Thank you to Reverend Wilson. And I've been asked, and I'm thankfully remembered, to not only welcome you, but to welcome those who are viewing on the live stream this evening as well. I'd like you to turn to Psalm 90. Psalm 90. And I know time is moving on. The original schedule said I would be preaching the quarter past, so that's five minutes ago. But it's Psalm 90. And we'll read just a part of the psalm. Psalm 90. And the title of this psalm says, A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. And in the opening verse, we read, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." And then if you just come down to the verse 10, the verse 10, the days of our years are threescore years in 10. And if by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long, and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. And we know the Lord will bless the reading of his word to your hearts tonight. Let's just bow briefly in prayer as we come to God's word tonight. Father in heaven, we thank thee for being with us already this evening as we've gathered here in the house of God. We thank thee as we even look back over a year that has almost passed into eternity. that we have reason to thank Thee for Thy mercy and Thy grace. For we know that Thy mercies are new every morning, and we can say, great is Thy faithfulness. And we pray now as we turn to Thy Word that Thou will speak afresh to our hearts this evening. We pray that beyond the voice of the preacher, that we will be conscious that thou art speaking to us personally and individually, as thou dost see the very need of our hearts tonight, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This psalm was penned by Moses, and as we read in the title, it is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. And of course, the circumstances in which this prayer was offered and penned are very important to fully understand this psalm. And you can take the time to read Numbers chapter 13 and Numbers chapter 14, which really give us something of a background to this particular psalm and the prayer that Moses offered. And of course, in those chapters, you read of the sentence which God pronounced upon the people of Israel because of their sin. They, of course, had been brought out of the bondage of Egypt, and God was bringing them to the promised land of Canaan. And God had instructed Moses to send up 12 spies into the land. And each of those 12 spies represented one of the tribes. And for 40 days, those spies went through the land and searched it out. And then they came back with their report. All of the spies agreed that the land was a land that flowed with milk and honey. It was a fruitful land. But 10 of the spies in their report declared that the people were so great and the cities were so great and walled up that they could not go and possess that land. Caleb, along with Joysha, spoke up. Caleb, first of all, and he was confident that if the Lord delighted in them, he would give them the land, and they should go up at once. and possess the land. But it was the case that the people listened to the majority report, and they wept all night, and they murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, would it not have been better to die in Egypt or even in the wilderness rather than to be taken into Canaan and to perish by the sword? And yet again, Joshua and Caleb, who had the good report and the report that we should go up, they also had reason to weep, as did Moses and Aaron. And at a particular point, the glory of the Lord appeared. And as God spoke to Moses, God said He would destroy the whole nation. He would make a greater nation of Moses, and yet Moses interceded, and he interceded for the glory of God. And he said to the Lord, if it is heard that this nation are wiped out just now at once in the wilderness, it will be said that the Lord brought them out of Egypt, but he couldn't bring them into the land, the promised land, and so they're being destroyed in the wilderness. And he asked the Lord to show his mercy, his long-suffering, his power, and his pardon. And the Lord said he'd heard Moses, he would pardon, but there would still be consequences. For those who had seen what had happened in Egypt, those who had seen already what he had done in the wilderness, and yet they wouldn't go up. and possess the land at once. And all who were over 20 years of age when they come out of Egypt, they would not see the land, apart, of course, from Caleb and Joysha. They had disobeyed the voice of the Lord. The 10 spies who had brought back the evil report, they died in the plague. And over a period of 40 years, As Israel would make their way through the wilderness toward the promised land, all who were over 20 when they come out of Egypt would die there in the wilderness. They would not see the promised land. And that's really the background to this particular psalm as Moses prayed, even as he interceded for the people. We are reminded tonight, as we look back on this year that is almost gone, we have needed prayer. We've needed to pray ourselves. We've needed to pray for one another. We have needed the prayers of others. But most of all, we have needed the prayers of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who ever lives to intercede for us. And of course, Moses, in so many ways, is a type of the Lord Jesus. But as we look into the new year that will soon begin, we will still need to pray as the Lord's people. We will need to pray for ourselves, for one another. We will need to pray for