Psalm chapter 47, we'll be looking
at verse 4 this evening. Psalm chapter 47 and verse 4. The title of the message tonight,
The Inheritance and Lot of Jacob. The Inheritance and Lot of Jacob. Let's go ahead and start reading
again from verse 1. The scripture says, O clap your
hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great
king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us. The excellency of Jacob, whom
he loved. Selah. You know the word Selah
means meditate. It means to meditate and stop
and muse on what you've just heard. Feed on it, chew on it
a little while. And as we have, I know that I've
been covering this extensively. I have been richly blessed by
these studies. I hope that you've been blessed
as I have to go through this psalm with me. the inheritance
and lot of Jacob. Now, in this messianic prophecy
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have seen that all the earth
should rejoice because God has sent forth his king into the
world. that God had promised to send
forth His King to subdue all the enemies of His people under
their feet. And this King is none other than
Jesus Christ. He is the King that God has chosen. He is the King that God had purpose
for the salvation of His people. He was ordained of God to be
a victorious King to all over all that oppose God and His people. He was purposed for this. He
was set up from eternity for this purpose to be the Savior,
to be the Mediator of His people. He was purposed to be a victorious
King. You know, one thing about the
Jesus of today is that He is not victorious. And I can tell
you, therefore, He is not Jesus. If He is not victorious, He is
not Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, God
said, He is a terrible. He is terrible to the wicked.
And the other side of that is, to those He may be terrible,
but to us, that terribleness is a protection. He protects
us. He protects us and he was sent
to redeem his people, to be a victorious savior. And the people of this
king, we know the glory of his person. We love to hear of his person. You know, if Christ was not who
he was, then his work would not have been effectual. And that's
what makes His work so precious is His person. His person makes
His work precious. He is the God-man, the only God-man. He's the only one. He's the only
one. He is the only mediator and conqueror
of everything that enslaved His people. Their sins. Our sins
enslaved us. And He was sent to be the victorious
Savior over our sins. He was sent for this purpose.
He was sent to put away our sins. To eradicate them. To do away
with them. And he did this by the offering
of himself. The king offered himself. And God gave him exactly, exactly
what every one of our sins deserved. He bore it all for his people. And He obtained by His mighty
hand the righteousness of God for us, for Jacob, for Israel,
for His people. We know that Israel, that Jacob
mentioned in this text, is none other than a picture of the church,
a picture of God's elect. It is Jacob God loved. It is His church He loved. And because He loved His church
and gave His King for His church, He gave us also an inheritance. An inheritance. Christ, who bore
all our sin and brought reconciliation, made reconciliation for us to
God. God has by Him also given to
us an inheritance, an inheritance. You always hear of people hoping
that they have some dead uncle somewhere that left them a lot
of money. Well, I got something better. I've got something better. God has given us who believe
in Christ an inheritance of infinite value, infinite value. Eternal life. Eternal righteousness. Eternal justification. Eternal
sanctification. Everything we need to stand before
God. God said, I give this to you. I give it to you. It's an inheritance.
An inheritance. This is the mind of God. To save
His people from their sins. There we were running mad long
into hell. Sin is nothing else but utter
insanity. Who in the world runs from such
a God that controls all things and thinks he can get away with
it? Insanity. It's insane. But we did that. We were foolish. Our heart was
darkened. But God in grace came to us and
He saved us. We who believe, we believe because
God purposed that we believe. He purposed that we be saved.
He purposed our inheritance. Notice that. He shall choose
our inheritance. Isn't that great? He shall choose
our inheritance. And that's where we go in our
text. We were once blind, I tell you, but now we see. When you
witness to people, do you get that blank look that I get? That
blank stare like you've just said something in another foreign
language that nobody has ever heard in this entire world, and
you're crazy as a Bessie bug. I mean, they look at you like
a calf at a new gate. They have no idea how in the
world to take what you said, and they just say something off
the wall, don't they? They just say something just
to kind of get you off, get you away from them. Well, that's
because we see. We see and we believe in Christ
alone. We believe in Christ alone, faith
alone, that it's salvation by the grace of God alone. Now in
our text, The text here moves us to our believers to clap and
to shout and rejoice because of our inheritance and our lot. Now, if you remember, when Israel
came into the land before, they came into the land, they came
to the River Jordan, came out of 40 years of being in the wilderness. And as they came into that land,
God had promised them before an inheritance. He had promised
that physical nation a physical inheritance of the land of Canaan. And as you know, they went in
and God gave them exactly what He had promised to their father,
Abraham, hundreds of years before. He gave them an inheritance. Now, when they come in and conquered
that land, They all received the inheritance, didn't they?
