God’s Oil and Our Vessels.
The aim of this address is to help those children of God who
feel that they are living an anaemic spiritual life. We might have so much: we have
so little. The writer himself knows far
less than he ought of this greater fulness; but he thinks he sees from
Scripture how the empty vessels can be replenished. His prayer is that every word may be used to
the glory of our Lord.
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Oil,
in the Scriptures, frequently stands for the Holy Ghost. We read of Christ,
that “God anointed Him with the
Holy Ghost” (Acts 10: 38); and He says Himself,- “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me” (Luke 4: 18). Prophets are ‘sons of
oil.’ Of Zechariah’s two olive
trees it is written:- “Knowest thou not what
these be? ... This is the word of the Lord, … Not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of
hosts… These are the two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord
of the whole earth” (Zech. 4: 6, 14). The oil that consecrated priest, prophet, and
king; the oil mingled with the meal offering; the oil in the torches and
vessels of the Virgins:- all stood for Him who, at Pentecost, was as oil poured
forth, the Feeder of fire,
the balm to the heart bruised and broken by sin. The Holy Spirit is the oil of God.
Elisha finds a widow with her creditor at the doors. “The creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen” (2 Kings 4: 1).
Who is the widow? Here is a
statement recently made by a child of God.
“I saw how complete was my judicial standing
in Christ. I rejoiced in the truth of
the Lord’s Coming. I apprehended my
position in heavenly places with Him... Yet, the Christian life contemplated in
the Bible was a life of victory and triumph; my life was one of failure and
defeat. Even the knowledge, through all
my failure, that God loved me only added to my burden; for to feel one’s self a
child, and yet to be unable to act like a child, cannot but be a source of
bitter sorrow. At times I went through
agonies of conflict in my efforts to bring about a different state of
things. I resolved, I prayed, I
wrestled, I strove.” Here is the
widow.
Elisha asks:- “What hast thou in the
house?” The widow answers,- “a pot of oil.”
God’s habit is to take what is and out of it to build what shall
be. The
widow reveals the one fact of foundation significance out of which the whole narrative flows. The Holy Ghost is already. in the house. “The Father … shall give you
another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit
of truth” (John 14: 16). The Church is the permanent abode of the Holy
Ghost. Moreover, no disciple, however
beggared of grace, is without the incalculable treasure of the pot of oil. “Know ye not that your
body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is
in you?” (1 Cor. 6: 19). The
believer most bowed down, most battered, and weary, and faint, beset with the
sorest temptations, can always answer,- “Thine handmaid
hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil;” and in that saving clause is involved the
whole power of the Godhead. There is oil
in the house.
Now Elisha begins to act. The foundation is right. The woman has that which can make her
incalculably wealthy before God. He now
directs her thus:- “Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of
all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And thou shalt go in, and shut the door upon
thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and thou shalt set
aside that which is full.” There are two peculiar things about this
command of the prophet. (1) God is not
once named: He is assumed as the silent background in every life. Who
had the oil somewhere in the cellars of heaven? God. Who could draw abundance out of abject
poverty? God. Whose heart was beating with quiet, watchful
love, waiting to be gracious?
God’s. Sometimes when we name Him
least, He is doing most: God has the oil, and He wants us to have it too. He is
silently waiting for us to bring the vessels.
And (2) it is the same oil throughout. The oil for life is also
the oil for living. We obtain saving
grace without works: we obtain sanctifying grace apart from works. Grace is always the gift of God. A faithless soul might have replied:- “You tell me to get many vessels to hold oil which is already
held in one; but my trouble is, not the absence of vessels, but the
littleness of the oil.” But the
prophet knew the multiplying power of grace which has once become resident in
the soul. “I was almost ready,” continues the writer
above quoted, “to give up in despair. In
this time of need God threw into my company some who declared they had
discovered a way of holiness. I asked
them their secret, and they replied, ‘It is
simply in ceasing from all efforts of our own, and trusting Jesus.’ Like a revelation the glorious
possibilities of a life such as this flashed upon me.” The pot of oil is sufficient for every vessel
that can ever be brought: the oil is the same throughout.
Observe the
command in detail. “Go, borrow thou vessels.” What does this mean? “I began to long
after holiness. I began to groan under
the bondage to sin in which I was still held.
My whole heart panted after entire conformity to the will of God, and
unhindered communion with Him.”
It means that we intensify our spiritual ambitions, enlarge our
capacities for receiving, expect the mightiest things from God, and
make preparations for their coming. Borrow many vessels to hold the overflow from the one. “Borrow
of all
thy neighbours.” Here sits a redeemed soul, cold to the world’s redemption, alongside one burning with missionary
zeal: let him borrow his neighbour’s
vessel and bring it to the flowing
oil. Here is a deep, but un-obeying, student of the Word; across the street lives an old and ignorant believer, yet one whose whole life is an aroma of Christ: let him borrow his vessel, and catch
God’s oil. Let the watcher for souls watch also for the Lord: let the aspirant for the
crown meanwhile pluck souls from the
burning.
Covet all gifts and all graces.
