You're sitting in that chair
right there. It seems like you quit playing a whole lot earlier
than if I'm sitting right there. I could just sit and listen to
that all night. Alright, let's open our Bibles, if you would,
to Job chapter 7. Job, the 7th chapter. We'll read the first 10 verses. Is there not an appointed time
to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the
days of an hireling? As a servant earnestly desireth
the shadow, and as a hireling looketh for the reward of his
work, so am I made to possess months of vanity and wearisome
nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, when
shall I arise? And the night be gone. And I'm
full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh
is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and
become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life
is wind. Mine eyes shall no more see good.
The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more. Thine
eyes are upon me and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and
vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come
up no more. He shall return no more to his
house, neither shall his place know him any more." We'll end
our reading there. Let's turn now to page 497. 497. When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies I'll bid farewell to every fear And
wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping
eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes
Should earth against my soul engage, And fiery darts be heard,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage And face a frowning world And
face a frowning world And face a frowning world Then I can smile
at Satan's rage And face a frowning world Let cares like a wild deluge
come and storms of sorrow May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all. May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my Heaven, my all. There shall I bathe my weary
soul To seas of heavenly rest, And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast. And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast. Now let's turn over a few pages
to 502, 502. When my life's work is ended
and I cross the swelling tide, When the bright and glorious
morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach
the other side, and His smile will be the first to welcome
me. I shall know Him, I shall know
Him, and redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him by the print
of the nails in His hand. Oh, the soul-thrilling rapture
when I view His blessed face, And the luster of His kindly
beaming eye, Now my full heart will praise Him For the mercy,
love, and grace That prepare for me a mansion in the sky. I shall know Him, I shall know
Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him,
I shall know Him By the print of the nails in His hand. All the dear ones in glory, how
they beckon to come, and are parting at the river, I recall. To the sweet vales of Eden, they
will sing my welcome home, but I long to meet my Savior, first
of all. I shall know Him, I shall know
Him, and redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know
Him By the print of the nails in His hand. Through the gates to the city
in a robe of spotless white, He will lead me where no tears
will ever fall. In the glad song of ages I shall
mingle with delight, But I long to meet my Savior first of all. I shall know Him, I shall know
Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him,
I shall know Him By the print of the nails in His hand. Let's open our Bibles for our
scripture reading to Psalm 90, the 90th Psalm. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling
place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man
to destruction, and sayest, return, ye children of men, for a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and
as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as asleep in the morning, They're like grass,
which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes
and groweth, groweth up. In the evening it is cut down
and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath
are we troubled. 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. Return, O Lord,
How long? And let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. 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 has afflicted us and the
years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty
of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of
our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish
thou it. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we come one more
time into thy courts, into thy throne room, daring only come
into thy presence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, pleading
his righteousness is ours, pleading his blood that washes us white
as snow and cleanses us from all sin. Father, we come before you with
hearts that are full of thanksgiving. How thankful we are that you've
given us another opportunity to meet together and to worship
you, to open and to read your word, to have your word preached
to us. Father, how we thank you. What
an awesome privilege that you have given to us here. We're
so thankful. And Father, I pray that this
evening, right now in this hour, that you would meet with us and
give us a special hour of worship. Enable us to see the Lord Jesus
Christ as we've never seen him before. Father, bear your mighty
arm of power in mercy and grace to your people. Make your mercy
and your grace in Christ Jesus known in our presence this evening. And let us leave here with hearts
that are overcome with thanksgiving, awe and wonder at your mercy
and your grace to your people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
don't leave us alone, but give us a special hour of worship,
we pray. Well, we pray for ourselves. We pray for your people everywhere
who are meeting together to worship. Father, bless, cause your word
to go forth in power tonight. for your glory and for the good
of your people. Father, we thank you for this
place. We thank you for all the blessings of this life you've
given to us, for this family of believers that you have called
together. How we thank you. We can't even
begin to thank you for all your mercies to us. And yet in this
flesh, we're constantly reminded we are a poor and a needy people. And Father, for those who are
hurting, who are sick, who are facing great difficulties, sorrow,
darkness. Father, we pray for them. We
pray you to undertake in their behalf to heal and to comfort,
to provide a way out as soon as it could be thy will. But
above all, Father, we pray your presence. As you bring us into
the valleys, you bring us through all the winding turns that this
journey seems to take. Father, be with us, we pray.
