After the events began to take
place on Wednesday, I immediately thought of this psalm, and one
verse in particular, verse 12. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Our days are numbered. Providentially, the message this
morning on the radio. I don't know how many of you
heard it. I hope you did. I turned it on. These messages on the radio are
repeats. Dad hasn't preached a live message
in a couple of years now. They're repeats. I grabbed that
CD and went through the file cabinet looking for something
to submit to the radio. I saw that one and it interested
me, and that was on Monday or Tuesday, not knowing what would
happen. So I put it in, and then this
morning I turned it on, and some of the first words out of his
mouth were, teach us to number our days. I don't need a sign
like that. It is one to me. It confirms
the message, but we don't need any signs to confirm God's Word. God's Word is truth. It speaks
for itself. But I do love that when the Lord
bears witness with our spirit through the Word. And this is
how He speaks to us. You know, calamities and disasters,
sicknesses, death, things like this force us, forces everyone
Stop and think about the brevity of life, how short this life
is. It's a shame, isn't it, that
it takes things like that to force us. But we're flesh, the
Lord knows that. It forces us to think about how
short this time is and the frailty of our flesh, just how fragile
we are. what a little thing it takes
to end our lives. But for most people, sadly, for
most people, when the fear and the pain and the sorrow subsides
a little bit, then their thoughts of these things do too, don't
they? For most people. And then our
thoughts return back to vanity. Useless things. Things that don't
matter at all. That's what most of our attention
and our thoughts go back to. For that reason, the Lord will
not let His people forget. So He sends His people. He sends
His people many troubles and trials, more so than the people
of this world. That's what Psalm 73 says there.
And He sends them to His people. Along with a lifelong struggle,
inward struggle with sin, which the world knows nothing about,
which like Lot, we're constantly day in and day out vexed with
this thing called sin, which causes us to look to our God
and to long for His salvation. The world doesn't have that.
But these things keep us thinking on eternal things. God sends
these things, especially to his children, to cause our thoughts
to be set, our affection set on things above, not on things
of the earth that are so temporary. Our Heavenly Father will not
let his children forget. They shall all be taught of God. and be taught of God. The things
that we're going to look at again here. We just looked at this
last year, about a year ago in June or July, but we ought to
look at it all the time, this very psalm. One of the oldest,
written by Moses. So this is the theme of this
psalm. Oh, that they were wise. and
that they would consider their latter end. Teach us to number
our days, that we may truly apply our hearts unto wisdom. And it's all going to end. It's got to. It's all going to
end. It's all going to end. Everything. Everything is going
to end, except those things which cannot
be shaken. those things that are eternal.
So teach us. Teach us, he said. All right,
and we're going to learn some things here. It says we're going
to learn about our infinite God. We don't know much about that,
do we? But we need to be reminded of just how finite we are and
then the brevity of time, just how short time is. And why we
have all these troubles, sin and God's wrath, and then the
fear of the Lord, and then it ends with a prayer, four or five
verse prayer, okay? He says in verse 1, Lord, Thou
hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before we
even knew it, as the Lord said, I girded you. though you didn't
know Me. All those years I fed you, I
girded you. In Him, we live and move and
have our being. People are so utterly foolish.
They don't know God when they say things like, God's a big
part of my life. Well, in Him, we live. The God in whose hands our very
breath is in all our way. God is life. We only live. Because we live in Him and He
is life. He determines our days and so
forth. We're in Him. Thou hast been
our dwelling place. But this is especially, now he's
talking, he's writing to God's people because it's much said
here to us. Our and us. Our and us. Talking to God's people. Believers.
