It is such a blessing to be here
with you, and I've enjoyed the fellowship with your pastor so
much. Yesterday he came over to our motel room and just sat
down in a very uncomfortable chair and visited with us. It's
just a blessing, and it's a blessing to be with you this morning.
Nancy and I will soon celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary,
and she will be working when our anniversary comes, and we
decided to do something a little early. and spend some time in
D.C. and just visit. Last time we
were there, 23 years ago, I carried my youngest son on my shoulders.
He was three years old all over. This time, I just got to walk
alone with Nancy, and we enjoyed that very much. We stayed with
the young lady, as Marvin mentioned, in a bed and breakfast, and one
morning I got up early and was visiting with her, and she said,
Norm, I have noticed that when I bring up the predestination
word with my Christian friends, they want to leave me. I says,
I can understand. And then I mentioned about predestination,
I said, how many would get on an airplane that did not have
a predetermined place it was going to go? Get up to the ask
the pilot as you get on the plane and say, where are you going?
I don't know. You don't know where you're going.
No. I think I'd go back. Get off that plane. I want a
predestinated place. And it's a wonderful term to
God's people. We delight in a God that has
a plan ahead of time. We rejoice in that God. Now,
I am thankful, as I heard this morning, your pastor bring that
lesson, that message, I'm thankful that God would send a man to
Bethsaida. I was living there. It was a
little town called Central Point, Oregon. And I was going through
the form of pastoring when a man from Kentucky came in and preached
the gospel. First time I ever heard the gospel
in my life. And I told my wife when I heard him the first time,
I hate that man. He was messing with my playhouse.
And as in God's good providence, he showed mercy. And he revealed
Christ to me. And the church I was pastoring
fired me. And it was the best thing they
could have ever done for me. They got me out of that religion.
And I'm thankful. Been in the Dow's now going on
starting almost our 23rd year. I I will have to say this. I can't
preach the gospel. As good as your pastor, but.
He can't preach a better gospel. There's the goodness of the gospel.
Would you join me this morning and turning to the Psalms Psalm
16? I'd like to say a few words about
a couple of verses in Psalm 16 this morning as we think about
the greatness of our God. was trying to articulate the
other day to our church after visiting with a dear friend.
That is, in religion, the difference between the religion and Christ,
and these things came to me in the religion that I was in. God
was trying to be almighty. And in Christ, he is almighty.
In religion, the Savior is trying to save. And in Christ, he's
the Savior that saves. In religion, he's a Redeemer
that's trying to redeem people. And in Christ, he's the Redeemer
that redeems his people from their sins. Such a vast difference. It's not just semantics. It is
a vast difference, and the difference between religion and Christ is
the new birth. It is a miracle of God's grace
to come upon someone he's known from before the foundation of
the world and quicken them in time, dead in trespasses and
sin, and they can't move a finger religiously. Now, I've shared
this with several people, and this young lady we stayed with,
People can't understand what it is to be dead in sin because
we are animate objects. We move, we think, we do things,
and people can't understand being dead until after you're regenerated. Then you know what it was. how
dead you really were, how you couldn't move an ounce towards
God. You couldn't raise your hand
and vote in his direction. You were dead. You're out of
your whole out of the issue. And if it wasn't for the Lord
God Almighty coming by in the preaching of the gospel in the
quickening of the Holy Spirit, we'd still be dead in sins. We're
unable to move in that direction. We're going downstream. We live
on the Columbia River, and every year you can go down and see
the results of the great salmon runs. Dead fish going downstream. They don't have the ability of
going upstream, they're dead. And we'll never move an ounce
towards God until he quickens us, and then we can have repentance
towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then see
the great goodness of God as it's portrayed, declared, revealed
in the word of God. It is a new book. I remember
reading in William Jay's book about someone in England two
or three hundred years ago, a very devout person in a religion,
and finally heard the gospel and God quickened him. And he
asked his wife, Is there a Bible here in the house? And she said,
Yes, here it is. Here it is. And he read it. He
says, This isn't the same book that I once read, and that's
true. After God quickens us, after
the Lord quickens us, after the Holy Spirit quickens us, this
is a new book, and it's the book, as we heard this morning, about
Christ. The prophets declared the things
concerning Christ. Yes, it is history, but it pales
compared. History pales compared to the
glory of God declared in the Word. Alright, in the Psalm,
Psalm 16. It says, Preserve me, O God,
for in Thee do I put my trust. O my soul, Thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the
excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrow shall be
multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink offerings
of blood will I not offer. Nor take up their names into
my lips. The Lord is the portion of my
inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly
heritage. I will bless the Lord who has
given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad,
and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand are pleasures
for evermore. In verse 10, it gives us some
insight about what this, who this psalm is about. One time
a man told me that there is probably no more than 15 psalms that are
messianic psalms. And he was a preacher. Well,
once the Lord saved me and I started reading, I found out there's
150 messianic psalms. They're all messianic psalms.
