Turn with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 39. And I want to say, I was just
thinking about this and praying about this 30 seconds ago. Today is a gray, rainy day. And we all know that gray, rainy
days are sleepy days. When the sun is shining and bright,
it's a very energized day. And I have something here that
is, I believe, very important. And I just want to ask all of
us to beg the Lord to quicken us with some sunlight inside. Sunlight in the soul, sunlight
in the eyes, sunlight in the ears. I just told Brother Cody
a minute ago that I said, I don't know if I've ever heard a message
or Bible study right before I was about to preach that went so
closely with what I was about to say. It's kind of a joke with
men sometime. They'll get up and say, well,
you preached everything I was about to say. Well, if you heard that
Bible study, it was a very important, serious Bible study. Something's
coming. And I just asked the Lord if
he would open our eyes and ears and help us, help us to see this,
know this, learn from this, worship him because of it. I have this
message I believe is a message for the real world that we live
in, the real world that we live in today. This message is for
the reality of life There is a reality of life that as we
get older, we realize it more and more. And all of God's people, especially,
will come to this reality. All of God's people, this reality
of daily living. And I want to tell you that I
have a message of hope today. How many times did you hear him
mention that? I have a message of hope today. But there is a
place that all of God's people are gonna be brought to, and
I want to say that it's a little bit of a painful process getting
to this place. All of God's people, though,
are gonna be brought to this place, and once they are brought
to this place, They will be so glad that they are there. I'm telling you, if you want
to be glad and you want a little sunlight in your life, There
is a place that all of God's people are going to be brought
to. God is going to lead them there. God's Spirit is going
to lead them there. And I'm going to say again, it is a painful
process getting to this place. But once we are there, God's
people are so glad. They're so thankful to be there.
They're so thankful to be there. It's the place where a sinner
realizes Christ is all I have. Now, you know in me saying that,
it's a little bit of a painful process getting to that place.
But those of you who are at that place and have been at that place,
can't you say with absolute sincerity and truth in your heart, I am
so glad the Lord brought me here. I am so thankful knowing what
the Lord has revealed in his word. I am so thankful that I
can honestly say Christ is all I have. What do you mean, Gabe? You have
a wife, you have children, you have a home, you have a job,
you have this. That's right. That's right. And I enjoy all
of them. All of these gifts from above
that he gives on loan. And I believe that's a good way
to see it. Everything that we have is on loan from him. Everything is in His hands to
do with whatever He wants to do with it because all things
belong to Him. Everything that I have is just
borrowed from Him. The air I breathe is borrowed
from Him. But when it comes to my possession,
the only thing I have is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given
Himself to me. And I can say I have Him because
of Him. He's all that I have. We will
find out that everything that we think we have, as it turns
out, we don't. We think we have it, but it'll
turn out, it'll be proven to us we really don't. We really
don't. Christ is all we have. Now the heading at the top of
my page here in Psalm 39, it says that this Psalm is about
the brevity and vanity of life. And what that means is just how
short it really is. It blows my mind that in October,
I will have been the pastor here for nine years. That doesn't
sound like that long, I just cannot believe that. It
just seems like such a short period of time. And in that short
period of time, again, we'll be saying right at 20 years. And I wonder who all will still
be here, you know, when we get to that place of saying 20 years. It is so short. It is so short. I'm telling you, I was a teenager
three days ago. It's what it feels like. I asked
my grandmother one time. She was in her 50s. I said, what
does it feel like to be old? I was a little kid. And she said, I feel just like
you. I just can't do the same things
you can do anymore. Feels the same. It is so short. It is so short. You know, you
got little, little children. Teenagers, young adults, married, children, grandchildren, such
on and so forth. I'm telling you, it is so short. And he's mentioning the brevity
and the vanity of life. What that means is how empty
it really is. And again, I enjoy the things
the Lord has given me on loan. But do you recognize the fact
that once you get something you wanted so bad, it does not fulfill
your happiness for the rest of your life? Eventually it fades
away and you need something else so bad and then it starts to
fade away and you need something else so bad just to look forward
to something and be happy about something in this life. That's
because that thing really did not fulfill and satisfy what
you thought it would. It's really empty. But do you
know Christ is not that way? Once a sinner really gets Him,
He doesn't fade away. And He doesn't get put on the
back burner. Not when a sinner really gets
Him. It is truly, and I'm telling
you from a little bit of experience, it is truly a painful process
getting to this realization. But, you know, as sad and as
bleak as all of this sounds so far, God's people are so thankful. So thankful He brought me here.
So thankful. That's the place when God's people
truly realize, and it's confirmed in them, what David said at the
end of verse seven. If you look with me at Psalm
39, the end of verse seven, he said, My hope is in thee. My hope is in thee. You look back on your life and
you realize there was a time when my hope might have been
in this trivial thing over here somewhere. You know, I was hoping,
I was putting my hope in this, but that turned out to be empty.