That He has especially been our dwelling place. Every generation,
we've been in His heart, in His mind, in His love, in His purpose,
in His covenant, in His Son all these years before the world
was made. Before ever mountains were brought
forth. We've been in His mind, in His
heart. That's impossible to understand, but it's so. Keep that in mind
in reference to the things that happened to them. And the brevity
of time, and yet God spent the equivalent of a thousand years
ordering every day. Our God, in whom we live and
move and have our being, says He's everlasting. From everlasting
to everlasting, He is our God. He's our Creator. He's our Maker. He's our eternal God. He's our
sovereign. He's our ruler. God is God. I'm so glad, aren't you? I'm
so glad our God is God. And He's revealed Himself to
us that He is God and that we are in Him. And He's made me
to believe and rest in Him as my God. Thou art my God. He said, Yea, and you shall be
my people. You'll know me. I've chosen you
to know me. That I am God. God, reigning
ruler, nothing by accident, nothing by chance, all under His sovereign
will and control and purpose. He's eternal. Man acknowledges
that the universe is eternal. Man who professes himself to be wise.
says that the universe is eternal. They have to acknowledge that,
don't they? They've been creating telescopes and things to try
to get to the end of the universe. And the further they get, the
more they realize the further it goes. That it is infinite. And we can't, finite man cannot
understand infinity. And yet they acknowledge, man
acknowledges that this universe is infinite. It goes on. It doesn't have a beginning or
an end. Try to get out your little mind around that. It doesn't
have a beginning, it doesn't have an end. No matter how far
you go that way or how far you go this way or what, it just
never ends. It's infinite. Why? Because God is infinite. God made it. That's why it is
that way. And He's infinite. Everlasting. Everlasting. Thou art God. Man is not. In light of just
how infinite God is, stop and think about how finite we are. Look at verse 3. It says, you
turn man to destruction. Turn man to destruction. It's
saying, return ye children of men. We're no sooner born than
we're dying, aren't we? We're so finite. We're no sooner
born than we're dying, and some do die even in childhood, don't
they? Childbirth and early years. We're no sooner to die. Our Lord
said this, dying to Eve in the garden, didn't He, in the very
beginning. He said, this is the way it's going to be, because
of sin. Dying, you're born, and the minute
you're born, you're dying. Us foolish beings, more thoughtful
should. The only reason we are is God
makes us to stop and think about this. Not the world, but His
people. He turns man to destruction.
He's born to die. It doesn't take much. It says,
Thou turnest him to destruction. The Lord is the one we heard
this morning. We can quote it from Deuteronomy
32. He said, I make a light. The Lord is the
one who does this, ends our lives, our existence here. It doesn't
take much, does it? It doesn't take much. A little fire will destroy vast
resources. A little rain will flood this
world of germs. You know, we have these major
arteries, and we don't think much about these arteries, do
we? You know how small these arteries are? You know how much
your body, humanly speaking, depends on that blood flowing
through the slightest little... Just close it off. Just, Lord,
pinch it off. You're gone. You're gone. Breath. Psalm 104, I believe it is, says,
Now take us to weigh His breath. So, let's go. It doesn't take
much time. We're such a frail, finite creature. The Lord said, the Lord's the
one that does that in His time, in His purpose, at His appointment. It's appointed. That's what we
heard from Job 14. It's appointed. The Lord does
that. The return. When He returned. Well, the Lord made us, he said,
from dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Man returns
to his earth. Not all that we lay claim to
in this world is six feet of dirt, a hole in the ground. We
can't take anything else, we'll go back to our dirt, to what
we are, return. Look at this, in verse 4 it says,
a thousand years in thy sight, or as but yesterday when it's
passed, a thousand years. Man, you know, science, they
throw around a billion years. They claim to be wise. This is
how foolish men are, okay, in trying to come up with a reason
for why things are like they are, why the world exists. how things got this complex,
amazing, glorious thing that God says is creation that He
made in six days. If they don't reject God and
they come up with these theories that it took how many years? Well, a billion, two billion,
three billion, four billion, five billion years. Billions?
That's a long time. A long time. The point I'm trying
to make here, they don't stop and think, well, in light of
a billion years, and we have just a few days on here, are
you an idiot? Are you going to go on thinking
like that? Are you going to go on looking
into black holes? Are you going to go on without
giving? I mean, you've got just a few days here. You don't have
a billion. You've got a few. You're not
going to evolve. Something's going to happen.
