messages, the best preaching
is that which is most scriptural, that which is taken from God's
Word. There is no other message. Man,
we don't get messages anywhere but from God's Word. Thus saith
the Lord, just as the best preaching, the best messages are the most
scriptural, so is the best singing, the best songs, those which are
most scriptural. And that one, if you notice,
is taken directly from, paraphrase, from Psalm 90. This prayer of
Moses, Psalm 90, that's the title given by the translators, I believe,
I think, I don't think that was inspired, but under Psalm 90,
it says, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. And yet, this is my prayer for
us, and I hope your prayer as well, your prayer. This is a
prayer, though he doesn't ask for anything until verse 12. But yet this is a prayer, and
like all true prayer, prayer is made up of a few things. True prayer is always made up
of a few things. Number one, it's praise and worship. That's what prayer is all about.
Most folks think prayer is just asking God for stuff. That's
not it at all. Moses, and you will forgive me
if I say David somewhere in this psalm, was he wrote most of them.
But Moses here does not ask for one material thing. Not one thing. And yet this is the most vital,
meaningful prayer of all. spiritual way. But prayer involves
worship. And that's what Moses does here. He extols, that is, lifts up,
honors, and glorifies God, magnifies God, tells who God really is,
who Christ is. And he confesses. Prayer is a
confession of sin. It's not a right prayer if we
don't ask God for his mercy. Over our for our simple we don't
repent of our sin is no real prayer. And. It's request also petitions and
he makes some requests. And these are our. Things we need. Now I know God
heard this prayer. I know it. He wrote it down. To. I know he heard this. God deemed this prayer worthy of his notice, and he writes
it down for us to read. So, if by God's grace and by
God's Spirit from the heart, we too can pray
this prayer right now, may this be more than just a sermon. David
says in verse 1, and he's speaking to the Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations, the one in whom we abide. David doesn't
say, Lord, you've been a big part of my life all these years. Moses didn't say, Lord, you've
been such a big part of my life. The Lord's such a part. Folks don't know God to say that.
Folks that say that aren't dwelling in Him. Folks that say that aren't
found in Him. Moses says, doubt has been my
dwelling place, our dwelling place, the dwelling place of
God's people. All those who truly live have life dwell in Him,
live in Him, in whom we live and move and have our being.
Do you reckon you know how ridiculous that statement is God is a part
of our lives if we did not. God is life. God is life. That's what John wrote life was
manifest. The word of life came here. In him we live. Outside of him
we're dead. Part of our life? No we are a
part of his. You understand that? No. If we
live spiritually, we know God, and we're a part of His life.
David said... Who cares if it's David or Moses,
OK? You will forgive me, won't you? Moses says, Thou hast been
our dwelling place in all generations. All people who are alive unto
God through faith and Christ, they abide in Him. Look at Psalm
91. David, I guess, wrote this one.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide, lodge, dwell under the shadow of the Almighty. He's
our dwelling place. And David, yes David, throughout
the Psalms, attributes to God every place of safety and refuge. and peace and comfort and so
forth. David says, thou art our hiding
place, thou art my refuge, thou art my fortress, thou art my
high tower, thou art the cleft of the rock where I hide, thou
art a sun to me warm, a shield and so on and so forth. Every
place of safety, everything that gives us, you know, some comfort
and peace and there are my refuges city of and I'm getting way ahead
of myself city. My body and all of God's people
find their refuge they don't have a false refuge and things
and people and so forth but their refuges in God. Lord who's Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. We live
and move and have our being in him. In fact, well, verse two,
he says he he describes his God. Just as they asked David, David,
tell us about your God over there in Psalm 115 in another place.
Tell us about your God. Well, Moses, tell us about your
God. That's the same God as David.
