Without knowing what I was going
to preach tonight, Isaac couldn't have picked a better song to
sing. It's well with my soul if I have
enough, isn't it? See if I can't preach a message
and make good on that. It's well with my soul if I have enough.
That's why I've entitled the message tonight, I Have Enough. Look back with me to Genesis
chapter 33. I use this title because both Jacob and Esau say
in this chapter, I have enough. In verse nine, Esau said, I have
enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself.
In verse 11, Jacob says, take, I pray thee, my blessing that
is brought to thee because God hath dealt graciously with me
and because I have enough. And he urged him, he urged Esau
and Esau took the gift. Now tonight I want us to learn
what both of these men mean when they say I have enough. My prayer
is that when we leave here tonight, each one of us can say with Jacob,
I mean the same thing Jacob meant, I have enough. Now at the beginning
of this chapter, Jacob knew he was getting ready to meet Esau
again, hadn't seen him in 20 years. Remember the last time
Jacob saw Esau? Esau was saying, as soon as my
father Isaac is dead, I'm gonna kill that scoundrel. I'm gonna
kill my brother. Esau's heart was so full of hate. He was so angry. He wanted to
kill his own brother. I mean, he wasn't just saying
that off, you know, just off the cuff. He meant it. He intended
to kill his brother. Jacob ran away. Now it's 20 years
later. Jacob's been worrying about this
for 20 years. And he comes to meet Esau, and
Esau runs to meet him. Can you imagine as he was running
towards Jacob what Jacob thought? But Esau was running to meet
his brother with joy in his heart. Now, we know this from scripture. God didn't love Esau. And Esau
didn't love God. But God still ruled over Esau,
didn't he? Esau's heart was in the hand
of the Lord. And during those 20 years, at
some point, the Lord gave Esau a loving attitude toward his
brother. Solomon said, Proverbs 21 verse
one, the king's heart's in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers
of water, he turneth it with us whoever he will. It was God's
will to turn Esau's heart to kindness and love and forgiveness
toward his brother, Jacob. Isn't that comforting to know?
It's comforting to know the Lord can do the same thing for you
and me today. Those people who would or hate
us or do something against us, he can turn their heart. And we're afraid what we would
do. I'm afraid what I would do. And my heart's in the hand of
the king. He turns it with us. He can turn it to graciousness
and kindness and some wisdom. So it turns out, Jacob had been
fearing this day for 20 years, and now it's a heartwarming homecoming. Just a happy reunion between
these two brothers. That's a good story. But now,
I'm not just telling you tonight a heartwarming story. The gospel
of salvation by grace that's in Christ Jesus is in this text. And I wanna give you three points
tonight on the utter importance of salvation by grace. Number
one is this. Morality and good conduct, a
good attitude, that's not salvation. Now you have to say this, the
way Esau conducts himself here is admirable. It really is. Esau truly forgave Jacob. I mean,
truly. I mean, you know, Jacob comes
home and Esau just doesn't bring it up. No, he didn't just not
bring it up. He didn't bring it up because in his heart he
had truly forgiven his brother for stealing the birthright from
him. Esau loved Jacob. He showed how happy that he was
to see him. He ran, not to kill him, But
to meet him, to throw his arms around his neck and cry on his
neck, he loved his brother. After everything Jacob had done
to him, he loved his brother. And Esau had become a very, very
rich man. And this rich man was content
with what he had. He wasn't just scrambling for
more. He was content with what he had.
Now I'm telling you, that's unusual. That is so unusual. I used to
work with a man who said, greed is good. And this is what he
meant by that. It's a certain amount of greed
that drives large, successful companies and business owners
to continue doing business, to continue increasing their sales,
to continue increasing their profits. It's a certain amount
of greed that drives them to keep that business going. And
the common fellow working down here on the line benefits from
it. So that's why he said that greed
is good. But now you know that can go too far. I don't know
if this really happened. I looked it up this week, and
I always thought this was a true story. Somebody said it may not
have happened, but it is reported that someone once asked John
D. Rockefeller, how much money is enough? And reportedly, Rockefeller
said, a little bit more. A little bit more. But John D. Rockefeller is the richest man
in American business history. The richest one ever. If you
adjusted his net worth to inflation, he would be three times richer
than the wealthiest person on earth today. I mean, the amount
of wealth this man had is astounding. And he was never satisfied. I
need a little bit more. I need a little bit more. Like
I said, it takes a little bit of that attitude to keep a company
running, so common folks can have a job, doesn't it? But boy,
it's so easy to become so greedy that you hurt those people. You
cut their wages, you cut their benefits, you do all that stuff,
because you just want a little bit more. And you see that so
often. Most people here have worked
for somebody like that. I have. But that doesn't describe Esau.
