Well, thank you. It's been about
seven years, I think, since I was here before. And it's so good
to see you again and to be with you again. And I do thank a lot
of your pastor. I love him. He's been a dear
friend to me. I consider him to be my pastor
and been used of the Lord to bless my heart. Really thankful
for him. Let's turn to Job chapter 1. Our subject tonight is our one
lasting possession. Our one lasting possession. True life and true wealth is
not in temporal possessions. It's in having the Lord Jesus
Christ as our possession. Scripture says, I am my beloved's, and my beloved
is mine." It's to have Christ as our possession. Job was the
greatest man among men in the East. He had this great family. He had this great wealth. But
Job had something far more valuable than that. Job had Christ as
his surety. And so whenever he got this news
about losing it all in one day, losing it all in one day, Job
responded this way, verse 20. Then Job arose and ran his mantle
and shaved his head. Those are signs of mourning.
And it's all right to weep and to sorrow. That's what he was
doing. But notice here what he was also doing. He fell down
upon the ground and worshiped. And he said, this is his worship.
He said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave. and the Lord hath
taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." The first thing we see here is
temporal things are temporary things. He said, naked I came,
naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither.
Every one of us came into this world naked. Physically, we came
into this world depending on others for everything. Totally
unable to do one thing for ourselves. Materially speaking, we came
forth into this world owning nothing. We were clothed with
somebody else's clothes, fed with somebody else's food, housed
with somebody else's house. We had nothing. And spiritually
speaking, we came forth into this world dead in sin. We came forth without God, without
hope, without righteousness, without holiness, guilty sinners
with a vile sin nature. That's all we had when we came
into this world. And Job said, in naked shall
I return to them. It's certain that every one of
us are going to go back to the dust, and we're not taking anything
with us. No material possessions whatsoever. Ecclesiastes 5, let me read this
to you. It says, As he came forth of
his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and
shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his
hand. And this is also a sore evil, that in all points as he
came, so shall he go. And what profit hath he that
hath labored for the wind?" That is, labored for the wind. The
question is, will we leave here spiritually naked? are clothed
in Christ's righteousness. We will leave naked spiritually
are clothed in Christ's righteousness. Our lives are wasted if we spend
our whole life in this earth laboring for the wind, laboring
for things that won't profit, for temporal things, for power
and position and possessions. God never teaches a man to seek
those things. Where do we learn that? God never
says that in His Word. He never tells us to seek riches
and temporal things. He does tell us that those things
will make us err from the faith and pierce us through with many
sorrows. He instructs His child to redeem the time, to redeem
the time. The goal of our life ought to
be to seek Christ while He may be found. to seek Christ while
he may be found. And if God puts the fear, his
fear in our heart, that will be our preeminent concern. Apostle
Paul said this after his conversion. He said, what things were gained
to me? He said, I count them lost for
Christ. He said, and I count them, I
count them but dumb, not worth nothing that I might win Christ
and be found in him. He said, I don't want to be found
having my own righteousness, which is of the lost. by my doing. He said, I want to be found having
Christ's righteousness, that righteousness which is by the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where I want to
be found. I read a book recently about this woman named Maud Crawford
in Camden, Arkansas. She grew up in my dad's hometown.
And I've heard this story all my life. My dad used to tell
me about it. He knew the lady and my grandmother knew the lady.
But she went missing one night. She was a lawyer. The only lawyer
in town, female lawyer in town. She went missing one night. There
was a bowl of peas beside her chair that she was shelling.
And they never found her. They never found her. And they
never solved the case. But they suspect, they suspect
one man. This one man they suspected kidnapped
her and killed her because he wanted an inheritance that she
was going to prevent him from receiving. Well, he got the inheritance. He got the inheritance. It was
about $22 million. And he spent his whole life trying
to cover his tracks, bribing people and giving paybacks to
people to keep them from telling anybody what he had done. And
then he died. Then he died. And he met God,
who knew everything about him. And I read that and I thought,
Our life is just that wasted if we spend our life going after
power and position and all these things, or even if we spend our
life laboring for the betterment of humanity and we meet God without
Christ. We've labored for wind. We've
profited nothing. Are we using the time wisely?
That's the question. Do we use our time wisely? Christ
is the one lasting possession. He's the one lasting possession
of his people. The word of the Lord endures
forever. Eternal life is forever. But
nothing about this world is forever. Temporal things are temporary.
