Well, we are privileged this morning to have
a special guest with us this morning, Dr.
Steve Lawson.
And, you know, I just want you to
know, next week is going to be a
bad week for everybody.
This is the second week in a row
I haven't been able to preach.
And this week was the Shepherd's Conference, so
I've had people stuffing my head full of
all this truth, and there is a very
raging fire within.
And I think the people that Daniel studied
tonight are even going to be in trouble.
But we have a great privilege, Dr. Lawson,
we kind of go like two ships in
the night, it seems.
When I go over to Samara, a lot
of times he's just been there, or he's
going to be there.
So he takes trips over there also and
teaches at the Samara Theological Institute and the
Preacher's Institute.
And we're both involved in teaching the doctoral
students at the Master's Seminary, and so we
both are kind of, you know, doing the
same kinds of things.
He has impacted my life.
One of my favorite sermons that I ever
heard him preach was at the Shepherd's Conference
a few years back, where he preached the
story of Jonah.
It was just during the time when the
seeker-sensitive church growth movement was, you know,
trying to make its inroads into churches, something
I was dealing with constantly here.
And he preached the story about Jonah, who
was one man, and he had one method,
preaching, and one message, repent.
And there was no, you know, drama, there
was no skits, there was just a man
and a method and a message.
And, of course, the greatest revival ever recorded
in the Bible happened with that one man
and his preaching.
So, I have listened to that message many
times, and it has impacted my life.
So, Steve, come on up and preach the
Word.
Well, I think you just did preach.
So, he just gave my sermon from Jonah,
so that was good to hear that again.
Thank you, Jack, very much.
What a joy it is to be here.
I want you to know I love your
pastor, and he is so highly thought of,
and I know that this is a place
where Bible exposition is practiced and is the
order of the day, and so it is
a privilege for me to stand in this
pulpit.
And, yes, I have so much in common,
not only with Jack, but with this congregation
as well.
Our church really partners with your church, with
the Samara Russia Missions Outreach, and I know
that you give your pastor as well as
your resources, and we do the same at
our church.
And so, in that sense, we are brother
and sister churches together, and it's just wonderful
to be here and to experience your love
and be able to give such a good
report back to our home church, Christ Fellowship
Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama.
Jack is going to come and preach for
me in April.
I'll be going to Wales and to preach
over there to groups of pastors, and so
it's just wonderful to be able to exchange
pulpits like this.
I just hope our church will send him
back, okay, so I'll have a pulpit there
to come back home to.
I know how gifted he is, but I
just want to thank you.
Also, I have a great love for Thomas
Watson, and I know that your pastor has
written a wonderful book on Thomas Watson.
I'm often asked by college students especially, what
are the top three books that I've ever
read in my life, and I always say
number one on the list is A Body
of Divinity by Thomas Watson, which just revolutionized
my life when I was in seminary.
I haven't gotten over it yet, and so
because of my love for the truth of
God presented that way and your pastor's love,
I know that our hearts beat together for
the same thing.
So, it is a joy to be here,
and thank you so much for allowing me,
affording me this opportunity.
So, if you have your Bible, and I
know that you do, you would take it
and turn with me to the book of
Psalms to Psalm 90, and while you're turning
to Psalm 90, just a word of personal
testimony.
I have been preaching through the Psalms and
started in Psalm 1 and have completed through
Psalm 150, and I have come back and
I'm doing Psalm 119 right now, and I
started when I know James, my son here
on the second row, was a freshman in
college, and he has now graduated, and so
I'm still in the Psalms, and it's just
been a great joy and delight to me
personally to be able to just go verse
by verse through the entire Psalter, and I
have been really elevated in my heart for
the greatness of God through this.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 90,
and they really all cry out to me
and say, preach me, preach me, and I
think Psalm 90 won the contest in my
heart, so today I'd like for us to
look at Psalm 90.
The title of the message today is Living
in Light of Eternity.
I'd like to begin by reading this Psalm
for you and setting it before your heart
again.
It is a glorious Psalm.
It is a great Psalm that I believe
will be for your edification.
The Word of God says, You
turn man back into dust and say return,
O children of men, for a thousand years
in your sight are like yesterday when it
passes by, or as a watch in the
night.
You have swept them away like a flood.
They fall asleep.
In the morning they are like grass which
sprouts anew.
In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew.
Toward evening it fades and withers away.
For we have been consumed by your anger
and by your wrath we have been dismayed.
You have placed our iniquities before you, our
secret sins, in the light of your presence.
For all our days have declined in your
fury.
We have finished our years like a sigh.
As for the days of our life, they
contain 70 years, or if due to strength
80 years, yet their pride is but labor
and sorrow.
For soon it is gone and we fly
away.
Who understands the power of your anger and
your fury according to the fear that is
due you?
Now here it is.
So teach us to number our days that
we may present to you a heart of
wisdom.
Do return, O Lord.
How long will it be?
And be sorry for your servants.
O, satisfy us in the morning with your
lovingkindness that we may sing for joy and
be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days you
have afflicted us and the years we have
seen evil.
Let your work appear to your servants and
your majesty to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God
be upon us and confirm for us the
work of our hands.