Our constant prayer is that you not leave us alone, but that
you go with us, that you always be with us, we pray. Father,
again in this hour, how we beg a heart, a spirit of worship. Speak to our hearts through your
word, we pray. First, in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks. Amen. When I come to the river at ending
of day When the last winds of sorrow
have blown There'll be somebody waiting to show me the way I
won't have to cross Jordan alone Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, He'll
be waiting for me. across Jordan alone. Oftentimes I'm forsaken and weary
and sad when it seems that my friends have all gone. There is one thought that cheers
me and makes my heart glad. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, He'll
be waiting for me. I won't have Who crossed Jordan
alone. Though the bills of sorrow and
trouble may sweep, Christ the Savior will care for His own. Till the end of the journey my
soul he will keep I won't have to cross Jordan alone Jesus died all my sins to atone
When the darkness I see He'll be waiting for me Across Jordan alone. Alright, turn with me again to
Psalm 90. I titled the lesson this evening, Lessons from 3
Score and 10. The writers that I read tell
me that Psalm 90 is the oldest psalm, the first psalm that was
written. It was written by Moses, not by David. And the theme that
runs throughout the whole psalm is the difference between eternal
God and men. That's a good psalm, isn't it?
Or a good theme for the oldest psalm. For us to remember that
this is where we must begin. God is eternal, and we're just
creatures of dust. It's good for us to start there,
and it's good for us to always keep that in mind. God is God,
and we're nothing but a pile of dust. Now, God is described
in verse 2. Before the mountains were brought
forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Now, God is eternal. God dwells outside of time. And
that is something we cannot comprehend. We are such creatures of time.
I'm probably more creature of time than anybody, but we're
all creatures of time. It's just hard for us to imagine. There's no yesterday to God.
There's no tomorrow to God. God is eternal. He always has
been. He always will be. God just is. Some of the old writers used
to talk about the isness of God. He just is. And God is the Creator
who formed the mountains and the earth. He didn't even use
His fingers to form the earth and the mountains. He just spoke
and they were. And all of creation belongs to
God. He rules everything that happens in it because He created
it. And man, that's who God is. Man is described in verse 10.
The days of our years are three score years and ten. And if by
reason of strength they be four score years, Yet is their strength
labor and sorrow. The strength of those years is
labor and sorrow, weakness and sorrow. For it is soon cut off
and we fly away. Now, a score is 20. Three times 20 plus 10 is 70. So the best man can really hope
to live is 70 years and then he's going to die. And if we
do happen to live past 70, those years will be what Solomon in
Ecclesiastes 12 called the evil days, when thou shalt say, I
have no pleasure in them. Those days will be evil because
the body, the flesh will still be alive, but it's going to be
full of pain. It's going to be full of weakness
and decay. It's going to be full of all
the effects of sin. It's hard to do anything. It's
hard to remember anything. Weakness of the flesh. So that
being true, I see four good lessons for us to learn. from the fact
that the bounds of our life are 3 score and 10. And the first
lesson is this. I'm going to die. And soon. Soon. God has set the average
life span of man on earth to 70 years. And then we're going
to die. And no matter how many medical advances that we make,
that average is going to stay pretty much right at 70 years.
And it would be naive for us to make plans of all the things
that I'm going to do into my late 70s and my early 80s. Now,
I don't suppose it hurts anything to make plans for those kind
of things. The Lord may leave you here that long. So, you know,
you might want to plan for him from somewhat. But I tell you
what I'd do if I was you. I'd write those plans on the
calendar and pencil, not ink. Pretty good chance you won't
be here to do them. And if we are still here, pretty good chance
we'll wish we weren't. I don't know how old my dear,
dear friend Jim Meadows was when we became good friends, but do
you remember a day he didn't talk about wanting to go home?
