Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Psalms again, chapter 90. Psalm 90. Psalm chapter 90. This is a precious
psalm that we would do well to consider often. Penned by Moses, What it says,
a prayer of Moses, the man of God. And some think that this
may be the oldest of all the Psalms. Moses, under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, says in verse 1, Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations, from generation to generation. The believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, after the Lord calls him out of darkness, and he's
been taught of God through God's Word, he realizes that secretly,
mysteriously, wonderfully, that He was in the Lord from before
the foundation of the world. Chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now listen, before we believed,
yeah? We dwelled in Him? Yeah. You mean in our surety and representative
and our husband that we've been ever preserved in the Lord Jesus
Christ according to God's everlasting covenant of grace? Yeah. That we dwelled in Him? before
He was made flesh? Yeah. When He was born of a virgin
in that manger in Bethlehem, in the infant Christ, we were
in Him. When He was born, we were in
Him. When He walked this earth, when
He died, when He was buried, when He rose, When He ascended,
He seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father. We're in Him. Lord, Thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations. That's just more
than I can fully comprehend. I believe it. I believe it. But here's Moses speaking for
the church. Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations, all of God's elect. Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Before the mountains
came forth at your command, before you spoke everything into existence,
your God, the I Am, accomplishing His will, the One who is, Revelation
1 verse 4 says, which was and which is to come, your God. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. The scripture says concerning
man, the order of man. This is how man came into being. Genesis 2-7, And the Lord formed
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And this is what
the Lord told man about himself. Genesis 3, 19, For dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return. This is what dust looks like
when God forms a man and breathes into it. He said, but this is
what you are. You're just dust. The Lord is going to turn man
to destruction. What does that mean? You're going
to die. He'll save return, you children
of men. And at the appointed hour, He's
going to turn man back to his origin. He's going to die and
they're going to put him in the ground and he's going to go back
to what he is. Ecclesiastes 3.2 says there's
a time to be born and a time to die. Ecclesiastes 12.7, Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit
shall return unto God who gave it. This is what's going to happen.
We're going to die and we're going to die right on time. There's
no luck, no chance. It's appointed unto man. It wants
to die. It's going to die. For a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is passed,
and as a watch in the night. A thousand years to eternity? A thousand years to eternity? Just a thought. Just a moment. twinkling of an eye, just a section
of a night, just as we say. A thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday. When it's passed, it's as a watch
in the night. You guys in the military, you
know, watch in the night. You've got a section, you've
got a section, you've got a section. It's just a watch, just a moment. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as asleep. In the morning
they are like grass which groweth up. All men, this is all of us,
objects of His mercy, objects of His wrath, according to our
time on this earth, here today, gone tomorrow, like a flash flood. I was watching some of the other
day out in the desert. Big rain came, rained up on the
mountains and everything. Big, you know, flood zone. And all of a sudden, watching
that camera, just watching, here comes that flood, here it comes.
And all of a sudden it's just, I mean, buddy, it's taking trees
and stuff and just, I mean, just wiping it out. He just, you know.
Thou cariest them away like a flood. Who can stop? Who can stop when
God says it's over? He said, it's like a sleep. You
go to sleep and the next thing you know, you're awake. What
do you remember during that time? Here's man, here's man. We're
going to be like a, this is our life, like a sleep and all of
a sudden, we're going to wake up and be vitally awake And we're
going to be at the judgment. We're going to be standing before
God. Scripture says it's just like grass which groweth up. That word groweth up, in a margin,
it's changed in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye. Paul says
we're not all going to sleep. There's going to be some people
that's going to be physically alive, but we're all going to
be changed. Changed into what? I don't know. I don't know. We're
going to be changed. It's going to be a different
body. This mortality is going to put on immortality. What does
that mean? I don't know. I don't know. But I can tell
you this, we're going to recognize each other. Moses and Elijah,
that Lord, Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, Paul, John, that's Moses
and Elijah. We're going to be changed. Just
a moment. In the morning. Here's man's life. Here it is.
This is what it's come down to. One day. It's one day. Here's
a man's life. Verse 6. Here it is. In the morning
it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening it's cut down
and withereth. One day. Morning. Evening cut
down. For we are consumed by thine
anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled." Now I know this, and
you know this. God's people have never been
under the wrath of God. I cannot say that enough. We've never been under the wrath
of God. We've always, every believer, all the elect, the chosen, have
eternally been accepted in the Beloved. Almighty God has everlastingly
loved His people. Ever been under His wrath? But
what he's talking about, what Moses is talking about here,
we're consumed by thine anger, by thy wrath. Are we troubled?
We're troubled. Man's mortality is not accidental. We don't accidentally die. That
means it's not for any reason. Here's the problem. S-I-N. Problem. This is the root of
our trouble. Sin. And sin has provoked God
to anger. And He's going to deal with it
in wrath. Either in the sinner or in a
substitute. But He's going to deal with it.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was made sin. He was made sin. And where sin
is found, the law is going to execute judgment for all without Christ. I'll
tell you what, they're going to suffer eternity under His
judgment. But for all that have been everlastingly
loved, the Scripture reveals, for He hath made Him Sin. He has made him to be what we
are. Now this is what we are being
born in Adam. Now listen, we're sin. That's
what we are. We transgress, we manifest what
we are by sins, transgressions. We sin because of what we are.
