Alright, go with me if you would
back to Psalm 90. Psalm 90. When I study, while I am studying,
I can't help but think of you. I can't help it. I am writing
what I'm going to say and I can't help but think of who I'm going
to say it to. I desire a message from God. From his word. From his spirit. For you. And for me for us. There are a lot of trials in
this life. There are a lot of daily trials
in this life. And I desire that the Lord, I
don't want to go through the motions. All right, here we are
another Wednesday night. And I don't want to just go through
another Wednesday night. You know, let's get in here and
sing our songs and I desired that the Lord would
give us something, something we need, something we can feed
on, something that will help us. And as I was thinking about
that and thinking about you and us, this verse of scripture came
to my mind. Psalm 90 verse 12. It says, so teach us to number
our days That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Think about what that's saying.
Think about what is being asked, what's being said. Teach us. Lord, would you teach us to number
our days? That we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. Now, the little heading under
the title, under Psalm 90, it says, a prayer of Moses, the
man of God. Moses is the one who penned this
psalm. And it sounds like Moses. It
sounds like his writing. He was a man who was very deeply
concerned with what spiritually represents eternity. God's people
entering the promised land. He was a man very concerned about
that. That spiritually, you know, the
promised land on earth is no real promised land. It represents
the promised land. But Moses was a man who pressed
toward the mark. He told the people, we're not
staying here. Let's press on. Let's press toward the mark.
And he was keenly aware of the fact that our days on this earth
are numbered. Exactly, exactly numbered. Everybody wants to do things
to extend their life. Our days are numbered. I think
eating broccoli is a really good idea, but it's not going to extend
our life. And the alternative is not going
to shorten our life. Our days are numbered. They're
determined. We are not staying here, though. Our days are numbered. We're
passing through, and that is hard to get a hold of. That's
hard to get your mind around, the reality that we're passing
through. We're not staying here. That's just hard to understand.
It's hard to believe. It's hard to understand. But Moses wrote about this. He wrote about the fact that
we're not staying here. We're passing through. Hold your
place right here and turn over to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, Moses is speaking
of those right here who have not bowed the knee to the Lord
Jesus Christ. But they're trusting in themselves
or they're trusting in another little g God. that can't save
them. And he said in verse 27, Deuteronomy
32, verse 27, were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy,
lest their adversary should behave themselves strangely, unless
they should say, our hand is high and the Lord hath not done
all this. The Lord God of heaven, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he hadn't done this. This is not his doing. Moses said in verse 28, for they
are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding
in them. In verse 29, he said, oh, that
they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end. Oh, that men would consider their
latter end. Our days are clipping by. They are. I mean, we just turned
into 2019 and it's a third over. Our weeks are clipping by. Eternity is coming so much faster
than we realize. is coming so much faster. And
we all must stand before the judgment throne. And we are either
gonna stand there in the Lord Jesus Christ or out of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everybody's gonna stand there
one of two ways, in Christ or out of Christ. And the only safe
place to be is in Christ. We must be in Christ. We read this Sunday, verse 31
right here, It says, for their rock is not as our rock. Verse 39 says, see now that I,
even I am he, and there's no God with me, I kill and I make
alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver
out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live forever. This is Christ speaking. This
is Jehovah speaking. Verse 41, he said, if I wet my
glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will
render vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate
me. I will make mine arrows drunk
with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the
blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of
revenge is upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his
people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will
render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his
land and to his people." Moses said, oh, that they were wise,
that they understood this. that they would consider their
latter end? That's why he said back in Psalm
90, if you'll turn back over there, Psalm 90, verse 12, he
said, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. The apostle John wrote, he that
hath the son hath life. But he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. So for those who do not know
Christ and do not bow the knee to Christ and His Word, this
is a word of warning. And for those who do know Christ
and do bow the knee to Him and to His Word, this is a word of
comfort. Number your days. For those who
do not bow to Christ, here's the warning. Number your days. And for those who do bow the
knee to Christ, here's the comfort. Number your days. Do you need
some encouragement? Do you ever need encouragement?
You're almost with Him. I know we can't enter into how
glorious that will be. I know our flesh will not let
us truly, truly rejoice in that as we ought to. But the spirit
in us knows it's glorious. And here's the comfort. Here's
the encouragement. We're almost with him in the
flesh. We're almost with him. Our days
are counting down quickly. Number them. That's the message
to our hearts tonight. Number them. Life is hard. Life is hard. And it only gets
harder. For so long, I used to call my
dad all the time on the phone and say, tell me it gets easier. Tell me there comes a point where
it gets easier. And every time he'd say, nope.
And I just quit calling. Life is hard. It's hard. And it's only getting harder.