He's not a greedy man. He's not looking for a little
bit more. And that is very admirable. Truth be told, it's more admirable
than Jacob. Jacob's always scheming, trying
to get a little bit more in him, but not Esau. And Esau was a
generous man. I mean, that's a rare quality
in a rich person. Clay Curtis told me one time,
people don't tend to get rich by giving money away. Rich people
just don't tend to do that. Esau was. He said, Jacob, let
me leave some men here with you. They're on my payroll. I'll keep
paying them to be with you so they can be with you on this
journey. Maybe they can help provide some security. Maybe
they can help do some of the jobs around here with the livestock
and stuff. Let me do that for you. Isn't that generous? It's very
generous. Off the top of my head, I can't
think of a time Jacob was generous like that. I mean, he paid his
bills, but I cannot really off the top of my head think of a
time he was so generous and just gave of himself like that. Esau cared about his brother.
I mean, he loved him, he cared about him, he wanted to help
him. He wanted, just Jacob, let me find, I got all these things
I could do to help you. Let me help you. Isn't that admirable? And Jacob told him, no, there's
no need for that. You just go on home and we'll
follow you there. We'll follow you to see her.
We'll get there eventually. Jacob had absolutely no intention of
going to see her. He's still scheming. Even though
he's still limping on that leg that should remind him of God's
promise to bless him. He's still scheming. But Esau, he's just trying to
be helpful. and just out of love for his brother. Now that's very
admirable. Don't overlook that and give
credit where credit's due. But you know what's also true?
Esau was not a saved man. Now keep that in mind about people
that you know. We know people who are the salt
of the earth. They can be very kind and generous
people. They can be great coworkers.
They can be great neighbors. And you know what? The Lord may
have turned their heart to be that way, because they're your
neighbor, and they're your co-worker. The Lord may have turned their
heart just to be a kind and generous person. Don't you love somebody
that's easy to work with? The Lord could have turned their
heart and just, that's a blessing to you. Could be. But just because
they're the salt of the earth kind of people, they're kind
and generous people, that doesn't mean they're safe people. Kindness
and morality doesn't mean somebody knows the Lord. Esau was an admirable
man, kind and generous, but Esau was a reprobate. Esau hated God. Salvation is a work in the heart. And all Esau had is an outward
morality. In Hebrews 12, 16 says Esau was
a fornicator and a profane person. Now remember that. This is not
just some sort of doctrine that we believe. Salvation is by grace. It's by God's free and sovereign
grace alone, and it's grace in the heart. It's grace in the
heart. Now, without question, if there's
grace in the heart, it ought to show in our actions, shouldn't
it? Abraham believed God. His faith
was justified when he offered his son Isaac. Our actions ought
to reveal there is some grace in the heart. But salvation is
not seen in outward actions. Salvation is in the heart where
we can't see. Where we can't see. That's the
very reason the Lord told us. Now here you've got a local assembly.
Don't go trying to pluck up the tares and kick them out. Because
you know what will happen if you do that? You'll pluck the
weeds. You pluck these tender children
of God, have grace in the heart, and you're going to leave the
tares. The tares, oh, they have a very good outward religious
persona. It looks like they're very righteous,
but they're reprobate because they have no faith in Christ
in the heart. That's why the Lord said, just
leave them alone. Let them grow together. The Lord will take
care of them. But don't you go trying to do it, because if you
do, you mess up every time, because we can't see in the heart. Now please understand, I can't
stress this strongly enough. God's people, and we're believers.
We believe God. We should be moral, kind, generous
people. We should be easy people to work
with. We should be easy people to be neighbors with. We should
be easy people to be married to. Just fine upstanding, just the
best people on the block. But that's not our salvation.
That's not our salvation. That can be counterfeited. Those
outward actions can be counterfeited. Salvation is not earned by our
works and it's not kept by our works. Christ is our salvation. He's all of our salvation. From
its beginning to its ending, Christ is all of our salvation. We can't trust in our outward
actions. We can't trust in our works,
but we can trust Christ. Now you trust him. The evidence,
the only evidence we have that God has saved us, the only evidence
is this, there's faith in the heart. I believe God. I trust
Christ. Esau had plenty of the world's
goods, but he didn't have faith in the heart. Yet Esau still
has, still says I have enough. I have plenty. I'm content with
everything that I have. Even though I don't have faith
in the heart, even though I don't have Christ in the heart, I'm
content with everything I have. And that brings me to my second
point. Having enough without Christ is deadly to our souls. Now both brothers say, I have
enough. And I looked it up, the translators
translated these words correctly. They both say, I have enough,
but they're both saying two very different things. Two different
Hebrew words here translated enough. The word translated enough
that Esau used means I have much. He said, Jacob, I'm abounding.
