It's good to be back with you.
It's the year before last, wasn't it? I'm thankful to be here,
very much so. I'm thankful to your pastor for
asking me. It's quite an honor to be asked
to preach in the absence. And I thank him. We go way back, way back. I've known him many years. And coincidentally, Lord Sovereign
Providence, his grandfather was a preacher, James Watson. His
grandfather and my father were real close friends, both of them
preachers. I guess it's fitting that Clay
and I should become preachers as well, but thankful for him. And the Moyers, Jeff and Joyce
and Ben and Sarah treated us royally. Thank you very much.
Turn with me to Psalm 90, the 90th Psalm. This is a Bible study. And in a Bible study, by definition,
you study God's Word verse by verse. I was taught well by a
pastor and a preacher who taught verse by verse from God's Word
and told us young preachers to do the same. We are being taught something
in God's Word, Bible study. And if I had a subject or a title,
it would be verse 12. Look at this. Teach us to number
our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So that's the theme or the subject
or that's what I hope we're taught this morning, to number our days. our days, to apply our hearts
unto wisdom. This is one of the oldest psalms
written, penned by Moses thousands of years ago. It's a prayer,
if you'll notice, it says it's a prayer of Moses, the man of
God. as are many of the Psalms, most of the Psalms, prayers,
calling on the Lord. Verse 1 begins, Lord, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he declares
his God. He declares who God is. He declares the infinite, eternal
God. He declares what man is, finite. The brevity of time, he declares
what sin is, and what wrath is, and judgment, and death. These are things we need to be
taught, don't we? This is the truth. And then he teaches us
the fear of the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom.
Teach us to number our days, that we might apply our hearts
to wisdom. And the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. And then there's a prayer, oh
Lord, Return, oh Lord, satisfy us. So this is a wonderful psalm,
a wonderful psalm, a vital psalm that we know and learn and look
at. Lord, verse one, thou hast been
our dwelling place in all generation. In him we live and move and have
our being. God's people know that. Turn
back to Psalm 18 with me, Psalm 18. All of God's people know
God, their creator, the God in whose hands our breath is and
all our way. God's people know Him. This is
life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom God sent. God's people know that we live
and move and have our being in Him. And look at Psalm 18, this
is wonderful. In one verse, David writes this,
declares much of what God is to his people. Verse two, the
Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength
in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my
high tower, my dwelling place. God's people know that. He's
our dwelling place. So back in our text, Lord, thou
hast been our dwelling place in all generations. In verse
two, he says, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. The fool hath said there's no
God. Or man's conception of God. is foolishness. God who doesn't
want things to happen, they happen anyway. That's no God at all,
is it? This is the God who ordered all
things, and they're sure, before the foundation of the world.
God who predestinated all things, who worketh all things according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? You can't do that. No. He does
all things. He worketh all things. This is
the God who says, I kill. I make alive, I wound, I heal,
I the Lord do all these things. And this foolish notion of God
who didn't want things to happen or God can't do things unless
you let him, that's no God at all. God's people know that this
is the everlasting God, the creator of the universe, our Creator,
who holds our life and our bread in His hands. Our times are in
His hands. This is the God of the Bible,
and this is our God. From everlasting to everlasting,
He is God. Now who is He talking about?
God the Father? Yes. What about God the Son?
Yes. The Holy Spirit? Yes. Because
these three are one person. One in essence, one in power,
one in purpose. This is our God. Jesus Christ
is our God. He's our Lord. Everlasting God. Verse three, he says, thou turnest
man to destruction and sayest, return ye children of men. The
Lord is the one who kills. He's the one that takes our life
from us. He's the one that gives it. He's
the one that takes it. When he says turn, when he turns
us from this earth, we return back to the dust from which we
were made. That's when God says so. not
a moment later or a moment sooner. Job said this, Job 14, thou hast
appointed our bounds that we cannot pass. Number of our days,
months are with the Lord, we cannot pass those bounds. Is
that fatalism? No, it's Bible, it's true. This
is the God of the Bible. So we should not fear things,
we should fear God. He's the God in whose hands our
breath is. That's what Deuteronomy 32, 39
says. I kill. I wound. I make a lie. I kill. In verse
3, he says, Thou turnest man, return ye children of men. Return. Oh, that God would turn us from
destruction. Oh, that God would turn us from
sin. Turn us. from a way that seems
right unto us, which is destruction, to Him. We will not unless He
turns us. How many times in the Scriptures
does He say that? Turn us, O Lord, and we'll be
turned. Not until then. No one will turn to God unless
God says, turn. Unless He stops our wild career
and brings us to Him, no one will. You're looking at the prodigal
son. You're looking at the prodigal son, one of many, but I am a
prodigal son and I would not have come to Christ. I would
not have turned from my path of destruction unless the Lord
had turned me. So when He says, turn, we turn.