According to this Word, according to all the sin that I see in
myself and all the sin that's around me, it is proven to me,
and I want our children to understand this, life is hard, and it only
gets harder. Man that is born of woman is
of few days and full of trouble, absolutely full of trouble. This
life is full of sorrow, is full of depressions, it's full of
sickness. This life is full of sickness. Let's not be shocked if sickness
comes to us. How many brethren are we mentioning
right now? This life is full of pain. There
are certain joys that come along the way. It's not all misery.
Thank goodness it's not all misery. And the flesh of every sinner,
and I mean every sinner, every sinner here, the flesh of every
sinner loves life on this earth and would be fine to just stay
here forever. But for a believer, for a true
child of God who has been given the Spirit of God, if God has
put His Spirit in his child, then life on this earth feels
like a temporary home. It feels like just a middle point
on our way to something more permanent.
Something about it just is not, we can't settle in. Look with
me if you would at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse 13. It says, These all died in faith,
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country that is in heavenly. Wherefore, God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. He has prepared for his people
a city. We're waiting on that. We're
looking to that, a permanent dwelling place in God with Christ. Turn with me over to Philippians
chapter one. Philippians 1 verse 21, the apostle
Paul said, for to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I know
not for I am in a straight between the two. Having a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. It's far better. The Apostle Paul had the advantage
of going there and physically seeing paradise. He said, I was
called up into the third heaven and I heard things Don't you
know He wanted so badly to tell people what He heard and what
He saw? He said it's not possible for a man's mouth to utter it. He said all I can tell you is
it's far better. It is so much better. He said
in chapter 3 at the end of verse 8, Oh that I may win Christ. I wish more people were wise
to this and would consider their latter
end. Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection Get your mind around resurrection.
The resurrection of the dead. The power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Oh, that I might die and be buried
and be risen again with him. That's life. Best life eternal. Go with me over to 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1 says, For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. He said, if this body that our
soul lives in, we are our soul. We are not our
body. This is a borrowed house. If
you cut pieces off of it, it does not cut a part of us away.
I mean, we are our soul. And he said, if this body that
our soul lives in, this earthly house, if it were dissolved,
if it laid down in death, we have a house not made with hands. This house wasn't made with hands.
God made this. We have a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. Verse two, for in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is
from heaven. In John 14, our Lord said, it's
not just a house, it's a mansion. We live in a tent right now.
But he said, wait till you slip that house on. It's a mansion.
This heavenly body that our soul is gonna live in. Verse three,
if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. We won't be found naked before
God will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That's what we're
going to put on the righteousness of Christ. That that sinless
perfection. Verse four, for we that are in
this tabernacle do groan being burdened. Not for that we would
be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed
up of life. What he's saying is we're not
itching to die. We're itching to live. God's people are not morbid.
You hear people, I'm just ready to go be with the Lord. That
doesn't mean we're ready to die. That's right, Paul said, I'm
ready to be done with the body of this death. I'm ready to live. I'm ready to start living. Life
with Christ, life in Christ. Verse five, now he that hath
wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the spirit. God has sent His Spirit to us
as a token of promise to this resurrection, this life with
Him and life in Him. When you buy a house, you put
down earnest money. And in doing that, you're saying,
I'll do this. I said, I'm saying I'm going
to do it and I'm going to do it. I'll do this. Here's my earnest. Here's my token of promise. Verse
five, now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing as
God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit.
