In 1986, I was celebrating my 60th birthday
on a Sunday, I believe, and the Lord led me to bring a message
entitled, Reflections of 60 Years. And my dear wife Doris saved
that message. And a few weeks ago, she got
it out and handed it to me. And she said, I'd like to hear
that again. I said, well, I'll preach it again. And this time
I preached reflections of my 82nd year. And I'm going to turn in the
Bible for my text to the book of Psalms, chapter 39. Psalm 39, verse 4. Psalm 39, verse 4. Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days. what it is that I may know how
frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand-breath." You know how long that is? That's it. And my age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Somebody said one time, a man
is always as young as he feels, but never as important as he
feels. And that's what David's telling
us here. Man at his best state is altogether vanity. But it's always profitable whether
We're celebrating our 60th or our 82nd birthday. It's always
profitable. In our last days to reflect,
to reflect upon the passing years. Think about it. And try to determine
if we've learned anything. I do know I'm thankful to arrive
at this point. I'm thankful. I'm thankful that
the Lord let me live this long. And I'm thankful that the journey
is about over because I'm nearer home today than I was 20 years
ago. And for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. And then, secondly, it's necessary
to grow older. in order to grow in grace. You
just have to grow older to grow in grace and to acquire some
patience and some understanding and to learn, try to learn at
least, how to be charitable to others. One man said one time,
I see no fault in others that I haven't seen in myself. Many,
many times. It takes a long time to learn
that. Be more charitable, more patient,
more understanding of others. Old John Newton, sitting in his
study one day, William Jay walked in. Well, the Scots were familiar
with the writings of both these men. William Jay walked in and
said, Brother Newton, Brother Newton, Mr. Baldwin's been saved. That renegade hasn't found the
Lord. He said, Mr. Newton, I'll never
despair of another sinner if God saves that man. You know
what John Newton said? He said, Brother Jay, I've never
despaired of anybody since the Lord saved this man. Never, never,
never. by his grace. It's necessary
to grow older, not only to grow in grace, but
it's necessary to grow older to obtain some maturity, some wisdom. Peter said, the
God of all grace will perfect, that is, mature you, He'll establish
you, he'll strengthen you, and he'll settle you. There's no
shortcuts. There's no shortcut. Takes time. We grow. Maturity. It's still babes, young men,
and elders. No shortcuts. When we were in
the service, Brother Scott and some of you remember. You ever
heard of 90 Day Wonders? Well, these were young college
boys that joined the service and they went to OCS, that's
Officer's Candidate School, to study to be an officer and they
schooled them for 90 days. And everyone of us called them
90 Day Wonders. There are no 90 Day Wonders in
this outfit. It takes time. So here are my
reflections. Five of them. Reflections of
80 years. Here's the first one. Life is
short. You hear old people talk about
that all the time. Life is short. Life is short.
Well, let's read James. Turn to the book of James. James
chapter 4. James tells us that. James chapter
4 verse 13 and 14. Listen. James 4 verse 13. Go to now, you that say, today
or tomorrow we'll go into such a city and continue there a year,
and we'll buy and sell and get gain. Wait a minute. For as you know not what shall
be on tomorrow, For what is your life? What is your life? It is even a vapor. What's a
vapor? A mist. A puff of smoke. That's what life is. It's so
short. Just a puff of smoke. Just a
mist. It appears for a little time. Vanishes away. Old Job says we are a few days
and full of trouble. Where you have sin, you have
trouble. Mark it down. We're a few days
full of sin and full of trouble. And Job said this, he said, what
is your life? It's a shadow. What is a shadow? It's an empty thing. It has no
substance. No substance at all. A shadow
never lasts very long. And a shadow never leaves a mark
when it's gone. That's life. There it is. You see it. Appears for a little
while, then it's gone. Where was it? The place thereof
shall know it no longer. Life is a flower. That's what
Job said. It's a flower. It comes from
another flower. It comes from the ground. Dust thou art, dust to dust thou
shalt return. And it blooms for a little while,
and then it goes back to the ground. So Lord, teach me to
number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom. Teach me to remember my Creator,
young people, in the day of thy youth, while these evil days
don't come on you till you say, I got no use for that. And seek ye the Lord while he
may be found. Call upon him while he's near. Somebody may say, well, you can't.
A man can't seek the Lord. He doesn't say that. He says
he won't. But he should. And the Lord said,
Seek me, and you'll find me when you search for me with all your
heart. So I say, Lord, remember now
thy Creator of the days of thy youth, and lead me to seek thee,
and finding thee, to love thee, and loving thee, to praise thee. and to thank Thee. Number two,
life is a vapor that's short. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. You know, like the Apostle Paul
and many others, I was in religion a long time before I met Christ.
