Alright, let's go back there
to Psalm 16. Look at verse 6. The lions are
fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. And then look at verse 9. Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall
rest in hope. Now, the man speaking here is
a happy man. This is a happy man. He's a contented
man. Now, is that common among men? Is that a common thing among
men? Is it common that men are content and men are satisfied,
that they're full of joy? Usually those who appear to have
the most reason to be happy and to be full of joy are the ones
who complain most about what their lot in life is. But the
man speaking in our text here is a happy man. He's content.
This man is satisfied. I want to know his secret. I
want to know what it is that has made this man content and
happy. Is anybody interested in the
secret to contentment and happiness? That's our subject. I am too,
Art. That's our subject. Secret to
contentment and happiness. Now before we go any further,
let's see who this man is that's so happy. Look at verse 8. He says, I have sent the Lord
always before me, because He is at my right hand, I shall
not be moved. Now in Acts chapter 2 and in
verse 25, Peter said, David speaketh concerning the Lord Jesus, when
he said, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he's on my
right hand, that I should not be moved. So this one who's speaking,
this happy man is the God-man. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who's speaking. Was it his circumstances in life
that made him so content and so full of happiness? Well, this
was his lot in life. The Scripture says, he's despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Now, it wasn't his circumstances
around him. He didn't even own a piece of
property when he walked this earth. And yet he says there
in verse 6, the lions are falling under me in pleasant places,
yea, I have a goodly heritage. I have a good inheritance, he
said. And he never owned a piece of ground. What few friends he
did have, they all left him when he needed them most. And yet
he says, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. So it wasn't
anything around him. It wasn't anything in any of
his circumstances. Christ's sorrows were far greater
than anything you and I will ever encounter. We've not yet
resisted unto blood striving against sin. there's doubtful
that any of us will ever be hung on a cross. And we certainly
won't ever bear the sins of our brethren in our body. And we
will not be forsaken. Those who have been born of God's
Spirit and blessed by God and robed in Christ's righteousness,
we will never be forsaken of God and bear the wrath of God.
Our affliction is very light compared to what Christ suffered.
It's very light. Well, if Christ, who had the
most sorrowful life that any man ever had, could have this
contentment and this happiness, then it must be possible for
us to have the same, whose lives are not nearly as bitter as his.
So what is this secret of contentment and happiness? Well, first of
all, it's to have the Lord as my inheritance. Look at verse
5. He said, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance. And then secondly, it's to have
the Lord as the portion of my cup. He says, and the Lord's
the portion of my cup. And then thirdly, it's to trust
that the Lord maintains my lot. Verse 5, he says, Thou maintainest
my lot. That's the secret to contentment
and happiness. Now let's look at it. First of
all, this secret to contentment and happiness is to have the
Lord as the portion of my inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
and he says of the Lord God Jehovah, the Lord is the portion of my
inheritance. Now to help us to understand
who God He is, what God He is, and what God is doing for His
people. The Holy Spirit uses a metaphor
here. comparing the Lord to an inheritance. He's using a metaphor of an inheritance
so we can understand what the Lord is to his people. When he
says here, the Lord is my portion, the portion of my inheritance,
portion means a part, separated out, that part given to me for
my inheritance. The Lord God was Christ's part
in two ways. He says here, first he said,
the Lord is the portion of my inheritance, and then he says,
and of my cup. So first of all, let's talk about
how he was the inheritance of the Lord Jesus. An inheritance
is a gift. And God, the Lord God, gave himself
as a gift, as an inheritance to Christ when he walked this
earth. The Lord is the part, he's the portion of my inheritance,
he said. As Christ walked this earth,
as the God-man mediator, He had the strongest contentment and
the greatest happiness in the Lord God. That was where all
His contentment and all His happiness came from. And Christ's happiness
was in looking forward to the day when He would receive that
inheritance promised to Him. And that inheritance was, first
of all, to see His Father glorified and to see Himself glorified
in Him. And secondly, to have his people
with him in glory. That was the inheritance promised
to him. So he says here, the one who's keeping me, the one
who's keeping me content and happy is the Lord. He's my portion. He's my inheritance. He was looking
forward to being with his Father in glory. and having that inheritance. That's why as soon as Christ
came into the earth, He said, I must be about my Father's business.
And He didn't stop. He didn't kick back and relax
and sit down until He was able to say, it is finished. I finished
my Father's business. Then He sat down. When He had
by Himself purged our sins, then He sat down, but not until then.
The Lord, being Christ's inheritance, teaches us that Christ is the
Great High Priest of all God's elect, and that we who believe
have been made priests by Him so that the Lord is our inheritance. It teaches us He's our great
High Priest, the High Priest of all God's elect, and He teaches
us that in Him, in our High Priest, what He's done, having made us
priests, the Lord is also our inheritance. Turn over to Numbers
18, Numbers 18, and hold your place there. I'm going to come
back to it. Numbers 18 and verse 20. We learn
this about Christ being a high priest when we start speaking
of inheritance because this is what God said to the priests
in the days of the Levites. Numbers 18 verse 20. And the
Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their
land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy
part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel." Now,
hold your place here. Aaron is a high priest, and Aaron
as the high priest is a picture of Christ. Now, Aaron and his
brethren, the Levites, they didn't get... God gave them no inheritance
among the Israelites, among the other tribes. He gave them no
inheritance like he did the other Israelites. Because God was their
portion. God was their inheritance. It
pictured Christ, our high priest. Aaron the high priest pictured
Christ, our high priest. And his brethren, who were priests,
pictures those, the elect of God, believers, whom Christ has
made priests. We don't have any inheritance
in this land. Our inheritance is not like the
world's inheritance. We don't have what everybody
else in this world has. Because the believer's inheritance
is the Lord. The Lord is our inheritance.
But believer, listen, because the Lord is Christ's inheritance,
and Christ desired to see God glorified, He's our High Priest. He desired to see God glorified
and because of this, because Christ is our High Priest and
He desired to see God glorified and His people saved, Christ
finished the work that God gave Him to do. He completely, totally
fulfilled all righteousness for God and for His people so that
God is just and all His elect in Christ have been made the
righteousness of God. Look at Hebrews 9 with me. Stay
there in Numbers 18, but hold your place there, but look at
Hebrews 9. We're talking about this thing of inheritance and
we're looking at a high priest, what God said to His priests
during the Old Dispensation. And let's look here in Hebrews
9 and look at verse 11. It says here, Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands." That is to say, not of
this building, not like that Old Testament tabernacle, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood. He entered
in once into the holy place, into God's presence, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now that's what Christ, as our
high priest, that's what He accomplished. Because the Lord was His inheritance,
and His people was His inheritance, and He did this for His people.
And then, therefore, each and every believer Every believer
born of God the Holy Spirit, given faith in Christ, are fully
righteous. Fully righteous. We must be holy
for God to accept us. We must be holy for God to accept
us. And by what Christ has done for
us, by the Spirit of God, regenerating us and sanctifying us from darkness
into His light, from the realm of flesh into the Spirit, from
being outside of Christ to in Christ, vitally uniting us to
Christ. Brethren, we have been made holy. Holy, so God can receive us.
He, by His one offering, He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. So now, God accepts us in the
Beloved. In the Beloved. Now, we are God's
inheritance. We're His spiritual Jacob. We're His spiritual Israel. We're
His chosen, peculiar treasure. He said in Psalm 135, 4, The
Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself and Israel for His peculiar treasure. And Peter quoted that from that
verse, applying it to Gentiles, which all of us sitting here
are. We who've been born of His Spirit are God's elect Gentiles. And Peter said, you're a chosen
generation. You're a royal priesthood. You're
a holy nation. You're a peculiar people that
you should show forth the praises of Him who's called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were not a
people. It didn't even appear during this day of the Levitical
priesthood. It didn't even appear like the
Gentiles were a people. We were outside of Israel. But
now are a people, he says, which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy. And God our Savior and His Son
Jesus Christ is our inheritance. We're His peculiar treasure.
