John, thank you for that song.
He done what he could. Did what he could. I want to read something this
morning before we get to our text. Because I thought about
the message Brother Paul brought last night and that upper room
us meeting together. Then that woman bringing that
alabaster box and pouring it on the head of our Lord, I made
some reference to it but I wanted to make sure I had the text right. Now listen, in Psalms 133 verse
1, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. How good and how pleasant. Then
he says it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran
down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirt
of his garment, it was poured upon the head and ran down upon
the whole body. As the dew of Hermon, and as
the dew that descended upon the mountains of Sinai, For there
the Lord commanded the blessing." What a blessing. And He commanded
it. He said it, done. Dictum factum. Said, done. And there He commanded
the blessing even life forevermore. What a blessing. To be able to
worship with God's people. He said where two or three are
gathered together. He does the gathering. We need each other. We need each
other. It's nice to sit and read and
read devotions and God speak to our heart, but there is no
substitute in this world for this right here. Now turn with me to 2 Kings chapter
4. Verses 1 through 7. And 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 bondsmen. And Elisha said unto her, What
shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast 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 thou shalt
pour out unto 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 to her son, bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there is
not a vessel more, and the oil stayed. Then she came and she
told the man of God, and he said, go, sell the oil, and pay thy
debts, and live thou and thy children on the rest." What a
beautiful story. It really happened. And he allowed all that to happen
to teach us some lessons about his grace, his mercy, and his
provisions. Here we see this man. He died. And his wife, she's in a mess. She's a widow woman with two
sons. And if that's not enough, there's
this great debt hanging over her head. And it's not just that
the debt is hanging over her head. Now the creditor comes
and he's demanding payment. You said, how cruel a creditor? No, how cruel a debt. And we
read Romans chapter 6, you know, it pictures a woman being married
to a man. And like the man she's married
to is like the law. Well, then he dies. Well, then
she's freed to be married to another. And I illustrated this
for years. I said, it's like she's married
to that man, and he tells her to clean the house, and she does
everything that she thinks she's supposed to do. Well, then he
comes in that evening, and he puts on his white glove, and
he goes over to the top of that door, and he wipes it, and there's
dust all over his glove. He said, you didn't clean the
house. And you know what we said? We said, what a cruel husband.
There's nothing wrong with the husband. She's just a bad wife. Nothing wrong with the law. You
see what I'm saying? You say this was the law. That's what the law demanded.
You couldn't just say, well, the debt ought not to be paid.
No, we're going to see the debt has to be paid. God's law has
to be satisfied. God's demands have to be satisfied.
But this man, he was a believer. She said, He feared God. She
said, He was thy servant. Most believe that it was Obadiah. I think Gil and Hawker and others
believed that this man, he died, he was Obadiah. Now who was Obadiah?
In 1 Kings chapter 18, you know, this is during the times of Elijah.
When God withheld the rain for three and a half years, and there
was a famine in the land, and Ahab's wife, Ahab was king, had
a wife named Jezebel. And you know what she did? She
said, I'm going to kill every prophet. And it said in 1 Kings 18, 3,
and Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. You think about that. Now Obadiah
feared the Lord greatly. For it was so when Jezebel cut
off all the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took a hundred prophets,
and he hid them fifty in a cave, and he fed them with bread and
water, and it's not rained." How's he going to feed a hundred
prophets? He's got them hid. This is what
that man did at great expense to himself, and when he dies,
He died with a great debt. Sometimes, a lot of times, God's
people, we live in this world and they live just on the meager
things of the world. And they may die poor with a
great debt. That's not anything against their
character. She said this man, he feared the Lord. He feared
God. And you imagine trying to hide
these men at risk to his own life. He provided for them. when
everybody's trying to kill him. Trying to kill him. But he didn't leave her without
anything. He left her with something. He
left her with the gospel. If I could leave one thing to
my children and my grandchildren, it would be to leave them the
gospel of the grace of God. She's in trouble. What's she
to do? I think she probably, knowing our human nature, she
probably sold everything she could trying to get rid of everything
she had to try to pay the debt. Isn't that what we do? When we
sin, you're just like me, when we sin, you know what we think
we can do? We think we can do something to remove the guilt
and we can restore God's favor. No, you can't. It will never
work. Christ must reconcile. He must
forgive. She goes to the prophet, which
is like a picture of us coming to Christ, who is the great prophet.