All right, here's the second thing we see. Job had the comfort
of knowing who gave and who took away. He said here, the Lord
gave and the Lord had taken away. Everything between our naked
birth and our naked death is the gift of God. Everything. Everything. We like to boast
that we earned our living, you know, and we earned our whatever
we have. I bought that. And then if it gets taken away
from us, we have a tendency to blame others or blame second
causes. I watched an interview with these
folks who had earned their living and then invested in the stock
market and lost huge sums of money when the stock market crashed.
And they were saying, we earned that money. We worked hard for
that money. That was our money we earned.
And then they turned around and they blamed the investment bankers
and they blamed the economy and they blamed the president and
they blamed all these different things. Joe had more and lost
more than they all had. And he lost it all in one day. And he glorified God. He said,
God gave it and God took it away. God gave it and God took it away. Everything that we receive in
the world, God gave it. Scripture says a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from heaven. That includes everything.
Everything. When we were conceived of corrupt
seed in our mother's womb, God gave us temporal life. He gave
us that life. If you have a faithful wife,
a faithful husband, God gave it. If you have children, God
gave them. If you have riches, and if you
are able to enjoy those riches, God gave them. Back there in
Ephesians 5, he said, Every man also to whom God hath given riches
and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to
take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift
of God. And then, most importantly though,
are spiritual blessings. Every spiritual blessing. is
of God, and it's a gift, a free gift of God. God's grace is a
gift. God gives it to whom He will.
His grace is a gift, and He gives it to whom He will. The Scripture
says He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens.
And the Scripture says, unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He gives it. He gives it. When we give a gift,
what do we do? We purchase the gift. And we
purchase the gift for a particular person. Have you ever bought
a gift and just set it up on a shelf and said, I hope somebody
comes and claims that? You buy a gift for somebody.
And you pay everything to buy the gift. And then what do you
do? You take it to them and give it to them. God does too. That's how God gives a gift.
God even has to give us the ability to receive His gift. So everything
God gives is a gift. The Holy Spirit of God, when
we're born of God, that's a gift, brethren. The Gentiles were given
the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is the Holy Ghost. The gift
is the Holy Ghost. And when He comes into the heart,
He gives us the earnest, the earnest of our inheritance. That's a gift. from the Holy
Spirit. He seals us. We're given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. The earnest is the Spirit
Himself. He makes us to know Christ is
coming back for us. He's coming again. He's given
us the down payment. He's given us the surety. He's given us that in our heart,
the earnest, to let us know He's coming again. We're just purchased
possession. And it's by the Spirit that we
know All the things of God are freely given to us. That's the
only way we know this and rejoice in it, is because the Spirit
reveals it in us. Faith. Does a man have faith
because he musters up faith in himself and brings himself to
believe God by his desire and his willingness? The Scripture
says it's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
of God that shows mercy. And the Scripture says by grace
are you saved, Through faith. And that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. And it's not of works. That means
it's not of any foreseen merit in you whatsoever. It's not of
works because if it was, we'd boast about it. And all you've
got to do is listen. You hear men all over the world
boasting about their faith. What about righteousness? Look
at Romans 5. We can't come into God's presence
without righteousness. And the fact of the matter is,
we're born into this world and there's none righteous, no, not
one. Where are we going to get righteousness? Look here at Romans
5 and look at verse 15. Righteousness is a gift and it's
by the obedience of one. That's the Lord Jesus. Look here,
Romans 5, 15. It says, not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift." He said this gift is not exactly like
how we fell into condemnation. He says, look this, for the judgment
was by one to condemnation, just one sin. One sin, and we fell
into condemnation in Adam. But the free gift is of many
offenses. Christ put away all our offenses
of all His people, and it's unto free justification. That's righteousness. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which receive the abundance of
grace and of the gift of righteousness. See, it's a gift. They're going
to reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. As by the offense of
one judgment came upon all men a condemnation, that is, it came
upon all who would be born of Adam. Look at this. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men, that is, all who will
be born of Christ. It came upon them. But it's a
gift, you see? For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Righteousness is a gift. I love
that story in Romans 9 when it says, Paul says, what shall we
say then? He put before us the Gentiles and he put before us
the children of Israel. Two different people trying to
attain righteousness two different ways. How did the Gentiles try? They didn't. They didn't have
the law. They didn't know anything about
righteousness and weren't trying to be righteous. And Israel had
the law and tried and tried and tried to attain righteousness
by the works of the law. And the Gentiles attained to
righteousness and Israel did not. Why? Because the Gentiles
merely believed on Christ. And Israel tried to attain it
by the works of the law. And they stumbled at Christ.
