Let him be acceptable to his
brethren. Let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,
and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. As thy days, so
shall thy strength be. This is a message for all. This is a message for all people,
but especially God's people who must, through much tribulation,
go through this world and enter the Kingdom of God. You may not know this, but these
were Moses' dying words. These were his last words. Go
back to chapter 32. You'll see this in chapter 32.
You tend to pay attention to the very last words of a man,
don't you? Or you should, like David's last
words in 2 Samuel 23, such a blessing to us. Well, so were these. These were Moses' last words. In chapter 32, the Lord told
him in verse 48, He spake unto him the selfsame day, saying,
Get up into the mountain, Mount Nebo, Pisgah, and verse 50, Die. You're going to die there. You're
going to die on the mountain. And so the Lord told Moses, you're
going to die today. Well, what would you say? What would be your words? What would you want to leave
with others if you knew it was your last day? Look at this in
verse 1 of chapter 33. It says, This is the blessing
wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel.
before his death. He's not bemoaning himself, but
he's blessing God and blessing God's people. Sounds just like
Job, doesn't it? Though he lost everything, and
one of the most sorrowful days of his life, yet he did not charge
God foolishly. And he did not really bemoan
himself, but he said, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Like
Eli, who was given terrible news concerning his son. And he blessed
the Lord. He said, It's the Lord. Let him
do what seemeth good unto him. So Moses blessed God's people
on his dying day. And he saved the best blessing
for last, the Asher. Twelve tribes he spoke to, and
interestingly, These twelve tribes are sons of Jacob. Jacob, in
his blessing his son, in his dying words, he didn't have anything
good to say about any of his boys. But here Moses, after the
tabernacle is given, after the high priest, after the ark of
the covenant is revealed and the blood on the mercy seat,
Moses doesn't have anything bad to say about any of them. Did
you hear that? like Hebrews 11. None of the
sins of God's people are mentioned there. So Moses, he blessed the
people of God, and the last blessing that he gave in verse 25 was,
as thy first part of that verse, he says, your shoes shall be
iron and brass. Your shoes shall be iron and
brass. Never wear out. We've got to walk by faith through
this world, through this world of sin, through this world of
temptation, through this world of many thorns that we encounter,
thorns in the flesh. We need some good shoes. We've
got to walk through deep waters, deep waters, the Red Sea. Scripture says of all of God's
people, they did all pass through the Red Sea. And it said of the
children of Israel, none of them, none of their shoes wore out. Their shoes did not fail them.
And if we're shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that's what the gospel is. Peace
in the midst of tribulation. Be of good cheer, the gospel
said. You go through tribulation and
trouble. And this gospel says, Be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Be of good cheer. I am the one
who sends all of them. I am the one putting you through
the red sin. These are our shoes that we walk with. And His exceeding
precious promise to us here is that as thy days, so shall thy
strength be. As thy days, so shall thy strength
be. And Moses is the one in Psalm
90 whom the Lord, well, the Lord told Moses to write, teach us
to number our days. Teach us to number our days so
that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. Days. He said, as thy days, so shall
thy strength be. Our days, he calls our years
days. In a few short years, Job said,
but Scripture says they are as days, they are as a moment, they
are as a vapor. Our days are few. Man that is
born of woman is of few days, just a few days. So he says,
teach us to number our day, to consider the brevity of them. If you have but a few of something,
that makes them precious, doesn't it? If you have but a few of
something, you don't want to waste them, do you? Redeem the
time, Scripture says. You don't have much of it. With
that in mind, what is important? What matters? What really matters
if we have but days here? What really matters? And he tells
us, teach us to number our days, not only our own, not only consider
that we personally have but a few days, but everybody else does
too. Those that we know, those that
we love have but a few days. We have just a short time with.
