SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 90 from everlasting to everlasting a prayer of Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Before the mountains were brought forth, are you ever, or ever you had formed the earth and the water from everlasting to everlasting your God.
SPEAKER_00: You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight, or but as yesterday, when it has passed, or as a watch in the night.
SPEAKER_00: You sweep them away as with a flood.
SPEAKER_00: They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning it flourished and is renewed.
SPEAKER_00: In the evening it fades and withers.
SPEAKER_00: For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.
SPEAKER_00: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
SPEAKER_00: For all our days pass away under your wrath.
SPEAKER_00: We bring our years to an end like a sigh.
SPEAKER_00: The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength, eighty.
SPEAKER_00: Yet their span is but tall and troubled.
SPEAKER_00: They are soon gone, and we fly away.
SPEAKER_00: Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?
SPEAKER_00: So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Return, O Lord, how long?
SPEAKER_00: Have pity on your servants.
SPEAKER_00: Satisfy us satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
SPEAKER_00: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many days as we have seen evil.
SPEAKER_00: Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.
SPEAKER_00: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_02: We're your people.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we just we want to be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we want to stay in the light.
SPEAKER_02: We want to learn more of who you are, Father.
SPEAKER_02: We just we're prone to wonder.
SPEAKER_02: And we just pray that uh we have ears and and we listen closely today to your word and what you have for us, and that we learn from your word, and that we're wiser because of your word.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we're just so thankful for Brother Robert and how he's labored over your word.
SPEAKER_02: We just pray you you bring the word you'd have for us through him today, and that he'd just deliver it with confidence, and that we learn and and and we love better because of this time in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, brothers.
SPEAKER_01: You guys can be seated.
SPEAKER_01: So good to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh enjoyed being able to converse with many of you, prayed with a few of you, and just heard how you were doing.
SPEAKER_01: Um, been kind of a crazy week and a half for for our family, been here and there and everywhere, it seems like.
SPEAKER_01: Um last this last week I was in Orlando.
SPEAKER_01: I would I would say if you guys don't get there's a weekly email that goes out every single Friday that Michael is uh I get it at 9.01, I think it is, every Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I would encourage you to go onto our website, scroll down to the bottom of the home page.
SPEAKER_01: You can put your information in there and be signed up for that weekly email.
SPEAKER_01: But to that same email list this week, I sent you guys an update.
SPEAKER_01: This last week I was in Orlando at the Southern Baptist Convention.
SPEAKER_01: Happens once a year.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, as I have said before to you guys, technically our convention exists for two days a year, and that is the two days that the convention is in session.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I wrote an email kind of summarizing what took place because I've had several of you ask questions.
SPEAKER_01: I'll hit on that briefly, but for more details, I would encourage you to go find that email.
SPEAKER_01: If you need access to it, I can get it to you.
SPEAKER_01: But I want I want to point you to three things that took place over the course of the convention this year.
SPEAKER_01: One is uh a further emphasis on cooperation on mission or in mission.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the second one is unity amidst diversity, and the last one is theological clarity.
SPEAKER_01: You probably read headlines and hear all kinds of crazy stuff about 10% of what you read is true, uh, at least what I've read is true.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I wanted to make sure you guys were aware of that I got to witness, but maybe you didn't get to witness, is one of the things that we got to see this week is well, two things.
SPEAKER_01: One, there were 60 plus missionaries who were commissioned to go to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And when I say 60 plus, that's 60 plus families.
SPEAKER_01: So there's more than just 60 that were commissioned to go to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Many of them standing behind a curtain with their voice changed because they were going somewhere that was uh the gospel is not leak, it's not legal to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so they're going somewhere that is a closed country.
SPEAKER_01: So that that is a benefit of what we get to do with other churches from all around the country.
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: And on top of that, in 2025, there were 699 churches planted in North America.
SPEAKER_01: 699 churches planted across North America.
SPEAKER_01: That's uh the United States and Canada specifically.
SPEAKER_01: Probably what you heard about was this vote about women pastors.