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
There is a famous cathedral in Europe in
which there are three large archways that lead
from the vestibule into the sanctuary.
And over the one entrance on the right
is carved into the marble archway leading into
the sanctuary these words, All that pleases is
but for a moment.
And over the archway leading into the sanctuary
on the left side is chiseled into the
marble these words, All that troubles is but
for a moment.
And over the center archway leading down the
center aisle into the sanctuary is this inscription
permanently inscribed, All that is important is eternal.
This is the central theme of Psalm 90.
It is a call for us to live
in light of eternity.
To live not for the pleasure or for
the trouble of the moment.
But to live with eternal perspective.
And to live for that which will matter
a thousand years from now and ten thousand
years from now.
For our lives to live and to count
for eternity now.
The fact of the matter is we become
very concerned and consumed with what is only
temporary.
What temporarily troubles or what temporarily pleases.
And in that we lose sight of eternity.
This Psalm is a call to us to
step back and to gather the big picture
again for our lives.
While we are living in the day to
day routine and the minutia of all that
is confronting us.
And we are busy putting out fires and
taking care of this matter.
How we need to stop in the midst
of our lives and to take a step
back.
And to do what the Psalm calls us
to do.
And ask God to teach us to number
our days.
So that we may present to the Lord
a heart of wisdom.
May we be reminded that there are only
two entities that will go out of this
world.
The word of God and the souls of
men.
And how wise we are to keep this
big picture before us.
And to be constantly and continually investing our
lives in which has impact upon the ministry
of the word of God.
And it being brought to bear upon the
lives of people who will live forever and
ever.
Either in heaven or in hell.
The thunder of this Psalm of Psalm 90.
It reverberates out of verse 12.
This is the high impact verse of this
Psalm.
In verse 12, look at it again.
He says, so as a result of everything
that he has said leading up to verse
12.
As a result of this, teach us.
We must be instructed by you God.
There are so many influences that are brought
to bear from the world around us.
That seek to conform us into the image
of this world system.
And so God, we need to be instructed
by you.
Teach us to number our days.
To weigh them on the scales of our
understanding.
And to assign the proper value to the
time and the opportunities that God has entrusted
to us.
As we live upon this earth for the
kingdom of God.
And it is only then that we may
present to the Lord a heart of wisdom.
Clear implication.
If we do not number our days, we
will present to the Lord a heart of
foolishness.
And who here today wants to be considered
by God a fool?
No, it is the wise man.
The discerning woman.
The person of prudence.
Who will ask the Lord to teach me
to number my days.
So that I in turn may present my
life to God with a heart of wisdom.
That's what this Psalm is saying.
It is a call for us to live
in light of eternity.
And to invest my life within time.
So that it will have its impact upon
eternity.
By way of introduction, you'll note at the
top of Psalm 90.
This superscription.
This heading.
That gives us some insight into this Psalm
that I want to bring to your attention.
A prayer of Moses.
It reads, the man of God.
This Psalm comes in the form of a
prayer.
And it is written and expressed by Moses.
That therefore makes this Psalm the oldest Psalm
in the entire Psalter.
In fact, depending upon when he wrote Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
This may be the oldest piece of Scripture
in the entire Bible.
It was written during Moses' wilderness wanderings.
And as Moses wrote this Psalm, it's the
only Psalm that he wrote.
You'll recall that he wrote this over 1400
years before the coming of Christ.
David, who wrote 75 of the 150 Psalms,
wrote approximately 1000 BC.
So this Psalm is at least and longer
400 years older than any of the other
Psalms in the Psalter.
They are not listed in chronological order.
Meaning Psalm 1 is not the oldest Psalm.
Psalm 2, the next oldest Psalm.
No, there is a rhyme and a reason
for the positioning of the Psalms in the
Psalter.
Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are like two
doorkeepers as you enter into the Psalter.
And they are a continual reminder.
They stand as a pair for every time
we enter into the house of the Lord.
And into the temple of this book, they
speak a very direct message to us.
They are intentionally placed there.
You will note on top of the superscription,
probably in your translation, it says Book 4.
And that reminds us that the Psalms were
compiled in five different stages over a very
long period of time.
And this is the fourth gathering of the
Psalms.
From Psalm 90 to Psalm 104 is the
fourth compiling of the Psalms.
And they just kept augmenting the Psalter until
it grew larger and larger.
They began with the first 41 Psalms and
then they added the next.
Until finally we come to Book 4 here.
It is intentionally placed first in Book 4.
As Israel has come back from their Babylonian
captivity.
And they have wasted and squandered 70 years
needlessly in captivity because of their sin when
they were taken out.
This Psalm is placed here for the people
of God.
That as they come back to the promised
land, as the temple has been rebuilt, as
the wall is built around Jerusalem.
That as they are given a second chance,
they may be reminded by Moses.
That we must be taught by God to
number our days lest we be taken back
into captivity elsewhere.
Think about this as Moses wrote this Psalm.
Moses led the children of God out of
Egypt into the very brink of the promised
land.
He spent 40 years going in circles in
the wilderness.
And it is in that context the man
who probably performed more funerals than any pastor
who has ever lived.
As an entire generation died in the wilderness.
