What a remarkable man, what a
remarkable life Moses had. He must have spent so much time
and had so many opportunities to think back about the wonder
of his birth. You might recall that in those
days in Egypt the decree of Pharaoh was that all the male children
would be killed and he was the special charge. And his mother,
you might recall the story, his mother made this little ark for
him, a little reed boat, and set him out on the waters. And
Pharaoh's daughter just happened, just happened to be there bathing
that morning, and she just happened to hear the cries of this little
baby. And she just happened to feel
pity upon that baby, and then to care for that baby, she needed
someone to nurse that baby. And so what did she do? She went
and found a Hebrew woman to care for the baby. The Hebrews were
under that sentence of death from Pharaoh, but this particular
baby not only was raised in Pharaoh's house, but it was nurtured by
this particular Hebrew woman who happened to be the mother.
That was his story, wasn't it? He was raised as a prince in
Egypt. And Hebrews in Exodus tells us wonderful things about
how he stood up. Hebrews declares that for the
glory of God and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
forsook all of the treasures of Egypt. And he stood up as
one of his own and slew that Egyptian. But he spent the next
40 years, 40 years, in the desert as a shepherd. And one of the lovely pictures
of the Lord meeting with Moses is in Exodus where he meets him
at the burning bush. And it's a remarkable picture,
isn't it, of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was
an outcast. So it seemed that Moses probably
thought that his life was finished and he would have finished his
days there in the desert as a shepherd and a father to those two boys.
But he sees this bush that burns. A bush that burns and is not
consumed. What a glorious picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God fell upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he consumed the wrath of
God. He consumed the wrath of God.
But the thing I want you to notice is that for the next 40 years
of Moses' life, he lived in the continual presence of God. And
it began at that burning bush. And he says, when Moses goes
and examines that bush, he says to Moses, you're standing on
holy ground, take your shoes off. And I think, I've often
thought about it as a wonderful picture of the reality of the
relationship between God and his people. You would think if
you were standing on holy ground you'd want as much barrier between
you and the holy ground as possible. But he, in fact, is told to take
off your shoes. Let there be nothing between
your person and this holy ground. You stand, you stand, children
of God, in the presence of God. We stand, brothers and sisters
in Christ, on holy ground. We stand and we claim that we
stand here because that same God who met Moses in that burning
bush, that same God who declared to Moses his name, I am. I am that I am. Therefore everything
else that exists, exists because the I am causes it to exist. including all the trials and
afflictions and the wonders of Moses, I fancy seeing God. Fancy
seeing God on that mountain. Fancy being in the presence of
God. Fancy being put in that cleft of the rock as the glory
of God passes by. Moses saw all of these things
and yet when he comes to write this psalm of reflection, He
speaks. He speaks with a reality of the
glory of God and a reality of the frailty of man in this world. And I'd like us to take note
of verse 12, but I want us to particularly take note of verse
15. Because Moses says, Make us glad. Moses loved the Lord and he loved
the Lord's people. Anyone who loves the Lord loves
his people and cares about them. But he says, make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and in the years
wherein we have seen evil. We are marking the end of the
year and we're beginning a new decade and we look back and we
see, like Moses did, we see a reason to be glad and we see the pain
of what lies around us and what lies in us so often. But the
great solution to the afflictions is for us to see the character
of our God and to see that He is involved in the afflictions
and He's not absent. Nearly everyone I meet with in
church and elsewhere is in one way or another an afflicted person,
an afflicted person. And the promise of our God, I
love Zephaniah, but the promise of our God, he says, He says,
I will leave in the midst of thee, I will leave in the midst
of my people, and afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. These afflicted people, like
Moses, was afflicted by the sin of his own flesh and the weaknesses
of his own flesh. The sin that stopped him entering
the promised land of Moses. In a picture is of course typifies
the law, and the law gets no one into the promised land. People
are taken into the promised land by Joshua, Jesus, and in that
promised land, in that promised land, as Zephaniah says, it says,
in that day, It shall be said to Jerusalem,
to the Church of God, fear thou not, and to Zion let not thy
hands be slapped. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee, you afflicted people, you poor people that are left
there. The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, and he's mighty.