We're His inheritance and He is our inheritance. We can say
with Christ, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. Now brethren, contentment and
happiness is not outward in the flesh. It's not outward in the
flesh. It's not in the circumstances
that surround us. That's not contentment and happiness. And that's what we look at most.
We usually look at those things to judge whether we're content
or whether we're happy. The joy that this world gives
is joy in a fleeting, perishing, vanishing substance of clay. The joy that God gives is that
we are complete in Christ and united to Him inseparably and
forever his people. That's the joy that Christ gives
in the heart. Now, look here at verse 7 in
our text. It's an inward thing. It's an inward contentment. He
says there in verse 7, I will bless the Lord who's given me
counsel. He's taught me in the heart. So my reins, my inward
parts, my new man also instructs me in the night season. He's
taught me in the heart now. There's no greater peace than
knowing I am my Beloved's and He's mine. This is a heart thing.
It's not outward. Now that's the first thing we
see. The Lord is our portion. He's our inheritance. There's
contentment. There's happiness in knowing
that. He's my inheritance. Because if He's my inheritance,
Lord, it means you're His inheritance. And he's not going to lose what
belongs to him. Now secondly, the secret to contentment and
happiness is knowing that the Lord's the portion of my cup.
Now this is the second way the Lord was Christ's portion. The
Lord, verse 6, the Lord is the portion of my cup. Christ knew
that everything that came his way as he walked this earth each
day and every hour was from the Lord his God. It was from God
his Father. Every sweet blessing that he
received Christ knew was measured out and put into his cup from
the Lord. Every blessing. This also is
pictured in Numbers 18. Look back there with me. Numbers
18. Now the Lord stated first of all, you have no inheritance
in the land because I'm your inheritance. Now watch this.
This cup has to do with our daily blessings. This cup has to do
with what he gives us daily, hourly as we walk in this earth. Now, Aaron's the high priest,
and his brethren are the priests of Levi. God provided all their
daily needs and filled their cup, giving them the tenth in
all of Israel. Look at verse 21. Numbers 18,
21. Behold, I have given the children
of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their
service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle
of the congregation. Now get this. God gave his priests
a tenth. of everything in Israel, of everything,
of the harvest and of the vintage. That means a tenth of the wheat,
a tenth of the barley, a tenth of the oil, a tenth of the wine.
Everything was given to them, freely given to them from God. And here was, they were the least
of all the tribes, Levi was. And yet, they had the greatest
share of increase of all the land. And they had this without
any labor done on their part and without any expense on their
part whatsoever. That's what we have. That's what
we have, daily, that's what we have. God has given us our inheritance,
not by our works, not by works we've done, but because of the
service of Christ Jesus our Lord on our behalf. And we may be
the least in the earth, we may be a remnant in the earth, and
yet we possess more than any people over this whole face of
this globe. That's true of the believer.
God's given it to us. Look down at verse 24. Note this now. God has given
it to us. Now look, verse 24. But the tithes
of the children of Israel which they offer as a heave offering
unto the Lord. That's how they came into God's
house. The Israelites gathered them all up, they gathered the
first fruits, they brought them and they made a heave offering
before the Lord. Christ is pictured in that first
fruit. And then all the rest of the
fruits were sanctified in those heave offerings. They brought
them and gave them to the Lord. But the Lord says, now they're
mine to do with what I will, and I'm giving them to you. So
they didn't come from the hand of the Israelites, they came
from the hand of the Lord to his people. That's what he's
saying here. The tithes of the children of Israel which they
offer as a heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the
Levites to inherit. Therefore I have said unto them
among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance.
Now turn over to Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18. Now let me
tell you what God is saying there to them and what it meant for
them. All of those sacrifices were
God's. God provided them God made the
seed grow. God made the crops productive. God did everything involved to
make those, to make them have a bountiful harvest and a bountiful
vintage. He did everything. It was God's
producing. And then they were offered to
God. They were given to God. So of
those things which belonged to God, God provided for the Levites,
for His priests with everything that they needed to live. giving
to them that which was His, the sacrifices which were His. Now
look at Deuteronomy 18.1. The priests, the Levites, and
all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with
Israel. They shall eat the offerings
of the Lord made by fire and His inheritance. You see, it's
His inheritance. It's His offering they're partaking
of. Therefore shall they have no
inheritance among their brethren. The Lord is their inheritance,
as He has said unto them." Now get the picture here. Be sure
to get the picture. The tenth part of the heave offerings,
of everything that God commanded to be brought, that tenth part,
and all those offerings that were burnt by fire. Some of the stuff was heaved,
like the wheat and things like that, and the grapes and the
oil and all this stuff. And then some of it, some of
the meat offerings were brought and they were brought to be burned.