So, how are we going to spend it? How are we going to spend
it? Our days are few. that is born
of woman is a few days and full of trouble. Our Lord promised that. Go to
Ecclesiastes 2. Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Full
of trouble. He told us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. What is wisdom? That's right. mouth the word
Christ. Christ is wisdom. It's not what. We're not going through this
life to learn what, what to do, what to know, but rather who.
Paul said, Oh, that I might know him. Who is the resurrection? Who is peace? Whom to know is
to have eternal life, to have peace, to have rest, to have
comfort, to have consolation in a person. There's only comfort
to be found in a person, a living Lord who loves you and has ordained
all things concerning you, and it's all good, though you don't
understand. A living Lord, that we may apply
our hearts to wisdom, that is, to know Him, to know Him. Man's few days. Look at Ecclesiastes
2, verse 23. It says, "...all his days." Verse
22, "...what hath man of all his labor, and the vexation of
his heart wherein he hath labored under the sun? But all his days
are sorrows, and his travail grief. Yea, his heart taketh
not rest in the night." It's all vanity. Vanity. And you know this whole
book, Ecclesiastes, begins and ends and everything in between
and talking about vanity. Everything is vanity. That means
useless. That means it is of no real value. Flesh, all flesh is vanity. Things of this world. Look at
Ecclesiastes 7. And after we've spent a lifetime
accumulating and doing this and that and the other, it all ends.
Oh, that they were wise and would consider their latter end. That
is, that it all ends. Verse 2. Now here's the wise man. God's wisdom. He says it is better
to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
Why is that? Because all feasting will end.
in sorrow. This is the end, verse 2, of
all men. The living, those who are alive
unto God, lay it to heart. Sorrow, verse 3, is better than
laughter. The world doesn't understand
that. They don't believe that for a moment. But our Lord told
us, our Lord who magnified his word and told his people, his
disciples, he said, Blessed are they that mourn. Only those that
mourn will be comforted. Blessed are the poor, and so
on and so forth. The meek. Our Lord revealed this
to us, didn't He? Verse 3, Sorrow is better than
laughter, for by sadness of the countenance the heart is made
better. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise, but a proud heart He will. The heart of the wise, verse
4, is in the house of mourning. The heart of fools is in the
house of murder. Better to hear the rebuke of
the wise than to hear the song of fools, which is, don't worry,
be happy. Look at verse 14 here in Ecclesiastes
7, verse 14. In the day of prosperity, be
joyful. And this whole book tells us
how to live. It really does. To enjoy what
things that God has given us richly to enjoy, the day of prosperity,
be joyful. That is, give thanks and rejoice
in Him who gave them. Remember that. That's the lesson
here throughout this book. Remember where you got them,
who gave them to you, that you didn't just obtain them of your
strength, but they were given to you. and give thanks to him
who gave them, and give thanks to him who takes them away. Because he says in verse 14,
in the day of adversity, consider. Keep this in mind. God has set
the one against the other. Good days, bad days. Prosperity,
adversity to this end, for this purpose. You're not going to
find anything here. Nothing here. You can't hold
on to anything here except if you lay hold of the hope that
is before you. If you lay hold of the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you hold on to Him here, you'll never lose that. You'll never lose Him. Proverbs
27. This world professing themselves
to be wise are utter fools. We have such wisdom that's given
us in God's Word, yet they don't read it. They don't care. Boy,
we do, don't we? Oh, my. Where would we be without
God's Word? Huh? Where would we be? What
hope would we have? What comfort would we have? What
answers would we have? What consolation would we have?
What peace would we have? None. None whatsoever. You go through troubles and trials.
