We'll turn again this week to
Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32, and I
want to go on from what we were looking at in the first four
verses last week down into verses 9 to 11. And looking at the privilege
which is the lot of the people of God, the true people of God,
the privilege that is ours. These are Moses' last words to
Israel. They've had 40 years of wandering. in the wilderness and he's about
to go. God said he can't go into the
promised land and Joshua will lead them into the promised land.
The law couldn't take them into salvation. It would be Joshua,
the Savior, who would take them into that which was symbolical
of salvation. And they've had this 40 years
of wandering. And there's a reminder in his
words. There's an encouragement in his
words. Deuteronomy means second law.
It's a reminder. An encouragement. And also a
warning. We saw that in verse 29. That
he knows what the human heart is like. He knows what the flesh
is like. Best of intentions. good intentions
you know the Israel again and again Moses came with the law
to them this is what God says and they all said this is what
we will do and it lasted about five minutes and then the resolve
faded away and the flesh came to the fore and he said I know
what will happen he said you'll turn aside again you'll turn
aside from the way in which I've commanded you and evil will befall
you in the latter days because you'll do evil in the sight of
the Lord and the evil going away from him and his gospel In verses
one to four, he gives us that doctrinal hymn. The hymn of Moses,
that doctrinal hymn. It's a hymn of Christ. It's a
hymn of Christ, that's what it is. How do I know that? Is that
not a great leap in the dark? Is that not a very bold statement?
How do I know that Moses wrote here a hymn of Christ? Jesus
himself said, the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Emmaus
with those disciples who were so forlorn, he said to them in
Luke 24 verse 44, he said, and I'm missing a few bits out just
for the sake of time, but you can look the verse up, I'm not
doing damage to it in any way. He said, all things that were
written in the law of Moses concerning me. All things that were written
in the law of Moses concerning me. Sorry, I don't see the name
Christ anywhere in the law of Moses. Well, pray God that the
Spirit of God will reveal it to you because he's there everywhere.
He's there everywhere in the books of Moses. There it is.
It's a hymn of Christ, concerning Christ. What did he write? For
example, he wrote, Deuteronomy 18 verse 15, the Lord God will
raise up a prophet like unto me, speaking of Christ. Hymns
shall you hear. You say, is that all there is?
That's not very many verses, is it, out of all the five books
of Moses. Oh, read it. The whole book is about God's
substitute. It's about the law which drives
you to the substitute. Why is there so much about the
tabernacle and the animal sacrifices and the blood being sprinkled
and the Ark of the Covenant and all of those things? Because
they're all pictures of how a sinner is right with God through a substitute
and the shedding of precious blood. In 1 Corinthians chapter
10 verse 9, which we read last week, We have various accounts
in the wanderings, in the wilderness, in the book of Numbers we have
the accounts of Israel constantly rebelling and moaning and complaining
that they didn't have enough food and how good was the food
back in Egypt and they're like Lot's wife, they're looking back
to that situation. They rebelled in the wilderness
but it says in Numbers 21, I think it is, when they were bitten
by serpents, you know, how they rebelled against the Lord. But
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 9, that
when they rebelled against the Lord, it was Christ that they
were tempting. Those people tempted Christ in
the wilderness. It was Him that they tempted.
When Moses published the name of the Lord in this hymn, it
says, I will publish the name of the Lord. When he published
the name of the Lord, he proclaimed Christ. That's what he was doing.
That's what it is to publish the name of the Lord, it's to
proclaim Christ, to proclaim Jehovah, Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah
Saviour, Jehovah his people's maker, his people's provider,
his people's banner of salvation, his people's healer from their
sickness of sin. his people's peace, where there
was enmity, where there was nothing but fear, and the symbolism of
Sinai, and if anybody should even so much as touch the mountain,
let them be stoned to death, or an animal be shot through
with an arrow. Where there was that wrath and enmity, he's his
people's peace. He's the shepherd of his sheep.
