It's so good to be back again,
brethren, and it's always a delight. Let's turn our Bibles to Psalm
73. Psalm 73. Begin reading down in verse 25.
The psalmist says, Whom have I in
heaven but thee? And there's none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth
when God is the strength of my heart. and my portion forever. I pray the Lord to be pleased
to really speak to our heart this morning and help us to really,
really get this statement that I'm about to make. God's saints,
you that the Lord has revealed himself in, we have one possession. We have one possession that will
last forever. Only one. Only one. This eternal possession will
never be taken from us. It is the only thing we possess
that will never be taken from us. It's God our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our one eternal possession. The psalmist said, He is my portion
forever. God is my portion forever. That's what I want to speak to
you about this morning, my portion forever. God's purpose in creating this
world is to glorify his name in his only begotten son. That's
his purpose. Before this world was made, before
God created anything, he blessed a people. Among the fallen sons
of Adam, God chose a people who he would save, and he trusted
us to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did this by his grace. He did it because he loved us.
And there was no other reason. There was no reason in his people.
But he did it to glorify his son. He did it to give his son
all preeminence, to bring a people to glorify his son. And in time,
at the time appointed, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, took flesh
like these brethren and he came into this world and he went to
that cross and he accomplished the redemption of all of God's
elect. He didn't simply try or make
it possible. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
the redemption of all God's elect. He laid down his life for the
sheep. And he accomplished the redemption of the sheep. That's
what he accomplished. And because he justified all
his people from our sin, that same justice of God that once
condemned us now demands that everybody Christ redeemed must
be given eternal life. The justice of God demands that
and God's holy. And so everybody Christ redeemed
shall be born again. We shall be born of the Holy
Spirit. And Christ shall keep his people
and won't lose one. And he will present us to the
Father perfect in the Lord Jesus. Not nothing of us, entirely the
work of our Lord Jesus alone. And so from the day the Spirit
of our Lord calls his child and reveals himself in us, the Lord
is teaching us more and more, more and more. He's teaching
us and bringing us to have this one desire more and more. The
psalmist said in verse 25, whom have I in heaven but thee? You know, we had all these other
things that we were looking, thinking heaven was about. All
these other things and ideas that we thought heaven was. The
Lord's bringing us more and more and more to know heaven is our
Lord Jesus. I desire him. One desire. Who am I? Who have I in heaven
but thee? And there's none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. This is a lifelong lesson. And the Lord has to teach us
more and more. It's very painful, but he's bringing
his child more and more to learn. I have none else on this earth
I desire but thee. And he's teaching us this gospel.
He brings us in here and he teaches this gospel. Then he takes us
into this world. He rules all providence. And
together with the gospel he teaches us and with the providence he
works in our lives, the Lord is teaching us more and more
that in our flesh dwells absolutely no good thing. He's not going
to let us trust in ourselves at all. He keeps us knowing what
the psalmist learned in verse 26, my flesh and my heart faileth. If you know the context of this
psalm, you know, the psalmist had began to look at the prosperity
of the wicked. And he began to see how he was
chastened and how he was he suffered in the things he suffered in
this life, and he saw the wicked prospering and he began to think
it's all in vain. I believe God in vain. And his
feet had well now slipped. And through that process, the
Lord taught him his flesh was nothing to trust in. His own
natural wisdom, his own natural understanding, his carnal sight,
nothing to trust in. And he said, my flesh and my
heart faileth. But God taught him this. God
is the strength of my heart. He's the strength of that new
man. God is the strength of my heart. God will put you in a
place where you just don't think you can take the next step. You don't think you can make
it one more day. Your heart is just, has no strength. And by that, God will show you
he's the strength. He's your strength. You're absolutely
right if you say, I just don't have strength. You don't. We
don't, brethren. We do not. Our strength is the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. And every temporal relationship
we have and every earthly thing that we possess, every one of
them are given by God. But one by one, one by one, God
is taking everything away and he's going to eventually take
it all away. And this is what he's bringing
his child to know. Verse 26, God is my portion forever. You have one eternal possession
that'll never be taken away. That's the Lord Jesus. I want to show you three things.
I want to show you the fact, and I want to show you a question,
and I want to show you the good news. Now, here's the fact. We come into this world with
no temporal possessions, and we all understand that, but we're
going to leave with no temporal possession. Job learned this. He said in Job 121, naked came
I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. Temporal relationships and temporal
possessions are temporary. They are temporary. We came into
this world with nothing, and we shall leave with nothing.
