in verse 24, and he's speaking to his own soul. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. There are several times in the scriptures where men have spoken to their souls or their souls speak to them.

In Luke chapter There's a sad case of a man who referenced his soul. He decided that he would tear down his barns and build bigger barns, gather more money, gather more possessions, and he had something to say to his soul. He said, soul, take thy knees. Eat, drink, and be merry. That's a sad thing to say to your soul. That's a soul that is hardened in sin.

But there are other instances in the scriptures where men spoke to their soul like David did in Psalm 42. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Have you ever asked your soul that question? I don't need to be cast down. I'm redeemed. I'm a child of God. My sins have been put away. God is my Father. Christ is my Redeemer. The Holy Spirit is my Comforter. So why art thou cast down, O my soul? Perk up now. Sometimes we need to have a little talk with ourselves.

I remember Nancy's daddy, he used to talk to himself quite often. I asked him one day, I said, Duval, why do you talk to yourself? He said, well, there's nobody else around intelligent enough to have a conversation with. Sometimes we need to have an intelligent conversation with ourselves. Why art thou cast down on my soul? Look at all God's done for you.

In Psalm 116 verse 7, David speaks to his soul when he had been troubled. And David said, he said, Return unto thy rest, O my soul. Return to the Lord. Why are you so troubled? Why are you so upset? Why is your peace so fragile? Return to thy rest. And our rest is in Christ Jesus. Come unto me, Christ said, all you that labor and are heavy laden. He said, I will give you rest. Rest for your soul.

And David said in Psalm 103, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, let us bless his holy name. And here, Jeremiah, he is very much aware of what his soul is saying. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.

In these first several verses you heard him speak of his afflictions. In verse 1 he says, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He is saying, God was rough on me. I was the object of his errors. He has emptied his quiver of errors of vengeance into my soul. He said, I've seen afflictions by the rot of His wrath. But now the Lord has come to him to encourage him. Aren't you glad the Lord doesn't just leave you in your misery? He doesn't leave you in the depths of despondency?

And all of God's people, to some degree, experience times of downheartedness, and we get discouraged. And then we hope and pray and the Lord does this, then He refreshes us, He reminds us, you have a good hope through grace. You're not suffering like a lot of the children of God have through the years. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, the Apostle Paul says to encourage the Hebrew believers, he said, you haven't suffered under blood. You haven't been beaten for the cause of Christ. Nobody has cast you in prison. Okay, you got some aches and pains, you got some problems physically. But others have had much worse. Cheer up, you saints of God. You have a good hope. You have a gracious expectation of future glory.

That's a good hope, Paul says, through grace. He uses this interesting word in verse 24, portion. The Lord is my portion. What does that mean? It's what has been allotted to us. Well, tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I'm hoping that David's gonna cook, roast a good turkey tomorrow. And I may say, when he carves the turkey and puts some turkey on my plate, I may say to him, I need a larger portion. a larger portion. More needs to be allotted to me.

Well, let me tell you something. I'll tell you the portion that God has given us. Himself The word Lord in all capital letters refers us to Jehovah Jesus. He is our portion. You cannot have a larger portion than the Savior himself. He is all things to all of His people, whether we realize that, whether we're cognizant of that, whether we're thinking about that or not, He is the fullness of the portion that God can give us. God has given us a very comfortable portion to each of His children. Jehovah Jesus is our portion. Instead of earthly riches such as silver and gold or land, the covenant God has assigned Jesus Christ to us. And we have the fullness of the Savior Himself. And therefore we lack nothing. You understand? We lack nothing.

Do you remember the Levites? Hold your place here and I'll come back to it. But look back in Numbers chapter 18. Look at Numbers chapter 18. Listen to what the Lord said to the Levites. All the rest of the tribes of Israel had land allotted to them when they got to the land of promise, when they got to Canaan, but not the Levites. Are you there? Numbers 18, 20. And the Lord spake unto Aaron, thou shalt have no inheritance in their land. When you get to the land of Canaan, all the tribe of Levi shall not have any land inheritance. Neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. I'm your inheritance, I'm your portion. That's what Jehovah said. Which would you rather have? Land or Jehovah Jesus?