I mean, I don't remember a single day that he ever just, at some
point in conversation, didn't say, I don't know why the Lord's
leaving me here. And he would help us be working on the house.
I'd look around at this house. It was a wreck. It needed to
be put back together. I'd say, Jim, I know why. We could get this
work done. But if we're here, good chance
we'll wish we weren't. Just like my buddy Jim. I know
many believers who get up in years and they long to go home
to be with the Lord. They just pray for it every day.
And it's not that they don't love their families. It's not
that there's not things here, people here that they love, but
the weakness of the flesh and the pain of the body, the disappointment
of this world is just too much. I mean, you just, oh, I want
to go be with the Lord. Oh. Now, you know, we can't sit
around and try to will ourselves to die. You know, we ought to
take care of the body that God's given us. A wise American once
told me, God gave you a body and the mind take care of it.
Probably ought to do that. But we ought not expect Taking
such good care of this body is going to make us live longer
than God's determined. God's already determined the
number of days that we have. It's a good idea to take care
of yourself. You won't live any longer. You'll
feel better as long as you are here. But no matter what we do,
try to take care of these bodies. There's coming a day, in a moment,
physical life will be snuffed out and we'll fly away. And that's going to happen soon.
And we think, oh, that's going to happen a long time out there.
Some people sitting here in these pews tonight, you can't imagine
being 30, can you? You can't imagine being 30. You
think, I've got to forever until I'm 30. I've got to forever until
I can vote. I don't have to worry about death. That's a long way
away. It's coming soon. Verse 4. for a thousand years
in thy sight are but as yesterday when it's passed and as a watch
in the night. Now God's eternal. A thousand years to us is like
yesterday to God. I looked up this a thousand years
ago, the year 1019. That's yesterday to God. I looked it up to wonder, what
happened in that year? What historically happened that
year? And there were some things listed. Jonathan, I didn't recognize
one person. They talk about this person did
this, this person did this. I didn't recognize one name or
one event as yesterday had gone. You think how quickly our little
70 years is going to pass. How soon is it going to be? And
nobody remembers my name anymore. The years of our life are going
to pass like a watch in the night. The Jews had watches in the night. Each watch was three hours. Now
I'd imagine if you drew the watch that started about 3 a.m., you'd
think this watch is going to last forever. I'm never going
to be able to stay awake this whole watch. But suddenly it was over. So
quickly, three hours just passed like it was nothing. That's our
life. Three hours. It's gone. And we fly away. Verse 5 says,
Thou carriest them away as with a flood. They are asleep. You know, our little 70 years
is gone as quickly as a flash flood. You know, a flash flood
just rises and then it's gone. But in that just short amount
of time, that flash flood comes up and goes down. It's swept
away. Everything wasn't tied down.
And there's just no trace it was ever there in the first place.
That's our life. One minute we're there, The next
second, there's no trace of us anymore. Our lives are over as
quickly as a dream. That's what Moses means when
he says here, sleep. It's just, it's a dream. Our lives have
about much substance to them as a dream. I hear, you know,
you think you dream all night and they say those dreams just
take seconds. I don't know how they know that. That's what they
say. That's how quickly our life passes. But our lives got about
much substance as a dream. I woke up this morning and I
had this crazy, crazy dream. I thought, well, I can't wait
to tell Jan about this dream. It's so funny. I can't remember it
now. I can't remember it. It's just gone. And while you're
asleep, while you're dreaming, dreams seem so real, don't they?
And then you get up in the morning and you think, is that real? That's what they're going to
say about our three score and ten when they're up. It passed so quickly. Was that real? The end of verse
5 says that in the morning they're like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening
it's cut down and withereth. Now our lives are just like grass.
