We've looked twice before. Ephesians 5.16. We find it echoed in Colossians 4.5. The expression is used, redeeming the time. To some people, those words fall on deaf ears. What are you talking about? in my youth and saying, we have all the time in the world, but we don't. We don't. Time is not to be wasted. You look on the back of the bulletin, there are three things clipped, and the one in the middle, the longest one, Robert G. Lee, he was the Baptist in Memphis for many, many years. Marsha and I had the privilege of hearing him in 73 when he came to Shreveport to preach down there at the college and church. And he points out that we need to use our time. Every moment is a gift from God. We sing a song moment by moment. It's important we understand And Sister Heath, I think it was last week, he gave me this mailing out from Sovereign Grace Messengers, it's called. And I noticed Jonathan Edwards, famous preacher from a couple of centuries ago, he had ten resolutions that he lived by. And of those ten, number five says this, Resolved never to lose one moment of time. It was important to him. It's important to those men who were used of the Lord to write down the words spoken of the Spirit. Never lose one moment of time, but improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. God gives us time. What do we do with it? What do you plan to do this week? Are you just going to flip your phone? Are you going to see if you can kill time? If you can just watch it pass. There it goes. Mark another day. Scratch another X off on the calendar. Time is the arena in which we exist. continuum. I tell people, think of time as a goldfish bowl we live in. Mr. Goldfish, that's the only world he knows. You and I, we can imagine what it would be like to live outside of time. We think about what was it like before time? What will it be like when time draws to an end? The Bible tells us a little bit. Because God is eternal. God is not bound by time. God never gets age spots or anything like that. He never has a weak moment in his mind where he says, I used to know something. I'm getting to the point now where there's some things Marshall will say, we've seen this before. We've been to this place before. And I don't say, no, we haven't. I say, I'll take your word for it. Right now, I can't get a hold of that in my head. But time does not affect God. He is the one who is outside of time. He made it. And we've already talked about the fact that it had a definite beginning. We read about that, Genesis 1-1 and other places. Time is going on right now. We market by clocks, and by calendars, and by other devices. We talk about the passing of years. We talk about somebody having an anniversary coming. So many years a couple has been together. So many years a person's been alive. So many years a person's been on the job. We recognize the passing of time. But I want to remind you, too, that time has an ending. That should sober us. Along these lines, Moses speaks in the 90th Psalm. I want you to look here for just a moment. Sometimes this is called the funeral psalm because it does get read a lot of times at funerals. But turn over to Psalm 90, please. Yeah, you've got to preach. You've got to speak at the bottom. Look at verses 9 and 10. All our days are passed away in Iran. We spend our years as a tale that is told. You know, once you hear a story, register in your mind. If you have ever read Treasure Island, then there are some characters that stand strongly in your mind. If I say Long John Silver, if you've never read Treasure Island, probably go to a fish place. But you think of old Long John. And you think about going to find that treasure, an old big gun marooned on an island. And so with all the hundreds of pages in a story, just say the title and it comes to mind. That's the way our lives are. I mentioned Jonathan Edwards, a man who was a scholar, a man who was an eloquent preacher, a man who is tirelessly going up and down the East Coast. And between him and George Whitefield, who came over from England, the two of them were the great leading lights of what we call the great revival in this country. Because long before the founding fathers, the Pilgrim Fathers came over. And they had a living faith. They were followed by the Puritans after the coast was cleared. by the pilgrims, and they came with a, many times, an orthodoxy that was cold, very stern, not very open to any of the citizens of life, just, this is the way it is, and you better learn to love it. And people became, in the churches, became, Things became cold and so formal, so stiff. And some of us may have been in some of those places where that happens. But there was a great revival. And so to get my mind going along those lines, I just think about Edwards. I think about Whitfield. When I think about preaching at its greatest, I think of the Apostle Paul. I think of John Chrysostom. I think of some others who valiantly and tirelessly preached the word. I think of a man, we call him Patrick, founded 365 churches in Ireland. He was a tireless worker for the cause of Christ. I think of Mr. Spurgeon. I think of others who unapologetically preach the gospel. You know what the greatest criticism they had of Spurgeon as he was an older man? They said, he hadn't learned enough to get beyond. He's still preaching the same thing when he started out. When he was just a teenager, he was preaching, and now he's a grown man. He's got kids, and yet he's still, he's just preaching the same thing. like he was some kind of loser. I'll tell you, we need to stick to the truth. We need to know the truth and hold to the truth. And so when I say the gospel, that speaks a world to me. When I speak of the word grace, it has a whole world of meaning to me, and yet it's encapsulated. And I think that's what it means when it says we spend our years That is told. The word life doesn't mean too much to some of these itty-bitties. It means something different to the teenager. It means something else to the 30-year-old. It means something else to the 60-year-old. And I'm pretty sure it means something else to the 80 and the 90-year-old. But no matter how long you live, And no matter how far you've been, and no matter how many experiences you've racked up in life, when it's over, that's it. We spend our lives as a tale that is told. The days of our years are three score years and 10. Some of us have almost reached it. It won't be long. Some of us have a ways to go. I can remember thinking, 70? I'll never be that old. Marsha was telling Helen when she was little, they said, let's just figure out how old we are in the year 2000. 2000, because that's so far off. And nowadays, 2000, that's in my rear view mirror. The days of our years are three score years and 10. An empire needs to strengthen before it's four years. Yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off. We fly away. Life is tenuous at best. It is temporary. It's like a vapor. You watch the steam coming off the kettle. You see it? There you go. There's it go. That's life. That's a picture of our life. If you're going to do a thing, if you say, I'll get it to tomorrow. Some of our friends in some of the places say, mañana. Always tomorrow. Why don't you do today what you can put off till tomorrow? Well, it's interesting. Holy men have expressed the realization, not just Moses. Job talks about it. David talks about the brevity, the certainty of death. Joshua in chapter 23 says, I go the way of all the earth. Let me tell you something, folks. You might be full of life and activity, and you think you can whip the world. If you live long enough, you won't have so much strength. You always have so much vitality. Reality sets in. And you might be leading the race for a while, and then somebody else laps ahead. Experience teaches us sometimes better not to speak. When we're young, we think we have all the answers. We're going to set the world right. We're going to fix the problems of the world. I think every generation goes through that phase. Then you come to the realization that I had great thoughts, great aspirations, but reality has set in. We come to see it. Likewise, as David was dying, He realized, I'm going the way of my fathers. I'm going to be joining my fathers. Where are they? They're in the graveyard. At least their bodies are. When Peter was preaching there in the book of Acts, he said, let me tell you something. We talk about David and others, but you know, they're still buried in the ground. But Jesus Christ, who walked this earth, he died. He rose from the dead. You and I haven't risen from the dead, not in a physical sense. If you're saved this morning, you've been raised spiritually, raised to newness of life, and the Lord has made you a new creature in Christ Jesus. That is a wonder, that is a marvel, and that never gets old, no matter how long we've been saved. And we have a privilege to live that before others and sometimes to speak it. Through the marvel of electronics, we have a way of recording what we say. And I'm thankful to Brother Jeremy. I got last week after the services the messages that our two deacons gave in my absence when I was Off a little rock, goofing off, no. I don't much rather hang here, trust me folks. But I'm thankful to Brother Den and to Brother Kenny for speaking. And I want you to know something, folks. It takes something to stand and deliver the word. It doesn't necessarily take a whole lot to sit in a pew and listen. Whether you listen half-heartedly or if you're like the person who's leaning forward, I want to get it all. I've known some folks that want to sit as close to the front and they want to make sure they get every word. And it's something to prepare and to deliver. And I believe both of the gentlemen reminded us that it's a sobering thing. If it ever stops being a sobering thing to me, that's time for me to hang up my vodka. Time for me to take a place on the pew and listen to somebody who's got the drive and the call to do that very thing. I hope you appreciate what that means. I covet your prayers. It's not the easiest thing in the world to meditate and to prepare and then to deliver. It's a good thing to do. It's a fulfilling thing to me. Nothing has fulfilled me in this world like the preaching of the gospel. And you have a way to preach. if it's only in the home, if it's only on the job, if it's only with a neighbor, if it's only when you go to the store, wherever you are, that's important. 