And as they were squandering their opportunity and
wasting their time and their lives.
Moses says in the midst of that, so
teach us to number our days.
That we may present to you a heart
of wisdom.
What I desire for my life today, what
I desire for your life today.
Is I don't want you to waste any
time in your life.
I don't want you to squander the opportunities
that the Lord has set before you.
That you will capture the moment.
And if you are alive and breathing in
this service.
If there is a purpose and a plan
and a reason why you are still upon
this earth.
And you need to invest what time remains
in your life for eternity.
And living for what ultimately matters.
Not for the temporal pleasures of the moment.
And we can enjoy temporal pleasures around us.
But I want you to know there is
a far higher purpose why you are here.
And that is to live for the honor
and the glory of Jesus Christ.
And for your life to have impact upon
eternity.
So here is how this can happen.
Here is why this psalm is so strategically
important.
As we look at this psalm, there are
four attributes of God.
Through which you must see your life, your
circumstances, your future.
And all that is around you.
And if these four attributes of God.
Excuse me.
I swallowed my sermon.
Can I get a drink of water?
You can just chunk it up here Jack.
How about that?
The old things passed away.
Behold new things have come.
So here is the overview.
I want to help you today through this
psalm.
Live your life strategically.
To live your life on target.
For you to live your life with maximum
impact upon eternity.
Here are the four attributes of God.
In verses 1 and 2 we will consider
the eternality of God.
If you ever lose sight of the eternality
of God.
And how that intersects with your life.
You will not be able to number your
days.
Number 2 in verses 3 through 6.
You will notice that is the second stanza.
The sovereignty of God.
If you ever lose sight of the sovereignty
of God.
You will never ever be able to present
to God a heart of wisdom.
Number 3 verses 7 through 12.
Is the severity of God.
How critically important that we understand the severity
of God.
If we are to truly be taught by
God to number our days.
And then finally verses 13 through 17.
The mercy of God.
This is the paradigm.
This is the lens through which you must
see your life.
Your future.
What lies before you.
And if this is not ever in front
of you.
You will be very foolish.
You will be misguided.
And you will inevitably be squandering your life.
And losing what has been entrusted to you.
The time that you have to serve God.
So let's begin where the psalm begins.
In verse 1.
And I want you to see first God's
eternality.
And I would say to you this is
where wisdom begins.
In this psalm.
It is seeing God's eternality.
Look at verse 1.
Lord you have been our dwelling place in
all generations.
Stop right there.
Think of Moses in the wilderness.
As he writes this.
He has been leading Israel through this whole
time.
And they have no place to call home.
For 40 years they are a people without
an address.
For 40 years they are without a home.
It is day by day by day.
They are following the pillar of cloud by
day.
And cloud by night.
And they have no place to unpack.
No place to call home.
They have not yet arrived in the promised
land.
And it is in this context.
That Moses makes an astonishing claim.
That is true for every one of us
here today.
Even us who have a home or an
apartment or a dorm room.
He says Lord you have been our dwelling
place.
It is in you that we live and
move and have our being.
I may hang my clothes up at whatever
address on main street.
Or I may have my mail sent to
me at this particular street address.
But that's not my home.
My home is God.
I live in God.
No matter where I am.
No matter where I go.
If I move or stay in the same
location.
That is all secondary compared to what is
primary.
And that is Lord it is in you
that I live and move and have my
being.
Lord you have been our dwelling place in
all generations.
Let me tell you generations come and go.
And there is only one constant in your
life my friend.
And that is God.
Your life is changing.
If you question that go home and look
in the mirror.
We are all changing.
The circumstances around us are changing.
The bank account is changing.
Everything is changing around us.
There is only one unchangeable reality in my
life.
And that is God.
You have been our dwelling place in all
generations.
And then he takes a step further back
to get the big picture and to see
the panorama of his life.
And he says in verse 2 and this
is breathtaking.
Before the mountains were born.
That means before the act of creation.
Before the foundation of the world.
Before time began.
Before the mountains were born.
Or you did give birth to the earth
and the world.
Now watch this.
From everlasting to everlasting you are God.
From everlasting in eternity past to everlasting in
eternity future.
God is the uncreated creator.
The sole cause of which everything else is
the resulting effect.
Isaiah 43 verse 13.
Even from eternity I am he.
Psalm 93 verse 2.
Your throne is established from of old.
You are from everlasting.
My friend we need to understand that God
from all eternity past has purposed and planned.
All that shall come to pass and that
includes the size and the dimension.
And the boundaries and the affairs of your
own individual personal life.
I want you to know there is no
such thing as an accident.
I want you to know there is no
such thing as luck.
I want you to know there is no
such thing as random occurrence.
Those are all pagan myths.
All that there is in eternity past is
the eternal God of heaven and earth.
Before there was even heaven and earth.
And God the great architect of history designed
and purposed his great plan.
Not only for history but for your life.
I want to take you back to eternity
past.
I want you to step with me out
of time back into everlasting.
I want you to turn with me to
the book of Ephesians chapter 1.
I want you to step back into eternity
past with me.
And I want to look at one verse.
Verse 11.
I want you to see a time before
God created the angels.
I want you to see a time before
God created any person.