That's what the evangelist cries. All flesh is grass. Grass grows
up so quickly. In the summertime it's all lush
and green. Right now, I've got to cut my
grass twice a week. I mean, I cannot believe how
fast this stupid grass is growing. I've got something better to
do in my time to cut this grass. But buddy, you just wait until
November. And you look at that grass and say, does that stuff
ever grow that fast? I can't even remember. Just a few weeks
ago, it was growing like that. Now it's dead. That's what people
are going to think one day when they look at this grass in a
casket. And they're going to say, it's hard to remember. That
body. Growing so fast, being so full
of life and vigor and energy. It just disappears so quickly.
Just in a day. In the morning it grew up, in
the evening it was cut down and withered. It just lasts such
a short time. Verse 9 says, For all our days
are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. Our lives pass so quickly. Just
like a tale that's told, a short story. Don't be mistaken into
thinking our lives are war and peace. I used to work at the
library when I was in high school. And that book, I mean, I saw
that book up on the shelf. It was so thick. And I was a
big reader. I never thought about reading
that book. I mean, it was so long. And all the years I worked
at the library, I don't ever remember anybody checking it
out. Don't be thinking our lives are war and peace. They're an
Aesop's fable. They're over. And when they're
done, they're not worth retelling. Just like a story. So soon, I'm
going to die. I'm going to die soon. And I
don't want anybody to think that I'm trying to be a downer on
this. I've been thinking a lot about
death this week from studying this psalm. It's a good thing
for us to think about death. And it's a reality. I'm going
to die and I'm going to die soon. So I ought to be thinking about
death regularly. Don't you reckon? And I was thinking
that if we think about death, it'll help us live today better.
Believe it would. Well, here's a second lesson. Why am I going to die so soon?
Well, the answer, you know, is sin. Look at verse three. Thou
turnest man to destruction. and saith, Return, ye children
of men. You don't have to turn over there,
let me just read this to you. I'll tell you what this is referring
to. It's Adam in the garden after he had sinned. Listen to what
God told Adam. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. And that's what Moses is saying
there. God one day is going to say, return to your dust. and it'll happen instantly, will
die. Man must die because of sin. When Adam sinned in the
garden, all of us sinned in him because Adam was our representative.
So we sinned when Adam sinned. That's why we've got to die.
And God is the one that says, return to the dust at God's appointed
time. And it'll average out pretty
close to 70 years. See, God is the one who's ruling
over everything in his creation. And he's the one who speaks and
says when we'll die and return to our dust. And you can bank
on the fact that he'll do it because God's holy. God is just. And the holy God demands his
justice, demands death for sin. Look at verse seven. We are consumed
by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set
our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance. Now we die because God sees everything. You know, we think we get away
with it. We think somebody doesn't see us, but God sees every sin
and he must punish every sin with death. That's why we've
got to die. And more than being worried about
dying, We ought to be more troubled than we are about our sin. We
ought not to be nearly as concerned about dying as our sin that's
against God. He sees every one of them. That
ought to trouble us a whole lot more than it does. So I must
die soon because of sin. Well, here's the third lesson.
That being true, I must die because of sin. I need a hiding place
from God's wrath against my sin, don't you? Thank God He's provided
one. There's one. There's one hiding
place. There's one refuge. And that refuge, that hiding
place, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Savior. Verse 1,
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, in
all generations back to Adam, in all generations going forward
until Christ returns, there's been one hiding place, one dwelling
place, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the refuge I need.
I am so temporary. I am so weak. I need a strong,
eternal hiding place from God's wrath. And that hiding place
is God himself. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. The hiding place from God's wrath
is God. Now that's a pretty good hiding
place, don't you think? Verse 8 says that God has set all of
our iniquities before He sees every one of our sins. But you know there's a way God
can't see our sins? There's one way. If we're in
Christ. If our sin is covered with the
blood of Christ, that's a refuge that cannot be destroyed. In
Christ, God can't see our sin because Christ took them away.
Let me show you that in Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28. Verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people, which is in Jerusalem.
