You can hold your place there
in Hebrews 4 because that's where we're going to end up at the
end of the message. Alright, Psalm 90. Psalm 90. The heading says this is a prayer
of Moses, the man of God. Moses is in the wilderness. You
remember how the people When they got to the land of Canaan,
they wanted to spy out the land of Canaan. God had told them
what it was going to be like, but they wanted to go in and
see it first. So the Lord permitted them to
do it, sent witnesses with them. They came back, reported it was
exactly like God said it was. But they made the report evil
because they didn't believe God. And God told Moses they'd wander
40 years in the wilderness for the 40 days that they went in
to spy out the land. Until everybody that's 20 years
old and upward died. And only Joshua and Caleb would
be delivered into Canaan because they had another spirit. They
believed God. They believed God. So Moses,
he's in this wilderness, he's there in this wilderness, this
howling wilderness. And he's praying to God and he
begins with a very comforting word. He says in verse 1, Lord,
Thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Thou has
been our dwelling place in all generations. I could see Moses
in the wilderness and He looks around at the tent, he's dwelling
in, he looks across that desert, he's been sojourning across it,
just wandering all around as God led him through the wilderness. And he goes to God and he says,
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Here
we are, we're in these tents, we're in this wilderness, and
we're just sojourning through this, but you've been the dwelling
place of your people, your elect, your chosen, beloved, believing
people. You've been our dwelling place
throughout all generations. Our fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, dwelt in you, Lord. Here we are in this wilderness
today, and your people dwell in you. And we can say today,
going through this wilderness, sojourners, aliens, passing through
this wilderness, we can say, our Lord has been our dwelling
place in all generations. Been the dwelling place of His
people in all generations. And that's so comforting because
there's no safer, no surer dwelling than in our Lord. Look over at
Psalm 91, look at the first two verses. 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. And the Lord is a sure, safe
dwelling place for His people because He's eternal and He's
unchanging. He's a sure dwelling cause he's
eternal. He's unchanging. Verse two, he
says, Psalm 90 verse two, before the mountains were brought forth
or ever thou has formed the earth and the world even from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God. Kevin and Kimberly went to Yosemite
and they were sending me pictures while they were there and I got
online and I was looking at pictures of that giant mountain of granite
called El Capitan. That's just a big, giant piece
of granite. That mountain was there, the
same as Mount Sinai was there where Moses was as far back as
Moses' day. El Capitan was there when Moses
was writing this right here and dwelling in the wilderness. Somebody
might say, well, those mountains will make a good dwelling place.
That'd be a sure dwelling place. Oh, they've been around a long
time and no doubt about that. But before God's, before those
mountains were formed, before this earth was created and this
world was made, God's elect were dwelling in our Lord in eternity. Long before those things were
created, before we ever formed the earth in this world, we had
a dwelling place eternal and unchanging from everlasting to
everlasting, thou art God. The Lord says to his people,
I've loved thee with an everlasting love. And because God promises
that nothing should be able to separate His people from the
love of God in Christ, when El Capitan and Mount Sinai are dissolved
and are no more, God's everlasting, unchanging love and grace will
still be toward His people and He'll still be our dwelling place. Lord, Thou has been our dwelling
place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth or ever Thou has formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, Thou God, Thou, Thou are our
dwelling place. But how different these fleshly
tents that we dwell in. Whole different story when you
start talking about us and these tents we dwell in. Verse 3, Thou
turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of
men. This is what He's saying, Lord,
you turn man back to the dust. You say, Return to the dust,
you children of men. God formed Adam's body by His
Word. He created Adam's body by speaking
it, by commanding it. He made him out of the dust.
He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became
a living soul. But due to the fall, due to Adam's
transgression, sin entered and death by sin and death passed
upon all men. And God said in the garden, remember
what He said in Genesis 3.19, In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, for thus thou art, and thus thou shalt return. God holds our life in store.