He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest, Zephaniah 3.17. He will rest in his love and
he will joy over thee with singing. What a remarkable God. What a
remarkable God we have. Let's go back to Psalm 90 with
some of those thoughts in our minds. to my friend Tom, like all of
God's people in this world, either you're coming out of suffering,
you're in suffering, or you're going to go into suffering again
in the future. It is just this life here. We're
not in the business of telling people, giving people a false
prognosis, but we are in the business, if the Lord would allow
us, of declaring the glory of our God. So this is the prayer
of Moses. Verse 1, Lord thou has been our
dwelling place in all generations. All of God's people have lived
in him and with him eternally. Eternally. Before the mountains
were brought forth, verse 2, or ever thou has formed the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Any notion of a God who is not
absolutely and infinitely eternal and a God who has made those
infinite and eternal covenants in his son is not the God of
the scriptures. Moses didn't know about that
God. You take the modern God up onto Mount Sinai and he would
be laughed at by Moses. Take that notion of a God who
is dependent on man to do something. and needs man anyway. Look what
it says of man over these next few verses, we won't have time
to look at them too closely. Thou turnest man to destruction
and says, return ye children and men, for a thousand years
are in thy sight, but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch
in the night. It's only two days, brothers
and sisters, by that timing, by that numbering, it's only
two days since the Lord Jesus died on Calvary's tree, and it's
only a matter of minutes before he comes back. Our God sits outside
of time, and for him, all of time is an ever-existing presence. He never learns anything, he's
never surprised by anything, and he knows everything always. He never learns anything and
he's never surprised. He knew what was happening. Why are you here today? Even from everlasting to everlasting
thou art God. Look what he says of man. The
big problem of humanity isn't it, the big problem of all of
Adam's children is that we are puffed up in our pride. We believe what Satan said, you
shall be as gods, you can make the decision, you can rule your
life as you see fit. And you can rule it in such a
way that you actually don't need God. You don't need to be dependent
on him. What's he say of this man? You carry them away as a flood,
like a tide. It sweeps all before it. And
as a sleep, how long is your sleep? When you wake up in the
morning, it might be like me, the first thing I do is flick
over and check the time. How long have I been asleep?
Sometimes it's a very pleasant experience. Sometimes, like this
morning after I've been up during the night for some hours, I turned
my watch on, my phone on, and it's 8.16 and I'm horrified,
I'm in a panic. I should have been, anyway. As
a sleep, sleep just passes, doesn't it? And we don't know what happens
while we're asleep. We are still alive. And in the
morning they are like grass. That's the cry, isn't it? The cry of comfort in Isaiah
40, isn't it? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
You tell them that their warfare is over. What shall I cry, says
Isaiah to them? All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. It flourishes, it grows up, and
in the evening it's cut down and it's withered. For we, this is why God has set
a limit to man's activities in this world. For we are consumed
in thine anger, in thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set
our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance. The only place sins are seen
clearly is in the light of who God is. Man can think they're
good and man can think they're moral, but the measure of God
is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. He requires something simple,
doesn't he? He requires absolute perfection. He requires absolute holiness. He requires absolute truthfulness. He requires absolute obedience
and faithfulness. And He sees this God who is our
dwelling place, this God who is from everlasting to everlasting.
In the light of His countenance, He sees everything. I love it
that way. I love the fact that there's
nothing that happens in my life that I wish to hide from you
that I can ever hide from Him. Don't play games with God. Do
as Hezekiah did. You came before the Lord and
you lay out your life. You lay out what lies before
you, knowing that you have no power and no strength. For all
our days, verse 9, are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our
years as a tale that is told. See, man naturally spends his
life here wanting to build himself up to be something. What do you
know of your great-grandfather? I don't even know the names of
mine unless I think very seriously about it. I know a little of
their lives. So this notion that we are something
and that we create something that is meaningful and goes on
and we make a name for ourselves is not something that any evidence
that we have before us would give us reason. And yet man is
doing it, isn't it? We're building and building and
building. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. The days of our years are three
score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four
score years. Yet their strength, yet is their
strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly
away. Moses has no doubt about the
fact that at the death of the body, there is a soul that lives
eternally. Who knoweth the power of thine
anger? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. It's a good question, isn't it?
Who knows the power of the anger of God? We see something of the
judgment of God, and we see it through a glass darkly. as we see His glory. Someone
does know the power of the anger of God. Who was that? The Lord
Jesus Christ knew the power of the anger of God. Only He knew
all of that power. Only He felt all of that anger. Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. So because of all of that, Because
of who we are, we need someone. We need someone
to come. So Moses prays, doesn't he? He doesn't say, I will do anything. He says to God, doesn't he? He says, so teach us. Unless he teaches people, they
will learn nothing. So teach us. to number our days,
that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom. Teach us. You see, once again,
we see in the scriptures there is this extraordinarily strong
link between the fear of God, the reverential awe of God, and the wisdom. that we might
apply our hearts to. That word so means because, doesn't
it? So teach us to number our days,
because according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. The fool says
in his heart, There is no fear of God before his eyes. So the fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of God, the reverential
awe of who God is in all of his character, and who we are in
all of our frailty, is the beginning of wisdom. It's the principle
thing. So what is it to fear God? To fear God is to acknowledge
the reality of his character. To fear God is to believe Him.