And then, but from all of that, God provided for these Levites. Now look at the picture. God
provided Christ. He provided Christ. And Christ
gave himself to God. to perfect his people, to declare
God righteous, just like those sacrifices were given to God.
And then God is Christ's inheritance. That's what Christ said there
in the beginning. The Lord is my portion. He's my inheritance.
God is Christ's inheritance. And Christ is God's inheritance,
just like those sacrifices were. God said, this is my inheritance.
All this stuff they're bringing is mine. Well, Christ is God's
inheritance. And He's pictured in all those
offerings and in that burnt offering. So believer, God fills our cup
providing all we need on a daily basis by giving us of His inheritance,
which is Christ Jesus, which is pictured in all these offerings,
these heave offerings and these burn offerings. Therefore, our
inheritance and the provision of our daily cup is not the inheritance
of this world. It's the Lord God provided for
us by Christ Jesus. That's what our inheritance is.
Daily as we walk this earth, by Christ, by Him coming where
we are and giving Himself. He's that burnt offering who
suffered the fire of God's divine justice. And because he suffered
that in our room instead, our cup runs over. Our cup runs over
because of what he's done. The fire of justice is satisfied
toward us. God is just to show us abundant
mercy. It's ours, but what he's done. And we're complete in Christ
by what He's done. And not only that, as far as
our daily cup goes and what we need on a daily basis, He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? Do you see it
pictured in these offerings? That's why he says, I'm your
inheritance. Preachers are whipping poor sinners
with the law and trying to force them to tithe and to tithe. And
sadly, religious folks are tithing. They're giving a tenth of everything
and thinking God's going to receive them because of that. But the
truth of the matter is, we preach Christ, who is the pictured in
the tenth. He's the one pictured in all
the offerings. And by His work in the heart
of His people, by filling our cup, Himself. In making our cup to run over,
He makes His people generous and willing to give above a tenth
because we're constrained by His love, not by law. Because
we've come to Christ who's the end of the law for righteousness
because He is our righteousness. We don't have to go to the law
for righteousness. We have Christ our righteousness now. Turn over
to John 18. John chapter 18. This is why whenever Nadab and
Abihu came to the house of the Lord, they came irreverent. They
came with strange fire. They came snubbing their nose
at God. And God killed them on the spot.
He killed them on the spot. And Aaron couldn't open his mouth
about it. He kept silent. He kept silent. Because they
came with the wrong offering. They came with the wrong attitude.
They came with a totally different spirit. But look at this in John
18, when Christ said the Lord is the portion of my cup, He
meant not only blessing, but also sorrows and sufferings.
He not only gives us the cup of blessing, He gives us the
cup of sorrow and affliction. Christ knew the things that caused
Him to suffer. that caused him to suffer were
measured and put into his cup by the Lord God. And therefore
Christ took that cup and he drank it. Look at John 18.10, Then
Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's
servant, and cut off his ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
You know the scene. They've come to arrest the Lord.
And the Lord said, Let these go. Let these go. Take me and let them go, that
it might be fulfilled in the Scriptures. He didn't lose one
that the Lord gave him. And so, here he stands now and
Peter draws his sword out and Peter smites off this servant's
ear. And look at what the Lord tells him. Then said Jesus unto
Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath. The cup which my
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? He's the portion of my cup. He
fills my cup with blessing, yes, but he also fills it with suffering
and affliction. We don't want to drink that cup
that causes us suffering. We don't usually want to drink
of that cup. We do like Peter, we wield the sword. But Christ
said, my father gave this cup to me. Shall I not drink it?
