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Sometimes the sermons just kind of line up, so the way that we started the message this morning is also a good way to start tonight.
What?
Thank ye of Christ. Because tonight, we've been doing, through Psalm 119, we have been doing a whole stanza every time that we preach, but you know that sometimes I get caught up on a word or a verse or something like that.
So that's what we're doing tonight. We'll just be covering one verse, Psalm 119, verse 57. Psalm 119, verse 57. You can stay seated tonight. It's a little different setting, I know. The subject tonight that we're going to take up is taken just directly from the verse.
The Lord is my portion. Psalm 119, verse 57. I'll just read that verse. The Lord is my portion. I promise to keep your words. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this night. I thank you for the Bible.
I thank you that the opportunity that we get to gather here. Lord, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word. I pray that we would remember we're in an unusual setting tonight, but this is still the gathered church and it's still an opportunity to sit under the preaching of your word and to make good use of the means of grace.
So Lord, I pray your blessing on the preaching of your word and let us be a people who would be able to say, like the psalmist says, that Yahweh is our portion. I pray God tonight, for those who weren't able to meet with us, I think especially of Stephanie and Lord, please be with my wife and her pain and I pray that it would subside soon and I thank you for Darla and Steve, going to be able to meet her over there and I pray it all in Jesus name.
Amen.
All right, the Lord is my portion. The question that you want to ask yourself tonight is, is this true of me? Is the Lord, I can see you all down there, remember I'm a lot closer tonight, so if you're talking or something like that, boom, I notice it immediately.
So the question you want to ask yourself tonight, I see that hand, is, is the Lord my portion? So the psalmist says the Lord is my portion. So first question I have, first point, what is meant by portion?
The Lord is my portion. So the ESV, the NIV, the NASV, the KJV, the LSV, all translate this word the same, portion. The Lord is my portion, Lamentations 3, 24, says the Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.
So let's think tonight for just a moment, what is meant by this word portion? What does that mean? So when you hear, hey guys, remember I can see, I'm like right here real close and you're.
Playing around, it's just distracting, all right, so I'm locked in.
So the Lord is my portion, what does it mean, the word portion, literally the word is possession. So think of an inheritance, your portion is the house, your portion is the land, your portion is the money, et cetera, et cetera, it is a possession, that's what the Hebrew word means, the Lord is my portion, this is what God says, if you remember, to the Levites, for example in Numbers, it talks about, you know, Judah, you get this land, and Simeon, you get this land, tribe of Dan, you get this land, but for the Levites, it says in Numbers 18, 20, I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
So what God tells Levi, the tribe of Levi, is what you get for your portion, what you get for your inheritance, is me. And God has always been the portion of his people. God is the portion I'm telling us tonight, God is the possession, God is the treasure of every believer.
So here's what you need to think about tonight, and kiddos, adults, everybody need to be thinking this in your mind, what is it that you would say is your portion? What is your price? What is your possession?
What is it that you are chasing after? What is it that you are excited about? What is your portion? So many people would, if you're asked that in a Sunday school setting or something, what's.
Your portion?
Oh, the Lord's my portion, right? You wouldn't say God is not your portion. But for some of you here tonight, there is the reality that your portion might be God and something else. Oh yeah, I love God, but also I'm really chasing after this, God and wealth, God and country, God and health, God and family, whatever the case may be.
But I'm telling you tonight, listen very carefully to this, God and is idolatry. We can't put anything on the same plane equal with God. So God will not be divided, God will not share your heart as it were, he will not be sought after alongside other things as if he is equal to those things.
We're not saying these other things are bad, by the way, we're not saying family's bad, country's bad, wealth is bad, or health is bad, we're not saying these things are bad, but when they're sought alongside God, when we say my portion is God and these things,.
Then we are guilty of idolatry.
Friends, I'm telling us tonight that the Lord is our portion, our inheritance, our possession, you want to know something about country, wealth, health, prosperity, circumstances and providence can take those things away.
But nothing can take my portion from me if my portion is the Lord. So let's push that a little further. Number one, what is meant by portion? Secondly, what is meant by Lord? Look at the verse, the Lord is my portion.
