At 70 or at most 80 you die!
(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Aug 14, 05)
Text: Ps. 90:1-12
There is a Chinese proverb which says, “It is rare for a man to live up to 70.” When I came with my parents to Singapore from China in 1926 I first saw my grandfather who came here before us. He was 65 years old and I felt he would not live much longer because of what the Chinese proverb says. The Bible, which is God’s Word, says it more accurately, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). To word it more vividly, we have entitled our sermon, “At 70 or at most 80 you die!” Not everyone will live up to this ripe old age. My mother lived up to only 54 and my baby Girl of 7 months died 5 weeks after my mother. Everybody wants to live forever.
Let us learn a lesson from my cousin Miss Tow Soon Ai who passed away unexpectedly last week. She must have been ill for a year, going through kidney dialysis. Then she fell on her way to church on the Lord’s Day, which resulted in the amputating of her feet. This brought her much grief. She recovered enough to be able to do some cooking and go out shopping. Despite her illness, my cousin was full of life. I was so happy that she would recover completely, I thought, when I heard she was warded at the NUH hospital again. We went to see her but she could not wake up. The next day the shocking news came that she died. She was in her mid-eighties. There is no question but that she is in heaven now but all her well-wishers wanted her to live.
How old are you, in your sixties? Whether sixties or seventies we are all the children of death. Our strength is paradoxically full of labour and sorrow. And when a person grows old he or she has to pay for medicine more than for food. Life is seeing the doctor without ceasing. Since the doctor cannot completely heal you, you have to prepare for death!
The shortness of our lives are compared with a flood that comes in and goes out in a matter of hours. It is like taking a nap. It is like grass that grows up in the morning but is cut down by the evening. James says, “It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (Jas. 4:14)
By our sins we have incurred God’s anger over us. By our secret sins which are all exposed before His eyes. So we must ask God to teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. We must repent.
Moses’ first wife died during their wilderness journey to the Promised Land. Moses chose an Ethiopian wife, a black woman, who was approved of God to help him (Num. 12:1-15). The importance of a wife can be seen from Moses’ 90th Psalm though the wife is not directly mentioned.
Although husbands and wives are not openly mentioned it applies to you and me. Husbands and wives have only a short time to live together. We should make it the best we can. Husbands should love their wives and wives should reverence their husbands. Paul says it three times in Ephesians Chapter 5. This is because too many husbands are not loving their wives. As a result many wives have cooled off towards their husbands, leaving their first love. I have known of a wife who dutifully cooked three meals for her husband. Since he took her for granted without any appreciation, when she fell ill she died in a short time as if to say good riddance to her husband. Now the husband has to eat his meals irregularly, seated sadly by himself all alone.
How quickly time flies. How old are you? Whether you like it or not “At 70 or at most 80, you die!” But do you know you are saved or not. The answer is either it is heaven or hell. Where will you go?
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” The wisest thing to do is to repent.
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XIV
John 14:7-15
3. Jesus and the Father are One
The doctrine of the Son’s equality with the Father has been enunciated to the Jews on several occasions when Jesus’ authority was challenged. (Review your earlier lessons in John). Philip knows something about this, but is not clear, so he wants to know more (v. 8). So it must have been with the other disciples, and with us.
Jesus and the Father are one because He is the only begotten Son of God. John 1:1 and 2, in introducing us to the True God against the false ones and idols, declares: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” In these statements we are introduced to the mystery of the eternal Godhead: To the unity of God, and to the Trinity of God, Jesus the Son being the Second Person and the Comforter of v. 16 the Third Person.
Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person (Hebrews 1:3) so that it is true to say that when we see Him we see the Father. Is that not our experience when we see some son who looks and speaks and acts so similar to his father? Jesus is one with the Father in substance (essence), power and glory (Shorter Catechism A. 6). Proof that Jesus is God: His miracles (Works). Read v. 10, 11.
A most comforting thought is that the disciples, who would be Jesus’ hands and feet when the Head is ascended on high, were promised power to do the works of God like the Son, even more! Here in v. 12-15 Jesus hints of the Pentecostal power to come upon the Church. By faith, we can do the same today! “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it” (v. 14).
John 14:16-26
4. The Sending of the Holy Spirit
As our Lord has hinted of the power to be unleashed upon His disciples, He now reveals more fully the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, through Whom His power will be given. The Holy Ghost (old English) or Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, or Counsellor in another translation. The Greek word is Paracletos which literally means One called to one’s side, or Advocate (1 John 2:1). The Holy Spirit as a Divine Person is here more clearly revealed than in the Old Testament.
In the history of redemption, there is a progressive revelation of God’s gracious outworkings in three dispensations. l) In the Old Testament, God is presented as “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity.” 2) In the New Testament God is seen through His only begotten Son. 3) With the return of our Lord to heaven, “another Comforter” was sent in His room, and He it is that continues to this day the ministry of the incarnate Saviour, by wooing sinners to Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to be born again by bringing us to the crucified and risen Saviour. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals the Truth of Scripture to us after we’re born again. The Holy Spirit brings us not only to the Son but also to the Father (v. 20). Romans 8:14, 15: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” If you have the Spirit of God in you, you can see things that the natural man cannot see, the spiritual and heavenly truths which are foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 2).
In v. 26 Jesus says the Holy Spirit “shall teach you all things and bring to remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Calvin comments that we need patience to learn the things of Christ until the Spirit makes plain what we seemed to have often read or heard in vain. Outward preaching will be useless unless the teaching of the Spirit is added to it. This should supplement what Christ says to Judas (not Iscariot) under what condition God will manifest Himself to man – when we love Him and keep His commandments (v. 21).
John 14:27; 30
5. Peace that transcends the world (v. 27)
Memorise the golden text of this verse, for we so much need peace in this troubled world!
Bishop J. C. Ryle comments: “Peace is Christ’s peculiar gift; not money, not worldly ease, not temporal prosperity. These are at best very questionable possessions. They often do more harm than good to the soul. They act as clogs and weights to our spiritual life. Inward peace of conscience, arising from a sense of pardoned sin and reconciliation with God, is a far greater blessing. This peace is the property of all believers, whether high or low, rich or poor.”
The peace which Christ gives He calls “my peace”. It is specially His own to give, because He bought it by His own blood, purchased it by His own substitution, and is appointed by the Father to dispense it to a perishing world. Just as Joseph was sealed and commissioned to give corn to the starving Egyptians, so is Christ specially commissioned, in the counsels of the Eternal Trinity, to give peace to mankind.
The peace that Christ gives is not given as the world gives. What He gives the world cannot give at all, and what He gives is given neither unwillingly, nor sparingly, nor for a little time. Christ is far more willing to give than the world is to receive. What He gives He gives to all eternity, and never takes away. He is ready to give abundantly above all that we can ask or think. “Open thy mouth wide,” He says, “and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81: 10).
Peace that overcomes Satan (v. 30)
“For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” J. C. Ryle further comments: Our Lord would have his disciples know that Satan, ‘the prince of this world,’ was about to make his last and most violent attack on Him. He was mustering all his strength for one more tremendous onset. He was coming up with his utmost malice to try the second Adam in the garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross of Calvary. But our blessed Master declares, “He hath nothing in Me.” – “There is nothing he can lay hold on. There is no weak and defective point in Me. I have kept my Father’s commandment, and finished the work He gave me to do. Satan, therefore, cannot overthrow Me. He can lay nothing to my charge. He cannot condemn Me. I shall come forth from the trial more than conqueror.”
