May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to Psalm 39 and we'll
read the fourth verse. Psalm 39 and reading verse 4. This, of course, is a psalm of
David and it's a prayer of David. And this fourth verse obviously
David's praying to his God and it commences with that important
word, Lord. Lord, make me very personal. Religion is personal. Lord, make
me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is that I
may know how frail I am. Well, This is the prayer of David.
David was a man of God, a man after God's own heart. And we
know, therefore, that that which is before us here is important
for each one of us to consider and to realise. Because in our
life, there's only really one thing that is certain. And that
one thing is that we must all die. there will be the day of
our death there will be for each one of us that true statement
that for us time will be no more we live on the earth we live
in time when we die we live in eternity where there is no time
And so how important it is that such a statement is relevant
to you and to me. Lord, make me. You see, naturally,
we don't think, we don't like to think, perhaps, of the day
of our death. Many people would say, well,
it's a pretty morbid subject to think about the day of my
death, especially if we're young. But of course, none of us know
when the day of our death is. And therefore, it's not an irrelevant
statement that is recorded here in this 39th Psalm. It's a very
relevant statement, really, for each one of us. Lord, make me
to know mine end. That really means to prepare
us for our end. Prepare us for our end. To have
the assurance that it is well with our soul. We don't want
to come to the day of our death, to the end of our life, and find
that we are not prepared. sometimes mentioned the case
of ignorance recorded in the Pilgrim's Progress, an analogy
which John Bunyan was able to write from a dream he had. And
the case of ignorance was such that he assumed he was all right. And he journeyed through life and came across the river and
went up to the gates of heaven expecting the gates to be opened
and receive him and they were opened and he was asked to present
his certificate well again he pretended and people do pretend
they're religious when in actual fact there's no life at all And
he fumbled in his bosom and couldn't find his certificate. And so
he was cast out. We see in that very solemn account
that we could find ourselves wanting right up to the gate
of heaven and then to be cast down into hell. It's the most
solemn thing, isn't it? To carry on in life assuming
we shall be all right. And sadly I have, I had one person
definitely I buried who there was no hope for. And yet she'd
been very constant in her attendance at the services on Sundays and
in the week. But the reality was there was
no spiritual life. She didn't possess the certificate
and how important it is for every one of us to be blessed with
the evidence of a certificate and that certificate really has
our name on it and it's given to us by the Saviour and it's
the evidence that He, Almighty God, has died for us to take
away our sins and to clothe us with his righteousness. What a blessing that is. And
how important it is. And we should not think, well,
that's not very relevant for me, I'm a young person and I
can put off that. That, we don't know. We're told, aren't we, the old
must die but the young may and therefore for all of us we don't
know when the day of our death shall come and that's why God
in his great goodness and mercy has given us his word with very
specific statements to warn us and to prepare us and don't therefore
think that these things are morbid because if you and I are a believer
if we have that hope that Jesus has died for us then you see
the end of our life on this earth is not a morbid situation because
we shall then enter in to eternal glory eternal happiness into
that state which is impossible for us at the present time to
really understand. And the Bible tells us, I have
not seen nor heard the things which God has prepared for those
that love him. Well, it'll be a wonderful prospect
and a wonderful situation to enter into. So we shouldn't therefore
think that to meditate upon such a statement is a bad thing. It's a good thing because we
don't want to come, as I said, to the end of our life and not
have the evidence that we are a born-again child of God. It's so important, isn't it?
that we are born again. In the Gospel of John, the Lord
Jesus Christ, soon after he commenced his ministry, he had Nicodemus,
who came to him, and we're told there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, an important person, He
came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. We might expect
Jesus to answer that in a specific way. But in actual fact, Jesus
ignores that statement that Nicodemus made. And instead he speaks and
he says, very, very, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's a very clear statement,
isn't it? And what's Nicodemus' response?
