Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3? I'd like to read verses 18 through
23. And I want you to pay particular
attention with all of them, I shouldn't say you should pay more particular
attention to one verse than the other, but what I'm going to
dwell on is verse 21 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Beginning in verse 18. Let no man deceive himself. If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh
the wise in their own craftiness, and again The Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore, let no man
glory in men, for all things are yours." And that's what I've
entitled this message. All things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
or the world or life or death or things present or things to
come. All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."
Now, that's an amazing statement. He says to every believer, all
things are yours. Now, if you came into my home And if I said, my home is your
home. It's all yours, I'd mean it.
When I say it, I've said that before, and I mean it. My home
is your home. Everything I have is yours, so
I mean it. But you know, I wonder how I would respond. If you showed
up the next day and started carting things off. I might say I didn't mean that
literally. Well, is this literal? It says all things are yours. Can I take this literally? All things are yours. Now, notice Paul says for all
things are yours. The conjunction for. Tells us
that we have to look at what was said previously to see why
he made this statement. All things are yours, so he says
in verse 18, let's go back up there. He said, let no man. Deceive himself. If any man among
you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool
that he may be wise now. Let no man deceive himself. You
know what I preached on last week, a week before that? Deceiving
yourself. He says, let no man doubt the
truth of what I said about the worthlessness of human wisdom
and the danger of substituting it for the wisdom of God. Now,
if you do deceive yourself regarding this, you will find out that
you have been terribly mistaken. So let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to
be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be
wise. Now that's some kind of statement. Let's listen to what he's saying.
He says if you want to be truly wise, become a fool. Become a fool in this world that
you may be wise. Let that one renounce his own
wisdom. And see himself to be nothing
more than a fool. And until I do that, I'll have
no true wisdom. Now, I wonder how many of us,
if you could cut into our hearts and look what's really there.
And we know to say I'm a fool, you know, we know the right thing
to say, but I wonder if you cut into our hearts and saw what
was really there. How many of us think ourselves
to be fools? I dare say that we think, well,
I may be a fool, but I've got more wisdom than the average
person. I bet most of us think that. But Paul says you're to
become a fool. That you may be truly wise, let
that one renounce his own wisdom, that he may receive the wisdom
of God. We must empty ourselves in order
to be filled. We must renounce our own righteousness
in order to be clothed in His righteousness. We must renounce
our own strength in order to be made truly strong. We must renounce our own wisdom
to be truly wise. Now, this is a universal law
and it's perfectly reasonable. We are only required to recognize
that which is true. I want to repeat that. I want
you to hear this. We are only required to recognize
that to be true, which is true. We're only required to recognize
that to be true, which is true. We would not be required to renounce
our own righteousness, strength, or wisdom if they were really
what they pretended to be. It's simply because they are,
in fact, worthless that we're called upon to renounce them.
Do you believe that? You know, one of the things that
I was thinking of and meditating on while I was driving over here,
thinking about this message and this passage of Scripture, I'm
asking myself this question. Do I really believe what I'm
preaching? Do I really believe that my righteousness,
that my wisdom, that my strength is worthless? Do I really believe
that? Am I renouncing these things
before God that I might have these things? Now, he goes on,
verse 19. He says, you become a fool that you may be wise. Verse 19, he says, for the wisdom
of this world. Is foolishness with God and he
quotes two passages from the Old Testament, for it's written,
and that is. What we have to say regarding
everything is, is it written? He says it's written. He take
it the wise in their own craftiness and again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they're vain. that they're empty, that
there's really nothing to them. Now, here's the fact of the matter.
The wisdom, the understanding, the priorities, the maxims, the
principles of this world is foolishness to God. You know what? Foolishness to
me, too. If God says it's foolishness,
it's foolishness. The things that this world desires,
the things that this world is after, the things that this world
highly esteems is foolishness with God. It's empty. It's useless. There's no substance
to it, none, even things that are true. You know, there's you
can take something that's true in and of itself and it becomes
foolishness if you use it for the wrong end. We talk about
the salvation of the soul. What if I said, you can be saved
through mathematics? You'd say, well, that's foolish.
