If you're taking notes and I
always suggest that you do, the title of my message this morning
is Enough. Enough. And not after you put
down enough, put a big question mark behind it. Enough. I want us to turn to two texts.
The first is in Psalm 105. passage I tried to preach to
you from Tuesday night. Enough. Do you have enough? Do I have
enough? What do you call enough? Psalm
103 verse one. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. and all that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth
is renewed like the eagles. Now here, the psalmist assures
us and stirs his heart and ours to bless the Lord our God, the
triune Jehovah, because of the countless blessings bestowed
upon us continually and names these five. He who is our God
forgives, forgiveth constantly all thine iniquities. He who is our God heals, healeth
constantly all thy diseases. And for you who weren't here
Tuesday, obviously, if you have an illness and you're raised
up from that illness, God did it. God did it. The doctor in
our midst, he'll tell you he can't heal any diseases. He can
just treat them and give some medicine and hope you get better.
But if you're healed of any physical disease, God did it. But don't
misunderstand the psalmist or the scriptures. these health,
wealth, prosperity fools on television and radio and across the street
and across town who will tell you that it's not God's will
for you to be sick and if you just have enough faith and you
behave right and you give them enough money, you'll get better.
They're fools and they're deceivers. God doesn't heal all your diseases. If he did, you wouldn't die.
And I want to die, don't you? I don't want to live here forever,
do you? If God healed all your diseases, you wouldn't die. But
he does heal all the diseases of your soul. And he does it continually, day
by day. Redeemeth thy life from destruction. continually redeems, continually
delivers by the merit of his blood and by the power of his
grace, continually redeems your life from destruction. And he
crowneth thee, crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender
mercies. He set a crown on your head and
it's a crown he continually places there, loving kindness and tender
mercies. And then we're told that the
Lord, our God, The triune Jehovah is he who satisfies thy mouth
with good. Our translators have added the
word things. He satisfies thy mouth with good. You know what the word God is?
Our English word God is but an abbreviation of the word good. God satisfies your mouth, my
brother. God satisfies your mouth, my
sister, you who believe on the son of God. God satisfies your
mouth with God. Satisfies your mouth with himself. God's elect are a people who
believing on the Lord Jesus. Are satisfied with him. Our Lord Jesus said, eat this
bread and you'll never hunger again. Drink this water and you
will never thirst. He said, my flesh is meat indeed
and my blood drink indeed. That is my obedience in life
and my obedience in death are those things by which satisfaction
is rendered to God and satisfaction is rendered to your soul. trust
in Christ, we cease from our labors and rest our souls in
him. Day by day, he proves his word
true, who said, my grace is sufficient for thee. I've told you many
times that it will bear repetition of an older believing saint Dear
lady was forever speaking so much about the Savior and someone
near her was just a little tired and fed up with hearing her talk
so much about Jesus. And she said to her, said, is
Jesus enough? She said, if he's all you've
got, he is. If he's all you've got, he is. All right. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
three. Blessed be his name. Our great
God has set Christ in our hearts and having Christ, we have enough. He satisfies thy mouth with good
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. But there are
many in this world. There are many in this world
in whose hearts God has set something else. Cody Henson called me last night,
wants to confess Christ in baptism, said God has saved him, given
him faith in his son. that God set Christ in his heart
in mercy. And if God has set Christ in
your heart. Oh. You are blessed, have been
blessed and shall be blessed. But there are multitudes. In
whose heart God set something else. And it does it in judgment,
not in mercy. He does it in wrath, not in grace. He does it just as surely in
judgment set this in the hearts of men as he does in grace set
Christ in the hearts of his own. God puts the world in the hearts
of some. so that they cannot find out
God. Look at verse 11. What profit? Well, let's back
up to verse 9. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein
he laboreth? What profit does he have? I just got a note this morning.