Well, he was honest, he said, how can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus again answers,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again. Well, we've all been born of
the flesh. We're all here today. We're all
alive. We've all been born of the flesh. But only you and God knows whether
you've been born of the Spirit. And so the Lord goes on and tells
him, the wind bloweth where it listeth. And thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither
it goeth. Well, today's been quite windy,
isn't it? And the wind's blown. We don't know where it's come
from. We don't know where it goes. And the Lord says, so is
everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said, how can
these things be? Jesus said, aren't they a master
of Israel? No, it's not these things. So
many people have a knowledge of the things of God, but not
a spiritual understanding. There are many people in the
world today who would classify themselves as good Christians,
as knowledgeable Christians, but the question is, are they
born again? Are they born again? Have they
that spiritual life? Or are they still dead in trespasses
and in sins? Well, what a blessing it is that
we have, you see, a very clear statement by Jesus about this. It's wonderful, isn't it, how
Nicodemus came. And we're told, of course, he
came by night. He hadn't got enough courage
to come in the daytime. But he came by Jesus by night. He needed to know. He wanted
to know these things. And Jesus opened his understanding. And we may think, well, what
became of Nicodemus? Well, what we know is when Jesus
was crucified upon the cross and Joseph of Arimathea, which
you read this morning, came and asked for the body of Christ
so he could bury it, Nicodemus came and helped him. So it's good to realise that
God had mercy upon Nicodemus. We're not given the details,
but we have the evidence that it was so. So we should be very
thankful. Well then, coming back to these
words, Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my
days, what it is that I may know how frail I am. So naturally
speaking, when we're young, for the most part, we think we're
strong and able to do more or less what we want to. We can
go here and go there, and we think we can do whatever we want
to. Not realizing that our life,
our breath, is in the hand of God. God holds our breath in
his hand. It's a very great and true statement. And we should not therefore think
that we actually have control of our life. We know we live
in a medical day where there are so many skillful doctors
and medicines about, but we need God to actually apply those things
to keep us alive. And without them, our life can
so quickly disappear well what a mercy then to have a God who
deals with us in love to our souls if we are his people he'll
deal with us in love to our souls and you won't be able to rest
you won't be able to rest until you have the evidence that you
are born again by the Spirit of God We read the fourth chapter
in James. James is a very wonderful little
epistle. It gives us a lot of instruction
in many ways. The last four verses of this
fourth chapter are very necessary and important to us. Verse 14
in this fourth chapter of James speaks just like this. Whereas
ye know not, What shall be on the morrow? And we don't know,
do we? We don't know what's going to happen in the next hour and
perhaps not even in the next minute. Whereas you know not. What shall be? And that follows
on from what he said in the 13th verse. Go to now. Year that say today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain. We can hear mankind, can't we,
planning out their life, making such a statement. Today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain and so we then read whereas ye know
not what shall be on the morrow but what is your life and then
the Lord tells us it is even a vapour that appeareth for a
little while, time, and then vanisheth away. The Bible gives
us some very wonderful and simple and succinct illustrations. And here is a very easy illustration
for you and me to understand. It says a vapour. Well, we can
think of steam from a kettle or from a saucepan or something.
And we can see if something boils, then the steam rises. but it
just disappears just disappears we don't know where it goes,
it just disappears whereas you know not what shall be in the
morrow for you, what is your life? and so the Lord tells us
it is even a vapour that appears for a little time if you think
of steam, it's a very little time, isn't it? That's a good
illustration for you and me to think of our life. It's a very
little time and we need to compare the very little time of our life
with eternity. You know that I do speak about
eternity sometimes and it is so necessary. Eternity is something
that your mind and my name, my mind, cannot actually understand. We cannot really appreciate what
eternity is because eternity doesn't have time. We live in
time. We live in time. We know what
time is. We know what a year is, a month
is, a week is, a day is. We know what these things are.
An hour, a minute, a second. We know what it all is. but we
don't know anything more than that and so here we have this
statement before us here which asks us the question for what
is your life? it is even a vapour that appears
for a little time so little try and think of eternity you won't
be able to actually conclude that you know how long eternity
is because our minds are tuned to time they are not tuned to
eternity and it's impossible for us to actually try and work
out how long eternity is but you can think in very simple
terms and you can start in very simple terms and you can think
in terms of time like we know and you can think of perhaps
a thousand years, we know what that is Perhaps you can think
of a million years. Well, that gets a bit beyond
our comprehension. But then you try and think of
perhaps a trillion years. And that begins to be very misty,
because our minds can't really think how long that is. And if
you were able to write out on a piece of paper how long one
and how many noughts that would be, and you reach that to a trillion,
and then if you were to continue writing noughts, right across
the page, and then perhaps right across your desk, continue, continue,
continue, and then right across the room perhaps, and right across
the house, and right across the town or village you live in.
It's a vast, vast, vast number. You cannot actually think how
large it is. And yet, that gives you just
a little inkling of what eternity is. And you and I will spend
eternity either in heaven or in hell. It's a very, very real
fact. Something that we should really
be concerned about. And you know, once we are out
of time, in eternity, there's no coming back. Remember there
was that parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They both died. The rich man found himself in
hell, that terrible place of burning. And he saw Lazarus. in heaven and he asked him to
go and tell his brethren about the terrible place that he was
in and the answer was they have
Moses they have the scriptures if they won't believe that they're
not going to believe someone even if they rose from the dead
and rose from hell they would not believe and how true it is
you and I have the Bible which explains to us the counsel of
God and speaks to us about eternity and yet foolish man turns his
mind away from it doesn't want to think about it doesn't want
to think of spending it in hell and rather than be concerned
about the condition and state of his soul he carries on blinded
by the devil my friends the devil wants to stop up our ears he
wants to blind our eyes so we don't even consider these great
and relative truths and so In this wonderful word we're told,
whereas ye know not what shall be in the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour that vanisheth,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. But the soul lives forever. For that ye ought to say, if
the Lord will, We shall live and do this or that. And I hope
you young people realise that. And don't make rash statements
about what you're going to do. You should always say, if the
Lord will. This is what the Bible tells
us. This is what we're instructed. Because here James says, we ought
to say, We ought to say, it's not my words, we ought to say,
if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. It's good
to get into the habit of saying that. If you tell people what
you're going to do, to say, if the Lord will. Perhaps, if you
say it to people that don't know anything about the Lord, they
may perhaps, laugh and they may perhaps mimic you, but don't
worry about that. You be faithful and do that which
the Word of God tells us. You see, we have God's Word to
tell us what to do and we're not therefore to ignore it and
think it's irrelevant. For that she ought to say, if
the Lord will, We shall live and do this or that. But now
ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Sometimes we're left to ourselves
and we say what we're going to do. And in our mind, nothing's
going to stop us doing it. Well, it's good to just retrace
our steps. and saying, if the Lord will. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And so we have before us the
glorious word of God, the Bible, which tells us what to do and
tells us What to say? Because we don't always operate
in accordance with the Bible, that's no excuse. Just because
we're ignorant, it's no excuse. And you and I will never be able
to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and say, well,
I didn't know. Because we have the Bible. and
we have the ability to read the Bible. And may we read the Bible
and may we have a desire to walk out the gracious precepts that
it sets before us and not turn away from it. You know, we also
have another psalm which tells us about these things and it's
a psalm which is well known. It's what we term the Psalm of
Moses. psalm that Moses wrote. I think
it's the only psalm that he did write, a prayer of Moses, the
man of God, and in this prayer he tells us, the days of our
years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength
they be four score years, it is as strength labor and sorrow,
for it is soon cut off and we fly away who knoweth the power
of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath and
then he says so teach us to number our days that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom what a good thing that is isn't it if god
gives us that grace to number our days and to desire wisdom
to take notice of the things that we've been speaking about
this evening and coming back to this fourth verse in the 39th
Psalm where David says, Lord make me, make me to know mine
end and the measure of my days, what it is, what it is that I
may know how frail I am. We are frail. We are very frail,
aren't we? It doesn't take much, does it,
to upset our bodies, and we can very easily become sick, and
we can't rectify that just ourselves. God's often gracious and rectifies
it. Sometimes we take medicines to
rectify it, but God is in control of our lives and what an important
thing it is what a mercy it is so here we have this statement
Lord make me to know mine end that means the day of our death
and the measure of my days that means how long I have we don't
know totally what it is that I may know how frail I am and
really be concerned to be ready to stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. I mean, if God was to come tonight
in your life and my life and take us from this earth and take
our life from us, would we be ready to stand before Almighty
God. Would we be ready? Well, God
knows and you know. And I expect most of us have
to say, well, I'm worried about that. And perhaps the prayer
in one of our hymns is appropriate. And the prayer is this. Prepare
me, gracious God, to stand before thy face thy spirit must the
work perform and it is all of grace that means it's all of
God's favor unmerited favor and what a blessing it is therefore
if God then does prepare us we all need to be prepared and you
know you can't prepare yourself you need God to prepare you if
God prepares you you see he will give you that encouragement. He will speak to your soul and
encourage you. In the second epistle of Peter
we have some good words of advice. And in the first chapter he tells
us, he gives us an example about those things which are good.