After you die, then what? You've got a few days left. What
are you thinking about? Why gaze us down into heaven?
That's what the angels told the men. Why are you gazing into
heaven? I'm a thousand years. He's going
to tell us, his people. How to apply our heart. Time
is so short. A thousand years and a thousand
years and nigh-siders. But yesterday, yesterday, this
psalm was written 1,600, 1,700 years ago. Moses had been gone
a long time ago. 3,500 years ago. 3,500 years
ago. Damn! It's so relevant, isn't it? It's like somebody
just wrote this. Because it's just a thousand
years. How long has Moses been dead? How long has Abraham, David,
all these people? How long? The last entry in God's Word
was almost 2,000 years ago. Bam! It's over. 2,000. He says
in verse 5, it's like a sleep or a flood. He carries them away
as with a flood. We talk about so much water under
the bridge, don't we? These rivers and streams. Do
you know how many gallons of water go under any bridge at
any given time? It just keeps flowing, and men
don't stop and consider it. Where does water come from? The
Word says He waters the earth from the hills and the streams.
Lord, it just keeps flowing, keeps flowing. How much water
has gone on the bridge? Well, how many years have gone
away on by like a flood? How many years? How many years?
It's like asleep. Asleep. Sleep is a precious thing,
and the older you get, the less you get of it. But when you go
to sleep, you no sooner close your eyes than you're awake,
aren't you? I do. I go to bed. I go to sleep,
and when my head hits the pillow, I'm out. And it seems like I'm
just done. It's like in a blinking of an
eye, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, where'd those six
hours go? Well, that's what he said this
life is like. You know, singer, blink your eye till it's over.
It's like a sleep. See, it's like a watch in the
night. There were three or four watches the Scripture talks about. A few hours here, a few hours
there. Verse 5, carry them away like a sleep. Verse 5, in the
morning they're like grass which groweth up. In the morning, verse
6, it flourishes and grows up. In the evening, it's cut down.
It's like grass. Isn't that what the Lord told
the prophet to cry? And Isaac, what shall I cry? He said, cry this. Behold your
God. Infinite God. Your Creator. Look around you. Are you a fool? God made this. God is God. Look at this. And behold, all
the place is grass. Grass. In the morning it springs
up full of life. And no sooner it seems like it
springs up than it starts to decay until it's cut down. My,
my, how quickly time goes. When we were in the hospital,
Luke Coffey was here with Tracy and their little newborn child. She's now five months. And anyway, they brought little
Finley into the hospital room. And here's this bubbly, little,
gurgly, beautiful baby with these red cheeks and fat and, you know,
just full of life. He's got his whole life ahead
of him. And they're laying in the bed,
an 89-year-old woman. Has days, maybe hours. And family will be laying there.
And close your eyes. And she'll be laying there. If the Lord doesn't come back.
That's how quick. That's how quick. My dad sat
there in a chair while all his family was around him. You know,
that'll be me if the Lord doesn't come back. That'll be me sitting
there. Maybe in the Indy line. If the Lord doesn't come back,
it's going to happen. And it's going to be like that. Like that. Like a grass that, you know,
is cut down. Who cuts it down? The Lord does.
The Lord does. Verse 7, We are consumed by thy
anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Man is a few days and full of
trouble. Why? Why all this trouble? Why do we go through all this
pain and suffering and sorrow and sickness and then we die?
Why? Men and women have been trying
to answer that for years. They've been looking here. They've
been looking there. There's only one place to look. In the God
in whom we live. And move and have our being.
And the God who tells us the truth. Who is the truth. Who
reveals the truth to us. The reason being, the reason
for this trouble is Sin. Sin. Now, one man, sin, entered
into this world. And death by sin. And the consequences
of sin until death are pain, suffering, sorrow, sickness,
toil. We read that, didn't we? Strong
labor and sorrow. Wrath, which preachers, false
preachers, never bring up. Never bring up. And how foolish
man is because Romans 1 says his wrath is clearly revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Well, the
wrath of God is clearly revealed from heaven and all that goes
on in this world and all that God sends to this world, wrath,
man's a fool. Let us not be foolish, but wise. Why? He sends these things because
God is angry with the wicked every day. Verse 8, He set our
iniquity before Him, our secret sins, in light of His countenance.
How God sees this. He says, Am I God at hand, not
a God afar off? Oh, I see thee. The whole thing,
a secret sin. That's why David, a man after
God's own heart, said, Oh, Lord, cleanse me from secret sins and
presumptuous sins. Forgive them. And our iniquities
have separated us from our God. Oh, that they were wise and would
realize. But we won't until God shows
us. And what a great mercy it is
He shows us our sins and our iniquity in the only way They
can be put away, and the only way we can live with Him someday
eternally, the only way whereby God can be just and justify it,
the only way whereby God can accept us, the only way God can
love such wicked creatures as man, such ungrateful creatures
as man, the only way is Jesus Christ. He has to reveal Him
to us. All our days, he says in verse
9, are spent, passed away in thy right. We spend our years
as a tale that is told. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. In all of our lives, every single
one of us, our lives are a tale. The Lord has our lives in his
book of life. Every one of us. We read the
lives of God's people in his book. All of them aren't there. The books couldn't contain. could
contain all the story. Well, the Lamb's Book of Life,
the Book of Life is. It does contain the stories,
all of our stories. But you know what? Your story
and my story is a short story. God reveals that over in Genesis.
I think it's chapter 5 and other places. It talks about various
ones. They lived back then, seven or
eight, even nine A hundred years. That's a long time, isn't it?
No, it's not. No, it's not. And the Lord reveals
that by writing their tale down. He says, so-and-so lived 780
years, and he begat sons and daughters, and he lived so-and-so
long after he begat sons and daughters, and he's dead. He
tells a 700- or 800-year story like that. Tales. What do you remember? What do
you remember now? It's over. Psalm 103 says, when we die,
I said, the place thereof you'll know it no more. Except those
that know you and love you and, you know, live with you, they
will remember you. Thank you. But the rest of the
world and people, forget who you are, forget you ever lived.
Doesn't matter how long you live. A short story. A short story. One time I saw a squirrel hit
by a car. I watched it happen. And then
the next day it went by and a little bit of him left until a few days
later. You couldn't even tell that that squirrel was there.
It's gone. No sign of it. So will it be
with every one of us. You won't even know we walked
on this earth. Dust. It's gone. A tale that's
told. Days of our years, verse 10,
are threescore years and ten, seventy. That's our allotted
time. You know, the Lord, before the
flood, men lived a long time, and then after the flood, because
of the exceeding wickedness of man. God said 120 years. As if to say that's all I can
take of man. Just 120 years. And then, after
that, he said, 70. I'll cut it short. 70. He's exceedingly
wicked. Until the end of time, and that's
it. 70. Maybe 80. By reason of strength,
that is. What strength? Your constitution?
No, God-given strength. He said there's four score years.
Go back to Job 14. If you did not hear the message
on the radio, go back there with me. I did. It made me go read
it again, as we should. You know, Moses probably only
had the book of Job to read. Moses wrote the first five books,
but we agree, don't we, Dad, that the book of Job is the oldest
book in the Bible. What did Moses consult? Moses
had the Heavenly Word of God. I believe he may have had the
book of Job. It sounds just like Job 14, doesn't it? The psalm. He says, A man that is born a
woman is a few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like
a flower. Sounds like what Moses was just
saying. Cut down, fleeth as a shadow? Does God, verse 3, open his eyes
on such a one? What is man, Job 14, what is
man, verse 3, that thou shouldest think on him or visit him? He
brings us into judgment, thinks about it. Who can bring a clean
thing? Man is a sinful, iniquitous creature,
such a rebel. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? It was one of the first questions
he asked. How can God be just and justify? Verse 5, see, and
his days are determined, the number of his months are with
thee. Thou, God, hast appointed his
bounds that he cannot pass. Days, our days are numbered. Days, mind you. See that? This
is how he tells us, speaks of our life in terms of days, not
years. Days. Teach us to number our
days. And they're determined, down
to the day, down to the hour, down to the moment, down to the
second, it's been appointed. And you can't pass. Bam. Here
the two shalt out come, and no further. The means of our death, God has
appointed. The time of our death, the place
of our death, it's all been appointed. We have a divine appointment.
It's appointed unto man, man wants to die after that. The judgment. And verse 6 says,
Turn from him that he may rest. He's like a hireling. He's a
servant. He's under God's hire. He fulfills
God's purpose. And that's it. When he fulfills
God's purpose, it's over. Takes away his life. Oh, listen
to this. Verse 12. I love this. Don't
you? This man lies down, rises not, till the heavens be no more.
We've never seen one person rise from the grave. We've laid many
in the grave. They're still there. Some of
our loved ones have been there for many years. They're not getting
out of that grave until the Lord says it's time. Oh, look at verse 13. Oh, that you'd hide me in the
grave. I believe Job is saying, just put me in the grave now. Oh, don't you love Isaiah 57
where he says, righteous men are taken, spared from the evil
days to come. Don't you love that? But people
don't take it to heart that the Lord, He takes away the righteous
from the evil to come. Is it going to get worse? Yes. And that man that He puts in
His bed, oh, he enters into peace. He's resting in His bed right
now, walking in His uprightness. I believe that Job is saying,
just go ahead and put me in the grave now. But no, it'll be in
his time. Verse 13, he says, until the
wrath be passed, but you've appointed me a set time, and would you
remember me? Like the thief, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. If a man dies, shall he live
again? Huh? Will he? How do you know? Well, go back to our text. There's
only one way we really know. No one. We'll see here in a minute. But in our text in Psalm 90,
it says, days of our years are spent through hard labor. Verse 10, hard laboring in sorrow. Isn't that what he told Adam
in the beginning? Huh? The sweat of your brow. Hard labor. It doesn't seem to
end. It won't end until it's over.
Oh, my. Pain and suffering and sorrow.
Oh, the sorrows. This veil of tears. This valley
of the greatest sorrow of all is losing our loved ones. And
we walk through this valley of the shadow of death, it's called.
It casts a shadow upon all of us. Oh, my. And it's soon cut
off and we fly away. Fly away? Where is he? Verse 11, who knows the power
of thine anger? Who does? According to your fear
is your wrath. What he's saying there is it
looks like man would stop and think and consider all of this,
all this trouble, all this sorrow and all these calamities and
all these plagues and all these things that befall us and consider
the heavens He declares glory, and from the heavens comes His
wrath. It looks like man would stop and think, we're just having
nothing but trouble here, isn't it? Why? Why? Why? Man, they try to find
some goodness in men, you know. They've been trying to find it
for years. In light of all this, verse 12,
he says, so teach us. He will teach his people. They
shall all be taught of God. Our Lord said, all his children,
all thy children, he's quoting Isaiah, shall be taught of the
Lord, and great will be the peace of the Lord. We're not going
to have any peace until he teaches us. And one of the things, the
first thing he teaches us, the fear of the Lord, and to number
our days. Teach us to number our days. He began there with fear, didn't
he? Who knows the power of his anger? It's according to his fear. You
see how he began this? The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of the wisdom. You won't number your days until
you fear the Lord. Nobody will even think about
God about the brevity of time and eternity until they begin
to fear the Lord. Teach them. Who knows the fear
of the Lord? That's who's going to be taught to number their
days. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Anger, wrath, sin, judgments,
iniquity. Fear Him. Didn't our Lord say
this? Did you read the article in the bulletin? I love Matthew,
Henry. Oh, I love that man. I love that
man. I think it was Matthew Henry, whoever wrote the article about,
yeah, it was Matthew Henry. There it is. And he said, in
quoting our Lord, our Lord said, our Lord talked about hell and
judgment. He said, sometimes the only thing that will arrest
these passions is fear of the Lord. By the fear of the Lord,
men depart from the people. Oh, my. Who knows the fear of
the Lord? Well, whoever does, whoever the
Lord has given this fear of him, he will teach them to number
their day. Number their day. What does it
mean to number our day? Well, briefly, to consider that
we just have days. To really think about our time
here as days. He said, number our days. Days,
not years. You don't know. Our Lord said,
don't boast yourself of tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow
might bring. Or don't think of tomorrow. You don't even know
that you will have tomorrow. Every one of us that's lost a
loved one, you know, we went on and carried on our lives until
that day they were taken. And we didn't know what was going
to happen. We didn't know what was going
to happen. We just fully thought, we just lived, you know, expecting
there would be a tomorrow. But our Lord says, don't even
expect tomorrow. number your days. Consider that
we have just days here. Days. The number of our days
is to use them wisely. That is, consider we just have
a few days here. How are we going to spend them? My, my. He says, redeem the time
by the truth. Sell it not. Redeem the time. Use it wisely. Oh my, how? Why? Paul said this. Here's what
Paul said. For me to live. Listen. Here's wisdom. Just have
a few days. And this brief time of vanity,
all the days of our vanity, of things that don't satisfy, things
that don't last, things that don't give anything they promise,
boom, it's over. All the days of our vanity. Days
of our vanity. For me, Paul said, for me to
live is Christ. To know Him. He said, oh, that
I might know Him. For the time spent here, he said,
for me is to get to know Him. To know Him. To win Christ and
be found in Him. Oh, that I might know Christ.
Just have a few days. Oh, and to serve one another.
We don't have each other with a few days. Just a few days. We love one another. We really
do. We don't want to lose one another, but we're going to. And here's wisdom. We only have
a few more days together on this earth. We only have our wives. We only have our husbands. We
only have our children. We only have our brethren. Maybe
a few days. Think about that. Then how will
you treat them? It makes every word important.
Forgiveness. Mercy. Time is too short to let
the sun go down on your wrath. All regrets last a long time,
don't they? Time is too short. Spend it wisely. We just have a few days. What
is it worth? Is it worth getting angry? No. No, it is not. A few days. Apply them wisely. A few days,
and we're near the end. Our redemption draws nigh. Our redemption draws nigh. O
people, I have not seen, e'er have not heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things If they did, we'd
be so ready to go. And that's why the Lord gives
old people, He takes away all these things that young people
enjoy, the sight of the eye and the hearing and all these pleasures.
You have no more pleasure in these things. Thank God that
you do grow old and things grow dim. Thank God for that. Or we'd
still be hanging on to all this. So then He begins to give an
eye of faith, a single eye. Your hearing may be gone, but
He doesn't have to speak out loud. Speak to your heart through
His Word. Your hearing may be gone. Oh,
my. Oh, my. We're near the end. I actually numbered our days. If you live 70 years, you have
25,650 days. If you're 60 years old right now, you've got That's it. In light of that, think about
days. That's not many of them. If you're
70, it's over. It's over. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. We know that, don't
we? He says, teach us to apply our
hearts. Our hearts. We know that in our
head. Well, to number our days, here it is. He says that we may
apply our hearts unto wisdom, our understanding. The Lord tells
us whatever your hand finds to do, whatever your hand finds
to do, do it with all your might. Whatever you're doing at the
time. Young people, whatever you're pursuing, whatever you're
doing, do it with all your might. Apply your hand to it and do
it with all your mind, okay? But apply your heart to wisdom. It's foolishness to apply your
heart to things that don't last very long. Apply your hand. Give your hand to it. Do it with
all your might as unto the Lord, but apply your heart, your understanding,