Mathematics are true. I like math. I mean, what I like
about math, it's got an answer. I mean, it's got a true answer.
That's one thing, something I find comforting about that. I like
math. But what if I said mathematics will save your soul? You'd say,
well, that's foolishness, something that's true. It's foolishness
if I use it for the wrong end. What if I said you could be saved
by morality? Morality is good in and of itself,
I suppose, but it's not going to save anybody. Not at all.
It's foolishness. So you can talk about something
that is true, but it becomes foolishness if you use it for
the wrong end. The things that this world desires
and so on, foolishness. What passes for wisdom among
men is in fact foolishness. Then he quotes these two passages
of Scripture. from the Old Testament to verify
this. So he says in verse 21, therefore. Let no man glory in
men. Let no man glory in men, why? Well, because man in his best
state is what? Altogether. Vanity. And that's what God says about
me in my best state. That's what God says about you
in your best state. That's what God says about the
individual that you admire so much in his best state. Man at
his best state is altogether vanity. His wisdom is foolishness,
so we certainly should not glory in men that the glory in a person
or a thing is to trust Him or it as the ground of our confidence
or the source of our blessedness. That's what it means to glory
in something. You know, the Bible tells us to glory in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it? Don't glory in men. We're
called upon to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
in this passage of Scripture, there's some people who've been
glory in preachers. You remember how some were saying, I'm of
Paul and others, I'm of Apollos? And others, I'm a Cephas, and
then the real pious one said, I don't follow any man. I'm a
Christ. I just follow Christ. And he brings this up on two
different occasions in this passage of Scripture where these people
have become preacher-worshippers. I'm a Paul. I'm a Paulist. I
prefer his preaching and so on. And he says, who are these men?
Who are these preachers? They're just ministers by whom
you believe. You know what a minister is? It's an instrument. You take
a musical instrument. Can that musical instrument play
unless there's a person playing it? It has no power to play itself. I mean, you take your trumpet.
It's just going to lay there and make no noise at all unless
you pick it up and play it. A minister is nothing more than
an instrument. There's no glory to that instrument.
What I think of is a hoe. You go out and hoe in the garden.
Get rid of the weeds. Is there anything to that hoe?
One hoe is as good as another one. I mean, it's just a hoe. It's
an instrument. That's it. It's the man who uses
it that puts the power behind it. Now, instruments. A preacher is an instrument and
nothing more. He says, therefore, let no man glory in men. Now, why would we glory in men?
Because look what he says next. Let no man glory in men, for
all things are yours." If you had a million dollars, wouldn't you be kind of stupid
to find confidence and security in the dime you found on the
ground? All things are yours. Why would you glory in men? Why
would you have confidence and put your trust in men? What did
Paul say in Philippians chapter 3, verse 3? He said, we are the
circumcision which rejoice in Christ Jesus. We worship God
in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
we have no confidence in the flesh. I don't have any confidence
in my flesh and I don't have any confidence in your flesh.
No confidence in the flesh. He said, why would you glory
in men where all things are yours? Does he mean that literally?
All things are yours? I mean, is he saying to Todd
Nyberg? Is he saying to Mike Carver, all things are yours? Everything. Can I take that literally?
Can I take that to myself and really believe this? Everything
belongs to me? It's all mine? Well, here's the way I'll answer
that question. Do all things belong to Jesus
Christ? Now, do they really? If I'm in Him, they all belong
to me. Yes, He's the heir of all things,
but what does Romans 8, 17 call us? Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Whatever belongs to Him belongs
to me. I mean, it really is mine. My
house. It's in my name. It's in Lynn's
name. It belongs to Aubrey. It's Aubrey's house. She's my
daughter. She's my child. And she's going
to find out when Lynn and I are gone, when we hit the bucket,
if we still have that house, you know who it's going to? It
ain't going to you. It's going to her. It's her house. Why? She's my child. She's part of me. Now that is
how God gives every believer, every child of God, they're part
of His Son. Whatever belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ belongs
to them. All things are yours. Because of union with Christ,
all that He has, I have. And you just can't take this
too far. All things providential. Everything
that happens to me. Everything that happens to you.