She went to Him. You know why she came? She's
needy. I picture trying to do everything else first, and that's
us. It's like the woman with the issue of blood. She'll go
to every physician, spend all the money she has, and she doesn't
get any worse. And she said, it's not removing
the debt, it's not removing the guilt, and if I don't do something,
they're going to come and take my sons. Would that be desperate? Desperate. And you know, I know
when you'll come to Him when you're desperate. Desperate. When there's nowhere else to
go. Desperate. Desperate. The creditor comes. The wages
of sin is death. We've sold ourselves for nothing.
Nothing we do, nothing we do can satisfy the demands of God's
holy law. And she knew it. She knew it. She believed. This woman's a believer. She
believed God. That's why she came. That's why she came. He's the only one that can help
her. The only one. He died, her husband did, believing
that God would provide for his wife. He lived by faith and he died
by faith. He didn't waste things. He wasn't a waster. He feared
God. And he lived under the promise
of God, standing on the promises of God. I'm glad you told us
to read that again. Standing, leaning, resting upon what his
promises We make promises and we can't keep them. When He makes
a promise, they're all yay and amen in Christ. Not so, well,
I'm going to tell you a promise and I don't know where you can
depend on it or not. If He promised it, you can bank upon it. Whether
we feel anything or don't feel anything. She feels discouraged
and down, but He's going to give her these promises. Jeremiah 49, 11, Leave thy fatherless
children I will preserve them alive. And let thy widows trust
in me. Is there any here fatherless?
Is there any widows here? Trust in Him. Rest in Him. We've been going through the
book of James on Wednesday nights and James talks about pure religion. He said, pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and the widows and their afflictions and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. Isn't that strange? You know
what Christ did? He came to this world and he
visited the widows and the fatherless and showed them mercy. What does
this woman need? She needs mercy. She's a winner. And these kids
are fatherless. All this happened so that the
Lord might show us how He provides for those who trust in Him. Trust and obey, for there's no
other way. She said, Elisha, I'm your handmaid. It's like us coming to Christ
and Lord, I am your handmaid. I'm yours, I'm totally dependent
upon you, and I don't have any clue about what I'm supposed
to do. You ever feel that way? Every day. What am I to do? Well, look to Him. You say, is
it that simple? It's that simple. Go to Him. Bow to Him. Ask Him. If any man
lack wisdom, let him do what? Ask of God. That gives to all
men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to
him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. It says in Philippians 4, 6,
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. How's
he going to supply her need? He said unto her, No, Lysha did. Lysha said, basically,
you know what Lysha's saying from the human standpoint, he
said, I can't help you. What can I do for thee? And it's
like, we preach the gospel to you, but I can't help you. I
can't give you faith. I can't. It's an impossibility.
I wished I could, but I can't. I can't. I can't. But she has this pot of oil.
Where did she get that pot of oil? Her husband left it to her. And he asked the question, what
do you have in the house? Has God ever asked you that question?
What do you have in the house? And you go, well, there's nothing
there. But this pot of gold, maybe I
had forgot about it. Maybe I hadn't considered it.
I consider it now. Maybe I hadn't considered him.
I consider him now. We forget. Oh, how we forget. I wish we didn't. She's thinking
about it now. And that's all he said, what
do you have in your house? I thought he was going to help
me. He is. You've got to see your need. You've got to see
your inability. You've got to be made to see
who you are. And apart from grace, you have
nothing. Nothing. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. What she had, He had given her.
