Well, I don't know if you noticed, but we just sang Psalm 119, and now we're going to turn our attention to it. So let's go to tonight, Psalm 119, 57 through 64. That's what we read or what we sang in Psalm form. Psalm 119, 57 through 64. It's been a number of weeks since we've been here, I'm very happy to get back to it. I like routine, I like normalcy. I think many of us do as well. It's time to get back to the Psalter, not only singing it, but hearing it read and preached. So this is the het stanza of the Hebrew alphabet, Psalm 119, verses 57 through 64. Listen carefully, this is the reading of God's holy word. The Lord is my portion, I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies. I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. At midnight, I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules. I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love. Teach me your statutes. Well tonight I want to talk about this first phrase, the Lord is my portion. That's really all I'm going to talk about tonight. The rest of the verses I'm just going to reference to as they connect to this idea of the Lord being our portion. Many of you know that there is a, I don't know if cancer would be the word for it. I'm tempted to call it a cancer, but there is a false teaching in the church today called Social justice, wokeism, it goes by many, many words. What it used to go by is the term liberation theology in Latin America, and I know because I served as a missionary in Latin America, and it was very prominent amongst the Roman Catholic communities, and it's something that could be wedded to Marxist and socialist, but mostly Marxist ideologies, political ideologies. I mean, when you had Roman Catholic priests agreeing with Che Guevara, you know that you had a problem. Those ideologies should not go together. The Roman Catholic priest, if he's doing his job, there's a lot that can be said about that, but should be against any ideology such as communism. But unfortunately, and it really does grieve my heart, it really does. I have a heavy heart tonight because I've had many conversations with people who have been swept up in this movement. It happens to be people in this iteration of the spread of this lie that are African American that seem to be swept up in it. I've had many, many conversations with African Americans who are my brothers and sisters. I think many of them, if not most of them, are just deceived. I still consider them to be my brothers and sisters, but even at least one who has left this church. A few things that I notice to be a pattern of this false teaching is that number one, they take the word justice, a very precious word to any Christian, they take the word justice in the Bible and they fill it with a blend of post-modernism as perpetuated and disseminated by the likes of people like Jacques Derrida, if that name means anything to you. He was a French philosopher in France in the 1960s and 70s. Michael Foucault, another philosopher who really pushed this idea of, when I say postmodern, I mean really deconstructionism, where you're just tearing down the ideas that were established and in the water and in the world and had a foundation before so that you can erect some other ideology. So they fill the word justice with ideas that come out of deconstructionism and postmodernism, but that are married to a Marxist ideology that sees the world, and we've talked about this before, sees the world not the way the Bible sees the world, as There is a God and there is man and their relationship has been separated. So God needs to be satisfied by a sacrifice, by righteousness in order for man to come nigh to God. So the story of humanity is the story of redemption. The story of the Bible is the story of redemption. And they substitute in its place this category of the oppressed and the oppressor. And many of you are familiar with it. So they use a different word for justice than what we think of as biblical justice. Secondly, another problem they have is that they don't seem to use the Bible very much. I don't know about you, but the interactions that I've had with some of these folk, they really don't use the Bible, or they are very selective with the Bible. They like to use the story of the Exodus because, if you think of it, it really, it's fair to say, was a political liberation. There's no doubt about that. I don't think that's all it was. The Jews were a national entity. They were a political, a body politic. and they were liberated from their oppressors, the Egyptians. So you had the Egyptians as the oppressors, and then you had the Jews as the oppressed, and there was liberation. That's where liberation theology came from. It was wedded to a Marxist ideology. But when you get into the New Testament, and Paul takes that motif, And he imposes upon it the idea that we are separated from God and we were liberated from the damnation and the wrath that stood over us. He interprets it a very different way than the proponents of social justice theory do today. But a third thing, and this is where I want to come tonight, a third thing that I notice about this movement is that they don't have a balanced biblical view of God's sovereignty. And I think that that is the foundation of it all. Now what do I mean by that? I want to talk about that tonight. I'd say woke people and even people who are not woke, i.e. Orthodox Christians, I'm happy to stay asleep