? ? On that bright and golden morning,
when the Son of Man shall come, and the radiance of His glory
we shall see. When from every climate and nation
He shall call His people home, on a gathering of the ransomed
that will be, What a gathering, what a gathering, what a gathering
of the ransomed in the summer land above. What a gathering,
what a gathering of the ransomed in that happy home above. When the blessed who sleep in
Jesus' hand His bidding shall arise From the silence of the
grave and from the sea. and with bodies all celestial
they shall meet him in the skies. What a gathering and rejoicing
there will be. What a gathering, what a gathering,
what a gathering of the ransomed in the summer land of love. What a gathering, what a gathering
of the ransomed in that happy home above. you When our eyes behold the city
with its many mansions bright, and its river calm and restful
flowing free. When the friends that death have
parted shall in bliss again unite, what a gathering and a greeting
there will be. What a gathering, what a gathering,
what a gathering of the ransomed in the summer land of love. What a gathering, what a gathering
of the ransomed in that happy home above. The King is surely
coming and the time is drawing nigh When the blessed day of
promise we shall see With the changing in a moment, and the
twinkling of an eye, And forever in his presence we shall meet. What a gathering, what a gathering,
What a gathering of the ransomed in the summer land of love. What a gathering, what a gathering,
of the ransomed in that happy poem above. Pastor Chris Cunningham is going
to come now and bring the message to us. He's pastor in Cottage
Grove, Tennessee. I believe that's Sovereign Grace
Church in Cottage Grove. We're happy to have you with
us, you and your wife, Vicki. You come and preach to us. I'll get it. I'll get it, Chris. I don't have trouble getting
up. It's getting down. Seems like a lot further down
than it used to. All right. How does that sound?
Can you all hear me OK tonight? this morning. Last night, I apologize. I didn't speak as loud as I normally
do. I sound to myself like I'm yelling
because my ears have so much pressure on them. And so I spoke
too softly. But I've got a megaphone under
here if I need to get it. No, it's it's so good to be here. This is Texas. And y'all don't
do anything. Little here. You have the Lincoln
would feel harmonic orchestra over here playing and last night you had the Lincoln
would tabernacle choir up here doing a special and the food,
the food I told somebody last night, y'all
have been the gold standard ever since the first time we ever
came here when it comes to food. It's still true. Well, let's
turn together to 2 Kings again. Chapter 4. Chapter 4 this time. And we'll
read verses 1 through 7. Second Kings four. Verse one. Now there was a certain
woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets, 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
didst 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 hand made
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 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. And 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. Now this woman's husband was
dead. That's the first lesson we see
in this story. It concerns sin and its consequences. The wages of sin is death. And
though it was her husband that died and not her, In the two
of them, we see our condition by nature, dead in trespasses
and sins, and because of sin and its consequences, we're left
destitute, absolutely spiritually bankrupt, and in debt. We are the widow woman. Now what's
she gonna do? Her creditors are demanding of
her that which is most precious to her, her sons. And she's got nothing that she
can do to prevent them from taking them. There's a legal problem
that is brought about by sin and its consequences. There's
a demand upon her to produce and her inability to produce
is going to cost her that which is most precious. In spiritual terms, that's our
own soul. Our own soul shall be required
of us. Our creditor is God, and we have
nothing to pay. Remember the story in Luke 741,
our Lord's parable there. Let me read it to you. Luke 741,
there was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one
owed 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing
to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house
and thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed
my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she
loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. Now, a lot of people I've heard I guess you could say expound
on this, but falsely do so. Say, see there now? She loved
him much. She cried and wept and washed
his feet with her tears and kissed him and anointed him with oil. And so he forgave her. That's
not what the story says. The reason she did all that is
because she was forgiven a whole lot. A whole lot. And the Lord
used this analogy. Sin is a debt that must be paid
and we have nothing to pay. Our only hope is forgiveness.
He frankly forgave them. Forgiveness comes at the cost
of the very blood of God. But for us, for whom he died,
it's completely free. completely free. We're not only
unable to pay, but we're forbidden to try in the scriptures because
to try, to try to pay back God, what are you going to do? What
are you going to give God? What are you going to do for
God anyway? Much less to pay your sin debt. to try to pay
back God is to woefully underestimate our debt. We don't know what
we owe if we try to pay it back. Also, to try to pay God back
is to show disdain for the blood of Christ, which alone can wash
our sins away. The precious blood is required.
to pay our debt, and her inability to pay was gonna cost her again
her own soul in spiritual terms. That which was most precious
to her. The creditor says to every sinner
who trusts in himself, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee. Rich or poor, we all owe the
same debt. And we all have nothing to pay.
