Understanding the Concept of Long Life (1)

[background music/singing] [Speaker 1] Holy God, indeed we are really really grateful. We thank You for Your help. We thank You for life. We thank You for redemption. We thank You for grace imparted upon our lives and that by Your Spirit You keep imparting. Lord our God, we bless Your name. We thank You as we all gather again this evening, connecting together brethren who are on Telegram, brethren who are on Mixlr, we who are physically here. Lord God Almighty, we commit ourselves unto You. Lord, we pray that there will be seed for the sower, there will be bread enough for the eaters to eat in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord God Almighty, we are asking that You will grant us understanding. You will grant inspiration. You will cause us to see You and to know You. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I want to welcome everyone again to a time together again for our discipleship class that we have every Monday. We were able to come to the conclusion of "The Ultimate Trophy to Be Won" in our last last week Monday. This Monday, we would be starting another series and while next week Monday will be our prayer time. So, we'll start another series which we would start today, continue in two weeks' time, since next week we will be praying by the grace of God, looking at burdens for prayer. We want to start a topic that is flowing out of where we left "The Ultimate Trophy to Be Won." In rounding up "The Ultimate Trophy to Be Won," I did mention very clearly that the matter of long life is a very relative thing. Because many times we don't appreciate this truth, we get sometimes perplexed and confused when people begin to say, "After all, God said our days He will fulfill." Of course, that scripture literally means that you will have a full life in Exodus. Sometimes people begin to wonder, is it that the scripture is not true? When the Bible says that He will preserve us till good old age and all of that, why is it that sometimes believers die young? These questions that sometimes come. So, what we want to do in this series that we want to start is trying to understand the concept of long life. This concept of long life—what do we mean? What really can we learn from scripture about the concept of long life? We are not in any rush. We are just begging God to grant understanding, to grant insight, so that we are able to come to the knowledge of the truth in this matter. I am praying too for myself that as I coordinate this, as we look at it together, the truth will become even more clearer to me myself. That is my prayer. To see what the scripture really says about this matter of long life. What I will first want to do today is to look at various passages where this matter of long life was mentioned and how they were mentioned and then we now begin to make a comparative analysis with other points in scripture where God began to make pointer to explain this concept of long life. Then, when we are through with all of that, we will now be coming to biblical examples, trying to look at example of people in scripture and this matter of long life. So that I believe that by the time we do all of this, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we would have been able to have or come to the knowledge of the truth about this matter. We want to begin in looking at the concept of long life, looking at where the Bible made reference to this word. The first one I want us to see is in Psalm 91:16. The first one I want to make reference to, because it used the word actually "long life." That is why I prefer to start from there. That is in Psalm 91:16. In Psalm 91:16, the Bible says—let me go there quickly. [Speaker 2] Psalm 91:14-16: "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him." [Speaker 1] You can see all that the Lord is promising in this place. Deliverance, preservation. If you still go a little bit before verse 14, you will see where it says that He will give His angels—around verse 11 from around verse 10. It says, "No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lions and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot." Then, before it now comes to "Because he has set his love upon me," all of that. Then in concluding Psalm 91, it said: [Speaker 2] "With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation." [Speaker 1] When we look at this scripture, sometimes people have challenge relating this scripture to when true believers die at 45, they die at 50, they die at 60. Some even say that what you find in Psalm 90, where David said that the day of a man shall be three score and ten, so some have come to believe that if you don't live up to 70, you have not lived up to the time God expected you to live. So, people who live below 70, they didn't live—something happened, or maybe God was angry, or maybe Satan cut them off from God's purpose. Different kind of utterances. Everybody is trying to grapple with this. God will preserve us, God will deliver us, God will satisfy us with long life, God give His angels charge over us. So if all of that is there, why should I not live up to 120 years? Why should something cut me off? Why should a sickness, an accident, or persecution—believers are just killed. And sometimes not even persecution by sword, maybe in terms of war like you hear across our nation, although more particular in northern part of the country