Shall I not drink it? Contentment and happiness is
not outward in the flesh. And that's what God is teaching
us when He gives us the cup of chastening. It's not in the flesh. Chastening causes sorrow and
it causes suffering to our flesh because it cuts against our fleshly
sinful wants. That's what it does. But though
it caused sorrow and suffering in Christ's perfect flesh, His
contentment wasn't in the flesh either. His contentment, His
happiness was inward. It was knowing that it was His
Father that gave Him this cup. Doesn't that make the cup easier
to drink when you know whatever suffering we enter into, whatever
affliction we enter into, The Lord gave me this cup to drink.
He gave me this cup. That makes it easier to bear.
He found great happiness in serving His Father, even drinking that
bitter cup, because He knew the Lord gave Him that cup. It was
a necessary. In order for God to be just and
to justify His people, Christ had to drink that cup. Christ's
inward contentment and happiness was knowing it was for God's
glory, God's going to be glorified through this. He knew the exaltation
of Christ was going to come about because of this. He knew the
salvation of His people, which both meant it was for Christ's
good. We're always saying that this is for God's glory and our
good. Christ knew it was for God's glory and His good. It
was how He was going to be exalted and it was how His people were
going to be saved. And so He drank this cup. He submitted
to the Father's wisdom in giving Him this cup this way to go to
that cross. And afterward, after He drank
it, you know what it yielded? It yielded the peaceable fruit
of righteousness because all His people are made righteous
by what He did. Now, you know what happens when
God gives us this cup? And He doesn't give us the cup
He gave to Christ. Christ has drank the cup of God's
fury dry so that you and I won't ever drink that cup. We won't
ever drink that cup. Justice is satisfied. God has
been honored. His justice has been honored.
And now He's merciful to us. We won't drink that cup. But
when we drink the cup of chastening at the hand of our faithful Father,
you know what happens? God is glorified. Christ is exalted,
our brethren are saved, and it's for our good. Just like it happened
when Christ did it. And after we drank of the cup,
you know what it yields? The scripture says it yields
the peaceable fruit unto righteousness in those who are exercised thereby. That's what it does. And always
remember brethren, contentment and happiness is inward in the
new man, knowing in our heart it's the Lord that has filled
our cup for those very reasons. Always for those reasons. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall
be the portion of their cup. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
and my cup runneth over. That's the portion of his people's
cup. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits
toward me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll drink this cup." It
doesn't seem to us, does it? Like, whenever we suffer, we
come into some just mundane thing that we're going through in our
life, and we fall into this suffering, and it's a heavy trial on us.
We don't think that's working toward our salvation. But it
is. It is. God's going to, by that,
show us, remind us, turn us, somehow bring us to the feet
of Christ, our salvation. Every time. Every time. And so
that's why it's always good for us. Now, so here's the third
thing. Now, the secret to contentment
and happiness is knowing the Lord shall always maintain our
lot. Look at verse, back in our text, Psalm 16 verse 5. Thou maintainest my lot. That's
the third thing. Christ knew. He knew after He
bore the sin of His people in His body. And He went to that
cross and God forsook Him justly. and darkness covered the whole
world. And he cried out, it's finished. And after he had borne
the sins of his people away, after he had satisfied justice,
after he had accomplished this for his father, he knew that
when he went into that grave, his father was going to justify
him and raise him from the grave. Let's look at this, Isaiah 50
and verse 6. Isaiah 50 and verse 6. The Lord, He knew, would maintain
His lot. He said this in Isaiah 50 and
verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall
I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me. Who shall contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him
come near to me." And God did what He said He would. God did
what the Savior expected Him to do. Psalm 2, 6 says, Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. When He finished the
work, when He finished the work, God raised Him from the dead.
And Christ said this, look back at Psalm 9 and verse 4. This
is why He raised Christ. He says, For thou hast maintained
my right and my cause, thou settest in the throne judging right. That's why He did it. When injustice
was satisfied, God said, enough, and He turned back His enemies,
and He raised Christ from the dead. He justified Him, just
like He said He would. Now, when you suffer wrongly,
when you suffer wrongly, 1 Peter 3, 9 says this, don't render
evil for evil, or railing for railing. You know what railing
for railing is? Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, and you go yak, yak,
yak, yak, yak right back. That's railing for railing. Railing
for railing. Contrary wise, render blessing. That's what he said. Render blessing.