And then I went at another time in life and I put my hope in
something over here. I had my hope in that. And if
anyone has traveled through religion, Especially, you'll know that's
to be true. You kind of get under one teaching for a while, and
they say, well, if you put your hope in baptism, you'll... And
then come to find out, according to the Word of God, that wasn't
so. And then you go somewhere else,
and they'll say, well, if you put your hope over here, and
come to find out, that wasn't so either. One by one, the promises of the
world will fail us. I'm so sorry to say. One by one, the securities of
this world will get stripped away from us. And it's a reality of life, and
it's a painful reality. Very, very painful. But thank
God, after everything in this world fails a child of God, That child is left standing with
a clear vision, a clear conviction that looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Alone. And it cries, my hope
is in you. My hope is in you. You are all
I have. You're all that I have. Everything else has crumbled. Every hindrance that stood in
the way of my view of you has been stripped away from me. And
that's what a lot of these things are that we're just so happy
to get. Can't wait to get it. It's a hindrance standing in
the way of Christ. Something dazzling me and stealing
my attention and stealing my affection away from Him. And
God's people, once that's gone, they can say, I now know whom
I have believed. And I'm persuaded that you're
able to keep me. And you're able to keep me from falling
away just like everything else has and crumbling just like everything
else has. My hope is in thee. I'll give
you a good example of this. This very thing happened to Isaiah. Turn with me over to Isaiah chapter
6. I'm going to read a little something to you here. The Scripture tells us that Isaiah's
father, his name was Amoz, And he was the uncle of King Uzziah. All right. It's reported that
he was the uncle of King Uzziah. And what that would make Isaiah
and Uzziah is first cousins. And Isaiah was an official in
Uzziah's court. He was a recorder of the things
that you, he was, uh, one man said he was like a journalist
who recorded all the great things that Uzziah did. He just followed
him around and recorded all those things and always in the King's
presence. And, um, The point being is he lived a
very worry-free life. I mean, he was always with the
King and the King was his cousin. They were family and he worshiped
Uzziah. He just, Uzziah was everything. And you know, the story that
Uzziah was lifted up with pride and he did not want to wait on
God's high priest to make intercession for the sin of the people. And
he went in and he said, I'll do it myself. I'll do it by my
own hand, which is a picture of man's works. And God said,
no, you won't. So he struck him with leprosy and he died. And when he died, Isaiah's security
died. His king, his earthly king died. His cousin died. His everything,
his hope was in died. And if you look at Isaiah six
verse one, it says in the year that King Uzziah died, That's
when I saw the Lord. I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With
twain He covered His face, and with twain He covered His feet,
and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have now seen the king. He said, I've
spent all my life looking at the king. And the Lord removed
him. And he said, now I have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. That's what happens for all of
God's people. Whatever their Uzziah is, it's
removed. The Lord removes it and they
see Christ alone. They really do. Now go with me
back to Psalm 39. Let's read these verses together
and let's see David being in this place, alright? David's emptiness, if we can
say it that way. The reality that David was brought
to. And I want to see if we have
the same reality. Let's see if the Lord has brought
us to the same end. The end of this reality is a
sure hope. A very sure hope. And I pray
that we'll all realize that if it takes us coming to this reality
to see our hope, then Lord, bring us to this reality. Bring us
here, as painful as it may be, it's a blessed reality. You know,
David said in Psalm 119, it's good for me that I've been afflicted.
Why, David? It's shown me you, it's shown
me your word, the truth of your word. So it's a good thing. All right. Now here was David's
reality. He's brought to verse one, Psalm
39. He said, I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not
with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle
while the wicked is before me. I was done with silence. I held
my peace, even from good and my sorrow was stirred. He was brought to a place where
he said, I think it's time I stopped talking. I think it's time I
hold my peace. Have you ever been there? Most people hope in themselves
and they trust and hope in their own wisdom. Most people do. They trust in their own opinions
and they spout them off constantly. Do you know that? Men and women,
if they have an opinion on something, they'll tell you. I'm horrible
about that. I wish I wasn't, but I'll catch
myself. Why don't you keep that to yourself? When the Lord reveals to a sinner,
you are not what you thought you were. and you don't know what you think
you know. When the Lord strips our hope
away from ourselves, we'll say, just like Job did, we'll say,
I think it's time I put my hand over my mouth. That's where Job,
that's the place Job was brought to. I think I need to stop talking. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes
5, he said, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools,
for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before
God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let
thy words be few. David said, the Lord let me learn
some things about myself. And now I have to say, I think
it's best I just stop talking. I think it's best I let him do
all the talking. That's a good place to be brought
to. I think it's best to let him do all the talking. So verse one, he said, I said,
I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will
keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was
dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good
and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing the fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue.