2 Peter 3 reminds us even this world, it's going to be burnt up, it's going to be consummated, it's going to be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. There won't be any saloons on the new earth. There won't be any mortuaries on the new earth. No need for the hospitals. No need for so many of the programs that because of sin and shame we have. There won't be any prisons. When I would preach in the prisons, I would remind the inmates sometimes, there won't be any prisons in heaven, and I got a whole lot of amens. Can you believe that? They were tired of being locked up, put in cages if you will. Not a pretty sight. If you go to Genesis, we read about the beginning. The wrapping up, of course, is the book of Revelation. And there's a song we sing, when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more. I think we get a clue to that. Revelation chapter 10 and verse 6, it speaks to say, of God. He's the one who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there shall be time no longer. Time was made for a reason, and for a season. We're in that season right now. But those of us who are saved by the grace of God, we will spend eternity Somebody says, what is eternity? Somebody says, what's time on India? No, it's beyond time. Won't be any clocks in heaven. Somebody says, that's the only thing that the casinos and heaven have in common, no clocks. Well, there are no clocks in the casinos for a different reason, obviously. But there won't be no, well, let's get around to it. No, right here, right now, we're praising God. We're going and learning what the Lord would have us to know and to do. 1 Corinthians 15.28 says that at the consummation it will be God all in all. It won't be us running around with this little sideshow or that. No, it will be God. And we will do as God would have us to do. Part of the Lord's Prayer says, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here on earth, God tells us to do a thing and says, well, we'll see. Maybe later. I don't feel the need or whatever. No angel has ever said to the Lord, if I feel like it, I'll get around to it. Well, I'm not convicted about that. If God says a thing, it's settled. If God said it, that should settle. Christian school there at Roseville. And he got a sticker that says, God said it. I believe it. That settles it. And his name happened to be Larry. And I said, well, Larry, I like your bumper sticker, but it'd be even better. You don't even need that second part. Because if God said it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not. You know, he got him a magic mark, and he wrote straight down that second part. And he tells people, at least he did back then when we were knowing him, he'd say, if God said it, that settles it. You can have people postulate, well, I don't know. I read an article somewhere. Certain scholars say, if God said it, that's it. That's where it is. Because God is the one who operates separate from the limitations of time. We talk about the eternity of God, the infinity of God. The 139th Psalm speaks about God in such a way it says, if I go up to heaven, you're there. If I go down into hell, you're there. You can't be where God's never been, where God is not now, and God never will be. That's true about space, which is another continuum, another goldfish bowl God has made. We have not lived outside of the material world. You might think about it. You might dream about it. You might read somebody else's dreams or thoughts about it. But we only exist in a real three-dimensional world. Long before there was a world that God spoke into existence, long before there was time in which we spend the existence that we have, there was God. He is greater than. He is the Creator of, and that's where we need to be, the Infinite One. Just as Genesis 1 begins with the creation, John 1, the Gospel of John, in the beginning, before there was any land, before there was any sky, before there were any stars, there was God. In the beginning was the Word. That word, of course, is the one we speak of as the word incarnate, the message of the Father, the word of life, Christ himself. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. Don't deny his And the word was God. Some people have problems with that. That's their problem. Jesus Christ is God. He's the great God creator. We have the Father, the great mind who orchestrates and designs. We have God the Son, the activator. And then God the Holy Spirit, who is also mentioned in Genesis 1. You've got some people with chickens. And what's the chicken do? She lays the egg and she walks away. Now, lizards do that. Some other creatures do that. But chickens sit on their eggs. They cover them up, keep them warm, keep them safe. And then when those little chicks hatch, understand, if it's ducks, geese, or maybe both, or maybe something else too, When they break out of their shell, the first thing they see, that's my mama. And they follow their mama. The ducks, they go into the line down into the pond and all that, and they follow their mama. They don't have to go to school to learn how to swim. They just jump in. And we call it instinct. It's part of what God has placed to give them. Our great God, who existed before the beginning, And He is spoken of as the Eternal God. The Everlasting God. That is the way He is expressed many, many times in Scripture. In Deuteronomy chapter 33, we're reminded that the ravages of time. Some people out there think God is some guy with long, gray beard. He's just kind of bent over and he's got a little stick to hold himself up. And he just barely gets in there, you know. Well, that's not how Scripture portrays it. If you look to the 33rd of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 33. Let's go down to verse 27, eh? The Eternal God is thy