A man who's spent his life making a fortune And now he's in a coma and he's
fixing to leave it. Old man, old man. What profit hath he that worketh
in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which
God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time, made everything exactly right in his time. Also,
he hath set the world in their heart. Oh, God, don't do that to you. Don't do that to me. He set the
world in their heart. Now, what's the reason why? So
that no man can find out the work of God, the work that God
maketh from the beginning to the end. Wednesday evening, when we had
finished our Thanksgiving meal as a family, I read Psalm 105
to our family, or 103, rather, to our family. I gave them the gist of the message
I preached to you on Tuesday evening, and then I spoke to
Will and the rest of the family. My grandson Will, as you all
well know, his world revolves around four seasons, basketball
season, baseball season, football season, and golf season. Thankfully,
he's beginning to notice pretty girls a little bit too, so thankful
for that. But I said to him, I said, I
want you to know something, son. I pray every day for you that
God will hedge you about and won't set the world in your heart. And I specifically named the
ball games, the various sports he plays. And I said, I hope
you can enjoy them and play good enough that you can enjoy them
right on through high school, maybe college. And I pray that
you will be just bad enough, Adam, that you can never play
professional ball." And he almost looked shocked. He almost looked
shocked. And I have a reason for it. I have a friend whose son played
professional ball. And Brother Mahan knew this boy
and his family all their lives. And last time we went to see
him play, he asked him about worshiping God, and he said to
him, Brother Mahan, you can't do what I do and worship God. You can't be gone from your family
and gone from the gospel every weekend, traveling around the
world, spending all your time doing this and worship God. You
can't do it. Oh, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, son,
would you? Can't do it. Can't do it. But that's not the
only way God sets the world in a man's heart. That's not the
only way it happens. Turn back to Genesis 33, that
passage we read earlier. And while you're turning, let
me give you the background. Here we've got these two men,
two brothers, two twin brothers, Jacob and Esau. Each is held before us. as a
glaring example. Esau as a glaring example of
a man in whose heart the Lord God set the world in judgment. And Esau was damned. He was as surely damned while
he walked on this earth as he is today in hell. He was as surely
destroyed while he walked on this earth as he is today in
hell. Jacob, his brother, is a man
in whose heart God set his son. A man in whose heart God set
the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus made himself known
to Jacob. The Lord Jesus crushed Jacob. The Lord Jesus converted Jacob. The Lord Jesus kept Jacob. God set him in his heart. You'll
recall what had happened between them. The Lord in those days
had given Abraham a covenant sign of circumcision and a birthright.
that birthright going from generation to generation, from father to
son throughout the days of the Mosaic economy and even prior
to the Mosaic economy, throughout the time of Abraham and the Old
Testament saints, as God dealt with men in that typical legal
generation. And by that birthright was represented
God's salvation and covenant mercy passed from father to son,
generation after generation. The birthright, of course, always
going to the firstborn, who represented him who is the firstborn. Remember, the firstborn, God
said, throughout the law of ass or of lamb is mine. The firstborn
of a man or a beast is mine. And he describes the firstborn
as the firstborn that openeth the womb. The womb is not opened
in birth. The womb is opened in conception. And so the firstborn is he of
whom you just say. Mary's virgin born son who opened
the womb in his birth. Our Lord Jesus is the firstborn. And we are called the church
of the firstborn. So that birthright represented
the Lord Jesus Christ and God's salvation in him. One day Esau
had been out hunting, and as was his custom, and he came in
and he saw Jacob there. Jacob was mama's boy. Jacob was
the son no daddy would want. Jacob was a sissy. Jacob was a, he just, he wasn't
what you want for a son. And his daddy didn't much like
him. He was just stuck with him. He
was mama's boy. But Jacob had made some, beans
and rice. Ah, Nicosaur smelled it. He said,
give me some of your beans. And Jacob said, no, no, not for
nothing I won't. Sell me your birthright. And
Esau began to whine, well, I'm going to die if I don't get some
old beans. And want to give me the birthright? Do me then. Here,
take it. And he sold Christ and God's
mercy, God's sacrifice, God's gospel, the worship of God, the
knowledge of God, God's salvation, to gratify his lust for a moment,
just for a mess of beans, just for a mess of beans. And then
when the old man was getting old and he knew he was about
to die, Isaac said to his son Esau, he said go out now and
and kill me a deer and fix me some venison stew and Come back
here and bring it to me when I've when I've eaten your savory
savory stew. I'll Pass along the birthright
to you and I'll bless you and Rebecca overheard the whole thing
While Esau was gone. She said to Jacob. She said go
get one of the kids and Let's fool your daddy And you pretend
to be Esau, put his skins of this kid on your arms. And you
pretend to be Esau and take the stew into your daddy. The old
man can't see. He won't know the difference. And you will
get the blessing. And she persuaded him to do so.