We were sitting back in the study before the service, and I was
talking about getting my throat stretched. And and Paul Harry's reminded
me that that's one of those blessings of God. You know, and I got to
think about it. I don't remember ever thanking
the Lord for getting my throat stretched. As a matter of fact,
I mean, I dread it. You know, it's not something
I've enjoyed, but in everything you thanks. For this is this
thing you're having a hard time thanking God for. This is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It's what you need. It's
best for you. All things providential. Give
thanks for. I don't care how painful it is.
I don't care how difficult it is. I don't care how wonderful
it is. I mean, I don't want to talk
about the bad stuff. What about all the good stuff? You know,
there's so much pleasure in life. There's so much joy in life. I'm looking at you two getting
ready to get married. You're all so excited about that. I know you are. I
mean, that's a wonderful thing. Thank the Lord for that. It's
a blessing from God. All things providential, they're
yours. All things spiritual, they're
yours. They belong to you. Now, he goes
on to tell exactly what he's talking about in verse 22. And
he says, all things are yours. And he says in verse 22, whether
Paul or Apollos or Cephas, talking about these preachers, or the
world, Or life? Or death? Or things present? Or things to come? All are yours,
and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Now, he says all, first
of all, he says all preachers. Now, they were showing favoritism
with preachers. And I guarantee you everyone
has done that too. I'd rather hear so-and-so. I'd
rather hear so-and-so. I'd rather hear so-and-so. Every
one of us have thought that. I mean, there's some people that you
can hear easier than others. And I understand that. There's
preachers I'd rather hear. There's preachers that I believe
preach the gospel that I have a hard time hearing. I shouldn't.
But I'm just being honest. I shouldn't even tell you all
that because now you're all going to be thinking, now I've got a reason to get
upset. Forget it. Just scratch that one. Y'all
just enjoy listening to every true gospel preacher, no matter
who it is. And you should, should you? Should you? But what he's
saying is, he's saying don't have favorites because they're
all yours. God gave you every single one of them. I don't care
the one you like and the one you don't like as well. God gave
you every single one of them for your benefit, for your blessing.
The Lord sent them your way, and you're to profit from what
they say. All they are are instruments to bring forth His Word. That's
whether Paul I guarantee you, between Paul and Cephas and Apollos,
Paul was, he was, I love his logic, I love the way he thinks,
I feel like I know Paul. Apollos, the Scripture says he
was an eloquent man. Peter was more of an emotional
man. I mean, he was just different.
And somebody like Peter, somebody like Paul, somebody like all
of them. They tell the truth. Enjoy it. They're all given for
your benefit. Every single one of them. Look
what it says next. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world. The world is yours and it's brought
a sense. You know, I love that song we sing. This is my father's
world. And because it's my father's
world, it's mine, too. Does the world belong to Christ? Does it really belong to him?
Well, you know it does. It belongs to me, too. This world
and the things of it are given to me to enjoy. Now, listen real
carefully. Enjoy life. It's a blessing. You know, life's too short to
not enjoy it. Enjoy life. Enjoy your family. Enjoy material blessings. God
gave them to you. Enjoy the pleasures of life.
Enjoy good food. Enjoy your relationship with
your spouse. Life is just too short to be
miserable. Enjoy the blessings of this life. We read in 1 Timothy
6, verse 17, He hath given to us all things richly to enjoy. Enjoy life. Now, I'm not saying
that tritely. I'm not saying that, you know,
that don't worry, be happy philosophy. But I am saying everything that
you have is a gift of God. It's the ability you have. God gave it to you to use for
His glory. Enjoy life. Don't be somebody
that's miserable all the time. Don't be somebody always down
and done sometimes. There's no reason to because God has given
us all things richly to enjoy. You know, there's some people
who think that being religious is necessarily being miserable
and unhappy. That's not the case at all. Happy is the man that
feareth always. He's a happy person. He's not
miserable, he's happy. You know, it makes me happy to
know the Lord's on the throne. It makes me happy to know the
Lord's the first cause behind everything. It flat makes me
happy to know that He's my righteousness before God. It makes me happy
to know that His shed blood has put away all my sins. It makes
me happy to know that everything's working together for my good
and His glory. Everything. It makes me happy to know that
I'm going to stand before God justified. It makes me happy.