The shepherd who cares for them, who leads them in verdant green
pastures, He's his people's righteousness when we must have righteousness
without which no man shall see the Lord, and he is that righteousness. This is the hymn. He's his people's
sanctifier, the one who sets them apart and makes them holy
for his purpose. He's their constant companion.
He's Jehovah Jesus, the Savior. Moses didn't preach law works
as an alternative to salvation by grace. It was always said,
you know, do this and you shall live. But of course, nobody ever
could. No, he didn't preach law works as an alternative to salvation
by grace. Rather, he preached Christ. Remember
what Luke 24 verse 44 said. He wrote of me, said Jesus. Moses wrote of me. And the law,
the law that came by Moses, what was that? What was its purpose?
It was the schoolmaster, to drive his people to Christ. to show
the utter hopelessness of any righteousness which God must
have through the works of the law, and to drive us to the only
way of obtaining the righteousness of God which he will accept,
which is through his substitute, through Christ. And he says,
remember, he says, remember, verse seven, remember the days
of old. You see, various ways of interpreting
verses five and six, and I'm not going to spend time on it
now, but he's telling these people, look back, think, Remember. Remember. Look at history. It
says, ask thy father, ask the elders, and they will tell you
what it was like from the beginning. Remember. It's good advice. I know it's easy to say it when
you're getting older, as I am, but, you know, the one thing
above all others, that I'm talking to you young people, the one
thing above all others that you young people need to heed, is
the treasure that you are despising when you don't ask for advice
from those who've been down the road a bit longer. And the older
you get, the more you think, before you do anything, I wonder
if there's somebody that's been here before. Let's go and ask
them what it's like. Let's try and get some advice.
because they probably know a bit more about the potholes and the
dangers that lie ahead, and they can advise what to do. He says,
remember the days of old, remember, look at history, look at God's
dealings with mankind, but in it all, see this, that he had
a people. This is what Moses is saying.
God has always had a people. He's always had a people, a remnant
according to the election of grace. He's always had a people. Now that's what these verses
that we're going to look at this morning, verses 9 to 12, are
about. The Lord's people. It's called
the Lord's portion is his people. The Lord's portion. And I've
broken it down into these three sections. The Lord's portion.
It's finding, the finding of those people, that portion, the
finding of them and the keeping of them, how he keeps his people. If you believe that you're amongst
this portion that the Lord has, what a blessed thing it is to
be there, to know, I know whom I have believed and that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day of judgment. that final day. What a blessing
it is to know that you're amongst that people who is the Lord's
portion. And the way you know is you believe his gospel and
you trust him and you seek to follow him. What a blessing it
is. We want to see its finding, how
he found his people and how he keeps his people. Verse 9, the
Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. the word there, inheritance.
His portion is that which is received by inheritance. The scriptures are full of inheritance. They're full of the concept of
inheritance. You know, Israel is a picture
where the families, it was absolutely essential that the inheritance
was passed down from generation to generation. And the years
of Jubilee was always to restore the inheritance. Whatever other
trading and mistakes had been made, come the year of Jubilee,
all the accounts had to be cleared and everything sat back as it
was, on the right course of the family inheritance in Israel. And Christ, as the eternal Son
of God, God the Son, God the man, God who became man, Christ
as a Son has an inheritance, and His inheritance is His people. The Lord's portion, the Lord's
inheritance, is His people. He has a people. They are His
inheritance. They are the elect of God. They
are the gift of the Father to the Son. His inheritance. that which is laid out for him,
his inheritance. Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings chapter
8 and verse 51, he puts it like this, for they, meaning Israel,
meaning Jews, true Jews remember Romans 2 he is not a Jew who
is one outwardly but one inwardly for they Israel be thy people
and this is the thing thine inheritance out of Egypt and out of the furnace
of iron Solomon saying to God this people is your inheritance
it's very specific isn't it it's very particular It isn't open
at, this people is your inheritance. A particular people is your inheritance. Out of Egypt, out of the world,
out of the world of sin and bondage to sin, out of the furnace of
iron, this people is your inheritance. Ephesians 1 verse 18, to bring
it into the New Testament, talks of the riches of the glory of
His, that is God's, inheritance in the saints. God in Christ
has an inheritance in the saints. We have that quote in Hebrews
2.13 of Christ, come the day when all things are wound up
and he's taking his bride, his church, his people into glory
and he says, behold I and the children whom thou hast given
me. I am the children whom thou hast given me. He says in John
17 that he has power to give eternal life to everyone that
the Father had given him. It's a particular thing. The
Lord's inheritance is his people, his portion. This is his inheritance,
his children, his portion. In verse 2 we saw that they are
described as the tender grass to whom he is as the refreshing
rain. to whom he is, verse 4, the rock. The rock of solidity, of permanence,
of shelter, of protection. The rock whose work of salvation,
he says there in verse 4, is perfect. All his ways are perfect. His work is true. He is true
in everything. He is just, because though he
has saved sinners who deserve condemnation, yet by his work
of salvation he is just and justifier of those whose faith is in Christ.