Oh, may He turn someone. This morning, verse 4, He says,
a thousand years are in thy sight, as in, as yesterday in thy sight. A thousand years in thy sight,
but as yesterday when it is past, as a watch in the night. This
is the infinite, eternal God, His purpose, infinite, His ways,
amazing, past finding out. And yet he's going to tell us
about finite man, the brevity of time. Read down through verse
6, verse 5. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood, these years, like a flood, like we call it so much water
under the bridge. That's what we say about the
years that pass. Read on. There is a sleep. In
other words, you wake up and it's over. In the morning, they're
like grass which groweth up. In the morning, verse 6, it flourisheth
and groweth up, and in the evening it is cut down and withereth.
Oh, how finite we are. A thousand years. God is not
a creature at all. He's not subject to time as we
are. We're creatures of time, aren't
we? In fact, we live right now in the present. We don't know
what a moment brings forth. We cannot, man doesn't have a
free will. That is, man cannot say, I will
do anything. Can you? You hope to. I will breathe a moment from,
you might. This is why he says, boast not
thyself of tomorrow. You don't know what a day brings
forth. You ought to say concerning everything, if the Lord will. If the Lord wills, I'll live
in the next moment. I'll breathe the next moment.
Only God says, I will do this. I've spoken it. I'll bring it
to pass. I've purposed it. I will do it. He alone has free
will. For a man to say he has free
will means that he knows what he's going to do the next moment.
Whatever he purposes, he's able to carry it out. We can't do
that. Everything works according to
God's will. God's purpose. We're creatures of time. We just
don't know what's going to happen to us. A thousand years come and a thousand
years go quickly. It's of no essence to God. Everything is according to His
purpose. The wheels of God's sovereignty
move slowly, but they're moving, certainly. Like if you'd go into
the Tower of Big Ben in London and you'd watch some of those
big gears turning, so that hour hand, it's imperceptible that
it's turning, but it's turning all right. It's turning. A thousand
years in God's sight. or as better as yesterday, and
one day is a thousand years. And for us, though, they go by
so quickly, don't they? They're like asleep, like asleep. You wake up, you say, we're like
grass that we grow up in the morning, or the flower, the beauty
of man, the glory of man, like the flower of the field. It looks
beautiful and glorious one minute, and the next moment it's old
and withered, and it dies. He says, we need to keep that
in mind. Ben and Sarah's little daughter is just a young and
beautiful and new little girl. Isn't she so beautiful? Joyce
is beaming right now. The most beautiful girl in the
world, isn't she, Joyce? Yeah. Tomorrow, she's going to be a
teenager. It seemed like yesterday my daughter
was born. She's approaching 40 years old. It's that quick. It's like you
wake up and life is over. That's a fact. It's a fact. There's
one scripture that says it's like a weaver's shuttle. My years
are, Job said that, my years are like a weaver's shuttle.
We have many textile mills in Virginia where I live, and one
of the men worked in one of them. He took me to that mill where
he was, and the sound was deafening, the jet. jet loom, water jet
looms. It was deafening. But those weavers,
those shuttles that were making cloth and so forth, you couldn't
see them moving. Thousands, ten thousands of RPMs. That's our life. This was written thousands of
years ago. How many people have gone before it? Trillions of
people. A man's such a fool, his secret
thought is he's going to live forever. He's going to tell us,
you're going to live 70 years, maybe, maybe 80. That's it. We need to be wise, don't we?
Consider our latter ends, like grass. My mother is now 96 years
old. That's old, isn't it? And she
keeps wondering when's the Lord going to take her. She wants
to go. Everybody else wants to live
forever. She wants to go. She wanted to go a long time
ago. She's going to go when God says so. For us, it might be
40 years, 50 years. When I was 14 years old, the
Lord took my 21-year-old brother. I was young then, 21. When I
was 15, my best friend, I carried his dead body. out of a building and tried to
resuscitate him. He died at 15, my best friend. When I was 39 years old, the
Lord took my 42-year-old sister and on and on it goes. On and on it goes. Teach us,
number our days. They go by so quickly. Verse
7, we're consumed by that anger and by their wrath are we troubled.
were consumed by thy anger. God is angry with the wicked
every day. That's the God of the Bible.
