We'll be in 2 Kings 4 both hours
this morning. 2 Kings 4. Let's begin reading at 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 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? She said, Thine handmaiden hath
not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go
borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels, and 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 oil stayed. 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 of the rest. It's an interesting passage,
isn't it? Initially, you think, Why would this woman not immediately
come to Elisha and start asking Elisha to do... She was in a
predicament. She didn't know exactly what
to do in order to get out of the situation that she was in.
Her husband was one of the sons of the prophets, and she says
clearly here that he honored the Lord, but he had somehow
gotten indebted to a creditor. And so she is distraught. She
didn't approach him with a solution, is what I was trying to say to
begin with. She didn't have a solution to begin with. She didn't come
up to him immediately and say, here's the problem, but I think
we can do this to get out of it. She came to Elisha, just
like you coming to the Lord, being a leper, being a dead dog.
You don't have a solution for that. There is no cure for leprosy. So we can't approach the Lord
as most men do. or try to do and try to become
good in the Lord's sight because we are indebted unto the law.
We are a bondman unto the law, just as that's the picture here
of this of this debt that these men had acquired or their husband
had acquired. So they didn't she didn't have
a solution when she approached him, she just had a problem.
Now, that's how you have to come to the Lord. You have to come
to the Lord with a problem. You have to come confessing that
you are utterly sinful. We know this is, we are utterly
sinful by the law that's given of the Lord. And we're, Paul
said in Galatians chapter five, verse three, that we're debtor
to the whole law. He was talking about circumcision there. And
I preached the message on circumcision once, but to remind you, he said
it's a circumcision of the heart, not of the flesh. And so they
were pushing these laws and these ordinances on men and women.
And they, he was telling them, no, you're a debtor to the whole
law if you do that, you can't keep the law. We see that the
bondman here. These young men are the same
as we are born in sin, shaping an iniquity. We have no hope
of paying off our debt, and that's where the good news of the Gospel
comes. Grace and mercy cannot be bestowed unless justice is
satisfied. The debtor is not just going
to not the debtor, the the one that gave the creditor. The creditor
is not just going to wipe the slate clean. Now, that is grace
and that is mercy. But in order for grace and mercy
to happen, justice had to be satisfied. See, the Lord could
not give grace and mercy and you still be a sinner in his
eyes. It's not possible. Justice had
to be satisfied. The breaking of the law that
you and I do from birth had to be paid for, paid in full by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what he did.
He paid the debt that we owed. He paid the debt he did not owe.
He took our debt unto himself, and he satisfied the creditor
for us, didn't he? We know that we're all born in
sin and shapen in iniquity by the verse that says, whereby
one man disobedience, all were made sinners. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. We cannot repay this debt. We
didn't merit, we'd certainly merit being a sinner, don't we? I mean, by title, certainly,
but we're sinners by nature, we're sinners by choice, we're
sinners by practice, but We were born in sin, we have to understand
that. Our father, Adam, sinned in the garden, and therefore
we are the offspring of sin, and that's all that we can produce.
And just as these two men did not do anything to become in
debt because their father had died, the debt passed on to them.
That's the picture here. Adam died and the debt passed
on to us. And whenever we die, our debt
will pass on to our children. And that's unless it's put away. Unless it's put away and the
Lord Jesus Christ put away that debt, didn't he? Men cannot please
God, but Christ did. Eternity is not sufficient. to
work or to satisfy God's justice. Eternity is not sufficient. Eternal
eternal suffering is not enough to please the Lord, but Christ
pleased the Lord and all those for whom Christ died when he
died, we died in him and he satisfied the demands of God. He paid our
debt. Now she tells. Elisha, first
thing of her problem. She goes into detail, very descriptive
detail of everything that she needed of Elisha. Not necessarily
specifically what she needed, but she told him of her problem. And his question I find odd.