It's to trust Him, to look in faith. to the glorious person
and the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To fear
God is to rest all of the hope of our salvation in Him. To fear
God is not to diminish a word of His, to not take anything
away from the perfection of His work. You see, when man is portrayed
in that state that we've just read in those verses from Verse
3 down to verse 11. Man needs someone to help. Man needs someone to teach him,
to teach him. We need to be taught of God.
And to be taught of God, according to John 6, is to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. To be wise is to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. To fear God is to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not to take away anything
or diminish anything from the glory of the person of the Lord
Jesus. It's to beg God for his mercy. Because he has the sovereign
right to be merciful. It says to fear God is to be
dependent upon him. He delivers the souls of his
people from the fear of death. See, it's not a slavish, cringing
fear that this Moses is talking about. He stood there on that
mountain, and he was put in the cleft of the rock, and he knew
the glory of God. He knew the God with whom we
must do. Moses knew. Moses knew because
of the character of God. He knew the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. and he wouldn't have anything
that would diminish it. So that is wisdom, isn't it?
To wisdom is to know who God is. Wisdom is to know what we
are. And wisdom is to know who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. Wisdom is to know that our days
are short. and we pray that the Lord would
cause us to be gracious. Wisdom is to know that our days
are vain and unsatisfying outside of Him. Wisdom is to know that
our days are full of sin and infirmity, that the Lord Jesus
Christ might be seen as precious. we've had as our church verse
for years now, thanks to Collins, that verse in 1 Corinthians verse
30. It says, but of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. He's made by God, and the result
of all that that as according as it is written,
he that glorieth, he that boasts, let him boast in who the Lord
is. See, God has taken the wisdom
of this world and he's made it to nothing, hasn't he? Where
is the wise? God's not asking a question because
he doesn't know where the wise are. He says there aren't any.
There aren't any at all. Where is the wise, verse 20?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? God has made, had not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world? Whenever you think this world
is attractive, and whenever you think this world is appealing,
and whenever you think this world can offer you a home and a place
of security and satisfaction, just remember what God says about
it. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. For after
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God."
Isn't that remarkable? The world's wisdom, in all of
its wisdom, they don't know God. And there they are searching
for him. He's revealed himself to them. There's so much. Every
time they look at these stars now, don't they? Every time they
send a jolly spacecraft out to the outer reaches of the universe,
what are they looking for? They're looking for God, aren't
they? They go digging deep down into the little tiny, tiny things.
They're looking for what? The God particle. We're searching
for God and they're denying him. We live in this day now where
there is every reason to be concerned about the climate and the judgment
of God upon this world in so many ways. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? They see the effects. and they trace it back to a cause.
They see the bushfires and they see the bleaching of the coral
reef and half the world's corals have died and we are just on
the very brink of destruction. They see all the effects, don't
they? And they trace the cause back
to man being wicked. And yet God says that every human
being has seen the effect of God and his existence in creation. The heavens reveal the glory
of God, and yet not once do you hear them tracing that back to
the cause. They see the effect around them
every day. We are wise, aren't we? We can figure out that unless
we get rid of all the carbon dioxide and other things out
of the atmosphere and behave ourselves, we're going to destroy
this planet, because we see the effects, therefore the cause
must be dealt with. We live in a creation and we
live in a reality of that creation. The world by wisdom knew not
God. The Jews require a sign, and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, and we preach Christ crucified.
Unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren, I love these verses. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. and the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised, have God chosen ye, and the things
which are not, to bring to naught the things that are." He's going
to bring it to nothing. That's what Moses was saying,
wasn't it? He brings it to nothing. It grows up, it flourishes, and
it's gone, it's cut down, and it withers away. And where's
it gone? When you mow the grass, where's
it gone? Where's all that grass that looks like, where are those
little flowers, where have they gone? You can't even find them. He's bringing them to nothing.
