Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Deuteronomy chapter 4, and
reading through our text, verse 20, is only part of that verse
that is upon my spirit. We'll read the whole verse first.
But the Lord hath taken you and brought you forth out of the
iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance
as ye are this day. And the word upon my spirit is
the description the Lord gives of them, a people of inheritance. To be unto him a people of inheritance. Now of course we know that an
inheritance is that which comes to us when someone dies. When we think of an inheritance
as regards the people of God, as regards really all that are
upon earth, we all inherit through Adam, our sin and death and the
condemnation that we are born under, the scriptures are clear
that as in Adam, all die. But then there is an inheritance
in Christ which is life from the dead. And this specifically
is mentioned in our text that these people, the children of
Israel, were brought out of Egypt. Well, it was through the Passover,
through the shedding of the Passover lamb, they were redeemed and
brought out of Egypt through the death, symbolically, of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Passover lamb. And so, when we think of that
just a brief thought of inheritance and what comes to a people in
that way. And the word before us, a people
of inheritance. I want to look at two main points. Firstly, under that heading,
a people of inheritance and how God's people are described in
this way. And then secondly, just a people
as described in the Word. Our text says, a people of inheritance. So firstly a people of inheritance
and then a people. We know that throughout the world
that there are many peoples, there are many nations, and specifically
in the Scriptures, We are told of those nations that came from
individuals, the same as what Israel came out of Jacob, who
was surnamed Israel. And each nation, they are a different
people, a different nationality, those that are known as a people. Well, God's people are in the
midst of all of the nations of the earth. and are a distinct
people and described here a people of inheritance. The first way
that they are a people of inheritance is the same in common with everyone
upon the face of this earth. We all inherit from Adam through
the fall the sentence of death within ourselves All of us must
die. There's no man that liveth that
shall not see death. And though, of course, at the
last day there shall be those that instead of dying, they shall
be taken up and changed as was Enoch and Elijah. But God's people
are not any different in that respect. They are under the same
condemnation as all that come into this world. But then they
are called God's inheritance. The God of heaven and earth hath
made a people that he hath chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world to be actually his inheritance. It is set forth
in several places, we think of Exodus 34 and verse 9, and Moses
is bowing before the Lord, and he said, If now I have found
grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among
us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And in our
text, we read, but the Lord hath taken you and brought you forth
out of the iron furnace even out of Egypt to be unto him a
people of inheritance as he are this day. The children of Israel,
a typical people, were brought as an inheritance of the Lord
and God's spiritual people They also are given Him as His inheritance
is in His people. Through our Lord's death, and
we may say later through their own spiritual being slain, they
are brought to be His inheritance. What the Lord has been given
following His death and resurrection, you might say as a prize, as a purchased possession, is
a people, is the people that he has bought. The apostle says
that we are bought with a price and that we are to glorify God
in the body and in our spirit, which are his. So a people of
inheritance, also God's inheritance, but God is there. inheritance
as well as the Levites were. The Levites were not given an
inheritance amongst the children of Israel. They had no land to
call their own. They lived off the sacrifices
and the gifts of the other tribes, and they were unto the Lord. And again, it is a type of God's
people as being the Levites of the Lord. that God is their inheritance,
that, oh, this is not your rest, it is polluted, that that which
the Lord has done and accomplished at Calvary, that from that He
shall give them eternal life, and He shall give them Himself.
He shall give them that blessing that is better than anything
of this world, coming out from among them Touch not the unclean
thing and I will receive you. And you shall be my sons and
my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And it is a great privilege
and great blessing that that should be so. The man that was
born blind, the Jews, they cast him out. But the Lord then came
and found him and took him up. Then we have Those that go through
death and rising, like the Apostle Paul said, that when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. It is through death that they
are given the inheritance through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
through a life from the dead One of the hymns speaks of it,
their life they receive from the dead. It's a strange path
that God's children have to walk, but that which accords to an
inheritance that comes through death is the life of God. Paul says, when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. And that which was ordained unto
life, he found to be unto death. But then later he says the law
is a schoolmaster unto Christ. So in that sense it is a people
of inheritance receiving it from the dead. All have been brought in that
way from death unto life through our Lord Jesus Christ. It also is a people that shall
inherit They are the ones that shall be brought to what again
is typified in Canaan. The children of Israel brought
out of Egypt and brought into Canaan and God's spiritual Israel,
they shall enter into heaven. And it is the Lord who has gone
before and who has said, Father, I will. that they whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And really every blessing that
comes to the people of God comes through the death and rising
again of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They are gifts,
they are not earned. They come through his death and
life and they come to them making them a people that is very aptly
described as a people of inheritance. Wonder how much we accord or