SPEAKER_01: Just want you to understand and know anything that you've heard us teach here, whether it be in our statement of faith class, whether it be in uh other messages where we've come across texts that point to the office of pasture being reserved for men, anything you heard us teach was simply affirmed with what took place there.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't bar women from ministry.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it affirms the value of women in ministry, but holds to the theological understanding that we have that the office of pastor is reserved for men.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you guys to hear that from me, someone who is there in the room, that we affirm the value of women in ministry, but we also recognize that the office of pastor is reserved for men.
SPEAKER_01: If you have more questions, concerns, I would love to have that conversation with you.
SPEAKER_01: And I would also point you back to teachings that we've done on that in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Now, with all that out of the way, let's get to the text.
SPEAKER_01: And I forgot to say good morning and welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Uh glad you guys are here.
SPEAKER_01: Um my name is Robert, I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_01: I love this passage and how it begins.
SPEAKER_01: I for whatever reason, this week, as I dove into the text, that first statement just caught me.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's that statement just hit me right in the stomach.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not really sure why, but it begins with the statement, a prayer of Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: To our knowledge, this is the only psalm written by Moses in that it was specifically attributed to him in this way.
SPEAKER_01: And this psalm was a prayer of Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And some, as I studied it this week, many people that I came across who spoke specifically about this psalm call it the greatest biblical meditation on time that we have, that was ever written.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest biblical meditation on time, and we'll see that in here in a moment, that was ever written.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks a lot about the eternal nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: We see that from the very beginning of the text.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about the eternal nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it also talks about the eternal impact of sin, the devastating effects of sin.
SPEAKER_01: In today's world, and you guys will understand this, there is an obsession with the moment, with the very moment that we are living in.
SPEAKER_01: And subsequently, what happens is we often live as though we are ignorant to the reality that there is an eternal.
SPEAKER_01: We live so much in the moment, the right now, the minute, the second that we that we are in, that we live in ignorance to the eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Over the last few years, I would, I have, I would say, become what I used to call, and I use that word with emphasis, I used to call a bad texture.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you want to divine define bad texture, you can put my name beside it.
SPEAKER_01: And as much as it it drives my personality insane, that shift has been on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Four or five years ago, I realized and I was convicted by my unchecked obsession with quick responses.
SPEAKER_01: My unchecked obsession with with being in the know all the time, every single minute, and having everything at my fingertips when I wanted it.
SPEAKER_01: I was obsessed with that.
SPEAKER_01: So I made an intentional effort to shift away.
SPEAKER_01: What I was doing the first thing when I woke up, guess what I was doing?
SPEAKER_01: Whoop.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing I was doing before I would go to bed, whoop, put it on my nightstand.
SPEAKER_01: So I made this conscious decision to put it down some.
SPEAKER_01: And I look, I struggle at times still.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the best at it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm working at it.
SPEAKER_01: I have not arrived by any means.
SPEAKER_01: But I found in a study in prep for this morning that the average American checks their phone 200 times a day.
SPEAKER_01: That's every five or six minutes.
SPEAKER_01: We are doing one of these right here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Every five or six minutes.
SPEAKER_01: 89% of people check their phones within 10 minutes of waking up.
SPEAKER_01: 75% of people feel uncomfortable if they leave their phone behind in a different room or if they leave it at home when they go somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: This one was kind of comical to me.
SPEAKER_01: 46% of people check it while they're in the middle of a date.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about your spouse, but that doesn't apply with mine.
SPEAKER_01: I don't share all those things to speak ill of phones, but to illustrate that we are in, we are a in the moment type of people.
SPEAKER_01: We are an in-the-moment type of people.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens if we're not careful and we go throughout our life living with this temporary perspective of being in the moment, we ignore what God has done in eternity past and what he's going to do in eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: The danger in living with this temporary perspective is that we will miss a critical attribute of God, and we will also miss the devastating reality of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely devastating reality of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Both of which Moses points to in Psalms 90.