Now, David was allowed to share some of the historical things
that happened to him in the psalms. But David's history falls far
short of what we find in reality in these songs. The blessing
to God's people today. His history falls far short.
He was declaring and he shared this as it was recorded with
regard to his last words. He shared with us there that
he the Holy Spirit spoke through him. So he is sharing about David's
Lord and David's true David. That's what this song is about.
And the songs in verse 10, it says, for thou will not leave
my soul in hell. Neither will thou suffer thy
holy one to see corruption. This is speaking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it mentions that in the New
Testament. This is what this song is about. Now, we back up. I'd like to spend just a little
time on verses five and six of this song this morning. And I
do thank your pastor for this opportunity. But I was so sincere
when I said I'd just like to sit. But I will share this. The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance. Now, this versus Scripture, the
Lord, it is said by Christ as a priest in the illusion of the
Levitical priests who had no inheritance in the land of Canaan. Now, I don't know how the Levitical
priests, the children of Levi felt when everyone else got a
piece of property and they didn't. You can find the description
of the property of Judah, Issachar, the other tribes, but the Levites
did not inherit as the others did. Turn with me, if you would,
back to the book of Numbers, the book of Numbers. The Lord
Jesus is sharing with us a wonderful spiritual truth here that our
inheritance, even though he blesses us so much physically, our true
inheritance is not a piece of property. Our true inheritance
is Christ. He told Abraham, I am by exceeding
great reward. And you know what? Abraham believed
that. And he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God,
and he wasn't looking for a piece of property. It wasn't prosperity. It wasn't physical riches. It
wasn't the fine food that he was looking for, and that is
not how God particularly blesses his people, even though we enjoy
it. But the spiritual blessings that
we have every Spiritual blessing is provided to us in Christ Jesus.
He will not allow us ever to provide our own spiritual blessings. He will only provide spiritual
blessings in Christ. That is where our spiritual blessings
are. And if we are attempting or anybody
is attempting to get them outside of that, they are not there. It's a vacuum. Christ is the
bread of life. He is the water of life. He is
every spiritual blessing. Now here in the book of Numbers,
it shares with us with regard to the division of the land.
Numbers chapter 18 and verse 20. Numbers chapter 18 and verse
20. And the Lord spake unto Aaron.
Thou shall have no inheritance in their land. No, I don't know
whether Aaron went. Or not. But look at the rest. Neither shall thou have any part
among them. I am thy part and thy inheritance
among the children of Israel. Well, I'm glad he finished the
sentence, aren't you? You have no part in this. I am
thy inheritance. Now, I don't know about here,
but Out where I live, there's a lot of this prosperity gospel. Well, if the Lord's if you have
the Lord, he's going to give you. And it just goes on from
there, and if you don't. That if you don't not have this
physical wealthy blessing, then God's not with you. That's not
what he said in the book. In the book, he said, I will
be your inheritance. Now, if he owns all, has authority
over all, is almighty God over all, and we have him, what do
we have? We have it all. We have everything. We have God in Christ Jesus. Everything belongs to God's people. every inheritance, every spiritual
blessing. In fact, he says we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. I haven't been able to
get around that yet. Out there in Oregon is the largest
spruce tree in the world. And one time I had my four children,
Nancy and I went over that spruce tree and all of us together could
not wrap around that tree. It was absolutely huge. And you know, there's some things
about the scriptures I just haven't got my arms around yet. It's
true, it's there. I know it's the truth, but I
haven't been able to get around it. It is so big. That's one
thing about the God of this Bible. He's never smaller than we thought. He's always bigger than we thought.
We always find out more blessings than we thought in religion. Oh yeah, we've heard that in
Christ. Tell me again. Share with me
again. Tell me the old old story again.