In this second verse, and Elisha said unto her, what shall I do
for thee? Well, she just told him exactly
what she needed. Here's my problem. Here is my
dilemma. Here's my predicament. And I
don't know what to do about it. And he says, well, what shall
I do for thee? Don't you love that the Lord
makes all of his people confess their need? That's exactly what's
happening here. The Lord is, Elisha is, She has
to confess to him, this is what I need. And she just confessed
that to him. That's the reason that he asked
the question. He already knew the answer to the question. But then he
goes on to say, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast
thou in thy house? And she said, thine handmaiden
hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. You remember
Bartimaeus, whenever he cried forth unto the Lord, he was blind. He cried and they tried to hush
him. They tried to shut him up. We've
looked at that passage many times. So you know the account very
well. But as they brought him, Lord called for him. And as they
brought him unto the Lord, he asks Bartimaeus, what would you
have me do for you? Well, Bartimaeus was blind, but
yet he had to confess. He had to confess my sight. I need my sight. I'm blind. That's exactly what the Lord
does for his people. He makes us confess. I need Christ. I am indebted. I owe substantial
amount that I cannot repay. I'm utterly sinful. I can't even
put a down payment on the payment I owe. I can't even pay a little
bit on it. Matter of fact, the more that
I try to put, the more that I try to pay it, the bigger the debt
comes. Do we see that? And yet, The Lord says I will. And he tells Bartimaeus, receive
thy sight. And what happened to Bartimaeus?
He saw, didn't he? He saw, and I love the rest of that says
he told Bartimaeus, he says, go thy way. And Bartimaeus followed
the Lord the rest of his days. We see this is the same account
here. We're made to confess. what we
need, and the Lord says, what would you have me do for you?
Lord, I need Christ. Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, I'm
in debt. It's a debt that I didn't even,
I was born into it. I didn't even mean to obtain
it, and yet the more I do, the worse the debt gets. And the
Lord has mercy upon those that he calls us to confess. Only
the Lord's sinners will confess that Christ is all. In the heart,
the scripture says in Romans 10 9-10, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart, God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The reason
men quote that is because they believe it's as simple as just
confessing, but it's the heart that the Lord looks at. He tells
us in the next part, a man will not believe that Jesus Christ
is God unless the Lord makes him do so. And as soon as he
does, what is the confession? It's confessing the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he is God, that he is sovereign. He's sovereign
in election, he's sovereign in redemption, that he finished
the work. Do we see that? That's what we're confessing.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the
mouth confession is made into salvation. A man will hear that
and say, so all I have to do is just confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. The answer is yes. But you have
to confess it in the heart and the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. So only the Lord can give faith.
To confess that Christ is all the only the Lord can give the
faith to confess that we have a need. Now look in verse three. He tells
her exactly what to do. He said, go borrow. 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, 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 unto her and she poured out. It came to pass when
the vessels were full that she said unto her sons, bring me
yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more,
and the oil stayed. Everything that we need in salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ provided. Everything required for our salvation,
Jesus Christ provided. Every minute detail that had
to be fulfilled for our salvation, Christ Jesus accomplished for
his people. That's what the picture is here.
She didn't own the vessels, did she? She didn't own the oil.
She didn't own the vessels, everything needed, God provided for His
people in His person. This is what the picture is here.
She just kept pouring, didn't she? She just kept pouring. What
are we doing right now? We're just pouring, aren't we?
We don't get any glory for this. We're not putting our hands to
the Lord's worship, so to speak. That's not what we're doing at
all. We're just praying, Lord, I have the vessels here that you've
promised that you would meet with us, and we're just standing
here hoping that the Lord's gonna cause the oil to keep flowing
and keep flowing. What is the oil? It's the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? It's the word of God, isn't it?
It's the gospel. It's the good news of the Lord's
salvation for his people. We pray that the Lord would anoint
our head with oil, that our cup might run over. That's what the
picture is here. It's the Holy Spirit being given
unto his people, accomplishing the Lord's salvation by the preaching
of the gospel. We're just we're just pouring
oil, aren't we? In the temple. And you probably
know this, but I find it amazing that the elements that the Lord
put into the temple are all types and pictures of Christ as we've
looked at so many times the tabernacle. But on the wall there, the way
that the light took place. The way that the candles would
burn was by oil. It was by olive oil. And it's
a picture. You had a conduit coming down
from the oil into the fixture and it would burn. And it's a
type in picture of the Holy Spirit by the conduit, by the preaching
of his gospel, bringing forth the light, bringing forth his
gospel to his people, the light. And so. This is what this is
what the Lord showing us here. He's showing us that we are nothing
but empty vessels that need to be filled. He empties us of,
they didn't have anything in those vessels, did they? Whatever
was in there before, the vessel would not be a useful vessel
if it had water in it, would it? They couldn't have poured
the oil in it. Even if it had previous oil in it, if it was
a different kind of oil, it would taint it, wouldn't it? They had
to empty these vessels completely. They didn't bring in vessels
that were half full of something and just add the oil to it. When
the Lord saves His people, He saved them from the foundation
of the world, so don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but when He
calls us in time, when He calls His people in time, He empties
us of everything that we ever thought to be true, and He shows
us the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord only fills vessels
that are empty, only. because he's the one that emptied
them. A vessel that is made ready by the preaching of the gospel.