I'm abounding in wealth. The word means strong. He's telling
Jacob, I'm strong because of what I have. I don't have to
worry about anything. I'm greater. I'm greater than anybody else
around me. I have enough. The word translated enough that
Jacob used means I have all. I have the totality. I have the
whole. What Jacob's saying is, Esau,
I have everything there is to have. I have all. I have enough because I've got
the whole enchilada. I have everything. Here's the
difference between these two men. Jacob was accounting spiritually. Esau was accounting physically,
materially. Esau didn't actually have everything
that there is to have. He didn't actually have everything,
but he did have enough. He had enough to satisfy his
flesh. Jacob is so blessed of God, he
could not have more than what he already had. That's how blessed
of God he is. And we'll look at Jacob in just
a minute, but first let's look at the ramifications of what
Esau said. He's saying, I don't have Christ,
but I have enough to be satisfied even without him. God hates me
and I hate God, but I have enough to be satisfied. I have enough
of this world's goods. I'm just set for life. I don't
ever have to worry about being able to afford to pay my bills
or being able to afford to go get anything I want or need.
I got enough, I just don't worry about it. And I reckon I'll still
go to hell when I die, but till then I got enough. I'm not looking
for anything else. See, having enough without Christ
It was deadly that he saw Saul, deadly to his soul. And you don't
know how strongly I do not want that for anybody here. I pray
the Lord bless you materially and physically and those kind
of things, but I don't want you to have enough without Christ. You know, many times, and we
pray that for each other. We pray that for our loved ones
and people, you know, that the Lord bless them, give them good
jobs and bless them with all these things, you know. And that's
just the way we, you know, we're tied to this flesh. That's the
way we're going to pray. But you know, many times we could
be flirting with disaster here, asking God for all these material
blessings, because you know, many times those material blessings
could be a curse from God, not a blessing. Material blessings
could very well be a trial, a trial of your faith. You get a dream
job, three, four times your income. But you've got to move to a city
where there's no gospel. Are you going to go or not? Are
you going to go or not? If material blessings take us
away from Christ, that's a curse, not a blessing. If material blessings
make us think, you know, I've got so much, I just don't need
God anymore. I don't have to spend time in
prayer begging Him to provide my daily bread. Well, those material blessings
are a curse. They're not a blessing. It's the very reason that the
wise man prayed this way. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food that's convenient.
Just give me what's convenient for me. Lest I be full and deny
you and say, who's the Lord? I don't need the Lord anymore.
Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of the Lord my
God in vain. Don't give me poverty already, just keep me somewhere
in the middle. Lord, provide for me what I need. And worse yet, if we move away
from material things into the spiritual things and we start
to think, I've got enough. Because I've done enough. I've
done enough for God. I've done enough religious things
that now I'm set. Our souls are in grave danger
if we think we have enough because of how faithful we've been. We're
in grave danger if we think I have enough. I'm set with God now
because of how much that I've given. I'm set with God because
I'm so well taught in the scriptures. Well, I'll tell you what, we
ought to be faithful. We ought to be giving. I hope we're well
taught. of God. I hope your pastor's
Lord gives your pastor something. You're well taught in the scriptures,
but if we're faithful and we're given and we're well taught without
Christ, if we know the doctrine that the, that the word teaches
without knowing him, that the word teaches, we have those things
without Christ. I'm telling you, we're just as
lost as he saw ever was so dangerous. A person may think, I've done
enough good works. That's made me righteous. A person
may think, I've done enough to please God. Now, I certainly hope that nobody,
y'all know better now. I mean, at least up here. Now,
you know, but you've been told as often as somebody can tell
you, we can never do enough to please God. All our works of
righteousness are sin, not righteousness. I hope you know that. But oh,
how about say now, I'm satisfied because I know the doctrine.
I'm satisfied because I know other believers. I'm satisfied
because I fellowship with these other believers. I've got enough. If thinking those things are
enough for our souls, we'll perish. If we die trusting those things,
our souls will perish. So having enough without Christ,
oh, that'll damn our souls, won't it? So can I tell you one more time? Look to Christ. Come to Christ. He is what we must have. And
that brings me to the third point. Enough with Christ, you know,
that's life to our souls. in this world and in the one
to come. Remember, the word translated
enough that Jacob uses means all the totality, the whole. Jacob saying, I've got the whole
I've got everything there is to have, and I can't have more.