It is music to God's people's ears to hear the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All right, I'm not inheriting
anything here, but I'm inheriting Christ. He is my exceeding great
reward. And in the book of Deuteronomy,
would you turn there with me as we look at what Moses had
to say, not only in numbers as he was led by the Holy Spirit,
but here in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18, Verses one and two. Deuteronomy chapter 18, as we
think about the Lord is the portion of my inheritance. He's what
I get. By grace, that's who I get is
the Lord Jesus in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses one and two,
the priests, the Levites and all the tribe of Levi shall have
no part nor inheritance with Israel, they shall eat the offerings
the Lord made by fire in his inheritance. Therefore, shall
they have no inheritance among their brethren. The Lord is their
inheritance, as he has said unto them." Now, to many of these
Levitical priests, it was nothing more than words on a page. I'm
convinced that many of them had no idea what it was to know Christ,
just like many of the other Jews. The book of Hebrew tells us that
they're according with regard to a great host of Israel. These
all died in unbelief. They all died in unbelief. They
had their rigors. They had their ceremonies. They
had their clothes, their special caps, all of those things, their
special duties, all of those things, their special work. They
shed blood in abundance. As the animals were brought to
them, the service that they went through, putting new bread out,
putting new incense out, lighting fires, putting out fires, all
of those things. And yet they did not have a realization
about the Lord Jesus Christ. There were a few that understood
that when they brought this sacrifice, this is a picture of my Savior. There was a few that took that
sacrifice and slew that sacrifice and said, this is a picture of
my Savior. Just like today when we have
communion service, there are many people who say, this is
my hope. And there are a few that say, this is a picture of
my hope. This is just a picture. Well,
these Levitical priests and all those around them, very few of
them actually knew what it was to know Christ. But they were
a picture of it. Many of the Jews that many of
them didn't have any idea what it was to have Christ as a savior,
but they were a picture of the church. God allowed us to see
that and he dealt with them in marvelous ways. He led them out
of Egypt. He crossed the Red Sea. He led
them through the Arabian Peninsula for 40 years, brought them into
the promised land, and it was a picture of This is what God
did to a nation, gave them favored nation status. And if he did
not deal with their heart, they still died in unbelief. Many
people say, well, America is a Christian nation. Look what
God has done. America is not never has been a Christian nation.
There have been some believers here and it's been a bastion
of the gospel over the past three or four hundred years. Sort of
people are going to go to hear the gospel. But there's so many
that don't know what it is to know Christ, even though they
go through all the rigors of religion. I was one of them. Now, in the book of Deuteronomy
32, just move just a little bit further there. Deuteronomy 32
and verse 9. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 9. For the Lord's portion is His
people. It was hard on me to hear that
God had chosen a people before the foundation of the world.
Oh, that was hard on me. Because in religion, we want
to be in control. We want to make the choice. We
we I heard that it was just it chafed my hide. I can understand people now that
it chafes their hide because religion wants to be in control
and wants to be doing it and wants to be choosing it. But
when God sends someone to preach the gospel in its truth and in
its simplicity and God by his marvelous Infinite wisdom and
grace chooses to reveal that gospel to anybody. It's by His
grace that He does that. And then they see that if it
was left unto them, they would have never moved towards God.
They would have stayed right where they were, and there would
have never been any hope. Oh, to learn that God's people
are His inheritance, chosen by God, purposed by God, The infinite
wisdom that God would save one person is beyond my ability to
get around it. One time my wife was told by
a preacher, no, election is this. There's a whole bunch of blackbirds
on the fence wire and God comes along and goes, bink, bink, bink,
bink, bink, bink. She told me that and I said,
that's just exactly opposite of what the truth is. There's
no blackbirds on the fence wire. God comes along and there's a
bunch of dead ones on the ground. He gives them life and sets them
up on the fence wire. Now, that's what election is.
We're all dead. And unless he comes along and
gives us life, we're going to remain in that condition. And
then to find out after he has raised you and given you a heart
to believe God and to know God and trust God to realize that
he did this in purpose before the world began. We fall at his
feet in worship. Oh, we can't. That word worship
I read one time says it's like a dog licked in his master's
hand. It's just we are so indebted. We have so much gratitude, so
much thankfulness, so much. We just cannot say it all. It's
no wonder the Apostle Paul was led to write. Pray without ceasing. It's just an attitude of thanksgiving
to Almighty God. I have been writing a thanksgiving
note to a man for 25 years now. Thank you for preaching the gospel. Every day is a thanksgiving for
me. Thank you for pulling me out of a pit. Thank you for lifting
me and putting me on the solid rock and finding out that you're
my portion and I'm your portion. Now, go back with me to that
sixth verse of the psalm. Psalm 16, verse 6. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places. This is an illusion of measuring
land. It's to survey the land. The
lines have fallen in pleasant places. Now, I don't know about
you. But there's parts of West Virginia
we drove through yesterday. It took a man to survey this. Whoa. Mountains. I never understood why they call
them the Mountaineers until yesterday. Boy, you have to survey on property. I was there in Washington and
read about the first president. One of the jobs he had was to
be a surveyor. surveyor of property. He came
out, I don't know how far out west he came, but he saw it was
a good land. He was measuring it, and it was very meticulous
work. I had a brother that was in the Forest Service for 42
years, and his job was to be a surveyor. He surveyed property. It had to be meticulous. They had chains that they strung
out and marked, and then they'd move that distance again. There's
a lot more than I could do a lot of trigonometry and so forth.
But anyway, the lines, the survey has gone out in pleasant places. What is this? The lines are falling
into me in pleasant places. Illusion of measuring land by
lines to survey the land. And what is the survey that came
back? Of Christ. They've fallen out
to pleasant places. My great grandfather settled
a piece of northern extreme northern California. In fact you can see
Oregon from there. Now it's as if he walked around
that valley there and kept his back to the good land and looked
only for the bad because he put up a homestead. He settled a
homestead in a canyon. I guess you call them haulers
back here. That was about this wide. and
it was the rockiest piece of property, and if he'd ever had
the sense to turn around, he would have had some of the most
fertile area, fertile property in that whole area. There was
a goose lake there, and the property, the topsoil was 15, 20 feet deep. I mean, you can grow anything
under certain circumstances, short growing season, but hay
and that sort of thing, and he settled on that It's just like
us naturally speaking in our natural condition. We just can't
turn around and see the good. We're stuck only on the briar
patches. We're stuck only on the rock
piles. All we have is worse and worse. We're in a horrible pit. We can't
see the good. It's behind us and our necks
are stuck. We can't turn around our feet
are in concrete. We can't spin around and it takes
the grace of God to lift us up and turn us around and to see
Christ and then to find out the lines have fallen on pleasant
places. What does that mean? Well? The
valley soil. The still waters. The well watered
places. In other words, turn with me
to 1st Corinthians chapter one. This is what we have. What was lacking? He is. Now, I was lacking righteousness.
He is. I was lacking sanctification. He is. That's what he is. Notice
here in first Corinthians, you read this a thousand times, I'm
sure your pastor has read this preach from this. You've heard
it, but it's still good. I like to go to my dad on eight
acres of alfalfa and we work that field every year. Well,
we got that used up, we'll go get another piece. We just kept
working that same. That's what we got here. We got
a well watered plain. We got still waters and we just
keep going back and back and back and back to the same place
to hear wonderful things about the savior of his people. What
to say in 1st Corinthians chapter one verse three, but of him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who have God is made unto us. God did
something we couldn't do. We were lacking every one of
these things and more just brought out these four things in this
passage of Scripture and wonderful things we were lacking. We were
so lacking bankrupt. We had no wisdom. The fool has
said in his heart, there is no God. So if we read in the in
the Psalms there, the fool has said that that means having the
having no ability to think. Having no sense, we had no spiritual
sense, I talk to people all the time, I wish we had somebody
in control, I had some horse sense. Well, we like to be around
people, just natural people that got some sense about them. They're
not stupid about everything. But when it comes to spiritual
things, we're just stupid about everything. We just can't make
good decisions. Isn't it wonderful that we don't
make a decision about Christ? We'd make the wrong one. It was
made for us. Our children, my goodness, I
saw parents in Washington, D.C., if they don't do something soon,
they're going to have criminals on their hands. And they're only
four years old. They're not giving them any good sense. I didn't
allow my children to make some decisions. You want to go out and play in
the freeway? Sorry, you can't. I made the decision for them,
certain things we did. Isn't it wonderful to find out
in God's everlasting eternal providence that he didn't leave
it up to fallen man to make a decision about God. The liars that are
in pulpits across this land asking people to make a decision about
Jesus. When they are unable, they made
their decision in Adam. It was the bad decision. It was
the wrong decision. It was the poor decision. They
fell in Adam. We all fell in Adam. We're all
dead in Adam. And God, in his wonderful providence,
before time ever began in the covenant of grace, says they're
so stupid. We'll make the decision for him.
And he plucks us out of the pit. Then he says, I'm your wisdom.