Same Lord, Daniel's God, David's God, Moses' God. He describes
in verse 2, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. In other words, he is eternal. Eternal, without beginning of days or end of days. Eternal. That's what makes him God. That's supremely what makes him
different from us. And being eternal, he's immutable,
he's unchangeable. He's always been as he is. That's
why he said, you want to describe me to the people? Just say, I
am. I am that I am. Eternal. Sovereign. That is, creator. Before the
world began, thou art God. Creator. Controller. Doing as
he will, because he will. I love that story of that old
black preacher that was preaching. A man came in, I know his name,
I'm not going to call it, but anyway, years ago a man came
in, couldn't make it to his church because of the weather or whatever,
and ducked into this little black church, and he was the only He
was the only white man in there. And the preacher was up preaching. I think the preacher's name was
Shadrach, Meshach, Lacharach. Honestly, S. M. Lacharach. Shadrach,
Meshach, Lacharach. But he was preaching on the glory
of God. The glory of God. And he was preaching on the glory
of God. And he looked back there at that
only white face, and he said, He said, Where was God in the
beginning, before the world began? I said, I don't know. Where was
he? And that preacher shouted at the top of his lungs, He was
in his glory. In his glory. That's pretty good
preaching. Oh, Lord, before thou art God. Man didn't need God for anything. God wouldn't need God if he needed
anybody or anything. God created man, what? To show
forth his glory. To show forth his glory. So he says,
Thou art God, sovereign. Our God is God. This is the difference. If I don't get past this, it'll
be all right, won't it? This is the difference between
our God, who is God. Moses, God, Pharaoh said, is
God. Our God, who is God, and the
world's God, who is not God, who but wants to be God and can't
be and will not be unless man lets him be God and have his
way. Let God be God, you know. That's what they say. Our God is God. And He just in
mercy and grace one day lets us know that He is. We don't
make Him God. We don't let Him be Lord in our
lives. He just lets us know that He
always has been Lord. And He is right now and forever
will be God. Our God. Our God. He is God. And He works all things
under the counsel of His own will. God. Verse three, Moses
says, Thou turnest man to destruction. God kills. There's means, God uses means,
wars, diseases, calamities, so forth, doesn't he? But he's the
one that does it. God said that, Isaiah 45, didn't
he? I kill, Deuteronomy 32. See now,
isn't that what he says to his people? And you see this because
God the Father, they all be taught of God. God the Father taught
you these things. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. Preachers don't tell this, they don't know it. But
the Father revealed unto you, he said, now see now, you see
now that I, even I, am he. I kill. And therefore, that's why he
says over in Psalm 91, he said, Thou shalt not be afraid of the
pestilence that walketh in darkness or the destruction at waste of
that noonday. You'll not be afraid of terrorists, but you'll fear
me. This people have I formed for
myself. They're going to know that I am he. And beside me,
there's none else. I'm God. There is none else.
They're going to fear me, not Osama bin Laden. They're going
to fear the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who they're going to fear.
They're going to fear Jehovah. That's who they're going to fear.
And they're going to know that that dude's heart is in the hands
of our God. That's our God. Oh man, thou
wilt give them perfect peace. Whose mind has stayed on who?
God, who is God. Jehovah, the rock. Here's a rock
solid place you can rest your soul. God is God. Now just dwell right there. Stay
right there. God kills. Our days are appointed,
determined by God. God says, see God gave and God
takes away. All souls are mine, God says.
There's a baby born, you know, and God puts in that child a
soul, a living soul, makes it a human being, either one of
His elect or not. Right? That's what makes God
God in us. And God gives that life, and in the fullness of
His purpose and time, God takes that life. He says, We return
to the God who made us, who gave us this life. Return, you children
of men. Right? That's our God. Verse
4. And a thousand years. A thousand
years to God. What is time to God? This is
why man has no concept of God. Man's a creature of time, subject
to time. We have to wait thirty seconds
on something. Sometimes it seems like a long time. We have no
patience. We don't know what's out there
and so that leaves us. Fear and trepidation and worry
and so forth. And time just seems to go by
so slowly at times. But to God. Thousand years are as yesterday. Yesterday 24 hours went by came
and went to God. A thousand years are like that. Who wrote that? And where else
do you read that? Do you remember where else that is in the Scripture?
Peter. 2 Peter 3. Where did he get that? A thousand
years. Remember this now? He said, remember
this. We will wait on the Lord. You see, that's what God's people
are going to have to do. Wait on the Lord. Now, a thousand years in God's
sight are as yesterday when it's past, as a watch in the night.
