Psalms chapter 90. You'll find
it on page 686 if you want to use the Pew Bible. I want to
read this entire chapter. It's a prayer of Moses. Sometimes
we read the Psalms and we think David wrote all the Psalms, but
he didn't. Other people wrote many of the Psalms besides David. And this is a prayer of Moses. And what a peculiar prayer it
is. that he prays here. And let me read the 17 verses
and then we'll quickly go back through it. Just go back through
it. That's all I want to do this morning. Lord, You have been
our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, Thou didst form the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting. You're God. You're God. You turn man to destruction,
and then you say, return, you children of men, for a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and
as a watch in the night. Thou carest them away as with
a flood. They are asleep in the morning. They are like grass which groweth
up. In the morning it flourisheth
and groweth up, and in the evening it is cut down and it withers. For we are consumed by that anger,
and by your wrath we are troubled. You have set our iniquities before
you, our secret sins, in the light of your countenance. For
all our days are passed away in your wrath. We spend our years
as a sigh, as a tale that is told. The days of our years are
threescore and ten, seventy years. And if by reason of strength
they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow,
for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power
of your anger? Even according to your fear,
so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord,
how long? And let it repent you concerning
your servants. O, satisfy us early with your
mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us
glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the
years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants, and your glory unto their children. And let the beauty
of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our
hands upon us. Yea, establish the work of our
hands. Here in verse 1, I want you to
keep your Bibles out and go through this psalm with me. It seems
strange that Moses would even make a statement like he made
in verse 1. Lord, you have been our dwelling
place in all generations. And the reason I say that's strange
is because this man in the last 80 years of his life had no dwelling
place. You remember when they ran him
out of Egypt, they were going to kill him, and he went to the
back side of the desert and kept his father's plot. And then in
the last 40 years of his life, he delivered the children of
Israel and went out into the wilderness and wandered about
in the wilderness for 40 years. 80 years of this man's life,
he had no certain dwelling place. I imagine then it really means
something when he looked up and said, Lord, you're my dwelling. You're my dwelling place. When
you consider these saints of old, we're told about Abraham,
we're told about Isaac and Jacob, who sojourned in the land of
promise as in a strange land. They dwelt in tents of the earth
and moved around. None of them had a place to stay.
Others of God's dear children that were so persecuted, the
Bible says they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They dwelt in desert places.
They dwelt in mountains and in the dens of the earth. And others
were told, here we have no continuing city. So what a wonderful statement
this is. For all God's children, of every
age, if you find them in the Old Testament or New Testament,
all of those who know themselves to be strangers and pilgrims
in this world, as believers are. What a wonderful thought is this,
to think this and to know this. Lord, you are our habitation. You are our dwelling place in
all generations. Aren't you glad that you have
a house? Some of you may not own a house, you rent a house,
but it's your home, isn't it? We used to have an old saying,
when you can't go anywhere else, you can go home. Boy, what a
wonderful thing it is to go home. Don't you feel safe when you're
home? You feel you have a familiar place to go to, to get in and
be safe. When you go home, you can sit
down and rest. You can't rest if you're visiting somebody's
house, but when you get home, you can sit on your couch, on
your recliner, and lay down in your bed, and you can rest yourself. It's a place of safety, a place
of convenience, a place where it's familiar. Well, that's how
the saint feels in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
is a dwelling place. And you know there is no place
else that's so safe as in Jesus Christ. There is no place else
that a man is complete. I'm like Wayne, for years I thought,
how can I be complete? How can I make myself complete? And I struggled with that for
years until I found out my completeness was in somebody else. You are
complete in Him. Who is the head of all principalities
and power? And when you find out you're
complete in Him, you can rest. You can rest. Just like your
home and your dwelling place. I sought for years to be accepted
of God. I thought, how can God accept
me? And I just worked myself to death. And I never could feel
accepted because I never was accepted. until I found out what
the Bible says. You are accepted in the Beloved. And when you find out that you're
complete in Him and accepted in Him, you think, oh my, what
a fine dwelling place this is. You know there's no other place
to dwell but in Christ. You know this is speaking of
the Son of God here in this room. It's speaking of Him. You say,
Bruce, how do you know that it's speaking of Him? Because all
through the New Testament, the Bible says phrases like this,
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. That's why we
say this is Him. He's our dwelling place. And
what He says about it, look in chapter 91, just over the page
from that. Look at 91 in verses 1 and 2. Look what He says about it here.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,
He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. He is my refuge, but He said
in verse 1, it's a secret place, didn't He? Being in the Lord
Jesus Christ is a secret place. This world knows nothing about
being in Him. If you're in Him, the world doesn't
look at you and say, oh, you're in Christ. No, you're in this
secret place. In Colossians chapter 3, verse
3, it says you are dead and your life is hid with Christ. You're hid. Hid. Oh, don't you feel so safe in
Him? If you're in Him this morning, don't you feel so safe? Don't
you feel so secure and so accepted? I feel so accepted of God this
morning. I think if I had a thousand souls
I could trust them all with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
accepted I feel like He's made me. And I can rest. I can rest in the Beloved. What a dwelling place He is. Thou hast been our dwelling place. And you know something? I don't
care where you find the church of God. You find them in the
Old Testament. You find them in the New Testament.