your affection. Set your affection. And you can't
do this except you ask the Lord. Lord, you apply my heart. Make
me to understand. Remember that? Make me to understand that this
is nothing, that thou art eternal, that I am so finite, that I don't
have tomorrow, that the things that are unseen The things that
are seen are temporal. Make me to understand that I
go to my long home when I'm not coming back. Make me to understand. Apply my heart, my affection,
my understanding to wisdom. Wisdom. What's wisdom? Let me remind you of the wise
old owl. The Lord made an animal called
an owl. And for some reason, human beings
have equated wisdom with an owl, haven't they? I think I know
why. God, amazingly, providence and
ironically, if you'll ask an owl anything, you know what he'll
say? What happened to clarity? Apply
your heart to wisdom. What is wisdom? It ain't no what. Wisdom's not in the theory. Wisdom's
not in the doctrine. Wisdom's not in attaining to
this knowledge or that knowledge. It's a person. Wisdom. And this is why Solomon,
we talked about Solomon the other day. Solomon wrote all these
proverbs. What do you write about? The
wisest man to ever live, what do you write about? Not a what. He begins in Proverbs 4 and the
whole way through, and Proverbs 8, especially the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one speaking. He says, I, wisdom, dwell with
knowledge and understanding. He that seeketh me, findeth wisdom. I am wisdom. Here's foolishness. You want to know the foolishness
of man? God walked this planet. God walked this planet. And he told us who God is. He told us what this is all about,
this earth, and he revealed himself to us. He told us about death.
How did he tell us? He went there and came out, and
he was here 70 more days, and seen over 500 people at one time. Death is not a thing to be feared.
He died, came back, and he told us this. How foolish is man? We'll listen to everybody but
him. You know what this book's about? Jesus Christ. Here's the issue. Here's the
story. Here's what everything... Here's
wisdom to know Him. That's why Paul said that, O
man, I may know Him, whom to know is to have wisdom. If you
know Him, You know, life. He that hath
the Son hath life. Life more abundant. This is not
life. Christ didn't have these things.
But He was perfectly content, always in peace, unmoved, untroubled. He's wisdom, you see. He's wisdom. Will God punish sin? Yes, He
will. Jesus Christ was crucified. Is
God holy? Yes, He is. Look, Jesus Christ
was crucified. That's what God will do with
sinners. Is God merciful? Yes, He is. Look, Jesus Christ
was crucified. Will God forgive sin? Yes, He
will. The scapegoat took the sins of
His people and came back to tell us they're gone. John, he said,
they're gone, I put them away. You trust me, he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never perish, he said. Here's wisdom. People want to
live forever. That is one way. Christ! There's no other way. There's
no fountain of youth except the fountain of blood that flows
from Emmanuel's veins. The sinner's pond beneath that
flood will lose all their guilt and shame. That's the fountain
of youth. Wisdom. Apply thy heart to wisdom. There's peace with God. We don't
have any peace in this world, do we? We don't have any peace
in this world because of sin. But God. Oh, He reveals Christ
who was made peace for us. He made it by the blood of His
cross. And there's peace. The only real
peace we have on this earth is when we hear this gospel. Peace
of mind. We have peace of mind, resting
in our God. Peace of soul. We can die in
peace, rest in peace. Because Christ. Because Christ
lived. Because Christ died. Because
Christ rose again. Because Christ ever liveth. He
said, it's me. I live. Forever. Forever. And you'll never die. Do you
believe that? Rest right there. Here's a closing prayer very
quickly. He says, return, O Lord. How
long? Those that know and love the
Lord Jesus Christ, they want Him to come back soon. Go, return,
O Lord. How long is it going to be? That's
what Job wrote, didn't he? All my years I will wait till
my change comes. The days of my appointed time,
I'll have to wait. We're going to have to wait.