our congregations. We will need to pray for our land. We will need to pray for the salvation of sinners. And as we think of this psalm, and I haven't a particular text tonight. In a sense, I'm overviewing the psalm, but I'll do it quickly. But I just want you to think of three things that stand out in this psalm as Moses prayed. Three things that are relevant as we come to the end of one year and pass into a new year. And the first thing that stands out in this psalm are the consequences of sin. Because as you read down the psalm, and we didn't take the time to read right down the whole psalm, but Moses emphasized in this psalm the consequences of sin. Yes, particularly even for the people of Israel and the circumstances they were in, the sentence that had been passed, but the consequences of sin are the same from when Adam fell, right until this very day and right until the end of time. And one of the consequences of sin is that we will all die. Life is brief. One of the consequences of sin is that God is angry with us as mankind because of our sin. If you look there at the verses 5 and 6, the verses 5 and 6, Moses says to the Lord, thou carriest them away as with a flood. They arise asleep. In the morning, they are like grass, which groweth up. In the morning, it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening, it is cut down and withereth." And there we see one of the consequences of sin. We will all die. There is the morning of our lives. There is the evening of our lives. We grow up and flourish, and we're cut down and dead. And none of us know how long we have in life, how long the morning of our life is, how long the evening of our life is. When you look down there to verses 9 and 10, verses 9 and 10, Moses says, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." The consequences of sin, there's the labor and sorrow, There's death that will come, and of course, it speaks there of the three score years and 10, and then the four score years, because keep in mind the sentence that was put upon the people of Israel, all who were over 20 when they come out of Egypt, apart from Caleb and Joshua, they were going to die in the wilderness over a period of 40 years. So those who were 20 when they come out, They couldn't live any longer than 60. Those that were 30 couldn't live any longer than 70. Those that were 40 when they came out couldn't live any longer than 80. And of course, before that, people had lived longer. Moses himself lived longer. He was 130. And we know ourselves. We think of those in our families. those who have passed in this scene of time, different age groups. But the consequence of sin is this, it's death. By nature, we are born as those spiritually dead. We're going to die physically. And of course, without salvation, there is the second death. And so, in this psalm, there's no doubt that Moses sets before us the consequences of sin. And the consequences of sin preach a simple message to us, that we need to turn from our sin. We need to trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation, because then no longer will we be spiritually dead. We will have spiritual life. And therefore, when physical death comes, It is but the beginning of eternal life. In fact, when we're saved, eternal life has already begun within our souls. And so as this year is almost over, and as we look into a new year, the message of God's Word concerning the consequences of sin is still the same. The wages of sin is death. As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned, how important then that we have turned from our sin and trusted in Christ for salvation. Otherwise, you will experience the second death. But the second thing I want you to note here in this Psalm 90, not only the consequences of sin, I want you to think about the contrast between God and man, because this Psalm shows clearly that man is sinful and frail and dying, while God is just the opposite. He is sinless, He is mighty, and He is eternal. Therefore, we should fear and reverence Him, and as we've said, turn from our sin. cast ourselves upon his mercy. The opening verse of the psalm, when Moses says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. We can find a dwelling place in God. Verse 2 speaks of God's eternity. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world. even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. God had no beginning, and God will have no end. And as God, He is the all-knowing One. Verse 8 says, thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. There's nothing that God does not know about us because He is God. He is the everlasting God. Verse 11 speaks of His power. Verse 11, who knoweth the power of thine anger? And as you look on down there to the verse 14, it speaks of God's mercy. As you look down to verse 16, it speaks about His work. Verse 17, it speaks about His beauty. What a God. our God is. And yet what a contrast we are as mankind. We are, according to verse 10, those who are dying. We will soon be cut off, and we will fly away. And of course, verse 12, reminds us that we are foolish and we need wisdom from God, so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. And while there's such a great contrast between God and man, God and us, yet God has condescended in the person of His Son to come into this world, to come as perfect man, to come as the God man, to live for us, to go to the cross at Calvary and suffer and shed His blood and die to be buried and to rise again to provide eternal life for us, to provide a way whereby we can know God. This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God. and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. We can know God personally and savingly, though he is so far above us, and we are so undeserving. There's a lovely verse in Isaiah chapter 57, and the verse 15, and it speaks about how great God is, and yet how gracious He is when it comes to salvation. Isaiah 57 and the verse 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. With Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Here is God, and He is high and lofty. He inhabits eternity, and yet He will dwell with those who are of a contrite and a humble spirit. And of course, it's only when God works in our hearts that He causes us to become contrite and humble. to acknowledge our sin, to turn from it, and to trust in Him for salvation. Brings us to a final thought here in this Psalm 90. Yes, we're reminded of the consequences of sin. We're reminded of the great contrast between God and us. But I want you to consider Moses calling upon God. This psalm is a prayer. And as you come toward the end of the psalm, really from verse 12 right down to the end, Moses is offering petitions, not only on his own behalf, but of course, on behalf of the people of Israel. And there in verse 12, keeping in mind that, yes, they knew their days were numbered. Those, as we have said, who were 20 years and over when they came out of Egypt, they weren't going to see the promised land. They knew within 40 years they were going to be dead. And yet, his prayer in verse 12 is, so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. Even though their days were numbered, they could use those days. to apply their hearts onto wisdom. All of our days are numbered. There are bounds we cannot pass. And we should pray every day that God would enable us to apply our hearts onto wisdom. And if you're not saved, to apply your heart onto wisdom is to become wise unto salvation. It is to accept God's Word, to turn from your sin, and to trust in Christ for salvation. And for each one of us who are saved, to seek to live in the light of eternity, to live for the Lord, as we sang in that hymn, I have only one life on this earth, and as vapor it's passing away, I must labor for treasures of worth, their toil ends at the close of the day. But then when you move into verse 13, Moses has another petition. He's really praying for the moving of God among the people. Verse 13, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants." Yes, they had sinned, and there were consequences, but he was asking the Lord to move among them. And for the Lord to move among them, the Lord had to show mercy. And that's what he was also asking, because in verse 14, he said, Oh, satisfy us early. with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days, despite their sin and the consequences of not going up to possess the land at once when they should have at first, and they knew the sentence that had been passed, yet they could look to the Lord for His mercy. And those days that they had left upon earth, they could pray, as Moses was praying for them, that they might rejoice and be glad all their days. For saved we have reason, in the midst of all the trials of life, to rejoice all our days in the Lord. and his salvation. The verse 15 continues, "'Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil.' And as he prayed for the moving of God among them, which involved the Lord being merciful to them, He was also praying for the might or the power of God to be demonstrated among them. Verse 16, let thy work appear unto thy servants and thy glory unto their children. Their children were the future. Those who were under 20 when they come out of Egypt were going to see the promised land. And Moses was praying that the power, the might of God might be demonstrated among them. And that last verse, that the majesty of the Lord might be upon them, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. We can take the same petitions from this psalm. We can pray them for ourselves as individuals, for our families, for our congregations. as we enter into a new year, because we don't know what lies ahead in this new year, just as we didn't know what lay ahead at the beginning of this year that is almost gone. But God is still the same, and He is unchanging. And as we give ourselves to prayer for His blessing in this new year that we will soon enter, we can take these same petitions that God will move in our hearts and lives revive His church, that God will move in the hearts and lives of those that are out of Christ that they might be saved, that the Lord would show mercy to our land and to our nation, that His might, His power might be displayed, that those that are out of Christ might see the beauty of the Lord Jesus in our lives, even as His people. The hymn writer said, Lord, send us revival. Let it begin now in me, gladly dethroning each rival. Yield I my heart unto thee." If you're not saved tonight, you need to come to the Lord for salvation. And for each of us who are saved, We need to rededicate our lives to the Lord and determine by His grace that we will live for Him in this new year that we will soon enter. May the Lord write His word upon our hearts this evening for His name's sake. We're going to come to the Lord now in prayer, and I will lead off in the time of prayer, and the Reverend McClung will bring the time of prayer to an end. Let's just make use of the time and just seek the Lord together.