So he went in and Isaac blessed Jacob, gave him by divine order
by divine decree, exactly as Romans chapter 9 tells us God
intended it should be done, gave the birthright, the covenant,
God's salvation, Christ, the gospel, redemption, and grace
to Jacob. Gave it to Jacob. Jacob sought
it on the basis of what he could do, even if his works were conniving
and deceitful. But God granted the blessing
by grace in hell. In spite of his wickedness, in
spite of his evil, God granted Jacob the blessing. And when
Esau came in and saw what had happened, oh, he was in a rage. He was in a rage. He said, as
soon as that old man in there dies, I'm going to kill you.
You can mark it down. I'm going to kill you. So Jacob
took off to Laban's house, and Laban being Rebecca's brother,
he went down and spent 14 years with his uncle. Now, if there
was any fellow on the earth, probably the only fellow on the
earth more crooked, conniving, and scheming than Jacob, it was
like Laban. And he served Laban for 14 years. He thought first he was serving
for Rachel, whom he loved, and Laban tricked him. So he served
another seven years for Rachel. And he said his love for her
was so great that it seemed like he just served a day. That's
the service of our Redeemer for us. And now, he said, I've had
enough of this. And God told him to go home,
said, I'll be with you. And so Jacob packed all the family
up, all of his property up, all of his wealth up, and he starts
back home. And along the way, he starts
thinking about Esau. And he sends drove after drove
after drove ahead to meet Esau. And he said, tell them, tell
them that these things Jacob sends as a present to you, Esau,
and your brother is coming behind. And the first fellow went out
and came back and said, yep, yep, we told him. But Esau's
coming to meet you. And he's got 400 men with him. And Jacob's terrified. Ought
to be. He's terrified. Esau's coming
to kill me. He said he would, and now he's
coming to kill me. And Jacob cries out to God. And God tells him, proceed on.
And he meets with Esau. And when they meet, Esau asks
Jacob, He said, what's the meaning of all these droves that you
sent out here in front of me? Now look at it. Genesis chapter
33, verse nine. Or verse eight, rather. He said,
what meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And Jacob
said, these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And
Esau said, I have enough. I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee,
if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present
at my hand. For therefore, I have seen thy
face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased
with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing
that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with
me. and because I have enough. I have enough. I call your attention
to the fact that there's something unusual here. Here are two men
who are content. Two men who are content. I have
met very few in my life who were content. I've met very few people
in my life who, I have enough. I don't want anymore. It's all
I want. I've got everything I want. I've met very few. Have you?