Now before Alex jumps up and tells us the superiority of the LSB, it's right though, it's one of the beautiful things about the LSB, it translates this correctly, Yahweh. Look down in your Bible, I know you know this, look in your Bible for just a second and notice how Lord is written, it's written differently, a capital L and then the smaller capitals.
O-R-D.
Anytime we see that in the Bible, I'm reminding you here, that is God's covenant name. Yesterday, the Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on Gunner's door and one of the things they want to try to bring to you is like, oh don't you know, God has a name and the church has hidden it for 2 ,000 years or whatever the case may be.
That's not true, that the church has hidden it, God does have a name. There is a translation philosophy that since the third commandment says don't take the Lord's name in vain, we won't translate God's name, that way we won't be guilty of taking.
It in vain.
I disagree with that philosophy, but you need to understand that's why it's there. Now God's name though, means something. Our names sometimes don't mean a whole lot, Alan, Bob, you know, maybe we don't have a whole lot that comes from that, it's just what our parents named us.
But God's name has a meaning, Yahweh means that he always is, period, this is a part of what he's saying when he says to Moses in Exodus 3, I am who I am. God is the I am. Clearly in the New Testament what you need to know is that Christ identifies himself not with Yahweh, but as Yahweh.
Jesus Christ is Yahweh in the flesh. He says things like I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the bread of life. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and life. Then in John 8 he says, before Abraham was, I am.
I've told you before, terrible grammar, wonderful theology.
Before Abraham was, I am.
What is Jesus saying? He's saying he is Yahweh. So when we think of the word Yahweh, when we see the text, the Lord is my portion, the psalmist is not saying God the Father is my portion, because Yahweh doesn't equal just God the Father.
What I'm saying is Yahweh is one God that eternally exists in three co-equal persons. Yahweh is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father is Yahweh. The Son is Yahweh. The Holy Spirit is Yahweh. But we don't serve three gods.
We serve one God in three persons. So the psalmist says that Yahweh is my portion, God's personal name. It's a little more personal, isn't it? When you call me Pastor, that's a title. When you call Brother Jacob Pastor, that's a title.
It's a little more personal when you use our name, right? You say Pastor Jacob or Brother Jacob or Pastor Quatro or Brother Quatro. That's a little more intimate. That's a little more personal. Well, you need to know here that the psalmist is not calling God by his title.
He is calling God by his name, by his covenantal name. I am who I am, his personal name. This name brings to our mind several things. He is eternal. He is always the I am. He is self-existent. I am, period, not made.
He's inexhaustible. I am.
I exhaust that.
You can't.
He's unchanging. He remains the I am. He is not us. He is different, distinct, separated from us. We are not those things. He is I am and we are not. He is God and we answer to him, not him to us.
So here's the reality.
Yahweh is my portion. That's what the psalmist says. Benjamin Keech says the reason why the Father sent Jesus Christ to work out this salvation was that we might have God to be our God. If I could press this into our hearts tonight, if I could press this into my own heart tonight to just get this reality that the purpose of the gospel, that it's a great portion of the gospel, is God.
The reason that God saves us is to bring us to God. You hear so many people talking about the gospel and they say, I can't wait to go to.
Heaven.
I can't wait to see so and so. I can't, you know, I'm so glad I'm saved because my life is better or whatever the case may.
Be.
And I'm not saying that those things are bad in and of themselves, but the great glory of the gospel is that we get God.
Yahweh is our portion.
The Son of God left the glories of heaven to bring us back to God. He was born of the Virgin Mary to procure righteousness for His people, to be slaughtered on the tree under God's wrath as our substitute, to rise again from the dead.
Why?
That He might bring us to God, that to triumph God by our regeneration, by our being born again and looking to Christ in repentance and faith, that God Himself would be our treasure and our delight and our portion.
Our portion. Listen to me tonight. What do you get in the gospel? What you get in the gospel, what we're holding out to people in the gospel is God. When we stand on the street and proclaim Christ, when we pass out tracts, when we knock on doors, when we plead with people, we're not promising them riches in this life.