By his word, he holds our life in store. Job 12.10 says, in
whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of
all mankind? And by God's Word, He created
Adam, and by God's Word, when He commands it, He takes our
breath, takes our life. And these fleshly tents gonna
return to the dust. Psalm 104, 29, He said, thou
takest away their breath, they die, and return to the dust.
Job 34, 14, He says, if He set His heart upon man, If he gather
unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish
together, and man shall turn again unto dust. God could do
that to everybody at once. Just take the breath. These tents we dwell in, going
back to the dust. Men, all men, including God's
believing people, don't die because we get sick. We don't die because
we have a car wreck. We don't die because we grow
old. We die when God says die. That's it. When he says return to the dust,
that's when we go into the dust. Not any moment before and not
any moment after. What is time to God? What is time to God? This eternal
God, here we are, we've sort of given us, Moses is praying
here, he's given a really big contrast between eternal and
changing God and us. What's time to God? Verse four,
a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it
is past, and as a watch in the night. I was trying to think
of something to put this in some, and some shoe leather. America
declared independence in 1776. You think of everything that's
happened since this country was founded. That's only 245 years
ago. A thousand years in God's sight
is like yesterday. Now look, a thousand years in
God's sight is as a watch in the night. Some say there's three
watches in the night. Some say there's four watches
in the night. But a thousand years with God is not even a
whole night. It's just a watch in the night.
Just one watch in the night. God's eternal. He's eternal. He's a whole lot bigger than
we are. A whole lot bigger than we are. What is man? What is our life? What are we? What is our life? Verse five. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as asleep. In the morning
they're like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth
and groweth up. In the evening it's cut down
and withereth. God carries away man, generation
after generation, as a flood. like a flood just sweeping away.
He says like a sleep, like a dream. As James said, what is your life? It's a vapor. It's a vapor. We're not mighty oaks. We're
not mighty oaks. God don't need us, really, for
anything. We're given a privilege that
God's given, but God doesn't need us. We're not mighty oaks. We're grass. We're grass. Our life spans like grass in
a single day. That's what he's describing it.
In the morning it flourishes and grows up. In the evening
it's cut down and it withers away. Sown, grown, blown, mown, gone. That's us right there. Just in
a day. Moses is wandering in the wilderness.
And he sees these children of Israel all around him and they're
dying. They're dying every day. They're
dying. Death's all about Moses every
single day. Because the children of Israel
refused to believe God. And listen to what he says in
verse 7. Here's why we've perished. Here's why it's just like this,
just cut down. For we are consumed by thine
anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled." Moses is praying for
his brethren. He's not praying against his
brethren. He's praying for his brethren. And he's including
himself with his brethren. And he says, we are consumed
by thine anger, by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set
our iniquities before thee. Our iniquity, our secret sins
in the light of Thy countenance. For all our days are passed away
in Thy wrath. Now, understand what Moses is
saying here. God's people are in Christ. And God sees His people in Christ. But remember why they are in
that wilderness. Remember why they are in that
wilderness. They spied out Canaan for 40 days and they came back
with that evil report of unbelief. They would not believe God. They
would not believe God. So they could not enter in because
of unbelief. God said, so I swear in my wrath
they shall not enter into my rest. And since they wouldn't
believe on the Lord, God set their iniquities before Him.
Without faith, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. and God
set their iniquities before Him. Even their secret sins in the
light of His countenance, all their days were passed away in
His wrath. They wandered for 40 years according
to those 40 days, and until those that are 20 years and up die. Now you think about this. Moses
saw 603,550 people die in those 40 years. I don't know how many days was
in a calendar year in Moses' time, but basing it on our calendar,
that's 14,600 days they wandered in the wilderness. That averages
to 41 people a day. Now we know a lot of people died
at one time. God opened the earth and swallowed
up some people one time, a bunch of people. But some died more
on one day, some died less on one day. But on average, there
was 41 people a day that died. That's a lot of death. That's
a lot of funerals Moses preached. Moses said, verse 9 at the end,
we spend our years as a tale that's told. You know what he's
saying? Men will be telling this sad story for generations to
come. Moses was there with them. He
was suffering with them. But he's praying for mercy. He's asking God for mercy. He
honored God saying, God, you're our habitation. You're the habitation
of your people. We're just dust. We're just flesh. We're just cut down like grass. Now here's Moses' wise word.