I was in religion, and like the Apostle Paul, I was a preacher
and didn't know Christ. But one day I met him. One Tuesday
morning, 1950, sitting on the second row of the poly-Baptist
church. I was the youth director. I was
the song leader. I was everybody's friend, you
know. Found to win the world for Jesus.
And I was sitting there and Roth Barnard got up to preach. He
looked down at me. He preached a little while. He
looked down at me. I was on the second row. Young pastor, 24
years old. He said, young man, he said,
why don't you get up and quote Romans 8, 28. Honest, this is
the truth. I don't know why he's picking
on me. He knew me, I guess. I got up and I said, well, all
things work together for good to them who love God. And I sat
down. And he stood down and stared
at me. And he said, what's the rest of it? Don't you know the
rest of it? I said, I think I do. I took
another shot at it. And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. And I sat down. He stared again. He said, young man, if you ever
learn what that word purpose means, God will open that Bible
to you. And my friends, I did learn it. And he did open the Word of God
to me. And I saw the majesty of God. The majesty of God, the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. I saw the full ruin and damnation
and condemnation of the human race. I saw our sins. I learned that great confession
of faith that Paul gives in Ephesians chapter 1, just three sentences.
About 13 verses with just three sentences. He said, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings according before, chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world. That we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of sons according to the good pleasure
of his will. He redeemed us and made us accepted
in the love. I learned those things. I learned
how God can be, Brother Scott, how we learn this about the same
time. I learned how God can be just
and justified. And I learned that salvation
is not an offer, it's a gift. It's the gift of God. I learned
that salvation is not by chance, it's by choice, His choice. I learned that salvation is not
by the will of man, It's not, I will if you will. It's, I will
and you shall. That's salvation. Oh, Dr. Magruder. Remember Dr. Magruder?
Dr. Magruder's gone now. But Dr. Magruder grew up in Missouri,
and his daddy was a preacher. And he went into his daddy's
study one day, and his daddy was studying, and he walked into
the study and said, Daddy said, there's a scripture I don't understand. And his daddy said, what is it,
son? He said, the Bible says that Jacob hath a love, Esau
hath a hating. He said, Dad, I don't understand
how God is love and how he can hate Esau. You know what his
daddy said? He said, son, I've got it written
down here. When you learn God's Word and
the holiness of God, you'll understand how God could hate Esau. But son, the mystery of salvation
is you can't understand how God can love Jacob. That's the problem. It's not how you can hate Esau. We're hateful. We're born hateful
and we're raised that way. But God is love. Oh, the love
of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless, how strong. It shall
forevermore endure, the saints and angels song. Now, Brother
I.C. Herringdean, that's another one
of our buddies. Remember Brother Herringdean?
Brother Herringdean, he printed Arthur Pink's first book, The
Sovereignty of God. He printed that book in 1926,
1926. Brother Harrington, he was born
before 1900, 1926. I knew him so well, we were friends
a long time. I went to his house and preached
a meeting there and he came to my house and we became good friends.
And he told me how he came to print that book, The Sovereignty
of God, by Arthur W. Pink. Brother Herringdean was
a Scofield man, Gable Island man, and big on prophecy and
low on grace. He lived up in Cleveland, Ohio.
And Dr. Pink, Arthur Pink, wrote to Brother
Herringdean. He said, you don't know me, and
I don't know you, but you're in the book business, and I want
to write a book called The Sovereignty of God. Brother Harrington told
me this out of his own mouth, and he wrote it to me later in
a letter. He said, I wrote Mr. Pink and asked him, what do you
mean by the sovereignty of God? And Pink wrote him back, dear
Brother Harrington, John 6, 44, no man, and undiscorded, no man
can come to me except the Father, which sent me to Him." And Herod
Dean said, somehow, God Almighty opened my mouth, my heart, and
opened my understanding, and I saw what that man was talking
about. And Brother Pink moved to Swango,
Pennsylvania, lived with Mr. and Miss Herod Dean, and he printed
that book, 1920's, That's what I learned. Salvations
of the Lord. Jonah learned it in a strange
place, the belly of a whale. Here's a third reflection. Life is short, salvation of the
Lord, and Christ is all. I didn't come to the doctrines
of grace. I came to Christ. There's a difference. I didn't learn a system of theology. I learned a person. I learned
Christ. Abraham just believed there's
a God. He believed God. There's a difference. He believed God. Christ is all,
and we're complete in Him. That's right. Christ is all,
and we're complete in Him. Turn to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now
listen to this. 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
in Christ, he is a new creation. That's the word there. He's a
new creation. He's a new creation. That's right. He's not the old man reformed.