We're not promising them a national takeover. We're not promising them anything under the sun. We're promising them one thing. If you'll turn from your sins and believe on Christ, you will have peace with God.
You will have God. And that's the great hope of the gospel. Now think about this. The Lord is my portion. If Yahweh is our portion, then whatever is true of God is true of the reality of our inheritance, of our possession, of our treasure, of our portion.
So let me give it to you this way. The Lord has an unfading, or the Lord has given believers an unfading portion, a portion.
That lasts.
You got a piece of land today?
I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer, but it ain't going to last.
One day someone else is going to own that piece of land. One day someone else is going to own your house, they're going to own your car, they're going to own your camper. You got money today? Well, I'm just, again, not to be super pessimistic, the dollar you own today is worth less tomorrow,.
Right?
Hat tip to our president. But this is not true with our portion. It's unfading because our portion is the Lord. Because our portion is the Lord, we have an inexhaustible portion. It is an all-satisfying portion that never runs out.
I saw today, oh, it was at the Osbournes, I was like, I saw this somewhere when we ate, they have over there, kitchen sink, Psalm 37 .4, delight yourself in the Lord. Now think about this. Psalm 37 .4 says this, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
You've heard this story about it's self-deprecating, so I use it because I was so shelf-promoting this morning that I will humble myself tonight. Psalm 37 .4, I think I was a sophomore and I found the key to getting the girlfriend I wanted, Psalm 37 .4.
If I just delighted myself in the Lord, He would give me the girlfriend I wanted. Because that's what the promise is, right? Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart, right?
I found the key.
Well, it didn't work, mercifully. So, it didn't work. What did I do wrong? Well, I didn't understand the verse. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you what you delight in.
Which is what?
The Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desire, which is the Lord. So when you hear some fat cat like Jesse Duplantis sitting on the TV telling you, delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you a bigger house, bigger money, no, that's what they desire.
That's what their heart is, that's idolatry. But if we delight ourselves in the Lord, we get an inexhaustible portion. And our satisfaction in Him is inexhaustible. So I'll tell you this tonight in the fallen world, you get bored with your job, you get bored with it, you buy the new car and day one it's amazing, day 15 it's amazing, six months in, okay, it's kind of wearing off, and then you have it 3, 4, 5, 20 years and it's not that new car anymore.
Or you get disgruntled in your marriage, you don't have an inexhaustible satisfaction in.
Your spouse, sometimes your spouse bugs you, right?
Or you get disappointed in the family vacation, you have your idea like, oh this is what this is going to be like, but then you participate in it and it's not great. But I'm telling you tonight that none of those things is true with God, because it is a portion that cannot be exhausted.
Any dissatisfaction we have in Christianity comes when we try to find our portion in other things. If my kids will just behave, right, if my house will just be this, if everybody in the church would just think this way, when we begin to put other people as our portion, we're going to be dissatisfied.
But when the Lord is our portion, our satisfaction is inexhaustible. We're beckoned in the scriptures to draw near to God, and He will draw near to us. And the reality is we can't have as much of this inexhaustible portion as we desire.
And so I say tonight, Lord increase our desires, oh may we love Christ. So this brings me to my next point, how can I have God as my portion? How can the infinite, self-existent, holy God be my portion?
How is that?
Oh, am I not more astounded by this reality that the God of heaven is the portion of His children. We're sinners, we're sinners in Adam, we're guilty of our own sin. We sin because we are by nature sinners.
I'm an evildoer in and of myself, but the Bible gives me these two great words. We found them in Ephesians, but they're not just in Ephesians, there are other places.
Too.
But God, God in His love for sinners, and according to His divine justice, went willingly to the cross in the person of Jesus Christ, the God-man. He did for us what had to be done if God in His love and justice was going to rescue sinners.
He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He suffered for our sins. He paid our ransom. In Him, we noticed in this morning in Ephesians, we have redemption through His blood. So is God everyone's portion then?
No.
Of course not.
But this work of Jesus can be true of those in this room tonight if you will seek the Lord while He may be found. But listen to me, church. Too often, we are like the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler goes away sad because his possessions were many.
So he walks away from Christ.
Do you think that he regrets that today?
Yeah.
Think about that.
It's like the little child. You guys have kids.
You guys have a lot of kids.
What's wrong with you people?
You take a child and they're playing with a $20 bill. So you reach in your pocket and you've got some pocket lint.
And you say, I'll give you this for that $20.
And they're like, oh, okay.
You know, they make this or an old piece of gum or something, you know. Why is that? Because they don't understand value. When I was growing up, much to my chagrin, my parents wanted to have goats. Oh, okay.
So we had goats. And sometimes we had to catch those goats. And one of the ways that we devised, my brother and I, to catch those goats was to just fill.
Up a bucket with rocks.
Like, what?
Well, I mean, not fill it up, but just put a handful of rocks in the bottom. You'd shake that bucket of rocks and those goats would come running, right? And then they were caught because we were able to trick them, right?
They were caught after these, I mean, I know I've got a lot of talents, but I can trick.
A goat.
I can trick a goat with the best of them, okay?
So just whatever that means.
But they were caught by worthless things. Because of something worthless, they were entrapped. And I'm telling you tonight, that really is a reality for a lot of our hearts. We have these ideas about the world, we have these dreams, and we have these goals, and I'm not saying they're bad.
So sometimes you think, well, we're just talking about drugs, we're talking about alcohol, we're talking about things that enslave people at times. But there's a lot of quote unquote good things that will entrap your heart that you'll grab onto and reject the Lord.
We hold on to the gods and idols of the world because we're convinced that these things are better than the Lord being our portion. So how can God be your portion? Well, of course, we are in desperate need of the Holy Spirit's sovereign work.
But we are exhorted to assess our values. So I'm telling you tonight, to assess your values. Are you really going to miss heaven because you're holding on tonight to a bucket of rocks? Are you really going to miss heaven because you're holding on to your clay things?
I'm saying to you tonight, let it go and seek the Lord. Set your portion in Him alone.
And now let me say this.
So I'm going to make an appeal tonight to the young folks in our midst. Make the Lord your portion at a young age. The Bible says, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Seek Him today. Don't put off finding your satisfaction and solace in the God of heaven.
Do it today. Quit holding on to your sins. Quit holding on to your idols. Some of you, listen to me now, some of you are holding on to your self-righteous. You think, I'm talking to the children, you think that because you can memorize scripture, you think because your family does family worship, you think because you're at church every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night, you think that you're a better, in a better position with a holy God than the person who's outside the church on drugs.
And I'm telling you tonight, listen children, I'm speaking to you for just a moment, it's.
Just not true.
Yeah, praise God that your parents had you where they had you. Yes, you need to be in church and not out on the streets, of course, but you need to understand those things will not get you to heaven if you're not looking to Christ in faith.
If you're relying on how good you can memorize the Bible, if you're relying on how good you can answer the catechism questions, if you're relying on the fact that you're always at church and you know where everything is at church and you know the pastors and all that, that won't save you.
It's only Christ.
So I'm saying, let go of these things and look to Christ in faith. And I want to do something a little more intimate tonight, I'm just going to say to you, Amelia,.
You need to look to Christ.
Piper Nelson, you need to look to Christ. Haddon, you need to look to Christ, son. Piper Osborne, you need to look to Jesus Christ as your only suitable and all sufficient Savior. You need to run to Jesus.
Amelia, you need to look to Christ. Jack, you need to look to Christ. The Lord must be your portion. Rory, you too, you need to look to Jesus. He says, yes, Jesus must be your portion. Josiah, you need to look to Christ.
You don't need to rest in yourself, you need to look outside yourself, Josiah, and you need to look to Jesus. It's true of the rest, KK and Mabel, Alistair. I understand that we have some people that are beyond the comprehension of understanding what I'm saying, but children, I'm saying to you today, listen to me.
I'm saying to you tonight, you need to seek the Lord. While you are young, you need to go to Christ. And may God use your life mightily for 80, 90, 100 years, walking with Christ. And then I say to the rest of us in here, let's not just tell our children and exhort our children to these things, let's preach the gospel to our children and then live it out to the glory of Christ, to seek the Lord.