But for God Almighty to pass by His people, His Son was made
sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We are consumed by thine anger,
by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee. are secret sins in the light
of thy countenance. The Lord is not indifferent to
sin. He does not just overlook it. Where it is, it's known and shall be dealt with. There's
no secret sins of which He's not aware. He says, Thou hast
set our iniquities before Thee. Our secret sins in the light
of thy countenance. John said in 1 John 1.8, if we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in
us. A believer is going to admit. You know, I was talking about
how a believer talks. This is a manifestation of a
believer. He's going to readily admit what he is. I know what
I am. That's what Paul the Apostle
said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And our sin must be covered. It must be paid for. Thou hast
set our iniquities before thee and our secret sins in the light
of thy countenance. God's holy. God's just. He's just. He's righteous. He doesn't wink at sin. He doesn't
just cover it over. I just want to look. He's going
to deal with it. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Sin is going to be paid for.
1 John 1.7 says, But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin. Lord, see the blood for me. For all our days are passed away
in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. Well, again, I don't have to
say it, but I'll say it again. God's people have never been
under His wrath. Not His eternal judgment, no.
But what's He talking about then? Believers, the objects of His
mercy, Ever chosen in the Son, ever accepted in the Beloved.
But Moses says, for all our days though are passed away in thy
wrath. Believers get sick just like
everybody else. And you know, I know, you get these guys on
TV, you know, you send me a thousand dollars, you know, the Lord's
revealed to me that there's a thousand people out there that's going
to give a thousand dollars each and you can sow your face seed
and you won't get sick, you're going to have money and you're
going to prosper and you're going to have houses, you're going to have
a golden chair like I'm sitting in. Believers get sick just like
everybody else. They have troubles just like
everybody else. Believers are in this world experiencing the
calamities and the diseases and the afflictions of mankind just
like everybody else. We're born out of the same lump
of fallen humanity. And we're going through this
world suffering just like everybody else, getting older just like
everybody else, hurting just like everybody else, Why? Because of sin. Our days are
passed away in thy wrath. God's dealing with sin against
the unbeliever. But his people feel the effects
of it, just like everybody else. We spend our days as a tale that
is told, just as a meditation, just as a thought. Suffering
in this world, not of this world, but with the same effects of
sin that's cursed this world. The days, verse 10, of our years,
now notice how that was written. The days of our years are three
score years and ten. It's going to be the average
right here. It's going to be the average. Seventy. Seventy. Seventy to me used to
be, how can anybody be that old? Seventy. I'm 66 years old. The average. I'm on a downhill
slide. The Scripture sets forth that
the days of our years are threescore years and ten. If the average time is seventy, and I don't know how long it
is, he says, but what if my reason
of strength, How I like to walk. I need to
walk. And you know, if the Lord is
pleased to allow me to do that. If God Almighty blesses me with
a constitution of whatever, what if I make it to four score? What if I make it to ninety?
What if I make it to ninety? Glenn's always telling me, he
said, you just wait till you're my age. I said, Glenn, I'm just not made out of the
same stuff you are. I just don't think I'll ever make it tonight.
What if I did? Do you know what I have to look
forward to? If by reason of strength they
be four score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow For
it is soon cut off and we fly away. If we, by the grace of God, are
able to be here another ten years or so, it's going to be labor
and sorrow, toiling to move, toiling to get up. Those of us that used to, I mean,
work hard. I mean, I can remember, I can
remember, man, when I was in Louisiana, man, I'd be at the
shop, we'd be there, you know, six o'clock in the morning, and
I mean, get it. All day, all day. In, you know,
Louisiana in July and August is like the Sahara Desert. People
would ask me, they'd say, do you ever get used to the humidity?
I said, how do you get used to humidity? Just sweat, work, get
up the next day and do it again. Do it again. Usually six days
a week. Man, I'm telling you, I do anything
now. I struggle to get up the next
morning and it doesn't get any better. You know that. Toiling
to walk and toiling to think. Oh, the sweetness. of God's grace
to quiet a believer's heart as he sees himself failing. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten. If by reason of strength they
be fourscore, yet is their strength labor and sorrow which soon cut
off. We fly away. Do you know what I'm here this
morning to do? Honoring the Lord. In honor to
the Lord. Preaching the gospel. Is setting forth by the grace
of God in preparing God's people to die. Preparing by the grace of God,
preaching the gospel. Preparing us to die. Not to live,
because we're going to die. That's what we have to look forward
to. Who knoweth, verse 11, the power of thine anger? Even according
to thy fear, so is thy wrath. Who can tell? Who can tell me
the power of what happened in the flood? When God Almighty
put Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives and
those animals in, God shut the door. And God opened up the earth
and water just boiled out of it and rain came down. Never
rained before. Who could tell? Who knoweth the
power of thine anger? What happened at Sodom and Gomorrah?