Where do you run? Where do you turn? Where do you
go? To whom shall we go? To whom do we turn? Man can't
give any words of comfort. None. Zero. Nothing we say can
comfort anyone. Only God. He's called the God
of all comfort. His word. But look at Proverbs
27, verse 1. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. We just don't know. Tomorrow's news may be the worst
we've ever heard. What does tomorrow hold for us? What troubles, grief, sorrows,
pain, suffering does tomorrow hold for us? And it's coming
for all of us. We don't know. And it's a good
thing we don't know. We wouldn't be able to live today
if we knew. And what we need, though, is
we don't need to know what tomorrow may bring, but we need to know
Him who holds tomorrow. Him who has ordained it. He who
has ordered all things and are sure. Predestined all things. The world hates this. But for the life of me, I don't
understand where anybody gets any peace whatsoever that goes
through things like this. except in the all-wise purpose
of our God who orders all things. David said, That's all my salvation.
We need to trust him. We need to leave it all with
him. That's the language of man. We don't let him do anything,
but he has it all. But what that means is to cast
all our care upon him. all our worries, all our fears,
and rest in His wisdom. Rest in His love to His people. Rest in His mercy. He's just
not going to do something that we're not able to do. He's just
too kind. Rest in His grace. He said, My
grace is sufficient. And He giveth more grace. Rest,
that means go to sleep. He giveth His beloved sleep. I called Brother Ron yesterday
and asked if Tammy slept. He said she slept well. Because the Lord has promised,
as thy day, this blessed promise, as thy days, No full of trouble,
no full of sorrow, full of pain, full of suffering. The worst
days, the darkest days, the longest days, the dark days and the sad
filled days are the longest days, aren't they? Like David wrote
in Psalm 130, my soul waiteth for thee more than they that
watch for the morning, weeping and endures for a night. But
he said, joy shall come in the morning. so shall thy strength
be. As thy days, so shall thy strength
be." You now know where this song came from. Day by day, and
with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise
bestowment, I have no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart
is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly, it's part of pain and
pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. And God's way
for all of his people is to bring them through a world of tribulation
and troubles and sorrow and pain and suffering, to make them look
to Him and no one else, to cause them to let go of these things,
to wean them from these things, to show them the vanity of this
world, that they might trust in Him, look to Him, and after
all of this pain and trouble and tribulation, then an eternal
life joy unspeakable and full of gold, and nothing but peace
and rest, that nothing will ever, ever disturb it again. Would
you rather mourn now and laugh later? Wouldn't you? That's God's will. That's God's
will. Thy strength. He said, as thy
days thy strength shall be. God gives strength, according
to his wisdom, as thy days in our early days, the days of our
youth, we have given to us natural strength. We have strength that
God has given, and I'm thankful for that. God gives physical
strength. It's all of the Lord. Not the
strong man glory and his strength. It's all given. The mental strength.
Wise man, don't let him glory in his wisdom. It's all given.
But God does give strength, and I'm thankful. We're thankful
to Him for giving physical, mental strength. Much good can be done. Much help. And it's all for God's
people. This whole world, everything
in it and everyone in it, exists for the help of God's people,
for the furtherance of God's kingdom and His purpose. That's
right. Brother Greg Elmquist, who is at home, by the way, We were talking and he said,
I'm thankful for modern medicine, for modern technology. He said,
I suppose people just died from what I have years before. They just died. And he said,
I'm thankful. Well, the Lord had someone, gave someone a brilliant
mind to come up with medicine so that a preacher of the gospel
could take them and go on a few more years like Hezekiah. Thank
the Lord for that. The Lord gives physical, mental
strength. Much good can be done and much
help. The Lord gives heart and courage
and mind. Young are able to do things,
build things, go to war. David said, Thank the Lord who
gave me hands to help me to war, to defend God's people and so
forth. All the more reason in the youth
In which Ecclesiastes said, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy
youth. And that's the whole book of
Ecclesiastes. Remember who gave you all this.
Gave you all the strength and the power. Worship Him. Praise
Him. Thank Him. Spend your time in
the help of others. Do that. Because this natural
strength is going to end real fast. A whole lot sooner than
you think. All physical strength will fail. It's amazing to me how things
that used to be no trouble at all for me, I can barely do them
now without some kind of pain. I never would have thought that.
