Our text tonight is in Joshua
chapter 13, but if you would turn with me first to the book
of Numbers chapter one. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and
then Numbers. While you're turning to Numbers
chapter one, twice in this chapter of Joshua 13, the Lord speaks
to Joshua concerning the inheritance of the tribe of Levi. That's
what my subject is tonight, our inheritance. The tribe of Levi was purposed
and designated by God to be over the priesthood. Now here in Numbers
chapter one, the Lord instructed Moses to take a census of the
people of Israel. And in verse 49, Numbers 149, He said, only thou shalt not
number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the
children of Israel, but thou shalt appoint the Levites over
the tabernacle of testimony and over all the vessels thereof.
and over all things that belong to it. They shall bear the tabernacle
and all the vessels thereof and they shall minister unto it."
Now turn over a page or two to Numbers chapter three and look
at verse six. The Lord spoke to Moses again
and said, bring the tribe of Levi near and present them before
Aaron the priest that they may minister unto him. and they shall
keep his charge and the charge of the whole congregation before
the tabernacle of the congregation to do the service of the tabernacle. and they shall keep all the instruments
of the tabernacle of the congregation and the charge of the children
of Israel to do the service of the tabernacle." So I want you
again to note that the tribe of Levi was in charge of moving
the tabernacle from place to place. Whenever Israel picked
up and moved to another location, the Levites were in charge of
the tabernacle and moving it. And then in Numbers 18, you don't
have to turn there, the Lord again said that the Levites shall
minister before the tabernacle of witness. In Deuteronomy 10,
verse eight, we're told, at that time, the Lord separated the
tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
to stand before the Lord, to minister unto him and to bless
his name this day. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse
one, it's written, the priest of 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. And then we come to Joshua chapter
13. And as Joshua here divides the
land, as he divides the possessions, the inheritance between the tribes
of Israel, In verse 14, Joshua 13, verse 14, we read, only unto
the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices of
the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as
he said unto them. And then look down at verse 33,
the last verse of the chapter. And again, the Lord says, but
unto the tribe of Levi, Moses gave not an inheritance. The
Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto
them. Now, I would say that all of
us have some understanding of what an inheritance is. That word inheritance is defined
by Webster's Dictionary to be a thing that is inherited. Well,
if you don't know what inherited is, that won't help you much.
But the word inherited is defined as money, property, or a title
received as an heir at the death of the previous holder. So in
my life, I have time and time again seen families divided and
torn apart over an inheritance, over money, over property and
feelings of entitlement. And some in the family received
an equal share in the inheritance, but got upset because another
family member was chosen to be the executor. How tragic and
how sad. The scriptures talk a great deal
about inheritance. The words used 239 times in the
Bible. In many instances, the word inherited
is used in a way you might not expect. It's used as in a destructive
and consuming way. The word inherit in scripture
doesn't always mean what you might think. In some instances,
the Hebrew word, which is yarash, that's translated inherit, means
to drive out. It means to seize. It means to
rob, consume, and destroy. It means to divide the spoil,
it means to ruin. How appropriate is the meaning
that way when we see that very often that is what an inheritance
does to those who inherit from a family member. And we often
see in instances like that, that truly the love of money, it's
not money that's the root of all evil, it's the love of money.
For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. Turn with me now, if
you would, to the New Testament, Matthew chapter 21. I'm gonna
turn you to a couple, three places. But in Matthew chapter 21, I
want you to look here with me. We can scan down to verse 37. And here we have the first time
that that word inheritance is used in the New Testament. And
the Lord here is speaking a parable about the killing of the householder's
son by the husbandman, by the land workers of his land, portraying
the killing of the Lord Jesus. The householder in the harvest
would send servants and the husbandman, the laborers, would take one
and beat them and stone another and kill another. And the husbandman
would send, or the householder would send more servants and
they would do the same. And then in verse 37 in this
parable, we read, but last of all, he, The master, the householder,
the one who owned the land, sent unto them his son, saying, they
will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the
son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. This is the
heir. Let us kill him and let us seize
on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast
him out of the vineyard and slew him. And when the Lord thereof
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? And that's why the Lord in the
scriptures warns us against covetousness and lust of what others have.
And this is why we're encouraged to set our affections on things
above and to lay up treasures in heaven. Now look over at Luke
chapter 12. Let's begin reading here in verse
13, Luke chapter 12. In verse 13, we read, and one
of the company said unto him, speaking of the Lord Jesus, he
said, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me. Inheritance here means possession
or portion. Tell him, tell my brother to
give me what's rightfully mine. And undoubtedly, whoever gave
this inheritance didn't think this man should have it, but
he certainly thought so himself. And in verse 14, the Lord said
unto him, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he
said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. That
man was motivated by covetousness. Tell my brother to give me what's
mine. For a man's life consisted not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow
all my fruits and my goods. And the Lord says, well, the
man said, I'll say to my soul, so thou hast much goods laid
up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And
he said unto his disciples, therefore I say unto you, take no thought
for your life, what you shall eat, neither for your body, what
you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and
the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they
sow nor reap, neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better
than the fowls? And which of you with taking
thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not
able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for
the rest? Consider the lilies, how they
grow. They toil not, they spend not, and yet I say unto you that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If then God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and
tomorrow cast in the oven, how much more will he clothe you,
O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall
eat or what you shall drink, either be ye of doubtful mind.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And
your father knoweth that you have need of these things, but
rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all those things shall
be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now
turn over just a couple pages, a few pages to Luke chapter 15.