He's right in everything, and the Lord's portion is his inheritance. It's the multitude of sinners
that no man can number, we read, which the Father chose in Christ
for salvation from sin and from condemnation. And how do we know
them? What's the mark of those who
are his portion? How do I know that I'm amongst
those people? Can I have confidence and assurance
that I'm amongst those people? Well, to read the New Testament
and the marks that Paul always used, it's this, it's belief
of the gospel. Do you believe the true gospel
of God? Not the gospel that those false
peddlers of religion have manufactured and twisted and distorted, but
the truth of God, as it's revealed in this book. The mark of the
portion of God, of those who are his inheritance, is they
believe the gospel of God. And not only believe it as mental
assent, but obey it. It talks about those who obey
the gospel. What is it to obey the gospel?
Not just to believe the truths of it, but to put them into practice,
to obey gospel precepts, to seek, although failing in the flesh
constantly, to seek to obey the gospel precepts that are there,
absolutely inseparably tied together with the doctrinal parts of the
gospel as presented in the epistles. Paul says to the Thessalonians,
it's through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. That's how he knows that they're
beloved of the Father, beloved of God. They're chosen by Him
before the beginning of time. How precious to God, this is
what I want you to think about this morning. How precious to
God must be his portion, must be his people. Even though, look
in verse 9, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Jacob. Would you bother with Jacob?
You know what Jacob was. If God is holy, why would he
bother with Jacob? Jacob was a cheat. Jacob was
a swindler. Jacob was a sinner. But God made
him Israel. God made him a prince with God.
This lot, this portion, this people that is his is Jacob by
nature. He didn't come to save the righteous. He didn't come to heal those
who are whole, those who are well. He came for sinners. Sinners
Jesus came to save. He came for those that are without
hope. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. And so that brings me to the
next point. It's finding. Verse 10, where did the Lord
find his portion, his people? That if you believe the gospel
you're among this morning. Where did he find his people?
He found him in a desert land and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed
him. Let's just concentrate on the
first part of that verse. He found him in a desert land
and in the waste, howling wilderness. Where was the Lord's portion,
his people, his inheritance? Where were they found? Do you
ever It seems to me that whenever I switch the television on to
see what's on, there's the Antiques Roadshow or Cash in the Attic
or something. It's all about antiques and making
money. The one I'm thinking of particularly is Cash in the Attic.
you know, where the idea is that somebody wants to do something
but they're a bit strapped for cash. Well, have a route around
up in the attic. You never know, that old painting
that old Aunt Maud gave you years ago and threw up in the attic
because you thought it was worth nothing, it might be a Rembrandt
or something like that and you'll take it to auction and it will
be worth thousands if not millions of pounds and you'll have this
enormous great bonus and bounty from finding something that you
thought was utter rubbish up in the attic, cash in the attic.
