Now if you would turn, maybe
keep your finger there in Deuteronomy 32, turn over to Lamentations
chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. This is the chapter that David
has read to us this morning. And I want you to look at verse
24. Verse 24. Where the writer says, the Lord
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope
in Him. Now we read over in the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 32, this text, verse 9, for the Lord's
portion is His people. For the Lord's portion is his
people, and then in Lamentations 3 and 24, the Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Now what the Lord
says concerning us, we discover that as we read these two texts
that we also can declare concerning him. He said that my people are
my portion and his people say well the Lord is our portion. You see how that the Lord gives
the word and then Our hearts, like an echo, it repeats every
syllable. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Now, the Lord loves His people,
and we love Him, the Bible says in the book of 1 John, because
He first loved us. No man is before God in love. God loved His people in old time
And we love Him now because He loved us. He has chosen His people,
and then they have chosen Him in return. It works just that
way. No man would choose God until
God has first chosen him. Election must come before our
choice of the Lord. Unless God has chosen us, Unless
God has loved us and chosen us in Jesus Christ before the foundation
of the world, we would never have chosen Him. Now the saints
are precious to Him. The saints are precious to the
Lord and unto us who believe, the Bible says, He is precious. The saints of God are precious
unto the Lord and unto us who believe the Lord Jesus Christ
He is precious Christ lived for us. He lived for us vicariously
He lived for us under the law. He obeyed the law every jot and
tittle of the law the Lord Jesus obeyed vicariously for us and
for us to live is Christ and Paul said, he lived for us and
for us to be alive and in faith and in the gospel and for us
to be children of God is for us to live to Jesus Christ. Now we gain all things by the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that we needed in
order for the penalty of sin to be put away, we gained it
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We gained everything,
the penalty of sin must be paid, and Jesus Christ was charged
with our sin. When our sin, when Adam's sin
was imputed to us, we died. And when our sin was imputed
to Christ, He must die. And Christ died at the cross
and satisfied the demands of God toward us. And so, beloved,
we gain all things by his death, and for us to die is gain. For us to die in the Lord, for
us to die, being that his death was our death to sin, for us
to die, the apostle says in Philippians, is gain. It's gain because of
his death. And if it had not been for his
death, then of course it would never be gain for us to die. My beloved is mine and I am his. The scripture says in the book
of Solomon, the song of Solomon. And it is very delightful to
me to see how that by divine grace believers come to have
in time the very same feelings toward their God which their
God has towards them. Isn't that marvelous? Isn't that
wonderful? And there are many of you that
have come to that. I'm sure that you've come to that. Where that
you feel in your heart a love toward God. And where you have
chosen in your own heart and soul the Lord above all others. And you've set your affection
and your love upon Him. And you've come to that place
where you feel that you are joined to Him, and you're a part of
Him, and that He's precious to you, and you feel this. Well,
beloved, you feel all of this because the Lord first felt that
way toward you. Now, this text, then, that we've
read, or these two texts, they present us with this very blessed
truth. The elect, the church, is God's
portion. The church is the Israel of God. Jacob was the lot of the Lord's
inheritance, we're told here in Deuteronomy 32 and 9. Jacob,
Israel, is a type of the Israel of God which is made up of all
God's elect. All of those that are in the
family of God are in the Israel of God. They that are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. It's those that
are born of the Spirit, and those that are in Christ, and those
that have been brought to faith, a living faith, in the Son of
God. And so these are God's portion
and He delights in them and He finds in them His soulless and
His joy. The Lord finds in His people
His soulless and His joy. But God is also, as a result
of this, He's the church's portion and He's the full delight and
the bliss of the church, and we rejoice in our blessed and
adorable God. Now the love is mutual, isn't
it? The love is mutual. His whole heart He gave unto
His chosen people, and it's evident that He gave His heart when He
gave us His very best, His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent Him down from glory above
to come into this world to die in the room instead of unworthy
worms of the dust. of the wiggling maggots of the
dust of sons of Adam that had fallen and had rebelled against
Him. God has given us His very heart
and gave it to His chosen people and now we voluntarily, though
led by divine grace to do so, we give ourselves to Him and
while He clasps His church in His arms, saying, Thou art my
portion. She returns the embrace and rapturously
cries, Thou art my portion, O Lord, saith my soul. Now then, that's
the meaning of these two texts. First of all then, that's the
opening of the doctrine of these two texts. Now then, the first
thing we have here this morning to talk about is we have the
Lord's portion. the Lord's portion, and secondly,
we have His people's portion. Now, let me first of all open
this by talking to you about the Lord's portion. Listen carefully. This ought to be very interesting
to anyone that has reason to believe that they have an interest
in the things of the gospel. Anybody who feels that they're
joined to Christ. Anyone who feels that maybe,
just maybe, they were loved of God long ago and that God had
set his affection upon them long ago. This will be interesting
to you. Now the text teaches us that
the elect are the Lord's own peculiar and special property. That's what it teaches. The earth
is the Lord's, the Bible says, and the fullness thereof the
world and they that dwell therein by creation as well as by providence
Jehovah is the Lord and the sovereign possessor of the entire universe. Did you get that? I'm telling
you that by creation as well as by providence Jehovah the
Lord is the sovereign possessor of the entire universe. Let none deny his claim. Let none dispute his ownership. God owns this world and everything
in it. God owns every creature in this
world. They're all his. He said all
souls are mine, but he has special property. in this world. The Lord has a portion in this
world. Out of all that he's created,
out of all that he's brought into existence, out of all that
he's spoken into existence, the worlds we read were framed by
the Word of God and out of all that God has made, he has a portion. He has, listen to me now, special
property in his people, in his church. Now the whole world is
God's by common right. He is Lord of the universe, but
His people, His people is His garden, His cultivated and fenced
field, and if the Lord should ever have to give up His right
to all the rest of the world, yet He never could relinquish
His right to His separated inheritance. unto those that are his special
property. The Lord's portion is his people. Can you believe that? That a
God who can make a world, that he would choose his people to
be his portion? That it's his people that are
his portion. Not some world way off, not something
out there in the galaxy, but His people are his portion. Well, how are they his? How are
his people his property, his special property, his portion? Well, we answer, first of all,
by his own sovereign choice. By his own sovereign choice. Now, beloved, according to the
Word of God in Ephesians 1 and 4, God has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. He told His disciples, He said,
you have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go into the world and bring forth fruit. And in
2 Thessalonians 2 and 13, God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Now, beloved, by God's own sovereign
choice, He has chosen his people to be his portion. God said,
that's the way it's going to be. Jesus said, and he rejoiced
in spirit one time because he said, thou hast hid these things,
the things of the gospel, the things that count, the things
that mean something. He said, you've hid these things
from the wise and prudent and you've revealed them unto the
babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. And so the Lord has been pleased
by his own sovereign choice to choose his people to be his portion. You got anything against that?
I mean, can you in any way, shape, or form say anything contrary
to that? Cannot God do what he will with
his own? Is he not God? Is he not able? Is he not capable? Should not
God have a will of his own? Would anyone argue and say that
every ought to have a free will but God's will ought to be shackled
and bound by the free will of man? No, no, no way. God has a sovereign choice and
he made it and he said my people are my portion. Now then secondly
they are not only his by sovereign choice But they're His by purchase. They're His by purchase. Now,
we know that God's people have been bought with a price. The Bible says that you're not
your own. because you have been bought
with a price. Well, most of you are aware of
the fact that we were redeemed not with corruptible things such
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, it was the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ that was shed in order that we might be the Lord's,
that we might belong to Him, in order that we could sing,
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Now listen to me, those
who are His, they have the blood mark upon them. It's invisible
to the human eye, yet, my friend, it's known to Christ. For the
Lord, the Scripture says, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. And so the Lord sees the blood
mark upon you this morning. If Jesus Christ laid down His
life, I mean, if the Lord Jesus Christ, if He suffered in your
room and stood in place, I mean, if He died for you, then the
blood mark is upon your soul. And God said in old times to
Israel, He said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And God is able to see the blood
of His own Son applied to the souls of His people. And therefore,
His people belong to Him. They've been purchased, they've
been bought. And if any adversary disputes His claim, He shows