You see, righteousness is a gift. It's by Christ. And this ministry,
this gospel that we have preached to us, how do we have the gospel
preached to us? Paul said, all things are of
God who has reconciled us to himself and has given to us the
ministry of reconciliation. We wouldn't have preaching or
preachers if it wasn't a gift of Christ to us. Beginning to
end, look at 1 Corinthians 1. Look at 1 Corinthians 1.4. Beginning to end. including our
preservation, is all God's gift. Verse 4, I thank my God always
on your behalf. He's writing through believers
here. Now listen to what he thanks God for. For the grace of God
which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched
by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge. That's a gift.
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." That means
even if you were born again and brought to the knowledge and
faith in Christ. Even as the testimony was confirmed
in you. So that you come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. How
am I going to be kept until then? "...who shall also confirm you
unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ." And here's the unspeakable gift. All of these
blessings come to us in God's unspeakable gift. That's His
Son, Christ the Lord. God gave His only begotten Son. You've got that newborn baby
back there. Can't you give that newborn baby to die in a place
of a bunch of rotten sinners that hate you, whatever fiber
they're being? That's what God did. He gave His Son. And Christ
came and He stood there with that woman at the well and He
said, if you had known who it is that is speaking to you, and
if you had known the gift of God, you would have asked of
Him and He would have given you eternal life. He is that gift. And He sat there one day and
He broke some bread. And He just broke that bread
and He handed it to them. And He said, this is picture
in my body which is broken for you. Men like to talk about how
Christ went to the cross and died, and He just died for everybody.
But He didn't really know who He was dying for. He told His
apostles, this is broken for you. It's broken for you. And He gave His body. This is
my body which is given, He said. He's given for you. Given. Given. And so seeing all spiritual
blessings are gifts. That means eternal life is a
gift. The wages of sin is death. If
we die and we meet God in judgment and He casts us into outer darkness,
we earn that. We can go to hell proud with
our head held high and say, I earned it. I got it myself. But if we
have eternal life, it's the gift of God. God gave it. God gave
it. Brethren, we don't have any room
to boast about anything, not anything temporal and not anything
spiritual. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you
received it, Paul said, why do we glory as if we didn't receive
it? And don't we do that? Don't we do that? You have to
catch yourself sometimes, don't you? You just be talking and
talking, and we're acting like we did all this. Like we earned
our living. Like I purchased that truck,
and I got these things for the fruit of my hands, and I've done
this, I've done that. We wouldn't even be able to bat
our eye if God didn't give it to us. And here's the good news, brethren.
Here's the good news. All these spiritual blessings
that God gives to His child will never, ever be taken away. They'll never be taken away because
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God will
not yield salvation. He will not give Christ and grace
and the Holy Spirit and faith and repentance and all these
spiritual blessings and then take them from him. He gives
his child and keeps his child until the end. They're without
repentance. So Job knew this. Job had some
understanding. And Job knew this, though, when
it comes to the temporal things, God's given me everything. And
he said, God can take it away. And God has taken it away, he
said. He said God has taken it away. Job didn't blame second
causes. There were some second causes
used. The Sabians, the Chaldeans. A tornado was used. A fire from
heaven was used. But he didn't blame the second
causes. He said God gave and God took it away. God took it
away. I almost didn't preach this message
tonight. I was working on it last night, and I preached on
this on Sunday, but I was looking at my notes and trying to work
on it some more last night. And I began to think about my
pastor, your pastor, Marvin. And I thought, he knows what
this is like, and he suffered something far greater than I've
ever suffered. I walked in this afternoon, and
I hadn't been here very long at all, and Marvin got a call,
and it was that message that he read to you about Mary Bell.
And I started thinking about Donnie. I hadn't suffered that. Most
of us sitting here hadn't suffered something like that. But I still know this is true,
and I still know That this is comforting, and it's comforting
for God's people. The sovereign God whom we believe,
the sovereign God who saved us by His grace, He's the first
cause of everything. The first cause of everything.
And to know that, to know He's the first cause, to know that
He's ruling every secondary cause, including Satan himself, that's
great comfort to a believer. The Lord killeth and maketh alive.
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh
poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them
inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth of the
Lord. And he set the world upon them. He'll keep the feet of
his saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail. This is our God we serve. When
good comes into the world, men, you listen to the world talk
and they'll say, oh, I've been blessed. I've been living right. God bless me. But you let evil
come. Men will say, oh, God couldn't
have done this. God wasn't in this. God didn't
do this. Would rather it be God or Satan? Want it to be God that's
in control of it or the devil that's in control? That's our
only option on it. If God's not in control, Satan's
in control. But God said this, I form the
light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. You know who wrote that scripture?
