Let us turn again to God's Word
and turning to the Psalm that we were considering this morning,
Psalm 90. I suppose after the 23rd Psalm,
it's probably the best known of all the Psalms, Psalm 90.
And I want tonight to direct you to the words that we find
in verse 3. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Psalm 90 and verse 3,
Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children
of men. And the theme that I want to
take up is that of law and gospel. We have that that kills, that
is the law, and we have that that makes alive, that is the
gospel. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Remember those words
that we find in Deuteronomy, there at the end in chapter 32
of the book, of Deuteronomy, the son of Moses, and there at the end God speaks,
verse 39, See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God
with me. I kill, and I make a lie, I wound,
and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out of my
hand. Well, there we have the song
of Moses, and here we have the prayer of Moses, the man of God. And, as I say, I want us to consider
in particular tonight these words in verse 3. Now, earlier today
we were in the psalm, and we were considering more particularly
the words that we find later at verse 12 and that petition
so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts
onto wisdom we were thinking of the the fact of time how we
are creatures of a day we experience all the limitations of time and
of space, and how we are reminded of that with the turning of the
year. And in the psalm, of course,
we remark, though, that there is a certain emphasis, really,
upon the frailty of man. Verse 5, In the morning they
are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes
and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down
and withereth. How the years come and go and
we increasingly are made to feel the frailty of our human nature. In verse 9 we spend our years
as a tale that is told. Verse 10 it is soon cut off and
we fly away. And we can, coming to these words
in verse 3, interpret them in this way, that here we have some
parallel statements. Parallelism, one of the peculiarities
of Hebrew poetry, where the same truth is declared twice, or maybe
three times sometimes, and declared in a slightly different fashion.
And that's how we can interpret verse 3, Thou turnest man to
destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. As if the
emphasis is upon the fact of man's mortality. And isn't that
how Isaac Watts brings out that verse in his paraphrase. We sang
the paraphrase this morning, 1139. and that verse thy word commands
our flesh to dust return ye sons of men all nations rose from
earth at first and turn to earth again for when God made man he
made him of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life he became a living soul and then when man
falls, fails that solemn test that God sets, transgresses,
breaks the commandment, eats of the forbidden fruit, and though
therefore he comes to experience death, in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die. Oh, and that curse that God pronounces
in chapter 3 of Genesis, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the earth, for out of it wast
thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return. And the wise man speaking in
the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, Then shall the dust return
to the earth as it was. and the spirit to God who gave
it. Out there comes that appointed
time, a time to be born, yes, but also a time to die. And what
is death? It is that awful separation of
the soul from the body. God made man body and soul. Man
is meant to be body and soul. And what is death? It's that
awful separation. When the dust returns to the
earth, And the spirit or the soul goes to God who gave it.
Oh thank God there is to be a general resurrection. And why the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the first fruits. That is the blessed
prospect for the people of God. That they will be in that great
day reunited. And those glorified spirits will
receive glorified bodies also. But coming now to consider the
words that we have in verse 3, and I don't want us to consider
these two clauses as parallels, but more particularly I want
us to see them tonight as contrasting statements. Contrasting statements. God working as it were in law,
the killing letter of the law, thou turnest man to destruction. And then, in contrast, that gracious
word that God speaks as He calls the sinner to Himself, as He
saves the sinner. He says, return ye children of
men. I want us then to think of God's
work, God's work of conversion in the experience of the sinner. Paul says we have the sentence
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God that rises the dead we must have that sentence of
death that be in terms of destruction if we're going to know what it
is to know that glorious spiritual resurrection in our souls to
think then of the experience of the sinner as God is pleased
to do that great work the application of the redemption is in the Lord
Jesus Christ and I want to deal with three headings first of
all to say something with regards to the purpose of the law of
God and then secondly to consider something of the power of God
and then finally to observe the gospel as the preeminence the
gospel as the priority we might say first of all then the purpose
of the law and we have it here in the opening part of the verse
thou turnest man to destruction And how does God turn man to
destruction? Well, we have it later in what
he says at verse 8. Thou hast set our iniquities
before thy, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
It's when we're brought to realise that God sees us, God observes
us, God sets our iniquities, even our secret sins. before him. There's no hiding
from God. And how fearful an experience
that is when we come to know that we're sinners. Though all
are sinners in God's sight there are but few so in their own.
