I don't have anything except for a pot of oil. I don't have anything except
for a pot of oil. Now how sufficient that pot of
oil will prove to be? That one pot of oil is gonna
save her, it's gonna pay her debts, and she's gonna live on
that pot of oil for the rest of her life. Now, if you have
Christ, if you have Christ, he's all you have. If you got anything
more, you don't have him at all. If you do have Christ, he is
all you have. just like this woman had only
one thing. Now, Christ, the oil of his grace,
that's all I have. But if that's all I have, I have
all. And this woman was made to see
that. Now, He says, go and get as many
empty vessels as you can. It didn't matter whether they
were clay, brass, silver, or gold. What was the one qualification? Empty. Empty. Not half full. Not a little bit
in the bottom. Empty. Go bring me empty vessels. And when you get all the empty
vessels you can bring in your house, shut the door and pour
from that one pot of oil. And in that one pot of oil being
poured into those empty vessels, we have a divine miracle taking
place. We have matter brought into existence
that had not been there before. This is a creative act, only
what God can do. How much ability do you have
to create something? None. None. Now, she starts pouring into
these empty vessels, and she kept pouring until there were
no longer an empty vessel. And that is when the oil stayed. And I think it's really glorious
how she comes up to Elisha and tells him what took place. He
said, you go pay all your debts with that and live off the rest. That one pot of oil paid all
her debts and she lived off the rest. All she had was Christ.
And that paid all her debts and the same thing that paid her
debts, she lived off of. No distinction. Now, the death
of this woman's husband left her in a state of destitution. And the death of our first father,
Adam, left us destitute. You and I were born with nothing. We didn't become nothing. We
were born with nothing. We didn't do something to get
ourselves into that position. We were born that way. And when I say we're born that
way, everything we do is our fault. I'm not blaming God's
sovereignty. I'm not blaming Adam. Everything
that I do, every sin I commit, it's my fault. She was held personally
responsible for the debts of her husband. You and I are held
personally responsible for the sin of Adam, and it's because
we did it. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men in that all sinned. Not simply Adam's sin was charged
to them. When he sinned, you and I sinned
in our father Adam. And that left us in this destitute
position. We didn't have anything. We don't
have anything. We can't come up with anything. Destitute. And it's all her fault. She was
held personally responsible. So she comes to Elisha with her
plight, and he says, what do you have? And she said, I don't
have anything except one pot of oil. Now, I couldn't help
but think of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Ten
virgins, five wise, five foolish. Now if you looked at the virgins,
they all looked alike. They were all virgins. The difference
was something you could not see. Some had oil in their lamps. Five wise had oil in their lamps,
five foolish didn't have any oil. And they all slumbered and
slept. You know what that is to reference
to is they all looked like they were dead. They all look like
they're dead, but what was the difference? Something you could
not see. The oil, Christ, the grace of
Christ. Now, this woman had one thing,
and that one thing proved to be all she needed. The one thing she had was the
pot of oil. Now, all that believe Have one
thing, Christ. Do you have anything else? Well, if you do, you don't believe. The proof that somebody believes
is they look nowhere but Christ only at all times for everything. And they don't look for a thing
out of anybody else or themselves. They're looking to Christ. They
know they're completely dependent upon him. They really believe
that. If you believe, you really believe
that all you have is Christ. You won't plead anything else.
You can't say, well, I've got this victory over this sin, I've
improved here. No, all you have before God is
Christ. And I love what somebody once
said, if all I have is Christ, is that enough? It is if he's
all you got. If you can add anything to him,
you don't have him in the first place. This one pot of oil, that's
all she had. Now, if all you have is Christ,
you have all. You're not gonna get into heaven
by the skin of your teeth. Not that way at all. You have all. And this woman found that out
in a very powerful way. Now, all I've got is a pot of
oil. Well, go get all the empty vessels. Empty vessels. Empty vessels. Not ones that had a little bit
left in the bottom, not half full. Empty vessels. That's the only kind she was
called on to collect. Empty vessels. I'm an empty vessel. I don't
have anything to bring. My only hope is that God will
pour his grace in me. I'm an empty vessel. Now you bring all the empty vessels
you can find. Empty, that's the one requirement.
Emptiness. And you take these empty vessels
and a creative miracle was going to take place. This is like the Lord bringing
bread into existence that was not there before. This is what
God's doing. You see, God is the only one who can create. Nobody else can. You and I have
absolutely no ability in this thing of a creative act. Only
the Lord. And salvation is his creative
act. You have as much to do with your
salvation as you did with creation. This is God's act. Salvation
is of the Lord. And you take that part and you
start pouring the oil in those empty vessels. And when the vessels
are full, set them aside and start pouring it into another
vessel. Now here's the point. While that one pot was just,
I don't know how big it was, it was big enough for them to
lift up and pour, so it couldn't have been that big. In that one
pot, you had complete fullness for every empty vessel. Now listen to this scripture,
Colossians chapter two, verse 10 says, in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now you think about that. In the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. He's the creator. He is the sovereign of the universe. He is the omnipotent one. He
is the eternal one. In him, whatever God is, all
the fullness of God himself dwells in the body of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that glorious? and you are full. That's what the word is, complete,
full, full. You know what that means? Nothing
can be added to you. You do not lack anything in Christ. Now, they took these full vessels
and set them aside and poured more in the ones that were left. Now, I love to think about the
fullness of the saving efficacy of Christ. There's fullness of
justification in him. I stand before God without guilt,
without sin. There's fullness of acceptance
in him. I'm so accepted by God. You know,
we think of the Lord being mad at us, and I understand that
because of our sinfulness, because any time you look to yourself,
you're gonna think that way, and that just goes with the territory.
But there's fullness of acceptance, fullness of forgiveness, fullness
of sanctification, fullness of whatever it is. I am complete,
I am full in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of him or you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Fullness of salvation, fullness
of acceptance. Now, how good we have it. How good
we have it. How glorious, how complete. Listen to this scripture. In 1 John 4, 17, it says, as
he is, so are we in this world. Now, I want you to just think
about that. I wish we could enter into what's actually being said,
as he is. Is he loved by God completely? Does God see him as altogether
beautiful and perfect and without sin? Is he accepted by God? Is he beautiful, glorious to
God as he is? Is he holy before God? Is he
righteous before God? As he is, so are we right now
in this world. Doesn't get any better than that. Doesn't get any better. You know,
I was thinking about this too, with regard to public worship.
Oh, I want to come in with an empty vessel, don't you? I want
to come in with an empty vessel. It's the empty vessels that'll
be filled. May the Lord enable me to always
come with an empty cup. I remember when Joe McSherry
was here, I miss him so much, but he'd always come in and say,
preacher, I got an empty cup, fill it. Well, I hope the Lord
does, I can't do it. Now, when did the oil stop flowing?
When there were no empty vessels left. So the oil stopped. She comes up to Elisha. And this
is so important. I wish I could make this point
as it ought to be made. The same oil that paid her debts,
justification, same oil she lived off of, sanctification. It wasn't, here's justification,
now you need to start working. The same oil, that one pot of
oil, what this is talking about is the simplicity of Christ. The onlyness of Christ, the singleness
of Christ. Christ is all. She paid her debts, and they
were paid. And she lived off this miraculous
oil. That's the way she lived the
rest of her life. I dare say she was a rich lady after this.
She went from being poor to being rich. Her sons were saved. She was saved. Now, in this miracle,
we have a beautiful and simple illustration of the gospel, of
the singleness of Christ. He is all. We have how you live
completely off Him. You're to be an empty vessel.
and you're filled miraculously with the oil of His grace by
God the Holy Spirit, salvation is of the Lord.