Concerning all our temporary relationships and all our temporary
possessions, this is so. Job said, God giveth. Everything
we have, God gave it. Everything we have. Our Lord
said a man can receive nothing except he be it be given him
from heaven. Paul said who is first given
to him and it should be recompensed unto him again for of him and
through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. God give it. God gave us our
temporal life. God gives us Family. A faithful spouse. God gave that. That's the gift of God. God gives
children. They're the gift of God. God
gives you the ability to work, and he gives you the ability
to enjoy those things that he gives you through working. Working
your everyday job. All is the gift of God. Everything. Ecclesiastes 5.19 says, Every
man, God gives riches and wealth and he's given him power to eat
thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor.
This is the gift of God. But concerning every temporal
thing, concerning every temporal, temporary thing, Job also said
this, The Lord hath taken away. The Lord gave very much to Job. He gave him four sons and three
daughters. He gave him much riches. And
there came a day. And in one day, God took everything
away. He took everything away. God
even took, gave the devil permission to not only take his sons and
his daughters and his temporal possessions, God gave the devil
permission to take his health from him. And he had boils from
head to toe. And Job said this, the Lord gave
and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, somebody will hear
that and say, well, Job, he hadn't got to the point where he had
boils from head to toe and he hadn't got to the point. He lost
all his children in one day. He lost every possession he had
in one day. And he hid his face and worshiped
God and said the Lord gave it all. The Lord can take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I'll give you this illustration that Spurgeon gave where there
was a man that owned a large estate, very wealthy man. And
he had this servant that was in charge of keeping the garden. And this first red rose had bloomed
on the rose bushes, and the servant was so happy to see that first
red rose on the rose bush. And he comes out there one morning,
and somebody had clipped that rose. And he went around asking
all the servants who clipped the road, what happened to the
roads? And he finally came upon some
one of the servants and he said, the master of the house came
out this morning and he clipped the road. And the servant said,
it's his house. It all belongs to him. He can
clip the roads whenever he pleases. And that's so of our Lord, brethren.
Job said, what shall we receive good at the hand of God? and
shall we not receive evil? The fact is, one by one, one
by one, the Lord shall take away every temporal relationship,
and he'll take away every temporal possession. He will even take
our health, and he will even take our physical life. That's
so. But physical death is not the
end. Physical death is not the end. Ecclesiastes 12, 7 says, Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was. That's what
we are, the dust. Then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God
who gave it. We're going to stand before God.
When we drop this physical body, we are all going to stand before
God. Every one of us. And we're going
to spend eternity somewhere. We're going to either be accepted
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ entirely by the Lord Jesus alone,
or we're going to meet God without Christ. And God's going to condemn
us and we'll be cast out into outer darkness forever. We will
spend eternity somewhere. And I pray the Spirit of God
will give us the heart. Everybody here, you that know
him and you that don't know him, I pray the Spirit of God will
give us a heart to hear what our Lord Jesus Christ said. Here's
what the master said right here. He said, whosoever will save
his life shall lose it. If a man wants to try to save
his life, just live for today and for this world and for temporary
things, he will lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? Not too long ago, the patriarch
Rothschild, I guess the oldest one still alive at the time,
he passed recently. And they were going on and on
on the news about how much this man possessed. Billions and billions
and acres and acres and all this that he possessed. And they were
talking about it like he still possessed it. And at the time
they were talking about it, this man had returned to the dust. And he didn't own a thing. Not
one thing. There's a sore evil, Solomon
said, which I've seen under the sun. Namely, riches kept for
the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil
travail. And he begetteth a son and there's
nothing in his hand. 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? The fact is, no matter what we
accumulate in this world, No matter what we accumulate in
this life, our entire life will have been
a total waste if we leave this world without Christ. An absolute
total waste. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he's near.
This is a day of salvation. This is the day of salvation.