But they all didn't receive the same lot in the inheritance. If you remember, the Lord said
to cast lots among them, and everyone received a portion of
land in that promised land of Canaan. that land that the Lord
promised to give them. And these lots, they were not
by chance, they were not like dice that you throw and people
say, oh, I got lucky dice, you know, and they throw the dice
and they say, oh, I'm lucky. No, these lots were used of God
to show the people of Israel His will for them. concerning their inheritance,
and also concerning the sacrifice on the great day of atonement.
If you remember, they cast lots to see which goat was to be the
scapegoat, and then they would cast lots to the goats to see
which one would be the offering, the sin offering. And even in
Psalm 16, it said the casting of the lots is at the disposal
of the Lord. He is the one that sets the lot."
Now, it was God that set the lot. God gave the inheritance
and God set the lot. Even so, this inheritance that
God has purposed from all eternity, He, as He promised them a physical
land, even so, God has promised His spiritual Israel a spiritual
kingdom. A spiritual kingdom. A heavenly
kingdom. And He has promised this from
all eternity for His seed, for His Lion Jacob. God the Father
has sovereignly made a decision among the race of Adam. This
is very offensive. This is not understandable by human
nature. that God, before man did anything,
had made a choice among us. He had made a choice as to who
He would save, as to who would receive the inheritance. And
people are offended at that, but if you look at the nation
of Israel as a type, God gave only that one land His Word,
and all the rest perished. All the rest perished. It's an
exact picture of what God has done in eternity. God has made
a choice and he has elected a people, his church, and he has promised
to give them an eternal, a heavenly city. In Hebrews, we read of the faith
of Abraham. And the scripture says that God
promised Abraham a city. But what kind of city did Abraham
look for? He looked for a city whose builder
and maker was God. You see, he was not just looking
for a physical inheritance, he was looking toward his spiritual
inheritance. He was looking for a land that
God had given him. The land of heaven. Abraham looked
by faith, not to the physical, but the spiritual. And I'll tell
you tonight, even so, we who are believers in Christ, we should
not look to the physical, look to the spiritual. Look to the
spiritual inheritance that God has given us. Why? Temporal things
are just that. They only last for a little while.
Only last for a little while. And they go away. Easy come,
easy go. They're gone. But this inheritance
is not something that goes away. This inheritance was from eternity,
and this inheritance is to eternity. God has promised this inheritance. And notice that he chose this
inheritance, which is our salvation. Would we have ever chose such
an inheritance? We would have never loved Him had He not first loved us. We could have never offered enough
to save our souls had He not given His Son. And we would have never been
able to give ourselves life. The only thing that we could
ever give ourselves as an inheritance is hell. That's it. That's all
we deserved and that's all we could provide. We had just enough
holiness to send us to hell. Just enough goodness to send
us to hell. Because all our holiness and
goodness were nothing but sin. But our hope and peace tonight
and rest is in that God chose our inheritance. That God chose
our inheritance for us. That He has separated us to be
vessels of mercy. Is that not something that God
has separated you who believe to be vessels of mercy? He separated us to be fit for
his use and his glory. But if left to ourselves, we
are even as others seeking the kingdom and treasures and pleasures
of this life. That's the inheritance of the
natural man. That's what he thinks is best. That's what we thought was best. But praise God that he had something
better for us, something better, an inheritance far more valuable
than anything we could provide for ourselves. He has provided for us. An everlasting
kingdom. What did Jesus say? What did
He tell us when the nations would be divided in the end? The goats
on His left hand and the sheep on His right hand. What would
He say to His sheep? Come, you blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. You see, our inheritance
was from eternity. Our inheritance is so sure. because
it was God's choice to give it to you. God chose to give it to you.
Will he not give it to you? Of course he will. Of course
he will. Number two, our inheritance is
summed up in Christ. Now you want to know how we can
obtain such an inheritance as righteousness, such an inheritance
as forgiveness of sins, such an inheritance as even the kingdom
of God himself. It is summed up in Christ. Go to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Look at
verse 11. In whom? In Christ. Also, we
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. Our inheritance is in a person. It's in a person. It is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is all in Him. He was sent to obtain our inheritance. And He, by the grace of God and
by His own mighty hand, He has obtained for us our inheritance. He has. All that God promised
us. Christ obtained it by His own
righteousness, by His own sacrifice, by His resurrection and ascension
to the throne of God. He obtained everything that God
promised us. Everything. He obtained it all. And so then, all our inheritance,
all hope, all faith, all love of our inheritance is in Him. It's in Him. None of it is in
us. We rest in nothing we have done
or anything we could ever do. Our hope of inheritance of eternal
life is in Christ alone. It's summed up in Him. The gospel
is not found in creeds. It's not found in volumes of
books. It's found in a person. It's
found in a person. I hear so much of people talking
about the gospel and not showing you a person.