Where was the Lord's portion found? He says they were found
in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness. It's very
evocative, poetical language, isn't it? I mean, this is why
the King James Version has never been bettered in terms of producing
beautiful language. I saw, you know, this, was it
last year was the 400th anniversary, wasn't it, of the King James
Version? And, you know, extolled like I've never heard it extolled
by literary critics before, saying what a magnificent piece of literature
it is. And yet, when it came to the Jubilee services, the
scriptures that were read in those services was not from the
King James Version, it was more modern versions that were used.
Very odd. But look, where do you get language
like this? A desert land and a waste, howling wilderness. Wow, that's lovely language,
isn't it? It's just very sheer words, it's lovely, beautiful,
evocative language. The portion that the Lord found,
his people, was a desert land. A desert land. A barren land. An unfruitful land. It's bad
enough trying to grow things in this very wet, cold, sunless
summer this year, but can you imagine trying to grow things
in a desert if that's all you've got? you know, some deserts are
more productive than others. There are deserts in, is it Chile
is the driest place on the planet. Just nothing grows there. It
is just an utter desert land. This is the picture. This is
the heart of those that are the portion of the Lord, barren,
unfruitful. We've been looking in Romans
2 at the indictment of the justice of God against all, and we're
included. His people are all included.
In the flesh, that's what we are, we're barren, unfruitful,
thirsty, thirsty and dead. We're described as dead in trespasses
and sins, even as the others in Ephesians chapter 2. Dead. In a desert of sin. Everything that's opposed to
what it was like in Eden, Garden of Eden before the fall, where
the picture is one of utter green lushness. fruitfulness, just
overflowing abundance. And yet, what's the portion of
the Lord described as? A desert land. Dry, barren, and
fruitless. Your heart and mine, as it truly
is now. This is why we're described as
Jacob. This portion is Jacob. Jacob
is the lot of his inheritance. A desert land. The Lord's portion
is a multitude of sinners. God is gracious to sinners. This
is why the gospel is good news. Good news, God is gracious to
sinners. to dead, lost, hostile territory. He's gracious to it. And it's
waste. In a waste howling wilderness,
it's waste. In the great empires, the days
of the great empires of two to three thousand, four thousand
years ago, when the empire would go and run over a land and take
it, it would leave it waste. It would leave it as a complete
wreck. It would just flatten the buildings and just leave
it as a waste. And that's the picture here, that the portion
of the Lord is a waste. It's made waste by the enemy
of his people's souls, who is Satan, who comes and leaves us. In terms of spiritual hope, you
know, the Chaldeans would come and they would flatten the civilization
and make it impossible for a civilization ever to rise up again out of
that situation. They would destroy it. Satan
does that. to the heart of man. That's what
Satan does, leaves it as a waste, a wilderness, a flattened wilderness. When he comes in and usurps the
authority of God, when he comes in as he does with us all, because
that's the way we're born, we're a waste. In terms of spiritual
hope, You know, this is a very subtle
thing about preaching the true gospel. If you think that there's
a shred of hope in the natural human heart, you will change
the methods of evangelism that you use. And you will try and
persuade them, and you will come up with all sorts of philosophical
arguments as to why the truth of God is better than the truth
of the world. And it's a lost cause. Because
the vision that Ezekiel had was a vision of a valley of dry bones. Dry bones. Not sort of covered
in flesh and sinew. Dry. He says they were very dry. This is the heart of man. A waste. Taken over by Satan. And a howling
wilderness. howling wilderness. Can you imagine
the scene, a howling wilderness? Do you remember the scene in
the film Dr. Zhivago, when they're in the
barren winter of Siberia, which is beautiful in summer, but they're
in the barren winter of Siberia, in the old family house. And
they're covered with as many covers as they can to try and
keep warm from the piercing, penetrating cold of the Siberian
winter. And the wind howls, and it's
howling, and it's bleak, and it's barren. And the wolves are
howling. There's that sense. This is the description of the
Lord's portion. howling dry east wind in which
nothing good can grow. Or perhaps, like I said, the
howling of the wolves, the howling of the wild animals of sin and
godlessness within. Sin and godlessness. Somebody
wrote, what malignant passions dwell and howl in the human breast. This is what is being evoked
here by these words. The malignant passions that dwell
and howl in the human breast. What do I mean? Pride. jealousy,
envy, wrath, rebellion, you get the lists in the New Testament