He's not the old man with a new doctrine. He's not the old man
with a new lifestyle. He's a new creation. He's a person
that never lived before. A new man in Christ Jesus. He's a new creature. A new creation. There's the old flesh and the
old man. He's a new creature. And listen
to this, and old things have passed away. Now, he didn't say,
all old things have passed away. He said, old things have passed
away. And then he said, behold, all things are made new. A lot
about that old man still hangs on to him. But this new man in
Christ Jesus is a new creature. He's a new creature. And some
of the old things have passed away. I'll tell you what some
of the old things are that passed away. The old family and Adam. We're not in Adam, we're in Christ.
It's the old curse of the law. We're dead to the law. The law is done away with. The old righteousness, Paul said,
I sought to gain righteousness by my works. I want to win Christ
and be found in him not having my righteousness, but the righteousness
which is Christ. The old family in Adam, the old
curse of the law, the old righteousness, and then the old walk. The old walk. We walk in him.
Enoch walked with God. The new man walks with God. The old talk. The old talk. We just talked about that. That
cry of a redeemed soul, cry of a man of God, unto his God. The old talk, the old ways, the
old pride, those things have gone away. And behold, in Christ,
all things become new. All things become new. Let's
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Here is what it is to be in
Christ. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 21. Listen. Therefore, 1 Corinthians
3, verse 21, Therefore let no man glory in me, and all things
are yours. The old things pass away. The
old walk, the old talk, the old pride, the old rotten ways, and
the old companions, that all things are yours in Christ. Whether
Paul, or Paulus, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come, all of it's yours. And you're His. Christ is God's. Man, what a relationship. Child of God. The child of God. All right. Life is short. Salvation to the
Lord. Christ is all in all. Christ
is all. I'm in a straight betwixt the
two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. And here's the fourth way. God
will provide. Look down at Psalm 37. God will
provide. God will provide. Yes, He will. He always has. And He always
will provide for His people. Psalm 37. Listen to this. Psalm
37, verse 23. The steps of a good man. The steps of a righteous man,
the steps of a man of God, the steps of a child of God are ordered
by the Lord, ordered by the Lord. Every step, every step. And he delighteth in his way.
He's delighted in God's way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down. The Lord upholdeth him with his
hand. I've been young, and now I'm
old. But I've never seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I came out of the Navy. One of my favorite pictures is
that picture of Buzz Scott and I walking alongside each other
when we didn't walk that way. This guy put them together. He
was over in Hawaii, in Honolulu, Hawaii. 1943, and he walked down the street
and a fellow took his picture, Scott and one of his buddies.
And one year later, I went over there and I walked down that
same street and that same photographer took my picture and my buddy.
And so Scott and I, one day years later, He saw a picture of me
and that fellow I was walking down the street with. He said,
I got a picture just like that. I said, oh, you don't? He said,
I do. I went, I'll send it to you. So he sent it to me. And
there it was. I looked at it. Scott and his
buddy, me and my buddy, walking down that same street. Same size
and everything. And I held on to it. I kept that
picture. And I saw Brother Marvin one
day and I told him about it. I said, could you put those together?
He said, we can try. So Brother Marvin and some of
his buddies got that picture together. And that's amazing,
isn't it? And I put a little caption on
it, walking together many miles. We have many miles. Fifty years. And I love that
picture, but I've left my topic too. Look back at Psalm 37, verse
25. I've been young, now I'm old.
I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread. He's ever merciful and lendeth
any seed as best. Well, I came home from the Navy
in 1946, and Doris and I got married. And Scott and Martha
got married the same year, I believe, 1946. And I got a job at the
steel mill. My wife worked at the church
where I was a pastor. Well, not I wasn't a pastor,
where I was a member. And I worked at the steel mill
where my daddy worked and where her daddy worked. And we lived
with my parents. We didn't have a car. We didn't
have anything. We just wanted to get married.
I fell in love with her, and I think she fell in love with
me, and we married. And we didn't have anything.