Seek the Lord today. Come to this place and hear the
gospel preached. We have access to gospel messages
now like never before. Seek the Lord, take the word,
you're living in a free country. Take the word and search the
scriptures and give some effort to seek the Lord. Give more effort
to seek him than you do to seek all these temporal riches, temporal
possessions. Now, here's the question. That's
the fact. We came in naked. We're leaving
naked. But it's not the end. We're going
to we're going to meet God and we're going to spend eternity
somewhere. Now, here's the question. Why does God give temporal things
to his child only to take them away? Why does God do that? Here's the answer. He's teaching
his children, those that he's love from eternity, teaching
his children that Christ is the one thing needful. Our Lord Jesus is the one thing
needful. Somebody might hear this today
and they might think, well, you're taking it a little too far that
this is just the one thing that this world is about. This is
the one reason for which God created the world and the one
reason for which he's put us on this earth and the one thing
he's teaching his people. No, I'm not. I'm not being too
narrow on that. Our Lord Jesus said of Mary,
she sat there at Christ's feet while Martha was serving. And
Martha's like us, going about in the world trying to do and
get and all the things. And Mary sat there at Christ's
feet. And the Lord said, she's chosen
the one thing needful. She's chosen that part that will
not be taken from her. We're talking about one eternal
possession here. My portion forever. Mary chose
that one thing that will never be taken from her. There's only
one. There's only one thing that will
never be taken from his people. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why God gives us temporal thing, everything we have and
all things spiritual. And he takes the temporal things
away and the temporal relationships away to show us the one thing
we really need is the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist said, verse
25, whom have I in heaven, but thee there's none upon earth
that I desire besides thee. I can't trust my flesh. I can't
put confidence in anything I do. My flesh and my heart faileth.
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Brethren, we must have the Lord
Jesus Christ. We must have the Lord Jesus Christ. He's life. The Lord Jesus is
life. Without him, we just don't have
life. We must have the Lord Jesus. He's wisdom. We have no spiritual
understanding until we have Christ. We must have Christ because he
is righteousness. Righteousness is more than a
doctrine. Righteousness is not something you can earn. Righteousness
is not something that can be obtained by the works of the
law. The righteousness that God requires and that God demands,
God provided, and that righteousness is his son. Christ is holiness. He is sanctification. He served
God with a perfectly holy heart when he walked this earth and
he went to the cross and by fulfilling the will of God himself, he has
sanctified his people forever. He sanctified by the which will
were sanctified through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ once
for all time. He did it. And then he comes
and is formed in the heart and he is the holiness of the new
man. He is the holiness of the new man. We must have him or
we can't see it. We even need him until he's made
holiness unto us. And He is redemption, brethren.
The only way you're going to be freed from this sin nature,
the only way you're going to be redeemed from the curse and
condemnation of the law, the only way we're going to be redeemed
from this body of death and this world into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is salvation. We must have Christ. That's why
God made this world. That's why God holds this world
in store. There are some lost sinners in
this world that God chose to reveal his son in, and he's going
to reveal his son in them. They're going to know his son.
And everyone God chose to reveal Christ in, they're going to know
him. It pleases God that they know him. And he's not willing
that any of those chosen, redeemed children perish, but that they
all come to repentance. And that means that the longsuffering
of God shall result in the salvation of everyone God chose to save.
They're going to believe him. We must have him. My sinful flesh
and my heart faileth. I can't trust in me. I can't
look to myself and you can't look to yourself either brethren.
This is what God's teaching us through all these. He brings
you in here to hear this gospel and then he'll take you out there
and you'll get to thinking you got some patience and he'll let
somebody pull right out in front of you and cut you off in traffic
and you'll find out you don't have patience. That's just a small example but
he'll bring you some He'll bring some serious things on you to
show you how weak you are and how you really need him. Sinners
labor and they labor and they labor for perishing things in
this life. And yet all spiritual riches
are the gift of God and they're free. Isn't that amazing? How will labor and labor and
work and toil and, oh boy, you come in here and somebody say
a negative word and out the door men go. I can't go there anymore.
Go to a job and people treat you like a dog and you put up
with it the whole time because you're laboring for them things
that perish. Got to have them. That's my life. And yet this gift that God gives
and all these spiritual riches are free to his people. You can't
earn them, you can't work for them. They're free to his people.
They're the gift of God's grace. God showed his people mercy long
before we ever even knew him. A long time before we knew him.
He sanctified us by choosing us in Christ. He set apart everybody
he'd save in Christ and sanctified us in Christ. He told Jeremiah,
before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came from
your mother's womb, I knew you and I sanctified you and I ordained
what you'd be before you was ever even born. That's so everybody
got saved. Christ declared we must be born
again. You and me can't make that happen. The Holy Spirit of God is the
gift of God. Christ said, I'll pray the father
and he'll send the spirit. He's the gift of God and the
spirit of the Lord comes. And what does he reveal to you?
Paul said we receive not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God. that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. It's all free. Faith is
the gift of God. There's nobody in this world
that believes God except by this gift of faith that God gives.