His pierced hands. He shows His, listen, He shows
His wounded side and the emblems of His passion are the seals
of His possessions. Listen, we belong to the Lord
and He bought us. He has a right to us. He purchased
us. Isn't it wonderful to know that
you've been bought, that the Lord loved you and chose you
and then sent his son into the world and to shed his blood in
order that you would be his, sealed to him for all eternity. And then we're also his by conquest. Now when Jacob was dying, he
gave to Joseph one portion above his brethren, which he had taken
out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow. And beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ
has in a sense taken us He has taken us out of the hand of the
devil and He took us out of the hand of the devil by the doing
and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Lord Jesus took
His people out of bondage. He took them out of iron bondage. He took us out of Egyptian night. He took us out of the darkness
and out of the slavery of sin and gave us liberty, glorious
liberty. in himself, and he has taken
his people as spoiled from the strong. We are Christ by conquest. I tell you that everybody here,
the Lord Jesus Christ come to you. He delivered you with a
strong arm, with a right hand. and let everybody that's been
redeemed out of the hand of the enemy say praise the Lord, say
Amen. Let them say so. The Lord's delivered
His people. Now then, the first thing that
we've noticed here then is that God has in His people a peculiar
and special property. And we showed you that, that
you're the Lord's by sovereign choice, you're the Lord's by
purchase, and you're the Lord's by conquest. Now this text also
tells me something else and that is it shows me that the saints
of God and the saints of God You know, some people don't know
who they are. The saints of God are not those that have been
declared to be so by Roman Catholicism. The saints of God are all believers. They're holy ones. And we've
been chosen in Him that we might behold Him without blame before
Him in love. And we are positionally, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, holy before God. We are holy. Whatever our
state be, if we be children of God, we are holy ones, we're
saints. of the Lord. Now listen to me.
This text shows us that the saints are the objects of the Lord's
special care. I take note here in verse 10
of Deuteronomy 32. He had found him in a desert
land and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about,
he instructed him, and he kept him as the apple, as the apple
of his eye. In Zechariah 2 and verse 8 it
says, he that toucheth you, God has said through the mouth of
his prophet, he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine
eye. And I'm telling you this, that
the Lord has special care for his people. He esteems his people
as much as men value their eyesight. and is as careful to protect
his people from injury as men are to protect their eyes. God builds a hedge around his
people and nothing happens to the people of God except that
which God permits, that which God in holy wisdom allows. And you can say whatever you
want to, mumble and groan and bellyache all you want to about
what God is doing in the lives of His people, but God has and
exercises a very special care on the behalf of His own. It
is true the Lord is the eternal watcher of the universe, and
He never sleeps. Yet in a very distinct sense,
He is the guardian, the special guardian of His people. He's
even sent His angels to take care of you and to watch over
you, those that are the heirs of salvation. The Lord is the
preserver of all men, we're told in the Bible, but especially
He is the preserver of those that believe, those that are
His, those that are joined to Him, those that are in covenant
grace and love with Him. I, the Lord, do keep it, we're
told. I will water it every moment
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
That's the language of God toward those that are His own and toward
His special property. He upholdeth all things, the
book of Hebrews says, by His power, by His might. But His
power and His presence and His protection are more peculiarly
with His church. It's with His people. He is to
her a wall of fire round about her, and He's a glory in her
midst. The church then, as God's portion,
is His peculiar care. Now does that bless you? That
blesses me. That blesses me to know that
I'm involved Here in the flames of God and that he in a special
and a peculiar way cares for me You know what Peter said in
1st Peter or I think it's maybe 2nd Peter 5 and 6 or 7 he said
casting all of your care upon him for he cares for you cast
it all on you Just cast your care. That word cast has the
meaning of distributing. In other words, you take this
care you have and you're not able to bear it yourself and
you lay it on the Lord. You lay it on Him. In other words,
the weight is given. Or it has another meaning. Like
you pick up something hot and you can't handle it. You fling
it away. Well, that's what you do with your care. You take your
care as something that's too hot for you to handle, and you
fling it on the Lord. And the Lord cares for you, for
He careth for you. The Lord has a special care for
His people. Now then, never was their care
so tender, so perpetual, so faithful, so affectionate as the care of