Moved in with my parents, and I worked at Steel Mill, and she
worked at the church. And I worked with the young people
down at the church. And we lived together for December,
January, and February. And March came along, and a pastor
up in Kentucky, the Pollard Baptist Church, Through a friend of Doris,
she went to school at Bob Jones University and she knew a man
there who knew this man and this fellow recommended me to go to
Ashton, Kentucky and work as a young people's director. And
we got on, I quit my job. She quit her job and we got on
a train and went to Ashton, Kentucky. And he got us a little apartment,
two rooms, and I made $40 a week. And we moved in the apartment.
We kept the butter and the milk on the windowsill because it
didn't have a refrigerator, you know. But I worked there as a
young people's leader and song leader, and we were happy. And they wanted me to, ordained
me to be a preacher. And I said, well, if I'm going
to be a preacher, I'm going to have to go to school somewhere.
You did too. You said I've got to go to school. So I went to
Tennessee Temple College. Here we are now. My daddy had
bought us a car, an old 1935 Packard for $600. And we went to school. The government paid me $95 a
month and paid my tuition. And she was pregnant, expecting
a baby in February. And God provided. He provided. And about two months after I
got to school, the president of the school recommended me
to go and preach at a church in Chattanooga, a little country
church. And I went over there and preached.
And they said, the pulpit committee is not here. Why don't you come
back next Sunday? I came back next Sunday. And the pulpit committee
is still gone. He said, well, why don't you
just be our pastor and we find one? I said, well, that suits
me fine. And I preached a while, and they
called me, and our first baby was born. And we went down with
one of the men of the church, took us to a furniture store,
and we bought two bedroom suits, and a Duncan 5 sofa, and a washing
machine, and moved into the Parsonage. And I'll tell you from that,
God always provides. He provided and He always will. One of the old songwriters wrote
this, Though troubles assail and dangers affright, Though
friends shall all fail and foes unite, One thing assures us,
whatever be time, His promise assures us the Lord will provide. You and Martha moved into an
apartment down at Lexington, Kentucky and went to school just
like Darcy and I did. And God provided and He's God.
And like listen to this, though the birds and the birds without
barn or storehouse are fed, from them let's learn to trust God
for our bread. His sense, what is pitying, will
never be denied as long as it is written, the Lord will provide. And when life sinks apace and
death is in view, the word of His comfort shall take you straight
through, not fearing, not doubting, with Christ on our side. We will die shouting, the Lord
will provide. Now I'm closing. Here's my last
thing. Life is short. Salvation's in the Lord. Christ
is all and in all. And God will provide. Now here's
the last one. We will die. We will die. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow,
but in a few days. Our days are numbered. And I
want you to turn to a scripture. Job chapter 5. I want you to
look at this now carefully. In Job chapter 5. Job the fifth
chapter, verse 26 and 27. Job 5 verse 26. This will bless you. I just know
it will. I've read it several times. Job chapter 5 verse 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave.
Now here's the first thing. Death is inevitable. We're going
to be buried. We're going to die and we're
going to be buried. All men die and all men are buried. Believers
and unbelievers. But we'll come to our graves.
Now watch this second thing. Thou shalt come to thy grave.
How do we come to our grave? We come willingly. The believer willing, willing
to be absent from the body and be present with the Lord. Our
death is, it's acceptable. It's not only inevitable, it's
acceptable. We choose to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. The unbeliever is forced
to die. You know, when the Lord said
to that rich man, he said, this night shall thy soul be required
of thee. No, my soul is not required of
me. My soul is going to be with the Lord, willingly, willingly. Or what's this? Thou shalt come
to thy grave in a full age. Our death is inevitable, it's
acceptable, it's timely. I shall come to thy death in
full age, in the fullness of God's time. Our time on earth
is determined by the Lord. Our days are appointed. And a believer never goes, never
dies one year Beyond what God decreed or one year before God's
decree, you die when God decrees. Your death is timely. You'll
come to your grave in full age. Now, what's this? Old Job said,
like a shock of corn cometh any season. You know, I looked at
this and I found some help from somebody else. like as the shock
of corn comes in its season. If corn is harvested before it's
ripe, it's not fit to use. If corn is left in the field
too long, it'll come to nothing. But God made us sufficient and
ripe for His glory, and when His purpose for me on this earth
and in His church is complete, I'll be plucked from the cornfield
and seated at the very supper of the Lamb, in the presence
of the Lord plucked and seated when his time comes. Our death
is timely and it's according to purpose. And then look at
this. Verse 27, Lo, this we have searched
and looked into this, and so it is. So it is. Hear it and know Thou it for
your good. Isn't that? Study it now. Think about it. These reflections of old age. Study it. I've searched it. And that's the way it is. It's the way it is. And I know
it's for our good because it's according to His will and His
purpose.