He's a person and in him is life. In him is hope. In him alone
is forgiveness and eternal life. And he obtained it. And as he
obtained it, it is truly and absolutely ours. When Jesus Christ came into this
world and He obeyed God's law, you know where I was? In Him. When He came and He died for
sin, guess where I was? In Him. And when He rose again
and ascended to the throne, guess where I am? In Him. I'm in Him. So where's all my hope? In Him. In Him. All my hope is in Him. And He has triumphantly ascended
into heaven. Therefore, we are sure, sure
of our inheritance. I like it when David, on his
deathbed, he said, Though my house be not so with God, yet
He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. There's nothing sure about this
old house, is there? There's nothing sure about this
world other than the trouble and trials and difficulties.
Those are sure. But I'll tell you what, I can't
pinpoint anything to be sure. Not in this world. I can pinpoint
this to be sure. Christ. Is all my inheritance. He's everything he's everything. He has. Conquered all our enemies. So now we see this by faith We
see this by faith that Jesus is our head and as he is our
head. So are we his body? I mean, how
simple is that to see? How simple? I mean, we all got
a head and a body. We all can see how closely attached
our head is to our body. Well, that's how closely in union
we are with Christ. Where the head is, there the
body is. Where Christ is, there we are.
Just as sure as my head, unless I die and it's cut off, it's
supposed to travel with me tonight. When I leave, my head is going
out there and my body is going with my head. You know what? Christ is our head. And we are
His body. And I'll tell you what, I've
never experienced any joy that my head and body both weren't
together with it. I'll tell you, if my body's hurting,
I'm not experiencing too much joy. Are you? If I've got, if
there's something wrong with my head, my whole body is going
to do everything it can to get my head to feeling better because
it's in union. Well, you know what? Christ is
perfect. Guess what? So are we. Guess
what? So are we. He's holy. So are
we. So are we. Is that not a great
inheritance? Is that not a wonderful inheritance?
Is there anything that you can have better? Is there anything
better? There's nothing better. But I'll
tell you what, now then we see these things. We see this inheritance
by faith. But one thing we don't see is
we don't see it by sight. We don't always feel it, do we? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
Flip over there real fast. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13 and look at verse
12. The Apostle Paul says, For now we see through a glass darkly. We see through a glass darkly. Believers in Christ, we trust
the Word of God, don't we? I believe God's Word. I believe
what God says. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
is all my salvation. I believe that God has promised
me eternal life and God is going to give me eternal life. I know
this. How do I see this? How do you
see this? We see this by faith, but faith is dark. It's not full. We don't see the fullness of
our inheritance. Back in Ephesians 1, God says
in His Word that He gave us the down payment, which is His Holy
Spirit. He has given us the earnest of
our inheritance. But as of yet, I have not seen
the full weight of this inheritance. I've not felt the full weight
of this inheritance. Now we see things darkly. Through
faith, we see these things. And I'm so grateful that God
has chosen our inheritance because then I can trust it. I can trust
it. Even though I have not seen it
with my eyes. We have seen wickedness, haven't
we? When you look at the world, do
you see order? I see chaos all the time. Everything is moving. Everything is changing. One minute
you're up, one minute you're down. You don't know what's going
to happen next. It all seems variable to us. We don't see the wicked cut off. We see sorrow. We see pain. We see difficulty. We see tears. We see a world that hates the
gospel of God's grace. Do you see what I see? Now, if I had to believe with
my eyes, I wouldn't believe. But faith is not what you see.
We don't see the inheritance yet. We have not seen Christ
face to face. But Paul says, now we see through
a glass darkly. But then, face to face. Then, When it's all done, then
we'll see everything clearly. But now, everything's dark. Everything seems to be in disarray. I was
walking in, I saw a blanket on the thing there, and I sat down,
I was talking to somebody on the phone right over here, That blanket
kind of glittered at me and I go, what's this? So I really looked
real close. It was a black and white and had little glitter
spots in it. But it just seemed like it didn't have any pattern
to the glitter. You know, I looked at it and it just looked like
it was all over the place. But the closer I looked and I
pulled that thing out, there was lines of gold string all
the way through that. Now, if you look at that thing,
you couldn't tell if there was order in that at all. But there
was. Friends, we can't see the things
that God has for us. But God has purposed all things
so that we will inherit our inheritance. That we will fully, one day,
see all that God has done for us. And this is the part I want
to talk about, the lot of God's providence. We see the inheritance
of God's grace. Now, the lot of God's promise. Now, I told you before, the nation
of Israel had the whole land as their promised land. But then
they were cast lots to see which portion of that they would get.
