1734. Satisfied With the Steadfast Love of God, Pt. 1

Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from Chapel Services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. Today and tomorrow, we're featuring a sermon preached from the Bob Jones University 2023 Bible Conference. The author of Faith Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, will be preaching a message based on the theme of the Bible Conference titled, Satisfied with the Steadfast Love of God.

I met brother Skelly a number of years ago. I have preached in his church at the Faith Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. For 20 years he pastored the Harvest Baptist Church in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. He's a featured speaker at many Bible conferences, revival meetings, youth conferences. He speaks regularly at the Wilds. In addition to his pastoral ministry, he serves as the chairman of the board for Veritas Baptist College, owner of the Land of the Bible Tours, and he is a host of the Everyday Truth Podcast. He and his wife have been married since 1998.

They have four adult married children, and most importantly, they have six precious grandchildren. And we are thrilled to have him here. I appreciate his love for the Lord, his passion for preaching, his desire to communicate the Bible in a very powerful way, not just to the head but to the heart and to the life. So would you please give Pastor Kurt Skelly a warm welcome as he comes this morning. What a joy to be here at Bob Jones University. I've been praying for this conference, and I prayed for you as a group, and so thanks for letting me come.

Not that you had any choice in the matter, but thanks for at least coming and being here this morning. I want you to look at Psalm 90 this morning in your Bible. I love the theme. I love the theme of Bible conference this year, the steadfast love of God, the hesed love of God. And all of us speakers have the privilege of speaking on that broad topic of the love of God, the hesed love of God. And Psalm 90 is such a great passage of Scripture to help us to understand a little bit more about this great quality of God. And I want you to look at Psalm 90. Keep your Bible open. I want you to look, if you would, at verse number 14.

We're going to work our way toward it in the course of the message, but I want to start with it just now so you'll know exactly where we're going. Psalm 90, and look please, if you would, at verse number 14, where the Psalmist, Moses, says, O satisfy us early with thy mercy. Of course, by now you know that hesed is translated differently in some different places in the Bible. Here, it's translated mercy. This is the loyal, steadfast love of God. O satisfy us early, this is a prayer of Moses, a corporate prayer from Moses to God.

O satisfy us early with thy steadfast, loyal love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Let's pray together. Our Father, we are grateful for this moment, realizing that every day is a gift from You, and then each moment is a unique gift from You. And I pray, Lord, in these moments, that You would help us to give our full and undivided attention to Your precious, holy, eternal, and salable Word.

I pray that these would be moments of introspection. I pray that You would do a work in this service today by Your Holy Spirit that only You can do. I pray in a real sense as I speak on the outside that You would speak on the inside. I pray that not one person today would, would ignore the truth of this message. I pray that every single person, whether here in this very room or watching via the live stream or even watching or listening at some later date, would receive the message of Your Word in an open, humble, receptive way. Lord, I pray that You would give me clarity of mind. I pray that You would help me to say those things that would be completely consistent with what Your Word teaches. I pray most of all that this would not just be another service, another message. But I pray that in a deep way, You would work in our hearts.

Please, God, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Moses only wrote one Psalm, Psalm 90. Of course, you don't typically associate Moses with the Psalms. If I were to say Psalms, typically you would say David, and David did write many of the Psalms, 73. But Moses was a Psalm writer and he was a songwriter. At least four separate songs or poems Moses wrote. Exodus chapter 15, Numbers, or Deuteronomy chapter 31 and Deuteronomy chapter 33 and then Psalm 90. And so Moses did put words to poetry, he did write songs.

Of course, Moses is the writer of the Pentateuch, the Torah, and he's writing this particular Psalm when the people of God are in the wilderness. Now, when they were in the wilderness, that really wasn't their best season, was it? Matter of fact, when they were in the wilderness, they were there for all those years, really for one reason, and that one reason was disobedience. God never intended for them to spend so long in the wilderness, but because of their bad choices, that's where they were.

And it would seem that that would be a very depressing time, and indeed it was. And David, or rather, Moses speaks a bit about that depression, about that despair in verses 1 through 11. Matter of fact, if you were to read Psalm 90 and stop at verse 11, you would feel pretty depressed.