We'll have to wait on the Lord. It's appointed, your time is
appointed, you're going to have to wait. You want to go now,
don't you? But you're going to have to wait. Oh, Lord, give
me patience. Give me patience. But David,
Moses said, how long though? How much longer? I'm like Lot,
I'm vexed here. Let it repent thee concerning
thy servant. You know, it repented the Lord
that he made man in Genesis 6. It says he repented God spoke
as a man. He said, I wish I'd have never
made you. But concerning his servant, he repents of that.
God is not a man to repent. God doesn't change his mind,
but he speaks in a way that we can understand. He looks at man
and says, I wish I'd have never made you in our life. I wish
I'd have never made you. Showing us his complete disgust
with human beings. But it repents him concerning
his servants. But I'm not going to destroy
Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So do His people. Let it repent thee. And it does.
It does. He does concerning His people.
Oh, my. He turns His wrath from them. He turns it on Christ. Oh, satisfy us. Verse 14. Satisfy
us early with Thy mercy. Early. Oh, it's good that a young
man bared a yoke from his youth. You know what? Lord, put the
yoke upon our children now. Don't let them go through a lifetime
of sin. Put the yoke on them now, Lord.
There's only satisfaction in Him with His mercy. It satisfies early with our mercy,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Oh, I wasted so
many years in righteous living like a prodigal son. Some of you even more so than
I. That's what he's saying there. Lord, put the yoke upon us early,
us and our children. Make us glad. Look, this is good.
Verse 15. Make us. Remember that? Make us glad. We're so sad. We're so sorrowful. We're so
downcast so often, aren't we? David, why art thou downcast?
O my soul, hope in God. Make us glad, he says, according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, the years wherein
we have seen evil. Make us glad. What does that
mean? It means show us that you have
sent these trials, that God has sent these trials, that God has
sent these troubles, that all things work together no matter
how bad they may seem. All things are working together.
It's all good. Make us glad. Paul said this. He said, I'll rejoice in infirmities. I'll take pleasure in infirmities.
Trials. Oh, my. Rejoice that thou art
filled through temptations and trials. Why? Because you're His
people and He's not going to let you love this place. He's
not going to let you think only of this place. He's going to
keep your mindset heavenward. Set Christ to work. That's why.
Rejoice. He doesn't give you a love. He's
put the world in their heart. He put Christ in yours. Rejoice. Make us glad. Make us see that
these bad things are really good. That these evil things are really
wonderful things. It's all good. Verse 16. Let your work appear unto thy
servants. Thy glory. His work. What work? That great work of
redemption. Let it appear unto us. Your glory,
Lord, show us your glory. All right, he said. Here it is. I will make all my goodness pass
before you. I will be merciful to whom I
will. I will be gracious. I am the Lord that forgiveth
all thy iniquity. Look on Calvary's tree. That's
my glory. That's what this whole universe
is about. Time and eternity. Jesus Christ. That's one of the reasons we
love to come here. These people are Christ-like. Imagine the
people of the sands of the sea just like Jesus Christ. They
want it. Oh, my, that's something to look forward to, isn't it?
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and the work
of our hands, whatever we do, yea, the work of our hands, establish
it. We spend our days, and we just
have days, most of our days, lavishing things upon ourselves. We do. I do. Thinking about myself. Time's too short for that, isn't
it? And I'm too worthless for that. There's a better purpose. There is a real purpose, a better
use of our time. Establish the work of our hands.
We're here, the Lord has served us. We're to serve, number one,
His glory. This is a good thing. It's a
good work what we're doing at this moment. Come here, you take
part in the worship of our Lord. What are they doing in glory?
What's anybody doing? Not plowing or planting or cleaning
or anything. They're serving His glory. They're giving Him glory. Worshipping
Him. And about the only thing we can do with these hands is
serve His people. So, establish my hands, these
hands that have just lived all their lives for me. Let them
be spent for your cause, for your people. That's time well
spent. So teach us. Alright, we're going
to sing and close in number 10. Number 10, which was written
with Psalm 90 in mind. Number 10, Isaac Watts paraphrased
for us Psalm 90.