Knowing that ye are there unto called. That's what you're called
to do. That you should inherit, inherit,
inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and
see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil. and his
lips that they speak no God. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue
it. Why? Here's why. We're talking
about the Lord will maintain my lot. We're talking about,
I know the Lord's going to maintain my lot. He's going to take care
of me. He's going to hedge me about
it. He's going to provide for me. Here's what Peter said, For
the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are
open unto their prayers. He's maintaining the lot of His
people. He's sitting in the judgment, judging our cause, and judging
rightly. It's what he's doing. But the
face of the Lord is against them that do evil. We don't like to
be corrected, do we? We don't like that. We get all
in our little corner, in our little heart, and we decide,
you know, I'm going to show them. But God says, don't show them.
God says, God says, render a blessing because His eyes are upon you.
His eyes know how to judge right for you and to do what's needful
for you. Alright, now Christ's lot was his people as well. And he knew, he trusted, not
only would God maintain his lot, but he would maintain the lot
of his people as well. And God not only maintained his
lot and the lot of his people, he raised Christ so that Christ
himself could maintain the lot of his people. That's what in
Isaiah 53.12 it says, Therefore will I divide him a portion with
the great. God raised Christ his son up
and gave him a portion with the great God. That's what he did. He raised his son Christ Jesus
and gave him a portion with the great true and living God. And
he, Christ, shall divide the spoiled with the strong, with
his people. He is weak, helpless people who
have no ability in themselves to save themselves or do one
thing for themselves. That's who is strong because
His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He shows us
His strength when we are utterly weak and incapable of doing anything.
He divides the inheritance with the strong because He poured
out His soul unto death. and he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bared the sin of many and made intercession
for the transgressors. That's why God gave him this
glorious privilege. It's his. He bought it. It's
his right. Now, here's the other thing.
For you who he's called and made joint heirs with him, this is
good right here now. Remember, it's the Lord God our
Savior and His Son Jesus Christ that maintain us our lot. And
he's not like other gods. He's not like the vain gods of
men's imagination. This is what Jeremiah 10, 15
says, "...they are vanity, and the works of errors. In the time
of their visitation they shall perish." The portion of Jacob. The portion of Jacob, the portion
of God's elect, is not like them. For He, our portion, our inheritance,
is the former of all things. He's the former of all things. And Israel, that's us, His elect,
is the rod of His inheritance. In other words, we're His inheritance. And it says, the Lord of hosts
is His name. Our inheritance is the former
of all things. He is the one who made all things.
He's the one who upholds all things and rules all things.
And by Him all things consist. And we're His inheritance. And He's the Lord of hosts. He
has the hosts of His creation at His disposal to use as He
will to maintain our lot and do for us what is best for us. That's a whole lot... It's a
whole lot smarter to trust the Lord God, Christ our Savior,
who knows the feeling of our infirmities, who says, come to
my throne of grace and I'll give you grace to help in time of
need. I'll teach you as you need to be taught in your time of
need. That's a whole lot smarter to come and unleash our tongue
to Him, confessing to Him our troubles and our need and what's
got us cast down, than it is to turn around and render railing
upon our adversary. A whole lot smarter to come to
Him. Now turn over to Deuteronomy
32. Deuteronomy 32. You're going to like this right
here. Deuteronomy 32. Because He's the Lord of hosts,
that means He's ruling everything in this earth for the well-being
of His chosen redeemed people. He's maintaining our lot and
everything shall one day, the whole lot one day will be ours. Now listen to this. We see it
pictured here after the flood. When God confounded the languages
and He divided the nations, when He did that, men didn't just
run out and take what they wanted and take how much they wanted
and form themselves a nation. That's not how it happened. God
gave them what they could have. God gave them what they could
have. He allotted a portion to the nations. Look at this now,
Deuteronomy 32 verse 8. when the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance." It was a temporary inheritance
He gave them. Now listen, when He, the Most
High, divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated
the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people. And here's