Last night came and went, didn't it? Came and went. Verse five,
he carries them away as with a flood. The years pass by like
a flood. They just sweep by. A rolling
river. There is a sleep, as I said,
you went last night, you Some of you may have had trouble going
to sleep. Anybody? Surely. We finally got to sleep,
didn't we? How long did it last? You were
up before you knew it, like the twinkling of an eye, right? You
know sooner close your eyes than you're up again. Sleep. That's what he says these years
are like. falling asleep and waking up,
we're going to and we're all going to fall asleep one day. God's people will sleep. There's
no death. I just read that scripture where.
And I kept reading in First Timothy, Second Timothy, where he said
to young Timothy, Christ had abolished death. Abolished it. No, there's no
death. He said, He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. He abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through himself, through Christ.
Well, he says here, I've got to hurry. A thousand years are
as yesterday when it's passed. I'll watch in the night, carry
them away as with a flood. They're to sleep in the morning.
They're like grass that groweth up. These young people, boy,
they're growing like grass, aren't they? They really are. And these
young people are full of life and they think, oh, I've got
all my life ahead of me, don't I? That's why every one of these
young people have no concept of time, really. They think, you
know, and young people really do live for the moment. The old people live in the past.
Oh, those were the good old days. But young people grow up in these
years, you know, and they're passing by quickly and they want
them to. Young people want them to go by quickly. They want to
reach a certain age, you know. They want to get old quick. But they're like grass that grows
up, aren't they? These early years, like grass
that groweth up, verse six, in the morning it flourishes and
groweth up, just sprouts up in the evening. Cut down. Does that sound familiar. God's
word says the same thing to us throughout the scripture Solomon.
Solomon wrote that. No no not so well Solomon did
write this but the message of God to the evangelist to Isaiah
was this you tell people. All flesh is grass. Grass withereth, flower fadeth. These young people do not think
so, but they're going to get old. And it's going to happen
fast, isn't it, John? It's going to happen fast, a
lot faster than you... You heard, when you were young,
John, you heard some old fella tell you that, didn't you? And
you didn't believe him, did you? You didn't believe him. Son, you're
going to get old one of these days, not me. Come a whole lot
better. Now you're old. And you tell
it to the other you. And they don't believe you either.
And it withereth the grass. And what's the other message
of the evangelist there in Isaiah 40, chapter 40? You tell them,
behold, they're God. And this is wisdom. We'll look
at that in a moment. Beholding our God thousand years,
they grow up and cut down or withered, fade away. Verse seven. We're consumed by that anger
and by that wrath are we troubled. Man is born of woman is a few
days, doesn't say years, and we read there the year, the days
of our years. So that's how God doesn't talk
about our long, the days of our years. But man that is born of
woman is a few days. And what? Full of trouble. Full of trouble. Where does this trouble come
from? Why? Why is there trouble? Why is
there all this trouble? Why is there pain? Why is there
suffering? Why is there evil? Why is there Why is there destruction? Why
are there wars? Why is there death? Why? Why? Why? Why? People the world over are searching
for that answer. Why? Why? Why? We know the answer. Sin. Because God is holy and
man is sinful. And God said there is no peace
to the wicked. None. And you read, you remember
that article in our bulletin a couple of weeks ago about the
history of sin? That man has forgotten? That
man is not reading that story? That man is not considering?
Thinking about why has all of this come upon us? Sin. Because God is. Because God is. Because God is holy. Are you
with me? Hmm. Anger. Moses doesn't say love here one
time. Although God is and we're not
detracting from Moses does not detract from God's love, but
he never mentions God's love. No, Moses never mentions what
the modern preacher at the only thing he seems to be able to
say, but Moses says three or four times things that the modern
preacher never says. Wrath. Anger. Right? Wrath. Anger. Wrath. Anger. We don't dwell on this, but this
is what our generation needs to hear, like every other generation.
This is what Moses' generation needs to hear. David's generation.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. My generation needs to hear.
John became preaching repent. Why? Because God is angry with
the wicked every day. The wrath of God is abiding on
this world. The judgment of God hangs over
this world, not the love of God, the judgment of God. Our God is a consuming fire,
that's what the scripture says, right? If you know that and you
fear this God, oh, happy are you, blessed are you. You see, and our years are consumed
by that anger. He's speaking on behalf of Israel
and himself. He includes himself. Moses was
the center. Moses was a great man Dan Moses
was the greatest man man of his best state but he was a sinner. And he knew he was a sinner against
God David the man after God's own heart when he said. What
I need is mercy I'm a sinner. And I'm here to consume by that
anger by the wrath or we troubled you see the right you remember
that how many times do we quote the Romans one eight how many
times we quote that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all manner of ungodly all unrighteous. Clearly saying. All these hurt God's will send
them again they're sending them again hurricane after hurricane
wipe out man's sandcastle. Roberta are people taking notice
are people calling on God people asking God for mercy because
they've sinned against him now. Why not can't they say it now.