Mental strength. All mental strength will fail. Discernment, understanding, judgment. Ecclesiastes speaks of that in
chapter 12. It's all going to fail. The sight of the eyes,
the strength of the hearts will fail. The discernment, the understanding,
the older you get. There's only one person in scripture
that I can think of, Caleb, whose strength did not abate when he
was an old man. But the rest of them, all of
them, Eli, David, couldn't get warm. On and on, the strength,
the discernment, the understanding, childish fears come back. Worries
and doubts and fears. That's what Ecclesiastes tells
us. Evil days. Jacob in his last days said,
My days have been few and evil. Jacob forgot. He forgot. They weren't evil. They were
ordered by the Lord. But that's what He said. And
they're only evil because of infirmities. You're going to
mourn. If you get old enough, you will
mourn that you cannot do what you used to do. You're going
to mourn that you can't think as you used to think. You were
once strong, you become weak. You were once bold, you become
fearful. You were once wise, and now it's
hard to recall, to conjure up any kind of wisdom. Every old person getting old
worries about old age for one reason cheaply, being cared for. Every old person worries about
how they're going to be cared for. They don't want to be a
burden to others and they worry about how things
are going to be Paint pour and so forth. Don't
you? That's just the way it is. Natural. Well, we forget, don't
we, that He always has. From the cradle to the grave,
He said. To whorey head. He said, I've
carried you all the way. I'm never going to put you down.
He's never been but one set of footprints. He's always carried
His people and He promised to do so. Even to old age I am thy
God, he said. And they're never forsaken. The
righteous are never forsaken. They will never be begging bread,
not want. David couldn't get warm, and
the Lord sent him a young virgin to warm him. And that's a glorious
gospel picture. Look at Psalm 31 with me. Psalm
31. David, when he was young, Psalm
31. Go over there. When David was young, you remember,
he was just a youth and full of courage and strength, and
he went out in front of all those enemies alone and said, Is there
not a cause? He wrote Psalm 23 when he was
a young shepherd. He said, The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He said, Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. The Lord gave him that courage.
trouble after trouble. The years went by and he went
through trouble after trouble, after trial after trial. He failed. He sinned. His friends, his lovers, everyone
around him failed. And he wrote this in Psalm 31,
verse 9, Have mercy on me, O Lord, I am in trouble. Mine eye is
consumed with grief. Yea, my soul and my belly. My
life is spent with grief. My years with sighs. My strength
faileth because of mine iniquity." I
am a failure. He used to think he was strong.
He used to have some strength, God-given strength. But after
a life of trials, and after a life of failure on his part, and on the part of everyone around
him, failed him, everyone but the one that matters is God who said, I won't fail
you. You will fail. Everything about
you will fail. Everyone around you will fail
you. Your father, your mother, everyone
will fail you. Your friends will fail you. But
I won't fail you, He said. The Lord is my refuge, David
said, and my strength. For He hath said, I will never
leave thee. Go back to the text in Deuteronomy
33. He hath said, I will never leave
thee. I will never forsake thee. He
hath said, Thy strength, what is it? Look at Deuteronomy 33,
27. Look at this. Deuteronomy 33,
27. The eternal God is thy refuge. And underneath are the everlasting
arm. Underneath what? Underneath you. Though you don't feel them there,
they are there. Because He is the God in whose
hands your breath is. and all your ways. Though you
don't know He's there, He's there. Though you're not aware of Him,
He is very much aware of you. Though you don't think on Him,
He said, I know my thoughts of you. Thoughts of faith. He is
our refuge. And our strength. He said, as
thy days, so shall thy strength be. Our God is our strength. In closing, go to Isaiah 30 with
me. Isaiah chapter 30. When you think
of strength, this is it. Isaiah 30. We've looked at this
so many times. Maybe one of these days we'll
really get a hold of this. Isaiah 30 verse 7 says, The Egyptians
shall help in vain the world, people of the world. Pharaoh,
don't trust in him, and no purpose. And I've cried concerning this,
verse 7, their strength is to sit still. That's the thing about what the
Lord has ordained in this thing of worship. where He gathers
His people like sheep into a fold. They're out there and they're
running around. They're out in the wilderness
and they're running here and they're running prone, prone to wander and all
that. And our Lord gathers them together, the sheep, into a fold. And the Great Shepherd, He promised
this, where they're gathered together, that He'll be in the
middle. And what He does is He gathers them together into a
fold and hedges them about And the sheepfold, where they feel
some security, and they feel some comfort, and they feel some
ease from their foes that are out there all around them. While
the shepherd, and they rub shoulders together, all the sheep have
the same worries, and the same fears, and the same troubles.