He said, I held my peace until I just couldn't hold it any longer.
because I had to acknowledge something to my Lord, not to
myself, not to anybody else. I had to make a request to my
Lord. Verse four. He said, Lord, make
me to know mine end. In the measure of my days, what
it is that I may know how frail I am. Moses wrote, oh, that they were
wise and would consider their latter end. He said, make me
to know my end. Why would he want to know that?
Why would any of God's people want to know that? It's because
the more that we know of the end of our days on this earth,
the more we know of our eternal days to come. the eternity that's coming with
the Lord Jesus Christ. The more that we know of our
frailty, and this is so, the more that we know of our weakness,
the more that we know of His strength. David said in Psalm 23, Though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. You're with me. And because of that, he said,
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He said,
you've made me to know my end. In Psalm 27, he said, I would
have fainted. And I quote this all the time, and
I believe every time I quote it, I enter into it a little
bit more. I would have fainted. unless I believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I just don't know
if I could finish this out had it not been for the Lord
revealing His goodness in the land of the living, the life
that is to come. He was saying, I know my weakness. I know my frailty. I know I would
have fainted. had my Lord not revealed to me
my end." We talk about, make me to know my end. Yeah, there's
an end coming on this earth. But what He's saying is, Lord,
make me to know my end. He said, wait on the Lord, be
of good courage, He shall strengthen thine heart. How will He do that?
By making you to know your end. That's the end of all of God's
people. Life with Christ. David said, cause me to know
my frailty and my end. So I can see Christ's strength
in His eternal beginning. That's what it is with Christ.
It's always the beginning with Him. Always. It's always the beginning. Verse
5, he said, Behold, thou hast made my days as in handbreadth."
He said, my days can be very, they can be measured very quickly,
a handbreadth. What's your life? It's a handbreadth.
That's all that it is. He went on to say, and mine age
is as nothing before thee. You know, with each milestone
age that we reach, we get a little bit more prideful. I won't speak
on your behalf, I'll just speak on my own, all right? With every
milestone age I have ever reached, it's a little more prideful.
It starts off with every year, or maybe not even every year.
I'm five. Well, I'm five and a half. Isn't
that what kids do? You finally make it to 10. You got two digits in your age
at 10. That's a big number for kids. 13. Man, we're moving on up. You remember what it felt like
to turn 13? 16. Forget it. 18, 21, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
75, 80, 85, 90, 91, 92. When you get to 90, you go back
to counting every year again. I'm 91. So I'm 91 and a half. Same thing
all over again. But honestly, compared to the
eternality, the eternalness of Christ, is this not what our
brother just pointed out to us? My age is nothing. What David is saying is, this
is the place he's brought me to. It's not about me. All of those milestones are about
me. I've reached a place now where
you beneath me really ought to start listening to me. I got
a little bit more wisdom on me now. David said, he's brought
me into a place where I realized it's not about me. And it's not
about my wisdom. He's the one who cried not unto
us. Who am I? Think about Methuselah, 969 years. That man probably said, I've
been around a while, y'all really ought to listen to what I have
to say. We probably should, but David said, my age is nothing.
It is nothing. Men and women naturally think,
listen to this. Men and women naturally think,
we all do. I'll lump myself into this. We
naturally think, well, there's always tomorrow. No, there's
not. No, there's not. There is no
promise of tomorrow. Our age is nothing. Well, I'm
still in the younger, you know, I'm still in my 20s. I'm still
in my 30s. There's always tomorrow. No, there's not. No promise. Look with me at Psalm 90. Psalm 90, verse 9. It says, For all our days are
passed away in thy wrath, We spend our years as a tale that
is told. The days of our years are threescore
years in ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years, yet is their 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. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Lord, teach us to
number our days and not just assume that, how many days have
you been? I don't know. How many days do
you have left? I don't know. Teach us to number
our days that we may apply our hearts to Christ. Christ, who
is wisdom. Verse 13, he said, return, oh
Lord, how long? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. Satisfy us with your mercy. We
don't have, who knows how many more days we have. Satisfy us
right now with your mercy. This is what it is to seek wisdom.
Lord, I'm not promised the next breath. Satisfy me right now
with your mercy. Settle my heart on your mercy. Verse 14, that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Make us glad that you would
afflict us. If it showed us you and brought
us to you, yes. He went on to say, in the years
wherein we've seen evil, let thy work appear unto thy servants,
and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon
us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. Lord, use
this reality of the brevity and frailty of our life to turn us
to you. Use us seeing that reality to
turn us to your mercy and turn us to the gracious work
of your hands. Teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts to Christ. Wisdom, our only hope, Christ
before God. All right, go back to Psalm 39.
I'll be quick. Psalm 39, verse five. The end of verse 5, He said,
Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity, emptiness. And it's just so. We could spend
a lot of time on that, but it's just so. Verse 6, Surely every
man walketh in a vain show, surely they are disquieted in vain.
He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. And
again, that's so. You know, you just build and
build and pile and pile and then leave it for somebody else. And
now, Lord, what wait I for? David said, everything here is
empty. And he was a king. This man was
a king who had servants and possessions. But he said, what would I want
to wait around here for? There's nothing here for me. Now again, as bleak as this sounds, I pray to God that He'll bring
every single one of us to this place. I pray He will. From this place, our hearts cry,
You're my hope. You're my all. You're all that
I have. My hope is in Thee and Thee alone. Everything that I've lost in
this world, I found in You. I found life in you. I found
strength in you. I have found all fullness in
you. I found all hope in you." And
it's true. In this world, when I look around,
it seems all hope is lost. And then I turn my eyes to you
and there it is. We have a brother who just, brought a message to us recently
that was titled, Reasons for Our Hope. You may remember it
a few weeks ago. Reasons for our expected anticipation. Expected anticipation in Christ. And he very clearly pointed out
to us that the reason for the hope that is in all of God's
people The foundation and the confidence of the hope that is
in God's people for Christ is the cross of Calvary. The cross of Calvary. Thank God
for the cross of Calvary. Oh, what Christ accomplished
on the cross of Calvary. Our hope is built on nothing
less than the Lord Jesus' blood and righteousness. Everything else is empty, but
not that. I mean, you wanna lay hold of
something that is absolute fullness, an absolute foundation that will
never fade away. The work of the cross of Calvary,
the blood, the righteousness. Everything else will fail, but
not him. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies."
That means the mercies of the cross, the sufferings of the
cross, the willing kindness of Christ giving himself to provide
forgiveness to his people. through His cross, it is of the
Lord's mercies that we're not consumed, because His compassions
fail not, they are new every morning." David is spending all
of this time saying everything's going away, everything's vanishing
away, it's all crumbling, you can't count on it, but he said
the Lord's mercies in what He gave to His people,
He said they are brand new every single morning. in all of their
fullness. He said, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. I hope in him. In this current world of emptiness
and vanity and frailty, We have a current hope in Christ our
Savior. You know, David was constantly
saying, don't put your trust in princes, don't put your trust
in horses, don't put your trust in anything, but that man alone. Peter said, we have a living
hope, him. Living hope. Paul said it's an
eternal hope. A current, living, eternal hope
in His mercy. A current, living, eternal hope
in His grace, which is Himself. The gift of Himself. The gift
of His blood. Psalm 119 says this hope is in
His Word. David said, I hope in your word.
I am hoping in your word. We're banking everything on his
word, aren't we? Galatians 5 says it's in his righteousness. How am I gonna get in? Don't
you have to be as perfect as God to get in? How am I gonna
get in? His righteousness. All of my hope is in his righteousness. Ephesians 1 says our hope is
in His calling. Colossians 1 says our hope is
in His glory. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Titus 1 says this hope is in His eternal life. And Titus
2 says our hope is in His return. He's coming back. He's coming
back. The Apostle Paul told Timothy,
Jesus Christ is our hope. After all the hindrances of this
life are removed and all of the expectations of this life fade
away, that's when God's people find themselves in a place where
they can honestly say, Lord, my hope is in Thee. It is in
Thee. Verse 8, He said, Deliver me
from all my transgressions. My hope's in you. Make me not
the reproach of the foolish. My hope's in you. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because
you did it. My hope's in you. Remove thy
stroke away from me. I am consumed by the blow of
thy hand. When thou with rebukes does correct
man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like
a moth. Surely every man is vanity."
All it takes is just one word from you, one stroke of the hand.
And man sees it's all vanity. Every man is vanity. So he said
in verse 12, hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my
cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears,
for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers
were, O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and
be no more." What he's saying is, Lord, You are all that I
have. That's what it is to have all
of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to say to Him, You
are all that I have. You're all I have before God.
You're all I have before man. You're all that I plead. You're
all that I need. My hope is in you. Now, if that
is, if that happens to be your plea, if that happens to be your
hope, if that's the condition you have been brought to, where
you can say, I have nothing but Him, if that is you, then turn
with me to Psalm 146. We'll close with this. Psalm
146. Verse 5, it says, Happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the
Lord his God. Can you say that even with everything
in this world turning to emptiness right in front of your eyes?
Can we really say that? I believe we can. There is no
happier state in life than the state of having no other hope
but Christ the Lord. That is the happiest state there
is. His salvation, His blood, His
mercy, His grace, His kindness, His favor, Him. Everything that
is Him. Happy is the man or woman whose
hope is the Lord. May God make him to be all our
hope.