I want you to see a time before
there were any molecules or any atoms.
Before any gases, before any particles.
I want you to see a time before
God even created heaven itself.
When all that there was was God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit.
And there in the portals of eternity past.
I want to read verse 11.
The sentence begins in verse 9.
For times sake just verse 11.
And there are four key words that I
want to draw your attention to.
We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined.
According to His purpose who works all things.
Notice the all things.
There's nothing outside of all things.
Who works all things after the counsel of
His will.
Now I want to tell you.
You're never going to be able to present
a heart of wisdom to God.
Until you understand the eternality of God.
That God is always previous in your life.
And God has designed your future and your
present.
Now there are four key words in verse
11 that I want to draw your attention
to.
And I want to line these up in
sequential order the way they unfold.
I want you to look at with me
the word predestined, purpose, counsel, and will.
Let's take them in the order in which
they unfolded.
In eternity past only God the Father, Son,
and Spirit.
It begins with the word counsel.
That's what happened in eternity past.
There was a counsel.
And the only members who attended this counsel
and issued a counsel was God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Before them lay any number of options to
create, not to create.
How they would create.
Whom they would create.
They could have made the sky purple and
the grass orange.
They could have had you born at any
time in history they so desired.
They could have made a million galaxies, a
trillion galaxies, one galaxy.
And there in this divine deliberation, in this
inner Trinitarian consultation, in this counsel within the
Godhead in which they considered every conceivable possibility,
there came forth out of this counsel God's
will.
And you will notice in verse 11 that
He works all things after the counsel of
His will.
And in God's will, God chose the one
best plan that would bring greatest glory to
Himself and greatest pleasure to His own heart.
And included in this sovereign will across the
page, verse 4, God chose all who would
believe.
All who would ultimately come to faith.
The reason that they do is because they
were previously chosen by God to do so.
And in verse 4, just as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the
world.
And I can tell you, if you are
a Christian today, that in eternity past God
drew a circle around your name and said,
this one, I will manifest my glory upon
them as a vessel of mercy and pour
out my grace upon this one.
And out of this will, which is all
inclusive, notice, all things after the counsel of
His will, that you would even be in
church here today, was a part of the
eternal purpose and will of Almighty God.
Their third then came His purpose.
Do you see that?
According to His purpose, and purpose here speaks
of the divine determination to execute His will.
It speaks of the resolve of God to
carry out His sovereign will from all eternity
past.
And no man, no king, no nations, no
power would ever be able to hinder the
outstretched hand of God as He purposes to
carry out the counsel of His will.
The fourth word in verse 11 is the
word predestined, which simply means that the destination
is determined before the journey begins.
And that before time began, God having chosen
His will and resolved with purpose to execute
it, God then poured concrete into those plans,
and He predestined that it would all come
to pass with all of the intricacies of
that plan and will.
Not only is God involved in the big
picture, but God is micromanaging everything that comes
to pass.
And there is not a hair that falls
from your head apart from the Lord.
There is not a sparrow that falls from
the sky apart from the Lord.
The lot is cast into the lap.
It's every turning up is from the Lord.
God has the entire universe wired.
And there is not a maverick molecule anywhere.
Now, if you're going to present to God
a heart of wisdom, you need to understand
this.
You need to get in the elevator and
punch penthouse and go all the way to
the top and get the big picture of
how life operates.
That God is transcendent, that God is majestic,
that God is eternal.
And from all eternity past, this all-wise,
all-loving, all-gracious God has gone before
you.
And not only has He chosen you for
Himself, but He has also prepared good works
for you to walk in.
Now, turn the page to chapter 2, verse
10, Ephesians 2, and verse 10.
As long as we're in the neighborhood, we
need to gather this in.
In Ephesians 2, verse 10, you need to
understand this, that even from eternity, God has
prepared the good works that you will walk
in.
Look at Ephesians 2, verse 10.
For we are His workmanship.
We haven't made ourselves, no self-made people
in the kingdom of heaven.
No, we are the object of His working.
We are His workmanship by His grace.
Created in Christ Jesus, watch this, for good
works unto good works.
We're not saved by good works, are we?
But we're saved for good works unto good
works, which God prepared beforehand so that we
would walk in them.
Do you know that God has your future
planned and purposed, and that every day there
is a sense of destiny about your life,
every step, every moment of what you do?
God in heaven from all eternity past has
purposed your life.
It included where you would be born, the
color of your skin, the color of your
eyeballs, your temperament, your personality, who your parents
would be, the part of the country that
you grew up in.
All of these have been influences that have
been brought to bear, who would live next
door to you, who would sit next to
you in class, who your friends would be.
All of these influences have been ordained by
God before time began, and you are the
object of His workmanship.
Now, if you're going to present to God
a heart of wisdom, you need to understand
this.
You need to understand the eternality of God,
that God has eternal purpose, and God has
an eternal plan, and God has an eternal
will for your life, and He's not making
this up as we go, and He has
never deviated from plan A, and He is
ushering you forward, and you are contained in
this moment in the hands of Almighty God
from all eternity past.
So, teach us to number our days, because
God has allotted these days to us from
before the foundation of the world.
Now, come back to Psalm 90, if you
would.