where you just hear that certain gunmen enter and people you know to be believers were killed by sword, they were gunned down. Sometimes all of these things make us as Christians to be sometimes if not discouraged, sometimes we are confused, sometimes we are wondering, are we really secure? Are we really safe? Is the word of God true? I want to confidently tell us that the word of God is true. The word of God is very true. It is just that the Lord must grant us understanding. Understanding is the key. What we don't understand troubles us. What quickly comes to mind is you remember when Jesus died and the disciples felt that why should somebody like that die at the prime of ministry? It was when the ministry was breaking forth that he died. It was when the whole world—because if you follow that story very well, the death of Jesus, the plan to finally kill Jesus came after Jesus brought Lazarus back to life. When he brought Lazarus back to life, the Bible says so many Jews they now believed, "Ah, this is the Messiah." It was also around that time that Jesus' ministry too was rounding up. So the disciples were wondering. In fact, some of them still have an understanding that Jesus was to deliver them from the hand of the Roman government. Because you notice that when He resurrected and appeared to them in the book of Acts 1, what they said was that, "Master, now that You have resurrected, will You at this time restore the kingdom?" So, for some of them, the understanding was that the kingdom will be taken from the Roman government, it will be handed over to the Jews because the King of the Jews have appeared and He is going to use all those miracles, take the power from those people and work. These were their expectations. And suddenly, contrary to that expectation, the seemingly almighty Messiah was arrested. They thought He would just deliver Himself; it did not happen. And then He was killed. Of course, Peter said, "Me, I go back to fishing," because he was confused. And honestly, such thing have happened to so many believers. Because of an expectation, "This God cannot be true." But if you look at the whole of that story, at different times, Jesus mentioned to them that the Son of Man will die. Peter even rebuked Him. He rebuked Satan as being instrumental to what Peter was saying. He told them that I am going to—but they never understood it. And when He left at that time, they were saying He should not have died at that time. You would not have been thinking that it is at the prime of ministry and at the prime of life that Jesus should die. You'll be thinking it will be when He will fulfill His ministry, but He has fulfilled His ministry already. Because He said, "It is finished." But it looks like the ministry was just starting. And that is why I said my prayer is that may the Lord grant us understanding. Understanding is a very important thing in our walk with God. And I believe that is why Daniel said the people that do know their God shall be strong. What we don't understand what God is doing—look at how Proverbs 18 puts it, that when people can't see what God is doing, what do they do? He said they stumble over themselves. He said where there is no revelation, the people grow wild. When there is no revelation, there will be confusion. When there is no revelation, there will be discouragement. Those disciples were supposed to be dancing and praising God that Jesus died. But because there was no revelation, they were discouraged, they were scattered, peace came to an end, confusion came in, perplexity set in, doubts arose in their hearts that Jesus have to tell them, "Why do you allow doubt to arrive in your heart? These are the things that I told you before that I'm going to go this way." My prayer is that may the Lord grant us revelation. May the Lord grant us revelation. May the Lord grant us understanding. May the Lord grant us insight into His eternal plan and will so that we will not be perplexed when we ought to be rejoicing, we will not be discouraged when we ought to stand, we will not be confused when we ought to be strong in the name of Jesus Christ. So, we are looking at it that the first thing we saw in Psalm 91:16, the first reference we have made, we read, is that He said with long life I will satisfy you. And I'm telling you just like with Jesus, with long life God satisfied him. That was where we ended "The Ultimate Trophy to Be Won" last week. That at the finishing line, Jesus had finished and so he said, "It is finished." In other words, "I have lived a full and fulfilled life. I have finished the work that You gave me to do." So, He have lived a full and fulfilled life. And that full and fulfilled life was at 33 years old. The life was full and the life was fulfilled. And He is our perfect example. If anybody will have three score and ten, I think it should be Jesus. So, that begin to give us some understanding that we need to properly engage this matter of long life. We need to really engage it. We need to really look at what really is the scripture saying about having a fulfilled life. Another place where you will find something close to the long life was the one I mentioned when we were having the opening comment, Exodus 23:26. Exodus 23:25-26: "So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days." When you read that in NLT, it says: "There shall be no miscarriage or infertility among your people, and I will