SPEAKER_01: He acknowledges three crucial things for himself and also for the Israelites that are also crucial for us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what they are.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your listening guide, they're in there.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God is eternal and unchanging, the sin of man is real and scolding, and the salvation of God is joyful and everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin by looking at the glory of God is eternal and unchanging.
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot to learn from Psalms 90, beginning with the way it begins.
SPEAKER_01: It begins, as I said a moment ago, with the statement about the prayer of Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then what happens right after that?
SPEAKER_01: It says, Lord, Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And a significant portion of the chapter is devoted to the reality of God's eternal nature.
SPEAKER_01: His eternal nature.
SPEAKER_01: It's incomprehensible for us in our finite minds.
SPEAKER_01: When we hear the word everlasting, I'm gonna do something to illustrate this.
SPEAKER_01: When we hear the word everlasting, most oftentimes in our minds, we immediately go to eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: Everlasting as in eternity future, which is true, which is true about the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the third point that I'm gonna get to in the sermon this morning, you will hear me talk about salvation that is made available to us by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it's everlasting for us in the future direction.
SPEAKER_01: But verse two says, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big difference in these two things, everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: And then everlasting to everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: Everlasting is eternity future, right?
SPEAKER_01: Everlasting to everlasting is eternal in both directions.
SPEAKER_01: Eternity past, eternity future, which means that God has no beginning and God has no end.
SPEAKER_01: He is, he was, and he always will be God.
SPEAKER_01: This comes up often in conversations about apologetics.
SPEAKER_01: This conversation about the beginning of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Everything has to begin somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: People argue.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because even with the most well thought-out scientific theories for how this all came about, it has to begin with something.
SPEAKER_01: Glenn Shrivener said this Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos.
SPEAKER_01: Choose your miracle.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist compares this eternal nature of God to the temporary nature of us in mankind in verse three.
SPEAKER_01: Each one of us have what I would call and what you would call a birthday.
SPEAKER_01: And if the Lord doesn't come back, each one of us will have what I call and you call a death day, right?
SPEAKER_01: We have a birthday and we have a death day because our physical bodies give way to decay.
SPEAKER_01: When you go to the graveyard, one of my favorite classes in college, and this may say something about me, was the psychology of death and dying.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that we had to do in that class is we had to go to the graveyard and make observations about things that we saw on headstones and on graves and uh in in the graveyard itself.
SPEAKER_01: And as I think back on that now, one of the things I think about is every single one of those headstones, they had a birthday first.
SPEAKER_01: It had a dash, and then some of them didn't have the end yet because it hadn't passed yet, but they'd already bought the headstone and done all the things.
SPEAKER_01: But it had a death day.
SPEAKER_01: So there is a birthday, there's a dash, and there is a death day.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us will have all three of those things.
SPEAKER_01: God only has the dash.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: He only has the dash because he has been, he will be, and he will always be God.
SPEAKER_01: He is eternal in both directions.
SPEAKER_01: God was not born like man.
SPEAKER_01: He also will not return to the dust like man, as we see Moses speak of in verse three.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say in verse four that a thousand years are but a yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever traveled overseas to places where there are a few thousand years of history, you understand what I mean when I say, man, we've been existing for 200 years.
SPEAKER_01: That's uh don't hear me diminish that, but big deal, right?
SPEAKER_01: Big deal.
SPEAKER_01: I remember going and visiting the tomb of King Philip II, who was also the father, who was the father of Alexander the Great, a tomb that dates back to fourth century BC, a tomb that's 2400 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And when I reflect on that and on times that I've spent observing American history in DC and other places, 250 years seems like no more than a day.
SPEAKER_01: When you compare 250 years to 2400 years, it seems like no more than a day.
SPEAKER_01: 250 years compared to 2400 is nothing.
SPEAKER_01: 2400 compared to eternity past is nothing.
SPEAKER_01: A thousand years is but a day.
SPEAKER_01: Gone.
SPEAKER_01: One night's sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Poof, it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: I don't say that to make light of our history.
SPEAKER_01: I don't say that to make light of any history.
SPEAKER_01: Brother, I say that to emphasize the reality of how short our time on this earth really is a moment, a fleeting moment.
SPEAKER_01: God has existed for all time and he will exist for all time.
SPEAKER_01: One thousand years, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the history that can happen in a thousand years.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about that for a second in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: People live and die.
SPEAKER_01: Generation after generation lives and dies.
SPEAKER_01: Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.
SPEAKER_01: A thousand years ago, we weren't even a blip on the map as a country.
SPEAKER_01: The strongest empire, according to some historians, in 1000 AD is this dynasty called the Song Dynasty.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you probably couldn't even begin to explain who that is or what they are about.
SPEAKER_01: A lot happens in a thousand years, and we see in God's word that it is nothing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a blink of time for God.
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of all that, in the midst of all that takes place over the course of a thousand years, God remains God.
SPEAKER_01: He has not changed.
SPEAKER_01: He both exists for all time and he is unchanging for all time.
SPEAKER_01: Exist and is unchanging.
SPEAKER_01: In a group message with some friends this last week, we were laughing about different things from our past.
SPEAKER_01: And at times there was tears streaming down my face, laughing at what I had done or said, or what others had done and said over the years.
SPEAKER_01: By God's grace, people change.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your history is different than mine.
SPEAKER_01: People change in the way they talk, people change in the way they act.
SPEAKER_01: Further, as I approach my 40th birthday, there are comes even more realization that there are things that I can no longer do.
SPEAKER_01: We change in those ways, we change in the way we look, we change in what we can and cannot do, right?
SPEAKER_01: I used to be able to throw baseball kind of hard and run pretty fast.
SPEAKER_01: Now about the only thing I can do is go to the bathroom a whole lot in one day.
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of all that, hear me, in the midst of all that, God has been God and God has not changed.
SPEAKER_01: 40 years past, God is still good, and God is still God.
SPEAKER_01: 250 years past, God is still good, and God is still God.
SPEAKER_01: A thousand years past, God is still good, and God is still God.
SPEAKER_01: A million years, ten thousand years, fill in the blank, God is still God, and God is still good.
SPEAKER_01: He was perfect in eternity past, and he will be perfect for eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: And nothing is going to change that.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to listen to this whole statement before you judge my first sentence.
SPEAKER_01: May we not diminish God to only the work of Christ on the cross, losing sight of the very thing the work of Christ on the cross rescues us to, and that is the holy and righteous God.
SPEAKER_01: Often well-intended Christians think God is less powerful or less good when things don't go the way that they think they should.
SPEAKER_01: And we begin to judge God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: I heard statements around this, even particular during the last election.
SPEAKER_01: If this happens or this happens, then God can't be in control.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: God is sovereign and good.
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: God does not make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: God is not some puppet who submits to our will and needs.
SPEAKER_01: He is the omnipotent, righteous, holy, and sovereign God of the universe who will carry out his will.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: He always has been and he always will be this blend of perfectly good and perfectly powerful.
SPEAKER_01: That is who he is, and it's not going to change.
SPEAKER_01: And this is such an encouraging truth for us, but it also reminds us of a difficult reality.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the next thing that Moses points to here.
SPEAKER_01: And that is that the sin of man is real and scolding.
SPEAKER_01: The eternal nature of the goodness and glory of God accentuates for us the damaging effects of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7 if you look at that, it makes clear that God is a wrathful God on sin.
SPEAKER_01: It makes the wrath of God clear.
SPEAKER_01: It is not possible for us to actually truly comprehend the goodness of God and Not feel the weight of sin.
SPEAKER_01: That is not possible.
SPEAKER_01: There's no possible way for us to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to venture back for a second to the Garden of Eden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: You notice in verse 3, if you have your copy of scripture there, it says it points to the dust.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, when you read this, it may have been like, oh, that sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_01: Ding, ding, ding, ding.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis three, right?
SPEAKER_01: Let me point you back to Genesis three for a second.
SPEAKER_01: The fall.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For you are dust, and to dust you will return.
SPEAKER_01: So God has existed for all time, and in his mercy and care and goodness, he created man and woman, us in his image.