Psalm 90, because there's more that I want
you to see and understand as we consider
how to present to God a heart of
wisdom, how to live in light of eternity.
Number one, there must be the recognition of
the eternality of God, that God is previous,
that God is uncreated, and that God is
the architect and the author of our lives.
Number two, as we come to verse 3,
I want you to see not only God's
eternality, but second, God's sovereignty.
You see, this eternal God from all eternity
past now presides over every human life within
time, and this God now governs how long
we have to be upon this planet.
This is a heart of wisdom, my friend.
Look at verse 3, you.
This is Moses speaking to God.
Remember, this is a prayer of Moses, the
man of God.
This is Moses praying to God, You, God,
turn man back into dust.
That's a euphemism for death.
And say, return, O children of men.
What this is saying is that God is
sovereign over the expanse of our life.
God is sovereign over the number of days
that we have to live upon this earth.
And it is God and God alone who
has created us and placed us within time,
space, dimension, and within history when it is
that we have appeared upon this scene.
And it is God who, in verse 3,
who will say, Return, O child of man,
to the dust.
Dust here is a reference clearly to death.
Genesis 2, verse 7, The Lord God formed
man of dust from the ground and breathed
into him the breath of life into his
nostrils.
We have come from dust and we're headed
back to dust.
Our body, our soul, and spirit will go
to be with the Lord.
Genesis 3, 19 talks about we have come
from the dust.
We shall return to the dust.
And verse 3 says, it is God who
calls each one of us back to the
dust at his appointed time.
And what is so amazing is that none
of us here today have the same amount
of time to live.
Some here today will have a very short
amount of time.
Others of us here today will have a
longer amount of time.
But God, according to his eternal purpose and
plan, has already predetermined the number of days
that we have to live here upon the
earth.
And we will not live one second beyond
what God has already allotted.
So verse 3, you turn man back into
dust and say, Return, O children of men.
Unlike God who is eternal, who is unchanging,
who is immutable, who is eternal, on the
other hand, man is constantly changing.
Man is growing old.
Man is growing weak.
Man is fragile.
Man is frail.
Man is unstable.
Man is temporal.
God is eternal.
So verse 4, for a thousand years in
your sight are like yesterday when it passes
away.
This eternal God, when he looks upon the
frailty of man from God's eternal perspective, a
thousand years, a millennium, is but a bleep
on the screen.
It's just like a passing of time.
He says at the end of verse 4,
or as a watch in the night, which
is only a four-hour period of time
in the middle of the night.
You go to sleep.
You wake up the next morning.
You don't even notice that four-hour watch
in the night.
That's how quickly human life is passing off
the scene.
None of us here today can even comprehend
how short of time we have left upon
this earth.
Listen, you're only here for a short period
of time.
Do not think you have a long time
to live, my friend.
Therefore, you need to weigh a number very
carefully your days, because they are so few,
and they are so passing, and they are
so temporal.
Look at verse 5.
He continues to talk about death.
You, God is the one referenced.
You, God is the one addressed.
You have swept them, all of mankind, away
like a flood.
They fall asleep.
This is a picture here of a flash
flood, that life is in the desert, in
the wilderness, is just going on as it
always has.
And in this part of the wilderness area,
there is very little rain, and life just
goes on as it is.
And then suddenly, in the rare time of
the year, there is a cloudburst, and it
forms what's called a wadi, which is a
flash flood, and it just sweeps every tumbleweed
away, and it sweeps away all that is
in its path, and it just immediately comes,
and it immediately goes.
Moses says, that's human life.
You're here, you're swept into eternity.
He says, in the morning, they are like
grass.
And he paints another word picture on the
canvas of our mind.
In the morning, they, mankind, are like grass,
which sprouts anew.
In the morning, it flourishes and sprouts anew.
And in this arid desert, wilderness area, it's
very hot in the day, cool at night,
a desert climate.
And early in the morning, as the sun
begins to arise, it forms dew.
And the dew lays on the ground, and
there begins to be kind of an instantaneous
little growth that begins to push its way
up through the parched ground, but only for
a short time until at high noon, where
the sun is in full heat, and it
beams down, and it evaporates the dew, and
this little growth that begins to emerge, it
is instantly just cooked and baked, and it
just falls over, and it wilts.
And Moses says, that is human life.
It just begins to emerge in the morning
of life, but by high noon, and it
perishes.
Look at the end of verse 6.
Toward evening, it fades and withers away.
What is he saying to us?
That life is short, and death is sure.
Listen, the government has done a new statistic.
They have recently released one out of every
one person dies.
Startling.
Film at six.
You are going to die.
You are dying.
Who knows how much time you have left,
swept away like a flood.
Sometimes in the full bloom of youth, God
sovereignly sits upon the time that we have
to live.
Let me give you two references.
Just jot these down.
Job 14 verse 5.
Since man's days are determined, I wonder who
determined them.
Since his days are determined, the number of
his months is with you.
And his limits you have set, so that
no one can pass.
Listen, you can join a health club.
You can start walking.
Et cetera, et cetera.
And you need to do that.
But I want to tell you, you are
not going to live one split second beyond
the allotted time that God has ordained from
before the foundation of the world for you.