Because you have said, we've made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we in agreement. We've got this thing figured
out. We've made a covenant. We've made us a hiding place.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall
not come unto us. For we've made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Look at verse 17.
God says, judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness
to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies, and the water shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then
you shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth
forth, it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass
over, by night, by day, and by night, And it should be a vexation
only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter that a
man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than
he can wrap himself in it. Now, the covering here that he's
talking about here is the covering of lies that they've made. That
rags, those rags of righteousness, they're not big enough to stretch
and cover us, to hide our nakedness. None of our works that we've
built up can hide us from God's wrath because our works are no
good. God's wrath will sweep him away.
And that's the very reason that God sent his son into this world
to be the hiding place for his people. He's in verse 16 of Isaiah
28. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Now, everyone who hides in Christ
is safe. They're safe, they're secure.
We'll never have to run for the hills if we're in Christ because
He's a sure hiding place. He will bear all the wrath, all
of the storm of God's wrath against the sin of His people and He'll
shield them from it. Now back in our text, Psalm 90
verse 11, Moses gives us a hint about this. He says, Who knoweth
the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. Now, this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
our hiding place, our shelter from the storm. He is the only
one who knows the full power of God's anger. He's the only
one who knows it, because God the Father poured all of the
wrath, all of his anger against sin. He poured it out on his
son and his son suffered it for his people. to shield them from
it, so they'll never know a drop of it. God corrects His people,
but we never feel any of His wrath. Because you know what
He said after the sacrifice of His Son? You know what He said?
There's no more wrath left in me. It's all been poured out
on His Son. And He shielded His people. Now
God's eternal, so He's a good hiding place. And as I said,
that applies to our Lord Jesus Christ because he's God. So he's
eternal. Now, theologians hang with me
just a minute. Don't don't think I'm going to
bore you to tears with this. I'm going to make a point on
this. Theologians like to debate about eternal justification or
eternal salvation. They like to boy, they love to
debate that. But if God gives us any light on who Christ is,
there can be no debate about that whatsoever. If God has saved
us, of course our salvation is eternal. Because God's eternal. If God has saved us, Christ is
our justification. Is that right? We don't want
to justify ourselves, Christ is our justification. Well then
it has to be eternal, doesn't it? Because Christ is eternal.
I point all that out, not to make a theological point, but
I point this out to comfort the hearts of God's people. Here
is the ramifications, if you will, of eternal justification
for God's people. Everyone in Christ is so secure,
they've never been in any danger. Never. It's not like I ran, you
know, from danger and just barely dove down into the cellar before
the tornado of God's wrath came and swept me away. No, if I'm
in Christ, I never was running from a tornado. I've always been
safe in Christ. I've always been justified in
Christ. God never looked at me on my
own. He always looked at me in Christ.
That's eternal justification. That's a good hiding place. That's
the hiding place I need. Now look at verse 9 again. Moses
says, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our
years as a tale that's told. Now here's the thing about a
story. It depends who's telling it. It just depends who's telling
it. One of the great storytellers
I ever knew was Janice's dad, Charles Conley. Charles Conley
Tell a story, buddy. I'm telling you. Woo! But now,
if Charles was telling a story, let me tell you, it was a good
story. But it may be a tall tale. I mean, it just could be. There
could be some truth mixed in there, and then there could be
some poetic license mixed in there, you know, to make it a
little more interesting. It may be, it could have been, an outright
lie. Who knows? But it was a good
story. If I'm telling a story, it could
just be my view of what happened from my vantage point. Somebody
else may have seen it completely different from a completely different
vantage point. I said all that to say this,
that's a tall tale and that's a story that's been told. There's
no such doubt in the story of a believer. The story of a believer
is all Christ. It's all a story of truth. It's
a story of truth in Christ. That there's salvation in Him.
That there's righteousness in Christ. There's forgiveness of
sin in Christ. There's life in Christ. Now you
go to Him and you'll have it. That's a story of truth. The
story of a believer is a story of grace. Grace and truth. That my sin has been put away
in truth by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That the
Son of God would give himself freely and willingly to be sacrificed
for the sin of a wretch like me. That's the only reason God
could be gracious to me. That's a story of grace and truth.