He's given us all things richly to enjoy. All this world is yours. He says the world is yours. He
says life is yours. Life is yours. Whatever happens
in this timetable we call life is yours. It belongs to you. It's yours by the gift of the
Father. Whatever relates to spiritual life is yours. Eternal life is
yours. Life before God's holy law is
yours. You know, the law looks you over
and cannot condemn you. That's your heritage. You hold
on to that. You rejoice in it. The life of
Christ is yours. The life of God in your soul
is yours. Paul said, I live, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. Now I live, but Christ liveth
in me. That's yours. That belongs to you. Life is
yours. But what he says next in our
text, verse 22, whether Paul or Apollos receive us in the
world or life or death. Take this in its broadest sense. The day of your physical death,
if you're a believer, will be the best day of your life. Isn't that wonderful? John said,
write, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. He said, write
it down. And it's written down there for
us to see it right now. Death is Yours death is graduation
day. Death is the beginning of true
life. Death is yours. And we can look
at death without fear for this reason. Holt said, I know whom I believe.
And I'm persuaded. I'm convinced that he is able. to keep that which I've committed
to Him. What did you commit to Him? Well, I'll tell you what,
I committed to Him that when I die, He's my only hope of being
brought into glory. Right now, He's my only hope.
Then He'll be my only hope. And I'm resting in Him. I've
committed the salvation of my soul to Him. And because of that,
I can say honestly, I'm not afraid of death. It's mine. It's a blessing
to me. And you know, even in this life,
I like what Paul said, I die daily. I die daily, die to myself
daily. You know, the only way you live,
really, and you know this is true. When I say this to every
believer, you know this is true. The only way you really live
is by dying to yourself, isn't it? Death is a blessing in that
sense. Death is yours. This is whether
Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or
things present. That's yours, too. Things present. What's present? Well, whatever's
going on. For one thing. Prosperity? That's His gift to you. Adversity?
Trouble? That's His gift to you. Sickness?
That's His gift to you. It's exactly what you need. Health? That's His gift to you. Whatever
it is, that's His gift to you. It belongs to you. Trouble? Just
on down, whatever God sends your way, providence, that's exactly,
exactly what you needed. Things present. I think of what's
going on in the Middle East right now. It scares you to death if
you read about it. Price of gas. Every time I go by a gas station
right now, I get angry. I do. I mean, it just grieves me. I
think, why is gas going up like this? Evidently, it's what I
need. It's best. It's all best. Whatever it is. Things present. Present blessings. You know,
there are present blessings I'm enjoying right now. I'm justified. Right now. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. I'm rejoicing
in that right now. Right now, I'm just before God.
His righteousness is my righteousness, and I stand before God's law
perfectly just. That's mine. Redemption, the
payment of His shed blood, what His blood accomplished, that's
mine. Forgiveness. That's what accomplishes
the complete forgiveness, the putting away, the washing away
of my sins. That's mine. It's my blessing to enjoy right
now. Adoption. He's my Father. I'm
an adopted child. I'm a child by birth. He birthed
me into His kingdom. I'm an adopted child or whatever.
He is my Father. I love it when our Lord said
this, when you pray to your Father, That's what he said to his people.