We often sing the lines of the hymn, how true it is. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin is of man.
But where does the sense of sin come from? It comes from the
work of God. It says God himself is pleased
to do that great work. He has purposed salvation, he
has accomplished salvation. There is the electing love of
the Father, there is the saving work of the Son, but there is
also that third aspect, there must be the application. that
salvation that was purpose, that salvation that was procured by
Christ must be brought home and that's the work of the Holy Spirit
and it's the work of God. And where does it begin? Thou
turnest man to destruction. It's the law. And what is the
law? It's spoken of as the letter
that killeth. It's spoken of as the ministration
of death. And you see, even if we look
at the text before us tonight and consider these clauses as
parallel statements, it very much emphasizes to us the awful
reality of our spiritual death. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Oh, he reminds us of our base
origin. What we are, we're of the dust. And we must be humble to the
very dust as the Lord God is pleased to come and to save us. We must know what our real condition
is. And now we see this demonstrated
really in the experience of a man like the Apostle Paul. How Paul
had to discover the real purpose of the law of God. He says, I
was alive without the law once. but the commandment came and
sin revived and I died and that commandment which was for life
he found to be unto death that was his experience well remember
how he lived his life as a pharisee he was a pharisee he was the
son of a pharisee he was brought up at the feet of one of the
great Jewish rabbis Gamaliel he was so Learnig was Saul of
Tarsus, in all the traditions of the fathers, and he could
look at himself and he could say of himself, touching the
righteousness which is of the law, I'm blameless. I was a pharisee, living the
life of a pharisee. He considered himself to be a
man that was righteous in the sight of God like that Pharisee
that goes into the temple with the publican he could say I thank
you that I am not as other men are or he was so much better than
others but of course at that time Saul was dead in trespasses
and in sins he thought he knew the law he really knew nothing
at all concerning the law of God until the Lord himself was
pleased to come and take him in hand and to teach and to instruct
him and remember how he speaks of these things in Romans chapter
7 Romans chapter 7 and verse 7 what shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid! Nay, I have not known
sin, but by the law. For I have not known lust, except
the Lord had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion
by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to
be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." It was that 10th commandment.
It was thou shalt not covet. He thought only in terms of the
of the externals of the Lord of God, the manner in which he
was living his life. He was not an adulterer, he was
not a thief, he was not a murderer. He didn't understand that the
Lord of God is spiritual. And he was a carnal man. I have
not known sin, he said. I have not known lust, evil desire, concupiscence. I
have not known lust, except the Lord had said, Thou shalt not
covet. And that found him out, you see.
How do we cover it? We cover it with our hearts.
That evil desire, that wanton desire. Oh, that's where he was
found out. There is that ministration of
the law where he kills the sinner. We know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, says Paul,
that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth stopped, all the
world becoming guilty before God. By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. Thou turnest man to destruction. It's a ministration of death.
And it's also a ministration of condemnation. It condemns us, the law of God.
We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, says
Paul, knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners. That's the purpose of the Lord. And again, see how this man Paul
is brought to understand these things and now he brings these
things out in his epistles where he's having to deal with those
Judaizers who wanted Gentile Christians to be brought under
the Lord of God and submit to the right of circumcision and
all that. That entire And especially when he writes to the Galatians
in that chapter that we read. And there in Galatians chapter
3. Look at the language at verse
21 following. He says, Is the law then against
the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, errerly righteousness
should have been by the law, but the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before
faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. Oh, there's the purpose of the
law. It's to condemn the man. It's
to shut him in and to shut him up to what he is. He goes on
to speak of it as that schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But after
faith is come, we're no longer under the schoolmaster. That's
what the Judaizers, the legalists, didn't understand. The believer
was free from all that condemning power of the Lord of God. Oh yes! When the Lord comes,
the poor sinner is shut up, shut up to himself, shut up to all
that he is, shut up and he cannot come forth, he cannot release
himself. But that's the purpose of the law, to condemn the man.
