It's already done my soul good
to be here. Thankful for the scripture readings, the prayer,
the psalm. Would you turn with me to Psalm 90? And while you're
turning there after the services, if some men could put the tables
up because we're going to be having a church dinner this Sunday
morning after the morning services, I look forward to that. The 90th Psalm. If your psalm has a title, it
says a prayer of Moses, the man of God, and this psalm is said
to be the oldest of all the 150 psalms written by Moses himself. And Moses was truly a man of
God. And when I thought of that, that's
a scriptural term, a man of God. I want to be a man of God. Don't
you? Men and women. of God. That's how we're defined, a man
of God. It was said of Moses in Exodus
chapter 33, verse 11, the Lord spake unto Moses face to face
as a man speaketh with his friend. Psalm 103, verse 7 says concerning
the Lord, he made known his ways to Moses. His acts unto the children
of Israel. The children of Israel saw what
he did. Moses saw why he did it. He was the friend of God. I want to be somebody like that,
don't you? Hebrews 3, 5 says Moses barely was faithful in
all his house as a servant. Moses was obviously a very special
man, a man of God. So let's look at his song. He
says in verse one, Lord. Thou has been our dwelling place. In all generations. Throughout
eternity, now here's something that encourages me greatly. Moses
had the same hope that I have. Here's my hope. That I'm in Christ,
united to him eternally. That is all my Hope now has been
our dwelling place in all generations. Now, what does this thing of
eternal union mean? Well, it means that if I'm in
Christ, I am one with him. That means I've always been in
him. And, you know, this keeps getting bigger to me. I love
thinking about it. Somebody says, well, you talk
about that a lot. I hope to talk about it more. It just keeps
getting bigger. The fact that all of God's elect
have always been in the Lord Jesus Christ, never viewed independently
of him, so that every time God looks at me, you know who he
sees? He sees his son. And you know who he sees? He sees me. And there is no difference. That's what union with the Lord
Jesus Christ means. And that's what we confess in
baptism, isn't it? When someone confesses Christ and believers
baptism, they're saying, this is my hope. This is my hope. This is all my hope. That when
Jesus Christ lived, that was my life before God. I was in
him so that when he lived, I lived. When he kept the law, I kept
the law. Here's my hope. When Jesus Christ
died, I was in him and I died in him and my sins were paid
for in him. Here's my hope. When Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. And as
He's seated right now at the right hand of the Father, accepted,
holy, beloved, perfect, that's me. Union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's every believer's hope. And Moses begins with the same
hope that every believer has. Confess Christ and believers
baptism. You say this is my hope. My hope
is only in this that I'm united to him. And that's every believer's
hope. He says in verse two. Before
the mountains were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. God never had a beginning. He'll
never have an ending. He's eternal. He's immortal. He's invisible. He's the only
wise God in light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes. He's God. He's eternal. He never began
to be. He says in verse three, Thou
turnest men to destruction, and sayeth, Return, ye children of
men." Now, the reason he turns men to destruction is because
of sin. Dost thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. And that's
what he's referring to. And he says, return. You know,
one of these days, piles of dirt that we are. He's going to say,
return, and I'm going to become a living person once again before
God. It's the same truth regarding
the spiritual resurrection. He's going to say, return, and
I'm going to live. And he continually says, returned. And you know, our prayer, our
desire is, turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face
to shine, and we'll be safe. Turn us, that we may return to
thee. Return to us, that we might turn
to thee. That's a continual prayer. Thou
turnest man to destruction because of his sin, and yet you say,
return ye children of men, verse 4, for a thousand years. in that site. Now let's think
of about a thousand years. October 26, 1011. What all has happened during
that thousand year period? I mean, Columbus didn't get here
until 1492 and there were almost 500 years before that. I mean,
there's a lot of water that's passed under the bridge during
that time. And you know what that period is to God? Like a
watch in the night. What this is referring to is
the eternity of God. There's no past. There's no future
with God. All is in the present. There
are no sequence of events. Now, anybody understand that? No. We can't possibly understand
this. We can just believe it. There's
no sequence of events with God. Everything is in the eternal
present. There's no yesterday with Him.
There's no tomorrow with Him. Now, we're in this thing called
time, but it's not going to be much longer. And we're going
to go off into eternity. Now, being creatures of time,
there's no way we can comprehend this. But does that bother you
that you can't comprehend this? It doesn't bother me a bit. I
believe it. God is eternal. He declares from the end, from
the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
my pleasure. Now, a couple of scriptures.
Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
I quote that all the time. Think about it. He didn't say
He was the Lamb that was decreed to be slain. from the foundation
of the world. He said he's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. In Romans 8, 28 and 29 and 30,
we read this regarding the believer. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. Past tense. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Past tense. Whom He justified,
them He also glorified. Past tense. It's already done. Turn to Hebrews chapter four
for just a moment. Hebrews chapter four. Verse three. For we, which have believed to
enter into rest, as he said, as I swore in my rack, if they
shall enter into my rest, although the works that did this, although
the works were finished. Doesn't say they were decreed
to be finished. It doesn't say they were determined.
It doesn't say they were ordained. It says they were finished, already
completed. Now, that's how complete my salvation
is. It's already finished. That's a sure thing, isn't it?
That's a sure thing that every believer has because of the eternity
of our God. Now back to Psalm 90. Now remember,
he's talking about God's eternity for a thousand years in thy sight,
or but as yesterday when it's past and as a watch in the night. And then he talks about the brevity
of life and the brevity of our experience in comparison with
God's eternity. He says, thou carry'st them away
as with a flood. Now when a flash flood hits,
something there, all of a sudden it's gone. It's just gone. You
don't see it anymore. It was just gone. Whether it's
people, whether it's a house, whether it's events, it's carried
away so quickly. And they, men, are asleep in
the morning. They're like grass which grows
up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up, and in the evening
it's cut down and it's withered. It's gone and it's dead. What
is your life, James said? What is your life? What is my
life? Right now while I'm talking to
you. It's even a vapor that appears for a little while and passes
away. Now Moses says in light of that
verse 7, for we, now look at the way Moses speaks. Now this
is the way a man of God speaks. You know, People who claim and
purport themselves to be men of God will try to present themselves
in such a way that they're a little bit above the rest of the people.
I don't have the sinful propensities and problems. I mean, I'm connected
with God. But look what Moses says about
himself. Now, this is Moses, the man of
God, speaking about himself personally. He says, For we are consumed
by thine anger and by thy wrath. Are we troubled? And he's speaking
of the desert years. Thou hast said our iniquities
before thee. And our secret sins, the ones
nobody knows about but you, our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance. Now, the man of God did not deny
the reality of this. Look at the way he speaks of
himself. He talks about being afraid of the Lord's wrath, consumed
by his anger, troubled by his wrath. You set our iniquity before
thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. Verse
nine, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our
years as a tale that is told. Now, when you think about your
sins, this is how you view your life, isn't it? I felt this way. You felt this way. I think of
what Jacob said when he's giving a summary of his life to Pharaoh.
He says, few and evil have been the days of the life of my pilgrimage. I've not attained the days of
my father's. That's how he viewed himself. He says. In verse 10, the days of our
years. Are three, four and 1070. And
if by reason of strength they'd be forced four years, if we make
it to 80, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it's soon
cut off and we fly away. It's so brief, even if we live
80 years. Such sorrow, who knows the power
of thine anger, even according to thy wrath, thy fear, so is
thy wrath. Now, in the next verses, Moses
makes seven requests in light of this. And these are requests
that I'm making. right now. And these are requests
I want you to make right now. May God give us grace to enter
into what Moses, the man of God, is asking for. It's interesting
to know what a real man of God will ask for, isn't it? Now,
let's look at what Moses asks for. He says in verse 12, here's
his first request. So teach us. If you don't teach
us, we won't be taught. But teach us to number our days that are so brief, they fly away,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Now, what does it
mean to number your days? It means to live each day as
it may be our last. Wouldn't that be a blessing If
you and I wake up in the morning and say, I'm going to live this
day like it's going to be my last day. How would you be on
your life? I wonder how I preach this message.
I wonder what fervency I'd have in preaching this message if
I knew this was my last day to preach. Oh, I'd want to glorify
God. I'd want to speak with such passion.
How would you listen to this message if you knew and believed
it was the last message you'd ever hear. You think how you'd
hunger to hear every word. You would want to miss a thing.
And you'd hear wanting to hear God speak. That's all you'd care
about. You want to hear God speak. You'd
want to hear the truth of the gospel. If it were our last day, How important would the things
we're so concerned about be? The things we're so troubled
about? The things we stress about? How important would they be if
this were my last day? Now, I don't want to be cliche,
but this is the way we ought to live every day, as if it were
our last day. If this were your last day, would
you hold a grudge against somebody? Would you be resentful and critical
and uncaring? Life is so short. Would you want
to spend your last days fighting with somebody? Or having strained
relationships? Or would you rather be kind?