This was all she had, and this was all she needed. Think about
it. It's all she had, and it's all
she needed. Don't despise the day of small
things. Boy, we do. We want to see big
things. Well, what does she have? Well,
she's got Apollo. And what is she told to do? Now,
he's instructing her to do something. He said, go. And do what? Borrow some vessels. Empty vessels and not just a
few vessels. Vessels, empty vessels and not
a few of them. Well, who's going to go get them
vessels? She tells her sons to do it. Can you see these boys
walking up to these houses? He's got to give these boys favor
with these neighbors, so they'll give their vessels. And some
said that the reason there were so many empty vessels was the
cause of the lack of oil. Like we talked about the frankincense,
I mean the sphagnum, how precious it was. It's so precious. Christ
is so precious. If you want to think about it,
something I just thought about, the only place the oil might
have been was in her house. The only place the gospel was
at in Jacob's day was in Jacob's hands. It was in her house. And she
didn't take it out of the house. She brought the vessels to the
house. That's how God works. She's not to come up with a design
and say, well, this is how I think it ought to be done. No, he instructed
her. And this is faith. Do you believe
God will walk in the life that God has given unto you? She could
just say, well, I just don't think that'll work. And I can
see her young sons, or if they were young, say, Mom, I just
don't want to think I want to get up out of bed today. I don't
want to go get any more pots. I'm tired of gathering pots.
Isn't that how we are? We don't know if it doesn't say.
We don't know how long it took them. I believe this. I believe they looked until they
couldn't find any more. That's faith, right? If he told me to
go gather pots, I'm going to look until I can't find any more.
Is there an empty pot here? As we preach the gospel, you
know who I'm looking for? I'm looking for some empty pots.
And I'm looking until I can find one. I have a hard time finding
one. It's a hard time finding a sinner, a needy, helpless,
empty, dry, desolate sinner. How can empty vessels pay this
great debt? That's faith in God's Word. The same God who told her to
go borrow the vessels would give her favor with those neighbors
and they would just say, here, take them. I don't need it. It's of no use and it's of no
value to me. It's of value to her. God is
teaching her that she has nothing but Him. And all these vessels must be
completely empty. It can't have just a little bit
of anything in it. It's not empty. It's not Christ
plus anything else. It's the fullness of Christ.
It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And as long as you
think that you can do one thing to earn or merit God's favor
or God's salvation, you're not empty. And it just, that vessel
won't do. It won't do. It won't do. You must come empty to be filled. We have to come with nothing
in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Everything we have, he must give
it. He gave the pot of oil, and he gave the oil. He said to go borrow, not just
a few. He didn't tell him how many to borrow. He just said,
don't borrow a few. And then he said, when you've
borrowed them, you get those vessels and you bring them into
the house and shut the door and start pouring the oil. You know
what this reminds me of? You remember our Lord when he
fed the 5,000? And in John chapter 6, verse 5, now listen. When
Jesus lifted up his eyes and he saw a great company coming
to him, he said unto Philip, When shall we buy bread that
all these may eat? Does he know the answer to that
question? He sure does. Most every time when he asks
the question, he's not asking for his information. He's asking
for your information. And this he said to prove Philip. To prove him. For he knew himself
what he would do. He knows exactly what he's going
to do. He knows now what he's going
to do. Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread, it's not
sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little.
Some said the 200 penny worth was probably all they had in
the bag. This is all the bread we can buy. This is all we got. And how in the world can we feed
all these people? And one of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, Well, there's a lad here
which has five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what
are they among so many? That's how we look at things.
The same thing. How is Christ going to feed all
these people? We begin to say, well, what are
we going to do? What are we going to do? And he knows exactly what
he's going to do, and he's teaching them what he's going to do. And
what Jesus said, we'll just make them sit down. Just tell them
to sit down. What's he going to do? We just
wait. Now there was much grass in the place. So when the men
sat down and number about 5,000 men, you pick 5,000. And Jesus
took the loaves, which were already there. And when he had given
thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples
to them that were set down likewise of the fishes as much as they
would, he took what was there, what little that was there, and
fed all these people." What was already there. And they didn't all just get
a little when they were all filled. He said, Johnny, you had enough?