They all have one dwelling place. When you see Abel back there
offering his lamb by faith and to the last person that will
ever be put into the church of Jesus Christ. All the people
of God have one dwelling place. You have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations. He was the dwelling place of
the church then, He is now, and He is forever for me. There's
one place to dwell in, and that's Christ. Thou hast
been our dwelling place throughout all generations. And He says
here in verse 2, He begins to meditate upon His dwelling place. Who is He? And he has this thought
as he's praying to him. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. He begins to think on
his refuge and he says he's eternal. The eternality of God. He says here there was a time
when there was no mountains. before the mountains were brought
forth. Joe and I had an opportunity
to go out to the Rockies. We were out in Montana and rented
a car and we went up and drove down through the Rocky Mountains.
Man, you talk about beautiful. Up on those mountains, some places
you get up in the clouds. The clouds are down below the
mountains. The mighty Rocky Mountains. You know there was a time those
mountains didn't exist. Yeah. The foundations wasn't
laid for those mountains. The earth, the earth that hangs
up on nothing out in space, there's a time that it didn't exist.
And the world with all its creatures, mighty and small, man breathing
and going about his business, all the little creatures, there's
a time when this world did not exist. But you know something? There's never been a time that
the triune God did not exist. Oh, Moses said, you're from everlasting
to everlasting. And he's not just saying there
that he has no beginning of days nor end of life. But he's saying
that he feels eternity. The Lord God fills all space. There's no word that he's not.
He said of Himself, Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? You
and I are limited to one little place at a time. You're right
here and you're no place else. It's impossible that you could
be anywhere else but right here. That's how limited we are. But
you know something? Our triune God, our refuge, is
everywhere this morning. He's in heaven and He fills the
place. He's in this earth. You can't go any place that He's
not. And He feels eternity. If you
could take a leap back to the foundation of the world, right
on the very foundation, when God first began to speak and
said, Let there be. If you could stand there and
by faith just leap off and soar back into eternity. You know
what? When you soar back as far as
you can go, God is there. And if you could come back and
go off into the future, to the end of time, and soar out into
eternity that's to come, He's there. He's everywhere, and He's
there in all space of time. Do not I feel eternity? Yes, He does. And that's our
refuge. That's our refuge. The mighty
God is our refuge. I don't know how many millenniums
Moses has been gone. Man, he's been gone thousands
of years now, hasn't he? And things have really changed
since he's left. He changed. He changed. His body can't even be found. The Lord buried him up there
somewhere up on that mountain and nobody knows where he is.
He's gone. Things have changed. But you
know something? Moses' refuge has never changed.
The Eternal God was His refuge when He was here, and He's refuge
now. And when things change, our refuge
will never change. And that's what He's saying here.
The Eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are His everlasting
arms. What a wonderful thought. You
know, when we pray, we should take these prayers like this
and learn how to pray, and worship the Lord in our prayers. Say
to Him who He is. Verses 3 through verse 6 have
a solemn thought here, awakening thought in these passages. Moses
is meditating here upon the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of our
God in the destruction of men. He says here in verse 3, Thou
turnest man to destruction. Now if he's speaking here of
the miracle physical destruction of the body, then God is the author of that. What does God have to do to bring
about physical death? Just say it. Just say it. It's not difficult for Him. Thou
saith, return unto the dust. And they do. Our times are in
His hands. It's appointed unto men once
to die. And who appointed that? The Lord
did. The Lord. If He's speaking of
the destruction of the soul as well as the body, then you know
something, He's sovereign in that. Our Lord Jesus said, don't
fear man who can kill the body and he has nothing else that
he can do. That's all man can do, if God's pleased to let him,
is to kill your body. But the Lord said, fear him who
is able to cast both soul and body in hell. He can do that. That's God's sovereignty. And
how does He do that? My goodness, He does it so easily.
Thou said, Return, ye children of men. Return unto the dust,
and He's returned. You know, men live in this world,
and they have no idea how frail they are. They have no idea how
easily God can take a man from this world. All he has to do
is just speak. Belshazzar was having a big party
and corrupting the vessels of the Lord and there just came
a handwriting on the wall. You are weighed in the balances
and found warning. And that very night he was taken
out of this world. Just a word. There was a man
sitting at his desk, a rich man, figuring out what he was going
to do in the future to store all of his goods. His farm had
produced such fruits and he said, I'm going to tear down my barns
and I'm going to say, boy, you've got a lot of years to enjoy this
life. But a voice spoke from heaven and said, this night, men are here and enjoy their
breath by the breath of God. And it's not the breath of men
that determines their age. It's the breath of heaven. And
let heaven speak. And men are gone. He turns men
to destruction. How does He do that? By just
speaking. Return, old man. And He's gone,
isn't He? He's gone. That's the sovereignty
of our God. In Him we live and move and have
our being. At His discretion, at His will,
by His sovereignty. In verse 4, look what He does.
What is man's days on this earth compared to God's existence? He says in verse 4, For a thousand
years in thy sight are as but yesterday when it is past, and
as a watch in the night. Nobody ever lived a thousand
years, did they? Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, but what
if he had lived to be a thousand years? In God's sight, that's
just like a little tiny speck on the scale of eternity. It's
nothing. Our days are nothing compared
to God's existence. The atheist here secretly hopes
that if there is a God, that He's dead. But you know something? There is a God, and He's going
to outlive all of us. He's going to outlive all of
us combined, and never grow any older for it. In verse 5, notice how irresistible
destruction can come. Can you imagine praying like
this? Notice what He says in verse 5. Thou carriest them away
as with a flood, They are as asleep in the morning. They are
like grass which groweth up. Thou carry'st them away as with
a flood." In other words, when He says return, they'll return. When He speaks, it's irresistible. He takes them away as with a
flood. Just like the flood of old, nothing
survived but those who were in that ark. All of us have seen
floods, haven't we? We've seen it on our TV sets.
Some have seen it in person. Man, you take a flood of water
and it comes down through a community, it can wipe the community out. We've seen it root up trees.
We've seen it towns and mountains. Just destroy a mountain. That's
how destruction comes. When God says to men, return
unto the dust. It's so irresistible, just like
that flood. It carries them all away. And he goes back in verse 5 and
verse 6, and he tells us again about the shortness of life.
It's like a sleep, he says, when we awake. All of you slept last
night. Went pretty quick, didn't it?
Went pretty quick. That's the way this life is.
It's just like a sleep. And He said, it's like grass,
verse 6, that groweth up in the cool of the morning, and then
in the evening it's cut down. That's what we're like. We're
just like grass. You see some pretty young lady,
and she's so beautiful like Saber, like some of the young men here,
and just like a flower, growing up in the morning. It's got all
the dew on it, and it blooms, and it's beautiful. But oh, then
the sun comes out, the rain refuses to come down, and what happens?
It just wibbles up. It swivels up, and it dies. That's the way life is. And it's
not just here we're told that. The New Testament tells that.