can assimilate with that description of the people of God. In Adam,
do we know really? Because only the people of God
know really that they are sinners. even when they are called. In
fact, when they are called, then they know the workings of their
own sinful and evil heart, and they know what it is that they
have inherited through Adam, and that they in Adam are partakers
of the full and sin the same as all, and are under condemnation. But to walk in the passage of
Paul to the Romans in Romans 8, and to then know that there
is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, risen again in newness
of life, given that which the Lord has to give to his people
as a gift because of his death and rising again. Now, every
one of God's dear children that partake of the benefits that
Christ has purchased at Calvary will know that that is where
those gifts come from. They will know that those blessings
that they have, they come from the Lord Jesus Christ. How will
they know? Because it is the Holy Spirit
that bears witness. And he shall receive the things
of Jesus and show them unto us. And he shall never forget to
tell But those blessings they have are because Christ has died. Now those that have parents or
grandparents that die may be given things in their will and
inheritance, and they're very aware and they're mindful. These
are things they didn't earn, they didn't receive by wages. But it's a gift, it was given
them freely. and is a gift because a loved
one, one that had a relationship to them, one that loved them,
one that cared for them, has left for them, and the benefit
is theirs. So in a natural sense, we trace
it back to where that inheritance come from. In a spiritual sense,
we trace it back to our Lord Jesus Christ, a people scattered
throughout all the face of the earth, a people that are the
people of God, and they are described here as a people of inheritance. So may we realize that we are
that people, that those blessings that we have, or those things
that we have experienced and gone through, answer to this
description, a people of inheritance. Then secondly, I want to look
at a people as described in the Word of God. Firstly, in the book of Psalms,
a beautiful Psalm, Psalm 22, which begins with the well-known
words of our Lord upon the cross, my God, my God, Why hast thou
forsaken me? But it ends in a word concerning
the people of God. And the last verse reads, They
shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people
that shall be born that he hath done this. When the first promise
was given to Adam, or spoken in his hearing of the seed of
the woman that should bruise the servant's head. There's that
expectation, not only that there should be the saviour, the redeemer,
but that man should multiply, that men and women should be
born on this earth. And really every one of God's
people that are chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world,
in his time and way and in the place he has appointed, will
be born upon this earth. And they must be born first before
they can be born again. And in the words of the psalmist
here, David, as one that knew that the Lord would raise up
a son that should sit upon His throne, an everlasting throne,
that called Him Lord. He says that they shall come
and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born. It's a wonderful thing. From
generation to generation, There are children born and then they
have children of their own. And as they're born into this
world, is a people that shall be born, they must be born, they're
appointed the time of their birth and parents' native place and
times, as the hymn writer, all appointed were by him. But this
people shall be born again of the Spirit and is noteworthy
to think of a psalm like this that begins with the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ and ends with the people that he has redeemed
that shall yet be born and shall yet know that redeeming love. A people then that shall be born. So that is another mark of this
people of God, not only born naturally, but they shall be
born again. Our Lord in John 3 was insistent
upon this. You must be born again. A people that shall be born. Irresistible grace, the work
of God's Spirit, the quickening, the inheritance, that they have
the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, that those for whom He suffered,
bled, and died for should know that. They should be brought
from death to life. They should be born again. But then it is a people that
is formed. In Isaiah we read, this people
have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. And the Lord quickens a people,
makes them alive, and He gives them a hearing ear, and He teaches
them, and makes them teachable, and He forms them and fashions
them, and He makes them like the potter does the clay, exactly
what He'd have them to be, forming them after His image, and to
be to His honour and glory. This people, have I formed for
myself. We said under the heading of
inheritance, they were Christ's inheritance. And so they are,
and he forms them because they are his, to be what he'd have
them to be. We have in Ephesians 5 of our
Lord preparing his church as his bride, that they might be
sanctified, that they might be washed by the washing of water
by the Word, and made suitable to be with Him in heaven, a prepared
people for a prepared place. Formed. You must remember, if
the Lord is forming you and I, it will be through trials and
crosses, through His teaching, instructing, through our down-sitting,
our up-rising, through those things like in Psalm 107, that
we are led through by experience of the Word of God, by experience
of the truth of God. We think of Peter, the beautiful
epistles that he wrote. How did he come to write them?
You know, he was once very proud. He once said, though all men
forsake thee, yet will not I. But he had to go into Satan's
Sith, and the Lord prayed for him that his faith fail not.
He comes out the other side, when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren, or when thou art restored. And in that path that
he walked through, he was formed to be useful to the Lord. And the Lord knows how to prepare Then we have a people that is
willing in the day of the Lord's power. In Psalm 110, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. By nature we're not
willing, we're unwilling. Unwilling to walk in his ways,
unwilling to do his bidding. But the Lord is able to change
the heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill.