You see it yes I do see why. I've got open your blind eye.
I got my mind or say that has said our iniquity before and
I had a hard time It occurred to me while we were reading this,
your father preached from this a few years ago when he was here. Verse 8, Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
Our iniquities are before God. There is no secret with God. There are no secrets. He said
our secret sin, what we think are secret, what are secret to
men, David said, David said, Thou,
Lord, seest me. Scripture says the night and
the day are alike to God, the light and the dark are alike
to God. Oh, my, secret and the light
of thy countenance. What we do, we do against God
in the sight of God. All our days are passed away
in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. That would be a good title to
this message. A tale that is told. Every one
of us has a tale that is told. It's a very brief one. Short
stories. God's book is all full of short
stories. You know, there are just a few
years of days. Verse 10 of our years are three score years and
10, 70 years. Davis, what if you thought you
had, you're 16 right now, 17, 16. All right. What if you thought
you've got 54 more years to live? Man, that's a lot in it. A lot? It seems like a lot. Nothing isn't hidden. What are you, seventy-five? He was sixteen yesterday. Yesterday. The tale that's told. And his
body, this is not sad to think about. I mean, well, it is, but
it's something we absolutely must. We're going to lay his
body in a box very soon. If I don't go first, right down
here. And we're all going to talk about
old Henry, the tale that's coming. There was a man, and the scriptures
are full of tales. There was a man, a Levite, who
married a woman, a Levite, and they had a son, and so forth.
And Genesis 5, I was going to have you turn over there. It
gives this genealogy of men that says, and Methuselah, he lived
969 years. What if you thought you had 969
years? Every believer in here says,
perish the thought. The world would love to have
that, but every believer says, I can't imagine. Deborah, you're
50. Y'all know that, don't you? She
is 50. Margaret's older than both of us, but you're in your
50s now. And you really now, in honesty,
you've perished the thought of living past your allotted time
and becoming old and feeble. Your mind's going, all right,
do you want to go? You're getting ready. Hey let's go back there in that
Genesis five it says Methuselah live nine hundred and sixty nine
year and he died. I bet you if you talk to him
he would have said all these nine hundred and sixty nine years
passed by. Days of our year, if by reason
of strength, verse ten, by reason of strength, it's not by reason
of your diet, or you, you know, a man, I read yesterday, the
oldest man, the oldest man in America finally died, and what
he lived on, what was it, whiskey and cigarettes or something? I like that. I mean, I don't,
understand me here. Understand me here, I'm not saying,
I'm not condoning that kind of lifestyle. What I'm saying is
I like the fact that that totally disproves all this modern wisdom,
medical wisdom and so forth. You can't, what you need to live
as long as you need to just eat grass or something. That won't do it either. Why
did he live 112 years? Because that's what God gave
him. Now don't, you know what I'm saying. We're not to abuse
our bodies. No, not at all. You endeavor
to eat right, live right, and so forth, but that's not going
to add one second to your life, honestly. Not going to add one
second to it. It might help the quality of
your life, but it won't add one day. Where do you get that? Bible.
Job 14. Well, OK. He says, if by your
reason of strength, then where does that strength come from?
Eighty years. Where does that come from? God. It is the strength,
their strength. In those seventy years or eighty
years, their strength. You grow up young, robust, able
to do things, and you better get it done while you're young.
This last time, I said, man, this is it. This is it. I'm literally,
physically, I'm not going to be able to do it after this.
It's over. Over. Strength. As labor, all your
life, men, women, you're going to have to work hard. Young people
start working and they, oh, it's hard. Yeah, it's just begun. Right, Sam? It's just begun. You'll be taking
service calls when you're about 78. I'm not answering another
one, Hannah. I'm not answering another one. Honestly, labor. That's what
our Lord said to Adam in the very garden. He said, the sweat
of your brow. Full of sorrow in this life.
