Thank you, Gabe and Jeanette. Go back to Psalm 90 with me,
please. Sunday morning, Lord willing,
we'll continue, re-continue, whatever you want,
in Genesis. Genesis chapter 3. and perhaps Matthew. But this
passage spoke to me when after hearing Brother Roland Browning
bring a Bible study Sunday morning from Job 14. 1. Man is born of woman is a
few days and full of trouble. And this verse in Psalm 90 just
spoke out loud to me and I began to jot some things down. Verse
12, Psalm 90, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. As much as I would like to deal
with the whole psalm, we're not going to for the sake of time.
But this is vitally important that we just learn this lesson
to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. Now, it
begins with the word, so, doesn't it? So, teach us. In light of what he said before,
beginning with verse 3, he begins to tell us of the brevity of
time and how time is nothing to our Lord. In verse 3, Thou
turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of
men. Ecclesiastes says, Dust returns
to the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God
who gave it. And when that is, we don't know. None of us know. But our days
are determined. The number of our months are
with the Lord. He's appointed our bounds. We cannot pass. So
we're going to go and return to our Lord at the time when
He said it. And verse 4 says a thousand years
in His sight are as but yesterday when it's passed, like a watch
in the night. There were three or four watches
in the Scriptures. According to the Hebrew or Greek,
a watch was either three or four hours, beginning at 9 p.m., 9
to 12, 12 to 3, 3 to 6. The watch is three hours short.
And he says a thousand years to our Lord, or in time itself,
like three hours, a thousand years. You remember when Peter
said that in 2 Peter 3, he said, don't be ignorant of this. Brethren,
don't be ignorant of it. A day is a thousand years, and
a thousand years is a day with the Lord. Time is so fleeting,
a thousand years goes by like a day. A thousand years. Don't be ignorant of that. Mankind
is ignorant. David said their secret thought
is that they shall live forever. They just don't like to think
about that. But we need to be wise, don't we? And consider
our latter end. We need to number our days. We want to see what that means
in a minute. In verse 5, he says these years are carried away
like a flood. They just go by in bunches, don't
they? Just a flood. We use the old
term, so much water under the bridge. They just go by like
asleep, he said. Asleep. When you wake up, they're
gone. When you sleep, time really flies by doesn't it? You go to
sleep, and I hit the bed at 8.30 or 9 sometimes, and bam, I'm
out. And before you know it, I'm up.
It's daytime. He said time is like that fleeting. The older you get, the faster
It goes by, doesn't it? He said in verse 5, we're like
grass that groweth up. In the morning, it flourisheth
and groweth up. In the evening, it is cut down
and withering. Surely, he's talking about youth. In the morning of
our life, youth, how flourishing we are. These little ones are
so full of life, aren't they? Vitality and energy and fresh.
And flourishing, aren't they? Like a little flower. And then, snap your fingers and
five years go by that. Snap your fingers and another
seven, you go from Sophie to Kelly to Elizabeth to Hannah
to Nancy. Isn't it? That's how fast it
is. That's how fast it is. I remember seeing an ad one time,
a man sitting in a boat with his daughter. It was a very good
ad. It said, take her fishing today. She'll be getting married tomorrow.
It's a little bitty girl about Isabella's age. It's so true,
isn't it? The days have gone by. All these
older people in here will tell you, you ask them, and they'll
say, where did the time go? Where did it go? And then the
evening comes and withers and cut down, and that's it. Or is it? That's what Job 14
asks. If a man dies, will he live again? There's hope of a tree. But man
dies. Will he live again? Christ said,
he that liveth and believeth in me will never die. He'll live again. There's a verse
in Psalm 103. Turn over there quickly. Psalm 103, verses 15 and 16. It says this throughout the Scriptures. These lessons. that we need to
learn about the brevity of time. Verses 15 and 16 ask for man. Now David is telling us this,
his days are as grass as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
The wind passeth over it, it's gone. And the place thereof shall
know it no more. He won't even know it was there.
I remember one day coming home and I saw a squirrel run out
and a car hit it. Well, the next day it was there
in a row, you know. The next day, the next day, in
about a week or two weeks, there was no sign that it was there.