Then he says, and righteousness. Nobody has the ability of ever
coming before God in their own. No, we just, our righteousness
is as filthy rags. I grew up on a farm and every
once in a while my job was to go out to the cow barn with a
wheelbarrow. Clean the barn out. And I'll
put it this way. Trading heaven for a wheelbarrow. It's unacceptable. But He's our
righteousness. And He has eternally been accepted
in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Covenant mercy. Oh, the oneness of God. And then it tells us here, lions
have fallen in pleasant places. He's my sanctification. Oh, you
still have to work hard for that. We were taught progressive sanctification. The more the least things bad
you did, the better off you are with God. You couldn't go there
and you couldn't do this. And if you did, you're going
to have to answer for it. What foolishness. What foolishness. If we have to answer for one
sin, we're doomed. He has to take care of it all
or we're doomed. When he said it's finished, it's
finished. I send more than I want to, but when I stand before him,
I'm only clean. There will be no answering for
sin. He has already taken care of
that issue in every last one of them. He took care of everything.
He's my sanctification, and I got sanctified when God saved me
by his grace, and I'll never become more sanctified than I
was then am now or shall ever be. He is my sanctification,
and then it tells us he's my redemption. Wonderful thing about
that is he is a redeemer that actually redeems. He actually
redeems. He's not trying to redeem. He's
not wringing his hand over redeeming. He actually redeems. He actually
bought back. Paid for in full. I had such
a delightful conversation with your pastor yesterday about that
verse of Scripture. He became sin for us. He didn't become a sinner, but
he became sin. Actually, odiously. And oh, those words of the Lord
Jesus. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I can't get my arms around that,
Brother Marlon. It is so big. But it is so redeeming. Redemption that is complete,
a redeemer that redeems and then is falling out in pleasant places. Would you turn with me finally
over to the Song of Solomon, the Song of Solomon? I love the
Song of Solomon. Your pastor mentioned that this
morning, the names that are mentioned in the Song of Solomon about
God's people, about the church. And over here one day. The daughters of Jerusalem. Ask
the bride. What is so valuable about your
beloved? Song of Solomon, Chapter five. Verse nine, it says, What is
thy beloved more than another beloved? What is Christ more than another
Christ? Jesus said in the last days will
be many Christ come along. What is thy Christ better than
another Christ? What is your religion better
than another? Well, this lady, this bride, said this,
O thou fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another
beloved that thou dost so charge us? Then her answer. Now, I don't understand all I
know about this, but it's all good. There's some symbolism
here that's just the heart just says a man. That's one thing
about his law written on our heart. When God's word is read
to God's people, they say a man. There's no argument about it.
We can say with honesty, I don't understand it, but we'll never
say I don't believe it. There's a lot about God's Word
I don't understand, but God's heart to his people is, I believe
it. God said it. All right. He says,
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. The lines have fallen in pleasant
places. The church in its review, in
its survey of Christ, says this is what he is. It's been revealed
to me what he is, and I discover more about him growing in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Reading
his word and as it's revealed to us, we see more and more about
the glory of Christ. He becomes more precious. It
says here he's white and ruddy, white and red at the same time.
He's God and he's man. Chiefest among 10,000. Head and
shoulders above anyone else. His head is the most fine gold,
his locks are bushy and black as a raven. Eyes are the eyes
of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set.
His cheeks are as the bed of spices, sweet flowers, his lips
like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as fine
gold rings set with beryl. Belly is as a bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Now,
if you if you missed anything, she said, if I missed anything,
I want to finish up with this. The lines have fallen in pleasant
places. He is all together lovely. I missed any point. He's altogether
lovely. I can't describe him completely,
but I'll say this. He is altogether lovely. And
so the lines have fallen in pleasant places. The survey went out and
it came back in. Christ is our all and in all. He is altogether lovely. There
is not one imperfect aspect of our Savior. He is totally and
completely the Savior of his people, the Redeemer of his people.
He will do exactly what he said. We have faith and belief in him. He will not lie to his people. He will accomplish his word. His word will go out. It will
accomplish that word until he has sent it. He is altogether
lovely. There's no surprises. I don't
know about you, but we hear about these towns that are built on
these terrible, terrible waste dumps. You know, they're finding
out they dig out in their backyard and they're getting three eyes
and. Everything a terrible places
that you know what? In Christ, we never find out
that. It's topsoil all the way down. Man, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. He is altogether lovely and he's
the portion of the church. Boy, when the preacher preaches,
the lines are going out. And what? They fall in pleasant
places. The church. I like what Isaiah
wrote. Oh, comfort ye, comfort ye, my
people. It is something to know that
our sins are forgiven. Paid in full. Taken care of by
the Christ of the cross. And His redemption is absolutely
complete. And it is always in ever-present
completion. He is not waiting for a time
when he's going to thump on his people. He corrects us, yes,
but he does it with his precious word. He loves his people with
an everlasting love. We can't come to the end of it,
Brother Martin. We'll have to wait till next time. Thank you,
Brother Martin.