Doesn't it say that? God hateth all workers of iniquity. Listen to the Psalm Isaiah 8.
It says about those who look to the earth, this earth, they
pass through this earth, hungry, they fret themselves, they curse
their king and their god, they look upward, they look to the
earth, trouble, darkness, dimness of anguish, driven to darkness. Isn't that what we're facing
right now? Everybody's anxious and in darkness
and anguish. Why? Because there's no hope
in this earth. It's a hopeless place. There's
one hope, hope in God, hope in Christ, and hope of eternal life. We're consumed by God's anger,
by his wrath. Are we troubled? That's why we're
troubled. He said that there's no rest, no peace for the wicked.
Said that twice. No peace for the wicked. Man's
in trouble. Man's in trouble with God. wrath of God. Romans 1 says,
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
That is just. God is holy. Verse 8 says, Thou
hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the
light of thy countenance. There are no secrets with God. He that made the eye, does he
not see? Yes, he does. He that made the
ear, does he not hear every word? Yes, he does. Secret sin in the
light of his countenance. Oh my, what does that do? What
should that do to us? Well, those who know this God
produces the fear of the Lord. Fear the Lord. He said to this
man when I look, he is a poor and a contrite heart and does
what? Trembleth at my word. Trembleth. See, I'm a sinner.
And God ought to be angry with me. He ought to pour out his
wrath on me. Why doesn't he? I'm going to
tell you in a minute. Verse nine, he says, our days
are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. Man, born of woman, a few days
and full of trouble. Wrath, trouble. Sin, we've rejected
our creator. Romans one, the whole chapter
deals with mankind in general, doesn't it? Romans two talks
about religious mankind. They're all guilty. Neither thankful or vainglorious,
lifted up with pride, filled with all manner of sin. Because
of God's sin, there's wrath and anger. Here's the facts of the
matter. 2.6 million people die in the
United States alone every year. 7,300 people a day in this country
alone. Five people every minute, and
I'm not talking about the virus. I'm talking about other things.
Other things. 500 and some people a day die
from so-called accidents. There are no accidents with God. And nobody seems to be giving
these things a thought. They worry about one thing. When
people are dropping like flies, always have been. Always have
been. Who's doing it? God is. Always
has been. Always will be. It says, we pass away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. Our lives are in the books. In the Revelation it talks about
books being open. The books, the books, the books,
the books, all open. Every man being judged out of
the books. Everything he's ever said, everything
he's ever did. Say, I don't believe that. Well,
that's what God's Word says, okay? Do you want to be judged
for everything you've said and everything you've done? A lot
of people are going to be. But there's one book, it's called
the Lamb's Book of Life. And God's people's names are
in that book. And there's nothing on record
in that book against them, not one. Because the life that he
lived, he lived for them. and he blotted out all the handwriting
of ordinances against them, nailing them to his cross. covering their
sins, everything they ever said and everything they ever did,
in his own precious blood. That's the book I want to be
found in, don't you? When my name is called. And there's
a song that my brother used to sing years ago. It says that
Christ will stand when my name is called and for me say, I'm
here. Paul Mahan, Christ says, I'm
here. Isn't that what you want? We're
gonna be judged, we're gonna stand in the judgment either
in Christ, covered, justified, clear from all charges in Him,
by Him, or stand by Him to be judged according to Him in perfect
righteousness by the Son of God Himself. And we come far short
of that, glory to God. Oh, may my name be in the Lamb's
book of life. We have, our tale has already
been told, you know that? All these stories of Old Testament
saints, so much written about them. Well, that was written
before the world began. Everything, every, to the hairs
on their head were numbered. And the tale was told. Well,
same with us. Same with that. A tale is told,
but it's a short tale. It's a short story. It doesn't
last very long. Verse 10, the days of our years are threescore
years and ten. That's seven. Threescore years
and ten. Maybe, verse 10 says, if by reason
of strength, what kind of strength? Well, if you eat the right things,
you take supplements, you know, if you don't drink this polluted
water, and if you exercise right, I have nothing to do with it. Maybe you won't gain so much
weight. Maybe you'll feel a little better,
but you're not going to add one second to your life. You're not
going to take it away. No, sir. Well, that means we
can live any way we want to. Oh, just shut up. This is what it said to me. Maybe. What strength? Who determines
we live 70 years, 80 years? God does, as I said. My mother
has cooked with lard all her life. Lard. 96 years old. She wants to die. Well, eat that
lard. I keep telling her, you keep
eating that, you're going to die. She said, I hope so. 80 years, but it's full of, verse
10, strength, that means strong labor. He said that to Adam,
didn't he, in the garden. You're gonna, by the sweat of
your brow, you're gonna toil instead of a woman gonna labor
in childbirth. Pain and sorrow and suffering
and labor and blood and sweat and tears. What do we got to
look forward to in this life? What do young people have to
look forward to? pain and sorrow and trouble and blood and sweat
and tears and da da da. That's what they said. So why
would you spend Your money and your time and everything for
that which satisfied not, which just is a vapor. Why would we
do that? What fools we are. And I would not discourage any
young person or any young people to not enjoy that. God gives
us all things richly to enjoy. He does. The whole book of Ecclesiastes
is about that. It tells us that God has given
us the things of this world to enjoy, but we need to remember
who gave them. Worship Him for giving them,
giving thanks. He gives them, yes He does, freely
gives that we might enjoy, but remember this, He's gonna take
it all away. Every bit of it, take it away. Relationships,
wouldn't discourage anyone from getting married. You know, our
Lord said, as in the days of Noah, I should be marrying and
giving him marriage. Well, that's good, God ordained
that. It's good, it's good in the Lord, to marry in the Lord. But it's good. But remember this.