But here are two men, two brothers, two twin brothers, whose lives
could not be more different. But here they are in great similarity. Esau said, I have enough. And
Jacob said, I have enough. And let me show you three things,
and I'll be done. First, Esau's contentment. It was the contentment of a damned
man. The contentment of a damned man. Esau was a lost man. Reprobate. under the judgment
of God, as sure for hell as if he were already there. He had
many thoughts, but greed wasn't one of them. He was here content. Now learn something. Moral excellence and grace are
not the same thing. Morality and righteousness are
not the same thing. Moral uprightness and spiritual
life are not the same things. There are, in fact, some in this
world, men and women, who do not know God, who are moral,
upright people. The kind of folks you'd want
your daughter to date. The kind of girls you'd want your son
to marry. They're good folks, we say. come from good family,
come from good stock, good folks, good folks. Now, they're not
many. They're not many. Usually, those
who folks say are good families or good stocks are just as rotten
as the rest of us. But we live in this society which
is trying real hard to redefine morality. I hear the fellows
like Barney Freight talking about judging something being immoral,
I find it laughable. I find it laughable. Sadly laughable. We somehow have found a way to
condone as morally acceptable fornication and adultery and
homosexuality. and the murder of babies. Do you realize those are no longer
in the thinking of most people? None of those things have anything
to do with moral judgment? Anything in most people? They
have nothing to do with moral judgment. As a matter of fact,
if you dare to make, as I am now making as publicly as God
gives me for him to make it, and say, make a statement like
this and say, these things are immoral. then you're condemned
as a bigoted, judgmental, homophobic nut. It's not that I'm afraid
of them. No, it's not a phobia. It's reality. And it doesn't matter how things
change. Doesn't matter how things change. It's not going to change
around here. Not going to change around here.
My daughter's sitting here. I hope she won't mind me. I know
she won't mind me telling you. Had she A bit of the mind that
she could go out and shack up with fellas and bring them home
and stay in my house. She wouldn't be staying in my
house now. No, she wouldn't. She wouldn't bring them over
here and sleep in my house. It ain't gonna happen. It ain't
gonna happen. Well, you're better than that. No, I'm just like
that. That's the problem. And it's
horribly evil and it dishonors God. Morality. is not found in many places.
But where it is found, morality itself is not righteousness.
Now, I said that, but let me say this. It is commendable. Morality, you see, promotes charity
and philanthropy and the works of compassion for the sick and
the needy and helps in those regards. Morality, a sense of
moral responsibility, keeps people from abusing and misusing one
another. And morality helps somewhat to
preserve society and some kind of order in society. But morality, where it is found,
is usually self-righteousness and filled with it. It causes
men and women to look down their noses at other people. It causes
men and women to think that since they do things that men look
at and say are good, then they really are good. It doesn't matter how much good
you do. All the good you do. Read Ezekiel
33. All the good you do. In the day
you sin, all the good, God says it's forgotten, wiped out. But
I believe that when I stand before God, the good I've done is going
to outweigh the bad, and God's going to look at me and smile.
No, whatever the evil is, it outweighs what you call good,
and the good has disappeared, whatever it is. You mean, Mother
Dawn, God sent people to hell who are church-going, tithing,
Self-sacrificing, devoted, moral people, along with drunks and
murderers and rapists and thieves and whoremongers and such as
that. Well, yeah, you're not any different.
You're not any different. How dare you say that to me?
Because I'm not any different. And you and I came out of the
same, out of the same bolt of cloth. It's called ruined Adam.
And I know you're no different from me because my Redeemer says
you're not. He says your heart's just like
mine, a cesspool of iniquity. Nothing but corruption. How dare
you tell us there's nothing but corruption in us? You know it. You may not acknowledge it, you
may not like it, but you know it. Not me? You're a liar. That's not true of me? You're
a liar. How dare you say that? God said
that. I didn't say it. God said it. Corruption from within. And that's
the reason all things you touch are corrupt. Esau learned many
things that made him an exemplary man of character as far as men
are concerned. He, among those things, learned
contentment. He learned to forgive injuries
done to him. There's not many brothers who
would have taken this boy back. There's not many brothers who would have
said to Jacob, well, it's all right. That's 14 years ago. I was just in a fit of rage,
and you come on back home. It's OK. He learned to be a man
of generous, magnanimous spirit. He didn't just forgive Jacob.
He did everything he could to help Jacob, to benefit him. Read
the rest of the chapter. You'll see that clearly. But
all said and done, Esau didn't know God. He didn't know God. The fact is, if you would be
accepted of God, you got to have something more than moral outward
righteousness. Hold your hands here in Genesis
33. We're back in just a minute. Turn to Matthew 5. Matthew 5,
verse 20. The Lord Jesus declares, I say
unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. Now, do you remember the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees? They paid tithes on the gross,
not the net. of everything they had, so much
so that they would go out in the garden and pick herbs and
give 10%. They paid tithes on everything.