And then what is he cast upon? He's cast upon God and all that
gracious power that is in God. and so turning in the second
place to consider something of that power as we have it here
thou turnest it says thou turnest man to destruction and thou sayest
return ye children of men God turns man and then God says to
that man return now observe what we have here
in the context and it goes on in verse 4 to
speak of the thousand years in the sight of God we refer to
it this morning a thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the
night. In 2 Peter there is surely some
allusion to those words in verse 4. We refer then to what we have
in Peter's 2nd epistle. There in 2 Peter chapter 3 in
verses 8 and 9. Now mark the language here, he says,
Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Surely he is alluding to the psalm, a thousand years in thy
sight are but as yesterday, He says much the same here in
verse 8. Be not ignorant. One day is with the Lord as a
thousand years. A thousand years is one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness. But He is longsuffering to us
all, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. In all of that we see something
of the faithfulness of God. We see something of the gracious
purpose of God. What is God's purpose? What is
behind His long-suffering? It is that sinners should come
to repentance. He is not slack concerning His promise. But he
is a long-suffering God. And he's not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, it's
a word, it's a verse, that 9th verse, that is often misinterpreted,
misapplied, abused. See, here he is clearly speaking
to a particular people. He said God is long-suffering
to Oswald. to Oswald. And so we have to
take account of just who it is that he is addressing. We have
to take account of the opening words of the epistle. Peter an
apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now that's how he opens the first
epistle. He is speaking quite clearly
in the first epistle to those who are the election of grace.
But it's exactly the same characters that he's also addressing in
the second epistle. They're general epistles, both
of them, but they're being written to a particular person. And what does he say here in
the beginning of the second epistle? Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith
with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now we've said on many an occasion
how significant the verb to obtain is in this verse. To them that
have obtained. Because that word is derived
directly from the word that has regard to the casting of a lot.
You obtain the thing by the casting of the lot. In other words, it
seems on the surface to be something that is quite a chance thing. That you obtain it and another
doesn't obtain it. But then we think of the language
of the wise man in Proverbs concerning the lot and the sovereignty of
God, and the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. All these who have obtained like
precious faith, they are the same characters that are spoken
of there at the beginning of the first general epistle. They
are those who are the election of grace. These are the ones
that God is long suffering towards long-suffering to us that not
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance
the purpose of God the power of God he will have his people
brought to himself how will he bring them to himself he will
bring them first to the end of themselves Thou turnest man to
destruction, He'll turn them first to destruction. How Job
was one that felt that truth. There in Job 12, 14, He shutteth
up a man and there can be no opening, says Job. Or when God
shuts up a man, when God shuts up a man to what he is in himself. How he's brought then to feel is total depravity is utter inability now he sinks and he sinks into
the into the pit, into the miry clay and he cannot deliver himself
I am shut up and I cannot come forth he understands then what
the doctrine of total depravity is When we speak of how we have
to learn that doctrine in experience, we're not saying that we have
to be those who sink into the depths of sin, that we've got
to commit great sins. There's no license for sinning
anywhere in the Word of God. We're not saying that at all.
No, we're saying that we have to come to that place where we
really feel our utter inability. and we cannot, in any sense,
deliver ourselves, we cannot work up faith of our own endeavor. We feel our lost condition. And
therefore, reminds the Corinthians of that, not that we are sufficient,
he says, of ourselves to think anything out of ourselves. But
our sufficiency is of God, of ourselves Can we really think
a right thought of ourselves? Can we think a spiritual thought? We're not sufficient of ourselves
to do any of these things. Oh no, we have to come to that
place where we believe what God is saying here in his words. We have to believe the truth
concerning what man is. And again, In that portion that
we read, there in verse 23 of Galatians, before faith came,
before saving faith comes in all its glorious fullness, we're
under the law and we're shut up. And we're shut up under the
faith which is afterward revealed in God's time. In God's time. And how David learned the truth
concerning these things, concerning the doctrine of total depravity,
concerning the truth of spiritual impotence. And how David confesses
it in the Psalms. Look at the language that we
find in Psalm 38. Isn't it a psalm to bring to
remembrance? How to remember these things.