give you long full lives." Long full life. So, you notice again in this place, there is a promise that we will be given a long full life. A long full life. And that gives us an understanding that as far the people of God they are concerned, God promised or God guaranteed that they are going to live long full life. So, the matter is trying to understand this long full life from the point of the scripture and not from the point of our understanding. Don't forget what He said: "My ways are not your ways, and My thoughts they are not your thoughts." Don't forget again that the Bible says that the ways of God, they are unsearchable, His judgment, they are past finding out. Don't forget again that the Bible says something very intricate when the Bible says the ways of the Lord, they are upon the mighty waters. I wonder how you want to trace that way that is upon mighty waters. The point of all of this scripture is that in understanding the ways of God, we may not be able to understand it literally. And that is why the Bible says that the things of the gospel, they are foolishness to the people that perish. So to the people that perish, the truth of this gospel, they are foolishness to them. Why are they foolishness to them? Because they cannot understand it. Again, you know the scripture says that trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. So, it is very important to appreciate all of this scripture in trying to understand the matter of long life. So, we can see that the Bible actually mention that God will fulfill our days and that God will satisfy us with long life. That's what I immediately wanted to establish. Again, the Bible also establishes that God have a clear understanding of our birth time and our death time. That's another thing again the Bible established. That God has a clear understanding of the number of days that we are to live even from the point of birth. And let us look at some scriptures again to corroborate that. The first one I want us to see is the popular one we all normally quote very well, that is in Jeremiah 1. Jeremiah 1:4-5: "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.'" Now, we are seeing something here that actually the purpose of God transcend our being born. So before Jeremiah was born, God already knew him. Why he was in his mother's womb, God already knew that he has ordained him, He has sanctified him, He has separated him for a purpose. And I want you to get something why I said birth time and number of days are already known by God. You will see that in the way the Bible starts introducing Jeremiah. The Bible want to talk about the word of God coming to Jeremiah. But look at how the Bible began from verse 1. Jeremiah 1:1-3: "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month." Are you noticing that even though God ordained him from birth, God have also ordained when He will make him know that he was ordained? It did not just come at any time. There was a time that God wanted the work to start. There was a time. So, that is why you see when you are looking at scripture, certain things are not written just for formality sake. The Holy Spirit help us to have understanding from these things as to why they are written. The word of God did not just come to Jeremiah anyhow and at any time. No, it must come in the days of Josiah, the son of this. It must come from so so time to so so time. It must come, because you notice it, it was this Jeremiah that God use to prophesy that He is the God in Jeremiah 27, that He is the God who owns the whole heaven and earth and that He is giving the land, the whole land to Nebuchadnezzar. That every Jew should submit to Nebuchadnezzar and they will serve Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and his son's son. Now, Jeremiah was the one to bring all of those messages. So, he must come towards the captivity. May God help us to understand God. Nobody can understand God outside God. So, even though he was ordained from his mother's womb, he was known—sorry, even though He said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," why? Because if he is not formed in the womb at an appropriate time, he will not be able to meet the time to carry out what he was supposed to carry out. Because he began the ministry as a very young man. Because when God called him, he said, "Then I said, 'Ah, Lord! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.'" So, God needed him at a very young age because his ministry will sprang over a long period of time. It's not going to be three and a half years ministry like that of Jesus. So, God needed him. He said, "But God, I am a youth. I am a small boy." See, before you were formed I knew. If he was formed at a much more earlier time, maybe by this time he is already 65, he will not be able to finish the work. I'm trying to make you see that God deals with timing. God understands timing. Timing is a very crucial thing. And I can multiply these examples in the Bible. You will see it: "In the days of this, in the year when this, in the third year when that, in the fifth year when this." Why is God taking time to note all those things? It's to make you understand that God have a time frame for His purpose and for the lives. There is a time frame. Solomon brought it together for us in Ecclesiastes 3 when he said there is a purpose for per time and a season for everything. A time to be born, a time to die, a time to laugh, a