It's very soon, and it happens so quickly, that those that are
married like they've never been married before. My mother was
married 72 years. He's gone. Art, he's gone. And I go over there, and it's
sad. her mate of 72 years. The last 20 years they were never
apart, ever. Now he's gone. And it's going
to happen to every one of us. So what's wise? What's wisdom?
See, if my dad knew the Lord and my mom knew the Lord, they're
going to be joined again. They're never going to part. They never have to part. Isn't
it a blessing, Brother Jim? He's made your wife your sister,
eternally, forever. Heirs of eternal life, Peter
said. That's the blessing, isn't it? Marriage is wonderful. It's
more wonderful being married to Jesus Christ, if both of you
are married to Christ. Why? You'll never part. You might
for a little bit, just for a few days, but you'll be joined again. Isn't the Lord good? That's wisdom,
he said. That's wisdom. Verse 11 says, who knoweth the
power of thine anger? According to thy fear, so is
thy wrath. Know something of God's wrath,
know something of his fear. Know something of God's anger,
know something of his fear. The world doesn't know anything
about that. God says, why should you be smitten? You only rebel
again and again to the world. Why should you be smitten? They
don't turn to him that smites them, that Isaiah said. God's
people do. They recognize the hand. Like
the children of Israel in Egypt. They all recognize that the wrath,
the plagues and various things were from the hand of God. Didn't
they? Didn't they, Greg? All the children of Israel knew
why these things were happening. Idolatry and sin against an ungodly
world. They all knew that. And they
all knew why the wrath was not on them. Blood on that door.
mercy, grace through their Redeemer, Christ. They all knew that, that
they deserved the wrath that Egypt got. But God spared them,
they were covered, they were under the blood. Why didn't any
Egyptians come running to them and say, what's this all about?
Why are these plagues coming? Why don't somebody tell us why
this wrath is coming down from heaven? They didn't do it, did
they? Why? Sovereign election. Sovereign, revealing grace. His people, they know, they see,
they fear the Lord. But it says of the world, David
says in Psalm 36, the transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart, there's no fear of God before their eyes. God's name
is on everybody's lips down to little children. When men ought
to be saying, oh my God, have mercy upon us. Everybody ought
to be saying, oh my God, have mercy on us. I don't hear anybody
saying that. But God's people, we're so blessed,
aren't we? If we can say like David, oh
my God, have mercy. God has had mercy. And he'll
not hold them guiltless who take his name in vain. Any young people,
don't say it. Don't say it. Don't get used
to anybody saying it. Anger. Wrath. We know something
about that, Noah. And we fear him. We fear him. So. That's a powerful little
word, isn't it? So. Teach us. Teach us. Teach me and my My
wife and my children and my grandchildren. So, in light of all this, God
so loved the world. How? Killed his son. Why did
he have to kill his son? He's angry. He'll by no means
clear the guilty. What did it take to put away
sin? God had to kill his son. But God so loved many in this
world. So, it's a powerful word, isn't
it? Isaiah 55. Everyone that thirsteth,
come. So, teach us, it says, teach
us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
What is wisdom? It's not a what. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fooled. Men study all manner of subjects. They want all sorts of knowledge
in all manner of subjects. and yet they say there's no God.