Then he fills us all the way to the brim and the cup runneth
over. Just keeps overflowing, doesn't
it? That's the good news of the gospel. There's plenty of oil. The oil didn't come from her
actions. It came from God giving the increase.
All she's doing is taking a vessel and pouring it, and it just kept
coming out and coming out and coming out until every vessel
is full. Isn't that a picture of the gospel going forth, calling
the Lord's sheep? And every one of his sheep are
gonna be called and filled by the Holy Spirit. Isn't that amazing? The Lord is going to continue
to allow the oil of gladness to keep flowing. To keep flowing
until every one of his elect are called and brought. There is no room for anything
else in the vessels, but Christ. He fills us up with his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 7. 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
of the rest. He tells her two things, pay off your debt and
live on the rest. Is that not what the gospel does
to the Lord's people? We find out that our debt has
been paid in full and we live off of the good news of the gospel
every day. New bread, we just want manna from heaven every
day. The Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Turn with me to Isaiah 55. I titled this message, Pay Thy
Debt. Pay Thy Debt. Isaiah 55 says, Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money,
come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money, and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your
ear and come unto me. Herein your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Whosoever will, come. Take of
the water of life freely. Is that not what Christ said
at the? I don't remember. It was the
ordinance that was given forth for the tabernacle. The feast
of the tabernacle was the name of it, and the Lord stands up
before them at the pool of Salome and he says to them, are you
thirsty? He's asking, are you thirsty?
Whosoever will let him come take of the water of life freely.
We know that they hated him. just as the world hates the Lord's
Gospel and the Lord's people because it strips them of everything.
But he tells us. Everyone that thirsteth. Why are you thirsty? Because
you have been made to be thirsty. There's a saying, and I've said
this before, but you can lead a horse to water, but you can't
make him drink. But if you give a horse a salt block, he'll get
thirsty. And that's exactly what the Gospel does to the Lord's
people is it makes us thirsty. over and over and over. And what does the Lord do? Does
he leave us in that thirsty condition? Does he leave us as an empty
vessel? No, certainly not. He fills us up. He gives us his
water, his water of life freely. He fills us up with the oil of
gladness. He makes us have a need. I love that the Lord has never
made a man or a woman needy and not satisfied their need. Isn't
that glorious? If you have a need, it's because
the Lord has caused you to have a need. And as soon as you have
the need, the Lord is the solution to the need. He is. He fixes
it immediately. It's a it's repentance and faith.
It's the exactly it's simultaneous. Simultaneous. We're made empty
were made broken were made poor. And yet he says come and buy.
Come and buy without money, without price. How? How can I come and
buy as an empty vessel, as a broken vessel? How? Because he's already
paid it. He's already paid the debt to
our creditor. He's already satisfied the law.
He's already fulfilled everything necessary for our salvation.
It's been paid in full. Therefore, poverty is not an
excuse, is it? He says without money and without price, poverty
is not an Not an excuse to the believer. Lord, I'm too poor
to come to you. That's not true, because he said
without money and without price. Hawker said this on the subject,
the poorer the wretch, the poorer the wretch, the more welcome
to this market. The poorer the wretch, the more
welcome to this market. Are you poor? Are you wretched? Are you miserable? You're welcome
to come. That's the qualification, because
the Lord's made you thus. Sin is not an excuse either,
brethren. Matthew chapter 8 verse 17 tells us that it might be
fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet saying himself
took our infirmities and he bore our sickness. Sickness is not
an excuse, is it? The Lord took our sickness unto
himself. I'm too sick to take of the water
life freely. No, he took your sickness. That's
the qualification is being sick. Our sin is not the is not an
excuse because he put away our sin. He put away our sin by his
death and Luke Chapter 5 verse 32. He says I came not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. Being a sinner is
the qualification. Being an empty vessel is the
qualification of needing a Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save sinners. He says to those who are sick,
those who are poor, those who are needy, those who are empty
vessels, come, pay thy debt, pay thy debt. She didn't do anything
to pay her debt, did she? The Lord did it. The Lord filled
up the vessels. When we come to this market to buy wine, when
we come to this place, we see that the Lord's blood has already
purchased everything for the Lord's people. So matter of fact,
if you come bringing anything to try to buy, you're not welcome. You're not welcome. Just as the
you remember the passage with the parable the Lord spoke of
of the rich man, the king giving a feast for his son, a marriage
feast. And we see there was everybody wore the garments that were necessary
during that time. The marriage garments. It was
the garment that the king said this is what you're going to
wear to honor my son. But one man came in. He came
in wearing his own garments, didn't he? He came in wearing
his own attire. He came in different from everybody
else because he liked what he had on. He thought he had to
think in himself, my garments are better than these garments.
What did the king do? The king said, take him out,
cast him into outer darkness. What is that a picture of? It's
a picture of a man coming before the Lord with his own righteousness.
It's someone coming before the Lord, trying to buy of this blessed
salvation based upon their merits. The Lord says, depart from me,
I never knew you. The Lord's people come to buy.
They come to buy with the blood of Christ, don't we? That's the
only thing we come pleading. Christ is all we come as empty
vessels. Lord, I can't even. I can't move
unless you give me legs to walk. I can't breathe unless you give
me life. I can't see unless you cause me to see we come as mercy
begging empty broken vessels and the Lord causes us just like
he did the bones over in Ezekiel. Cause us to stand up, put sinews
on us, flesh upon us, breathe life into us. That's what he
does for his people. He fills his vessels to the brim. By his Gospel. Therefore, we
hear the precious words come pay off thy debt. You come to the Lord. Come to
the Lord as a mercy begging center and you'll hear the sweetest
words. It is finished. It is finished, it's done. Everything
in the law says do. The creditor says you're going
to work for me. You're going to work for me to pay off your
debt. We cannot pay off the debt, brethren, no matter what we do.
But the glorious news of the sovereign grace of God by the
Gospel says it is finished. It's done. The law says do. Christ
said done. And he says come pay off that
debt. All that was required Christ
accomplished. Now notice the question that he's asking in
Isaiah 55 verse 2. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread and your labor that which satisfieth
not? I love the Lord's rhetorical questions, don't you? Lord's
rhetorical questions calls us to think. Calls us to think and
calls us to see that all that we're doing is iniquity. If we
try to do anything to accomplish salvation or obtain salvation,
it's just iniquity before him. That's why in Jeremiah 2, he
tells us, for my people have committed two evils. They've
forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Did you
know that's what men are preaching today in most churches? They're
preaching broken cisterns. They're not preaching empty vessels.
They're preaching broken cisterns. That's what works religion is,
is just broken cisterns. They've forsaken the true God
and they've hewed out cisterns. We know what a cistern is, right?
On the side, whenever it rains, it's something to gather the
water in from the rain. Well, that's the same picture.
We don't have anything to do with the rain, do we? As far
as controlling it, it's God that sends forth the rain. And so
what this is a picture of is they're making their own vessels,
their own righteousness, and before God, they're just broken
cisterns. They can't hold any water. They
can't hold any water, and yet, we have the good news of the
gospel. that the Lord takes us, even though we've hewed out broken
cisterns, even though we've tried to come to Him in our own righteousness,
He shows us that we are dead and trespasses it in sin, that
we're full of iniquity, and we come to Him empty, don't we?
Broken vessels, and He mends us up, and He makes us whole,
and He fills us up, and what is our confession? What is our
confession? The same question that Elisha
asked, what would you have me do? The same thing the Lord asked
Bartimaeus, what would you have me to do for you? What do we
say? My sight, I'm blind. My hearing, I'm deaf. We, as
a matter of fact, we can't even speak it until he gives us life
because we're dead and trespasses it in sin. So as soon as we become
alive, we're confessing Christ is all. Christ is all to the
glory of God the Father. Matthew Chapter 5 verse 6 says
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
or they shall be filled. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty
for righteousness to be found in Christ? It's because he's
made you thus and you will be filled. That's the good news.
He said you will be filled. They shall be filled. The man might take this and say,
well, he's saying I should hunger more. I should be more desirous
of things. I need to listen to more messages.
I need to get read the Bible more. I need to be more hungry
than I'll be filled. No, if you're hungry, He's going to fill you
because he's made you hungry. It's not a work rather, and it's
not something that we do. We don't try to do more and more
to obtain favor in his sight. Certainly listen to messages,
certainly read Scripture, but the hunger that you have is for
righteousness before the father, and he is already satisfied.
