Our Abiding Faith

OUR ABIDING FAITH
John 15:4 Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Lesson
Text;Psa 90:1 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. LORD, thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations.

Psa
90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God.

Psa
90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children
of men.

Psa
90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it
is past, and as a watch in the night.

Psa
90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in
the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

Psa
90:6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it
is cut down, and withereth.

Psa
90:7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we
troubled.

Psa
90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the
light of thy countenance.

Psa
90:9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our
years as a tale that is told.

Psa
90:10 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.

Psa
90:11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy
fear, so is thy wrath.

Psa
90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom.

Psa
90:13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy
servants.

Psa
90:14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be
glad all our days.

Psa
90:15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted
us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

Psa
90:16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their
children.

Psa
90:17 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.

V-1,2,
God is our eternal dwelling place

A. A dwelling place is not to be visited occasionally but to be lived
in. John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in me.

John
15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing.

1.There is peace and comfort to be had in this relationship with God.

a. Like all the people , Moses did also exceedingly fear and quake until God
had hidden him in a cleft of the rock!

b. Although great fear came upon Jerusalem at the deasth of Ananias and
Sapphira[Acts 5:10-14] the Church grew because of it.

c. Many of our ups and downs are brought on because we use him ONLY as a
refuge instead of a dwelling place.

d. It is only here, in him that we can be constant, like the North Star.

B. OUR dwelling place. "God made the earth for the beasts of
the field, the seas for the fish and the air for the fowls and heaven
for the angels but the soul of man has no place to abide, but in God
alone."

2. No man who dwells in such a great place has ever been shaken, does not
tremble now in the face of world events and shall not be moved even
when heaven and earth flee away from his presence.[and yet we often
tremble before fools!]

TO REALLY SEE THE VALUE OF OUR DWELLING PLACE - SEE-

V-3-11
The contrast between natural man and God.

v-3.
Man may boast of his deeds and his plans but God can cancel the all
with a wave of his hand. {The picture of David , the mighty warrior,
who in his last days was too feeble to care for himself.]

v-4.
While man wallows in memories of childhood and a bygone youth, and a
nation remembers 200 years of history with pride [even while revising
that history to fit the current ideas of political correctness!] God
sees Adam and Eve as yesterday. Yet our dwelling place
is not the dusty, musty tombs of the past, but the bright, frest
assurance of unnumbered tomorrows!

v-5&6
Time is like a river which carries every thing before it. There is no
way to halt it nor to alter its course.

No fountain of youth, no magic potions. Man has an appointment and it
MUST BE KEPT.

V-7-10.Why
death came upon men.

v-7.God's
righteous anger MUST consume sin. [In my body dwelleth n good
thing--- sin dwellest in me]

v-8.
Our sins are before thee'

1.He needs no other light than his own countenance.

2.Our sins ARE before him. In the committing of them and ever after,
they cannot be hidden,.

3.HE has set them there . They are important to God and only genuine
repentance can blot them out.

4.A pig looks real nice in his pen at the fair but he doesn't belong in
the parlor! The setting of anything alters its appearance. Your sins
may not look bad in the midst of a sin cursed world, but consider
them in the presence of a holy God!.

v-9.
As a tale that is told-- In its' brevity. In its' finality and in
it's worth. Only as it touches others has your life any lasting value
at all,

v-10
The appointed time. Beyond it there is no joy of youth nor hope of
accomplishment.

v-11.You
may gauge the extent of man's anger. Can you say the same of God?

V-12.
Teach us to number our days.

A. Universities can't teach this. Only God can!

B.That we may know the value of each one and not let it slip away unused and
wasted.

C. That we might know how to act our age. 'Let no man despise thy youth'
& to the aged,

'Be
sober' It is not becoming when the children want the privileges of
age and the elderly want to act like children!

D. That we may apply our hearts to wisdom...

1.The wisdom of constant obedience. Whether it be our lot to rule an empire
or to sweep a street let our aim always be,"Thy will be done in
me."

E. The wisdom of knowing Christ.

Psa 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good
understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise
endureth for ever.

1 Cor 1:30 But of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: