It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for, Lord, that could not be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Neibert. I've entitled this morning's
message, Bringing Empty Vessels. Bringing Empty Vessels. Our text is found in 2 Kings
chapter 4. We read, beginning in verse 1,
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 my servant
did fear the Lord. And the predator is come to take
unto him my two sons to be bondmen, to be slaves. Now, this woman
was in a predicament. Her husband was dead and evidently
he left her in great debt. We don't know why. And she didn't
have the ability to pay that debt. Her husband was a prophet
and was a contemporary with Elisha. And the creditor came to take
her two boys. and to sell them into slavery.
And this woman would then be left with absolutely no means
of support. And so she comes to Elisha with
this problem. She knew that he was a man of
God and she thought perhaps the Lord would enable him to do something
for her. So she brings this awful predicament
to Elisha. Verse 2, 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, literally
an oil flask. That's not a whole lot of oil,
just a small flask that would hold some oil. That's all she
had. So here's what Elisha says for
her to do. Verse three. Then he said, go
borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels. Borrow not a few. You go to all
your neighbors, everybody you know, and you ask for empty vessels. Now, it didn't matter whether
they were made of gold or made of clay. It didn't matter whether
they were big or large. It didn't matter whether they
were beautiful or ugly. The only requirement was emptiness. And you go out and get all the
vessels you can. Don't be satisfied with just
two or three. Go out abroad and bring in all the empty vessels
that you can find. And when you bring these in,
verse 4, when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon
thee and upon thy sons. You're going to close the door
so nobody sees what you're doing. and thou shalt pour out into
all those vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
You're going to take that little flask of oil and you're going
to start pouring into all these empty vessels. Now what's going
on here is a creative miracle is taking place. Oil is being
brought into the universe that was not existent. Matter is being
brought into the universe that was not existent. From this little
flask of oil, she pours in these empty vessels and they would
be filled with oil. This is kind of like the miracle
of our Lord when He fed 5,000 people with five small loaves
of bread, biscuits literally, and two small fish or sardines
and He filled up the bellies of 5,000 people and there were
12 baskets left over when they were finished. A creative miracle
took place. Well, this is what is taking
place here. A creative miracle is going to take place. Now,
can you imagine how excited those boys were when they went out
to start borrowing empty vessels? Perhaps people asked them, why
do you want an empty vessel? I can't tell you right now, but
just let me borrow it. They were so excited about getting these
empty vessels. And they went out abroad and
brought in all the empty vessels they could find. For they heard,
these are going to be filled with oil. I can just sense the
anticipation as they went out to bring these things in. Verse
5, So she went from him, and in the meantime, they've got
all these empty vessels, and she shut the door upon her sons
who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. All those
empty vessels, she would pour that flask of oil, and out it
would be filled up. She'd set it aside, start filling
up another one. When it would fill up, she would
set it aside. Perhaps she came to one, poured the flask over
it, nothing came out. Then she looked down, maybe there
was still something in there, maybe something in the bottom, so they
would take it and turn it upside down, pour it out, bring the
empty vessel in once again, she would begin to pour, and it would
fill up once again. Verse 6 of our text, that it
came to pass, when the vessels were full, all the vessels were
completely filled with oil, 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 when
did the oil stop pouring? When there were no more empty
vessels. Verse 7, Then she came and told
the man of God. She told him about everything
that took place. He is the one who told her this would take
place. And he said, Go, sell the oil. and pay thy debt, and
live thou and thy children upon the rest." Now through this miracle,
she became debt-free and independently wealthy, able to live the rest
of her life on the rest that came from that oil. Who is Elisha? Elisha was secondary
to Elijah. They're the greatest prophets
as far as their miracle working ability. You go on looking in
the history of Elisha in the next chapter. He heals a leper
and then the Lord uses him to give life to a young man who
was dead and he could cause the River Jordan to part. Now, you
know, he didn't do these things. God did. But the Lord's hand
was upon him to work mighty miracles. You remember when Elijah was
leaving and he said to Elisha who was following him, what do
you want? He said, give me a double portion of thy spirit. And he
was given this double portion of the spirit of Elijah. Elijah
and he was a very special prophet that had miracle working power
through the Lord. Now, no doubt some people will
deny miracles. They'll deny that things like
this could ever happen, these supernatural miracles. Now, if
I didn't believe in God, I'd deny it too. And boy, we're living
in a very impersonal and lonely place if there is no God. There's
no meaning to life if that were the case. But deep down, everybody
knows intuitively that there is a God. Now, you could say,
I don't believe that. But deep down, everybody knows
intuitively that there is a God. And if God is, yes, I believe
in miracles. I believe every miracle that
our Lord performed. I believed that He walked on
the water. I believe that He broke all the
physical laws of the universe to do that. He who made the laws
can work with them or without them. I believe that He healed
the sick. I believe that He had creative
power and brought matter into existence that was not there
before. I believe He controlled the weather.
I believe He raised the dead. He's God. I believe all of His
miracles. And you know what miracle I'm
most astounded by? The fact that He saved this sinner
talking to you. That's what I'm most amazed by. You see, these other miracles,
All he had to do was will them to take place, and they took
place. But for me to be saved, he had
to come here and die. He had to be my representative.
He had to have my sins placed upon Him to where that He bore
them. He became guilty of them. He
had to bear the full equivalent of an eternal hell in my place,
and that's what He did on the cross. He suffered the full equivalent
of an eternal hell in order to put away my sin. My sin became
His sins. His righteousness becomes my
righteousness, so I stand before God without guilt. Now that's
the greatest of all miracles, that He would save a sinner like
me. Thank God for the miracles of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But if all I see in this story
is a great physical miracle, Or if all I see in this story
is the great material provision that the Lord will provide for
His people, even when things look bad, He always finds a way
to provide. If that's all I see, I've not
seen the meaning of this story. Now, like the widow, you and
I are in debt. Our creditor, the one to whom
we owe payment, is the law of God. The Ten Commandments, if
you will. The thou shalt and the thou shalt
not. God is just. God is holy. God requires perfect obedience. That's who He is. Anything less
would be beneath His character. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. The second
table of the law. Sins against man. The first table
of the law, thou shalt not have any other gods before me. You're
not to take my name in vain. You're not to make idols. Remember
the Sabbath to keep it holy. God is holy. God has holy and
righteous commandments. And the fact of the matter is,
you and I have broken His law. Let me make my own personal confession.
I've not kept one commandment. one time. Not perfectly. And if it's imperfect, all is
a sin. Even if I said the truth, I would have had a motive of
self-promotion in it. Sinful, guilty before God's law. And God has a right to demand
payment from me. God's God. He's just. Whatever
He does is right. And I have broken His law and
I don't have a penny to pay Him. I'm in a mess. There's nothing
I can do. There's nothing you can do to
get out of the mess we're in. God must do something for us. Now, this woman went to the man
of God, and she knew only God could do something for her. Anybody
and everybody who sees themselves in this state will realize that
only God can do something for them. There's no way I can get
myself out of this mess. In verse 2, Elisha said unto
her, What shall I do? for thee. We realize salvation
is what must be done for us. There's nothing we can do. Salvation
is something that must be done for me. I'm totally dependent
on what the Lord does for me. And he said, What do you have
in your house? And she said, Thine hand made
hath not anything in the house except for a pot of oil, a flask
of oil. Now, what does oil represent
in the scripture? Grace, anointing grace. Do you remember the parable
of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish? What was the
difference between the ten virgins? If you looked at them, you couldn't
tell on the outside. The difference was something
that was on the inside of their lamps. Some had oil in their
lamps. Some didn't have oil in their
lamps. That's the grace of God. How is someone saved? What's
the difference between a saved man and a lost man? Is it because
the saved man is a better person, has more good works, and smarter
than the lost man? No, the difference is the grace
of God. I Corinthians 4, 7, Paul said,
Who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have
that you didn't receive? You see, it's God that's made
you to differ. And if you have grace, it's because He gave you
that grace. Now, this woman had only one
source of oil, that flask. And the grace of God is the difference
between a saved man and a lost man. There's only one source
of grace. That grace is the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter
4, verse 32. I love this verse. It says, Be
kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake have forgiven you. That's the only reason that's
needed. He didn't forgive you because
you asked. He didn't forgive you because you were sorry. He
didn't forgive you because you promised you'd never do it again.
He didn't forgive you because of all the great things you could
do for His kingdom in the future. He forgave you for one reason,
for Christ's Not for your sake, not because you deserved it,
but for Christ's sake. Do you find that good news? Oh,
that's good news to me. That the only reason He needs
to find to forgive me is for His Son's sake. Because if He
had to find a reason in me to forgive me, He wouldn't find
one. I have no question about that.
But oh, God says for Christ's sake, there was one source of
grace. Now, verse 3, He says to this
woman, When he hears that she has this flask of oil, go borrow
thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels. And don't you borrow just a few?
What was the only requirement for the vessels? Emptiness. Emptiness was eligibility. Now,
let's say I have a glass that I drink from. And let's say it's
been sitting around with milk in it for two or three weeks
in the bottom. It's spoiled, it's rotten, it's
smelly. Now, am I going to take pure
water and pour it into that glass and drink it? No, it would be
contaminated. I empty it out first and then
I pour the water in. Now, when you come into the Lord's
presence, if you have anything in you that you think would recommend
you to Him, you've contaminated it. You see,
salvation is by pure, free, 100% grace. If it's 99% grace and
1% works, that means it's 100% works. It's either all of grace
or it's not grace at all. And when you come empty, you
come knowing all I can have is what He fills me with. I don't
bring anything. You come to Christ empty with
absolutely no good thing to recommend you. You come empty of goodness. You come empty of righteousness. You don't have the power of free
will. You don't have the ability to will yourself out of this. You can't make any promises regarding
the future because you know you're so weak. You don't trust yourself.
There's nothing in you or about you that could recommend you
to God. You come empty. You have nothing to pay. No promises
you can make. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Thou I to the fountain fly, wash
me, Savior, or I die." Now listen real carefully. The message of
the gospel is a message of free and sovereign grace. The message of the gospel is
a message of free and sovereign grace. And the only way that
you or I will receive this message is if we are empty. Empty. The gospel is free. Nothing for you to contribute.
And do you hear that? If I said you could be saved
for $5, you'd find a way to come up with that $5, wouldn't you?
If I said you could be saved and spend eternity in heaven,
if you could come up with $1,000, you'd find a way to come up with that
money, wouldn't you? But if I say it's free, absolutely free, people
listen in indifference, and people will go on their way and not
even care. But thank God it is free, because
if it's not completely free, I've gone because I have nothing
to pay. Have you ever learned that about yourself and come
empty? It's the free and sovereign gift
of God. That means it's His to give or
His to withhold. That means you don't have any
control in this thing. That means He can give it to
you if He's pleased to do it, or He can pass you by. Whatever
He does is right. Now, if you get to this, the
reason is you're not empty. Because if you're empty, you'll
see this is the only hope you have of being saved. If the message
of grace is free and sovereign. Now, Elisha says to this woman,
he says, you go out and borrow all the empty vessels you can. And don't borrow just a few.
Bring all the empty vessels you can find. Bring a vessel empty
of feelings. I can't even come up with a good
feeling. Bring a vessel empty of righteousness. I can't even
come up with one righteous act on my own. Bring a vessel empty
of willpower. I'm a slave to sin and there's
nothing I can do about it. Bring a vessel empty of faith. I can't even come up with the
faith. You're going to have to give me that. Bring a vessel empty
of repentance. I can't repent. My heart's too
hard. I can't change my mind. Bring
a vessel empty of life, empty of all things, empty of good
works, empty of ability. Bring all the empty vessels you
can find. The one requirement is emptiness.