Grace, by grace are you saved through faith and that's not
of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. It's all free. This thing of
righteousness in and by our Lord Jesus Christ, it's free. Look
over at Romans 5 with me, Romans chapter 5. This is free, brethren. Okay, Romans 5, 15. Not as the offense, so also is
the free gift. The free gift's different than
the offense of Adam. 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, has abounded unto many. And not
as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment
was by one to condemnate." One sin condemned us. But the free
gift is of many offenses under justification. Christ justified
his people from all our offenses. Look here. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, that's all
who would be born of Adam, everybody. So even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all who shall be born of Christ.
unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. You see, it's a gift. This righteousness
is a gift of God, Christ himself, the gift of God. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.
He entered in and he freed us. And scripture says, and if Christ
be in you, the body's dead because of sin, but the spirit's life
because of righteousness. You realize, you in whom Christ
abides, you have eternal life right now. And this will never
be taken from his child. You have eternal life. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. So beginning to end, I want you
to look at 1 Corinthians 1, beginning to end, 1 Corinthians 1, beginning
to end. Every spiritual gift, brethren,
is of God. And it's all in Christ Jesus.
It's all by Christ Jesus. And he's the unspeakable gift
of God. It's all free. It's all of God. Every spiritual
blessing we have. Look here. First Corinthians
1.4. And now let me remind you that Paul's writing this to the
Corinthians. And if you read through the letter,
you'll know how much they had sinned and how much bickering
and carrying on they was going on and all the trouble they was
in. And this is what the Spirit of God says to them through Paul. Listen to this. Verse four, he
said, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of
God, which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you
are enriched by him. It's all of Him. In all utterance
and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you, so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the
end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it's all of God, and it's all the free gift
of God. But now listen. There was a tremendous
price that had to be paid to give this freely to his people. And Christ Jesus paid it. God gave his son. You talk about
a price that had to be paid. God gave his own son, hearing
his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son, the propitiation for our sins. And our Lord Jesus
Christ gave his life. He said, this is my body which
is broken for you. The Lord Jesus Christ poured
out his precious blood. Life's in the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. A man sinned,
a man had to die. A perfect man. We couldn't do
it because we weren't perfect. He's the only perfect holy man
who could go to God, the spotless name of God, and present himself
to God. And God take all the sins of
all his people and made him sin for us and then justly pour out
wrath upon him in our room instead and satisfy his own justice. And that's what Christ accomplished.
Christ accomplished that. He redeemed worms like you and
me. We didn't love him and he did
this for us. You know, John's point in that
is, if God so loved us, that word so means after this manner,
if he loved us after this manner, we ought also to love one another
after this manner. What was it in you to love? Nothing. What was it in you to not love? Everything. That's how we ought
to love one another. When there's nothing in them
to love and when there's everything in them not to love, that's how
we ought to love one another. Brethren, what I'm trying to
say to you is every, not only is every temporal thing God gives
a gift, Every spiritual blessing is the gift of God because Christ
Jesus came and paid it all. He laid down his life and saved
his people. And he's going to make his people
know this. The wages of sin is death. We earn that flat out. But the gift of God is eternal
life through the Lord Jesus Christ. The question is this. We're going
to spend our life laboring for the wind. Are we going to see Christ? Are
we going to look to him only? Are we going to trust him only
that we might have life freely given through faith? He told
some in religion, he said, this book speaks of me. Everything
in the book speaks of me. And you're going to this book
trying to labor. You're going to this book looking
for something you can do, thinking you have life by something you
do. And this book speaks of me, Christ said, and you will not
come to me that you might have freely have life given to you. Oh, I pray God doesn't let us
labor for the wind. I don't want to labor for the
wind. I don't I'm so tired of. Sorry, I'm tired of politics.
And I don't just mean politics. I'm tired of politics in America
and the world and all that. I'm tired of politics in the
church. I'm tired of politics everywhere. All political finagling. I'm tired of that. I just won't cry. I just need
Christ. I need to know him. I need to
be found in him. And I want to serve him and I
trust him to give me the grace to serve him. He put me with
a little small congregation and give me some, give me some, give
me the privilege to serve them. I just want to serve them. I
want to, I want to hold the little garden he's given me to hold
and I want to be faithful in that. And I need him to make
me faithful in that. God never teaches men to seek
possessions in this life. You ever noticed that in the
scripture? He doesn't teach us. to go after temporal riches. In fact, he tells us the love
of those things will pierce us through like an arrow and fill
us full of sorrows. And yet, what do we come, we
raise our children, teaching them to go after that. And God never does. He teaches
us to seek him. He teaches us to look to him.