To God's people. God's people. The waters of a
full cup are running out of them. Of what? Sorrow. Troubles, trials,
tribulations. But it's good. It's good. It's
good. Sorrow. Why? Well, read on. Let's go on. I'll tell you in
a moment. We're soon cut off and we fly away. I guess that's
where that old song came from, wasn't it? I'll fly away. We're
soon cut off. We'll fly away. Verse 11, Who
knows the power of thine anger? Do you? Believe her. Not fully. Not fully. Just like I hadn't
seen, there into the heart of man, the wonderful blessings
of God and so forth. He just got a little foretaste
of good things. But nobody's really seen the
anger of God. Moses is the one that wrote this.
And he saw some plagues that came. He saw very clearly the
anger of God. He saw very clearly the anger
of God, the wrath of God, when that flood swallowed up those
Egyptians. Go on. He said, even according
to thy fear, so is thy wrath, meaning that those that fear
God, those that know something about the fear of God, know something
about his wrath. You understand, those that know
something about the fear of God, the fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. Fear God. And fear of God enables you to
worship him right and on and on it goes. the beginning of
what and to know the fear of the Lord is to understand something
of his what number one. That's what Romans begins with.
And it carries on by the chapter
after chapter and finally gets into. It begins with wrath. Wrath of
God against sin. Read on. So teach us. Oh, here's
his prayer. We're finally at his requests. So, in light of all this, who
you are, what we are with the brevity of time, our iniquities,
our sin, your wrath. So, verse 12, teach us. Do you feel like a dummy most
of the time? Do you feel like an ignoramus
most of the time? You feel like it, Brother Henry,
I'll pick on you again, 75 years old. Do you feel like you haven't
learned anything sometime? Would you please say yes, because
I'm going to be your age maybe, and I'm going to feel the same
way. See, I get some comfort in the same, with the same comfort
where with your comfort. We still need to be taught, don't
we? This is why Scripture calls His people, God's people, no
matter how old they are, calls them, My little children. I quoted
that in John 6.45, the Lord said, They shall all be taught of God.
And that comes from Isaiah who said, All thy children shall
be taught of the Lord. That great will be the peace
thereof. Christ said it. He paraphrased
it. He changed it. He can do that.
Only one who can. Christ said, they shall all be
taught of God, and every man that hath learned, heard, and
learned of the Father does what? Does what? Come unto me. Teach us to number our years
that we might apply our hearts to what? Wisdom. What's wisdom? He ain't a what. Christ is made unto us. Proverbs
8, for the wisest man who ever lived, talked about wisdom. And what did he say? The whole
time in Proverbs 4, Proverbs 8, and other places, he says,
Talk about him. He, wisdom, dwelt with the Father
from the beginning. To know him, to find him is better
than great rubies, better than all riches. So seek him. Teach us to number our days.
Do you remember numbering your days when you were real young
to some certain age? Do you remember? When I was 15,
the day I turned 15, I made me a calendar with 365 days. Pam
made me a calendar. You know why? And I was marking
off the days to where I could get and I could be free. Drive a car. Now you get old
and you want somebody else to drive for you, don't you? Honestly. Gabe drove me around somewhere
the other day, and I thought, this is really nice. When you're
young, that's what you live for, isn't it? Isn't that what you
live for? Oh, man. And I died by it. But, you know, you mark off the
day, 16. Oh, that's a great age. And I remember thinking 25. 25
sounds like real adulthood. 21, for obvious reasons. And then 25, you know, when I
reached 25, and then I remember thinking when I started preaching,
I started thinking, well, if I can just reach 30, because
the Lord was a man who began his ministry when he was 30,
I thought, well, I'll get to be 30, then I'll have a ride. And then I thought, well, 40,
you know, 40 is a good, that's a good age. You get 40, then
you got some wisdom. People look at 30 years old,
still young. Forty, you're not so young. I'm
not doing that anymore. I'm not wishing for any more
ages. I'm not. But yet we're told to number
our days. Number them for what? There's
a great event awaiting the people of God. As a great event, that's why
we're born for this cause we came. Death will be swallowed up in
victory and as old Philpott said, we'll be lost in him or swallowed
up in him in life. Did you read that? You better
read that, Philpott. Well, he goes on to say in verse
11, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. Teach us to number
our days, count the days, and we may apply our hearts to wisdom. If we know Christ, we have wisdom. If you want to be wise, know
Christ. Seek to know Him and be found
in Him. To know Christ is to be wise. Apply your hearts to
know Him. You ever apply for anything?