He didn't even know it was there. And that's the way it's going
to be with us. And only our dearest friends and brothers and sisters
will give us a thought. That's a fact. Sad? Not really. Because if the Lord
remembers you, it won't matter who remembers you here. It won't
matter. And in a few short years, we're
all going to go the way we're not returned. So teach us, he
says. Teach us to number. Our days,
and it's so often said in Scriptures, oh, that we were wise and consider
our latter end, and man goeth to his long home, a place of
no return. So teach us. Look at verse 7
in our text. He says, we're consumed by thy
anger and by thy wrath are we troubled. You've set our iniquities
before you, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
All our days are passed away in thy wrath. What does that
mean? It means that man that is born
of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He's in trouble with
God. That's why. Where do all our
troubles come from? Sin. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. And all the troubles that mankind
experiences is because of sin, because we're in trouble with
God. And our years are spent seeing that wrath, and wise people
will acknowledge that. People who are wise will see
all of this is because of the wrath of God. Judgment of God. You can't know God without knowing
something of His wrath. You can't know God without knowing
something of His holiness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,
and hateth iniquity, and will by no means clear the guilty."
And you can't appreciate the gospel without knowing something
of the fear of the Lord, the wrath of God, and what it was
that put Christ on Calvary's tree. Sin. Wrath. Wrath. You see, we spend our
years, it says, consumed by thine anger. God is angry with the
wicked every day. Our iniquities, God seeth all. Our secret sins is in italic,
isn't it? Everything about us is known.
Our days are passed away in wrath. We're born into this world in
pain, aren't we? We're born in pain. We come forth into this world
experiencing pain. That's because of sin. And we go through our days, all
our days, going through pain and suffering and sickness and
calamities. Why? Sin. So this is why he goes on to
say that we may apply our hearts. What can be done about this sin? We go through our days experiencing
sickness and calamities and disasters and sorrow and finally death
because of sin. One man's sin entered into the
world and death by sin. So he says our days are passed
away in this wrath. Verse 11, this is why he says,
Who knoweth the power of thine anger according to thy fear? is thy wrath. The beginning of
wisdom is what? Fear. Fear. What does Scripture
say about the natural man, about most people? There's no fear
of God. Psalm 36, the transgression of
the wicked, sayeth within my heart, there's no fear of God
before that. He flattereth himself. until
his iniquity be found out. So it's a great blessing of our
Lord for us to understand something of His wrath and His anger and
fear the Lord, because that will drive you to cry. Our sin, like
David said, ever before us, will make us look to cry. So, he said
in verse 12 and verse 10, Verse 9, I'm sorry. He says, We spend
our years as a tale that is told. I thought about over in Genesis,
it says this, our years as a tale that is told. All of us are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. But it says things like this.
It says, All the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. And all the days of Enos were
905 years, and he died. And all the days of Mahaliel
were 895 years, and he died. Now, these are real people. Now, these people lived 800 or
900 years. And their lives were ten times
longer than ours. But yet, God just doesn't say
much about them at all. It's a tale that's told. This
man lived. He had sons. He died. So what
mattered? What mattered? Boom. He's gone.
He lived. Doesn't matter how long he lived.
He died. What mattered? What mattered? Anything that he accumulated? Anything that he accomplished
here? No. Did he know God? Did he know God? Oh, that they
were wise. We spend our years as a tale
that's told. I'm 70. Look at verse 10. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten. That's 70. It began in the beginning
before the flood. There were less people. In order
to populate this earth, the Lord let men live 700 to 900 years. And then the Lord said, after
the flood, He said 120. That's it. Because man was such a sinner. 120 years. And then, now Moses,
beginning with Moses' day, he says, now 70. God keeps cutting it short, doesn't
He? Seventy years. If by reason of
God-given strength, it says here. If by reason of strength. And
you know where that strength comes from. Eighty years. That's
God-given strength. The grace of God. It's not a
strong... Well, if you have a strong constitution,
God gave it to you. It's not the diet that you had.
You hear stories all the time. There'll be an old fellow that
says, that lived to 90, they'll ask him what the secret was.