God, the Holy Spirit. Now, is he accusing himself of
sin? Is he accusing himself of being
the author of sin? No, that's not what he's doing.
He's saying, Everything that takes place on this earth is
exactly according to His purpose. It's exactly according to what
He determined before to be done. Everything. God gave, God can
take away all our temporal gifts when He will. He can do that.
And when God takes away from His child, it's always good. It's always good. He said this, is it not lawful
for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil because
I am good? Job said that. Look at Job 2.
Later, the Lord gave Satan permission to come and touch his body. And
from the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he broke
out and bore it. He became a leper. And listen to this in Job 2.9.
His wife said unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said
unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speakest.
What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we
not receive evil? And to assure us that he wasn't
charging God with sin, the Holy Spirit said in the next line,
and all this did not joke sin with his lips. You look to the
cross brethren. There's the most, the most evil
thing that ever happened on the face of the planet. There's God,
the son, the son of God, all hanging on the cross. Satan and
wicked men crucifying him. Was God in control? The Scripture
says God gathered them together to do what God had determined
before to be done. That was His will. That was His
purpose. They came to get Christ with
swords and staves, and Christ said, what are you coming out
here with those things for? He said, I was with you all the
time. I was in your temple. I was walking in and out among
you all the time, and you never did lay hands on me. But this
is your hour and the power of darkness. And the Scripture says,
then they took Him. They did take Him until then.
He gave them permission to take Him. We rejoice that God's absolutely
sovereign. You know why? It means He's going
to bring to pass the salvation of His people and He won't fail.
He shall not fail. He said, remember the former
things of old, I'm God and there's none else. He said, there's none
like me declaring the end from the beginning. From ancient times,
the things are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand,
I will do all my pleasure. I'll call a raven from the east
to do my will. I'll call a man from a far country. I've spoken it. I'll bring it
to pass. I've purposed it, and I'll do
it. You know, men talk about, well, if you say God saves through
the foolishness of preaching, you're limiting the sovereignty
of God. Let me tell you something. If God from the beginning said,
I'm going to save a people, and He said, now here's some limits
I'm going to put on myself. I'm going to do it this way,
and this way, and that way, and this way, because it pleases
me to do it that way. And He tells us that beforehand,
that that's how He's going to do it. And He still is able to
do it that way. That doesn't limit His sovereign.
That just enhances and magnifies His sovereignty. If I said, I'm
going to do a thing, and I ended up bringing it to pass, but I
didn't tell you how I was going to do it, I might have just happen
to end up making it happen. But if I tell you how I'm going
to do it and I bring it to pass that way, you'll know that took
some skill. That's the case with our God.
That's the case with our God. Spurgeon told a story about this
servant who worked for this rich master. And the servant's job
was to labor in the garden. And he tended the roses and he
planted the roses. And he watered the roses and
he kept watch over the roses and he was meticulous about the
roses. And one day he was walking through
the garden and the servant noticed somebody had clipped some roses
off the rose bush. And he went around asking everybody
he could find, did you cut these roses? Who cut these roses? And
he went around to every other servant in the in the. The state
asked him, did you cut these roses? And finally come up on
somebody and said, no, I didn't cut the roses, but the master
was walking in the garden this morning and the master cut the
roses. And the servant said, well, that's
fine. He's the master. This is his
house. Those are his roses. He's provided
everything to put them there. He can cut the roses when he
will. Brethren, we're the servants of God. He's the master. He cut
the roses when he gets ready. He can cut the roses when He
gets ready. And so He tells us this lastly. He teaches us to
thank Him all the time, even when He cuts the roses. Look
at verse 21. Blessed be the name of the Lord. No suffering is easy. It's not
enjoyable. And we don't want to suffer.
If we could prevent it, we would. And it's easy to preach this
when I'm not suffering. It's easy to stand here and talk
about these things now. But I do know this, when the
hard times come, God assures His child, He's going to give
grace. He's going to make His child stand. He's going to make
us remember this, whatever we suffer, whatever we're suffering,
at that time, that suffering is the will of God for you. Listen
to the scripture. The Holy Spirit says, In everything
give thanks, for this Whatever it is, it's coming to pass, and
the giving thanks for it. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. We thank Him for the good times,
but the bad times are the will of God for you, too. He says
thank Him for that, too, and all things thank Him. When He
makes you prosperous and when He stops the prosperity, when
He's making you successful and when He stops the success, He
says thank Him. Why? Let me give you just a couple
of reasons and I'll be done. Number one, God's always bringing
glory to His name. Whatever it is, even in the evil,
just like the good, He's bringing glory to His name. Just look
to the cross. There you see that dark idol. But what was God doing? He was
declaring His righteousness. He was showing that He's just
and He won't clear the guilty. And he's showing that he's the
justifier. He's justifying his people. He is showing us how
he can be right and just and show mercy to sinners like us. And then he always, number two,
he always works good for his people. Look to that cross. There
on that cross, in the midst of this evil, Christ obtained eternal
redemption for us. By one offering, he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. There you see good coming out
of that. And then also, it's the gift of God for us to suffer
for Christ's sake. It's the gift of God. Listen
to Paul, unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. He says,
so beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.
But rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ's sufferings,
for that when his glory should be revealed, you may be glad
also with exceeding joy." Paul said, our suffering here is life
compared to that eternal weight of glory. We're going to be exceedingly
glad, exceedingly glad. And what else does he show us
by suffering? What's another reason to be thankful?
Whenever he gives us a thorn, God is teaching us, brethren,
that our only strength is the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave Paul
that thorn in the flesh, and Paul didn't like it. He didn't
want to have it. He said, I prayed three times for it to be removed.
But God gave it to him to keep him from being puffed up in the
flesh. If I'd been to the third heaven, if you'd been to the
third heaven, I'd have went around boasting about it, wouldn't you?
I couldn't have kept that. I'd have went around telling
everybody about it. But he gave him this messenger of Satan to
buffet him. You know what he did? He said,
Satan, have you considered my servant Paul? There's none like
him because my grace is abounding in him. Why did he do that? To bring Paul down. And Paul
said, therefore, I glory, I give God thanks for my infirmities
and for my reproaches and for all these other things because
When I'm weak, when I'm brought down to nothing and I have nothing
and I can do nothing, I can't even lift up my head. That's
when I got to look away from me. That's when I got to look
to another. That's when I got to look to
Christ. And that's when I'm strong. You mean God use Satan for that?
I think I'll thank God, don't you? I'll thank Him. I'll thank Him. You know what I've heard over
the years from everyone, I'm embarrassing Marvin tonight,
every one of Marvin's children. You know what I've heard from
every one of them? Concerning their mother. At one time or
another, every one of them has said, I wouldn't change a thing.
God did right. He glorified his name and he
did it for my good. I've heard Anna say it, I've
heard Becca say it. I've heard Gabe say it. I've heard Sarah
say it. God always does right for His people. And the amazing
thing is that He brings us to see it. There was a whole lot
of stuff Job did after this, and you look at him and think,
oh boy. But we do too. We do too. But you know what? At the end of it all, at the
end of it all, you know what God did? God gave him more than
he had in the beginning. God gave him more than he had
in the beginning. God gave him sons and daughters, and God gave
him many, many days, and he lived to an old age. You know what
God's going to do for his child in the end? In the end, God's
going to give us many, many sons and daughters. He's going to
give us a new bride. He's going to give us children. And He's going to give us days
that last for all eternity. Brethren, nothing is lasting
in this life. The older I get, the more I see
it. Nothing is lasting in this life. But Christ is a lasting
possession. If you have him, he'll never
be taken away. Never be taken away. Life is
the bread from heaven, not bread on this earth. Clothing is to
be clothed in his righteousness, not clothing in this earth. It's
better to be counted as a sheep of his pasture than to be counted
a sheep in our own pasture. Now let me ask you this question.
If you've spent your life up to this point and you've labored
and you've labored and you've labored for this world and you
don't have Christ, what do you have? What do you have? If you left God right now and
met God right now, the only thing that will be said for you is
you labored for the wind and you are naked and you accomplished
nothing. You wasted your life. I don't want to meet God that
way. I don't want to meet God that
way. But if you have Him, brethren, we're not passing away. This
world's passing away and everything in it. And we have Him. When
it's all gone, we're still going to have all. Nothing will have
changed. And we're going to stand one
day before eternal life Himself. And you know what we're going
to do? I'm going to say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. Thank you so much. Clay told me he was struggling
today, not knowing. He had two messages on his mind
he wanted to preach. One of them, I'm glad you preached
that one. Blessing to me. I thank God that
he's faithful. The Lord God is faithful. He's not going to leave us alone,
is he? I think about that passage that
we just looked at in the book of John. He said, I'm going to
manifest myself to you. My sheep are going to hear my
word. Okay, I'm going to shut up. I thank the Lord for you. I love
you and appreciate you. Gary would you come and just...