when it comes to that ideology. We both need a reminder of the sovereignty of God. We both need to know what that means for movements like wokeism and what that means for our ethics. So here's what I want to say. That phrase that we just sang, And what we hear the psalmist saying in verse 57, the Lord is my portion, is the pilgrim's song, the pilgrim being the Christian, is the pilgrim's song in this pilgrimage called this life of suffering that we're pilgriming on in, journeying on in until we get to the eschaton, the new heavens and the new earth. The Lord is my portion is the pilgrim song in good times, and in bad times, and in ugly times. He's not just our portion when things are good. He's not just our portion when things are bad. He's not just our portion when everything hits the fan, and there's blood on the wall, and He's the only one that we can turn to to have some solace or some semblance of peace and hope. He is my portion in all those seasons of life. He is the foundation of my portion. I would say He's our portion in two ways. Here's the first way. The first way in which the Lord is the portion of our life is in this sense. He is the architect of our portion. One of my favorite words in Hebrew is the word that is translated portion in this text. It's the word halak and it's used very diversely. But what it basically means is this idea of a portioning out. dividing, okay? There's a phrase, there's a poem in Deuteronomy 32 where it says, when the Most High divided the nations, okay? He gave this nation this plot of land, this nation this plot of land. He gave them their portion. Your portion's here, your portion's here, your portion's here. He later says in Deuteronomy that he also gave demons to rule as gods over them, very interesting. You should read Deuteronomy from time to time, remind you of that weird but true stuff that's going on in the Pentateuch, okay? The demons that they would end up worshiping, by the way, and I think we see the manifestation of that today. But Jacob was God's portion, very interesting. But this idea of portion also comes up in the wisdom literature, and the idea is, listen to me, listen. God has given everyone certain things and it's not all equal. Not everybody has the exact same thing from God. Some people have more, some people have less. Some people are fat, some people are skinny. Some people are poor, some people are rich. Other people are middle class. Some people are tall, some people are short. This happens in nature. Some trees are planted right next to a stream where their roots just tap right into the water and they have this perpetual source of water that keeps the leaves green and the blossoms blossoming. And then there's other trees that pop up. Somehow a bird is flying by, it drops a seed down in the middle of the desert and a little sprout comes up and then it dies. Is God unfair because of that? He's not unfair. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But you see, the woke movement says, no, everything must be equal, and if it's not equal, it's because of this oppressed oppressor ideology. But the fact of the matter is, if I can have you turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes, I just wanna give you a few examples of how the Lord gives this portion out. Ecclesiastes 5, 18 and 19. Kohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes, says that all kinds of things that we experience in life are the law of the Lord. In chapter 5, verses 18 and 19, he says this. Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him for this is his lot. There's that word portion. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his, there it is again, lot. and rejoice in his toil. This is the gift of God. Notice that he says God gives riches and possessions and the power to enjoy them. Because in other parts of the book, he's gonna complain that some people have riches and possessions but no power to enjoy them, or others have power to enjoy them but have not riches nor possessions. And it does not necessarily become a matter of, well, did he work hard enough and fulfill the American dream? The American dream means nothing when you get cancer and die. You see, God is sovereign over all these things. And yet we're told that if the have-nots don't have something, it's because those who have white skin on their body have oppressed them and have a privilege that they need to repent of. I know this is uncomfortable, especially in an almost all-white church, okay? I get it. But the fact of the matter is, I'm not speaking as a white man, I am a white man, but I'm speaking as a minister of God, trying to bring to bear upon these ideas what the Bible says about it. And the fact of the matter is, the Bible says, well, the Bible doesn't find that idea anywhere in it, except in the mouths of the wicked when they complain against God for what they don't have. Let me give you another example. Ecclesiastes 9.9. Ecclesiastes 9.9. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he's given you under the sun because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. This comes up in counseling sometimes. It breaks my heart, but I've seen it in Christians as well, where they say, you know, I just don't know if I married the right person. I don't know that it's God's will that I be married to this person. I think John Piper said this somewhere. He's all, you wanna know what God's will is for who you marry? Look at your marriage certificate. What name is on there? That's God's will. You marry somebody, that's God's will. I've seen people walk away from their marriages because they're like, well, I'm not happy. Is there abuse? Is there infidelity? No, I'm just not happy. Well, that's not a reason. You can't walk away. You can't walk away. God has given you a wife. God has given you a husband. That is your lot in life. But we rebel against it, don't we? Let me give you another one. Ecclesiastes 9, 10, and 11. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shale to which you are going. Verse 11, again, I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. Now what you need to know is time and chance in the book of Ecclesiastes is another way of saying God's ordaining of all things, his determining of all things. He controls time. There really is no chance. Chance is a very, very bad translation there, okay? It's God's foreordaining will. And notice what he's getting at here is your success in life, the socioeconomic world that you were born into, the family you were born into, the talents you have, or the talents that you don't have, all come to you from God who determines all things. So on the one hand, I want to say, we need to be very careful about what we complain about. I know we're good at complaining, we do it a lot, but oftentimes in my counseling, even myself, I have to ask myself, well Josh, at the end of the day, this thing that you're complaining about, I think if you trace it down to its root, who you're complaining against is God. That God hasn't given you these things, or that God has taken away these things from you. I think if anybody could have, quote unquote, complained, and I use scare quotes intentionally, from a worldly perspective, it would have been Joe. Lord, you've taken everything from me, except for my wife, and I wish you'd take her too. I say that in jest, but she was giving him some pretty bad advice. But it's interesting here that though he says in verse 11, God is the one who determines all things. Here we go with this mysterious inner working in verse 10. Yet he says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Work hard. Work hard, but know that the results are gonna come from the Lord. And don't blame it on other people. Now on the other hand, what I wanna say is there are true injustices in life. That's true. But we should never, and I think that this is the Achilles heel of the woke movement, we should never justify our breaking of God's law, or our inactivity, or our state in life by what others have done to us. You understand what I'm saying? It's not, okay, I have to work, but the results are out of my hands. The results are out of my hands. When I served in Mexico, I remember having a conversation with some of the Christians there, and they were good, well-meaning Christians. I loved them, still love them. But we had this really transparent moment where we were just talking about stuff, material stuff. They had a lot of Americans that came over the border and served them because they were, They were pretty much an hour and a half south of the border, so they always had American churches coming. One of the things they saw is, and Americans are usually horrible at this, but when Americans go on these short-term missions trips, they'd wear their Apple watches, and they'd wear their expensive shoes. They didn't realize they were doing it, most of them didn't, but they were kind of flaunting their materialism before our Mexican brothers and sisters. And by the way, where I served, it was a very, very poor area. And at one point in this conversation, one of the Christian brothers' sisters said, you know, it's just, it's kind of sad that like, just because of where you were born, you have the life where you have. Like, if we were born, Josh, where you were born, then, you know, we would have all these things, you know? But it's just, you know, we were born over here on this side of the border, and you were born over here on this side of the border. And it got me thinking, I remember this story that John Piper told, where it was a similar situation. One Sunday morning, he was commissioning these missionaries that were gonna go to Africa. Well, these missionaries, a husband and wife and their children, came from a very affluent family. And the missionaries came to John Piper before the service, and they're like, you know, Our parents, they're Christians, but they are not happy that we're going to Africa. They fear for our safety, they think we're throwing our life away. I mean, were they Christians? I don't know. But they said, would you say something to them? So you know John Piper, he just says it like it is. So he basically had a conversation with these parents and he said, you know, Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. So you know what? America is one of the richest countries on the planet. And right here Jesus says that it's hard for a rich person into the kingdom of heaven. So by sending your kids out of America into Africa, there's a greater chance that they're not going to fall into the sin of materialism and they're going to get to heaven. Now it's not the answer that the parents wanted. But I think it says something. Is it necessarily better that I was born on this side of the border? Well, it depends on how you look at it. It depends on how you look at it. I could tell you this, some of the closest, if I