He'll say, liquor never touched my lips. I only ate organic whatever
and all that. Another fellow says, I drank
Jack Daniels every day. The number of our months are
determined with the Lord, aren't they? God gives that strength
of years, that constitution, 80 years. What do we have we
have not received? More years than 70. In all of those years, there
is strong labor and sorrow. That is, our Lord told Adam in
the very beginning, because of sin, He said, You're going to
earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. And He told Eve,
You're going to have nothing but sorrow in childbirth and
raising children. Sorrow. A man is going to have
sweat, Blood, sweat, and tears. All those years. Full of trouble. A few days full of trouble. And then, so he says in verse
12, so, teach us. Teach us to number our days. Now Moses is the one saying this,
isn't he? And he's saying it on behalf
of all of us, and he said, teach us. Doesn't Moses know this? If anyone thinks they know anything,
Paul said, if any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing
yet as he ought to know. Abraham was 120 years. Surely
he had learned all he needs to know in 100 some years, right? No. After these things, the Lord
did try Abraham. There's something else you need
to learn, isn't there? Teach us. Teach us. God does. God must. If He doesn't, we won't learn. They shall all be taught of God,
He said. And every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father, Christ said, cometh to me. Teach us,
Moses. He said, teach us. We know in
part. We need to be taught. We need to pray daily like Moses. Lord, teach me. I need to learn.
Do you ever ask yourself or do you ever say this, when am I
ever going to learn? When you repeat the same things
and you don't feel like you've learned, grown much in grace,
do you ever say that? When am I ever going to learn?
Lord, teach us. Look at Psalm 39. This is good.
Job learned this, or was learning it anyway. He said, in a few
short years, I'll return the way, go the way from which I
shall not return. Just a few. Moses learned it,
or is learning it. He said, teach us. Make me, or
teach me the brevity of my days. And David here in Psalm 39, he's
asking it, verse 4. Lord, make me to know mine end,
a measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail
I am. Look at the margin. It says what
time I have here. Make me know that. Thou hast
made my days as a handbreadth. Mine ages as nothing before thee.
Verily, every man at his best day is altogether vanity. I can't stop. Verse 7, Now, Lord,
what am I waiting for? My hope is in Him. So make me. Teach me. Make me. I love those
psalms that say that, don't you? Make me. Teach me. Lead me. Guide
me. If you don't do it, Lord, I'm
not going to learn a thing. Teach me. All right, what does it mean
to number our days? What does it mean? Teach us to
number It means much more than actually counting the days, although
I think it does mean that. What it means is just what we've
been looking at. Count your life in days, not years. Days. That's how the Scripture
speaks of our life, doesn't it? Days. It speaks of our life in
terms of days, not years. Days. So we need to consider
our life, how brief it is. It's like days. And to number
our days is to be thankful for the many days that we've already
experienced of God's mercy and God's grace and God's goodness.
Count your blessings. We were going to sing that hymn
tonight, but after reading over it, The words aren't too good,
but I like that line. Count your blessings. Name them
one by one. We can't. There are too many. David said, if I try to rack
them up in order, there are too many. Can't do it. But just try
it anyway. Our blessings far outweigh our
problems, don't they? Count your blessings. In Psalm
68, he says, He daily loadeth us with benefits. daily loatheth
us with benefit. What do we have that we have
not received? Every day. Every day. The Lord's tender
mercies are over all His work. He gives to everything bread. There's not even a sparrow that
the Father doesn't feed. And Psalm 40 says there more
than can be numbered. So count our blessing. Count
them. Count our blessing. Psalm 103 says, He hath not dealt
with us after our sins. Isaiah 40 says, We receive double
at the Lord's hand for all our sins. Double. So count every day. We wake up
in the morning. What psalm is it? It says, I
wake up and I'm still with Him. We wake up, His mercies are new
every morning. His compassions they fail not.
That's Ecclesiastes. We wake up and we ought to count
that day That's the mercy of the Lord. Another day, God's
mercy. God's mercy. And if He gave you
sleep, consider that. He giveth His beloved sleep.