Psalm 42, 1 says, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
You think about that.
As the deer, in my KJV background, as the deer panted for the water in the song that we sing, so my soul longeth after thee. We do a lot of things in our life, a lot of sacrificial things. I'm talking to the adults.
I won't call you out by name.
We do a lot of things in our life to get what we really want. We want to lose weight, we get up early. Exercise. We want to vacation when we're older. We put money back in retirement. We're willing to sacrifice to take our children to ball practices or to homeschool events.
We give up a lot so that moms can stay at home and homeschool or take our kids to music classes or whatever the case may be. Are these bad things? Of course I'm not saying these are bad things. But when we pant for them like a deer pants for flowing streams, they become sin.
Christianity is based, of course, on God seeking us, not us seeking God. This is wonderfully true. We don't seek God first. Had He not sought me, I never would have sought Him. But this is also true in the Bible.
Believers, true believers, seek God. They pant after Him. He is their desire.
He is their portion.
And the excuse many people give for not panting after God is I don't have time. I don't got time to read my Bible.
I know I should read my Bible. I just don't got time. I don't got time to pray. I know I should pray.
I don't got time to pray.
I don't got time to study.
I don't got time to study sound theology. Or meet with people for fellowship. Or grow theologically.
Or read good books.
I'm just too busy.
You don't understand my schedule. I don't have the time. But I'm saying to you tonight, perhaps your problem is you're panting after the wrong things. And I'm inviting you tonight to see our triune God as your portion.
And I'm telling you that this is the problem with Christianity in so many places. It becomes the means to some other end. I want to keep my kids out of trouble. Or I want to have a better society. Or I want to have a good marriage.
Those things aren't bad.
They aren't bad at all.
They are good things. But these things are not the essence of Christianity. A good marriage. A good society. A better life.
Kids out of trouble.
That's not the essence of Christianity. Because you understand, when the country fails. When your kids get in trouble. When the marriage is rocky. When the bank account is empty. Christianity is not less true.
And it's not less powerful.
Because Christianity is based on this reality. God is our portion.
Our flesh and our strength may fail. But God is the strength of our hearts. And our portion forever. Our eternal, unchangeable, holy, triune God. Has made us for himself. He has made us to glorify him.
And enjoy him forever. He has done all the work to bring us back to him. In sending his son to be our righteousness. And to be the propitiation for our sins. Christ has won the victory in his resurrection.
And he is ruling and reigning. Seated in heaven. So tonight friends. Is this God your portion? The Lord, the text says, is my portion. Can you say that tonight? The Lord is my portion. The Lord is my portion.
The Lord is my portion.
The Lord is my portion. Can you say that? If you can't say that. Then what you need to do tonight.
Is to run again to Jesus.
Ask the Lord to search your heart. Search me and try me. And see if there be any wicked way in me. Search the depths of my heart. Oh God. Know it tonight. I can't understand my own heart.
My own feelings.
But God you are the knower and creator of hearts. Search my heart and see. Is there anything else in there. Trying to creep in. And take your place.
And I'm telling you tonight.
If there is. Confess it before the Lord.
Repent.
And rest again in the glorious gospel of Christ. Young people.
Children.
Listen to me.
I'm looking at you. I still see you.
Listen.
Tonight. You need to remember what the pastor said. And you need to look to Christ. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus. Repenting of your sins. And resting yourself.
In the finished work of Christ.
Let's pray.
Father I thank you for this text tonight. And I thank you that you have inspired it. In such a way that.
It is exactly what.
Your word.
It is exactly your word.
Help us tonight to be the church. That rests in you.
As our portion.
Let us be a people. Who have God as our treasure. And our inheritance. And our everlasting. Possession. I pray for those in here tonight.
Who are not believers yet.
Would you even work in their hearts tonight.
Would they believe.
The good news. Of the life death. Burial resurrection of Christ. I thank you for Bob and Tony. Lord we love them. We pray for them. What a kind thing they have done tonight. To open their home. That we are able to gather with them.
Bless their home. May Christ be their portion. We pray in Jesus name.