He said, yeah, I'm satisfied. You had enough, Bruce? Yeah,
I'm satisfied. And he said to his disciples, gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore, they gathered
to them together, and they filled twelve baskets full with the
fragments of the five barley loaves. What's them twelve baskets
for? Last time I counted, he had twelve disciples. What is this among so little?
How did I get this basket full? He gave it to me. And he even gave Judas one. Didn't
he? That's something to think about.
Whether he appreciated it or not, we probably know he didn't,
but he still got one. He sends the rain on the just
and on the unjust. He's going to get all the glory
in filling these vessels. Who got the glory for feeding
those 5,000? But you can't say, well, I did. Andrew can't say,
well, I didn't. I doubted it. And what I love
right here, he did it in spite of their unbelief. If God didn't
do things in spite of our unbelief, nothing would ever get done.
If it was just us believing God and I wished we did, he did it. Our faith is mixed with unbelief.
You can't separate Jacob and Esau. You can't. She gathered, and like I said,
we don't know how long it took her. She could have had pots
sitting all over that house. And you know what she does? She
shuts the door. This ain't for onlookers. This
is not for the neighbors. This is not for the creditor.
It's not even for the prophet. This is between her and her sons. This is Christ, His church, and
His people. As I thought about this, you
remember when our Lord is on the way to Jairus' house to heal
his daughter? And on the way, he heals the
woman with the issue of blood. And it's like, I see Jairus watching
our Lord while he's pausing to deal with this woman with the
issue of blood. And he's thinking, we need to get home. We need
to get home. And as soon as he heals the woman
with the issue of blood, here comes somebody running up and
said, don't bother the master. Jairus, your daughter's already
dead. And our Lord turned and looked at him. He said, only
believe. And when he gets to the house, our Lord said, she's
not dead, she only sleeps. And they left him to scorn. But when he had put them all
out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and
them that were with him, and entered in where the damsel was
lying, he took in Peter, James, and John. They witnessed first-hand what
he did. Paul, you imagine seeing that?
And he took the damsel by the hand and he said unto her, Tabitha,
Cuma, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. I can see Peter, James, and John
walk out of the house and they say, what in the world happened?
You'd have had to have been there. I can tell you, but you wouldn't
believe it. Isn't that right? I can tell you, but you wouldn't
believe it. You must experience the grace
of God as it flows and just keeps flowing. I can see them start
pouring and say, Mama, it keeps flowing. And that pot's full. She said, go get another one.
They said, Mama, will it not run out? She said, the prophet
said it wouldn't. And it just keeps pouring. And
here they get another vessel. and keep it in another vessel. She had this pot of oil and these
empty vessels. She had the promise that she
poured it out. That was the promise. The promise
was not when she kept it in the pot, but when she poured it out
of the pot. We want to keep it in the pot.
It may run out. It's like you said, you know
what I need in the pot? I need it right now. I need it right
now. And he filled these vessels. She said, verse four, when thou
art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy
sons, and shalt pour out unto those vessels, and thou shalt
set aside that which is full. That's what she was to do, and
that's what she did. We don't know how long it took,
but she did. And she went from him and shut
the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels
to her, and she poured it out. And it came to pass when the
vessels were full, I can see her probably so busy
pouring the oil, she just fails to remember how many she's poured.
She looks at me and goes, oh my goodness, look at all these
vessels. They're not empty anymore. They're
full. And she said to her son, bring
me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there's
not a vessel more. And the oil You know how long
the oil of God's grace will flow? As long as there's one empty
vessel left. As long as there's one elect
child of God's center that has to be filled, as long as there's
one, it's going to flow. It won't quit flowing. Imagine
all the way down through the years, it's just kept flowing.