In this, we have an account of what the younger son said in
the parable of the prodigal son. Luke 15, look at verse 12. And the younger of them said
to his father, father, give me the portion That's what the word
inheritance means, portion. Give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me. Me, me, me. And he divided unto
them, his sons, his living. Now whose living was divided?
The father's. It was his, it was all his. And
inheritance is determined by the one who is giving it, not
the one who's receiving it. How did this young man spend
his inheritance? Verse 13 tells us he wasted his
substance with riotous living. Riotous, unruly, rowdy, disorderly,
disruptive, wild, ugly, uncontrollable living. You know the story of
the prodigal son. This past Sunday, we looked and
saw that there are doctrines, plural, which are various teachings
on different things in the Bible, such as God's attributes and
election and predestination, substitution, so on and so forth.
And then there is a doctrine, singular, of God our Savior that
is Christ and Him crucified in which all the other doctrines
together describe and point to. And I say that to, To make this
point, this week in great detail, I studied all the verses and
uses of the word inheritance, read them and looked at them.
And there seems to be two kinds, two types of inheritance spoken
of in the scriptures. First, there's a fleshly, physical,
earthly inheritance. And secondly, there's a spiritual,
supernatural, heavenly inheritance. And all of them that entered
into the land of promise received the physical inheritance that
was promised to Abraham and his seed. They received land, they
received possessions, they received physical things. They received,
as we've seen in this study of Joshua, houses that they didn't
build. They received wells that they
didn't dig. They received vineyards that
they didn't plant. but not all of them received
the spiritual inheritance. Paul teaches us that in Romans
chapter nine, verse five, that not all Israel, not all the citizens
of Israel were of true Israel. It's the same today. There are
many who profess to be the people, the children, the elect of God,
who are not. And there are some who are. And
both of these physical and spiritual inheritances are seen in Joshua
chapter 13. Turn back there with me. That's
where we'll spend the rest of our time. And I believe there's
a great lesson to be learned here. Many professing believers
will receive a physical inheritance, but not all will receive the
spiritual. So I believe it to be very important,
actually crucial, life and death, to know something about the spiritual
inheritance which is life everlasting found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's all that really matters, Steve. When it comes right down
to it, that's all that really matters. All those who are made
priest by the Lord Jesus Christ receive the spiritual inheritance
as did the tribe of Levi. As we've already seen, the tribe
of Levi was designated as the priesthood, and their lives were
spent in service to the temple of the Lord. We read that in
several passages. In other words, they lived off
Christ. Isn't that what we do? This priesthood,
the Levitical priesthood, which no longer exists, pictures the
priesthood of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has made his people by the work of their great high priest to
be priests and kings unto himself. Revelation 1, 5, and 6, let me
read it to you, tells us that. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, hath made us kings
and priests under God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Then in Revelation chapter
five, verses nine and 10, it's written, and they sung a new
song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation, and has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth. Now, the life of a believer is
all about service to Christ. That's the reason the Lord leaves
us here. Tending to the things of God.
The child of God is referred to in the scriptures as lively
stones, who are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. with a glorious task to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. They're a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar, that word means purchased. They're a peculiar purchased
people who should show forth the praises of Him who has called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That's what we preach.
As priest of God, what do we offer up? By Him, therefore,
let us offer up the sacrifice of praise. Notice that that's
singular, sacrifice, not sacrifices, sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name, Hebrews 13 five. Now stay with me. It's a singular sacrifice of
thanksgiving and praise to the one who made the sacrifice of
himself for us. We praise God for what he's done
for us. And it's a fruit. It's not labor. It's not a burden. It's not something
that the sinner must do to be saved. It's something that a
believer does because they are saved. We talk about that all
the time. It's a sacrifice because it does
require us giving up something. A saved sinner can't be thankful
and praise God while praising self and being thankful for something
that they themselves have done. So this sacrifice requires the
sacrifice of self to Christ and His finished work. Now, back
in our text, Joshua 13, verse 14, this spiritual inheritance
for the priest of God pictured by the Levites is said to be
the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire. Our acceptance with God that
we offer is only the sacrifice of Christ who under the fire
of God's wrath, satisfied justice and justified us. That's what
we preach, his sacrifice, what he did for us. By the shedding
of his blood, he put away our sin, washed it away. It's a sweet smelling savor unto
God. It's the sacrifice of Christ
on the cross. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And this sacrifice is eternal.
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This sacrifice is effectual. Thou shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin, Matthew 121.