SPEAKER_01: The very creation of us, let me just be clear, the very creation of us is something that we did not deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Then after his perfect creation was complete, rebellion took place.
SPEAKER_01: And what happened is that led to this curse of God being upon mankind.
SPEAKER_01: God gave some pretty simple instructions in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: You can do whatever, but do not eat from that tree.
SPEAKER_01: Whoops.
SPEAKER_01: Man ate from that tree.
SPEAKER_01: It was too hard to resist.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, our relationship with the glorious and holy and righteous God that has existed since eternity past was destroyed, was obliterated, was mutilated by our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we have no access to him because the effects of sin are real.
SPEAKER_01: It's not some fleeting thought, it's not some passing thing that goes by.
SPEAKER_01: The effects of sin are real and they are eternal in nature.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of experiencing harmony with God for eternity, we experience present suffering on this earth and are destined for eternal damnation in hell.
SPEAKER_01: You see, our mortality is both biological and theological because of the fall in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: It's both.
SPEAKER_01: I ran with a buddy on Saturday that I hadn't seen in a while, and we get done running, and he looks at me and said, Dang, boy, you got a lot of gray in those sideburns.
SPEAKER_01: You can thank sin for that.
SPEAKER_01: The impact of the fall is all around us.
SPEAKER_01: Pain, suffering, death, both physical and spiritual, gray hair, you name it, it's all around us.
SPEAKER_01: The impact of sin has ripped the life of God's original created order from our fingertips.
SPEAKER_01: God created us to live with Him forever, a mortal beings, to be in the presence of a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: But man and woman decided to take it into their own hands, and when they did, it was ripped from their hands.
SPEAKER_01: And throughout the 70 or 80 years we have in this life, there is toil and there is trouble, as Moses points out in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Well, quick aside here for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, 70 or 80 years.
SPEAKER_01: I did some research on the life expectancy of people in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: According to the CDC, the average age for males at the time of death is 70 between 76 and 77 years old.
SPEAKER_01: The average age for the time of death or the age of death for females is between 81 and 82 years old.
SPEAKER_01: If you average them all together in the number of males and females that pass, the average age of humans in the United States of America when they die is 79 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Moses pinned the psalm 3,500 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: With all the advancement of modern medicine, Moses nailed it.
SPEAKER_01: He nailed it.
SPEAKER_01: Nearly brings me to tears.
SPEAKER_01: He nailed it.
SPEAKER_01: Can I just say that God's word is living and active?
SPEAKER_01: I stayed at the top of the top of the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Moses writes the psalm while the Israelites were wondering, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're waiting to get to the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just go back for a moment and remind you why they had yet to get to the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: This takes us back to last week.
SPEAKER_01: I had a lot of people say, I really like that comment you made.
SPEAKER_01: This takes us back to last week about the groundhog day nature of the story of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: For those who forgot, and for those who don't know, God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: He had brought them out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: You had the plagues, you had all the things.
SPEAKER_01: Brought them out of Egypt, brought them to the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: You have this massive sea in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: The Egyptians were pursuing them.
SPEAKER_01: God parted the sea.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites scurried on across the sea.
SPEAKER_01: The Egyptians tried to do the same, and the water collapsed upon them.
SPEAKER_01: No more pursuit.
SPEAKER_01: Moses then, after all this takes place.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, by the way, the Ten Commandments come in there as well, right?
SPEAKER_01: Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: Then Moses sends 12 in Numbers 12 from every tribe in Israel to scout out the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is you have 10 of those homies come back and say, Hey, there is no way, bro, that we are ever taking that land.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to do it.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get our teeth kicked in.
SPEAKER_01: And then Joshua and Caleb come back and they say, God's on our side.
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I want those brothers on my side because I'm going to be one of the 10.
SPEAKER_01: I need somebody to remind me that God's in control.
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01: But instead of taking it, they said, nah, we're not going to do it.
SPEAKER_01: We're better off not.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not take the chance.
SPEAKER_01: So God says, okay, have fun wondering for 40 years while an entire generation dies off.