could put it this way, and I'm not afraid to speak this way, experience in public worship where I felt closest to God were in that little concrete building in Mexico where they worshiped God with all their heart. Because you know what? I think that they better understood than I did what it means to say the Lord my portion is. Because they had less things to clutter that vision of God being my portion. So I think the first way in which God is our portion is that he is the architect of our portion. What we have in life, what we don't have in life is because of his command. But here's the second way, and I think this is more specifically how the psalmist is getting at it. The Lord himself is my portion. The Lord himself is my portion. You know, when all the tribes of Israel came into the land, you'll recall this, all the tribes got a portion of the land, right? You know this, Naphtali, Zebulun, all that. But there's one tribe that didn't get a portion. Anybody know who it was? Good, excellent, Levi, that's right. Does anybody know why? because God is their portion. God is their portion, that's right. And I think coming back to the sermon this morning, I think that there's a biblical theological connection there. As Christians in the new covenant, because of Jesus Christ, we are all priests unto God, and our portion is not in this life, it's in the next life. It's God, God is our portion, right? I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, okay? It's always a good policy. John Piper has written a lot about God. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And Piper, I think, I'm very grateful for Piper. He talks a lot about God being the gospel and God being my joy. And I agree with all of that, but I'm gonna be 100% honest with you. I don't know that I totally understand what that means. I'm still on the path to understanding and learning what that means. I'm just being 100% honest with you. Maybe you are too. I mean, what does it mean to rejoice in God himself? And all the accoutrements of this life, all the extra, all the added apps that come, you know, the children and house and car and health and marriage and, you know, just the good life. What if, like Job, he did really take all those things away from us? I think in our romantic notions, we would want to say, like Job, though he slay me, I will still trust in him. What people forget is that the rest of that verse, you know what the rest of that verse says? Does anybody know? I was just reading it today. I'm like, that doesn't preach as well. It says, though he slay me, I will trust in him. And then it says, nevertheless, I will argue my case to his face. And I think that's like us sometimes. God, I will trust in you, but don't take anything else away. And he got disabused of that notion at the end of the book, didn't he? Who are you that darkens counsel with the Lord? I'm sorry. And I think where he came back to is, I'm just gonna come back to the first part of that verse, right? Though he slay me, I will trust in him. We're on a journey together in this congregation, learning more what it means to say and really believe the Lord my portion is. But when everything else is stripped from you, like Job, I think you really do then learn what it means to say, the Lord, my portion is He's all you've got. He's all you've got. When you're sitting there in that radiation chamber and all your hair has fallen off, when you're sitting there and your husband or your wife has left you, your kids have defected from the faith, your child has been taken from you, When you lose your job, your portfolio is gone, your health is gone, your vocational aspirations are gone, but the Lord is still your portion. I think you really understand what it means, like Job, to say, the Lord my portion is. And I want you to see the contrast of this by turning really quickly to Psalm 17. Psalm 17, verses 13 to 15. I think it's really helpful to see the contrast here. Psalm 17, 13 to 15, this is something of an imprecatory psalm where the psalmist is calling the Lord to strike out against the enemies. I'm gonna start at verse 13. Once again, we're in Psalm 17, verse 13 to 15. Arise, O Lord, confront him, subdue him, deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword. From men, by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world, watch this, whose portion is in this life. you fill their womb with treasure, they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. And before we go any further, is there anything wrong with any of those things? There's nothing wrong in and of itself with any of those things. You fill their womb with treasure, talking about children, we all want children, we rejoice when children are born. There's nothing wrong with that gift. You're satisfied with children, nothing wrong. I just, I went outside this afternoon and my kid was thrown away the trash. I just followed him. I just, I saw the smile on his face. I just followed him out and he threw it away and he came. I said, come here, Cohen, just come here. I just wanted to give him a hug, like I'm just satisfied with my children. That's a good thing. That's not a bad thing, but he's talking about the wicked. The wicked can be satisfied with their children. The wicked can have their wombs filled with treasure. And they can leave the abundance of their inheritance to their infants, but the thing is, is those good things for them, because their