I mean, you would see the high and lofty grandeur of God, you would see the everlasting nature of God, you would see some snippets of God's goodness and loyal love in verses 1 through 11. But honestly, verses 1 through 11 really are depressing. It's when we get to verse number 12 and thereafter that we really understand, where is Moses going with all of this? And even in our times of chastisement, and let's face it, we've all been there. If you're a child of God, you've been in seasons of chastisement in your life, sure you have.

Matter of fact, the Bible says that if you're without chastisement, you're not a child of God, because God loves His children, God chastises His children. And in Psalm 90, they were going through a severe time of chastisement. And yet even in this time, Moses was able to point them to and recognize the loyal, hesed love of God.

Because even in discipline, God is demonstrating His love. I want us to look at Psalm 90 and look at it, not necessarily verse by verse, although much of the message will be just that. But I do want us to see some things that we can learn about God, some things we can learn about man, and then some things we can learn about hope. Because I think as we study the Psalm, at least as I study the Psalm, that's what I learn. I learn some things about God, I learn some things about me, and then I learn some things about hope. That even in my darkest times, and even in the most severe measure of God's chastisement in my life, there is hope for every child of God. And so let's learn those three things together this morning. Some things about God, some things about man, and then some things about hope.

First of all, if you're taking notes this morning, write this down. What do we learn about God? What do we learn about God in Psalm 90? Understand that Psalm 90 is the beginning of book four in the compilation of the book of Psalms. So you understand that Psalms, there are 150 separate Psalms, and they're categorized in five different books, and each book has a general theme. And so in Psalm, in book number four, the first of which is Psalm 90, the theme of this book really is the sovereignty of God and the suffering of man.

And we see it in many different, varied ways, but the sovereignty of God and the suffering of man. And yet we can still praise God. The last of, the last Psalm of book number four is Psalm 106. Here's the way the Psalm, here's the way that that Psalm begins. Praise ye the Lord, give thanks unto the Lord, he's good, his mercy, there it is, has said, endures forever.

Verse number 48 is the last verse of Psalm 106, the last verse of this section. And the Bible says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, let all the people say amen, praise ye the Lord. And so the book four begins with the everlasting quality of God, and it ends with the everlasting quality of God. So in other words, in spite of all that we endure, in spite of all of our sinfulness and suffering in this present life, there was God, there is God, God is eternal. So notice what it says in Psalm 90 now in verse number one, what do we learn about God? I think in the first place we learn that he is eternal, God is eternal. Look at verse number one, where the Bible says Lord, again a prayer of Moses, Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Not just now, not just in my present experience, but for all generations, for all of time, for all of our people's lives.

Look at verse number two, before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. And there's something about the Psalms of, there's something about the Psalm of Moses here that says, listen, I know that in the moment you're suffering. I know that in the moment we're feeling the pressure of God's chastisement. I know that in the moment the days seem long and depressing, but we've got to zoom out of the moment. So maybe you're in the moment right now in your life. Maybe you're feeling as if, man, things are really, really bad in my life right now, and to add insult to injury, they're bad in my life because I'm suffering the consequences of my bad choice. And sometimes what we need to do in those moments is to zoom out and realize that the picture is much bigger than your present trial.

The picture is much bigger than your present chastisement. And what Moses is saying here is God, you are God, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. And there's something about our thinking that changes when we begin to think in terms of the everlasting and eternal God.

I think about Isaiah chapter 57, where the Bible says that it is God that inhabiteth eternity. I just preached to our church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a passage from John chapter one. We're working our way through the book of John, we just began. Four messages into the book of John.

A couple weeks ago I preached from John one. In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was with God, the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, all things were made by Him.

Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. How does John begin? When John says, I want to show you God who became man, verse number 14, I want to show you He is eternal God.

He is eternal God. I'm reminded of the story of Arthur Stace. Perhaps you've heard the story of Arthur Stace. Arthur was born in Sydney, Australia back in the 1880s. Arthur was the son of a drunk, his mother was a woman of ill repute, and I'm saying that very nicely. Arthur really just had no hope, humanly speaking. By the time Arthur was a young teenager, he was already an alcoholic, struggling, living in the streets, begging. Arthur had a brief stint in the army, but had to leave the army because of his alcoholism.