the pit from which we were hewn. Oh, look at David there then,
and his language. Verse 3, There is no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I
am troubled. I am bowed down greatness, I
go mourning all the day long, for my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared. O how David is brought to that,
you see, roaring. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. But then he can say, Lord, all
my desire is before Thee. Oh, ye must look to the Lord
and to the Lord alone. All my desire is before Thee,
and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth, my strength
paleth me. Oh, but he longs after God. He
longs after that deliverance that can come only from God. It's that faith then that fills
and that fills the truth of God's words. The man learning the truth
concerning himself. He's that natural man and he
cannot, he will not receive the things of the Spirit of God until
God works. All we need is that faith, that
faith that comes by the operation of God. Thou sayest, return,
ye children of men. Or when God has done that work
of conviction, or then God comes with all the consolations of
the Gospel, there's comfort for sinners, you see. The Lord Jesus
Christ Himself has told us that the whole have no need of the
physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Sinners are high in His esteem,
and sinners highly value Him. Oh well, the scribes and the
Pharisees mocked Him and they said, this man receive us sinners
and eat us with them, the company that he keeps. Oh the Lord Jesus
Christ, He loves sinners. having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Oh yes, he's motivated
by his love to the Father. He will obey all the will of
the Father. He will accomplish all that work
that he had agreed to undertake in the Eternal Covenant. He loves
the Father, but he also loves all those sinners that the Father
has given him to say. And so, there is not only the turning
of man to destruction, there is a returning. Return ye children
of men. Where does this faith come from?
By grace I decide through faith, not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast, for
we are his workmanship." His workmanship. It's that faith
that is of the operation of God. Again, look at what Paul says,
1 Corinthians 2 and verse 5, that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Is that the
faith that we desire? It's not something of ourselves,
not something that we've somehow or other managed to work up in
our own hearts. It's not a mere decision, a commitment. It's nothing to do with the wisdom
of men. It's not that we've responded to the clever words of the persuasive
preacher. that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men but in the power of God it's a demonstration
of the Spirit and the power that's what we need and here there can
be no talk of duty faith and no talk of of universal offers
of grace no this poor sinner you see God
has been dealing with him and this man has been shut up and
been shut in and made to feel what he is as a sinner and to
come to him then and to start speaking about his duties and
to present him with a so-called offer why the poor man's a dying
man a dead man it's striking this poor man dead again no the
gospel must come and he must come in all of that demonstration
of the Spirit of God and all that power of God. So what do
we see? Thirdly and finally we see here
how the Gospel must have the priority. The Gospel is paramount.
All is meant to serve the Gospel. The law serves the Gospel. Thou turnest man to destruction. That's the work of the law, the
convicting of the sinner, the ministration of condemnation,
the ministration of death. But that's not the end. It's
no good me knowing that I'm a sinner. No good just having that sense
of the conviction of my sin. I must know the salvation that
is in Christ. Oh yes, there's a negative, but
thank God there's also that that is positive return says God.