That makes them fools. No matter what they study, no
matter what they become experts in, be it physics or be it medicine,
be it science, whatever it is, if they don't know God, they're
fools. You know what the wisdom is? It's a person. In Christ
dwelleth all the treasures of what? Wisdom and knowledge. It's a person. Why do they call
the owl a wise owl? Have you ever thought about that?
Mankind just designated an owl as being wise. Why is that? I think it's in God's providence. He can see in the darkness. He
can see clearly in the darkness. But if you ask him any question,
he'll give you one answer. Who? What's the meaning of life? Who? Well, if a man dies, will
he live again? How is he going to live again?
How? It's all about him. All about
Christ. He's all the treasures of wisdom. So he said, teach us to apply
our hearts that to know him. Oh, that's what Paul said. Oh,
that I might know him. Whom to know is to have eternal
life. who is wisdom. Verse 13, return, O Lord. How
long? That's what God's people say.
They don't want to live forever. They want Christ to come back.
Come now. Return. How long is this going
to be? How long do we have to stay here? Well, until he says
so. And let it repent the concerning
thy servants. The Lord have mercy and spare
us and turn us, that was repent me, turn us. Oh, satisfies, look
at verse 14, I love it. Satisfies early with thy mercy
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Cleodestes says,
oh, remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. It's good
that a young man, a young person bear the yoke in their youth.
Oh, that God would put his yoke upon them in youth. In verse 15, I like this, make
us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,
the years wherein we have seen evil. Oh, may we see the goodness
of God in the chastening hand of our Lord and all the troubles
and all the trials whom the Lord loveth thee chastening. Oh, all
these troubles and trials. Maybe judgment upon the earth,
but they're the goodness of God for God's people. They're the
goodness of God. They cause us to look to Him.
They cause us to realize this world is so brief and fragile
and failing and temporary. The things that are seen are
temporary. The things that are unseen are
eternal. It causes us to set our affection on things above.
And God sends all these troubles and trials to His people, and
it's all good. No matter how tough it is, it's
the goodness of God. Make us glad and rejoice in Him,
Him, and not set our affection on these things, perishing. So
verse 15 says, make us glad the years we've seen evil. The next
chapter, Psalm 91, says no evil shall befall you. Moses went
on to say no evil shall befall you. Why? because all things
work together for good according to the purpose of God and his
people, those that love God. And all the evil is good for
us. We're going to see. It's good. What we call evil is the goodness
of God on behalf of his people. Verse 16, let by work appear
unto thy servants. That's the work of Christ on
Calvary's trees. That's the work of redemption.
That's the work of salvation that Christ performed by himself. Over in chapter 92, it says,
thou hast made me glad through thy work. Does this gospel make
you glad? Some of you are smiling. In the midst of all this labor
and sorrow and trouble and tears, He's prepared us a table in the
midst of our enemies and we walk through the shadow of death yet
we really fear no evil because God is with us and He's made
us glad. Does this make you glad? Anything
else make you more glad, happier? Can anything in this world really
satisfy you? No. He said, you be our satisfaction,
make us glad. Let thy work appear unto thy
servant, thy glory, the glory of God in the person and work
of Christ. Unto us in glory show it to my
children. In verse 17 he says, let the
beauty of our Lord, the Lord our God be upon us. Clothe us
with that beautiful robe of righteousness, and establish thou the work of
our hands upon it. Oh, create me in his image unto
good works. That's what salvation's all about.
That's what it's for. Take a worthless sinner and make
him worth something. Scripture says the world's not
worthy. Salt of the earth, light of the
world, his people. Can you imagine that? Take an
old rotten prodigal son and make something out of him. Only God
can do that. And that's what he prays for. I want to be like
Christ. I want to be of some use. I've been nothing but useless
all my life. My death. Establish thou the
work of our hands upon it. Yay! Yes, Lord, the work of our
hands establish it. I may not just serve myself,
but serve my God who loved me and gave himself for me. Let's pray together. Father in
heaven, thank you for your word. Teach us, oh Lord. Oh Lord, thou
hast been our dwelling place, and we ask that you would teach
us who thou art, who you are, what we are, the brevity of this
life, us and our children. Show us thy wrath. Show us thy
anger. Show us our sins, but show us
mercy. And teach us to number our days.
Apply our hearts to knowing Christ. Be found in Him. Show us the
work of Christ on Calvary's tree for guilty sinners. and establish
this work and our works in Him. In Christ's name we pray, amen.