Because I have Christ. Now, if you have Christ, if you
If you lay hold on Him by faith, if you trust Him, you've got
the totality. You've got the whole, you've
got the whole of everything God requires of you and you've got
the whole of everything Almighty God can give you if you have
Christ. Because Christ is all. If Christ is all, the scripture
says He is, if you have Christ, you have all. And you can't have
anything more. Christ is all spiritually. Christ is all to our souls. And
He provides everything that we need materially too. It's just
so important that we understand and believe Christ is all. If I have Him, I have everything. Now certainly, almost certainly,
Nobody here is gonna be as materially wealthy as either Jacob or Esau
were. But I promise you this. I promise
you this. The Lord will provide. He will provide. I was talking with a dear friend
a couple weeks ago. We were talking about old times,
back when we were both young. We were newly married, starting
out, and I told her, I said, Jan and I made the mistake. We
made the mistake of getting out pen and paper and writing out
a budget. We're going to write us out a
budget. And to our horror, my income
was just a little bit less than our outgo every month. Now, we're in real trouble if
the car breaks down. We're in real trouble. If company
comes over and they expect meat on the dinner table. I mean,
you know. But we never missed a meal. We
never missed a meal. I mean, I can't exactly tell
you how that happened. It just did. Because the Lord provided. And there's something very, very,
very, just a special blessing. When you get up in the morning
knowing I don't have enough. Do you get gas in the car? And
the Lord just puts it in your hand. I'm telling you, the Lord
will provide. And that's not just my anecdotal
experience. Our Savior said that. He said
the lilies of the field, they bloom today. The flowers blooming
just so beautiful. All chance perennials are coming
up in our yard. They're just blooming so pretty.
Tomorrow, She's gonna be saying, oh, we gotta get rid of those
things. Simply, they're just, you know, ugh, they're dead and dying.
The lilies of the field, the Savior said, bloom today, and
tomorrow they're cast into the oven. You know what God said
about those lilies? He said, God clothes those lilies
of the field more beautifully than Solomon in all his glory. Now, if the Lord provides for
wildflowers like that, Is he not gonna provide for you better
than that? You betcha he will. He's gonna provide for his children.
So every believer can say the very same thing Jacob said. I
have enough. I've got the totality. Regardless
of what I do have or don't have physically, every believer can
say, I have enough. I can't have more. I can't have
more. And you know why every believer
can say that? Because believers are called more than any other
title in Scripture, the sons of Jacob. God blesses all of
His children the same way He blessed Jacob. So every believer
can say I have enough. And you know why we can say I
have enough? I've got the whole. I've got the totality. It's because
of God's grace. Jacob knew, I didn't get all
this by my scheming. I didn't get all this by tricking
people. No, I got it because God graciously gave it to me.
He said so twice. At the end of verse five, he
said, these are the children which God hath graciously given
thy servants. In verse 11, he told Esau, not
take I pray thee my blessing that is brought to thee because
God hath dealt graciously with thee. And because of his grace
to me, I've got enough. I have everything, all things. Now Esau had plenty, didn't he?
Oh, he had more than he could ever use up in a lifetime. But
Esau could have more. He could have more. I mean, he
didn't need it. He didn't want it, but he could have more. Jacob
ended up out insisting him and he took that gift. He took Jacob's
gift, even though he didn't need it. Jacob had plenty materially,
and Jacob had every spiritual blessing God has to give a sinner.
Every one of them. So Jacob could say, I have everything. And the only difference between
those two, God loved one and hated the other. The only difference
is God's grace. The Lord gave those things to
Jacob sovereignly. In his sovereign grace, so that
he could honestly say I have the whole. And if you're a believer. If you trust Christ, your son
of Jacob, you can say the same thing. I have all things. In closing, let me give you a
few things. Maybe you hadn't thought of today that you have.
You have all things if you trust Christ. If you trust Christ,
you have all righteousness so that you can't get any more righteous
and you never will. Even in glory, you can't get
any more righteous than you are sitting right here in these chairs.