And he said, beside this giving all diligence and to your faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance,
and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to
godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The vital thing is to have a
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by that, I mean this. We
need to know why did Jesus come into this world? It wasn't by chance. It had been
planned by the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity. And his appearance, as I said
this morning, was prophesied back in the early days of the
Garden of Eden. And you can read of it in the
third chapter of Genesis. And it was planned that Jesus
should come for this important, great, and glorious situation
to take away the sins of his people. You may say, well why
is that? How did that occur? Well, sin
entered into the world when Eve and Adam disobeyed the word of
God. They disobeyed what he told them
to do. Eve was tempted by Satan. They were told they mustn't eat
of the fruit of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And yet you see Satan came and tempted Eve and asked the question
hath God said sowed a seed of doubt My friends don't listen
To the devil when he tempts us to light that he still uses the
same technique He still tries and makes us doubt his word hath
God said And then of course he said of course you can eat it
and the result was they did eat And because of that, they disobeyed
God. And because of that, they'd sinned. Now, there's no sin in heaven. And therefore, anybody with sin
cannot enter into heaven. So what's needful is to have
our sin removed. And you and I can't remove that
sin ourselves. But the Lord Jesus Christ, Almighty
God, came into this world to take away our sin. And it was required that he gave
his life. That was the price that had to
be paid to take away our sin. Jesus came and lived those 33
years on this earth. and then was crucified upon that
cross at Calvary in order to pay the price to take away our
sins and in so dying he shed his blood and the Apostle Peter
tells us in the first epistle that we are redeemed that means
the price was paid required to free us from our sin redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. So every sinner who is found
in heaven has had their sins removed, taken away. And what a blessing, therefore,
if you and I today have the evidence in our hearts that Jesus Christ
came into this world to save sinners and one of those sinners
is me. Oh my friends, blessed truth,
wonderful truth and how necessary it is therefore for each one
of us to know and therefore that's why the Apostle Peter tells us
that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that knowledge is to know
that our sins, your sins and my sins are washed away. And the death of Jesus Christ
was sufficient to take away all the sins of all his people, of
all his church. And so he goes on. But he that
lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. and
have forgotten that he was purged from his sins. How easily sometimes
we do forget this. But it's good if perhaps God
comes and graciously renews the power of it in our souls, so
that we know that we are free, free from sin. And we read in
the Gospel of John, and if the Son therefore shall make you
free, You shall be free indeed. And the devil can't count him
on that because it's the truth of God, it's the word of God
and we can bless him for it. And then he says, wherefore the
rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you
shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. So you and I are encouraged to
be diligent. That means to put first things
first. That means to put the state of
our soul first and more important, than the state of our body. Give
diligence, says Peter, to make your calling and election sure,
to have the evidence that God has called us, called us out
of the darkness of nature into the glorious light of the gospel
if our eyes have been opened spiritually to see the glory
of the plan of salvation and to realise it sets It shines
forth indeed in the face of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a great and wonderful truth,
is it not? And so we can read in the second
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter, the sixth
verse. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, there we were, in darkness, born in
darkness, born a sinner, We're in darkness, but God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts. What a blessing if that is so. You and you alone will know if
that light has shone from heaven into our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonderful light it
is when it shines into our soul. What a mercy, therefore, to be
able to praise God for it. And therefore, wherefore, I will
not be negligent. to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though you know them, and be established in the
present truth. Yea, I think it meet. That means
he thinks it's necessary. As long as I am in this tabernacle,
that means in his body, his fleshly body, to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance. And it is good, my friends, when
the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, stirs
us up to consider these things and to recognise the relevance
of them to you and me, to have the evidence that we are an undone
sinner in the earth and we need the Saviour to show to us that
He has borne our punishment, He's paid the price to redeem
our souls. These things are so vital and
so important and how necessary to realise we have the Word of
God to instruct us, we have the Word of God to guide us, And
so may we ponder these words which we read in his 39th psalm,
in the fourth verse, Lord. His prayer, the prayer of David,
Lord, make me. Again, may it be a prayer from
each one of us. Personal. Make me. Don't look around for everybody
else. You and I have to stand before
God. No one can stand before God in our place. You and I have
to stand there. Lord make me to know mine end
and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail
I am and be concerned to know that it is well with our soul
so that we're able to say in answer to that great question
is it well with my soul to be able to say humbly and honestly
and truthfully because of the evidence we have from the glorious
work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and be able to say, it
is well. To the glory of God. Amen.