Therefore, we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We have him in
his spirit. We have him in his word, but
Christ is physically in his glorified body in the heavens. He's seated
on his throne in the heavens. And as long as we're in this
body on earth, we are physically absent from the Lord. Verse seven
says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I
say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be
present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. That's the one
thing needful, whether he leaves us here for a while or takes
us there soon. The one thing needful is this,
we need to be accepted of Him. Accepted by His choice. Accepted
by His blood. Accepted through His righteousness. We need to be accepted of God
in the Beloved. Moses said, Lord, teach us to
number our days. Teach us to dwell on these things. That we may apply our hearts
to this wisdom, which is Christ. He is made unto us wisdom. Lord, teach us to apply our hearts
to Christ. I'd like to say that again. Lord,
teach us to apply our hearts to Christ. We apply our hearts
to so many things. We become so emotionally invested
in so many things. It consumes our heart. We get
excited about it. We become crushed over it. We,
you know, people invest their money. This is where I'm going
to put my, and we do the same thing with our heart. Lord, would
you please teach us to apply our hearts to Christ and His
will and His way and His gospel. Nothing on this earth, Christ
alone. All right, now let's go back
to Psalm 90 and read this chapter with that in mind. Psalm 90, verse 1, it says, Lord,
thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. You're our
dwelling place. We are strangers and pilgrims
on this earth. This earth is not our dwelling
place, but we have you. Therefore, we have a dwelling
place. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction
and sayest, return, you children of men. You kill, you make alive,
you wound, you heal. You show mercy to whom you will
show mercy. You're gracious to whom you'll
be gracious. You're God, you're God. Verse four, for a thousand years
in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. And as a watch
in the night, a thousand years are like yesterday. We get so
torn up if he doesn't answer us within three weeks. That's
a, you know, a second and a half in his time frame. Time is nothing to him. It's
nothing to him. All of these days of our life
on this earth, verse five says, thou carryest them away as with
a flood. They just get swept away. They
are as a sleep. Have you ever dozed off and thought
you were asleep for about five minutes? Come to find out you
were out for two and a half hours. Wow. It's just gone. In the morning they are like
grass, which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth
and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down
and withereth. That's this life. That's our
life on this earth. It's so fast. It's so fleeting. Verse seven, for we are consumed
by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled. What did he
consume in His anger and in His wrath? Of ours. What belonged
to us that He consumed in His anger and in His wrath? Our sin. Where did He consume it in His
anger and in His wrath? His Son. Christ our Lord. Verse 8, Thou
hast set our iniquities before Thee. our secret sins in the
light of Thy countenance. 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 and 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." Again, Moses is
the one writing this and he said, the days of our years are three
score and ten. That's how many God gives us,
70 years. Unless God gives a few more years
of strength, then we live to be 80. Moses said that, okay? Moses lived to be 120 years old. All right, Moses said he thought
in pen, okay, we get 70 years, maybe a few more, maybe 80. He lived to be 120 years old. I got to thinking about his life
is divided into thirds. He was my age when he slew that
Egyptian. I'm 42, he was 40. He slew a
man. Oh, he thought, what have I done? He fled for his life. He ran
away from everything. He just ran away. And then for the next 40 years,
he kept his father-in-law's sheep. He went from being the heir of
the throne of Egypt to keeping a bunch of sheep on the backside
of a desert. When he was 80 years old, he
did that for 40 years. He was 40 when he slew a man.
He went back there and did that. I mean, you talk about riches,
wealth, power. He went to alone with a bunch
of sheep. in the middle of nowhere for
40 years, and when he was 80 years old, you know, you get
three score and 10, unless a little more strength, you get to be
80 years old. When he was 80 years old, God called him to
the ministry. He said, now it's time to go to work. He thought his life was over,
and God called him to the ministry, and then he led God's people
on the backside of the desert. for 40 years. He led his father-in-law's sheep
in the wilderness for 40 years. And then God called him to lead
his sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. What that means is
God prepared him for his calling. That's exactly what he was doing
while he was on the backside of a desert alone with a bunch
of sheep who don't listen and don't mind, and that's me, and
are just needy, needy, needy, and helpless, helpless, helpless,
can't defend themselves, can't provide for themselves, prone
to wander. God was preparing him for his
calling. But after all that time, we see
why he wrote in verse 13, return, oh Lord, how long? Oh, these days they're fleeting,
but they're so trying. How long will they continue?
Come quickly, Lord. Come quickly. Verse 14, oh, satisfy
us early with thy mercy. that we may rejoice and be glad
all our days. Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have
seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children. Lord, would you show
mercy to us and to our children. And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us. David said, there's one thing
that I've desired. I want to dwell in the house of the Lord
to behold the beauty of the Lord. I just want to just look at the
beauty of the Lord. Verse 17, 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 established
thou it. What is the work of God's people? What is the work that God's people
do? Quickly go to John 6. John 6 verse 29. Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. That's a good work, isn't it? Believe on Christ. Here's the work of God. Cast
it all on Christ. What would you have me to do?
Cast it all on Christ. I'll say it one more time. This
life is hard. This life is so full of sorrow
and so full of depression, so full of sickness and pain and
heartache and heartbreak. It's just so full of sin. It's
so full of sin. Look past it. Look past it. Number these days. number these
days, count them down. You get excited about something
and start checking it off the calendar. Count them down. Look
beyond the temporary afflictions that this life of sin brings
to us and look to the sinless life of eternity. and endless number of days. What
that means is, number your days until you reach the place where
there's no more number of days. Endless days that we have waiting
for us in Christ, with Christ, because of Christ. I'm gonna
close with this. Go to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 8. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. We have the same spirit of faith
according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken.
We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and
shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal." Oh, that we were wise, that we understood
this, that we would consider our ladder in. Lord, teach us
to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to Christ, our
wisdom. All right, let's all stand together.