refuge. And underneath are the everlasting arms. Who did God use to write that? Moses. You remember Moses? Moses was the one, and there was a time for battle. And God told Moses, I want you to stand, I want you to be there with your arms raised, and as long as your arms are raised, the battle will be for the people of God. So Moses is not a spring chicken, but he said, I can do that. And he holds out his arms. Holds them up high, I'm sure. And at the beginning of the battle, Israel is winning. The enemy has been conquered. But the battle goes on and on and on. We used to have a gym teacher. Do you think you're strong? He said, can you hold something out? And he'd give somebody a feather. Just hold it out in front of you like that. Alright, good. And, well when do I stop? When you get strong enough, just keep holding it. And after a while, those feathers seem to get heavier and heavier. No, don't turn it back up! Well Moses started out with his arms up. But after a while, He'd give out. And as his arms went down, so changed the fortunes of the war. And the Israelites were getting clobbered out there. And they found a rock for Hasidim. Moses sat on the rock. And he had two helpers came along. And one of them propped up this arm. And the other one propped up the other arm. The fortunes of the battle changed again. And Israel won the day. Moses knew, my arms are not infinite. I see these boxers get in the ring, and in their big belt buckle that they have, it says everlast, but they're not everlasting. They can only go so many rounds. Sooner or later, usually one of them goes down, and somebody counts 10 and they're out. God's never been called out. God's never been downed for the counts. That's one of the great differences between God and man. You might bluster to, I'll make it. I'll get there to the end. Look out. Read James chapter four. If you think, I want to accomplish this. I'll get it done. No, nothing's going to stop me. Oh yeah. Well, we'll just see. He says, underneath are the everlasting arms. If you prevail, it's because God is your strength and your portion forever. Amen. Somebody says, hey, hey, I read what Paul said. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yeah, don't leave out the second part of that. Because Jesus himself said in the 15th of John, without me, ye can do this much We need to know. We read about the uncorruptible God. It's true that he can't be bribed or anything like that. You can't get anything over on God, but he does not corrupt. It's interesting. You can just get something. You buy a brand new car and you just leave it out. Sooner or later, The paint can begin to oxidize. The chrome begins to pit. Somebody found a Chevy from the 50s that had been, for many, many years, locked up in a garage someplace. And they pulled it out, and they said that the tires had gotten so cheesy that they had to put new tires on it. Because that rubber, I wouldn't want to drive it like that. because time takes its toll. We live in a world where time takes its toll. Yes, it's true, Jesus said, lay up the treasures in heaven. Moth and rust corrupt things in this world. I spent a time, I worked for a fur company, and I got a real good deal. Lady said, I'll let you get this little coat, little jacket, Five cents on the dollar. It was a $2,000 blue fox for $99. I said, that's too good a deal to pass up. And so I bought it from Marsha. And on cool days in church, she'd be sitting in church, and Rebecca'd be huddled up on one side, and Mary'd be on the other. They loved it when Mama wore that fur coat, because it could be warm too. But you know what? We didn't keep that thing in a special treated vault. And we didn't put some of the things that we probably should have. And I checked it a while ago, and the moths, yummy, yum, yum. Moth and rust is just corrupt. Thieves break through and steal. Now that we have computers, we have a way to steal by way of computers. You can have something today, and the next it's gone. And yet, we realize that only in God's way, in God's time, if you will, can we have a thing that's going to be valued. That's why the Lord said, you put your real trader in heaven. Lord say, you know, back years ago, you did such and such, and this is a good work, but you took a while to get up here, buddy, and now it's all corroded. It's all messed up. It's third rate now, no. Or can you imagine what it'd be like if you arrived in heaven and the Lord said, I know you did a lot of good deeds, in life, but we have a wicked angel. He's got sticky fingers, and he took out all your treasures, and so you ain't got nothing. That ain't gonna happen, folks. We need to notice that that is so. Our great God. And when we speak about everything that God has ever done, we realize, let's go back to that 90th Psalm. We think of ourselves, we think of our experience, we think of what we can observe, and then how can you even compare it to God? His mind, His ways, His accomplishments. Look at verse 2, it says it all. Before the mountains were brought forth. When did that happen? Long, long time ago. or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world. Adam, the first man, came along after God had formed this earth. Old men have seen different things happen to affect the crust of the earth. There were people living in what is now West Tennessee, In the early part of the 19th century, there was an earthquake that really shook things