Oh, we read about it and God rained down brimstone and fire
and stuff like that. Can you imagine what happened?
God Almighty destroyed cities, cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. What's going to be the end of
man without Christ? What's it going to be like? The
Lord says there's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Boy, I'm telling you, those words
I know are so. But who can tell? Who knoweth
the power of His anger? We may wonder about it right
now, but I can tell you this, we don't know. We don't know. So teach us to number our days,
knowing these things. We're failing. Man is here this
morning, gone tonight, three score and ten, by reason of four
score. Man's cut down. The days of his
years are just, you know. So teach us to number our days. that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. You know, I can count back. I
can start counting back and I can tell you pretty close how many
days I've lived so far. But I can tell you this, I don't
know how much I have from here on. So what is he telling us? Teach us to number our days.
Teach us in our heart to consider that this could be our last day.
Everything that the Spirit of God has said through Moses has
been to set forth that this life is a vapor. It's frail. We're
going to die. We're not going to stay. We're
leaving. We're going back to the dust.
So therefore, knowing this, listen, today may be our last day. I may get a call, you may get
a call. Marvin had a heart attack. He died. Marvin? Yeah. Well, we were just with
him in services. I know. He died. It can be that
quick. I know. I know. Teach us to number
our days and to reckon them to be so uncertain that this may
be some of the last breaths we ever take. Teach us in our heart,
Lord, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto
Christ, who is the wisdom of God. To apply our hearts to His
will, to His glory, His honor, seeking Him and loving one another Let our conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ. Listen, we don't have time, y'all,
to be spending our days in foolishness, and bickering, and all this yang-yang,
stuff like that. If this was the last day, I thought
about this, I was going over my notes this morning, and I
thought, if this was the last day, if this was my last day,
and I knew it, what else would matter? What else would matter? What would you let go? What would
you not fool with anymore? You wouldn't fool with anything.
I tell you, if you had any spiritual sense, here's what we're going
to do. We're going to apply our hearts
unto Christ. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, make me to be like
old blind Barnabas. Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy. Don't let me leave this world
without you. Don't let me leave this world without a substitute.
Teach us to number our days. Let my mouth be speaking of you,
my ears hear your gospel, my heart be considerate to your
people for your sake. Teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Lord, come in mercy. For us,
to us, how long shall we stay here in this world of affliction? We who are your servants, we
acknowledge our sins. They're ever before you. You
put away our guilt by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Look upon
us in favor. Apply our hearts to wisdom. Oh,
satisfy us early with thy mercy. That we may rejoice and be glad
all of our days. We acknowledge that we're going
to die. We acknowledge our days are few.
I know that more and more. You do too. But turn these, our
trials, into the evidences of your mercy. Lord, do so for Christ's sake. That we may rejoice and be glad
all of our days. Being refreshed. Lord, refresh
me. Lord, in the affliction of my body and of my mind and the
trials of my being in this world, Lord, keep me, give me a refreshingness
in my soul. As we travel through this world,
let me be glad in the Lord. I used to tell my kids all the
time, a situation never changes, only the way you look at it.
You know, you've heard that, is your glass half full or half
empty? That's what I'm saying. Lord, make us glad according
to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein
we've seen evil. Let us see, Lord, that Your chastening... Nothing comes our way, nothing
comes to a believer, not to God's elect, nothing comes to God's
elect The Lord's ordering all these things. Everything that's
happening, the Lord did it. The Lord. He worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. Lord, let us see that Your
chastening hand has been mercifully rendered with love toward us. Look at the wording in verse
15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted
us and the years wherein we've seen evil." He's just, you know,
we've received a whole lot less than we deserved. And so for
Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, though we can't perceive the
depth of what He's doing, Lord help me in these days of affliction. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. and thy glory unto their children."
Lord, reveal Christ to me, and Lord, have mercy on my kids,
on my family. I know, and you know, that salvation
is not in blood. It's not by blood. You have most
godly parents in the world. David, man after God's own heart, And he had sons that just didn't
know him. But here's a believer, here's
Moses expressing, let thy work appear unto thy servants, and
thy glory unto their children. Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us. That the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the beauty of the Lord, Be upon us, and
establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work
of our hands, establish thou it." Lord, direct. You've called us, you've saved
us by grace, you've kept us, you've placed us where we are.
Now, establish the work that you've called us to. Whether we eat, whether we drink,
whatever we do, let it be to the glory of God. Let it be for
Christ's sake. God has called us. He called
me to Katie Baptist Church to be a pastor. Lord, establish the work you've
called me to. Lord, I want to study, I want
to prepare. This scripture comes to my mind
all the time, all the time, all the time. Now listen, seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things are going
to be added unto you. Seek first, Lord where you've
called me, may I be found faithful where you've called me. Establish
the work of your hands. Where God's called you, be faithful
to it. Be faithful to it. Our days are
over. Didn't even get to finish a sentence.
It was over. Lord, bless the Word to our hearts
for Christ's sake.