Law of Possession
Law of Possession
HEAVEN'S FIXED LAWS
Ron Dunn
Genesis 2:1-8
Beginning with the first verse:
1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Now verses 15, 16, and 17:
15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
When God created the heavens and earth, he created this universe a harmonious whole-- everything working in harmony, everything moving as God originally intended it to be. At the same time that God created the universe, he also instituted laws by which this universe was to be governed. Every natural law of life that operates today, and has always operated, is nothing more nor less than an expression of the mind of God. There are physical and natural laws by which this universe is governed. Really, they are spiritual laws, rather than physical or natural laws, because they are divinely ordained laws that God himself instituted. Among these laws are certain laws that are eternal and automatic. We call these fixed laws.
For instance, the fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west every day is a fixed law. God set that law into effect, and it runs continuously. God doesn't say every day, "Now sun, you rise in the east and set in the west." It is a fixed, automatic law that always operates. You can never break that law or violate it. It is a fixed law.
There is the law of gravity. When Newton discovered the law of gravity, that is exactly what he did. He discovered it. God invented the law of gravity, and it is a fixed law. It holds down everything except prices. That is a fixed law; it always operates in this earth. There is another law that we might call a fixed law. That's the law of sowing and reaping. A farmer sows a certain seed, and he reaps that certain seed. You don't sow one thing and reap another. The law of sowing and reaping.
There are fixed laws by which life operates. Now, this universe that God made is in sympathetic relationship to its Creator. This universe, this physical earth, recognizes its Lord and Master. This earth always sympathizes with its Creator. For instance, when Jesus was riding into Jerusalem and the people began to shout and praise him and spread palm leaves before him, the Pharisees rebuked Jesus and said, "You ought not let people talk to you like that. You ought not let people praise you like that." Jesus said, "If I tell these people to hold their peace, the very stones would cry out." Jesus was saying that if man will not recognize his Creator, then the stones, the earth, the inanimate objects will.
When Jesus was on board a ship and a storm arose and the disciples feared for their lives, Jesus just spoke to the storm and the elements of nature recognized its Creator. The Bible says that the storm was still.
Do you remember during his temptation that the Bible says that Jesus was in the wilderness with the wild beasts? That means he could walk among the wild beasts and they were gentle, more gentle than the lions in the den into which Daniel was thrown. The wild beasts recognized their Creator.
As a matter of fact, the only part of God's creation which has failed to recognize its Creator is man. Every other part of God's creation is in sympathetic relationship to its maker. When Jesus died on the cross, the earth went into convulsions. The sun refused to shine because it was in sympathy with its maker. That means that if I observe these fixed laws, and I order my life according to these fixed laws, I am going to be blessed. If I ignore these laws, and I try to violate these laws, then I am going to be cursed.
One of these fixed laws was illustrated in the Garden of Eden. God had made man in his own image. God had made a garden and caused every pleasant thing to grow in it. There was plenty there for man to live on for the rest of his days. God planted man in the Garden of Eden. He told him to dress the garden and keep it. Of every tree of the garden you can eat—well, there's a limitation, a prohibition. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. What law does that illustrate? It illustrates the same law that God enunciates in the book of Psalms when he says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. All the silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills belong to me. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. And God says there is a tree in the midst of the garden that you cannot eat of. That is my tree. You are not to touch, not to eat of it.
What was that tree? That tree was the symbol of God's ownership of all things. God was revealing the law of possession to man at the very beginning of human history, the law that God possesses all things. You notice he did not give the garden to the man. He merely said he wanted man to live in the garden, to dress it, keep it, take care of it; but he never gave that garden to man. Now, there is a possibility that after a few hundred years, Adam might get the idea that the garden is his and he can do with it as he pleases. So to remind him that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, he put this tree in the center of the garden and it is the everlasting symbol of God's ownership. It was a reminder that he was just a renter; the land does not belong to you but to God. He would allow him to live there and live off the land but ultimately God possessed the land.
Colossians 1, verse 16, says that all things were made by Jesus, and they were made for him. God did not make the heavens and earth for man; God made the heavens and the earth for his Son, Jesus Christ, and he made us so that through our obedience to the fixed laws of heaven, our observance of that law of ownership, his Son might be glorified. That is a fixed law and the very foundation of success. I want you to know from the teaching of the Word of God that in your life, you will never know life as God wants you to know it--in harmony, in peace, in joy, in success--until first of all you come to recognize and submit to the law of possession—that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The earth is the Lord's and fullness thereof. This is the basic lesson that God wants to teach every person. As you go through the Old Testament, you'll discover God continually teaching the people that he owns everything. Don't ever get too big for your britches; don't ever get too high hat. Don't ever get to thinking that this belongs to you. I possess it. You live here. You use it because I allow you to do so. So, God taught them with a tree.
Then he taught them with a day. He said that six days you shall labor, and the seventh you shall rest. That day belongs to me. God is saying that not only is the earth mine, but your time is mine. I possess and own your time. You don't have any right to do as you please with your time. One day of the week belongs to me. It is holy unto the Lord. On that day you are not to work. You are to honor me. What was God doing? He was reminding us that time belongs to God--not us. You think your time is your own? No, the Bible says there is a time to be born, and there is a time to die. God says you do not even possess your own time.