God over all His chosen ones. You can't find any care anywhere
like the care you get. in the Lord, like the care you
get as being the Lord's portion. The Lord's portion really, really
true enough. I'm not kidding you. I'm not
telling you just a story here this morning. The Lord's people
really is the Lord's portion. The Lord is mighty in battle
for his people in his church. He delivered her from sin. He delivered her from sin by
power, and he shows every day The Lord shows His might in keeping
His people from falling, that He may at last present them to
the praise of the glory of His grace, that He might present
them spotless before the presence of His glory with ecstatic joy. The Lord shows every day that
He's a God of might and a God of power. I stand here before
you today having been kept K-E-P-T, kept. And no man, listen to me,
no man can lay claim to making it without being kept by God
because we ever one would fail. We must be kept. Somebody says,
why does God keep his people? And the reason is, is because
they must be kept or they would all fail. If sheep of Christ
could fall away, My fickle, feeble soul at last would fall a thousand
times a day. Neither was a castle upon a mountain
summit fortified by nature and art so impregnable as is the
church of God. The poet said, munitions of stupendous
rock her dwelling place shall be. There shall her sons without
a shot the wreck of nature see. The Lord's people are protected
especially by their God. Now there's another thing that
this text here implies to me and teaches to me that God's
people are His everlasting possession. They are His everlasting portion. Now there was something that
I read long ago in the Old Testament that was very interesting to
me. And this is what it is. That is that if any of the children
of Israel should lose their inheritance by debt, say they get into debt
and they were driven to the necessity of selling their possession or
their portion or their inheritance, Yet, there was a year of jubilee. Every seven years, a year of
jubilee. And at the end of this period,
the possession or the portion, the inheritance, it would always
come back to them. It had to be given back. And
so therefore they could not lose their portion. No Israelite could
lose his portion forever. It must come back to him. And
do you think that God will lose his portion? Do you think that
he will? I don't think God's going to
lose his portion. I don't think he will. He said
my people's my portion and he's going to keep them. They're his
everlasting portion. Now that's tremendous. They're
his. They shall be his while time
lasts and when time ends and eternity rolls on He never can,
He never will, cast off those that He chose and those that
He gave His Son for, He will never cast them out. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh to
me I will in no wise. I will... In verse 24, we have
the second part of our message, we have the portion of the Lord's
people. The Lord, His people are His
portion, and then the Lord is the portion of His own. And we
tried to show you the connection at the opening part of our service
this morning, but here's this prophet of God. The old prophet
Jeremiah, and he has been greatly tried of the Lord. He's been
greatly afflicted of God. He has had a difficult, a difficult
way. His flesh and his skin had been
made old. He was an old man before his
time. Did you ever look in the mirror
and say, well, you know, it seemed like to me I'm getting old before
my time. Seemed to me like I'm getting
gray-headed a lot quicker than what I ought to. Well, here's
a man whose flesh and skin had been made old and the Lord had
broke his bones, not literally, But figuratively and by and through
trial, his bones had been broken. And the Lord had dealt with him.
He had brought him and hedged about his way so he could not
get out. Have you ever thought you were
just hemmed in and you couldn't get out and there was no way
you could possibly escape? Well, I'm talking about this
writer of this verse here, verse 24. This fellow knew what it
was and also he said that he was so burdened and when he would
cry and shout, the Lord would shut out his prayer. The Lord
didn't hear his prayer either. And we know that the Lord always
hears prayer, but sometimes it appears that the heavens are
brass, and the Lord does hide His face from His people for
a season of time. But this fellow came to the place,
this prophet of God, this child of God, he came down here and
he said, now my soul has still in remembrance everything that
God has done, and my soul is humbled in me. My soul is humbled
in me. But he says, I recall this to
mind and therefore I have hope. He says, it is of the Lord's
mercies that he did just wipe me out. It is of the Lord's mercy
that he didn't take my life. I'm still alive. It's of the
Lord's mercy that we're not consumed because his compassions fail
not. The Lord has remained compassionate
toward me or I would have been consumed. And he says they're
new every morning. The compassions of God are new
every day toward his people. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy Faithfulness and
then he makes this tremendous statement the Lord is My portion
saith my soul therefore will I hope in him? Now listen to
me This text implies that true believers have the Lord as their
soul Soul Portion this is very important to see this You see
how this man, if you study carefully, you see how he was stripped of
