PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
Charles Remmington
Psalm 90: 2-12; Psalm 102: 23-27; Isaiah 53: 10-11 (…satisfied)
You may have noticed that each of these scriptures we have read together speaks of the days. In Psalm 90 David who has recorded this prayer of Moses could speak of the weakness of man when measured against God who is from eternity to eternity, “thou art God”. He had a sense of his own weakness. And where we ended it says, “So teach us to number our days”. I would like you to think about that, numbering your days. Psalm 102 speaks prophetically of the Lord Jesus, who is speaking to God there, “My God, take me not away in the midst of my days!”, divine feeling entering into that. The counterpart to that is what we find in Isaiah 53, prolonged days. I would like you to remember these three things, numbering your days, cutting off in the midst of the days and prolonged days.
I would like to begin with Psalm 90. This is ‘A Prayer of Moses, the man of God’ – a man who had experience with God and no doubt David as thinking over it would include it in these Psalms as he would feel the weakness and the frailty of man in the presence of God. Sometimes the Lord works with us in that way, He brings to bear upon us the weakness and the frailty of our mortal frame and brings home to bear upon us the mortality, the corruptibility and the frailty of these vessels that we find ourselves in. How wonderful that the believer then has hope! He has a hope that is outside the frame in which we find ourselves, he has the hope of a body of glory to which no such things can be attached. It is immortal and will go right through to the eternal day to which corruptibility cannot be attached. But, as in this scene here, the writer speaks of the fact that God, “hadst formed the earth and the world, even from eternity to eternity thou art God”. This is the One who we have to do with in the gospel, the One who is from eternity and to eternity. What human words can we use, what can we say as to this? “Eternity to eternity”, we who are so familiar with time, time cannot be attached to eternity. God Himself, the one who inhabits eternity, yet He is the One who has seen fit in His wisdom to create the sun, the moon, the stars and the earth and with it He has created time, that with which we are so familiar. This is a relatively short space of time. I am not saying there is eternity and then there is time, that is not the thought; it is from eternity to eternity, but we speak of the ‘dip into time’. This time in which we are is when God is working out in the hearts and the souls and the lives of persons something which will go right through to the eternal day. How futile and how weak and how paltry are the efforts of man to establish certain things upon this earth. How men make their plans, make their forecasts, how often they turn out to be foolish. The right thing for a believer and the right thing for every one of us, whether believer or not is to go a day at a time. Hence the exhortation here, “teach us to number our days”. None of us knows whether today will be our last day; this maybe a very simple and obvious thing to say, but, the day we are living today you will never have again. You will have the memory of it; tomorrow, if the Lord will that you are here you will have the memory of today, but you will never live today again. So, how are you going to live your days? Here the writer is speaking in the light of the fact of God who is “from eternity to eternity”, he says, “Thou makes mortal man to return to dust, and sayest, Return, children of men”. I spoke of the ambitions and plans of men, their long term forecasts and their planning, how God often comes in and just touches things, turns them to foolishness. How often this happens, maybe with the very article of death; death is no respecter of persons, no respecter of age, but it comes in and interrupts so many plans of persons. It says here, “Thou makest mortal man to return to dust” – think about that – perhaps to those who are younger, it comes as a shock to think that we are dust. God, in the beginning of Genesis “formed Man, dust of the ground” (Gen 2: 7), wonderful creature. We might say the headstone of all creation. He had created the flora and the animal creation, each having its own beauty and God could say it was good. He made the animals and they were good, but he made man which was very good, but formed of the dust. Furthermore sin having come in and Eve having partaken of that fruit of which she was forbidden to take and fallen to the wiles of the devil in questioning what God had said. Then the solemn word to Adam, “For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return”, Gen 3: 19.
And so it goes on, “For a thousand years, in thy sight, are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: and in the morning they are like grass that groweth up”; we can read through this Psalm and consider it for ourselves as to where we stand in relation to God for the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6: 23). That is the penalty of sin having come in. But the writer goes on, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance”. We are having to do with the all seeing, all knowing God, the One who sees us as we are gathered together now, the One who looks right into the very crevices of your heart and who will know just where you are in relation to Him. The One with whom we have to do. It is not a question of ifs or buts, it is the One with whom you have to do.
So, it says here, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins” – can you not see the gospel opening up? The conscience working? From one’s own experience perhaps what we do in secret is more of a sinful character than what is done publicly. Perhaps we are away from the family, away from the brethren, away from who we think to be taking account of us. Are you not conscious of the eye of God upon you? The fear of God would keep us, the fact that God, great as He is, from eternity to eternity, would take account of every action, every deed and every thought and as a sinner you are away from God and you need a Saviour. The glory of the glad tidings is that He has provided a Saviour and provided a way out of this. I raise the challenge here – our days are perhaps three score years and ten, may be four score years, maybe we live to seventy, maybe through reason of strength we live to eighty. It says here, “So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”. Perhaps the Lord is teaching us something. I believe the Lord is teaching us something, making us realise we are not perhaps as strong as we think we are. It does not take too long in our lives before we realise our weakness, so “teach us to number our days”. Maybe the Lord would take different ways of doing that with each one of us.