All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of
the grass. The grass withereth. I feel it,
don't you? I remember when you were just
a young boy full of life, and look at you now. Bless your heart. You're looking a lot like your
old dad. That's life, isn't it? That's life. You swivel up. You swivel up. You don't believe
it? Go to the nursing home. Go to
the nursing home, and look how their life has just swiveled
up. That's how quick life passes, isn't it? That's how quick life
is, how quick it is. What is your life? It's just
a vapor that appears for a little while. I've always noticed that
about James. He said, he didn't say your life
is like a vapor. He said your life is a vapor.
It's a vapor. You see it coming up off of a
kettle when it's steaming. And what happens to it? It's
gone. It doesn't go up on the ceiling and create a big fog.
It's gone. That's what life is. You and
I are almost gone, brothers and sisters. Everybody here this
morning under the sound of my voice, we're almost gone. We're ready to pass away. That's how short life is. I've
got to do this, I've got to do that. One thing we need, and
that's a dwelling place. We need a dwelling place, a safe
dwelling place. It doesn't matter how far we
advance into this life, what we accomplish in this world,
what position we may attain to, there's one thing that's necessary
and that's to be found in this refuge, the everlasting God,
our Savior Jesus Christ. That's one thing that's essential
that you and I need because our life is coming to an end. That's
what Moses is meditating here. Oh, he says to man, return to
destruction. And he speaks so irresistible
like a flood. And man who is just here for
a few days, he's gone. He's gone. Here in verses 7 through
verse 11, Moses justifies God in bringing such a destruction. He's going to give us the cause
of it. It's not arbitrary. It's not that God says, I'm going
to tell this man, return to destruction arbitrarily without any cause.
But you know, when we think of the anger of God and the wrath
of God, there's a cause for it. And he says here in verse 7 and
verse 8, he gives the cause of God speaking like this, Him exercising
His sovereignty in the destruction of poor sinners. Verse 7, for
we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled,
we are terrified. What's the cause of this wrath?
What's the cause of this anger? Look in verse 8. Thou hast set
our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance. My goodness, our secret sins. that sometimes we don't even
know about. God sets them in the light of His countenance. Men talk about sins as though
they're such light things. You talk to people about being
a sinner. Oh, I'm a sinner. Everybody's
a sinner. We know that. Let's get on to something else.
Oh, I've sinned. I know I've sinned. And they
talk about that with such lightheartedness. What happens when we live and
die without forgiveness? What happens when a man lives
and dies without being washed from his sins? What happens when
God sets a man's sins before His pure eyes? What happens when He sets our
black monsters in the light of His holy countenance? What happens? His wrath is stirred
up. His wrath is ready to consume
us. Oh my, isn't this a solemn thing
to think about? The world goes on this morning.
They're out mowing their yards. They're playing and got their
days all planned. They wouldn't come and hear the
gospel for nothing. They're not going to sit and think on these
things. It's too, it's too awakening. It's too serious. Moses was speaking here first
and foremost, probably, of the children of Israel when they
were wandering in the wilderness. My, how they sinned against the
Lord. And here's what he told Moses. Your children shall wander
in the wilderness forty years and bear your burdens until your
carcasses be wasted and they shall be consumed. Hebrews 4
said, I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest.
The Bible says they provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. That's the way God felt towards
the children of Israel when they fell there in the wilderness.
But this can be applied to the world, can't it? It can be applied
to the whole world who is living in rebellion against God. A world that is bound in the
kingdom of darkness and slaves to their sin. A world that lives
in rebellion against God and says by their attitude, who is
the Lord that I should obey Him? Who is the Lord to tell me what
to do? Who is the Lord that I should
seek Him and pray to Him and follow Him and trust Him? Who
is the Lord? I'll tell you who He is. He's
a God that's so holy. that if he marks iniquity against
a man, if he takes a man's sins and sets them in the light of
his holy countenance, if he casts his eye on any sin that a man's
ever committed, his wrath will burn, his wrath will smoke against
that man. I was talking with a neighbor
over here a couple of weeks ago, and he made the statement. He
said, God don't hate anybody, he said. He said, God doesn't hate anybody.