And the ending of the story for a believer is a good ending.
There's no doubt about it. I utterly despise a story that's
got a sad ending. I mean, I hate it. I just hate
it. The story of a believer has got a good ending. Because Christ
the Savior is the author of it and he's the finisher of it.
Verse 9 says, The beginning of all our days are passed away
in thy wrath. Well, not really. God's people don't pass our years
under God's wrath. Because like I said a minute
ago, Christ took all that away for God's elect. But we do spend
years suffering the effect of sin in our bodies, don't we?
But that part of the story, there's a part of our story to be told
where we lived in a body of sin. That's part of our story. But
right quickly, that part of the story is going to be over. And
we'll fly away to be forever with the Lord. To be forever
made just like Him. And that has to be the way the
story ends. There can't be another scenario because that's the end
that Christ purchased for His people. And they're going to
have it. All right, I'm going to die and
I'm going to die soon because of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only hiding place. He's the only place of salvation. Those are the first three lessons.
However, there is still a strong pull from this temporary sinful
world, perishing world to my flesh. Even when God saves you,
your flesh is unchanged. The appeal of the world is still
there. Well, that brings me to my fourth
lesson. In light of my three score years and ten. In light of those years, I'm
going to spend in weak, sinful flesh. I've got some requests
that I need to make of the Lord. I want to beg the Lord for these
six requests. And the first one is, Lord, teach
me. Verse 12, so teach us to number
our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Now I should
know that I'm not going to live forever. I should know that,
but I don't. I mean, all you got to do is
just open the newspaper or click on that part of the newspaper
and look at the obituaries every day. I've never seen a day in
my life that obituary section was empty. Have you? I'm not
seeing one day. I'm going to die. And yet I think
about seeing my grandchildren who have not even here yet being
grown and even seeing their children. I need the Lord to teach me.
Don't we need the Lord to teach us the brevity of life? I've
got to be taught that my life is better measured in days than
years. And since my life is so short,
I want the Lord to teach me. I beg Him every day, Lord, teach
me, show me, teach me so I don't waste a single day. Jonathan
was talking about as we left the study. Today is the day of
mercy. God, His mercy endureth forever. It's eternal. But I got today. Today is the day of mercy. I want to seek the Lord today,
right now. I need the Lord to teach me.
So I seek eternal life in Christ today, right now. I need the
Lord to teach me. I want to show love and affection
to my wife and my family today. Why waste a day? James says that
often. Let's not waste a day. I want
to show love and affection to my brethren today. I tell you,
a good time to start being forgiving and kind to our brethren is today. Isn't it? Right now. But that's
not my nature. I need the Lord to teach me.
Tomorrow might be too late. This flesh is dying, and I want
the Lord to teach me to number my days so I don't waste my time
being selfish. All right, here's my second request.
Is Lord return to me? Verse 13. Return, O Lord, how
long? And let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Now, all of us left God in Adam,
and the Lord is soon, because of our sin, going to say return
to your dust. Well, the Lord is soon going to say, return.
You know what my cry is right now? Lord, return to me. Return to me. See, I can't come
back to God as I am. My nature cannot and will not
come to God. I'm not going to ever waste my
time getting you to make a decision for Jesus because you can't.
I can't either. Our flesh cannot and it will
not. So my prayer is, Lord, return to me. Come to me and save me. Come where I am and save me.
And you know, that is exactly what God did. He sent his son
and he sent the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and he came
where his people were. He became what his people are
so that he could redeem them from their sin. And Moses says,
Lord, return, come to me and let it repent thee concerning
my servants. I told you just a minute ago, God's holy. God's
just. He's unchangeable. He must punish
sin. Well, the only way God can repent
himself, repent himself of his fierce anger and turn it away
from me is if he turned his fierce anger on Christ, my substitute.