He's praying. This is his prayer to God for
him and all the children of Israel. He don't know who's his and who's
not, but he's praying for them. He's praying for them. And here's
his wise word to us. He says, verse 10, the days of
our years are threescore years in ten, 70 years. And if by reason
of strength they be 80 years, yet is there strength, labor,
and sorrow, for it's soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth
the power of thine anger, Lord? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Moses had some idea of how fragile
his life was. Because he was seeing people
he loved die every day. You know how that is when it
hits home, when somebody real close to you dies? You know,
we hear about people dying all the time, but when somebody you
know dies, that hits you of your mortality. If you knew you was going to
die this afternoon and stand before God, would you be praying
for your brethren? For mercy for them? Would you want to see your
brethren look into Christ Believing on Him and worshipping Him. It
puts everything in perspective, doesn't it? This is what Moses
is seeing. He's seeing death. And he's seeing
how fragile his life is. And he's seeing we can't even
comprehend what God's wrath would be. seeing the brevity of our days,
and seeing the end of those who believe not, and seeing how we
just can't even comprehend what it would be to fall into the
hands of an angry God. Lord, teach us, he said. He didn't say, Lord, teach them. He said, Lord, teach us. This is a meek man right here,
isn't he? He's counting himself right there with them. Center
just like them. Lord, teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Let us flee to Christ. That's what he said. Teach us
to flee to Christ. Christ is our wisdom. Teach us
to flee to Christ, Lord. If we'd apply our hearts to wisdom,
you know what the Lord's going to bring us to do? If He grants
that petition to you and me and makes us number our days and
apply our hearts to wisdom, you know what He's going to do? He's
going to bring us to Christ our wisdom. To see He's ruling everything,
He's worked it out for His people, and He's bringing His people
to Himself, and everything's moving right on track. That's
what He's going to show His people. He's going to make us apply our
heart to wisdom. He can make us think about what's really
important, what's really needful, and that's Him. That's Him. He put away the sin of his people
by his blood. He came and he bore the justice
of God for his people and satisfied God for his people. Moses knows
that. Moses sees that in that lamb
that dies. He sees that in that high priest
that enters in. He sees that knowing that that
blood's being sprinkled on the mercy seat over the law and the
Shekinah glory's meeting with him there. He knows this is Christ. This is what my Redeemer's coming
to do. This is what he's already done
is my surety. And every sinner that comes to
Christ for mercy, he gives this mercy too. Moses knows this. And believing on Christ, believing
on Christ, knowing how that the Lord imputes the righteousness
of Christ to us through faith, Moses is desiring for this. These,
his brethren, who are wandering and dying and he sees all this
death, his desire is, Lord, teach us to come to Christ and cast
our care on Him. Teach us to see how fleeting
this life is, and how fickle this flesh is, and how fragile
we are, and we're just on the cusp of eternity. Make what's important, important
to us. That's what He's saying. God
says to every sinner who believes on Christ, He says, I remember
thy sins no more. There's no more offering for
sin. He said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin. Lord says, Moses is praying,
Lord teach us to come to Christ that we might have this blessing,
that we might know this. Asking God for mercy for ourselves,
for all his servants, for all our brethren. That's what he's
saying. Look here in verse 13. Return,
O Lord, how long? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. O, satisfy us early with Thy
mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us
glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us and the
years wherein we have seen evil. By God's mercy, when He gives
us free forgiveness through faith in Christ, You know this, believer. God satisfies us with Christ
alone. He satisfies you with Christ
alone. Oh, satisfy us early with Thy
mercy. Return, Lord, how long? Come
quickly, Lord. Do it early. Do it in the early
part of our children's lives. Do it in the early part of the
morning for us. Do it in the early part of this
year for us. Do it early, Lord. Come sooner
than later. and satisfies Lord with what
you've accomplished. It's God's mercy in Christ that
makes us rejoice. He says make us rejoice, make
us be glad all our days. It's seeing that we're in Him
and He's our dwelling and we're hedged about and we're in the
refuge and we're safe and He doesn't see our sin. He doesn't
behold our iniquities because He's put them away. This is what
makes us rejoice and be glad. He says, make us be glad according