When you pray to your, he's your father. That's my present blessing
right now. He said, I go to my father and your father, to my
God and your God. He's my God. All that he is,
is mine. The things present, whatever
it might be, it's mine. All things are yours. The joy
and peace of believing right now is mine. Here's a comment I've heard,
I don't know how many times over the years. Somebody walks out
the door and I kind of like this comment. I believe what you're
saying now. I don't know what's going to happen once I get out the door, but
I believe it now. Well, right now, present tense, I believe. I believe it's mine. And then
he says things to come, not only things present, but things to
come. All are yours, things to come. Well, all of it's in the
future. It's mine. You know, the Lord's
coming back and the dead are going to be raised. That's mine. I'm going to stand before God
in judgment and be accepted. That's mine. That's my heritage. I'm going to spend eternity worshiping
Christ. That's mine. One of these days,
and this is a wonderful thing to think about, one of these
days, I'm going to be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. That's mine. All things are yours. Doesn't matter what it is. You
can't take it too far. You can't take it. It's literal.
All things are yours. Now, how can something be so
glorious? I mean, how can that be true?
I mean, I'm this speck in God's universe. I'm insignificant.
I don't even count. I don't have very much. I mean,
you know, I talk about this, all things being mine, but as
far as what I have, somebody looks at me, they think, he doesn't
have that much. You know, I mean, so how can I say all things are
mine? And how is that real? Well, let's
go on reading our text. He explains how that's real.
Verse 22, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life
or death or things present or things to come, all are yours. And here's why. You are Christ. And here's why all things are
yours. You are Christ. This is the great privilege of
believing Christ. All things are yours because
you belong to Christ. You think of how you belong to
Christ. If you're a believer, you belong to Jesus Christ. You're
His property. You're His possession. You belong
to Him. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price, the Scripture says. How are you His? Well, first,
you are His by the Father's gift of you to Him. Now, this happened
before you had any existence. It happened before you had any
understanding. The Lord talked several times in the book of
John of those the Father gave him. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Of them whom thou hast given
me I lose none. He spoke quite often of those
the Father gave him. So you belong to him because
God the Father gave you to him before time began. I'm his by
the gift of the Father and I'm his by purchase. He bought me. He paid for me. You are bought
with a price. He paid for you with His precious
blood. You belong to Him. You're His.
But not only am I His by His gift to the Father, or the Father's
gift to Him, I'm His by purchase, but I'm His and He is mine by
mutual consent. You know, when the Father gave
me to him, you know what he said? I'll take him. I'll take him. He said, I do. And you know what
I say right now? I do. You know, when I married
Lynn, she said, I'll take him to be my lawful wedded husband.
And I said, I'll take her to be my lawful wedded. It was by
mutual consent. And Christ Jesus, I belong to
Him because He says, I'll take Him. I'll take Him. And I do
too. We belong to each other by mutual
consent. And all things are mine for this
one reason. I am Christ. And look what He
says next. He says, You are Christ's and
Christ is God's. Turn to John 10 for a moment. Verse 24, Then came the Jews
round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. What an idiotic thing to say
to the Son of God. I love the way he answers. I
told you. And you believe not. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me. But
you believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto
you. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me,
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. I belong to Christ. Christ belongs
to God. Nobody can get me out of His
hand. Now, since all things are mine,
do you believe this verse of Scripture? All things are yours. All right? You can't take it
too far. It's the promise of Scripture. Since all things are
mine, it is only appropriate to give thanks for all things. Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me remind you this scripture again. In everything,
give thanks. I'll tell you what, there's some
things it's hard to thank God for. Ought you to do it? Do you have
reason to do it? In everything, give thanks. For
this thing that you're having such a difficult time thanking
God for, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. It's exactly what you need. You
know what this has something to do with? It has something
to do with trust. You trust Him. Though He slay
me, yet will I trust Him. Oh, Lord, make me simply to trust
you like a little child. Whatever he brings my way, trust
him. So obviously, if all things are
mine, I'm to give thanks for all things. And since all things
are mine, I also thought of this scripture. I thought since all
things are mine, I thought of what Paul said in Philippians
4 when he said, I can do what? all things through Christ, which
strengtheneth me. You know, I can't do anything. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You can do all things through
Christ, which strengtheneth you. Now, that's the Word of God.
That's the promise of the Scripture. Take him at his word, all things
are yours. You know what? I'm looking at
some vastly wealthy people. How rich is Jesus Christ? That is how rich you really are. May God give us grace simply
to Let's pray together.