Arthur essentially became a bum on the streets of Sydney, Australia, all during his 20s, all during his 30s. But when Arthur was 42 years of age, he was invited to an evangelistic meeting. And there in that evangelistic meeting, Arthur Stace received Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

And his life was radically transformed. He couldn't get enough of the Bible, he sat right on the front row and as the messages were preached, as the Bible studies were given, Arthur just soaked in like dry, like dry ground, the water of the word of God, and just loved it. Now he couldn't read, he couldn't write, but he loved the word of God.

An evangelist came from the United States and preached to that meeting about two years after Arthur Stace received Christ as savior. An evangelist came to town and he preached a message from that passage in Isaiah chapter 57 about the everlasting nature of God. Thou that inhabitest eternity. And here's what that evangelist said, he said, oh that people would understand eternity. Oh that people would understand the eternal God. Oh that people would just understand that concept that we live forever and forever and forever and forever, that God is everlasting. Oh that people would — somebody needs to go through the streets of Sydney, Australia and proclaim to the people of this great city, God inhabits eternity. When Arthur heard the preacher preaching that afternoon, he knew that God was speaking directly to him.

Have you ever been in a service like that? Where the preacher's preaching and you're in a large crowd, maybe like this one, but you know beyond doubt that this message is directly for you. And that was Arthur. And Arthur said, I have my calling, I have my calling in life. I want people to be aware of eternity.

And what he did is he went out in the streets of Sydney in the middle of the night. And he wrote in perfect script, you can look this up, don't do it now, but you can look it up. And he wrote the word eternity in perfect script.

Eternity. He'd write it in chalk on the walls. He'd write it in chalk on the sidewalks. He'd write it in chalk on the buildings, the prominent buildings of Sydney and then he would quietly go back to his home and people would get up for their morning commute and people would get up and see eternity, eternity, eternity. What is this eternity? Night after night, he would write the word eternity.

Day after day after month after year. Finally they discovered who it was and they gave him a little name. They called him Mr. Eternity. By the early 1970s, Arthur as an old man now had written the word eternity over one half million times in Sydney. He had made an entire city aware of everlasting eternity. Arthur's life beyond this life, and then he died.

And you would think that that would be the end of Arthur Stace's story, but it wasn't. Remember the year 2000? Those of us that are old enough, we remember Y2K and all the hubbub about the computer glitch and that's just a history lesson for some of you, but for those of us that lived through it, it was a big deal. All eyes were on Sydney, Australia. Why?

Because they are 16 hours ahead of us. All eyes are on Sydney, Australia. What's going to happen?

What's going to happen with the computer glitch? Sydney, Australia has a tradition at New Year's where they light up the Sydney Harbour Bridge just across from the Sydney Opera House, maybe you've seen that on Finding Nemo. There's the Sydney Harbour Bridge and every year they light it up in different colors and different designs. Everyone thought, what's going to be the design on the turn of the century? The turn of the millennium, what's going to be the lighting on the bridge? Of course the countdown ensues 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Happy New Year. The bridge lights up and you already know the bridge says in the perfect script letters of Arthur Stace, eternity. And the entire world at the turn of the millennium receives the message of one changed life. A drunken bum who couldn't read or write but in whose life God did a marvelous and redemptive work. And his life counted for eternity.

I wonder about you. I wonder as we examine the very eternality of God, does that even matter to us? Does it matter to us that there's an eternity? Does it matter to us that this life is just but a blip on the screen?

Does it matter to us that there's a context so much larger than today or this year or this lifetime or this earth? That's what we learn about God. As Moses began with that, God is eternal. But not only do we learn that He is eternal, I think secondly, this morning we learned that He is faithful. I love that about the Lord.

He's eternal. Verse number one, Moses actually begins with this. He says, Lord, Lord thou, Lord thou, how personal, Lord thou, thou has been our dwelling place. You've been our home. You've been our home.

Lord, it's not that you provide a home. Lord, you are our home. I love the prayer of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians when he said that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith. In other words, that He might have a home in your life, that my home is God and His home is me. That's what Moses is saying here.

God, you've been faithful? And Moses is praying at a time when the people of God have been incredibly unfaithful. When the people of God have complained and murmured and committed idolatry and wanted to go back to Egypt, and yet Moses still attested, God, you are our dwelling place. And God, you always have been our dwelling place. It's not based upon our obedience.

It's not based upon our ability. God, it's based upon your covenant with us. God, you are our home. I love the message last night, that that home that that prodigal son came back to, that that was a home that the Father had provided for him.