Do you want to spend your last day with regrets? or with thankfulness that the
Lord has given you grace to walk with Him. Don't you want to be
like Paul at the end of his life when he says, I fought a good
fight. I finished my course. I've kept the faith. May this
be our mindset. That's the first thing Moses
asked for. Now, this is the man of God. He said, teach me to
number my days that I might apply my heart to wisdom. Now, what
I thought about, I thought about Martha, cumbered about with much
serving. I mean, she was going back and
forth and back and forth. And Mary, her sister, sat at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and heard his word. And she got
upset. She said, I'm doing everything
and she's doing nothing. And she comes up to the Lord
and she said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left
me alone to serve? Bid her therefore that she help
me. Tell the Lord what to do. And the Lord answered in such
kindness. Martha, Martha. You're careful. You're troubled about many things,
but one thing is people. sitting at His feet and hearing
His Word. And Mary hath chosen that good
part. And that's not going to be taken
from her. Lord, teach us to number our
days. Can you pray that right now?
Lord, teach me to number my days. Enable me to live as if this
were my last day. Enable me to live every single
day as if it were my last day. Be a blessing, wouldn't it? teach
us to number our days. Verse 13, here's the second request. Return, O Lord, how long, and
let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Now Moses says
return. Now, the only way the Lord chastens
us, He hides His face. That's the chastening of the
Lord. We feel alone. We feel isolated. We feel shut
off from communion with Him. We feel like we've been left
to ourselves. We feel all alone. And it's the worst feeling in
the world. The Lord chastens us. And I'm
thankful for his chasing. I don't want to be chastened,
but I'm thankful for his chasing, because whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and he scourges every son that he receiveth.
And so here's my prayer. Lord, return. Return. Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Lord, the only thing that will
help us is for you to return and do something for us. A believer
cannot stand to feel separated from the Lord. Repent, change
your mind concerning us and return. We can't stand feeling like we've
been left to ourselves. Now, understand this. Salvation
is not just deliverance from hell and you go to heaven when
you die. Salvation is walking with the living His communion
with Him. It's feeding upon Him. And you
can't stand it when you feel like you've been left to yourself.
And your cry is, return. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts. Cause thy face to shine. We don't
see it. Cause thy face to shine. And
we shall be saved. And here's His third request
in verse 14. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Satisfy
us with your mercy. Now listen to this real carefully.
The only thing that will satisfy a believer is the mercy of God. Isn't that so? You can't find any satisfaction
in anything else. You can't find any rest in anything else. You
can't find any confidence in anything else. The only thing
that will satisfy a believer is to be saved by the sheer,
free mercy of God for Christ's sake. Now let me show you what
God's mercy is. Turn with me to Psalm 103. There are so many
different ways to define God's mercy, but here's a wonderful
way to define God's mercy. Verse 7, here's that verse I
just quoted. He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel. Now look at this next
statement. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. Now here's His mercy. He has
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. I want my rights. Do you really? Is that what you want? Now, I
am thankful that we live in a free society. And I'm thankful for
the rights that we have. I'm thankful we have the right
to meet here together and worship. Aren't you? What a God given
privilege and grace. There are many people that don't
have that privilege. I'm thankful for that right. I'm thankful
for freedom of speech. And, you know, by the grace of
God. I'll protect your right to be wrong. And I hope you'll
protect my right to be wrong in that sense. I'm thankful for
our rights. I'm thankful we live in this
free country that we live in. But as far as rights before God
goes, I do not want him in any way to deal with me according
to my sins. Do you? date or the psalmist
says he had not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities. If he did, where would we be?
We'd be in hell right now. Right now. Now, why has he not
dealt with us after our iniquities and rewarded us according to
our sins? Because he dealt with Christ according to our iniquities
and he rewarded him. according to our sins. All my
sin became His sin. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary, and He suffered and died alone. And
now He has not dealt with us after our sins. Aren't you thankful
for that? Praise God for this verse. I'm
so thankful. He has not rewarded us according
to our iniquities, for as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. Who's His
mercy great toward? Them that fear Him, who reverence
Him. Now, here's part of His mercy.
Look in verse 12. As far as the east is from the
west. How far is that? It's infinite,
isn't it? It's infinite. It keeps going
as far as the East is from the West. So far have he removed
our transgressions from us, like as a father pitieth his children. So the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, the fatherly pity of God, the removal of my sins.
Now, that's the mercy of God. And that's what I want to be
satisfied with. I don't want anything but that.
Do you? Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy. Can't be satisfied with anything
else, and that's the only way we'll rejoice and be glad. Now,
back to our text in Psalm 90. Moses, the man of God, says in
verse 15, make us glad. According to the days wherein
thou has afflicted us and the years wherein we've seen evil,
make us glad. I love the requester. You know,
I want to be glad, but I want it to be because He's made me
glad. I don't want it to be something I've come up with on my own.