Sleep is a precious thing. The older you get it. And He
also said this, As your days, so shall thy strength be. As your day. That's Deuteronomy
33. Has it not been so? that the Lord's grace has been
sufficient for every day, whatever you have had to face, no matter
how difficult. As your days, so shall your strength
be. Count them up, all the days of
the Lord's mercy, 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. To number our days means to use them wisely. To number them as days means
to consider we just have a few left, what are you going to do
with them? What if you knew you had a few
days left? One, we don't know that there's
a few. He said, boast not thyself of
tomorrow. We don't know we have tomorrow.
The number of our days are to consider them few and too precious
to waste. How many times have you laid
in your bed at night and thought, boy, I just wasted a day. I just wasted time. Or whatever
you do, you thought, that sure was a waste of time. That's to
use it wisely. Brother Scott, I love, I tried
to, I meant to look it up, but didn't. We had an article in
our bulletin by him. He said, there's some things
just not worth it. He said, there's some places
not worth going, some books not worth reading, some movies not
worth watching, some jokes not worth telling, and
so it just went on and on. You remember that? He said, the
time is so short. To the young people. I'm glad
there's some here. He says in Ecclesiastes 12, Remember
now, thy Creator, in the days of thy
youth, before the evil days come nigh. There's no promise of tomorrow.
We're under the sound of the gospel right now. And today is the day of salvation.
When I get my life lived, when I get my education over, when
I get a good job, when I get married, then I'll get into it. You don't know. I lost my best
childhood friend at 15 years old. My brother, 21. That's young. So young. My sister at 42. That's real
young. Real young. Remember now Thy Creator in the
days of Thy youth. And look at verse 14 of Psalm
90. It says, Oh, satisfy us early
with Thy mercy, Lord. Oh, it's good that a man bear
the yoke in his youth. Because there's no promise. There's
no promise. We have hope, don't we, for our
young ones that go away? The hope that they're a prodigal,
but they might not be. The Lord had great mercy on me.
I didn't deserve it. But He brought me back. But all
I could live on was hope that the Lord would bring me back.
I didn't deserve it. Remember now, the days of thy
youth. Our Creator in the days of thy
youth. And number them. To number our
days is to consider them as these days of being closer to the Lord.
As the days go by, we're nearer to the end. Scripture says, to
the believer in here, now is your salvation nearer than when
we believed. Scripture says, the night is
far spent, the day is at hand. It says, lift up your heads,
your redemption draws nigh. It says, when you see all these
things, I'm at the door. I'm loving all of these thunderstorms
and all of this. It's causing everybody so much
fear. I'm loving it. Remember that? Don't fear their fear. Fear the
Lord. Let Him be your great. When you
see all these things, know that He is near. Salvation is nearer. I remember when I turned 15 years
old. In Kentucky, you'd get your driver's
license at 16. And you have your permit for
30 days. 30 days is all the training we
got in Kentucky. That's all you needed for a buck
board wagon. But anyway, when I hit 15, I
made a calendar. You remember that, Ma? I made
a calendar of 365 days. Boy, I was marking them all.
Marking them all. June. September. October 1st. Yes! Sixteen. Here I go. Lord's mercy. I didn't split
hell wide open. But there's a sense in which
we ought to be doing that. Getting close now. Getting close
now. Lift up your heads. Your redemption
draweth now. Number our days as it may be
our last. What would you do if this were
your last day? We've just heard that a dear
friend of ours, a sister in Lexington, has pancreatic cancer. That's the most severe there
is. It's a fascist. People don't survive it very
long enough. She has a very short time to live. What would you
do if you knew that? What would you do? How would
you be listening to this message? That's what it means to number
your day. Here I have another opportunity to hear God's Word. Would you repeat that please,
sir? I didn't hear it the first time. We'd listen so carefully,
wouldn't we? Listen so carefully. I believe
it actually means to number our day. And I did that for you,
so you don't have to... 70 years is 25,550 days. Are
you 35, Gabe? 35. You've got 12,775 left. Maybe.