to the days wherein thou has afflicted us in the years wherein
we've seen evil. When God's affliction brings
us to Christ, He makes us glad according to the days of our
affliction. He makes you more glad than the affliction. The
affliction was worth it because of the gladness He gives you
in Christ. He said a day is as a thousand
years with the Lord. I think what Moses is saying
is, Lord, make us glad for eternity. Make us eternally rejoiced. Make
us eternally glad. This is all God's work. It's
seeing His work. It's beholding God's work. It's
beholding God's glory in Christ, finished for His people. Redemption
accomplished by Christ. that makes us satisfied. Verse
16, let thy work appear unto thy servants and thy glory unto
their children. Moses knows, Moses knows, he
knows. Lord, I can't reveal this work
to them. I can't put this in their heart.
I can't make this glory shine forth. You're the light, you're
the glory, Lord. The work's yours, Lord. And he's
begging God. He's praying and begging God
on behalf of those in Israel. And he's saying, let thy work
appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
Beholding Christ, satisfy God on our behalf. That's going to
make us satisfied. He's going to make us rejoice
and be glad all our days, beholding His work, hearing Him say it's
finished, seeing His glory and putting away the sin of His people.
Seeing Christ's glory seated at God's right hand. Seeing Christ's
glory as being the one who's calling His people and called
us to Himself and spoke like He did to Matthew and said, follow
me and made you to see that You're complete in Him. That's what's
going to make us glad. That's what's going to make our
children fall down and worship Him. That's what's going to make
us continue together worshiping Him. That's what Moses is praying
for. Lord, show us Your work. Show
us Your glory. And here's what he asked for
too. Lord, let Your beauty be upon us. Look here at verse 17. Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us. I've said this many times, when
you see the Lord our God, He's saying, He's saying, our covenant
God, our Jehovah, our covenant God, God who cannot lie. What is the beauty of the Lord
our God? What is the beauty of it? It's the beauty of Christ
our righteousness, His beautiful holiness, His perfection by which
His people are accepted. Lord, let your beauty be upon
us. Let your righteousness be upon
us. Lord, don't behold our iniquities. Don't look upon us. All we are
is iniquity. All we are is dust. We're just
a tent that's just here for a moment and a vapor that just vanishes
away. Lord, put your beauty upon us. You be our habitation and
put your beauty upon us. Encompass us round about with
your beauty, your righteousness, and receive us in what you are. And he asked God to bless the
work that God had put in their hand. Verse 17, he says, and
establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work
of our hands, establish thou it. I kind of think that he means
here two things. It goes with the first part of
that verse. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish thou the work of our
hands upon us. Do you know that the work of
Christ's hands and the full finished work that He accomplished is
the work of our hands? We were in Christ. Everything
Christ did in obeying God perfectly and fulfilling all righteousness
and dying under God's wrath, being buried, coming out of the
tomb and sitting down at God's right hand. All God's elect was
in Him and we did that whole work in Him. That's what the
imputation of His righteousness is. God is saying, this is your
righteousness, you did this. And he's also saying, Lord, and
in this work you've given us as we go through this wilderness,
taking this tabernacle down, reassembling this tabernacle,
going through the ceremonies and the lambs and all of this,
for us today would be assembling together, sending forth your
gospel, singing your praises, worshiping you, trying to preach
in your name, trying to pray in your name. Trying to help
one another. Trying to be helpers of one another's
joy. Trying to relieve the needs of
our brethren with the things you've given to us. Lord, establish
thou the work of our hands upon us. The work of our hands. You
establish it, Lord. I just don't sound like a man
here who's all cocksure of himself, does he? Would you be if you were in a
wilderness? God, it's so easy. If we were
in a wilderness, think about this, in a tent, going through
a desert, it's just howling with winds and cold at night and hot
during the day. and doing all the work that Moses
was having to do. Leading all this multitude of
people. And at the same time, you're
seeing God's justice poured out on them. Because they didn't
believe Him. You're seeing them die every day. And you're having
to preach some sad funerals because these people went out not believing
the Lord. Do you see what a merciful and
meek man Moses was? That he wasn't He wasn't praying,
Lord, pour down wrath on them. He was praying, Lord, teach them.