portion is in this life, those good things have become the ultimate things, you see? You see that just little shift. Good things are good, but when good things become ultimate things, then those good things which have become ultimate things are your eschaton. They are your new heavens and your new earth. They are all the heaven that you're going to get in this life. and you're not gonna get what's better, which is coming for the saints of God. As for me, verse 15, I shall behold your face in righteousness when I awake. I shall be satisfied with your likeness. This is Old Testament way of talking about the eschaton. That's why my soul was just drawn like a tractor beam to it. When he says awake, he's talking about awake from death. When I awake from death, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. What are we talking about this morning? The beatific vision. Right? The beatific vision. You're going to see Jesus. And Jesus is going to communicate the Father and the fullness of the Trinity to us. But no matter what our portion looks like, I want you to notice now the resolve of the psalmist. Listen. The resolve of the psalmist to adhere to God's promises and commands no matter what. So just come back to Psalm 119. Come back to Psalm 119. And this is really, really important. Please listen to me. Psalm 119, he says in verse 57, the Lord my portion is, and then he says, I promise, I promise to keep your words. You're my portion, you're the architect of my portion, so all that I have and all that I don't have is from you, but you yourself are my portion. So if you take away as the architect of my portion, my worldly portion, I still have you. So what is the ethical result of that, Psalmist? Look at the second half. of 57, I promise to keep your words. Josh's international version, come hell or high water, I promise to keep your words. You take away my spouse, I promise to keep your words. You take away my children, I promise that it's a holy resolve that has tasted and seen that the Lord is good, his portion is good, his likeness is good, and when we awake, we will see it in the person, in the face of Jesus Christ, and it says I resolve in this life to keep your commands, but it keeps going. Look at verse 59, when I think on my ways, presumably within the lot God has given me, I turn my feet to your testimonies. Verse 60, I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules. Verse 63, I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. Do you see the connection, beloved? the connection between the joy and the rapture of soul that comes through making God our portion, and the ethical result that come hell or high water, I will keep your commandments. Why am I saying this? Because, sadly, I have seen many Christians Buck the system and say, I want this woman, I want this man, I want more money. And the only way to do it is to lie and cheat and steal, and that means they gotta buck the Ten Commandments and just do it my way. They go for the world because they want the good things to be ultimate things in this life. But that is the exact polar opposite of the sentiment of the psalmist and the exact polar opposite of where we should be. Where we should be, where we should be, is where the psalmist in Psalm 73 is in verses 23 to 27. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. Talking to God, you hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward, here's the eschaton again, you will receive me into glory, verse 25. Whom am I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. So our resolve, dear congregation, should be that the Lord that we see him as the architect of our portion and that we see him as our portion himself. But then finally, not only is the Lord our portion, but surprisingly we are God's portion too. I want to turn as we end tonight to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. I'm just going to read the whole thing because it's so important. What I'm getting at is verse 12, but I'm going to read this whole thing so you can get the context. This is, of course, talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. what he suffered, the anguish and pain, and then in the end it's gonna tell us what that means for us. Isaiah 53, one, who has believed what he has heard about us from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears is silent so he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land to live in, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked. And with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. and he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Verse 11 or 12, therefore, I think this is the father speaking. What is this portion? I think Hebrews talks about this. When he says, I will divide him a portion with the many, it's probably better to say of the many. The many are the elect. The many are you and me. All those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Because of what He did, He won a people. He earned a people. He obtained a people by His suffering and by His obedience. We get the whole Christ and we give all of us to Him because He is a lovely Savior. Let's pray. Father God we thank you for the whole Christ and we pray that he would be a whole Lord and Savior to our whole body and soul every day of our life and that you would keep us faithful even unto death we pray in Christ's name Amen. All right let's let's enter into some prayer tonight. I have a