how He said it, according to the number of the children of
Israel. Why? Because the Lord's portion
is his people. We've been looking at how the
Lord's our portion, but he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of Israel because the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Now get this, God put the land
into the hands of Canaan and his eleven sons. God put it into
their hands, that land of Canaan, to possess only as their temporary
inheritance. So that they could live on it
as tenants and take care of it and groom it and keep it well
producing for them. Until the time when He brought
His chosen people to that land and kicked out the tenants and
gave it to His people. That's what God did. just as
God measured out and set the bounds. When He broke their languages
up and scattered them, He set the bounds that would be sufficient
to hold all of His people when they came, when those twelve
tribes came and it was time to give them that inheritance. He
set the bounds. He maintained their lot. using
His enemies, nations, people who didn't even know Him and
didn't know what they were doing in the earth or what their purpose
was in this world. They got their vain gods, they
made up gods in their minds and they're worshipping them and
going about their day to day and they have no idea what God's
doing with them. And He's using them to maintain
the lot of His people so that when time comes, that land will
be just the right size. Have you ever gone and just read
in Joshua, And it seemed boring to read when you just read about,
and the land went from the Red Sea to this point and back across
this mountain to this point and that was given to Dan. And this
portion over here, I mean it's exact. The Lord set the bounds
and He did that back there in Noah's day when He divided it
to them. And He let Canaan and his eleven
sons take care of it until that time. Well brethren, this is
the truth. God has put the earth into the
hands of a people cursed of God. Just like Canaan was. And they
get to enjoy it, just like Canaan did. And ought to be seeking
God while they got the chance to seek God, while they have
the time to seek God, while He may be found. So when it comes
time for God to kick them off the land and give it to His people,
it will be no injustice in God. There will be no injustice with
God. And just like God provided Canaan
for natural Israel long before they came into existence, our
heavenly inheritance was not only promised, it was prepared,
provided, secured, and reserved for God's spiritual Israel before
the foundation of the world from eternity. It's appointed according
to the number of His elect children. and there will be room in our
heavenly inheritance for every single elect child of God, because
God has set the bounds of it. And there are many mansions there
that Christ has prepared for each son of His glory. And you
know what's going to happen? When God gets finished, He's
going to make a new heavens and a new earth. And everything you
see around us now that the 1% owns. You know what they're doing? They're taking care of it for
us. That's exactly what he said. That's exactly what Canaan did
for Israel. They were taking care of Canaan
for Israel. And that's exactly what men are
doing with the earth. They're taking care of it for
his people. That's all. And God is maintaining our lot. by the hands of men that have
no idea what they're doing, that they're serving God. No idea. So remember this. Go home with
this. Here's the secret to contentment and happiness. It's knowing,
it's having the Lord as the portion of my inheritance. I'm going
to inherit the Lord and He's going to inherit me. Seems like
I'm getting a better deal, don't I? I'm inheriting the Lord. He's going to inherit me. But
in Christ, we're holy and righteous. We can see eye to eye. And number
two, the Lord's the portion of my cup. Whatever I have given
to me in this life, He's given it to me. And number three, the
Lord is maintaining my lot. Now, look back at our text in
Psalm 16. If you believe this, if you believe
Christ, if you trust Christ, if you believe the Lord, Then
you can say this, verse 6, The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant
places, yea, I have a goodly heritage, a goodly inheritance. How good! In Isaiah 53, 17, he
said, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. That's
how good. And so, lastly, knowing these
things, here's what you do. Everybody wants something to
do after they hear a message. Here's something to do right
here. Do what Christ did. Let's live with the Lord ever
before our face. Look at verse 8. I've set the
Lord always before me. I said to you before, He didn't
set the Roman government before Him and sanctify them and exalt
them in His mind and in His heart. He set the Lord before Him and
exalted the Lord in His heart and in His mind knowing the Lord
is going to maintain my life. Set the Lord before your face.
In doing so, let us rest assured, verse 8, because He is at my
right hand, I shall not be moved. That's the secret to contentment
and happiness. Amen.