And He gathers them together, and they're huddled up together,
and they're hugging one another, waiting. And their souls were
still. Be still, my soul. What stills
their souls? Not of what? To whom? Be still, he said. This is about
the only time we come in and we sit. We sit at the feet of
our Savior. Yes, our Savior. Who speaks peace
to us. If He sends a messenger, that
messenger is going to comfort His people. And there's only
one source of comfort. Not what you do. Not where you
go. Not what you can be. Not what
you must do. But what Jesus Christ has done.
What He has done. What He is doing. What He shall
do concerning you. And it's all good. And if you
hear the good news, I am thy God. I am your Lord. I am your Redeemer. I am your
Shepherd. Though you walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I am with you." It's a person, you
see? Not a doctrine, not a work, not
deeds, but a person. Not a concept, but a person. Our strength is to sit still,
to come and sit. at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ and be still and know that He is God, that He is real,
that He is alive. He says, because I live. I turned the radio on this morning
a little late to the radio program. I love when this happens. But I turned it on and The words out of my pastor's
mouth were such an encouragement to me, such comfort to me, that
Christ never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Be still. Verse 15, Thus saith
the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. That's Christ. In returning,
and rest. In returning, come back. to the place where you found
strength amongst the people like you to hear the message of the
gospel that you laid hold of in the beginning and hold fast
that hope steadfast to the end. Returning and rest. Resting. Coming and resting in the Lord's
love for you. Resting in His wisdom. Resting
in His purpose. Resting in His Son. His covenant
concerning you. Rest, you shall be saved. You
shall be not only saved from your sin, but saved from yourself,
saved from the world, saved from your fears, saved from your worries,
saved from your doubts, saved from overcoming grief and sorrow. There's only one place to be
saved, and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. In quietness, verse
15, in quietness and in confidence. Confidence in who? If you have any confidence in
the flesh, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to
be let down. Your confidence is going to be shattered. Oh,
but if you worship God and have been rejoicing in the Lord Jesus
Christ and all your confidence is in Him, not in the flesh,
that'll be your strength. That'll be your strength. He'll
be your strength. He'll be your strength. He who
said this, he who said these words, Now thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name, and
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with and through the rivers they shall not overflow
you. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon them. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for you, Ethiopia
and for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee." I
will bring thy seed from the east, gather thee from the west.
I will say to the north, give up to the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone
that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. I, even I, am the Lord. Beside
me there is no savior. He promised. I can't lie. And
for our strength, he says, as thy days, so shall thy strength
be. Come back like the widow and
reach down into the barrel, and what you're going to find is
a handful of meal, bread, that go that day in the strength tower. And the crews of oil. This Holy
Spirit who takes the things of Christ and shows them to you
that day will not fail. Not fail. Okay. Let this be a blessing to you
and a comfort. Okay. Thank you. I read that scripture again because
I read it every day. I read that scripture every day
since you told me. I couldn't find the one you do
to Roman. And I was looking through this
morning and I got the cord and the magnifying glass and I found
it. I told Roman he can't read it, but I found that scripture
up the street. And then we got here and Roman started laughing
and he said, look what Paul's preaching. I didn't say that.