If you trust Christ, if you trust Christ, you have all holiness. You'll never be more holy than
you are at this very moment. If you believe Christ, you have
all holiness. You can't get any more holy. If you trust Christ,
you have all of salvation. You've got it all. Perfect, eternal,
unchanging salvation for your soul. You know why you have all
that? Because Christ performed it for you. David said in Psalm
57 verse 2, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth
all things for me. We have righteousness, holiness,
sanctification, redemption. We have all because Christ earned
it all. He performed it all. And by his
grace, he gives it freely to his people. If you trust Christ,
you have all justification. You have been made completely
without sin. You can't earn that by your deeds
of the law. But you have it in Christ, by faith in Christ. In
Acts 13 verse 39, by him, All the belief are justified
from all things, from which it could not be justified by the
law of Moses. You can't earn it, but Christ gives it freely. It's received by faith so that
you have all justification. And God who sees everything,
the way he sees things, that's the way they really are. He says
you don't have any sin. All justification. If you trust
Christ, you have all spiritual blessings. Just let your mind
just go as far as it can go. Think of the spiritual blessings
that God gives his people. You're not missing one of them.
Not if you trust Christ, you're not. Romans 8 verse 32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us what? All things. Did the father slaughter
his son and he's not going to give you what Christ purchased
by a sacrifice? No, sir. All things are yours. Every spiritual
blessing God has are yours. If you trust Christ because he
earned them by a sacrifice. And if you know Christ. You know
all things. You know all things. First John
2 verse 20. But we have an unction from the
Holy One, and you know all things. And you think, now wait a minute,
now there's one, I don't have that one. There's so many things
I don't know, there's so many questions I have. Well, no, I'll
grant you. We don't know everything there
is to know. You can't know everything there is to know about God. God's
eternal, he's infinite. But I'll tell you what a believer
knows. Everything that you need to know so that you trust Christ. If you trust Christ, you know
everything that you need to know so that you know how God saves
sinners. You know who God is. You know
who God is. You know what a blessing that
is? Some religious huckster can't come fool you into thinking there's
some other way of salvation and there's some other God. You can't
be fooled, because you know all things. You know how God saves
sinners. If God saved you, you know why
God saved you. And you know how He did it. He
did it by His grace. He did it through the substitutionary
work of Christ, and He did it for His glory. And you know what else you know?
We don't know what tonight's going to bring. We don't know
what tomorrow's going to bring. but every person in this room
knows how this thing's gonna end up. I know how this thing's gonna
end up. It's gonna end up with Christ and every last person
that the father gave him to save with him in glory. That's how
this thing's gonna end up. And if you trust Christ, this
is something that you know. You know all things work together
for your good. All things. painful things, things
that frighten you half to death, things we call blessings, things
that we call pleasant, all things, all things. And we know, now
Paul said, we know this, that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. All those things are working together for your
good, because our God's sovereign over all things, he's the one
working all things together. And he's working them together
for the salvation of his people, for the preservation of his people,
to bring all of his people to be with him where he is, that
we might behold his glory. All things. You have all, if Christ is all
you have. If the only thing in your bucket
is Christ, you have all. You have all if the only hope
you have is Christ. Now, we subtract from Christ
if we start trying to add our works to it. We subtract from
what we, we can't, I didn't say that right, did I? We can't subtract
from Christ. But we subtract from our hope. We subtract from
salvation. We subtract from righteousness.
We subtract from holiness if we try to add our works to it.
But if Christ is all we have, We have everything. And since
we have all things, there's nothing for us to covet.
I mean, if you already have everything, where do you covet it? You already
have it. And if we have all things, there's
nothing for us to fret about. Be overly anxious about. You ought to worry about things,
you know, your responsibilities and stuff, There's no reason
for us to be overly anxious about anything if we have all things. Now, you who believe, at this
very moment, you have all things. Now, what are you doing now?
If you already have all things, what are you doing now? We're
just waiting for the time God calls us home and gives us the
possession of the inheritance He's reserved for us. That's
all we're doing. That's all we're doing, we're just waiting on
that time. Until then, don't you reckon it'd be a good
idea for us to tell others? How can you have enough? I want
to spend the rest of that time pointing, until God calls us
home, gives us that possession of the inheritance He's reserved
for us. I'd like to spend the rest of that time glorifying
Him and telling other people, look to Him. You have all if
you have even. All right, I hope the Lord bless
that to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for these comforting words of scripture. How we thank you for
these precious promises, precious words that can only be understood
by God-given faith. That if we have Christ, we have
all. We truly have enough. Father, I pray you'd cause each
soul here this evening to be able, by your mercy, by your
grace, by your purpose, to leave here saying the very same thing,
meaning the very same thing Jacob meant. I have enough. Oh, how we thank you that Christ
is our all. Father, it's in his precious
name, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.