“Borrow thou
not
a few.” Bring every jar you can get; it is grace abounding; until the whole heart shall throb to the whole work of God when all that interests God, shall interest us when the capacities of the soul shall more nearly correspond to the fulness in God when all the vessels shall
be full of oil. Eph
3: 19. “Bring
ye the
whole tithe into the storehouse and prove me now herewith,
saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Mal.
3: 10).
Notice some peculiarities of this remarkable scene of the
silently flowing, silently flowing oil, replenishing jar after jar. (1) The oil is boundless. There is no gaping poverty in our life
which God is not willing to fill till the brim is flushed. “God is able to make
all grace” - every kind of grace – “abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in
everything, may abound unto every
good work” (2 Cor. 9: 8). Again, (2) the vessels must be brought. All
vessels outside remain empty. Great
agony, and sore discipline, are often needed before the soul will increase its
vessels, and bring them; but, once brought, nothing is to be done but to receive the pouring. But
the vessels must be brought. “If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them” (John 13: 17). Again (3) God’s giving is only limited by
our capacity for receiving. “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.” God
does not waste His oil if we cannot catch it, He does not pour it and when we
stop bringing vessels, the oil stays. “How much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him” (Luke 11: 13): but how
much? just as much as we have empty vessels for. A true vacuum in a globe
suffers a tremendous pressure from the outside air: so the inrush of the
manifold grace of God into the heart is according to the emptiness, size, and
number of our vessels. “0 Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us” - much less in God – “but ye are
straitened in your own affections. I speak as unto my children, be ye
also enlarged” (2, Cor. 6: 12).
Again (4) God goes on pouring until the vessel .is full. “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5: 18).
The writer quoted earlier concludes thus:- “God
sent to our house a young man, whose soul was in great darkness because of
doubts concerning salvation. It was my privilege to point him to Jesus as a
Saviour just suited to meet his needs; … and as I talked to him, and set forth
the boundless love of Christ, and His Divine power to save to the uttermost all
who come unto God by Him my heart was rebuked for my own unbelief. Couldit be that the Saviour, who was willing
to forgive the sine of the rebel, who would be unwilling to deliver the longing
soul of one who loved Him and panted to follow Him, from the present power and
dominion of sin? Could I exhort this
poor, doubting soul to trust that Redeemer whom I myself was afraid to trust?” He discovers that the oil is the same
throughout. “The
last barrier of unbelief was broken down. Jesus revealed Himself to me as so
worthy of my utmost confidence, that I could not help trusting Him. He showed Himself to me as a perfect, and
complete, and present Saviour, and I abandoned my whole self to His care,
telling Him that I was utterly helpless, that I could not feel, nor think, nor
act, for one moment as I ought to do; and that He must do it all for me, all
... I trusted Him utterly and entirely.
I took Him for my Saviour from the daily power of sin, with as naked a
faith as I once took Him for my Saviour from its guilt.” Here is the
emptying and bringing of the vessel. God
did the rest. “And
now, if I am asked what is my life, with a deep and abiding sense of my own
nothingness, I can only answer that Christ is now my life. Once I had truth about Him, but now I have
Himself! Once I tried to live in my new
nature independent of Him; now I am joined to Him in a oneness that is
indescribable, having no life but His - lost and swallowed up in Him. Not that I never leave this blessed
abiding-place, and walk in the flesh again, to my unspeakable anguish and
regret. But Christ is always the same;
and the way of access by faith is always open. ... More than all I so longed
for is made mine now by faith; and I am satisfied.”
The supreme practical point remains. How is the oil to be obtained? “Thou shalt go in,
and shut
the door upon thee.” The power to live a holy life resides in God:
we must pray that power down. We
must pray the emptiness out of our vessels. The oil flows behind the closed door. “Thou, when thou
prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret”
(Matt. 6: 6). “Night and day,”
says Whitefield, “Jesus fills me with His love.
… I walk continually in the comforts the Holy Ghost.
… My heart
is melted down with the love of Jesus. … The sight I have of God by faith
ravishes my soul: how shall I be ravished when I see Him face to face! ... I would
leap my seventy years, and fly into His presence.” Put no limits to the power of the Holy Ghost: what He has wrought in others, He can work in us: we too may have the
burning heart, the brimming grace, the holy life. Acts. 2: 39. But it is only for the soul prostrate on its
face in closet prayer, who will part with the Angel, but not with the blessing.
“As the hart planteth after the water-brooks so panteth
my soul after Thee, O God!”
How mighty is the difference between the empty vessel and the
full! Francis Tauler was a prince of
preachers in Strassburg. A stranger from
a distance one day told him that he did not know his Lord intimately enough to
preach His message, and advised him to withdraw into silence until the love of
Christ should fill his heart to overflowing. Tauler, deeply moved, withdrew
into long months of meditation, prayer, and weeping. A vast crowd assembled to hear him preach
once more. Again and again he tried to
speak, and again and again he broke down weeping, and the crowd dispersed
without a sermon. Some weeks after, in a
second attempt, he spoke from the words, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” “The joy,” he
was saying, “of the Bride, the soul, with its
Bridegroom, Christ, is so great that no man can conceive it,” when
suddenly a man shouted, “It is true!” and fell
to the ground insensible. When the
sermon was ended over forty people, overwhelmed by the Spirit of God, were
found lying unconscious; and thus began the great revival which swept through
the whole
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