My wife is seated on the second row.
One of my twin sons is two down
from her.
When our twins were born to us 22
years ago, almost 23 years ago, we had
two baby cribs in that bedroom in the
corner.
And my wife needle-pointed this verse that
hung upon this young man's bed.
Psalm 139 verse 16.
In your book were all written the days
that were ordained for me when as yet
there was not one of them.
Before eternity, God in his sovereignty recorded the
precise number of days that you have to
live upon this earth.
And he recorded it in his book.
And he recorded it in permanent ink that
shall never be erased and can never be
changed.
God has numbered your days.
How wise it would be for you to
number your days.
How foolish it would be for you to
live in oblivion as if you have much
time to live.
Do you want to present to God a
heart of wisdom?
Do you?
Then you need to number your days.
And you cannot number your days without seeing
the eternality of God and without seeing the
sovereignty of God that it is God who
has marked them out before time began.
And when you would enter this world and
when you will leave this world and he
is sovereignly governing the circumstances and the influences
in your life and everything in between and
you are responsible to God one day to
give an account for how you have lived
for his glory.
There's a third attribute you need to see.
God's eternality, number one.
God's sovereignty, number two.
God's severity, number three.
This eternal sovereign God beginning in verse 7
is presented to us also as a severe
God who brings painful consequences to our sinful
choices.
And as you hear me speak of the
sovereignty of God, in no way may anyone
here today assume that you have been stripped
of your responsibility before God for the choices
that you make because that is not the
case.
And now verses 7 through 12 are placed
here as a reminder to us that if
you make sinful choices in your life, you
are wasting your life.
And you will be under the discipline of
God and you will be going in circles
in the wilderness and you will be ever
expending energy and not going anywhere with your
life.
In fact, your life will be in reverse.
And what a tragedy that will be.
For you too have been given this opportunity
and this life to live and for you
to make sinful choices that have monumental effects
upon your life.
And if you do, you will be wasting
time and squandering your life.
So look at verse 7.
For we, Moses and Israel in the wilderness
is the we, for we have been consumed
by your anger and by your wrath we
have been dismayed.
Israel had been given a glorious future by
God and they were led to the very
precipice of entering into the promised land.
And Moses, under the direction of God, sent
the 12 spies into the land that flows
with milk and honey and into the promised
land.
And God promised that I will be with
you and I will defeat your enemies and
everywhere your foot trods, I will give that
land to you.
And the 12 spies went up into the
land and it was their day of opportunity
and it was their hour with God to
go forward.
And when they went into the land, rather
than looking to God, they saw how big
their enemies were and they came whimpering back
to Moses and said, they're too big, we're
like grasshoppers in their sight.
And God's wrath and God's anger was upon
them because in this hour they responded in
unbelief.
Listen, if you're going to present a heart
of wisdom to God, you need to understand,
there are any number of choices that you
have to make in any given day.
And thy word is a lamp unto my
feet and a light unto my path.
And I must follow the path that God's
word has set forth to me.
And let me tell you, if you knowingly,
as a Christian, go marry an unbeliever, I
promise you, you're going in circles for a
very long time.
And when you report to work and if
you compromise your integrity and you make choices,
I promise you, you're going in circles in
the wilderness for a very long time.
And you will be wasting and squandering not
just years but decades of your life.
You don't have time to waste.
I don't have time to waste.
And if you don't see God's severity, you're
going to present a heart of foolishness to
God.
And you're going to come up with some
idiotic conclusions that it really doesn't matter what
I do or choices I make and God
will just like override everything.
Yeah, He's going to override with a rod
of His anger towards you.
So look at it.
Look at verse 8.
You, God, have placed our iniquities before You,
our secret sins in the light of Your
presence.
God sees it all.
He hears it all.
And He heard all their mumbling and all
of their murmuring and all of their rebelling
and all of their disobedience.
And God flushed it out of the back
closet and He put it out in the
front lawn in the clear light of His
holiness and He saw it all and there
was no secret sin in their lives.
And God then in severity brought the consequences
to bear of their sinful choices.
So look at verse 9.
You talk about wasting days, wasting hours, wasting
time.
We have finished our years like a sigh.
Exhausted, drained because of the effects of God's
severity.
Verse 10.
Listen, you're not going to live much longer
beyond that.
You know that?
My father is 81.
He's dying of cancer.
He has but months to live.
He's already exceeded what the doctors said.
We've been given, from our human perspective, an
extra year and a half with my father.
I'll be performing his funeral here very soon.
As for the days of our life, they
contain 70 years or if due to strength,
80.
And that's it.
You're out of here.
But their pride is but labor and sorrow.
It is their arrogance.
It is their pride.
It is their self-sufficiency that has resulted
in labor and sorrow.
For soon it is gone and we fly
away.
Look at verse 11.
Who understands the power of your anger?
That is a rhetorical question.
You will note there is no answer.
The answer of which is so obvious.
Moses will not insult our intelligence by even
giving us the answer.
For everyone knows the answer to this question.
The answer is no one.
Who understands the power of your anger?
Not a one of us in this room
today.
And who understands the fury according to the
fear that is due you?
Not a one of us takes God too
seriously.
