The inheritance

… Numbers, sorry, 36, Numbers chapter 36. Numbers chapter 36, and the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machia, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, and they said, the Lord commanded my Lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my Lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehadah, brother, unto his daughters, and if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put the inheritance of the tribe for unto they are received, so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance, and when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe, for unto they are received, so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers, and Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, the tribe of the sons of Joseph has said well, and this is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehadah, saying, let them marry to whom they think best, only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry, so shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel removed from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers, and every daughter that possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers, and neither shall the inheritance removed from one tribe to another tribe, but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance, even as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehadah, for Malah, Terzah, Hodlah and Milcah and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehadah were married unto their father's brothers' sons, and they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father, these are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho and in 1 Kings 1 Kings chapter 21 1 Kings chapter 21 verse 1 It came to pass after these things that Neloth the Jeshulite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria, and Ahab spake unto Neloth saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Neloth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Neloth the Jeshulite had spoken to him, for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. And verse 16 And it came to pass when Ahab heard that Neloth was dead, that Ahab arose up to go down the vineyard of Neloth the Jeshulite to take possession of it. And verse 20, Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. And I just wanted, dearly beloved, you see that there is the matter of the inheritance, the inheritance. And now perhaps it may, we don't know how the spirit leads, it might have been appropriate, there is time throughout the week to lead us deeper and deeper into these lesser truths of the mystery. And perhaps we saw the mystery that we are joint partakers, joint partakers of the inheritance. And I think obviously much more could be said this afternoon, but I think most of us have got a grasp, an understanding by the spirit of something, an initiation to something, the greatness and the grandeur and the wonder of what God has for us as we are coming with Christ into that blessed inheritance in that coming day. And in another sense too, we have all the blessed truths of the scripture, they are all there for us, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And we can think of these, regard these as something that by the grace of God we have come into, nothing of ourselves we owe it, but we have come into it, this wonderful blessed inheritance. And these two portions and the word of God and the Old Testament have always brought home to me the importance of valuing your inheritance, valuing your inheritance. And of course there are rights and order in this matter, and that's what I would just suggest perhaps in the question of Numbers 35. There's got to be no slackness, no lackadaisicalness, if you get my meaning, in the matter of the appreciation and the appropriation of this inheritance which is ours. You see, by careless marriages these five women might have married anybody else in the nation of Israel and the inheritance would have passed away. And I don't think you need too much spiritual imagination do you, dear beloved, to see that, you know, we are in a day when there is a readiness, isn't there, to give up these blessed truths and the truth and reality of that which is committed to us. This truth of the mystery, the truth of the assembly, things like that. And are we prepared to just let these things slip away because of convenience, you see. These women might have gone after some man in another tribe, but no, there was to be all of them. They were to marry one of their own tribe, but the inheritance passed not away. I won't labour a point, but I'm sure you'll see what the Spirit has laid in my heart as I was waiting there. Something that's always struck me very much was this order in it. And I couldn't quite lay my finger on the verse in Joshua. I think it's in, later on in Joshua chapter 17. Yes, Joshua 17 and verse 5. It says, you see, there fell ten portions to Manasseh beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan. And because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons, the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. Now these dear five women, they had their inheritance in the right place, didn't they? They didn't have an inheritance with the half-time Manasseh that didn't cross the Jordan, it didn't. Are we prepared to be well-borderers? Are we looking around these well-washed plains of Jordan are we saying, do this not over Jordan? I search your hearts, I search mine. I challenge you in this matter, where do we see our inheritance? Have we got the devotion of these five daughters of Manasseh to claim that inheritance on the other side of Jordan in the land? Five dear women, they could see and wanted that their inheritance was to be in the right place across Jordan. So dearly beloved, let us not be slack in the matter of holding this inheritance and the truth that's with it and the enjoyment of it and don't let us fall short of it. Let us possess it on the other side of Jordan in the land and get into it, get into the good of it. Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours. Let's get into these things and enjoy them and make them our own, walk about it and enjoy it. And then also referred us to 1 Kings 21 and there we see that terrible story of Ahab. Here was this man Naboth, a vineyard in Jezreel, harboured by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab, as we read, wanted the vineyard. And Naboth said in verse 3, the Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee, inheritance of my fathers. And dearly beloved, we've got this blessed inheritance of the scripture to be made good in a practical way. These expositions of these truths have been passed down to us. Godly men have ministered the word of God, brought these blessed truths to us. Even the very scriptures itself, you know, have been obtained at a great price. When we think of that we are able, the way we are even able to read the scriptures, think of all the blessed truths that are there. And God has given us this wonderful blessed truth as we've said. The inheritance of the scriptures and Naboth wouldn't give it up. God forbid, the Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And no matter how pleasing it might be, the king of the land, the wanting this inheritance, dearly beloved, whatever the pressures are on us, don't let us give it up. We know, you read in between, you see the way in which that terrible woman Jezebel schemed and subtly that Naboth should be deprived of his inheritance and he was prepared even unto death. Oh dearly beloved, we may not be called to die for this matter, but what have we prepared to suffer for Christ? What are we prepared to bear with, to sustain the faith once delivered to the saints, to sustain the blessed truths and reality of it? The opening up of these scriptures. Yes, you know when you go and you preach Christ and you speak generalities of the word of God, you'll be praised. But what is it, you know, to be standing for the truth of scripture? I don't really like to speak of myself, but you know, when I was converted, my grandmother said to me, you know, well, I don't mind you becoming a serious Christian, if you would continue in some church, but to go among these terrible brethren, that's an awful condition. My brethren, these are realities. These are realities. Costs, costs to walk in the path of faith, to value that blessed inheritance, to seek to bring before souls the wonderful, glorious gospel of Christ, but also to see them established in the truth. Beloved Apostle John, not that I'm anywhere near him, but you know, he rejoiced that he could see his children walking in the truth. He rejoiced, dear beloved, to see some saint of God, some lamb of the flock that's helped a little bit along the way. A dear brother said, you know, there was somebody coming to our bargaining, he said he shouldn't be in here asking questions. I said, well, look, if we're going to close our doors, he said, I said, we'd be as well stopping. That's what we're here for, by the grace of God, to set out the truth as God has enlightened us in any measure, and where seekers are, to bring before them graciously and encourage them and help them. Never, of course, without any compromising principles, graciously set before them. God will have all men to be saved. Amen, we say, but also to come unto a knowledge of the truth. And dearly beloved, if God has enlightened us in any measure as to these things, and not for our own little holy huddle of enjoyment, and there to be maintained in reality, whatever the cost is, and set it out. So I would just leave these little words of exhortation. They maybe come from the objective line, but I often feel, you know, there is a tendency among us to just hold this inheritance too lightly, not to value it properly. There's an orderly way of maintaining it. There's a variation of getting it in the right place, and there is a cost in the maintenance of that inheritance. Dear beloved, let us answer to it in faith in these days. …