They paid tithes on chickens and goats and money and everything
else. They paid tithes. I mean, they
were meticulous. They'd divide it down, and if
one cent was over, well, just to be safe, we'll pay that too.
They paid tithes on everything. They were strict and meticulous.
They fasted twice every week. And they told you about it. Oh no, I'd like to have some
chocolate cake, but I'm fasting today. They told you about it. I mean,
I'm being spiritual today. I'm being devoted today. They
prayed three times every day. And if you couldn't hear them,
they'd blow a trumpet and say, look at me, I'm praying. And
they wore funny-looking clothes. They really did. I mean, they
wouldn't stand up here in a black blazer and a pair of check pants
and a red tie for nothing. Oh, that's so worldly. I remember
a fella say one time, somebody had those bobbly things on their
shoes, and I said, you mean like this? Oh, that's worldly. No, they wore long robes. And
in their robes, they stitched pieces of scripture so that when
they walked down the road, you could read Bible verses behind
them. And they had phylacteries. And they wore little good luck
charms in the shape of a cross. I'm exaggerating a little bit
now. We see crosses now. Religious folk wear crosses everywhere.
They wore their little good luck crosses too. But they were called
phylacteries. And you know what they were full
of? They took scriptures, took scriptures and stuffed them in
a little bag and made them a necklace. Oh, what would Jesus do? See
me? That kind of nonsense, that kind
of nonsense. They were religious as all get
out. Our Lord said, except your righteousness exceeds this. You will in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven. How are you gonna get better
than fasting twice a week, tithing on everything you've got, being
religious as all get out, going to church every Sabbath day,
praying three times a day? How are you gonna get more religious
than that? How are you gonna get more righteous than that?
You got to have perfect righteousness. The perfect righteousness of
God's darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You got to have his obedience,
the obedience of a man who is God, the obedience of one of
infinite worth. You've got to have his righteousness
imparted to you as well as imputed to you. That is, you must not
only be redeemed and justified, you must be regenerated and sanctified. You must be made holy on the
inside. You've got to have a new nature
and you've got to have a new record. You've got to be a new
creature in Christ Jesus the Lord. All right? Now look at Esau's brother. Look at Jacob's contentment. His is the contentment of grace. Jacob was a believing man who
was content. Content with God's salvation.
Now throughout the book of God, Jacob represents all God's elect. Let me just give you a few scriptures. You can look at them later. In
Psalm 77, 15, the sons of Jacob are called the redeemed of the
Lord. In 1 Kings 18, 31, the sons of Jacob are those to whom
God sends his word. We're told in Malachi chapter
3 and verse 6 that the sons of Jacob are those who are not consumed
because God changes not. But now look at the words that
are used here in Genesis 33. verses 9 and 11. When Esau says, I have enough,
the word translated enough is not even similar to the word
translated enough in verse 11 when Jacob said I have enough.
The word Esau used means I have everything I could desire. I
have Everything I need. I have everything I want. I have
an abundance. I have plenty. I have enough. I have enough. He's he's he's
like very wealthy man. No, I don't need a thing. I don't
have any. I don't have any any bills. I've got plenty of money
to pay your bills. Now I don't need a thing. Don't need a thing.
I have enough. Now, don't misunderstand me.
Don't misunderstand me. Having great wealth is not a
sin. And being a man or a woman devoted
to that position God's given you in life is not evil, it's
commendable. You who are believers don't ever
be influenced by those who would have you to think that you ought
to stay at home every day and live on welfare and read your
Bible and pray. No, sir. There's a commercial on television.