Return you children of men. God calls the sinner to himself,
God brings the sinner to himself. Oh, remember even the parable
of the prodigal son. Here is that son, he's wasted
all the living that he had received of his father, wasted it on harlots,
but being brought to the end of himself and going there and
eating the pig's quill and what have you and then he's brought
to his senses and he determines to go to the father but the father
is there and the father sees him afar off oh it's the father
coming to the son that prodigal It's the Father coming to him
to save him. This is how God works. This is
the grace of God in the Gospel. And the Gospel is paramount. The Gospel must have the priority. And we're reminded again in that
portion that we read in Galatians chapter 3 of the blessed antiquity
of the Gospel. Verse 17, this I say, that the
covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, that's the
Gospel, the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ,
the Law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that
it should make the promise of non-effect. Well, the Gospel
is the new covenant, And yet the new covenant has a priority
and is previous really to the old covenant. It was 430 years before. Now, it's interesting when we
read scripture we see The two periods are actually
mentioned 430 years before and 400 years before. Speaking in terms, you see, of
the promise that was given to Abraham and then the giving of
the law through Moses. Is it 400 years or is it 430
years? Now, if we go back into the Old Testament we see
these things in Exodus chapter 12 verses 40 and 41 we're told
the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt
was 430 years and it came to pass at the end of 430 years
even the south sign day came to pass that all the host of
the Lord went out from the land of Egypt 430 years but then If we go back further to Genesis,
in the days of Abraham, in Genesis 15 and verse 13, it's spoken
of in terms of 400 years. He said unto Abram, Know of a
surety thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,
and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred
years. Four hundred years there, in
Genesis 15, 13, and yet in Exodus 12, verses 40 and 41, it's four
hundred and thirty years. between those two periods, one
associated with the covenant with the gospel, the covenant
made with Abraham, the other associated with the deliverance
of the children of Israel out of Egypt and the giving of the
law at Mount Sinai. How do we reconcile these things?
And they can be reconciled. Well this is what Dr. Gill says. This is how he reconciles it.
He says the Jews reckon 430 years from the covenants of Genesis
15 to deliverance from Egypt. But they reckon 400 years from
the birth of Isaac, Genesis 21, to deliverance from Egypt. In a sense, you see, God's covenant
with Abraham is confirmed when there's the birth of the promised
seed Isaac is the promised seed but it was 30 years after God
had made that covenant in Genesis 15, it was 30 years later that
the promised son, the seed, the type of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Isaac was born and it's 400 years as how Dr. Gill reconciles it
from the birth of Isaac to the deliverance from Egypt. I mention
that because maybe as you read God's Word sometimes you come
across these passages where there seems to be some contradiction.
There's no contradiction in the Word of God. All these things can be reconciled,
are reconciled, if we look to the Lord to enlighten us and
to help us to understand His Word. Either way, It is clearly
that the Gospel, the promise that was given to Abraham, is
that that he's first. And so the question is put there
in Galatians 3.19, Wherefore serveth the law? What's the point of the law then?
And the answer is given, it was added because of transgression. All the law is there, you see,
because of sin. The law is there to convince
the sinner. All have sinned, yes, but, as we've already said,
so very few have any sense of their sinnership. They're all
sinners in the sight of God. But how many have any real sense?
How many, alas, imagine that they have a righteousness, and
ultimately they They dream of that righteousness prevailing
before God, if there is a God. Oh, how Satan has blinded the
eyes of men to the truth. The law was added because of
transgression. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the point, that's
the great purpose of it. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. Oh, we don't despise the law.
The law is good. The commandment is holy and just
and good, says the apostle. It's a good law, but what does
the law do? It exposes man for what he is. He's a sinner. Why? The law is
a revealing of God in all his holiness, his righteousness,
his justice. Oh, but the gospel. The law was
given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. What a blessing it is we enter
this year 2020. It is still the year of our Lord and of Domino. It is the year of our Lord. It
is the Gospel day still. All behold now is the accepted
time. And behold, now is the day of
salvation. But how important it is, friends,
that we redeem the time. I spoke of that this morning,
redeeming the time. Teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our heart unto wisdom, is that prayer that we
were looking at this morning. And the margin there, that we
may or that God would cause us to come, cause our hearts to
come unto wisdom. Or what is it to come unto wisdom? It's to come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that cometh to Christ shall
never hunger. He that believeth in Christ shall
never thirst. The coming is believing. and
it is Christ who is that wisdom of God that wisdom from above
which is first pure and then peaceable and gentle and easy
to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits and without partiality
and without hypocrisy for all the fullness of grace is there
in Christ and He is the one who of God is made unto us wisdom
or if any lack wisdom Ask of God. Ask of God. He giveth to
all men liberally, upbraideth not. But ask in faith. O God, grant that we might be
those then who know what it is to pray. Learning from the prayer
of this godly man. The prayer of Moses. The man
of God. Thou turnest man to destruction,
he says. He reminds the Lord. Thou turnest
man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. The Lord be pleased to bless
His word to us.