epistles, hatred, Do you feel the weight of this reality? Because
this is the portion of the Lord. These are the people that he
comes to. These are what he finds. It is here that God finds his
people. We don't find him. It is here
that he finds us. I sought the Lord, says that
him, and afterward I knew he moved my soul to seek him seeking
me. This is the portion which is
the Lord's, this is his inheritance. Nothing within us to recommend
us to God, nothing good by nature, nothing of any hope. As we are
in our natural state, as all men and women are in their natural
state, a waste, howling wilderness, a desert land. Paul, when he
realized this, he's rightly going to come to it in Romans chapter
7 in a few weeks time. In Romans 7 verse 24 he's been
describing how the things that he would do he can't do, and
the things that he wished he didn't do he does do, and this
is the nature of the flesh, and he says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then
he knows the answer immediately. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's where the deliverance
is, but that's what we are, that's the Lord's portion, that's his
inheritance, a waste, howling, wilderness, desert land. But
he keeps his people. Look at this, the third point.
He led him about and instructed him. He kept him as the apple
of his eye, as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over
her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them
on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him,
and there was no strange God with him. This portion of the
Lord, this desert, waste-howling wilderness people, this unlovely
people, Whilst yet sinners, Christ died for them. Christ saved them. And he led them, and instructed
them, and kept them as most precious, and protected and nurtured them,
and kept them from idolatry. He led them. He led them. the
Lord's portion. He found them and he led him
about and instructed him. He led them by providence and
grace through life to salvation. If you know the salvation of
the Lord, you will know that he, through various circumstances,
has led you to the point where you are now, knowing the truth
of the gospel, if so be that you do know that truth. Like
Israel, 40 years, someone's written they took 40 years to do 11 days
journey, if they'd just gone in a straight line that journey
would have taken all those people 11 days by foot to do what God
had set before them to do, and yet because of their Because
of their lack of faith, they were 40 years in that journey,
a circuitous journey, round and round and roundabout. Have you
ever been lost and you really start to despair when you begin
to realize you're lost and then you really begin to panic? I
remember once in Brussels being lost and when we drove over the
same cobbled square for the third time trying to find our way out
of Brussels, we started to despair. We started to think that we really
were lost. a circuitous journey full of
problems. Those 40 years were full of problems
and hindrances and snares of sin but also providential guidance. Is that not the story of your
life in coming to a knowledge of Christ? A circuitous journey
through all sorts of experiences, through all sorts of problem
situations and hindrances and all the snares of sin to be providentially
guided. Think of somebody like John Newton,
the servant of slaves, a slave trader, and a violent, vile man,
cursing God and treating his fellow men as if they were just
mere commodities. And yet God saved him. He brought
him through all sorts of circumstances, and near death on the ship, and
brought him through all sorts of circumstances to salvation.
He led him, providentially. by grace. It caused his path
to cross that of a preacher of the gospel of grace. Is that
not what he did to you? Maybe it was just a notice outside
of a church that drew you in. Perhaps that's what we ought
to do here. A new birth. Hearing preaching, he brought
you to new birth, to belief of the truth. He clothed his people
like that man we saw in Mark 5 a couple of weeks ago. He was
under the domination of evil spirits and he clothed him and
put him in his right mind sitting at the feet of the Savior. He
instructed him on the way. Instructed on the way. Has he
not taught you on the way? Hands-on learning. Practical
learning. Isaiah 28 verses 10 and 13 say
line upon line precept upon precept. Isaiah
54 and verse 13, which we didn't get to in our reading earlier,
but in the same chapter, children taught of the Lord. The Lord's
children are taught of the Lord. The Lord's true portion, his
people, is taught of the Lord and led into the truth of the
Lord. His true portion is always brought
to a knowledge of the true gospel. Even if they come to it via all
sorts of erroneous routes, just so that he might reinforce their
understanding of the error of it. I know some of you can say
I've been brought all sorts of different ways through different
experiences, but yet the fact that the Lord led me through
that has reinforced the error of it and the truth of his gospel
of grace. And he keeps his people, he promises
that he keeps them. How are you going to keep yourself?