And that's God for you. God is our — if you're a believer, God is your home. He is faithful. I love the language of Scripture when the Bible says in John 1, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And you know what that word dwelt means, it means He made His tent with us. We can say it this way, He tabernacled among us. Even now as Moses prays this prayer and Moses writes this psalm, no doubt in view of his writing is the tabernacle itself. That tent in the wilderness where God dwelt with His people. God said, you're being punished, you're being chastised, and many of you will die right here, but I'm with you.

I will not leave you nor forsake you. Look at the cloud by day and look at the fire by night, and to look at I am here with you, I will not leave you. The tabernacle, the very presence of God. One of the most exciting places I go to in Israel is a place called Shiloh.

Shiloh was the first place in Israel where the ark rested. There for 369 years, the tabernacle stood. 369 years, God met with man right there.

I always feel a sense of awe when I take a group or I've gone by myself. And I go to Shiloh and I, I crushed over the hill and I walk down to that very spot, to that very spot where the tabernacle once stood, the very spot. And I sit there and I thank God and your great sovereignty and your great purpose for 369 years, you put your presence on earth right here in this spot, and I just try to soak it in. In a real sense, God lives in you. You know what that tells me? God is faithful.

I wouldn't want to live with me. All the things that God knows about me, all the things that God sees in my heart, and yet God is faithful to me and He was faithful to them. We learn that, that God is eternal. God is faithful, but make no mistake about it, God is fearful. Not fearful in the sense that God fears, but fearful in the sense of like a fearful storm or a fearful situation, awe-inspiring. God is eternal and God is faithful, but God is fearful. Notice what the text says, verse number three, thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return you children of men. No, turn back to the dust is what that means, Genesis 3 and verse 19. You know, God that gives life has power to take life away.

A God that brings life can sentence death upon, and certainly He did. Notice the conclusion of the first part of Psalm 90 in verse number 11, where Moses asks the rhetorical question, who knoweth the power of thine anger? Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. Remember I told you that the first half of Psalm 90 kind of leaves you in depression. It's like we have this great eternal God and yes, He's faithful, but He's a fearful God. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Isn't that what the writer of Hebrews taught us? And boy, there ought to be a healthy respect for God and there ought to be a healthy fear of God and there ought to be a — that ought to be a — that ought to be an incentive for us to live for God. I'm not saying that God's wrath is the only incentive, but it is an incentive.

We've lost that. Matter of fact, we're like those described to people in Romans chapter 3 where there is no fear of God before their eyes. Let me ask you a question, where is the fear of God anymore? Where's the sense of God's holiness? Where's the sense of God's retribution?

Where's the sense of that? In our pampered 21st century age, we don't talk much about it, but if you don't understand something about God's wrath and holiness, you can't understand God's love. You have to understand one within the context of the other, and they're not mutually exclusive. But when Moses writes Psalm 90, he begins by saying, here's God, great and grandiose, here's God, big and faithful, here's God, but He's not a God to be trifled with. If you're playing games with God, let me just say to you today that God is not a God to be trifled with. The very character of God revealed in His law was but an indication of just how insufficient and sinful man is. The law never was a way by which for people to be saved, you know that. Matter of fact, the Bible says that the law was added. Paul taught us that in Galatians 3. Paul, the law was added because of transgression, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels and the hand of a mediator.

He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and unto thy seed which is Christ. You know what the law was? The law was a big arrow pointed at Christ to say, you'll never fulfill this law. This law is like a big old, a full-length mirror that shows you just how bad and sinful you are. And every year as that priest goes in to offer that blood or that spotless lamb, that's going to cover it for another year. But one day, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, He's going to come once for all and give Himself for our sins. You know, the law is just our schoolmaster. It's just our tutor. It's just the arrow that points to the fact that we need the sufficiency of Christ alone, the only one who fulfilled the law, the only one that could do what you and I could not do. His work is sufficient.

That's the point. But without understanding something of God's attitude towards sin and understanding something about God's holiness, understanding something about the fact that God is not a God to be trifled with, then we'll never really fully understand and appreciate the hesed love of God embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we learn in Psalm 90? We learn something about God. You've been listening to part one of a sermon preached by Pastor Kurt Skelly from Bob Jones University's 2023 Bible Conference. Join us again tomorrow when we'll hear the conclusion of this sermon on The Daily Platform.