Teach them. Establish them. All these that
he didn't know. God had made clear those twenty
and above were going to fall, but he didn't know who God would
have mercy on. He didn't. He had no idea who
God was going to have mercy on. He didn't know about those younger
who God was going to have mercy on. He didn't know who they were.
And he's just begging God, Lord, put your glory on us. Put your
beauty on us. Put your righteousness on us.
Behold us in your Son. And Lord, establish thou the
work of our hand. We can't do it. We don't have
any strength. You got the devil coming after
you. You got your sin nature. You got the world. You got every
temptation under the sun. We're in a wilderness. This body's
a wilderness. This body's a tent. And then
you got the wilderness all around us. Establish us, Lord, establish
us. Let's go back there now to Hebrews,
and I wanna end with this. This is a good... You find yourself
praying what Moses is praying here. Lord, you've been our eternal
habitation. We're just dust. We're just a vapor, gone. Here today, gone. Gone today. Lord, you're eternal. Every affliction
that we're encountering, everything that's coming upon, every hardship
we have in this life, Lord, we deserve this. Actually, it's
a whole lot less than what we deserve. A whole lot less than
what we deserve. Lord, have mercy on us. Have
mercy on us. That's a heart of love. That's
a heart of mercy. That's a new heart. That's a
heart that God created right there. It's not this hard, obstinate. That's a heart broken and contrite. It's why God called him the meekest
man on earth. You go through there and look.
When he was opposed by men, Moses was on his face when troubles
came. Moses is on his face. Moses is
begging God, Lord, I can't do it. I need you to do the work. One time, one time. That's amazing,
that one time. He got angry and he smoked a
rock twice. Second time. A rock can't be
smitten but once. picture of Christ, but God saved
him. God saved him. Well, let's read this, Hebrews
3, verse 6. It says, I'm sorry, Hebrews 4, verse 6.
Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached enter not in because
of unbelief. Speaking about this rest, this
rest. Look down at verse 11. Let us
labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. Lest any man fall
at the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature that's not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of him, him with whom we have to do. You don't have to do with
me. It's Him we have to do with.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest. See this? Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that's passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. What is that? Let us believe
on Him. Let us hold Him fast. For we
have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the filling
of our infirmities. He walked through this wilderness,
touched with all our infirmities. He was in all points tempted
like as we are. We sin. He was without sin. Let us, therefore, do what Moses
did. Let us come boldly, with liberty,
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. That's what Moses was doing in
our text. And you go back now and you read
that psalm again, and you hear Christ, when you get down there
where he's pleading for mercy for the Lord's people, you go
read that psalm again, and you hear Christ interceding on our
behalf. presenting that petition to God,
perfect on our behalf, so that God doesn't behold the sin that's
mixed with our prayer to Him. That's why God hears His people.
We have a great high priest. Go to Him. Amen.