SPEAKER_01: They doubted God's sovereign plan for them to take the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And God punishes them by saying, All right, the entire generation will never see the land that I have prepared for you.
SPEAKER_01: And in the wandering in the desert, the generation died off, and they died off.
SPEAKER_01: Even some of Moses' family died off.
SPEAKER_01: And he was in despair, as evidenced by Numbers 20, when he doubts God in the presence of people.
SPEAKER_01: And listen what the Lord says in the response.
SPEAKER_01: This is Numbers 12, 2020, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord says to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
SPEAKER_01: And he pins the psalm.
SPEAKER_01: He's wondering for years.
SPEAKER_01: He's had loved ones die off.
SPEAKER_01: Generation is dying off.
SPEAKER_01: He too now knows his time is coming too.
SPEAKER_01: He is aware that he is not going to see the promised land either.
SPEAKER_01: After all that God had done in and through him, the plagues, the crossing the Red Sea, all the things that God had done.
SPEAKER_01: And he pins the psalm.
SPEAKER_01: That should put a new perspective on this prayer, that this psalm for us.
SPEAKER_01: Because in that moment, he's not talking about bitterness that he has towards God.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, he is acknowledging that the God of creation is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: And he is acknowledging the impact of sin and God's wrath upon sin.
SPEAKER_01: God in verse eight, Moses makes clear that God knows our sin, even our secret sins.
SPEAKER_01: Notice he says secret sins in verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: The sins that we think we have hidden from the world, we haven't hidden from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anyone here would claim that they can hide their sins from the Lord in word.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anyone in here would say, even in private conversations, that I think I can hide my sin from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But let me ask you this: do you act as though you can?
SPEAKER_01: You may not say that you can, but do you act as though you can?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have sins in your life right now that you've never told anyone and that you have never tried to deal with?
SPEAKER_01: Pornography, anger, some other issue or addiction.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we read this story, we we read about the Israelites, we know what took place.
SPEAKER_01: It is foolish to think about what they did.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We think about how foolish they are.
SPEAKER_01: He parted the Red Sea to rescue them, he closed the Red Sea to protect them.
SPEAKER_01: He had provided the promised land to them.
SPEAKER_01: All they had to do is go.
SPEAKER_01: He had given them the Ten Commandments for crying out loud.
SPEAKER_01: And as they approach the promised land, they're like, we can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: It is crazy to think about.
SPEAKER_01: It makes you want to scream to the Israelites, wake up and get your head out of the sand.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, wake up.
SPEAKER_01: But do we not do the very same thing to God?
SPEAKER_01: God has provided a way for you and for me to be rescued under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect spotless Lamb, his son.
SPEAKER_01: Do we see what he has done, yet we continue to turn our back on him, mocking him and spitting in his face each and every time?
SPEAKER_01: We're not all that different from the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: When we think about our sin, specific, specifically our secret sin, we should say, Wake up, Robert, get your head out of the sand.
SPEAKER_01: He is God, He is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You are not hiding anything from Him.
SPEAKER_01: Quit acting as though you are.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, your sin, if you do not bring it into the light, I promise you it will be brought into the light at some point.
SPEAKER_01: It may not be on this earth, it may be when you stand before the judgment seat, but it will be brought into the light.
SPEAKER_01: Please understand this.
SPEAKER_01: And I've said this often from this pulpit and in conversations with many of you.
SPEAKER_01: When we try to deal with a specific sin on our own without bringing it to the Father or getting others to help, when we leave darkness in darkness, it leads to more darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Darkness in darkness leads to more darkness, which means that if you sin and you do not deal with it, it will lead you down a path that you do not want to go.
SPEAKER_01: More sin.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was John Owen that said this be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.
SPEAKER_01: There couldn't be a truer statement.
SPEAKER_01: You may think, you may have convinced yourself that your sin is not impacting you, but it is.
SPEAKER_01: Sin leads not to life, it leads to death.
SPEAKER_01: Sin leads not to eternal elation and joy with God the Father, it leads to eternal damnation separated from him.