everything, but now he has a portion. And that portion is the Lord. The Lord is the sole portion
of His people. It is not the Lord is partly
my portion, it is not the Lord is in my portion, but He makes
up the sum total of my soul's inheritance. The Lord is my portion. The Lord Himself is my portion. Now many of this world we're
told In the Bible, they have their portion in this life. There are many, many people in
this world and they have their portion here. They have their
portion in the things they own, land and buildings and things,
things of this world. That is their portion. Their possessions are their portion. Now, when God's children receive
anything, by the way of gift from the providence of God, they
do thank God for it, and they endeavor to use it for the honor
and the glory of God, but they still insist upon that this is
not their portion. It don't make any difference
what it is, how pretty it is, how much it costs, it doesn't
make any difference how attractive it is, how much we like it, it
still is not our portion. Martin Luther, One time he received
a lot of money, somebody gave him. Somebody died and left him
a lot of money. And immediately he took that money out and gave
it away. He said, the Lord's not gonna
put me off with money for my portion for my inheritance. He's
not gonna do that. I'll give it away. There's not
no way I'm gonna be stuck with this stuff for my portion. Listen to me now listen carefully
to what I'm saying Matthew 6 and 33 says seek you first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things These things
will be added to us These things are not what we're looking for
brother sister these things that's not it You go in the store and
you buy something and they give you a sack to put it in but that's
not what you went in the store for was to get the sack and You
went in the store to get something and they gave you the sack. And
the Lord said, you seek me first. You seek my kingdom first. And
all these things, I'll give you the sack. I'll give you the sack. All this other stuff, I'll give
it to you. You will have that. You will have that. But you seek
me first. So now listen, our portion, what
we're seeking after, what we're really seeking after is God.
That's what we're seeking after. He is our only portion. We seek
nothing besides Him. He is what we're seeking after. Now when Abraham had children
by his wife Keturah, you remember that it is written, He gave them
their portion and He sent them away. He gave them their portion
and he sent them away. But he never did so with Isaac. He never did send Isaac away
like that. So we are as Isaacs ourselves. Listen, give the world its portion.
You give the emperor his crown. You give the rich man his money
and his bags. You give her to him. Listen and
send them away, but let none. Listen, let me, let me be as
Isaac was in the tent of Abraham. Let me never be sent away. Let
God be my inheritance. Let God be my portion. What can
we need beyond this portion? Really, really. What does a man
need a flashlight for if he has the sunshine? And so if God be
our portion, then what do we really need besides this? Listen
to the words of the poet, thee at all times will I bless, having
thee I all possess. How can I bereave thee since
I cannot part with thee? Now that's the position of the
child of God. Now Augustine would often pray
He would often pray, Lord, give me thyself. Give me thyself. Now, would a less portion than
this, would it satisfy? Absolutely not. A less portion
than God himself to a true believer is very unsatisfactory. Did you get it? Did you get it?
A less portion than God himself to a true believer will never
satisfy you. It'll never satisfy you. It's
God Himself. The Lord is my portion. I don't care how much bramble
and briars I've been through in my life. The Lord is my portion
and He's the only, He's the only thing that can satisfy me. It's
God Almighty Himself. Not His grace merely, nor His
love. All of these will come with the
portion. It'll all come with the Lord.
But the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. My soul, wait thou only
upon God, David said, for my expectation is from him. The Lord is my portion. The Lord
is my portion. I hope, beloved today, I hope
that he is your portion. But listen to me, whether He
is or not does not concern me so much as whether or not He
is my portion. I'm mightily interested in whether
or not God is my portion. Is He your portion? Is He your
portion? Now let this not be a general
declaration, but let it be a particular affirmation. The Lord is my portion. Can you say that? Can you truly
say that in your soul? Now, some of us here have very
little of this world's goods. If you were to run it all through
a sieve and you were to set fire to it, you'd find out that you
have very, very little in this world that's solid and substantial,
that's real, that's got anything that's really to it, you know,
that's worth something. But we can say Regardless of
how little we have, we can say if it be true. We dare not say
it if it's not so. We must not say it unless we
have good reason to believe it's so. But we can all say the Lord
is my portion. He is my portion. Have you been born again? Have
you been born in the family of God, born from above, born from
heaven? Have you been translated out
of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son?