He taught it with a tree. He taught it with a day. He taught it with a city. When the people started going into the land of Canaan, he said that this is a land I havefor you. This is the land that I have given to you. This is your land. But God wants to remind them that while he was giving the land to them, he still owned and possessed it. The were living there as God's tenants. He said there was one city when they went into the land that they were not to plunder. That was the city of Jericho. When they conquered that city, they were not to touch the silver or the gold. It was holy unto the Lord. It was sanctified unto God. He was teaching them that possessions do not belong to them, even though they earned them. I can imagine some saying, "Lord, we took the city. I earned this with the sweat of my brow. I went to school. I got educated. I received my degree. I go out five days a week, six days a week and earn my money. What I earn is mine." God says, "No, you are not to touch the city of Jericho. I am trying to teach you God's ownership of all things. If you don't observe that law of God's possession, you will never be blessed in your life.
He taught it with a tree. He taught it with a day. He taught it with a city. Then he taught it with the land. When the people were finally in the land, God said, "Don't think the land is really yours. You will till that land for six years but every seventh year, you will let the land rest. That is just to remind you that your vocation is not your own; it's mine. You might think that since I let you be farmers and agriculturists and give you this land that your vocation, your life's work, is your own. No, it isn't. I not only own the earth, your time, your possessions, I own your vocation. Every seventh year you will let the land rest." Now, God knew what he was doing. He said every seventh year you will let the land rest.
Then God taught it with a tithe. He said the tithe is the Lord's. Do you know what that tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden is? That's the tithe. That is the principle of the tithe. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the tithe. Some people say, "Preacher, the tithe is under the law." No, it's not. It is before the law. Jacob paid tithes to God before the Law of Moses was ever written. Another false assumption of the tithe is man discharging his debt to God. Once I've given my tenth to the Lord, that's it. Everything else is mine. The tithe is not my discharging and paying my debt to God. The tithe is my token recognition that God owns everything I possess. If you have never understood that when you give a tithe to the Lord, the nine-tenths remaining still belongs to God, you don't understand the law of possession. You have no right to spend it the way you want to spend it. God was not saying, "You give me the tithe. That's all I want. The rest is to do with as you please. No, the tithe was not to discharge my debt to God. It was a token symbol of my recognition that God owned everything that I had. The purpose of the title is the recognition of God's ownership. God is trying to teach the basic law of life--that God owns all things. At the beginning of the old creation, God planted a tree in the midst of the garden to teach us that God owns us. At the beginning of the new creation, God erected another tree in the midst of two thieves on a hill to teach us that God owns us completely.
So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:18-19: ". . . and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: Therefore, glorify God in your body which is his." 1 Peter 1:18 says that you are redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Acts 20 says that God purchased us with the blood of Jesus.
Just as that tree at the beginning of Adam's race signified that God owned all things completely, so that tree at the beginning of this new race of believers signifies God owns us completely--totally! And there is not a person in this building that is going to have the blessings of God upon your life until you come to make this basic decision: I recognize that God possesses me completely. He possesses my life. He possesses my body. He possesses my time. He possesses my thoughts. He possesses my vocation. He possesses my money. Everything I have belongs to him, and God is simply being gracious in allowing me to use it. The Bible says that even the breath comes from God. Where did Adam get his breath? God breathed into him and he became a living soul. It all belongs to God, and God has never given up his title to it. God has never signed over to you the title of anything. God is a loaner; he loans it out. He lets you use it, borrow it, live in it. God never relinquishes any of his property.
There are two things I want to say about this. The person who acknowledges and lives according to God's law of possession will be blessed. In Malachi 3 God says to honor me with your tithes and offerings. If you will recognize my ownership of all things by bringing to me the tithe, I will open up the windows of heaven, and I will pour out blessings upon you which you cannot receive. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says, But if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. What is Jesus talking about? What are all these things? If you read Matthew 6, you will discover that Jesus is saying we ought not to worry about what we eat, what we wear, where we live, how we look, how tall we are, how short we are. God is going to take care of everything we need. All the physical and material needs of our lives will be provided by God if we will do one thing. What? Recognize his Lordship, his ownership of all things. And if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you.
God told Adam in the Garden of Eden that as long as he obeyed God, and as long as he minded his own business and observed God's law of ownership and possession, he would be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth. Sometime, you do a study on just what that means: be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That doesn't mean simply to populate the earth. That means the earth will be blessed. Did you know there would not be the curses that are upon the earth today if it were not for violating this basic law of human life--the law of God's possession.
So, if I observe it, it blesses me. Secondly, if I neglect it, ignore it, violate this fixed law of God's possession, it will curse me. God said, Adam, you are not to eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That symbolizes my ownership. You bow before that tree and realize that I have a right to tell you what to do and when to do it. Adam violated that. Immediately he plunged into spiritual death, cast out of the garden, his first son became a murderer, and all his ancestors have been godless.