SPEAKER_01: There was a phrase used in the 90s to describe a type of preaching that emphasized the effects of sin, and that is hell, fire, and brimstone.
SPEAKER_01: And rightfully so, there was a shift away from that to ensure that preaching included both the good news of the gospel and the bad news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: However, I'm also concerned that in 2026 that we have leaned so far away from preaching the reality of sin that it is having devastating effects on us.
SPEAKER_01: I discovered in my study this week that the person who used the word hell and spoke to hell more than anyone else in the New Testament was Jesus Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus uses it time and time again to point to the effects of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: And in the same way that the believer can look to eternity and rejoice because there will be suffering no more, as we should.
SPEAKER_01: A lost person can look to the eternity and be fearful because they will see that the torment won't last for a moment, it won't last for 40 years like it is for the Israelites, but it will be forever.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no relief, there will be no quenching of your thirst, there will be no rest, there will be no hope forever.
SPEAKER_01: Forever.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 14, 11 speaks to this, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal is the impact of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: George Whitfield in the 18th century said this the torment of burning like a livid coal, not for an instant or for a day, but for millions and millions of ages, and at the end of which people will realize that they are no closer to the end than when it first began.
SPEAKER_01: They will never ever be delivered from that place.
SPEAKER_01: Incomprehensible, scary.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we plead with God to have mercy on our weary souls in the same way that Moses pleads with God in this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a shift that takes place in verse 14, right?
SPEAKER_01: From 13 to 14.
SPEAKER_01: There's a major shift that takes place.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to look at here to conclude our time together.
SPEAKER_01: The salvation of God is joyful and everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that the wrath of God is real, and the eternal suffering and torment of hell is real, the salvation of God through Christ the Son is eternally joyful and real as well.
SPEAKER_01: From verse 12 to 17, there are multiple requests.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I had time to go into detail on each one.
SPEAKER_01: There are multiple requests from Moses to God, because he recognizes the satisfaction and joy to be found in God, the holy, righteous God.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to number our days, says in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Have pity on us, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Satisfy us, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Make us glad, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 14 is where we really see the Jesus connection to this Old Testament passage.
SPEAKER_01: So yes, we've made crystal clear, I hope, I hope, or I've done a poor job, that the eternal consequence of our sin is real.
SPEAKER_01: With that, what I want us to understand is every single person in this room has earned hell.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I say that jokingly, but 100% serious.
SPEAKER_01: Every person in this room has earned, we've earned it.
SPEAKER_01: We've done everything we need to do.
SPEAKER_01: And that's real.
SPEAKER_01: But do not lose heart because the eternal sacrifice of the spotless lamb is real.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is real, but heaven is real.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal death is real, but eternal life is real.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is real, but Jesus is real.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we may be deserving of eternal consequence that we just spent several minutes looking at.
SPEAKER_01: But we also have the opportunity to experience eternal salvation and elation through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it is joyful, and it is everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God exists from everlasting to everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't make mistakes, which means there's no backup plan.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to see and understand that.
SPEAKER_01: God, the Son, was God's plan to rescue the wretched sinner from the eternal effects of their sin since eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 3 was not a God sent up there and said, Well, whoops.
SPEAKER_01: Don't know what I'm gonna do here.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't see that coming.
SPEAKER_01: It was an opportunity for God the Father to exude his matchless goodness, grace, and mercy on us by providing God the Son.
SPEAKER_01: Question that you can ask yourself: do you look at death like the serpent, or do you do you look at death like the Savior?
SPEAKER_01: The serpent says, Eat from the tree, silly boy.
SPEAKER_01: Eat from that tree, you won't die.
SPEAKER_01: You won't die.
SPEAKER_01: The Savior says, You will truly die, but do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_01: You will truly die, but do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_01: Look at John 16, 33.
SPEAKER_01: I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.
SPEAKER_01: In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart.
SPEAKER_01: I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the fall doesn't diminish who God is, it magnifies his holy and matchless name.