The glorious subject of the glad tidings is the Person of the Lord Jesus, the One whom He has established as heir of all, whose Name has been established by which there is life and by which there is power and by which there is forgiveness of sins. It meant that the Lord Jesus had to come here, to take up a body and a condition here in which He could taste death. Think of who He was in His greatness and His glory, One who did not consider it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God. Think of the humbling that entered into the Lord Jesus coming here as being found as that lowly babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Think of the pathway which the Lord Jesus took from babyhood, to childhood, to a young boy, through all the various stages of life, commencing His public life at about thirty years of age when the Spirit would descend upon Him. I would like us just to pause and consider afresh of those days of the Lord Jesus – perfect, undefiled, separated from sin – One who as here was ever moving fully in the will of God. It was His pleasure to do the will of God. Hebrews speaks of that, “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears; and having been heard because of his piety; though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered”, Heb. 5: 7. What can one say as to that? “He learned obedience from the things which he suffered”. Every day was absolutely perfect, not a thought, not an action, not a movement would be apart from the will of the Father. That is wonderful to contemplate. Read John’s gospel and you can see the days of the Lord Jesus, take account of the number of days which are referred to at the time of the death of Lazarus, he “remained two days where he was” (John 11: 6), then “six days before the Passover”, John 12: 1. The gospel commences early on with the first day, the second day and the third day, but every day was a pleasure to the eyes of heaven. Yet He came into this condition to lay it down, for He was to actually die. I speak for myself, we perhaps speak somewhat lightly in the gospel of the fact that the Lord Jesus died. But I would like afresh this afternoon to think of the immensity and the greatness of it. The One who had the right to live and yet He laid down His life in death. He was actually numbered amongst the dead. The reality of that came into the soul of the Lord Jesus in deep feeling. Remember the way in which He could speak, “now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour”, John 12: 27. Remember too in Gethsemane as being given the cup of the Father which He had to drink He could beg of the Father, “If it be possible let this cup pass from me, but not as I will but as thou wilt”, Matt. 26: 39. Remember too, His standing on the mount with the three disciples, Peter John and James, one account tells us what Moses and Elias were speaking to Him about. Moses and Elias appearing in glory spoke of His departure which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem (see Luke 9: 31). A conversation in heavenly places, but all this was a reality to the Lord Jesus as He went on and came down to face the very article of death itself, as it says prophetically here, “He weakened my strength in the way, he shortened my days. I said, My God take me not away in the midst of my days!” Divine feelings entering into that. At about thirty three and a half years how His life could be shortened, not even that of the three score years and ten, but His life was shortened and He laid His life down as a righteous.
Think of the way in which the Lord Jesus could be hung upon a cross. Take a view of Him there, see Him there on that hill outside of Jerusalem suffering the common horrible death of a crucifixion. Either side of Him were malefactors, robbers, thieves, those who were justly there; the Lord Jesus having already borne the suffering at the hand of man was there to be lifted up. There He was as lifted up, become the spectacle of man who ridiculed, those passing by said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save”, Matt 27: 42. One of the thieves himself ridiculing the Lord Jesus Himself. Think of that word of the other, “we indeed justly … but this man has done nothing amiss”, Luke 23: 41. There hanging upon that cross the One who had His life shortened, had His steps weakened on account of what He undertook for you and for me. He was there suffering, the suffering for me. I can say, thank God for that. He bore my sins in His body on that tree. Can you say that? Can you look up to heaven now, the opened heavens, and see every sin that you have committed, those secret sins, those public sins, those thoughts, all those actions that you have done, and can you say, Yes, Jesus bore every one of those sins and the way is clear? You say, how can that be, what is the witness of it? Give me the witness of that. The testimony and the witness of it was that that blood was shed – the soldier in cruelty pierced His side and forthwith came out blood and water. What a wonderful thing that was! That blood was for God, “when I see the blood, I shall pass over you”. That is your surety, that is your cover if you put your faith and trust in that finished work of Jesus and what He has done to the satisfaction of God for time and for eternity, you know that all is clear. Your conscience is clear, the way is open before God, you can go in, the veil of the temple is rent, and God is now ready to impart blessings upon you to give you the peace and joy alone can be found as confessing with your mouth.