So now the mark of this people that is described here, people
of inheritance, but a people that once were not willing, but
now are willing, and once did not walk in the ways of the Lord,
but now are walking in the ways of the Lord, is also a peculiar
people. Peter speaks of this. what the
Lord has redeemed unto himself, a peculiar people or a redeemed
people. And he says in 1 Peter chapter
2 verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation,
a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And all the time he's mentioned
this people of the Lord, what they once were, now what they
are, and how they are described, and how they are set apart, from
the world and the things of it. And instead of being, say, well,
for instance, this is a people, say, of England or Great Britain,
and they live in this part of the world and on this island,
and they have Charles III as king, and identify a people that
way, what is that before us here is a people in every nation,
in kindred and tongue, that are hidden, as it were, scattered
through, and yet they are identified as a people in the description
of the Word of God. And so though they can't be identified
as what land they live in, or what natural king is over them,
or what language they speak, they are identified in the Word
of God as a distinct people, a people that are part of Christ's
kingdom, The people that are Christ's and they are His, and
the people that shall at last, instead of being scattered throughout
all the world, shall be brought together in innumerable multitude
in heaven, the people of God. And it behoves us to really search
our hearts and see whether we have the mark of the people of
God, a people, people that are described in the Word of God. Sometimes it is even the wicked
that describe and speak of what the people of God are. One of
the things that Haman said to King Ahasuerus as a cause, a
reason, why the people of the Jews that were scattered through
all the nations of the earth at that time should be destroyed
was that their laws were diverse from all other laws. He really
sought to blacken them, but in one sense he said the truth,
because though God's people are not rebels, they don't rise against
the laws of the land unless they contravene the laws of God, as
was the case there, which Morikawa felt was the case, but it is
true that God gives his people his law, his word, his holy word,
his commandments. And the Lord said, I've given
them thy word and the world hath hated them. When the word is
truly known what it says, the world does not like it. And I
felt it was very telling in the, and I may have mentioned this
before, but the last newsletter that came from Mombasa Mission,
that those that were ready to receive a Bible, and they were
happy to have it, until then they learned the language and
was able to read the Bible, and then they, many of them didn't
want it anymore. And we believe there are those
who have taken the Bibles locally here. Glad to have a Bible, nice
book, they've heard about the Bible, interested in it, and
then start to read it, and read what it says, and says about
sin, and says about themselves, says about heaven and hell, and
then they don't want that book anymore. They won't read it anymore. M. Rider says, nor are men willing
to have the truth told. The sight is too killing for
pride to behold. And many, many in the open professions,
in the churches, They make statements that are totally contrary to
the Word of God. They live totally contrary to
it, and in one sense they completely ignore it and walk in a way that
does not bear any resemblance to the Word of God. But Haman,
he had rightly noticed or identified the Jews as a people that did
live according to the word of God, and walked according to
it, and so the persecution arose on that way. But may we be a
people that is known in this way, that we have regard to the
law of the Lord our God, and that thy word is a lamp unto
my feet, a light unto my path. By nature it is not so, It is
a mercy to be made willing and to walk in the Lord's ways. We think then of the description
that was given, and God gave it, to Balaam. Balaam was the
king over Moab at the time the children of Israel came and camped
on his borders before they went into the Promised Land. And he was fearful of them, they
were a large people. And so he said to Balaam, the
son of Bosor, the soothsayer, that he would come and curse
the people. But God said that he was not
to curse them, for they were a blessed people. And in spite
of all the endeavors of the king, and even of Balaam himself to
curse the people, God turned that curse into a blessing, and
he decreed that they be blessed. And really the whole gospel,
it centers on this blessed thing, turning the curse into a blessing. The curse that was given to Adam,
the curse on this world, on the land itself. The whole gospel,
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, is to turn that into a
blessing. We think of the sufferings and
death of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Sin entered into the
world and death by sin and he willingly, freely went into death
and all the sufferings that he endured. And yet through those
sufferings and through that death and through enduring the curse
comes the greatest blessing that can ever be given. the blessing
of eternal life and the blessing of a deliverance of this people
from the curse and from condemnation. It is then beautifully typified
as to what the Lord said of His people at that point, that they
were blessed and no one, no one was to curse them. The Lord wouldn't
change that. Was the children of Israel a
perfect people? No, they were not. How much they
sinned, how much they provoked the Lord. But the Lord said,
no, as a people, they were a blessed people. And so we're told in
Samuel that they are described as the people of the Lord. When
David was dancing before the Lord, when they brought up the
ark, And Michael, his wife, Saul's daughter, despised him in her
heart and then spoke to him afterwards. But David says it was unto the
Lord, because the Lord saw fit to make him king over the people
of the Lord. And that is how David described
the children of Israel. And that is how they are described
in several places in the Word. And that is how God's children,
God's spiritual children, are described. They are the people
of the Lord. They are what the Lord has made
them, and the Lord to them is precious, and they shall be with
the Lord for ever and ever. And so this word, the Lord hath
taken you, brought you forth, out of the iron furnace, even
out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye
are this day. Blessed thing, if this evening
we could add that, and say, yes, as at this day, the Lord has
blessed us, the Lord has done this, he's brought me out of
this world, from its clutches, from its servitude, and brought
me to be part of His inheritance, a people of inheritance, and
that is as it is today. And if it is not, may it be a
concern for us that the Lord, by His grace, will bring us to
be His people, that He will quicken us into life, that He will make
us willing that he will form us a people for his praise, that
we will be a people that regard his laws and his ways, that we
will be a people that are not ashamed to call the Lord our
God and who he is not ashamed to call us his people. Unto him a May the Lord grant us this blessing. Amen.