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, John 3 and 36? He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You say, my folks took care of
all of that. My family was religious. My family
took care of that. My mother and my father, they
took care of this religion business. And we're all going to go to
heaven together, preacher. I believe my folks are in heaven,
and I believe we'll all go to heaven together. Well, and then,
too, you often hear, well, don't you believe that the United States
is a Christian nation? Well, I don't believe any such
thing. That's a bunch of hogwash. It's nonsense. Anybody with a
lick of sense and anybody that's got eyes to see can see that
we're more un-Christian than we are Christian. Is that right?
We're more un-Christian than we are Christian? Well, I say
that we are. Now hear me out. Many think that
we're going to go to heaven in groups. All we got to do is be
a member of the right family. All we got to do is be a citizen
of the right country. And we all go to heaven, we're
going to go to heaven in a group. Well listen, men go to hell in
bundles, but we all go to heaven separately. You remember that,
don't you forget that. Listen, the tares are going to
be gathered into bundles and thrown into the fire and burnt.
But everyone, listen to me, we're all going to go to heaven separately.
We're going to go to heaven, we're going to go to heaven as
individuals. And if you're not a child of God by the new birth
and by faith and repentance toward God, listen to me, then you don't
have a child's portion. Then the Lord is not your portion.
That's what I'm driving at. That's what I'm trying to get
to. Have you passed from death unto life? Are you spiritually
alive in the Lord? Now if not, then you have not
the portion of the living in Zion unless You are alive in
the Lord. If you've not, listen, if you're
not, if you've not come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
can never have that portion which belongs exclusively to the true
born heirs of heaven. God has said to the true born
heir of heaven, he said, son, thou art ever with me and all
that I have is thine. That's what God said. to the
true born heir. Now you cannot get God, you cannot
get God as your portion. Now think about this. You can't
get God as your inheritance by working for it. It won't work.
You got to inherit it. It's got to be inherited. You
can't get it any other way. Now listen, if children, the
Bible said, if children then heirs. Heirs of God in joint, heirs
with Christ. But if not children, then not
heirs, and the heritage cannot be yours apart from sonship. Are you a child of God? That's
the question. The Lord's not your portion unless
you are a child of God. Unless you're spiritually a child
of God. Well, the Lord He is my portion,
saith my soul. The Lord is just not my plain
portion. He is my settled portion. I like this. It's settled. It's settled. It's not something
that's up in the air. No law passed on earth. No deed perpetrated in the conclaves
of hell can ever affect the eternal, immutable, everlasting settlements
of the covenant of grace which are made in Christ Jesus, which
are ordered in all things. And sure, that's a big statement. But my friend, what I'm trying
to say is our portion is a settled portion in the Lord. It ain't
never gonna change. It's a settled portion. The Lord
is my settled portion if He be, if He be my portion. If He be
my portion. And then two, He is my all sufficient
portion. Now this I like. I want you to
get this. He is my all sufficient portion. If God is all sufficient
in Himself, do you think that God is satisfied with Himself? Do you think He is? Do you believe
he is? I think he is. Why, I never read
anything in the Bible that indicated God wasn't satisfied with himself.
I think that he is an all-sufficient God. And if God is all-sufficient
in himself, he must be all-sufficient for us. That which fills an ocean,
brother, will surely fill a bucket. Don't you think so? Don't you
think so? That which, listen, the revenues
that will defray the expenses of a king, wouldn't they meet
your needs? I mean, a poor beggar like me
and you, well, I mean, there'd be plenty of money to go around. Give me the money that operates,
that they use over in England, in the king's palace, in the
queen's palace over there. And let me run my budget on that.
You think I wouldn't be enough? It'd be enough. I'll tell you
that. It'd be enough. Now listen. You say, Preacher,
it'd take an awful lot to satisfy me. Would it take more than God
to satisfy you? Would it? Well, there was an old farmer
one time. And he had a fellow that worked
for him, a hard-handed, worked for him for many years. And one
day he come to old Jim and he said, Jim, you're getting old.
And he said, you're going to have to quit working and you're
getting all broke down. He said, you're going to have
to quit working. He said, I want to give you a pension. And he said, how much
would it take to satisfy you? I want to give you a pension. And old Jim, he thought a little
bit and he said, well, I think $500 a month. $500 a month, that'd
be enough. I'd be satisfied with that. The
old farmer said, well, now you just wait a little bit. He said,
you think it over for a few days and we'll talk again. And you
tell me whether or not you're going to be satisfied with that.