I have spoken of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, His life being shortened, His days being shortened but it says in Isaiah, “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to suffering. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” – “shalt make his soul an offering for sin”, there are feelings entering into this. One thing I can say this afternoon, whilst the preacher may try to convey something of the feelings of God, however inadequately, the whole divine system is towards you in deep affections and that has been expressed in making His soul an offering for sin. Think of all those offerings that have been before in those Old Testament times, how much blood had been shed and all those offerings that are piled upon those altars but there was never a time like it when the Lord Jesus offered Himself up as the righteous offering, as the sinless One that you and I, the sinners, might go free, the just for the unjust. “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days” – is this not wonderful? His days on earth were shortened, here His days are prolonged, where is He now? He is living! He is living at the right hand of God and is living eternally. He is there for you now as we speak. He has been into the grave, He knew what it was to die, He knew what it was to commit His spirit into the hand of the Father, He knew the paradise. These are very deep and holy subjects. He was placed in that grave, went through all this for us, but think of the delight of the Father coming to that grave and raising the Lord Jesus. The stone was rolled away and the victory of it! It says an angel sat on it, and there, what do we see? An empty grave! The Father had been there before, He had been to that grave and raised the Lord Jesus; such was His delight and such was His pleasure in the work of the Lord Jesus He could raise Him so that He could be seen and handled, but then to be taken up and ascended at the right hand of God, never more to have to say to the question of sin. That has been settled once and for all. He will come back again to take up His rights and to reign, and blessed be His Name we shall be with Him too, we shall reign with Him. That is the hope of every believer, but “he shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days”. This is the counterpart to Psalm 102, shortened of days but now prolonged of days and “he shall see a seed”. The Lord perhaps saw that seed in the disciples, saw that in the beginning, saw the twelve disciples and what will flow out of those disciples, the early apostles, the early Christians and here we are now nearly two thousand years on, many many days have entered into that. “He shall see a seed”, He saw something that was going to be planted and something that would grow into something like Himself, it will grow into a new order, something that He would look upon and take pleasure in. Looking round this room this afternoon, I think we can see something of that seed, that which is going to give Him pleasure eternally and is going to prolong His days. I think He saw that seed in the thief, the one who got the blessing, the one who went to paradise with Jesus, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”, Luke 23: 43. How quickly the work of God works, instanteously almost there, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”, there was a seed sown and there was something that was of pleasure for the heart of the Lord Jesus even in that dark hour in the confession of that thief. Think of what the Lord found even in one like a thief.
I read recently a preaching, in which the preacher was speaking of the Lord Jesus. He said, He lost a thief in Judas, but gained a thief on the cross. That thief on the cross had some appreciation of the glory of the One who was there; it seemed as though Judas did not. I believe the thief on the cross meant much to the heart of the Lord Jesus, all part of His seed. He shall be with the Lord Jesus, he will be raised, he will be given a body of glory. But it says, “he shall prolong his days”, right through to the eternal day when there will be myriads secured in this time scene for Him and they will come out in display and will be there for the eternal worship of God, “he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”.
That is a wonderful thing to think about; the pathway of the Lord Jesus constantly yielded pleasure to the eyes of heaven. I wonder what your days yield by way of pleasure to divine Persons? Are you in the hand of the Lord Jesus? That is where you yield pleasure. It says, “and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”, it will be so in the millennial day, everything will be under the hand of the Lord Jesus, it will be so and there will unprecedented prosperity upon this earth of a material kind. What we are concerned about now in the gospel preaching is not your material prosperity. God may bless you a little according to your material prosperity, that may be so; it is no sign exactly of God’s favour towards you, but what we are concerned about is your soul prosperity and you gain that and keep that by keeping in His hand. Keep in His hand, keep in a sense of being in the hand of the Lord Jesus, be near Him, have communion with Him, have the same growing appreciation of what He has done, and where He is now. Where He is now there are prolonged days. I believe that if we do not have some appreciation of where He is in the glory now we are in danger of slipping back into the world from which we were saved. We need that living link. We need to be kept in the sense of being in the hand of the Lord Jesus. It is a bit like what John says as writing to Gaius, “I desire that in all things thou shouldest prosper and be in health” but he would wish that his soul prospered, “even as thy soul prospers” (3 John 2). That would be the wish of every godly minded person this afternoon, He would wish that you would prosper in your soul. What we deal with here in the gospel this afternoon is not material prosperity, far be it, it is far beyond that; it is what is of a spiritual lasting eternal value. That is what we grapple with, that is what we are seeking, just to imbibe something and trust that the Lord and the Spirit will take of it and work and use it and it will come out in these prolonged days. These thoughts are very simple, but I trust that the Lord will use them for the forming of our thoughts, He perhaps might just raise the question, “teach us to number our days”, because I believe the Lord is teaching us, He is saying something to us and He is speaking to us very loudly, whether it be young or whether it be old, “teach us to number our days”. None of us know how many more days are left for us. The Lord is coming for us, that is the hope and expectation of every believer in which we will be raptured, we will be given our bodies of glory. Maybe if the Lord sees fit, He might take to Himself any one of us through death, but even then, how much better it is to be with Jesus. It is better. The hope of the believer is so great compared to the poor things of this world that we can go through this scene as victorious, but nevertheless exercised, deeply exercised persons. Keep yourself in the hand of the Lord Jesus, there you will find soul prosperity. May the Lord bless the word.
Colchester
10 October 2004