Friends, we all have the same inheritance. Your inheritance
is no different than mine. Your salvation is no different
than mine. Your Lord is no different than
mine. And one day we shall all receive
the same reward in heaven, Christ. We'll all be manifest. We'll
all receive the same glory. Not going to be levels in heaven.
Certain rewards for Matt because he's greater than everybody else.
No. We all receive the same. But
in this life, we don't. Do we? Your lot is not my lot. Your portion of things, of friends,
pleasures or sorrows may be different than others. But remember this, God has predestinated
all things for your good. So whatever your lot, It's specifically
tailored for your good. Specifically. Whatever it is
you need, you got right now. Is that not something that you
have everything you need? If you don't have it, you don't
need it. Otherwise, God would have given
it to us. What is predestination? Is that
not the eternal decree of God concerning all things? God predestinated all things. Our lot in this life has been
determined by the casting of God's lots for us. And He gives each one of us what
we need. Gil, our salvation is the same,
but our experience is not the same, is it? It's not the same. I hear Gil when he talks about
his testimony and how he came to believe. That's not how I
experienced it. That's not what happened to me
in my life that brought me under the sound of the gospel. It was
different. But we all brought on the same gospel. We all heard
the same message. We all received the same Lord
and Holy Spirit. But we have different lots. And providence is the fulfillment
of predestination. Providence is the fulfillment
of predestination in time. Therefore, believer in Christ,
is it not well for us to leave all things in His hands? Is it just not reasonable to
leave all things in the hands of the one who predestinated
to happen and whose providence will happen? It will. Whatever God is determined to
do, He will do. He will do. Is that not great
to leave it into the hands of the One who gave us an inheritance
of such magnitude? It is well. This is the fullness
of joy to leave all in His hands. If He has predestinated all things
for the excellency of Jacob whom He loved, Shall he not fulfill
all that he promised to his chosen in time? This is the praise and
worship of God to surrender all our possessions and our very
lives to Christ. Is that not just a reasonable
thing to do? There's peace in that. We rejoice in God's sovereignty. We rejoice also in God's sovereignty
of our providence. Cast all your cares on Him. Why? He careth for you. He careth
for you. Charles Spurgeon said this, leave
all your affairs in His hands For then our hands are empty
of all care of self and free to be used for his honor. If
you've got self here, you're not free to use your hands for
the service of Christ. But if you let go of yourself,
your hands are empty to serve God. Hands are empty to serve
God. Let us not be so concerned about
the things around us. Another man said this, he said,
we should not be troubled that we have no more from God, but
we should be troubled that we do no more for God. We always seem to be troubled
about what we don't have. Instead of troubled about what
we don't do for Him. We should be busy about his business. We should be servants of him
and each other. And I will close with this illustration.
Go to Joshua. Go to Joshua chapter 17. Now,
this is concerning Israel and their lots. And this is concerning
the lot specifically of Manasseh. Remember, Joseph had two children
and these children They were to divide one lot among them. Half would go to Ephraim and
half would go to Manasseh. Joshua chapter 17. Look at verse
12. And yet the children of Manasseh
could not drive out the inheritance of those cities. It lists all
these cities and all the providence they were given. And there were
some Canaanites still in the land and they couldn't drive
them out. But the Canaanites would dwell in the land. Yet
it came to pass when the children of Israel were waxen strong that
they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them
out. And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why
hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing
I am a great people? For so forasmuch as the Lord
hath blessed me, Hitherto. What is he saying? He said, Why
didn't I get more? I'm so great. Why didn't I get
more? Does that sound familiar? That
sounds so vaguely familiar. I know that because that's me. That's us murmuring and complaining
about our lot. Manasseh said, there's too many
trees over here. Joshua said, shut up and cut
down the trees. Well, we've got these Canaanites.
If the trees weren't enough, we got these Canaanites and we
can't get rid of them. Sin. Oh, I got so much sin. I just can't get rid of it. I'm
just going to quit. I can't do it. Friends, nowhere in scripture
does God give us an excuse for sin. I know this, we cannot do
anything but sin. But I'll tell you this, God gives
us no excuse for it. He gave us his spirit and his
promise. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. We murmur and complain so much
about our inheritance instead of just enjoying what God has
given us. He has given us the inheritance
of eternal life. He's given us His Son. What more
can He give us? What greater gift can He give
us? Therefore, we should be people
of service. We should be people who love God and love each other. Is that not His commandment?
Is that not the sum and substance of the law of Christ? And that
law to us is not grievous, is it? It's not grievous. It's good. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.