Paul told Timothy this. He said, who hath, past tense,
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, and was, past
tense, given to us in Christ before the world began. by Christ
who hath abolished death. He's already abolished it. Not
something he's gonna do. And he hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. It's effectual, it's
done, it's finished. How effectual is that? It's effectually
effectual. Our inheritance in Christ is
a finished work. His sacrifices are our inheritance. How are we accepted? In the beloved. Jesus Christ is the beloved of
God. Propitiation, justification,
sanctification, holiness, righteousness, forgiveness, peace, joy, comfort,
understanding, spiritual wisdom, light, life, contentment, conformity
to Christ and eternal glory is our inheritance. Boy, that's much better than
a big house and a nice car. Money in the bank. This is so
different from a physical, natural, fleshly inheritance. And this
inheritance is a gift. This inheritance is yours as
a result of being a son or a daughter, not a servant. Galatians four,
verse one. Let me read. I won't turn to
you there. Now I say that an heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
Lord of all. but as under tutors and governors until the time
appointed of the Father, even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage over the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive what? The adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba Father. Daddy. Oh, that's such an endearing
word to a father. Daddy. My, not disrespectful
in the least. The physical inheritance. Well, let me finish that, verse
seven. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. The physical inheritance of possession
in the land was not given to the tribe of Levi. Why? Because
it says the sacrifice of fire that they offered unto the Lord
was their inheritance. You get that? What we offer unto
God is the finished work of Christ. Lord, you've done for me what
I couldn't do for myself. You've accomplished, you've finished
everything, the perfection that you require to me, I can't do.
Christ, the perfect substitute and sacrifice for sinners, did
it for me. Verse 33 tells us very plainly,
the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance. And beloved of God,
he's ours too. He's our student. With God as
our inheritance, all that He is and all that He has is ours
by being His sons and daughters. Our earthly physical inheritance
comes by one or two ways, either by birth or by adoption. Now,
I know something about that. I was adopted. I was an only
child. I always tell everybody, and
I believe Teresa would agree, that I ruined my parents from
wanting to have any more children. But this birth is speaking of
the new birth, being born again from above. And this is referring
to God's predestinating us, his people, into the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of God's will. And then Paul went on to say
there in Ephesians, one to the praise, the sacrifice of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. What's our inheritance?
Christ, the riches of His grace. If I have Christ, I have it all.
All I need, all God requires. He who works all things after
the counsel of his own will is the reason for our inheritance.
Beloved, we've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but we've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The reason that our inheritance
is so glorious is that Christ who works all things after the
counsel of His own will, works all things together for our good. And that's why we receive this
inheritance. We're kept by the power of God.
Well, we'd throw it all away if it wasn't for that. Kept by
the power of God. The scripture says, is it not
lawful, is it not right for Christ to do what He willed with His
own? You better believe it is. He can have mercy on whom He'll
have mercy. Because everyone and everything
belongs to Him. It's His prerogative to do what
He will with His own. God has given Christ power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as God
gave Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hands, went to the cross as our
substitute for sin, making us join heirs of the inheritance
with him. Join heirs with Christ. All that
Christ has, I have in him. He who is all is all my inheritance. Now in closing, I want you to
know the certainty of this inheritance. This is certain. You know, we,
people say all the time that we live in a world of uncertain
things. We do. But here's something that's
certain. Something that's certain. I'll
give you something that's certain. Again, verse 14. It says, only
unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices
of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance. Now look at this. As he, the
Lord, said unto them. Now you can write it down. So
be it, amen. Look at verse 33. But unto the
tribe of Levi, Moses gave not any inheritance. Not one piece
of land, possessions, or entitlement did they receive. Why? Because
the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance as He said unto them. That's what makes it certain
and sure. That's what He said. God said it, I believe it, that
settles it. No, God said it, that settles
it. We better believe it. God, there is none else. One
who is not a man that he should lie. One who is not a man that
he should change his mind. Oh, we're so fickle, we change
our mind like we change socks. But he declares the end from
the beginning and from ancient times, the things that not yet
be. And what does he say? He says,
my counsel shall stand, it shall stand. while who's going to stay
his hand? Who's going to say unto him,
God, what are you doing? His counsel shall stand, and
he will do all his pleasure. And he's my father, and his inheritance is for me. I'm joint heirs with his beloved
son, and I am one of his sons. Christ is the Lord who changes
not, therefore you and I, the sons of Jacob that we are, are
not consumed. In hope of eternal life, which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. That's
why it's sure and certain. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. That's why it's sure
and certain. What an inheritance we have.
My father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Not only, not as the world gives,
our inheritance is not as the world gives. Like the Levites,
we had none of that inheritance. I'm talking about the same inheritance
that Peter wrote about that we began the service with there
in 1 Peter 1, verse 4. He said, to an inheritance, let's
do it again, to an inheritance incorruptible. Can't be corrupted,
can't be taken away. undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Jesus Christ is our inheritance. He's a perfect inheritance. He's
incorruptible and undefiled. An inheritance that never fades
away, never stops, never ceases. An inheritance reserved in heaven
for us. And if God reserved it, you better
believe that's a reservation that's gonna be kept. You ever
gone to a restaurant, I had reservations, what's your name? Steve McCarty. Don't see it. God made this reservation. Everything, everything, I mean
everything, is going to be all right. And it doesn't matter
how much I have in this life. All that matters is who I have
in this life. May God be pleased to make it
so, for God's glory, our good, and for Christ's sake.