He teaches us what he made this world for. And that's what he
made this world for. We have to eat, we have to be
clothed, we have to, but the Lord said, trust that your father
knows you have need of these things. He gonna provide those
things for you. If you need a job, he'll open the door so you can
have a job. But He's going to keep His child
looking to His Son. He's going to keep His child
seeking His Son. He's going to keep His child
knowing we need His Son. He tells us, redeem the time.
The goal of our life that He's going to make to be the goal
of our life is to seek Christ now. To seek Him preeminently. Seek Him alone. Let Him be the
goal of our heart. That's what the Lord's going
to make His child know. Whatever it costs us, God's going
to bring His child to say what Paul said. Whatever it costs
us, he's going to bring us to say, what things were gained
to me, those I counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. And I count them all but done.
that I might win Christ to be found in him, not having righteousness
of mind, which is by the law, but that which is through the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that righteousness given
freely to me by God, imputed to me through faith in the Lord
Jesus. That's where I want to be found. And I'll tell you,
God's going to succeed in it. He's going to succeed making
his child have that one desire. He does not fail. How's he going
to do this? Here's the good news. He's going
to make his child know. Here's the good news. The fact
we came in naked, we're going out naked. Here's the question. Why would we labor for the wind?
We've seen that salvation is in Christ. God's going to make
his child see Christ and desire nothing else but to be found
in him. And here's the good news. Here's the good news. For you,
God's given life in Christ and made you to know Christ and made
you to have this desire to know him more and more and to be found
in him alone. Here's the good news. Christ
is our portion forever. He's our portion forever. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He's never
going to take them back. He's never going to take them
back. Christ is our portion forever. He shall never be taken from
us, brethren. We sometimes sorrow when he takes
away the temporal gifts, but that's needful. That's needful. The psalmist was envious at the
wicked. His feet had well now slipped. The Lord brought him
into his house again and taught him this gospel. And his faith
fell not for one reason. His faith fell not the same reason
Job's faith fell not. His faith fell not the same reason
Peter's faith fell not. It's because we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He's the propitiation
for our sin. Christ intercedes for His people,
and it's by Him that He's going to keep us looking to Him, because
He is our portion forever, and we're going to have Him. He's
going to have us. We're His portion forever. and
he's our portion forever, and we're gonna have him. My beloved
is mine, I am his and he is mine, and we're gonna have him forever.
I'm continually with thee. Look back there at Psalm 73,
23. This is what the psalmist learned. God taught the psalmist
that I am continually with thee, thou hast holden me by my right
hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after receive
me to glory. That's what he taught him. You're
with me all the time, you're leading me, you're going to direct
me, you're going to keep me, and you're going to receive me
to glory. Go with me to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. It's painful to us, very painful
to us, when the Lord takes ones we love and things we're holding on to too
tightly. But here's what he's doing for
us. It's working for us, brethren. It's not against us. Feels like
it is, but it's not. It's working for us. Here's what
he's doing. 2 Corinthians 4, 16. He's winning
us from this world and endearing Christ to our hearts more and
more. He said, verse 16, 2 Corinthians 4, 16, for which cause we faint
not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man's
renewed day by day. For our light affliction which
is but for a moment worketh for us." You see that? It's affliction
to us. It really is, but it's working
for us. A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
This is something eternal that's going to be ours forever. While
we look not at things which are seen, but at things which are
not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. They're temporary. But the things
which are not seen are eternal, for we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we should not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon. Mortality might be swallowed
up of life that that he that has wrought us for this self
same thing is God who also has given us the earnest of the spirit.
That earnest is letting you know he's your portion forever. You're
going to have him. Our earnest. Therefore, we're
always confident knowing while we're at home in the body, we're
absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We're confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him because we are
going to appear before the judgment seat. One way we're going to
be accepted of him, one way to be found in him. And that's how
all his people are going to be found. Christ, our portion. and he's going to be our portion
forever. And I pray, brethren, if you're suffering, I pray the
Lord, and I know he's teaching you this, and he will teach you
this. He will get the lesson across
that he's yours forever. He's yours forever. And he's
going to make you desire him more and more and more and more.
And I pray he blessed this. I pray he'll bless it to your
heart to know he is our one eternal possession, just one. But oh, what a possession, what
a possession. And I pray the Lord will bless
that to you, brethren.