I had no idea who it's for. It's one of the office companies,
Staples or Office Max or Office Depot, one of them. Fellas in
a little office, little room, kind of like my office used to
be back there. And he says as he starts in business, I want
to outwork and outsmart and outshine everybody out there. Well, you
ought to do that. You ought to do that if you're
a believer, if you're a believer. I don't care what you do. I don't
care whether you're a mechanic or a shopkeeper or a businessman. What it is, you ought to be the
best there is at what you do. You ought to give yourself to
it in absolute commitment, not for gain, for God's glory. You represent the Redeemer. You
represent the Redeemer. Represent Him well. Represent
him well. Don't let other folks work harder
than you. Don't let other folks be known for being more honest
than you. Don't let other folks be known for being more dependable
than you. Oh, no, not, no, no. Those things are fine. Those
are commendable. Don't set your heart on it. Don't set your heart
on it. The word Jacob uses for enough. Let me tell you what it means. I have all things. The word is often used to represent
many things, but it is only used in the singular. It is never
used in the plural. When Jacob says, I have enough,
he's saying, I've got one thing. I've got, I just got one thing.
I've only got one thing. Have any idea what he had? I have enough. I have Christ."
Well, Jacob's just as wealthy as Esau. Yeah, but he didn't
set his heart on those things. He had just as many cattle as
Esau. Yeah, but he didn't set his heart on them. He had just
as large a family as Esau. Larger, but he didn't set his
fat heart on it. Oh, no. Oh, no. Christ was setting his
heart. And Jacob says, I have enough. Having Christ, you have
all things. Having Christ, the apostle says,
all things are yours. All things temporal, the good
and the evil and all things spiritual. All the blessings of God's grace
are yours. And all things eternal. The spirit
itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God and the children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. Oh, so joint heirs with Christ. Co-possessors with Christ of
the glory he has with the Father as our mediator, joint heirs
with Christ. Jeremiah said, The Lord is my
portion, saith my soul. Therefore, will I hope in him. Now, Let me show you the difference
between Jacob and Esau. Esau was a lost, unregenerate,
reprobate man. A man who found everything he
wanted in this world. And in order to get it, he despised Christ. And for that, Lindsay, God set
the world in his heart. Now, I know God's purpose. I
know all about absolute predestination, and I not only am not ashamed
of it, I rejoice in it, preach it all the time. Read Romans
chapter 9. But God doesn't send men to hell
for nothing. If God saves you, it will be
all God's work. If you go to hell, it will be
because you despise God's Son. It will be because you despise
the gospel. Well, I heard Brother Don preach
all my life, and I always liked him. He's a nice fellow, had
a good family, and liked going to church down there. Boy, if
I had a pastor, he'd be my pastor. I believe what he believes, but I've got other things I'm interested
in. I've got other fish to fry. I've got to live in this world.
My dear friend, Brother Harry Graham, I hope I never forget
it. When I was just a young man,
I heard him say one time somebody said to him, said, well, Brother
Graham, you got to live in this world. He said, I said to him,
that's one thing I don't have to do. That's the one thing I
just don't have to do. No, I don't have to live in this
world. But while I'm in this world, I've got to live for God. While I'm in this world, I've
got to live unto the Redeemer. Got to live unto the Redeemer. Esau went to hell because he
chose. to despise the Son of God. And God won't put up with that.
Proverbs chapter 1, he says, I stretched out my hands, I've
called, you've refused. So when you call, I'm going to
laugh at you, and you're going to eat the fruit of your own
way, and hell will be your portion. Jacob, on the other hand, he He was loved of God. God made him in the way. He, uh, you'll recall back in
Genesis 28 was running away, but the Lord put himself in Jacob's
way. stopped him in his mad rush to
hell, revealed himself to him, called him by his grace, and
he said, now I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And Jacob said, I have enough. Christ is mine. I have enough. Fade, fade, each earthly joy. Jesus is mine. Oh, Lord God, will you put yourself
in the way of these who rush madly to hell and reveal yourself
to them? Set Christ in their hearts. And
will you evermore Set your dear son in my heart. Amen.