That no flesh, no flesh should glory in his presence. See, that
is wisdom, isn't it? That no flesh should glory in
his presence. There is nothing to glory about
in your flesh, except But, one of those glorious but, but of
Him are you in Christ Jesus who is made unto us, who of God is
made unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Teach us to number our days.
Teach us to use these days that God has set before us, to number
them and apply our hearts unto wisdom, to apply our hearts unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder he goes on to say in
verse 13, Retire now, Lord, how long? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. Satisfy us with thy mercy. Satisfy us early in these lives,
if it's your will, with your mercy. Satisfy us early every
day with your mercy. Let your mercy, let your mercy
that you satisfy us with, be the beginning of our time. That we may rejoice and be glad
all our days. We can live through all of that
extraordinary affliction and rejoice and be glad. We don't
rejoice in the affliction and we don't rejoice in the fact
that our brothers and sisters that we love here and around
the world are afflicted, but we rejoice in the fact that in
those afflictions our God is sovereign. That's what he says
in the next verse, isn't he? Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us. It's so important, my brothers
and sisters in Christ, you will live in this world and you will
be afflicted. You'll live in this world and you will see evil. You will see evil. Moses saw
evil. Probably one of the greatest
acts of evil outside of the cross of the Lord Jesus was committed
while Moses was on Mount Sinai. They had seen the extraordinary
activities of God. They had, as a huge nation of
people, two million plus, they had seen the glory of God in
the most extraordinary ways, and Aaron in impatience, egged on by those people who
said, we've got to have some gods, we've got to have some
gods. We said, what have they just seen? What did they saw
on that mountain that Moses went up to? So what does Aaron do? He gets these rings, doesn't
he? These gold rings, and he says that magically, put them
into the fire and out popped this ball. And he said to those
people, he said, this is the God that brought you out of Egypt. Moses saw the wrath of God upon
those people. He saw their unbelief. They went
into the Promised Land and they found the Promised Land to be
exactly as God had told them. Everything was exactly as it
said, but we can't go in. He saw those people that he had
cared for for all that time, he saw them die. All those 20
years and older, he saw them all die in unbelief in the desert. My eyes are sore affliction.
But if you're going to survive affliction, you're going to survive
the afflictions that will come, the afflictions that will come
because of your sin, the afflictions that will come because of the
sins of others, the afflictions that are necessarily a part of
this world, you'll rejoice and be glad when you see that God's
hand is upon them. There's a great song that says,
He makes our bed in our afflictions. Imagine that. When you're being
afflicted and you lie down on your pillow, and you tuck yourself
in your sheets. God's made the bed. He's made
our bed in our afflictions. If we see Him, if we see Him
in His glory and in His majesty and in the depth of His care
for His people, we'll be like Moses. Make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. in the days when
we have seen evil. But then he cries out, doesn't
he, in this prayer, let thy work appear unto thy servants. Let your work appear. Let your
work, let your glory unto their children. Let thy glory. To see his glory, to see his
work, to see that his work is an afflicting work, to see that
his work is a glorious work. This is numbering our days and
applying our hearts to wisdom. Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us. in all of these things, in all
of this affliction, in all of this reality of what we are,
to see the beauty of the Lord our God. See, the beauty of his
holiness, the beauty of his sovereignty, the beauty of his providential
activities in this world. Let's see it. Let it be upon
us. What a great prayer, what a great
way to number our days. What a great way to apply our
heart to wisdom. Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us. Is he beautiful? There's no one,
there's no one like him. There's no one like the Lord
Jesus Christ in the beauty of his perfections, in the beauty
of his faithfulness. And then he finishes, Moses finishes
with this glorious declaration. Let's see his beauty, and then
he says, Establish thou the work of our hands upon us. The work of our hands, establish
thou it. We've seen the work of men in
this world. We see the work of men that it
comes to nothing. It's forgotten. You were out
at our place, many of you, yesterday, and that house was built by a
fellow who was famous 180 years ago. He was famous 180 years
ago. He was one of the richest men
in Australia. You haven't heard of him, have
you? You've forgotten him, haven't you? He built that house of ours
as a little sort of holiday house in the country where he could
claim a bit of extra land for himself. It's gone. It goes,
brothers and sisters. And what does God say? These
works established, not established. He thought when he built his
great big house in Sydney and he built his fancy place in the
country, he thought, didn't he, that he'd established something.
He was dead a few years later and no one here knows him at
all or thinks about him. But what does Moses say? To number
our days and apply our hearts to wisdom, he says, let the beauty
of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish thou the work of our
hands upon us. The work of our hands, establish
thou it. What's the work that Moses is
talking about? What's the work that's established?