What is she gonna do? What's she gonna do? What's she
gonna do? Well, we see what she did, don't
we? She cried. She cried. She cried out in her
need. She came to the right place,
didn't she? She came to God's representative. He represents
the Lord Jesus Christ here. No man cometh unto the Father
but by the mediator. The representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. So she went to God's prophet
and cried. Elisha asked her what she had
in the house. That's a good question considering
that she owes a massive debt. And her answer is critical here. What did she say? I don't have
any thing, not a thing. Now, I know that she had one
thing. She did have something, didn't she? But her answer was
not, well, I have a pot of oil. Her answer was nothing. Why? Why didn't she say, well, I've
got this little pot of oil over here? Because this is the gospel,
that's why. I don't have anything. I need righteousness. I need perfect obedience to God.
I don't have any. Not one time have I ever obeyed
God. Not one time, and I'm not going
to. I'm not going to. Not perfectly, not in a way that
measures up to His holiness. It's not going to happen. I need an offering for my sin.
I desperately need a sin offering. Sinner always has needed a sin
offering from the very beginning. Even in the garden, God shed
blood in order to cover the sins. of his people, and I don't have
one. My very soul, if I could give
my very soul, it would not pay for one sin that I've committed.
And I've never done anything but sin. I need peace with God. And I have nothing with which
to appease his wrath, not a single thing. The more I do, the more
I incur the wrath of God. in myself by nature. And the
truth of the matter is, if I don't know the Lord, I don't want to
appease God. I've got no use for that. I have nothing, I am
nothing, I can do nothing. These are the terms upon which
God reasons with sinners. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. What about Lord? Your sins. Your sins. Though your sins be a scarlet
and they're red like crimson. What can wash away my sins? Nothing. Nothing. but the blood. She did have one thing, like
Job who lost everything. She had the Savior in her heart. She's crying out here. She represents
the sinner who knows her need and sees the desperation and
has despaired of self and has come to God's prophet. And so
she has this pot of oil. Now, oil pictures the Holy Spirit
often in scripture, and I believe so here. That's the spirit of
Christ, the spirit of Christ, and that was, it was by his spirit
that she was taught to cry for mercy. She had only one thing,
but only one thing was needful. Not only is Christ, the only
thing needful, but having only him is needful. Amen. Does that make sense? Did I say that right? Amen. That's all she had. All she had. That's necessary. As long as the woman with the
issue of blood had some money, she spent it in the wrong place. So what did Elisha tell this
woman to do? Go and gather empty vessels. Now these empty vessels typify
her condition. I mean, what's an empty, I can't
eat an empty vessel. But go gather empty vessels.
Let's get all the emptiness we can. To receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's get as empty as we possibly
can. Now, these are typical of her,
but also of all who call upon God. She cried to God because
she was empty. The woman with the issue of blood
was out of resources. She had spent all she had and
had nothing left, and she just grew worse. Jonah cried from the belly of
hell. The leper was incurably rotting
away. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda
had no man. Lazarus was dead. How about you? We've got to come
to that place, don't we? The Lord has got to bring us
to that place empty, empty, empty, empty, all of it. All of it put
together equaled emptiness. A vessel with anything in it
was useless in this dilemma. Christ will not be a supplement
to your life. He will not be. Not a supplement to your works.
Not just an add-on to your hope and your life. Every good thought
of yourself must be emptied out. Every good thought, well, you
know, I'm an old sinner, you know. But, you know, I've done my best. No, you haven't. And you need
to understand that. Turn that vessel upside down,
because that's not true. Not one time have you ever done
your best, and if you had, it would be evil in the sight of
God. Every good thought, every shred
of hope anywhere else but Christ must be wiped clean from your
heart. It's got to go. I wonder if we
walk around day by day realizing that we have one need, one need. Well, Chris, I've got to get
up and go to work on Monday morning. No, you don't. I hope you will
if the Lord's given you a job and he doesn't come back. But you may not go to work ever
again, and that's fine as long as you have Christ. Well, we
got to eat. No. I enjoy eating probably more
than most of y'all. If I never eat another bite of
food, I don't need it. I need Christ. Don't need a drink
of water. I kind of do right now. My throat,
you know, I need a little drink, but not really. Not really. We don't need anything but Christ. That's just the truth of it.
And I wish I could walk around like that, knowing that all the
time, don't you? When I get disappointed, I get
upset about things, God help us to realize we have
everything. Everything. So we got to turn out the pockets
of our soul, don't we? Not a penny. Not a single penny. Guilty, bankrupt, dead, helpless,
without strength. We must come to that place where
if God did what religion says he does. If he leaves salvation
up to you, you're a goner. You'll never see a single ray
of light from God if he leaves salvation up to you. You've probably
heard this quote from Spurgeon. Spurgeon said one time, if God
brought me all the way to glory, except he left me one step to
enter into the gate, I would perish on the doorstep of heaven. That empty, that's how empty
we gotta be, that helpless, that hopeless. They gathered every
vessel they could find and began from that one pot to fill all
of those vessels. This is a creative miracle. I'm talking about salvation.