Half your life, gone. Gone. If you're 50. If you're
50. Steve, you're right there, aren't you? 7,300 days left. Maybe. Maybe. Sixty. Anybody? I'll not mention any names. Some
are getting close. Sixty. 3,600 days left. Seventy? It's
over. Isn't it? Maybe 80, maybe. It's over. Teach
us. Now what? Teach us to number
our days. When I came here, I was 33. I've got pictures down there
of all of us. You see that picture I put down
there of this church? Man, oh man, where did the days
go by? Where did it go by? Teach us. To do what? Now what? What are we going to learn from
this? We have a few days left. What are we going to learn? Alright,
look at it. That we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. Our hearts. The wisdom of this
world says this, get all you can while the getting's good. That's the world. The world says,
get all you can. Son, here's what you do. Work
hard. Save up your money. And then
you've got retirement and then you can take it easy. That's
what the fool said in Luke 12. That's what that old fool said.
My soul now has much good laid up for thee. Now, take thine
ease. And God said to him, you fool,
today, tonight, your soul is required of you. What is wisdom? Apply your heart
to wisdom. Just somebody, anybody, just
make a guess. Christ. Apply thine heart to
know Christ. To know Christ is to have life
eternal. To know Christ is to have life
more abundant here, and eternal life. Apply our hearts, because
he says, out of the heart are the issues of life. With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. He said, my son, give me thine
heart. Set your affection, that is,
on things above, not on things on the earth, where Christ sits.
To know Christ is to know peace. To know Christ is to know God. To know Christ is to know joy. To know Christ is to know forgiveness
of sin. To know Christ. Paul said, oh, that I might know
Him. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. That I might know Him. He said,
for me to live is to cry. For me to live is to cry. To
know Him better. To commune with Him. And now
for the young people here, He says, apply thine heart. But
He said in another place, whatever your hand finds to do, do it
with all your might. Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it. You're getting an education, do it. You're working, work hard,
do it. Apply your hand to it. Work with
all your might. Apply your hand to that task,
whatever the task is, but apply your heart to know Christ. Don't set your heart on these
things. Put your hand to it, but set
your heart on things above. Lord, take my heart and set it
on things that are eternal. My, my. Our days are numbered. Our days are few. And what it
means to set our heart on Christ, to win Christ and be found in
Him, is to know Him. For you who do, it is to know
Him better, to commune with Him, to learn of Christ. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of Me. I am meek and lowly in heart. You
will find rest for your soul. Not only in trusting Him, Walk
in as he walked. That's what Peter said. He that
will love life and see a few good days, do this. To learn of Christ is to learn
something of His love. Unconditional love. To learn
of Christ is to learn something of meekness. That is to be a
servant. Servant. Loneliness. Learn something
of His mercy. But the merciful who show himself
merciful is to learn something of his forgiveness. Be kind one
to another, tender-hearted to one another. Forgiving one another
is God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Today's a few. To learn of Christ is to learn
something of his forbearance. What does he put up with? To
learn of Christ is to learn something of his long-suffering. No, I'm
not. To grow in grace. Look at the
last few verses here of Psalm 90. He says, Make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Make us learn something
from what we've gone through. That this was the Lord's goodness
to us. His trials, His affliction. We
all learn from His Word. We all learn through trials. And the years wherein we have
seen evil, Really? It's all good. It's all good. Verse 16. Let
thy work appear unto thy servant. Thy work? What's his work? The
work of redemption. The work of Christ. Let it appear
unto thy servant. And thy glory unto their children.
Lord, you've shown us, Moses said this, show me your glory.
Lord, you've shown us your glory. Would you show it to my son,
my daughter? So we can behold it together. And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us. That is, clothe us with the righteousness
of Christ. Let us be like Christ. Establish
the work of our hands. This gospel, what we do in the
service of our Lord, Lord, establish it. Establish it. Whatever we
do, make it prosper. Yes, the work of our hands. Establish
thou it. So, teach us. Lord, teach us. number our days, and what few
we have left, apply our hearts that we might know Christ and
do as He did. Serve our Lord and serve one
another. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. Again, we thank You for it. We
are poor and needy, and we find all we need in Your Word. instructs
us when you by your Spirit speak. We thank You for it. Lord, teach
us. Teach us what we cannot learn
without Thy Holy Spirit who teaches, who leads and guides in all truth. Teach us, Lord, to number our
day. This may indeed be our very last. So set our heart, our affection
on Thee. Lord, all our desires are for
Thee. And one thing, as our brother
read, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after. Make us all hungry and thirsty after that grape. That
one thing. It's in Christ's name we've met
here tonight. Amen.