What's the work in which we see the beauty of the Lord Jesus
Christ? It's his work. You might recall,
in Matthew chapter 4, when the Lord Jesus Christ was being baptised,
John the Baptist said, I'm not worthy, no, no, I'm not worthy
to do this. I should be being baptised by you. And the Lord
Jesus Christ said to him, he said, it becometh us, let's do
it, it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
did is an us. And everything he does now in
this world, he does as an us. Establish the work of our hands. You establish the work of our
hands. The work of our hands is to trust
Him. The work of our hands is to live
in faith before Him. But the work of our hands is
to trust His work, because that work's established. It's always
established. The psalmist said, Psalm 57 verse
2, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all
things for me. It's God, Philippians 2, it's
God who works in you, both the willing and the doing of his
good pleasure. The Lord thy God has commanded
thy strength. Strengthen, O Lord, that which
thou hast wrought for us. See, to sing, to sing and to
be glad and to be satisfied early with mercy is to see that the
work that God requires of us is the work that the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. All of my works before him were
done. They were done. He requires that you obey his
law, and we've done it. He requires that you live with
perfect faith, and he's done it. He requires that you love
God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and
all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Establish
Thou, the work of our hands, upon us." See, it comes upon
us. It's not a work that we do. But
of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He does it all. He does it all. He does it all
for His people, and He does it all in His people. Number our days. Apply our hearts
unto wisdom. Get wisdom. Get wisdom. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Let's finish by turning to those
amazing verses in Hebrews 13, which links all this together. to apply our hearts to wisdom
and to number our days, to satisfy us early, to make us glad, to
let thy work, let the beauty of the Lord be upon us, is to
see him and to be in peace with him. in the circumstances of
our life. Now the God of peace that brought
again, verse 20 of Hebrews 13, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. It's eternal blood, brothers
and sisters. It's eternal blood. It is the
blood of the Son of God which was shed from before the foundation
of the world. It's from everlasting to everlasting,
our God. What's it do, verse 21? What
does the God of peace do? Make you perfect. Isn't that
a remarkable word? Making you perfect in every good
work to do his will. And who does it? Who does it? Who does the establishing of
this work? Working in you that which is
well pleasing in his sight. Through Jesus Christ to whom
be glory forever and ever. See, all of our boasting, to
number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom and to have
all of our boasting in Him is to have a real view of who God
is and a real view of who we are, but in particular, a real
view of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. What remarkable words, what
a remarkable promise from God. Make you perfect. Make you perfect
in every good work. to do His will, working in you
that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. To Him be glory forever and ever. What is it? What's the simple
definition of all of that? Faith. It's just trusting Him,
trusting the reality of His person, trusting the reality of His word
of promise. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the revelation of yourself to your servant Moses,
and we pray, Heavenly Father. that you might make the beauty
of your glory rest upon us, that we might see you as you are. We might be in awe of the absolute
sovereignty and the absolute rule that you have over all things,
Heavenly Father. We might see that in the afflictions
that we suffer in this world, Heavenly Father, we might see
your hand We might see your hand in bringing them in faithfulness
and bringing them in goodness, and in particular, Heavenly Father,
we might see your hand in delivering us from them. But especially,
Heavenly Father, we pray that you might cause us to just live
by a simple faith, just live relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ
in the midst of all of those afflictions that you have brought
and you have promised to bring to your people here. Heavenly
Father, they wean us from our flesh, and they wean us from
fleshly confidence in this world. So Father, we pray that you cause
us to look to you in the midst of them and be thankful for the
promises that you are working. You are working all things for
the good of them who are the called according to your purpose
and your promise. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
number our days. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
seek and to get wisdom, that wisdom that is your dear and
precious Son. Bless us, Heavenly Father, in
these days that you've set before us. You have put us here for
a time such as this, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you be
merciful and gracious to us, that we might see the beauty
of your glory We might see your son dying on Calvary's tree and
we might believe and trust that his blood was shed and our sins
are gone forever. For Heavenly Father, you have
promised that when you see the blood, you will pass over. Make us to be glad, Heavenly
Father. In the midst of this dark and
dying and tragic world, Heavenly Father, cause us to shine as
lights as we simply trust your Son. Use us for your glory, Heavenly
Father. Establish thou the work of our
hands. Establish your work in us and
amongst us. for the glory of your dear and
precious son. I pray in his name and for his
glory. Bless your people Heavenly Father
for Jesus' sake. Amen.