SPEAKER_01: He calls on you, he knows your name, he rescues you, he will satisfy your thirsty soul.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that sin is eternally devastating to the unredeemed sinner, the grace of God is eternally satisfying to the redeemed follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the love of God that he exudes upon his children has no end.
SPEAKER_01: And our response should be we should be living for the everlasting, not for the moment.
SPEAKER_01: The reality of what Christ has done for us shouldn't just change our eternal trajectory.
SPEAKER_01: It most certainly does that.
SPEAKER_01: But it shouldn't just change that.
SPEAKER_01: It should also change how you live right now.
unknown: C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
SPEAKER_01: We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
SPEAKER_01: We are far too easily pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, we must live with the reality and understanding that Revelation 21:4 is coming when he will wipe away the tears from their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: How many tears have you shed this week or this month?
SPEAKER_01: They will be wiped away from your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: No more, no more mourning, no more pain.
SPEAKER_01: They have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: That day is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Let's live like it.
SPEAKER_01: Regardless of where you are in this moment, redeemed by the blood of Jesus or not redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: If your your life ended right now, your fate is sealed.
SPEAKER_01: It is eternal joy or eternal judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Put your faith in Christ as Romans 10:9 speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: Put your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's so many ways to do that.
SPEAKER_01: When I say so many ways to do that, I mean you can do that at your sea, you can do it up here.
SPEAKER_01: There's not some special prayer you have to say.
SPEAKER_01: In obedience, submit to the God of creation through Christ the Son, and you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go off script.
SPEAKER_01: I have another ending.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go a little bit long.
SPEAKER_01: I want to speak to verse one for a second.
SPEAKER_01: This hit my mind as I was preaching.
SPEAKER_01: Look back with me at verse one for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us this morning, we got up, we walked out of our home, our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: We have a home.
SPEAKER_01: It's our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: Some may say the community we live in, DeSota County is our dwelling place, Mississippi is our dwelling place, United States is our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: All of those dwelling places that I just mentioned will pass away like the dust.
SPEAKER_01: The only eternal satisfaction, the only eternal, sufficient dwelling place is in Christ the Son.
SPEAKER_01: You are sojourners here.
SPEAKER_01: This is not your home.
SPEAKER_01: This is not our home.
SPEAKER_01: I challenge myself and us of the church family.
SPEAKER_01: May we live as though we are sojourners.
SPEAKER_01: May we live as though the only rightful dwelling place for us is in Christ the Son.
SPEAKER_01: We battle sin together.
SPEAKER_01: We try to kill it.
SPEAKER_01: We're never going to see succeed until glory, but we try and try and try to kill sin together.
SPEAKER_01: We are about the Great Commission together to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: We send people to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: We share the gospel with our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the glory of God and the glory of Christ is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: May we never lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray as we prepare to participate in the Lord's Supper together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we are grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful for your word.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm grateful for this Psalms.
SPEAKER_01: God, as I dove into it this week, and really the two big things that we see Moses hit on, it's when you think about the reality of what he has experienced over the course of his life, and even uh not being able to go into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: He's nearing the end of his life.
SPEAKER_01: And what he chooses to pray and to write about is the eternal reality of who you are, both eternity past and eternity future, your goodness, and the damaging effects of sin.
SPEAKER_01: God, this is a brother who has an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_01: God, give us an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_01: As we face trials and troubles on this earth, we may not be in one right now, but we'll go to sleep tonight and wake up one, wake up tomorrow, and we'll have something to deal with.
SPEAKER_01: And if that doesn't happen, it'll be the next day.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming, that is for sure.
SPEAKER_01: But as we face those things, may we face those with a perspective that God has existed since eternity past, he will exist for eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: He is good, he is sovereign, and he has us in the palm of his hand exactly where he desires for us to be.
SPEAKER_01: And in that we can live in the hope of Christ that one day every tear will be wiped away, and there will be rejoicing as we stand at the throne of the Lamb and proclaim holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And we so look forward to that day.
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, may we do everything we can to provide a dress rehearsal day in and day out as faithful followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.