It's a creative miracle. You can't decide it. Your will
won't cut it. It's a creative thing. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Substance was created here that
didn't exist before. And when God saved me, a new
creature came into existence, a new man, a new nature. Second Corinthians 5.17, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. You ever wonder about that? You
say, well, my old man ain't new. No. But not only does the flesh lust
against the spirit, but the spirit lusts against the flesh too. So though we do have an old nature
that's never changed, that old nature can never operate the
same way again. Nothing about you is ever the
same again once you meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything's
different, everything's new. because of that new creation,
created in Christ Jesus. Galatians 6.15, for in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. If your law keeping had anything
to do with salvation, then why did Christ come? He's not come
in vain. You know what does avail? A new creation. You must be born again. You must
be born from above. Only God can create. Salvation
is of the Lord. We have in this story only empty
vessels and full ones. And that's how it is in salvation.
If you have not Christ, you have nothing. Did you know that if
you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't know anything?
You think about that for a minute. Well, I know my job. I can fix
a car. I know how to fix a car. Yeah,
but who are you doing it for? Why are you doing it? If you're
doing it for yourself without any regard to God, you don't
know what you're doing. You're doing nothing but evil. You say, well, I'm doing something
good here. I'm fixing something. No, you're not. You're doing
something evil. We don't know anything unless we know Christ. But if you have Christ, you're
full, completely full. You are complete in him, complete
in him. And consider this, what was the
vessel's part in salvation? What's the vessel's part? It
just received. If we receive, the spirit of
God, receive the truth, receive Christ. That's salvation. What was her part in her debt
being paid? She owed it. Our part in salvation
is we need it. That's our only part in it. Religion
says, well, you believe, that's your part. God's part, you know,
he did on Calvary, and your part is to believe. No, no, that's
his part too. He does that too. He gives us faith in his son. There's no mention of how much
money she made from the sale of that oil. It says that she
was able to pay her dad and then live off the rest of it. How
much was that? I don't know. We're not given
a number. You know why I believe we're not given a number? Because
if we were told a number here, then the lesson would be that
Christ is a lot. That's not the lesson here. The lesson is Christ is all.
He's enough. The words pay in verse 7, look
at verse 7 with me again. Then she came and told the man
of God and he said go sell the oil and pay, pay thy debt. Christ is enough to pay and there's
another key word and live. Christ is our life. All of our sin debt is paid. All of our guilt is gone. Free
from the law, oh, happy condition. Jesus hath bled. And there's
remission. There's remission of all of our
debt. And the same wall that paid off all of her debt was
enough for her to live off of and her sons. You remember when
Jacob and Esau met after many years, Jacob and Esau met traveling
on a road and they came together and Jacob had sent a gift ahead
to Esau and Esau said to Jacob when they met, take your gift
back because I have enough. I have enough. Meaning if you
look up that word enough, it means I have a lot. I've got
plenty. But Jacob said this to Esau. He said, take this gift because
I have enough. Most of you will know that that
word enough is not the same word enough that Esau used. Jacob said, you take this gift
from me because I have everything. I have everything. Jacob have I loved. That's everything. That's everything. Christ is everything. And if
Christ is not enough, that's, I believe, the problem with us in our sin. The reason
people will come, maybe, and visit this church, and maybe
they'll visit one time, maybe two times, and then you'll never
see them again, it's because there's no programs. There's no entertainment. There's
nothing for the flesh. It's Christ, isn't it? That's
what we do here. We worship Christ. What do you
have for the young people? Well, you try to tell them who
Christ is and what he did for sinners. And if Christ is not
enough, you're not going to stay. You're not going to stay. Is Christ enough? If not, then you'll want to argue
doctrine. If Christ is not enough, you'll
want to let everybody know how much you know and that you know
more than them. Somebody said, a comedian said
one time, I wrote a book. It's called I Know More Than
You. And then he followed it up a couple of years later with
a sequel that was called I Still Know More Than You. That's how. a religious person,
even doctrinally sound, if Christ is not enough, you're going to
want to argue doctrine. If Christ is not enough, you're
going to find reasons to be unhappy in the church. There's plenty
of them in there. There's all kinds of things to
complain about. We had people leave the church in Laird Street
at Laird Street one time because the pews were too close together.
You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. That's exactly the reason
they gave. Some people go to a different
church every few years. You know why they do that? Because
Christ is not enough. He's not enough. If Christ is not enough, you'll
find fault with the preacher primarily. He's usually the first
target. But you'll find fault with everybody.
everybody. If Christ is not enough, you'll
turn to this world for satisfaction and pleasure. If Christ is not enough, you'll
find security in uncertain riches. But if you have Christ, And all
you have is Christ. Christ is enough. He's enough. And let me say this to us believers,
don't ever act like he's not. We tend to do that, don't we?
You know he's enough. Let's don't act like he's not.
By his grace, may he help us. Amen. That's the way to preach the
Old Testament, isn't it? Preach Christ. Why don't we sing
a verse of the hymn he quoted part of, I'm Only a Sinner, Saved
by Grace. See if I can find it here. 474,
okay. You want to stand as we sing?
We'll just sing a verse or two, maybe, and then we'll take a
break.