In Mobile, Alabama, where I pastor, there are
other churches in town.
And in those churches, there can be a
little gossip around town.
I don't know if you know what that's
like out here in California.
And if someone moves to Mobile, they'll say,
Oh, you don't want to go to Christ
Fellowship.
They take God too serious there.
Which interpreted means we don't have skit time
on Sunday morning.
You know what this verse says?
We haven't even begun to take God seriously
enough.
That is the devil's talk to say, Oh,
you take God too seriously.
Listen, you'll never take God too seriously.
You think too highly of yourself if you
think you take God too seriously.
Thou man of the moment.
Who understands the power of your anger and
your fury according to the fear that is
due you?
Answer, not a one of us.
We are oblivious to the infinite awesome holiness
of Almighty God.
Now verse 12.
So teach us as a result of all
of this.
Oh God, so that we don't keep going
in circles, so that we don't keep wasting
our time.
Oh God, teach us to number our days
so that we may present to you a
heart of wisdom.
What this is saying is, it is a
prayer on Moses' behalf on the people of
God.
Lord, teach us to number our days.
Teach us to value our days.
Teach us not to squander our time.
Teach us to weigh them very carefully and
invest them shrewdly for the kingdom of God
and for His glory.
That's what you need to do.
You need to ask God to teach you
to number your days in whatever time you
have remaining here upon the earth.
So that you may invest them with maximum
rate of return for eternity.
I hope not a one of you here
today are just hanging out.
I hope not a one of you here
today have time to burn.
I hope none of you here today have
time to kill.
I hope every one of you here today
feels a sense of the eternal weight of
glory pressed upon you.
That you would present to God a heart
of wisdom.
You only have so many days.
No more.
When I went to college, I grew up
in Memphis, Tennessee.
I went to college at Texas Tech University
out in West Texas.
I'm the first born child and when it
came time to go to college, it was
a family event.
My father had a red Volkswagen bus and
we all piled into this red Volkswagen bus
and drove across the country through the flatlands
of West Texas to Lubbock, Texas where they
brought me to go to college.
I'll never forget, my parents helped me move
into my dorm room.
And then as they were making their way
back down to the parking lot for us
to have our goodbyes.
My dad stopped in the dorm room and
I instinctively stopped and turned around and he
said, Stephen, we haven't talked about your allowance.
You need to understand, my father is the
most frugal human being who has ever frequented
planet earth.
My father grew up in West Texas during
the depression.
Grapes of wrath all began with my father.
Literally in poverty in West Texas out in
the middle of nowhere and was able to
provide for us through education and became a
professor in med school.
And everything that came about, God just enabled
him to provide for us.
But let me tell you, you can take
the man out of the country, but you
don't take the country out of the man.
This frugal man, I've never had a large
Coke in my life.
I thought my middle name was refill.
He reached into his pocket.
The beginning of August, I played college football.
We're getting ready to start two a day
practices.
Whatever he handed to me was going to
last me from August all the way to
Christmas.
He pulled out of his pocket some money.
No one can caress a dollar bill like
my father.
He works it from opposite corners.
And I remember he handed it to me
and he said, Stephen.
This is all you're going to have.
And I knew he meant that.
He said, every time you make a purchase,
you put your hand in your pocket and
you feel that money.
Because once it's gone, it's gone.
And you'll never have it to spend again.
I'll never forget that talk.
That's what God is saying here in this
psalm.
I have put into your pocket a certain
number of days.
And once they're gone, there's no more.
You need to put your hand on your
heart and number every day.
That's what Moses is saying in verse 12.
Lord, teach us to number our days.
That means there's not a one of us
here today wise enough, prudent enough to do
this on our own.
We're too easily swept up in the tyranny
of the urgent and putting out fires.
And we lose sight of eternity.
And when we do, we so often squander
our times.
And we end up majoring on minors and
we minor on majors at best.
He says, so teach us.
God, if you don't teach us, I'll be
a fool.
God, if you don't teach me, I'll waste
my life.
So teach us to number our days.
Here's the result.
So that in return, we may present to
you a heart of wisdom.
Notice the cause and effect here.
It is the first half of verse 12
that produces the second half.
The first half is the cause.
The second half is the effect.
We must learn to number our days in
order to present to God a heart of
wisdom.
Therefore, if you are not taught by God,
if you are not taught by God to
number and weigh your days, you will present
to God a heart of foolishness.
And you will have squandered your life.
And you will be like Israel going in
circles in the wilderness and getting nowhere fast.
But if you will see life, your life,
through the lens of God's eternality and His
sovereignty and His severity, you will be well
positioned to enter the promised land.
There's a last attribute that I want you
to see very quickly.
I hate to say this, but I'm running
out of time on my sermon on time.
There's a certain irony about this.
Listen, I'm trying to live this like you
are, so I am modeling right now what
not to do.
All right.
Finally, I want you to see God's mercy
beginning in verse 13.
And this is so important because you know
what?
There's a lot of us who have already
wasted time, is there not?
There's a lot of us who have already
squandered time.
Some of you didn't even come to Christ
until more recently.
And think about all the time you wasted
running with the course of this world.
Some of you have spent time in other
churches that don't even teach the Bible.