God said, when you go into the city of Jericho, I want you to remember the law of possession. That city belongs to me. Don't touch it. Achan violated the law of possession. He sold a Babylonian's garment and sold some gold and silver. The next battle the people went into, they suffered horrible defeat and it cost Achan his life. God says that the law of possession cannot be broken. It's is mine. You leave it alone.
When they went into the land, God said to till the land for six years; then let it rest seven years. The people said we'll do what we want to with it. It is our land. We won it, bought it, paid for it. God told them to look on that deed; my name is there. I don't see your name anywhere on the checkbook when we made the payments for that land. It's my land. I will prove it to you. I want that land to rest one year out of every seven.
You know, God always catches up on his rent. Write that down. You cannot owe God any back rent. He always catches up. For 490 years the people lived on the land, tilling it every year, ignoring God's law of possession. Do you know what God did? God took them off the land and put them into Babylonian captivity. For how many years? 70! How many years were they on the land? 490 years! How many years did they owe God? One out of every 7 for 490 years is how many? 70 years! That's exactly how many years they were in Babylon. Friend, you can't cheat God. You are not about to shortchange God. God says there is a fundamental law of human life and human nature. It is the law of possession, and that law will never be broken. You'll break yourself on it. There is a little verse tucked away over there that says when they went away into Babylonian captivity that says: "then hath the land her rest". God caught up.
You say that is Old Testament. How does that apply to me today? 1 Corinthians 3 says, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who dwells in you. Any man who defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy. My body has been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. The law of possession is still in force. It never changes. Just like the tree in the Old Testament, there is a tree in the New Testament that shows that I belong to God. This body is his property, his temple. If I defile the temple of God, God will destroy me. The law of possession.
Some of you are wanting to know how to have victory in your life. You want to know how in the world you can get all these kinks out of your life. How in the world can I ever bring my life back together again from all its broken pieces and make sense out of it? I want you to know the first step is in your recognizing God's possession.
There is a little verse over in Luke 17 that has a lot to say about this. It says a man had a servant who went out and worked all day in his field. When he came in from all his work, he said you are not through yet. Before you rest, feed yourself, take care of your own physical needs, you serve me. After he serves him, then Jesus says that after that servant has done everything he is supposed to do; he's worked all day. He came in and ignored his own basic needs. He was tired, but didn't rest. He was hungry, but didn't eat. First of all, he went the extra mile. He even did more. He served his master before himself. Now, what can a fellow say after he has done all that? Lord, you must be proud of me. Look what I've done. Jesus says that after a man has done all of these things, all he can say is, I am an unprofitable servant for I have only done that which was my duty.
Do you know what Jesus is saying there? You have no personal property, and you have no personal rights. After you've done everything, all you can say is, I am an unprofitable servant because I have only done that which is my duty.
Friends, I want you to know how God will bless you when you recognize the law of possession. One thing it will do: it will free you from worry. You worry about your possessions. Do you ever notice that? You worry about your rights. Somebody violated my rights. You think back over the last week and every time you've lost your temper, gotten your feelings hurt, puffed up and gotten mad and sour, it's because somebody violated what you thought were your personal rights. Most of your anxiety and your worry today is because you are worrying over your own personal life, your personal body.
I've never forgotten the personal testimony of Dr. Walter Wilson when he came to the place where he recognized God's ownership of his life and yielded himself to the Lordship of Jesus. He said, "Lord, this body is yours. If you want to send it to Africa as a missionary, you can. If you want to lay it on a hospital bed with cancer, you can. It is your body. I have no say-so in what you do with it. If you want to send it to Tibet with the story of how Jesus saves, you can do it. If you want to blind this body, do with it as you please." Once I realize God's ownership of everything, immediately that releases me and sets me free from worrying about whether people are going to treat me right, whether or not I'm going to get what I deserve, whether or not this thing is going to happen. It saves me from the anxiety and worry that God never intended Adam to have in the garden. Because, you see, Adam had everything he needed without that tree. He didn't need that tree. And that is the sin; he didn't need that tree. God had made ample provision for his life. He could have lived there a dozen millenniums without ever touching that tree. It is only when I don't touch the tree, I keep my hands off the tree, I don't eat of the tree.
Lord, my life is yours, my breath is yours, my body is yours. I don't have any personal rights. My feelings are yours. My emotions are yours. My affections are yours. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Now, I'm not part of the earth but I am part of the fullness. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. In the hundredth Psalm we read this morning, it said God hath us and not we ourselves. Have you recognized and submitted this morning to God's law of possession? You say, how do I submit today. You submit to it by being submitted to his Lordship. This is why when a man gets right on Lordship, he'll get right on stewardship. This is why if a man isn't tithing, Jesus is not Lord. If Jesus is Lord, and I recognize his ownership of all things, and it belongs to God, what is the problem? When you get right in your Lordship, you will get right everywhere else. You'll get right in your fellowship. You'll be in the house of God on Sunday. You'll keep the Sabbath. You'll honor God with your tithe. You'll obey God if you come to recognize his ownership. You see, that's the panacea for the ills of the world. I have one question I want to ask you this morning. What relationship do you have toward the fixed law of God's possession?
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