It will never run out. It's never diminished. Isn't
it kind of ironic when Elijah, he goes to a widow woman's house
and God said, that's where I'll sustain you. And she had a little
flower and a little crucible. We have Him. And I tell you,
He's enough. He's enough. He's enough. He's always brought to pass that
which He promised. Which He promised. He made good
on His promises. All the vessels were filled.
I can sit here and look at them
boys and say, sons, He did exactly what He said. I can't believe
it. I'm amazed. Does His grace amaze
you? Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. When He empties us, He does this,
that He may fill us. You can't empty yourself. You
get down and you start confessing your sins, well, you might as
well keep staying down there because you ain't going to quit
confessing them. That's it. He must empty you, and He will. He will. And of His fullness have all
we received in grace for grace. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him." If that
vessel's full, it's complete. There's nothing more you can
put into it. It's complete. It's complete. What was that vessel made for?
To be filled with oil. That's exactly why. And it's full of
Him. Of Him. Dear dying Lamb by precious blood
shall never lose its power to all. The ransomed church of God
be saved to sin no more. The vessels failed before the
oil failed. Our power of receiving will give
out long before His power of giving. There's sometimes, you know,
David said, what did he say? My cup, my cup runneth over. It's more than I can stand. I've
thought many times, why would we need a glorified body? I can
tell you why. This old vessel, this old body
couldn't stand it. That's exactly right. I just,
sometimes it's just, you don't know what to say. You just, this
overflowing, you just want to sit down and just shut up. Right! It just, my cup run up over with
him. Now that the vessels are full,
what is she to do? And as I read this, I noticed
he never told her what to do the first time. He said, you
go get the vessels, empty vessels, not a few, bring them in, shut
the door, Pour the oil in the vessels, and when they're full,
they didn't tell her what to do. What's she to do now? She
has to go to him. Like I said, she walked in the
light that she had. And she was obedient unto that,
and she did exactly what she was asked or told to do. And she said, there's no more
vessel. Then she said, then she came and told the man of God
what she'd done. And you know what he said? Go.
What did he tell her to do the first time?
Go. What did he tell her to do the second time? Go. Go and do
what? And he said, go sell the oil.
I said, I never thought about that. Why does he want me to
fill all these vessels with oil? Now he tells her. Now, this is what I'm going to
do. Go sell the oil and pay the debt. The debt has to be paid
first. The law has to be satisfied.
All this that's happened, none of this up to this point has
removed the debt. None of it. And she takes it
and she sells it. She don't determine the price
that it'll bring. And she gets enough, not just
enough, she gets enough to pay the whole debt. And I can see
the man as she goes into the accountant and he gets out his
pen and he said, I see right here it's paid in full. The creditor
won't be coming to your house. If God be for me, who can be
against me? He did spare not His own Son
and delivered Him up for His own house. Shall we not with
Him also freely give us all things? He has paid the debt. It is finished. I can sit here with one son and
a chicken. Mama, do you mean they ain't
gonna come get me? They ain't gonna make me a slave. She said you don't have anything
to worry about. Fear not, little Flo.
If he paid you debt, it's paid. What are we going to do when
we get home, Mama? We're going to stop by the store and get
us some groceries. And we're going to live on the
rest for the rest of our life. That oil did all that? Know you not that you were redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation?
But with the precious blood of Christ. What a law. How precious. What a promise. My question to
you today is, is there any empty vessels here? If you're not, I pray the Lord
empties you and makes you see your need. And I pray that He
will fill you with His grace." And he said, you know what? I've
paid the debt. You know, we forget it, don't
we? We keep forgetting it. What's it say? This do in remembrance
of me. They're in that house. that they
close the door, and they sit down, and every time they sit
down at a meal, you know what they say? What we have, we have
because He gave it. We come in here, and we sit down
in His house. The world has no clue what we're
doing. And we partake of everything that He bought. And it's ours. What a God. What a God. Amen. Wanda.