And that's what I'm begging for. That's what Moses was begging
for. And that's what I'm begging for. Lord, return to me. Come
and give me grace. Come give me life. Come give
me forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ and give it to me right
now. This is not something I need
tomorrow. I need it now. Here's a third request. Lord,
save me early. Verse 14. Oh, satisfy us early
with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. And I know there are some that
the Lord saves late in life, and I'm very thankful. The thief
on the cross, nobody could hardly have been saved later in life
than him, could they? The Lord saves some late in life.
But I tell you, I'd a whole lot rather, I'd a whole lot rather
The Lord show me mercy early in life. I'd rather spend as
much of my three score and ten as possible being satisfied and
rejoicing in Christ. Have you ever noticed nobody
in this world is satisfied? That's why they do everything
they can to just get more and more and more and more. Enough
is never enough because they're miserable. They're not satisfied. Well, I feel sorry for him. I'd
a whole lot rather spend my 3 score and 10 being satisfied. Being
satisfied, there's just one way to be satisfied. It's in Christ. The only time you're satisfied
is if you've got everything you want. Isn't that right? If you've
got everything you want, everything you need, then you're satisfied.
Well, that's Christ. He's everything we need. He's
everything we want. That's the only way we can be
satisfied. And I always want to be clear
about this, and when I preach, I want to tell our young people,
our teenagers, and even our children. When I'm preaching, you know,
I'm talking to you. It's never too early for you to start seeking
the Lord. It's not too early for you to
start asking the Lord, Lord, save me. Lord, call me. Lord,
have mercy on me. Scripture gives us many examples.
Samuel did, didn't he? David? Timothy? I believe the
greatest blessing God could give a person is to save them early
in life. So they can spend their life
being satisfied. They can spend their life doing
something that's worthwhile. Worshipping the Lord and serving
Him. That's happiness. You know, everybody
wants to be happy. Boy, anytime you hear somebody
say, I just got to be happy, you watch out. They're getting
ready to hurt somebody close to them every time. Want me to
tell you how to be happy? Really? You want to know how
to be happy? Live to please somebody else. Live your life to serve
the Lord. Live your life to be helpful
to God's people. And the Lord's been pleased to
do that here often for our young people. And I'm thankful, aren't
you? I'm humbled. And it is my constant
prayer that the Lord continue to do so. All right, here's my
fourth request. It's comfort from God. Verse
five, or 15, excuse me, verse 15. Make us glad according to
the days where now it's afflicted us and the years we have seen
evil. Now every son of Adam is going
to have troubles in this life. Trouble is the natural result
of sin. But God's promised his people
something different. He's promised those who believe
on Christ affliction and trials. Those things are unavoidable.
evil of sin is unavoidable in this world. And for the believer,
trials and troubles and affliction, those things are unavoidable
because the hand of our God sends them. Well, then what should
our prayer be? Lord, make us glad in Christ. I can't be glad about anything
in this life. Lord, make me glad in Christ and do it according
to your will at your point in time. Comfort us by faith in
Christ. Comfort us by allowing us to
see Him. Comfort our hearts by communing
with us in the worship service and in reading your words. Show
yourself to me. That's what comforts the hearts
of God's people. And one way the Lord does that
is by teaching us the brevity of life. He sends us trials and
afflictions You know why? To drive us closer to Christ
so we learn more of Him and then we find our hearts comforted
by being with Him. All right, my fifth request is
this. Lord, let us see the glory of
your salvation. Verse 16, let thy work appear
to thy servants and thy glory and to their children. Moses
asked the Lord, let thy work appear unto thy servant." And
Moses knows exactly what he's talking about here. Remember
when Moses asked God, show me your glory? What did God tell
him? Here's my greatest glory. I'll make my goodness, my mercy
pass before you. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. And I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And Moses saw that, and you know
what Moses said? Lord, show me your glory. Lord, be merciful
to me. Show me salvation in Christ. I see plenty of the ugliness
of sin and death and decay that sin causes me. I don't have to
look far to see that. I'll tell you what I need to
see. I need to see the glory of God
in showing mercy to me, in saving me. I see plenty of evidence
that my body is wearing out and dying in free scoring teams.