If you have anything in them, you'll be turned away. But if
you bring these empty vessels to Him, He'll fill them. What is the only requirement
of the vessel? That it be empty. Now, in verse 4, he says, when
thou art come in with all these empty vessels, thou shalt shut
the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and thou shalt pour out
into all those vessels, those empty vessels, And thou shalt
set aside that which is full." Now, when you come to Christ
with an empty vessel, He fills it. John 1.16 says, of His fullness
have we all received. You see, there's a fullness of
saving power in Christ. There's a fullness of saving
efficacy in His precious blood. There's a fullness of righteousness
in His work. And if you bring your empty vessel
to Him, He will fill it. Really? Really. You bring an
empty vessel and He will fill it. There's a fullness of grace
to pardon. There's a fullness of grace to
regenerate. There's a fullness of grace to
preserve you and keep you and perfect you. Colossians chapter
2 verse 10, 9 and 10 says, In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete. You are full in
Him. You can't get any more saved
than you are in Him. Now can you picture them in your
mind, pouring out of that little flask, all these empty vessels,
and filling them up to the full. Verse 5, 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. She just kept pouring from
this flask. Oil just kept coming out, filling
all these empty vessels. Now, if you come with an empty
vessel, you will be filled. If you come with anything in
your vessel, you'll be turned away. Like Mary said, he had
filled the hungry with good things, but the rich have he sent away
empty. And you come empty and shut the
door behind you. Burn your bridges. Don't look
of any hope for salvation anywhere except in him filling your empty
vessel. Verse six, and it came to pass
when the vessels were full, that she said unto her, Bring me yet
a vessel. And he said unto her, There is
not a vessel more. We have brought every one of
them to you. And then the oil stayed. When did the oil stop
flowing? When there were no more empty
vessels. Now, it is only as I stay empty
that I will continue to stay filled. It is only as I am an
empty-handed sinner needing His grace that the oil of His grace
will continue to flow to me. And when I lose my need and my
emptiness, then grace would stop flowing to me. This is a true
story. I had a doctor. I won't say his
name. I grew up in Ashland, Kentucky,
and he was the one who was my doctor when my mother had me
to birth. He always liked the people that
he worked with in that respect, but he was kind of a gruff man.
And one day in his doctor's office, I can remember that the place
was filled up with people, sick. They thought they were sick at
any rate. And usually while you're waiting in those waiting rooms,
a nurse would come out and say, call your name, so and so come
next. But this time, for some reason, the doctor came out.
The nurse didn't come out. The doctor came out. And he looked
at that room, and he was visibly irritated. And he said, I want
to know if there's anybody in here that's really sick. And
everybody just looked at each other and kind of, and one little
old man said, I am. And he said, come on back then.
And so that little old man went back there who was really sick
and everybody else was left out. Now, if you come empty, He'll fill you. You come with
anything of your own, He'll pass you by. Verse 7, Then she came
and told the man of God and said, go sell the oil and pay thy debt
and live thou and thy children on the rest. Now, here is what
the Lord Jesus Christ does for a sinner. First, His blood paid
their debt. You know what that means? That
means I'm just before God. That means I don't have any sins
to confess if Christ paid my debt. They're gone. I'm justified. I'm without guilt. before God's
holy law, and He says, live on the rest. Not only is my debt
paid, I have life before God. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ
is my life before God, and He'll give me the grace to continue
to persevere in the faith all the way to the end. That's what
the oil of His grace does. It makes all my debt paid. That's
what our Lord did on the cross. when he said it is finished.
All my debt was paid. All the sins of all of God's
elect were paid for when he said it is finished. He finished the
work. And I have given grace to live
on the rest. I'll live eternally with him. What a wonderful gospel for an
empty sinner. Now the only thing that will
cause a man to object to the freeness of the gospel is the
fact that he's got something, and he thinks that that something
would recommend him to God's favor. And if he finds out that
it won't recommend him to God's favor, that's when he gets mad,
because he was hoping in that. If you have any hope in your
works that you think will obligate God to save you, He'll pass you
by. And I can understand you getting
angry if that's what you're hoping in. But oh, if you're empty,
here you find hope for the very chief of sinners. Now, we have
this message on CD and DVD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com,
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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