God don't have the capacity to hate anybody. And he was amazed
when I quoted some scripture to him. I said, Kenny, the Bible
says that God is angry with the wicked every day. And the Bible
says that God hated all workers of iniquity. And to him that
believes not, he shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him." You know, we're living in a generation that believes
that God has the capacity to love, but He doesn't have the
capacity to hate. That He has the capacity to show
mercy? He has a heart to show mercy,
but He does not have the capacity to manifest His wrath? That He's
a God that's good, but He's not a God that's just? I was back down here about a
week later, and he hollered at me. And he said, I can't get
this off of my mind, what you told me about God. He said, I
never thought of that. that God can hate. And you know what He hates? Just
one thing that He hates. Sin. If you can get rid of your
sin, you won't see anything but His smile. If you can find some
way to get rid of your sins, you won't see anything but His
love. But you stand before Him in your sin. I'm telling you,
you'll experience hatred, you'll experience wrath, you'll experience
anger like you've never experienced in all your If I whip my glittering
sword, if I do, and my hand take hold on judgment, I'll render
vengeance to my enemies. I'll repay them to their face
that hate me." That's awful, isn't it? That's awful. And Moses
is saying here, why does God even say to man, return your
children of man to destruction? Why does He say that? For these
two reasons. He's holy and He hates sin. That's why. And He's justified
when He says that, when He does that. I asked Jo history to look up
a statistic for me. And she looked up the population
of the world. This world has grown to 7.5 billion
people. That's how many people in the
world. And I just wonder, what time you and I have been here
this morning, how many people have died. I wonder how many
people who have been called out into eternity by God Himself. I wonder how many He's spoken
to and says, Return to the dust. Go to your long home. To hell
or to heaven. I imagine maybe there's millions
that have died this morning. Out of 7.5 billion? And you know something, brothers
and sisters? They've gone to peace or they've gone to torment. They've gone to a place of glorious
rest or they've gone to a place where they'll be harassed forever.
They're going to be with God and Christ and angels, or they're
going to be with devils and damned souls. There's no middle ground. There's no middle ground. And
you know something? That's what this world don't
want to hear about. This world doesn't want to hear
about that. What kind of condition is this world in before God? Right now, this morning, what
kind of a condition is this world in before God. It's not good, is it? It's not
good. Aren't you glad for a refuge?
Wouldn't it scare you to death leaving here this morning without
a refuge? Exposed to what Moses has been contemplating here this
morning. Moses turns this in verses 12 through verse 17 to
his advantage. He turns it to his prophet. He
said, man, I know, I know what's happening. I know what's happening.
Men don't die and become annihilated. Men live and die by God's will,
and they die at God's sovereignty. He speaks. And they go to heaven
or hell, to the devil or the Lord when they die. But he turns
all of this for his profit, and he begins in verse 12 to ask
the Lord to teach him, to instruct him. Let these things that he's
been meditating and thinking upon be turned to his advantage. Well, you and I know people that
don't want to think on these things. They just don't want
to think on them. Isn't it solemn? It's solemn. I see it in your faces. I see
it in your faces. Bruce, you need to move on now.
You've been dwelling here too much on it. It's solemn, isn't
it? A solemn thing. Well, when you go out and confront
lost people with these things, don't be surprised when they
don't want to hear it. It's an awakening thing. We've
heard of men. They were in a burning house
and they were asleep and yet didn't want to be waked up. People
have shucked them and tried to wake them up just in time to
get out themselves, but they couldn't wake them up in a burning
house. That's nothing compared to this.
Men are sound asleep spiritually and when you begin to reason
with them about these things, what do they say? Go your way
when I have a convenient season. Don't talk to me about these
things. It upsets me. It alarms me. It should. It should. I was talking to one of my ex-neighbors
just this week, and I gave him one of the little pamphlets back
here. And I told him, I said, Jim, I hope the Lord Jesus saves
you and puts you on the right way. And he said, Oh, I've got
my own way. I said, I know it. This is what
I told him. I said, I hope the Lord shows
you that you're on the wrong way and put you on the right
way. And he turned his back to me and started to leave. And
I heard him whisper something about, well, I've got my own
way. I've got my own way. Every man does, doesn't he? Every man's way is clean in his
own eye. There's a way that seems right
unto a man. And the end thereof is death. And that's what Moses
is praying here. Lord, I know there's a wrong
way. And many's on that way. I know
there's a right way. That's the way I want to be on.