He said, I want you to be satisfied. And so they talked again. And
old Jim said, well, $500. He said, I'll be satisfied with
that. So the farmer said, OK. And they shook on it, agreed
to it, settled. And old Jim went out and he was
heard to say a day or two later, I wish I'd asked for a thousand.
I wish I'd asked for a thousand. You see, beloved, it does take
a lot to satisfy a man. And when he thinks he's satisfied,
he very seldom is. He says, well, I'm satisfied.
Nah, you're probably not. You've probably never been truly
satisfied. There's always a little something,
you know. That's the horse leech in your heart that says, give,
give, give. Always wanting something more.
But God, listen to me, God is a satisfying portion. We cannot wish for anything more
than Him. Now, brother or sister, if God
satisfies Himself, if He's in me, then I'll be satisfied. I'll be satisfied. But I want
to tell you this, and I'm going to tell you plainly, because
I've been over the road, you see. I'm not an ox. I didn't
start this thing yesterday. I didn't start it in the first
place. God started it in me. But I am going to tell you this,
that if you ever, ever, ever get within spitting distance
of fellowship, true fellowship with the Lord, and if God ever
reveals Himself to you, and you ever, ever know His presence,
and if He ever sheds abroad His love in your heart, you'll never
be satisfied again with anything short of that. That'll be it.
That'll be it. And until you get to that place,
And until when God manifests himself to you, until you get
there, you ain't never gonna be satisfied till you do. And
then when you do, you're gonna be ruined for this world. You're
gonna be ruined for it. Because there ain't anything
here anymore that's going to satisfy you. And you're going
to be done with it all. And you're going to be thinking
about heaven. And you're going to be thinking about being with
the Lord. And going yonder to be with Him. I'm telling you
the truth. I'm telling you the truth. I
told you I didn't start this thing. And the Lord started it
in me. And I know by experience what
I'm talking about. I'm telling you that God is sufficient. for his people he is the satisfying
portion of his people now the poet said all my capitious powers
can wish in thee is richly stored nor can my soul conceive a joy
which is not in my Lord well how do we react about something
like this the Lord's portion is his people and the Lord is
my portion, saith my soul." Well, I think that we ought to be happy,
I think we ought to be, I think that we ought to recognize ourself
to be especially blessed of the Lord, and that we ought to go
forth into this world and as our lives rub, as we rub shoulders
with other people in this world, it's not so much what we've got
to say, It's the way we live and conduct ourselves. I'm not
for this stuff of jumping up in people's faces and casting
our pearl before swine all the time. I'm not for that. I think
that we influence people more by the way we live and conduct
ourselves than what we do with maybe the words of our mouth.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if people around you, the mouths begin
to water and they'd say, you know, I'd like to live. I'd like
to have God as my portion. I really would like to have God
as my portion. I'd like to live the life and die the death of
the righteous. I really would. And that'd be
wonderful if we could affect people like that. The scripture
says the lines, talking about the Lord's people and the lives
of the Lord's people, have fallen to us. in pleasant places, and
we have a goodly heritage. We have a goodly heritage. And so why shouldn't other people
look at us and say, I'd like to have that. I really would. I'd like to have that. Now I
want everybody here to ask themselves this question. What is my portion? What is my portion? You think
about everything that you have, everything that's went through
your hands. You think about what you plan to accumulate, what
your plans are for the future. And you ask yourself, what is
my portion? I hope you could do that with
Judgment Day honesty. And if God is not at the head
of the list that you make, say, well, here's a bunch of things
that might be my portion. If God Almighty, if you cannot
say truthfully, realistically, with judgment day honesty, God
is my portion. My friend, woe be it unto your
soul. Woe be it unto your soul. This
is an empty world. This is a vain world. This world holds nothing. It's a waste, howling wilderness. That's where God found old Jacob.
He said, I found him in a waste, howling wilderness. And that's
what this world is. Woe be it unto your soul if God
is not your portion. Father, in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we give praise and thanks unto thee. We thank
you for the privilege of preaching this morning. How wonderful it's
been as we've thought about the Lord's portion is these people
and thought about how the Lord is the portion of those that
know Him. How wonderful these texts are.
We praise you for them and the message of them. We praise thee.
Use the word and deliver souls through this message. We pray
it in Jesus' name. Amen.