Jan and I moved some furniture and ripped some carpet up the
other day. The next day, I felt like I did when I was 30, when
I ran a half marathon. I just worked a couple hours
doing it. I mean, I was so stoked up, just like, oh, I wouldn't
show her that. I did jumping jacks, you know, for her to show
her, oh, I'm feeling good. But I hadn't looked far to see the
decay of this body. Oh, I'll tell you what I'd like
to see. I'd like to see some of God's glory in showing mercy
to me. redeeming me from my sin, giving
me eternal life. In light of how short this life
is, that's awful important. Can you think of anything more
important than that? Here's something else every believer
prays for, and it sure does give you a lot of joy in the midst
of these three score and ten, these years that are full of
trouble. It's seeing the salvation of our children. Moses said,
Lord, would you show your glory to your servant and our children? And our children, would you? That's a good prayer if God's
merciful, isn't it? And you parents, if that's your
desire, I'll tell you what. The best thing we can do for
our children is keep praying for them and bringing them to
hear the gospel. bringing them to hear in their
classes where it's taught. Because if God's going to reveal
Himself to them, I'll tell you how He's going to do it. It's
through the preaching of His Word. And then here's the last
request. Lord, finish the work that you
started. Verse 17, And let the beauty of the Lord our God be
upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea,
the work of our hands, establish thou it. Now Moses here talks
about establishing the work of our hands, and don't be you know,
kind of thrown off track by that. No believer wants to be saved
or kept by our works. Our works are house built on
the sand, aren't they? It'll soon be destroyed. And that's
not what Moses is asking for either. He asked that the beauty
of the Lord be upon us. Now, what's the beauty of the
Lord? It's his holiness. It's his righteousness. This
is what Moses is asking, Lord, make me the righteousness of
God in Christ. Make me holy in Christ. Now, that's the work of God.
It's the work only God can do. And scripture tells us he which
has begun a good work in you is going to finish it. If God's
begun that good work in you, at the end of this three score
and ten, this is what Moses is asking. Let us fly away and awake
in Christ likeness. in His righteousness, in His
holiness. But this is also our prayer.
And I believe this is part of what Moses means too. Salvation
is the work of the Lord. If God's going to save anybody,
He's going to give the increase. Alright? But this is also our
prayer. Lord, during our three score
and ten, would You use us in Your service? Now, the work's
God's, I mean, salvation's of the Lord, but God is pleased
to use means, isn't he? Well, then our request is, Lord,
would you be pleased to use us? Use us to spread the gospel. Use us to help your people. Lord,
make us faithful and enable us, like the Apostle Paul said, to
build gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and stubble. That'd be a pretty good way to
spend our three score and ten if God enable us with it. And
that's a good request. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the
plain teaching of your word. And Father, as Moses of old,
we pray that you would teach us, teach us to number our days,
teach us to see how sinful, frail, fragile we are, how desperately
we need the Lord Jesus Christ to cause us to flee to Him. God,
be merciful, I pray. Be merciful to this your people. Be merciful to each soul here
this evening. Reveal yourself to us and let
us leave here tonight rejoicing in Christ our Savior. It's for
the glory of His name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing 511, 511. Face to face with Christ my Savior
Face to face what will it be When with rapture I behold Him
Jesus Christ who died for me Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the starry sky, Face to face in all his glory, Only faintly now I see him With
the darkling veil between But a blessed day is gone be seen. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see by and by. What rejoicing in His presence
when our banished grief and pain When the crooked ways are straightened
And the dark things shall be plain, Face to face I shall behold
Him Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face, in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by. Face to face, O blissful Face to face to see and know
Face to face with my Redeemer Jesus Christ who loves me so
Face to face I shall behold Far beyond the starry sky, Face to
face in all his glory, I shall see him by and by.