I don't want to face this wrong way. I don't want to face God
in my sin. So he thinks about this. He thinks about it. And he says here in verse 12,
here's the first thing. Teach us to number are days that
we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And what he's saying is this,
Lord, if my days are truly like grass, then teach me to number
those days. He didn't say teach me to number
my years or my months or even my weeks. Teach me to number
my days. It's just days. It's just days
we've got left in this world. I was talking to my neighbor.
He was going to have heart surgery. He called me the morning, the
night before the next morning, he was going to have heart surgery.
And he said, Bruce, I've just been talking to the Lord, and
I told him, if you'll bring me through this surgery, I'll seek
you. He died. The surgery killed him. He had one more day. He didn't
have a week. He didn't have a month. Teach
us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. This day now is the accepted
time. Now is the day of salvation.
You can't put off tomorrow what you should do now. Number your
days and apply your hearts to wisdom. Be wise unto salvation. Only awakened people seek the
Lord. We preach to everybody, whether
they're concerned or not. But I'm telling you this, only
awakened people, only concerned people seek the Lord. And one
of the things that men first become concerned about, the shortness
of my time. Man, I'm leaving here. God may
kill me tonight. What's my condition? And that's
what Moses said, Lord, I ain't promised tomorrow. Help me today
to apply my heart to wisdom. You can almost feel it here in
verses 13 and verse 15 as he turns his attention to seeking
the Lord. You can almost feel this in his
speech, the anxiousness of it, the seriousness of it. He says
here in verse 13, Return, O Lord. How long? O Lord, how long? I want Your presence now. I want
to live in the assurance of knowing You now. How long, O Lord? Let
it repent, be concerned in Thy servant. O, satisfy us early
with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. See the seriousness of that?
You can just feel the anxiousness in it, can't you? That's a man's trouble. That's
man's trouble. They're just not serious about
this. Sometimes you talk to some people and they talk about, well,
I'm not saved. I've been seeking the Lord for
two or three years, but I'm not saved. I can't believe that. I think if a man is seeking the
Lord two or three years and he's still not saved, I think he's
got a problem. I don't think he's serious. I
just don't think he's serious, Wayne. Because the Lord said,
when you seek Me with all your heart, you'll find Me. I said
not to the seed of Israel, seek ye Me in vain. I would say this,
the very instant you turn to the Lord is probably when He's
going to save you and manifest mercy to you. We have 3,000 men
on the day of Pentecost. And as soon as they said, men
and brethren, What shall we do? The Lord saved them. That jailer
that come running out of the jail and he was trembling, he
said, men and brethren, what must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And he did and
he was saved. It's when men get serious about
this. Dealing seriously with the living
Lord is when He'll manifest mercy to us. Old blind Barnabas, when
he was falling out, Lord Jesus, the Son of David, have mercy
on me. Why did he keep crying when they
said, shut up? He knew two things. He knew he
was blind and wanted sight. And he knew that Jesus of Nazareth
could give him that sight. When men get that serious, and
that's what Moses is saying here. Moses said, I've confronted some
of these things. I know some of these things.
This world ain't right with God. This world is perishing. I want
to know the Lord. I want mercy. And what does He
do? He seeks it. He seeks it. On what grounds did He say this? On what grounds could He say,
Return, O Lord. Satisfy me with Your mercy. Well,
let me do this quickly and look in verse 16. Let thy work appear
unto your servants, and your glory unto their children. Well,
he's been talking about the works of man, and what were they? Just
iniquities, sin. He's been talking about the awful
wrath of God upon it. But now he comes here and says,
let your work appear. I want to obtain mercy on what
grounds? Upon works, but not yours, but
His. See what he said? Let your works
appear unto your servant. And what's he talking about?