up. Shook it up so much that the water running, flowing in the Memphis River, the... Thank you! The rapids of Asia. The Mississippi! It flows from way up in Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. But for a while there, the water in the Mississippi backed up and filled in a place. Today it's known as Reelfoot Lake. It's a big attraction in West Tennessee. I've been there, and people go to swim, and fish, The Indian tribes living around there, they said, see what happens when you have to let the white folks in? Because they started seeing white folks. And then all of a sudden, the earth shook. And there's this new lake, which means there's less hunting land. So a different way to look at it, maybe. But the people who experienced that, it was a memorable thing to them. And I wonder about Noah and his family, because they saw a world, and then they got in this big floating box, and they're in there for just over a year in total. People say it was 40 days, right? Well, it rained for 40 days, but the water kept rising, and then it leveled off, and then it came down. You had all those days up in Genesis. It's just a little bit over a full year's time. And when they stepped out of that, ark of safety, which is what it was, everybody else had died. All the land-based preachers that worked in the ark had died. The old world, Peter is used of the spirit to say, the old world overwhelmed with water perished. It was a new world! You might say, well, you know, after out of the garden of Eden. Things just went downhill and downhill and downhill. But then God washed the earth. Well, that should mean we're off to a new start. Yeah. But yet Noah's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, they populated what we have in the world today. And you know what? We're still building prisons. We're still building ways and trying to have mechanisms, institutions in place to check the depravity of man. The washing that took out the old world did not wash the hearts, the minds of men. When we're born, we come into this world with the same sort of nature as Adam We come in this world as sinners. That's another thing that God is separate from. God cannot look approvingly upon sin. He never has. He won't today. He never will. That's why it tells us in the 22nd Psalm Why have you forsaken me? Well, that question is answered if you read on just a few verses later. It says, you are holy. You cannot look upon sin. That is why. A place we call Calvary. It's also called Golgotha. It was a place of death. It was the dead end. It was the end for those who had defied Rome. And Rome terminated them with extreme prejudice, as some would say. And these people were publicly destroyed. They were put to death by way of crucifixion. And when Jesus, this sinless son of God, was foully accused abused and then crucified because our sin was laid upon Him. He was not a sinner in any way. He had no connection with sin whatsoever. as we count time, about three hours. And during that time, sin was upon Him. And because sin was upon Him, and He bore our sin, the Father could not, would not, look upon Him. That's why he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now let me tell you something. If you don't know Jesus Christ and the free pardon of your sin, you'll be saying that. You will stand before God without a mediator, without a substitute. because sin must be paid for. Either Jesus Christ paid for your sin, or you. That is so humbling, and it is so frightful. I think that's part of the reason why Paul said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. When we talk to people about spiritual things, when we talk about the soul, we're not fooling around. Folks, there's nothing more serious than this. If I went to the doctor and they said, we ran some tests and you've got cancer. You're going to die. That's a sobering thing. But sometimes people go into remission. Sometimes people have cures they hope for. Sometimes there's a surgery that can happen. And as long as there's life, there's hope. But there's no hope when condemnation is fully realized to stand in our sin. My friend, if you think, I'm a good person, I don't need Jesus Christ. You desperately do. Now those of us who are saved, I think everyone here who is truly saved, you would say right now, yes, I need the Lord. Not just to know some facts, not just to put a smile on my face and a song in my heart, but to be saved from my sin, to be redeemed. We sang that song, Redeemed. And I love to proclaim it. If you're uncomfortable singing a song like that, maybe that says something. Maybe your heart is telling you, I'm not really okay with this. I thought I was pretty good before I walked the aisle or did this or did that. Folks, if you put all your focus on what you do, know it's what Christ did at that place we call Calvary. He brought some flowers and some nuts and some fruits and some vegetables. Hey God, look what I did. I put a lot of time in it. A lot of my sweat equity. God would not accept that. And God will not accept your, well, you know, I was a member of the PTA. I gave some money to the good will. I actually did this and that. I've got a lot of good things to commend me. Now, there is nothing but the blood of Jesus. There's a song we sing sometimes, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's a good song. I bet you have another song for us to sing, don't you? Very good. So let's do that now.