Over in Deuteronomy, look at Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. And let me tell you something, we are the priestly tribe. That's who we are. The tribe of Levi, that was the priestly tribe. And we're kings and priests under God. Deuteronomy chapter 10. Look at verse 8. 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 in his name unto this day. Wherefore, Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren. The Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him. You see, we have all of Christ for our inheritance, for our portion.

I know there are some people, and they mean well, but they're absolutely wrong in thinking that the more that they do in this life in the service of God, let's say, then the greater their inheritance is going to be when they get to heaven. They call it rewards. the more rewards you're gonna get. God cannot give you anything or anybody any greater than Jehovah Jesus. If you have him for your portion, you have all things. You have all things needful.

And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Jeremiah real quick. who spent years in the school of affliction. But the thing that troubled him the most was the sad condition of God's church back in those days. He recognized the fact that the destruction of Jerusalem was coming, and that the nation was going to be taken in captivity because they forgot the Lord God that brought them out of Egyptian bondage. And they were going to pay a price for that. And the price was their land would be invaded by Nebuchadnezzar The city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, the temple would be destroyed, and all of the vessels in the temple would be stolen away and taken to Babylon.

Let me give you another reference, and I'll get you to turn to it first. Ezra, look at Ezra chapter 9. And I'll read this in just a few minutes, but I want you to find it first. Ezra, chapter nine.

Ezra is led to contemplate the justice of the Lord in sending Israel into Babylonian captivity. Which leads me to say this, our afflictions, whatever they are, are lighter than we deserve. You think about what a sinner you are. Whatever afflictions God's pleased to send to you or to me, it's lighter than we deserve. And this is what Ezra, this is how he reflects upon the captivity.

Remember they were taken to captivity, they're in captivity in Babylon, and God raised up a heathen king by the name of Cyrus, who's a picture of our Lord Jesus. And Cyrus tells all the Jews, you need to go home, go back to your land, rebuild the city, rebuild the temple, and go back to worshiping God like y'all do. And Ezra, he's contemplating that. He's thinking about that.

Now here in Ezra 9, and look at verse 13. Listen to how he talks about the affliction. I mean, they suffered. There's no question about that. They suffered in Babylonian captivity. And they come back to a city that's been all but destroyed and a temple that had been ransacked. First thing they did was rebuild the altar and start worshiping God again by means of blood sacrifice.

But look at what he says, you there? Ezra 9, verse 13. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God has punished us less," you see that? Less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this. Should we again break thy commandments? and join in affinity, join in with the people of these abomination? Wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hast consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous. For we remain yet escaped as it is this day. Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

Lord, we're not getting what we deserve. That's what he's saying. He's saying, Lord, you've really taken it kind of easy on us because there's a remnant still alive. And I want you to remember this. And I'll probably continue with this message next Wednesday night, but I do want you to remember this.

When you get in a dark place, and we do sometimes, that's just fact, remember this, things could be worse. You could yet be in unbelief. you could be a stranger to the gospel of God's grace. But He sent a gospel preacher to you to tell you the truth. And as the message of redeeming grace, of blood redemption, of the sovereign grace of God went forth, the Lord by His Spirit opened your heart, opened your eyes to see the redeeming Christ, and He gave you faith to believe Him?

And God's mercies to you are new every morning. They're not stale mercies. They're new mercies. And Jeremiah would have us to remember. God's faithfulness is great. And He never forgets us, though we often, to our sadness, forget Him. But through Isaiah, the Lord says, I'm not going to forget you. Your names are written on the palms of my hands. Those nail-scarred hands lifted up that were nailed to the cross, our Savior. He loved you with an everlasting love. You were chosen unto salvation in Him. He came and bought you with His blood. He laid down His life, took it again. He's gone back to glory. He makes intercession for you.

Cheer up, saints of God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. I have a full Christ. I don't need anything else. Don't need anybody else, really. And when we come down to leave this world, to have Christ with us, that's everything. Somebody said, well, I don't want to die alone. If you're a child of God, you're not going to die alone. There may not be another physical body anywhere around. But our Lord said, I'll never leave you, and I'll never forsake you. So the Lord is my portion. You can't get more than Him. God can't give you more than Christ. And in Him you have all things. And we know that's true.

So we give thanks. Turn in your hymnals to 221, 221.