I don't want to just have the power of positive thinking and
start telling me everything's all right when it's not. I don't
want that kind of glad. I want Him to make me glad. Now, here's the kind of gladness
I want. Paul put it this way in Romans chapter 14, verse 17,
for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. The righteousness of Christ.
And peace. The peace we experience in knowing
that we have His righteousness. And what next? Joy. Joy in the Holy Ghost. I want the Lord to make me glad.
Now, I want to be glad. I don't want to be bummed out
and depressed and have a black platter. I want to be glad. But
I want the Lord to make me glad. And that's the only kind of gladness
I want. He actually asked the Lord, make me glad. Now look what he says in verse
16. Here's the fifth thing he requests. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children. Let me see your work. So I can cease from my own works
and trust your work. Oh, I want to see your work in
behalf of me where you did it all. Somebody says, oh, I would
give anything to have the peace of knowing that God was pleased
with me and approved of me. Would you do nothing? And trust his work alone. What must we do that we might
work the works of God? This is the work of God. Listen here. Here it is. This
is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Let your work appear. Let me see your work on my behalf. That's what every man of God
desires to see. His work, and we want our children to have
His glory appear to them. That's what we desire for them. Now, here's the sixth request
in verse 17. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Now, what is the beauty of the
Lord our God? That's everything about Him. Essentially, it is His righteousness. That's called the beauty of the
Lord our God. His righteousness makes me beautiful. That's the beauty I want upon
me. His righteousness so that when
God sees me, He sees me as beautiful. When Christ sees me, he sees
me as his beautiful bride. And the only way that will be
is if I have his righteousness. That's the beauty of the Lord
our God. Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing. That it should be holy and without
blame before him. That's the beauty of the Lord
our God upon us. Now, talking about righteousness
imputed, I hope, I hope that never becomes a doctrine that
we agree with. But it becomes so every time
we hear it, we hear of the beauty of our God, not just a doctrine
we give. I got that one down. Let's go
to the next. No, something we're continually amazed by. the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our beauty, our dress before God. And then he says in verse 17,
here's the last thing. And established thou the work
of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands established
thou it. He's talking about his wife.
He's talking about his character. He's talking about his conduct. He's talking about the way he
treats people. He's talking about the work of
his hands, his work as the pastor, as the leader, whatever it be.
He's talking about the work of his hands, and he's asking the
Lord to establish it. Now, you know what that means?
That means I don't want my life to be wood, hay, and stubble. I want my life to be gold, silver,
and precious stones. Now, the Lord talks about those
people. Paul talks about this, the Lord
doing it, but it's through Paul in 1 Corinthians 3. It says they'll
be saved, yet so as by fire. I don't want to be one of those
people, do you? Saved so as by fire? They're saved, but their
whole life is wood, hay, and stubble. I don't want that. I
want to have gold, silver, and precious stones. Here's an example. Abraham and Lot. Both were equally
saved. No question about that. God refers
to Lot as a righteous man. And He talked about his righteous
soul that was vexed from day to day. Lot was a righteous man.
Lot was a believer. Abraham was called the friend
of God. Which one would you rather be? I'd whole lot rather be Abraham
than Lot. Now, I love Lot. Brother Lot,
he's my brother. But I'd whole lot rather be Abraham,
the father of the faithful, the one who staggered not at the
promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God,
being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able
also to perform. I want to be like Abraham when
God says, take now your son, your only son, whom you love,
and offer him up as a burnt offering to me. And he saddled his ass
and took the journey. In his heart, he did exactly
what God said to do. Who would you rather be, David
or Solomon? How would you rather die like
David did or like Solomon did? You look at Solomon and the way
he died. If God didn't tell us he loved
him, we wouldn't even think he's a believer. The way he died.
I mean, he died in infamy and shame. And David gives us those
precious words at his deathbed. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, order
in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and it's all my desire. I'd rather die like David than
Abraham. Now, in this brief time that
I have, cause me to live in a way that will honor you. And here's
what I thought about. This is what I'm closing with,
this thought. That woman with the alabaster box of ointment,
when our Lord was dying, she broke that box poured it on his feet, poured
it on his hair, and she did this out of love to his person. That's
what a good work is. It's something done out of love
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord, while the disciples
criticized her for it, this could have been sold for much and given
to the poor. The Lord said, let her alone. She hath wrought a
good work on me. The poor you always have. But
listen to this, she said, She hath done what she could. We're
always thinking about what we can't do, aren't we? We're quick
to think about what we can't do. I realize that. I know something
about it. But the way our Lord commended
this woman is, She hath done what she could. No doubt there's
a lot we can't do. But what can you do? She hath
done what she could. Let's pray together. May this
be our prayer that the Lord would do these things for us. Let's
pray together.