The works of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The works He's already
accomplished in the days of His flesh. Brother Wayne was talking
about that this morning, wasn't he? Jesus Christ coming down
from heaven and accomplishing a great task He said, My meat
is to do the will of Him that sent me and finish His work. What was His work? A life of
perfect obedience. Went about doing good. Doing
righteous deeds before His Father. The law looked upon the Son of
God. Justice looked upon the Son of
God. And you know what He said about it? Perfection. Perfection. God required of His Son to live
a perfect life. And buddy, He did. Under the
most strenuous circumstances that you and I can imagine. He
never did any wrong. He honored the law. He glorified
the law in all that He did. So much that the Father looked
upon Him and said, My, my, my. Never seen a man like this. In
Him I'm well pleased. And on the cross of Calvary,
having taken the sins of His people to Him, and He suffered
the strokes of justice for those sins. And He says, I lay down
my life. It's finished. And justice says,
I've got one more stroke that I want to take. One more thing
that's necessary to finish this work. And the spear went into
the heart of the dear Son of God. And all the redeeming blood
comes flowing out. Redemption was accomplished. That's what Moses wanted to appear. Let your work appear to your
servant. Oh, I've seen my work, he said.
I've seen my work. I've seen sin mix with everything
that I do. I've seen mine. Let yours appear. Let your beauty, is that what
he said in the last verse? Let your beauty be upon me. Brothers and sisters, have you
ever seen such beauty that's revealed in Jesus? Look at Him
there in the manger, wrapped in those swaddling clothes. Isn't
He beautiful? He's a holy thing in our humanity. the Son of Mary, but He's the
Son of God, and He's so beautiful. And look at Him as He walks in
this world. He has no outward beauty that
we should desire Him. Oh, but inside of Him, His heart
is filled with love to His Father. Love to His Father's will. Isn't
He beautiful? You see Him with a pan of water,
and He's got a towel about His and he bows down on his knees
and washes the disciples' feet. Humility! God washed him the
feet of his creatures. Isn't he beautiful? And you see
him in the garden and he's sweating drops of blood. Sweat coming
from his face and his body is wringing wet with sweat. on a
cold night. Isn't He beautiful? Submitted
to His Father's will. Look at Him on the cross. Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do. Father, into Your
hands I trust my spirit. What trust? Isn't He beautiful? Oh, look at the precious blood
that cleanses us from all sin. Isn't that beautiful? And to
have Him to be our beauty. Let Your beauty appear to me. All I want, brothers and sisters,
is Christ. All I want is His blood to cleanse
me. All I want is His righteousness to clothe my shame. That's all
you need. And Wayne said this morning so
beautifully, you don't work to get it. You just humbly receive
it all at His hand. Oh, and when the Lord does it,
you know He can make you to know it. Moses said, Lord, let it
appear to me. Let Your work appear. I went
through all my life, just like Wayne, and I couldn't see it.
Oh, I've got to do this myself. No, He's done it. It just needs
to appear to you. It needs to be made manifest.
Oh, people say, yeah, I know Jesus died on the cross. What
of it? Oh, but if you ever see what
He accomplished there. If you ever see your poor soul
in its misery and in its sins, then you see what Jesus accomplished? Oh, you'll say, Lord, reveal
Yourself to me. Let me know. Let's quit. Let's just quit. Okay? Good preaching. I've been
saying that a lot lately. Probably ain't even the truth,
but I like to say it sometimes anyway. Good preaching. Oh, gracious
Lord, our Savior, our God, our Redeemer, our Refuge. Oh, Lord,
thank You for awakening us, making us realize the danger that we
were in, and showing us that we have this refuge. this safe
hiding place from the storm that's coming. Oh, thank you for this
refuge. Thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you for his work on the
behalf of poor and miserable sinners. Thank you for mercy
that's willing to take his work in her hands and bring it to
us and apply it to us and let us see it. I pray this morning
there's not a poor sinner leaves here without rejoicing as Moses
did in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for this, dear people.
Whatever may come in the days ahead and the months ahead and
the years, if you'll let us live, oh Lord, let us see your work
in us, not only on our behalf, But let us see your work in us.
If you haven't begun a work, please begin it today. A work
of grace in our hearts. We ask these things for the glory
of our dear Savior. Amen. We won't have any service
Wednesday night.