It says, apply your heart. You ever applied for anything
that you really wanted, really a job or a loan? You ever applied for it? What
did you do? You gave it your all. Didn't you? You gave diligence
to get that whatever it was you were applying for. You know, all mercy is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. If the mercy of God is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then I'd apply it to him for it. If all the grace of God is in the
Lord Jesus Christ, then I'd apply it to him for it. If Christ is
salvation, then you better apply your heart to have it. Apply it to him. He's the wisdom
of God. You know, if you have this wisdom,
you know he's salvation itself. And you say, Lord, apply my heart
to know thee. That's what Paul wrote, didn't
he? Verse 13. Return, O Lord. Return. Those who have applied themselves
seek Christ by God's mercy and grace. They look for him. They wait. They love his appearing. They wait for him. And they say,
Even so, come quickly return. How long is it going to be? David
said that throughout the song. Oh, how long, oh Lord, how long? The worldling says, oh, I hope
I have a long time here. The believer says, how much longer
do I have to go to stay here? Honestly, return, oh Lord, how
long? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servant. Oh, in other words, Lord, turn
from your wrath, turn. And turn us, and we'll be turned.
Oh, satisfy us, verse 14. Satisfy us early with thy mercy. Oh, it's a good thing that a
young man bear his yoke, Christ's yoke in his youth. Remember thou
thy creators in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come
nigh. If you don't know Christ early
on, you're going to spend all your years in sin and misery. Really, you are. Looking for
some peace and happiness and so forth, you're going to look
for it here and look for it there and you're not going to find
it. But if by God's grace, he early
on reveals himself. Everything else is just gravy,
you have direction, you have his will, we may rejoice and
be glad all our day, not miserable, sinful and miserable. Verse 50,
make us glad. I'm getting to it, you know,
what's the next person. You see why you see why I spent
fifty minutes, sixty minutes, see why. It's what's been said
thus far worth saying. Comment. Well, he says, make us glad according
to the days wherein thou shalt afflicted us. Jerry David wrote
in Psalm 119, 71, it's good for me that I've been afflicted.
Sister Nancy loves this verse. He said it's good for me that
I've been afflicted, that I might learn by statutes. The trials, the afflictions,
the troubles of God's people, and they go through a lot. You
must through much tribulation. It's good for God's people. Why?
It draws them nearer to God, Teresa. When they lose this and lose
that, they find, really, there's nobody to have but Him. You understand? When they find misery and trouble
here, a lot of it, then they realize, this is no place for
me. When they find sin and all that
here, and it, like, vexes their righteous soul, they long for
the Holy God, the Holy Christ. I want to be with Him. Take me,
Lord. Lay hold on me. Have mercy upon
me like lock and pull me out of this City of destruction. Put me in the city of refuge,
Christ. Oh, Lord, the days you've afflicted
us show us that it's your mercy, your grace, your kindness to
us and weaning us from this world in drawing us near to thee. Nothing
draws the people of God nearer to him than more than trials. That's right. You know, it's
so when the times when you seem to forget God's prosperity. And afflictions take different
ways for according to God's wisdom and dealing with his children,
you know, what is an affliction to you might not be to me and
what's to me might not be to you. And God in his wisdom deals
with each one individually. For one, it might be sickness,
for one, it might be Whatever, this and that and the other.
He knows. He's the one that afflicts, not
willingly, but by reason of his wisdom, judgment. The years wherein we have seen
evil, man is born of woman, a few days are full of trouble, evil.
Let thy word, verse 16, Lord, when it's all said and done,
years have passed. Let thy work more than anything
else, apply my heart to wisdom and let, this is my prayer, is
this your prayer? Let thy work, not works, thy work appear unto thy servants. This sounds like Christ praying
for his people doesn't it? Moses is not just praying
for himself. He's praying for everybody, thy
servants. But he says, let thy work show them, show us, Lord,
them and me, show us the thing we need to see most of all, the
thing that will just give us the greatest, well, life, peace,
joy, and that, thy work. The work of God is wonderful.