He's already satisfied our creditors. The debt that we owed by the
death of himself. That's why he says come. Everyone
that Thursday. Everyone that hungers after righteousness
and you shall be filled. Psalm 107 tells us for he satisfied
the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness,
goodness and mercy. We see that. Pay that debt. Paid in full, isn't it? Pay that
debt. I know that somebody is going
to take the title of this and think that it's going to be a
work, but hopefully when they listen to it, they'll find out
that the message I'm trying to declare to us is the Lord says
pay that debt, but it's also at the same time says paid in
full paid. Maybe I should name it paid in
full instead. Look at verse three with me quickly. Says incline
your ear in coming to me here and your soul shall live and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sheer mercies
of David. I want us to understand something.
We. We coming to Christ here, this
hearing that he's speaking of this inclining of the ear, we're
dead and trespasses and in sin were born in sin and shaping
into iniquity, as I've already said many times. So if men say
all you have to do is hear, that would be the same as going to
this graveyard behind us and telling a dead person all you
have to do is hear. There is no way that that individual
can hear their dead. They're dead, we are dead when
we're born. So what is the Lord saying? If
you hear, it's because I've made with you a covenant, even the
sure mercies of David. If you're full as a vessel, it's
because I've made with you the sure mercies of David. I've given
them to you and therefore you will incline your ear, you will
hear and your soul shall live. Isn't that good news? He says,
come unto me, incline your ear and come unto me, not come to
an understanding. We don't debate things, do we,
brethren? The gospel's just declared. We don't debate to try to form
an opinion that makes someone believe what we believe or try
to find something that we've never saw before. We don't debate,
do we? We don't come to an understanding. We don't come to a doctrine.
There's many people that are inhaled that believed in Calvinism
up. It's true because. The Gospel is a person. It's not a doctrine. Now we preach
sound doctrine according to Timothy. What Paul told Timothy preached
the word be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke
and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. We preach sound
doctrine, but we don't. We preach Christ and Him crucified
as our hope. We preach not what we have in
our head, it's what He has done. It's the work of the heart the
scripture talks about, right? So we don't come to a doctrine,
we don't discipline ourself to draw closer unto Him. We come
to the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we come to. We come
to Christ and anyone that comes to Him every person that's ever
come to him being a mercy beggar, begging for mercy genuinely from
the heart that the Lord's calls a broken heart and a contrite
spirit. He has never once turned them
aside. He has never once cast them away. He has never once departed from
them, having not filled them to the brim of his grace and
mercy. He will never depart us because we're in him. Isn't that
good news? Verse six and seven. Says, seek
you the Lord while he may be found. Call he upon him while
he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly
pardon. Reminded that the Lord said,
behold, I stand at the door and knock. You ever heard that in
religion? The message being preached, Lord, stand at the door knocking.
All you have to do is open the door. Problem is, is we're dead. We can't open the door. What
is the Lord telling us? It's an effectual calling. He's
not asking. He's not begging. It's an effectual
calling, and he's letting you know that he's about to knock
the door down and bind the strong man and fill your vessel to the
brim with his oil. That's exactly what's about to
take place. We know this by him saying, the
wicked forsake his ways. We forsook our ways, didn't we?
We have. As far as what we confess to
be our righteousness, we've forsaken all of that. We've ceased and
desisted all works when it comes to salvation, haven't we? When
the Lord saves you, you no longer try to work your way to heaven.
The Lord has completely emptied you and filled you to the brim
with his oil. There's no room for nothing else. A believer
cannot not believe. Even Peter denied knowing the
Lord and his affiliation out of fear, but he never denied
who Christ was or who Christ is. You and I are the same in
that regard. When he saves you by his grace,
he gives you a confession, the same confession that Elisha asked
for here, what would you have me to do? The same confession
that Bartimaeus had to speak is our same confession. Lord,
I'm blind, I need sight. Lord, I'm an empty vessel, I
need you to fill me. Lord, I'm a broken cistern that
can hold no water. Lord, mend me up and fill me
with your water of life freely. And everyone that has ever come
to Christ confessing this, Christ has filled Christ will in no
wise cast you out why he's giving you the heart of Christ himself.
He's giving you the faith, his own faith, the look to him. We
rest, don't we? We rest. For by grace are you
saved? It's nothing that we did to deserve
it. By grace, you're saved through faith. That faith says pay thy
debt. That faith replies paid in full. It is finished. Father, thank
you for paying our debt that we could not pay. For satisfying
the creditor. The laws demands pray that you
would remind us of this often. In Christ and we pray, Amen.