You talk about fool's gold.
All of us have wasted time.
All of us need to know that God
is a God of mercy and grace and
who would enable us to make up for
lost time.
We all need to know that there is
a dimension of God that He can be
and for most of us is a God
of a second chance.
So we see God's mercy beginning in verse
13.
And how good of God to include this
in Psalm 90 for us.
It is the prayer of Moses.
It should be our prayer as well.
Put yourself into the sandals of Moses and
pray this to God.
Do return, O Lord, how long will it
be?
In other words, God, help us to recover
for going in circles in the wilderness so
long.
God, return to us.
Put your hand on us again.
Return your divine favor.
Now, God never left in the sense of
His omnipresence.
But what verse 13 refers to is what
verse 17 speaks of, the favor of the
Lord our God.
God, return your blessing.
Return your direction.
Return your guidance to our lives.
God, if you do not do this left
to ourselves, we will just continue to spend
like a top in the wilderness.
Be sorry for your servants.
In other words, have compassion upon us for
what our wrong choices have done to us.
Verse 14, O, satisfy us in the morning
with your lovingkindness.
While there is still time in the morning
of life, while I'm still here upon the
earth, while there are still yet steps to
be taken to move forward in your will,
God, satisfy us.
Let there be a new day of grace
that will emerge that we may sing for
joy and be glad all of our days.
Verse 15, make us glad according to the
days you have afflicted us.
In other words, God, for as long as
you have disciplined us, now delight us.
For as long as you have taken us
to the woodshed, God, now come with mercy
and forgiveness and compassion.
O God.
Verse 16, let your work appear to your
servants.
What that means is, O God, restore your
work in our midst.
Cause us to stop going in circles in
the wilderness.
O God, let your work appear with blessing
and favor and your good hand to be
upon it.
Because God, if you don't put your hand
upon our work, it is worthless.
It is wood, hay, and stubble.
God, cause what I am doing to truly
have its impact upon eternity and your majesty
to their children.
Meaning what happens to me as a trickle
down effect to the next generation even within
my own household.
O God, even if I only have a
little bit more time here upon the earth,
favor me, bless me so that my children
will at least be better postured for their
future.
So that they won't have to make the
mistakes that I have made.
O God, bless me now only for a
moment so that my children may go into
the future in the right direction.
Verse 17.
Let the favor of the Lord our God
be upon us.
What does this imply?
It's not upon us right now.
God is with us.
That's the problem.
He is with us in his severity and
in his discipline.
God, please remove your hand of discipline and
let your favor be upon us.
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
My friend, verse 12 says it all.
This is God's word to you today.
God has numbered your days.
You only have so much time left here
upon this earth.
You must number your days.
You don't know how many they are.
But that means you must count them to
be very valuable and to invest them very
wisely.
You need to understand the shortness of life,
the certainty of death, the length of eternity.
Listen, whoever you are, wherever you are today,
you'll never be 18 again.
You'll never be 39 again.
You'll never be 82 again.
You'll never be in college again.
You'll never have, wherever you are, this is
your moment in time before God to occupy
where you are with what you are, with
who you are.
Don't squander it.
Don't leave time and step into eternity without
a Savior.
You will be soon stepping into eternity.
I know how you need a Savior, how
you need an advocate to represent you before
the Father above.
If you've never believed upon Jesus Christ, if
you have never repented of your sins, there
is only one way for you to find
acceptance before a holy God in heaven, and
that is through the merit of the death
of Jesus Christ upon the cross for sinners.
And you must come to Christ and repent
of your sin and turn from your sin
and be broken, be poor in spirit and
mourn over your sin and to hunger and
thirst for a righteousness that only Christ can
give to you.
You need to be meek and you need
to humble yourself under the lordship of this
Christ and say, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner.
Don't leave time and step into eternity without
the only Savior there is.
There is salvation in no other name, for
there is no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life.
No one comes to the Father but through
me.
He is either the lord of that statement
or he is a liar.
He is the only lord.
May you repent of your sin if you
have not come to Christ and may you
embrace him by faith in your heart.
And when you come to the end of
your life, that time ordained by God, the
Lord Jesus will present you faultless to stand
before the Lord in heaven.
You don't want to try to stand there
in your rags of religiosity.
He will say unto you, depart from me
that work iniquity, I never knew you.
But if you'll believe upon Christ, hear me,
if you'll believe upon Christ and give your
life to him completely, he will present you
faultless through the merit of his death upon
the cross.
If you're to present a heart of wisdom
to God, it begins at the cross.
And may you believe upon him.
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you that
according to your inscrutable wisdom from before the
foundation of the world, that it would please
you that everyone in this house today would
be here at this moment in time.
Not a one of us is here by
accident.
Not a one of us is here by
randomness.
We are all here by divine appointment.
And God, I pray that we would draw
from Psalm 90 all that you intend for
us to receive.
May no one in this house who is
without Christ leave here today without the Savior.
And may every believer in this house today
from this point on, Lord, be taught by
you to number their days so that every
day that remains upon this earth might be
wisely invested with maximum return for eternity and
for the glory of God.
Seal to our hearts now this which you
have sown into us.
In Jesus' name, amen.