You know, the true saints persevere. How are you going to keep yourself?
He keeps his people. How does he keep him? If some
danger came your way, if some danger came your way, I guarantee
you the part of your body that you will protect before all else
is your eye. I can stand medical people doing
all sorts to me in all sorts of different places, but the
one that nearly drives me mad is when they try and do something
in my eye. I've just got such a natural aversion to anybody
sticking anything in my eye. You know when they do that test
at the opticians and they blow that little puff of air into
your eye? I mean, it drives me crazy, I
can hardly stand it. I find it so, I'm so protective
towards that little thing in the middle of my eye, the apple
of my eye. He keeps him as the apple of
his eye. God says to you, his people,
his portion, to all his people, you are like the apple of my
eye. He defends that like you defend the center of your eye.
You keep it. You don't want anything in it.
It's the most sensitive and delicate and tender place in your body. Despite all that we are in our
flesh, this is how God keeps his believing people. They are
to God. This is it. Just think, Jacob,
think of us. they are his most sensitive, tender, precious bodily
member, his people. He keeps them as the apple of
his eye. He not only does that, look at verse 11, as an eagle
stirs up her nest and flutters over her young and spreads abroad
her wings and takes them and bears them on her wings, you
know, just a metaphor from nature. Like an eagle's chicks, God treats
his people like an eagle treats it. He said, look in nature,
look at this. The eagle stands as a symbol of strength. You
know, the strongest bird, the most majestic, the most imperious
bird. It lives in a solitary habitat
on the eerie high up on the rock where people can't get to. But
it cares for its young. Such strength, caring for its
young. Bearing them up, you see they're
in this precarious place, on the ledge, on the eerie. And
gravity is such a strong, powerful pull that would cause them to
drop to their deaths. But the eagle protects its young. And he says God is just like
that with his people, with his children. Protecting from all
predators. Stirring them up from complacency.
Look, fluttereth, stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her
young. God stirs up his people. to protect from complacency.
He does these things like an eagle does for its chicks. And
so, verse 12, so the Lord alone did lead him. And there was no
strange God with him. The Lord alone did lead him.
Why are you a child of God? Why are you amongst this portion
which is the Lord's? The Lord alone did lead you.
Sovereign grace. Particular redemption. The Lord
alone did lead you. The Lord didn't throw out an
offer to the entire world and say, anybody want to be one of
my chicks? No. The Lord alone did lead him.
And there was no strange God with him. No strange God. God
alone from start to finish. And having saved, he keeps them
true to the true God. He keeps them from idolatry.
Strange God is what it's talking about. He keeps them from idolatry.
He keeps his portion. When Satan comes as an angel
of light to deceive with... What does Satan come as an angel
of light to deceive those who think they're his people with?
He comes to deceive with charismatic nonsense. He comes to deceive
with free will blasphemy because the heart of man doesn't like
those things. He comes with denials of his
sovereignty and of the total depravity of man, but he keeps
his true people. The Lord alone did lead them
and there was no strange God with him. God keeps his people. He found his portion, his people,
the Lord's portion is his people. He found them in a desert land,
in a waste howling wilderness. He led them, he instructed them,
he kept them and guarded them as the apple of his eye. He protects
them and keeps them, and He alone did it. From start to finish,
He alone did it, and there was no strange God with them. So
remember, children of God, everything God does is for His portion. Everything God does is for His
portion, for His people, His inheritance. And if you believe
in Him, if you're seeking, albeit failing, to obey the gospel of
His grace, you're among that portion that He keeps as the
apple of His eye.