Paul described it as so great salvation, the work of salvation. What Lord is he talking to? Who
is he talking to who did this work? Well, the same one who
in John 17 said, I have finished the work. Oh God, Lord, would you let us
see, everyone, these people, thy work. Thy work. Behold thy work. Why the universe
is in existence. Why things have their being. Why this world. Let us see beginning from our
youth, Lord, that the whole world and everything in it and the
universe revolves around Jesus Christ. Let thy glory appear unto their
children. Lord, show them thy glory. I say that. I pray that. I ask
that more than anything else. Lord, give them a good husband.
Lord, give them a good wife. Lord, give them a good job and
a home. Lord, I want that. I wish that they would prosper
materially, physically. I do. But what I want more than anything
else, Lord, show them thy glory. You know, if you see his glory,
then you'll live through this world, you live in this world,
but you may not have it and you won't be taken by nothing. We'll. Nothing will capture your fully
captured. After Moses had seen that burning,
after Moses had seen that ram caught in the thicket, after
Moses had seen the parted After Moses had seen the smitten rock,
after Moses had seen the bread come down from heaven, after
Moses had seen God's glory, do you think he was impressed by
anything else? Do you think anybody captured
his attention from then on? And he was about 40 years old,
John, when that started. About 40 years old. The Lord
was good to him. And his youth. You see, you see what he's saying
that, Lord, if you show us thy glory, our children, show them
your glory, then from that day on, they'll behold you. They'll
be looking to you. They're looking under Jesus,
the author and finisher of their faith. They'll be looking under
him. They'll see him as all and in
all, and everything else is nothing at all. And they'll see his glory. They'll see everything else is
really tainted. You ever seen something really
beautiful and shiny, everything else seems tarnished, doesn't
it? That's Christ. Pearl of great pride. The glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Lord, show us thy glory. And
our children, let the beauty of our Lord, what do you reckon
that is? Let the beauty, this is our prayer,
Lord, establish us in holiness. Lord, let this work be upon us.
Lord, make me holy as thou art. Make me righteous. Make me righteous. Make me holy. Be upon us. Let me be clothed
with Christ. Him. Him. He is made unto me righteousness. He is made unto me righteous. He is made unto me righteous
wisdom. Let it be upon us, and establish
thou the work of our hands upon us. It is God that worketh in
us. The Lord established it, thee
work. There it is again, thee work. What is our work? Why did God
save his people? What's their work now? They have
a work to do. What is it? Is there not a cause? We come right back knowing. It's
all the same. It all comes right back to where
we started. Never leave that. Paul wrote that in Hebrews, he
said, leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let's
go on. And those that don't are unskillful in the word of righteousness,
though they tend to think they are, they're not. He said, let's
go on. When he said, let's leave that,
he didn't mean you ever completely forsake that and don't have it
in your preaching. But he says, let's go on. Do
we have to say the same thing, the same words and write same
rote phrases every time we preach? No. The word righteousness is
not in the book of Colossians. Is Christ there? The work of
our hands upon us. It's God that worketh in you.
It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. A new creature? Absolutely. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Christ be in you, except you be what? Rippled. No argument there. Yea, the work of our hands. Establish thou it. The work. And this work is to glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's my work. That's what I do
every time I stand up here by God's breath. And it's your work. Wherever you
live, whatever you do, you serve the Lord. Whether we live or
die with the Lord. And we serve his glory wherever
we are, wherever we are. In our homes, we're the spiritual
leaders and we point our children to Christ. We pray for them that
they might win Christ and be found in him and know him. That
is our goal for our children. That's what we want. And we work
to that end. We give ourselves to that until
they're outside of our home. not under our power. And then
we pray to God from that day forward, Lord, show them your glory. And I just can't help but think
that those, I've seen it in here, the Lord's going to bless, has
blessed and will bless those who are involved in this work. God has given this faithful spirit
and attitude. A tale that's told. A few years. We've all got a
brief tale. Apply our hearts to wisdom. Number
our days. Or teach us. Teach us. Show us thy glory. Show us thy
work. Show us thy son. All right. Brother Gabe, let's close again. M number 75 and let's stand. Abide with me fast all eventide The darkness deepens, Lord with
me abide When other helpers fail and comforts flee Help of the
helpless, O abide with me. Third verse. I...