time to cry, a time for this, a time for that. So, these things they are part and parcel of life. That's why sometimes when people say that when you are getting married, you are told for better for better for better for better, everything better better, you have been—it is not realistic. It's not realistic. They are giving you a false expectation. In all, the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. In all situation we can rejoice. But to have a mentality that there will be a time to be born, there will not be a time to die, there will be a time to get, there will not be a time to mourn, it's not to have a life reality. You are not facing the realities of life. A time will come when we will sorrow no more, a time come when we will weep no more. That time is coming. And that is why I tell believers, if you are building your treasure here and you are trying to put your all your best in this life of vanity, where even the increase of the vanity gives you more anxiety. I was just—I don't know who I was talking with recently, and I said do you notice that people who don't have anything they don't fear whether people are coming to steal? Sometimes they don't even fence their houses, they just sleep because there was nothing to fear. But people who have more have a lot to fear. Have to lock this, have to lock that, have to create fences, have to do this. I'm just to make you understand, the more you have it, because it has been subject to vanity. It has been subject to vanity. And that is why Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." The place prepare for us is not here because nothing can be prepared in this thing that is vanity. Nothing can be prepared for us here. Our Father knows what we need here and He make us to go to what we need and give us what we need, but our inheritance is not here because it cannot be here. Not in this place. It's going to be in the new earth. It's going to be in the new heaven. Not in this one that has been subject to vanity. Please always understand that this one has been subject to vanity. And so have a hope that but in Christ, I can do all things. In tribulation, I can rejoice. In victory, I rejoice. In this—that is what the scripture is full of. So that you can walk with an understanding, with a heart that is prepared, with a reality to face life the way life is. There is a time to be born, there is a time to die. There is a time to laugh, there is a time to cry. There is a time—all of these are part and parcel of life. I will show you another example again in terms of God and time and His messengers. Look at 1 Kings 13. That is another very popular story. That's the story of the young prophet that came from Judah. It's a very familiar story. 1 Kings 13, the prophet that came from Judah when Jeroboam was busy sacrificing to the gods that he made. 1 Kings 13:1-3: "And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, 'O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: "Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you."' And he gave a sign that same day, saying, 'This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall be split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.'" What I want us to see was the prophecy that a child shall be born to the house of David named Josiah and he's going to do some specific purpose, carry it out for God. And if you look at the Bible, 2 Kings 23, you will see where that thing was fulfilled exactly as it was prophesied. 2 Kings 23. Josiah was the king as at this time and he started a reform. The reform began in Jerusalem, it was going on, doing the reform, but I just want to go straight to where he carried out that what that prophet said. So let's go to around—that should be around verse 15, 16. But let's look at it from verse 12. 2 Kings 23:12-16: "The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of Ammon." So since that thing that Solomon built when he went into error was still existing till the day of this young man. He was the one that God purposed to come and deal with all of those things. Several reformers came, but they didn't touch all of these things. But Josiah was to be the person. He said it will be born to the house of David and he's coming. He's going to do a kind of reform that others never did. What I am trying to make you see was that God said a child shall be born and he's going to—and if you look at it, he was not the first reformer. He was not the second one. There was a timing for him to come. He shall be born. So before he was born, God knew him. That's the point I'm trying to make you see. And as to the timing he was to come, God knew it. His timing, his time frame in time, God have gestated that. These are very important things for us to see in scriptures. Because this topic is flowing from where we left the matter in our last topic. That purpose is the summary of everybody's life. Your purpose determine your timing when you come into life. And so don't begin to pride yourself against, "Ah, me I did what nobody have done before." It's not because there is anything special about you. It's just that you are the one purposed to do that. So, don't become arrogant and don't let let us be meek and lowly. That is the mind that Jesus said we should have. Don't let pomposity enter into your head that you did some—there is nothing particular about you. All glory must go back to God. He is the one who works in all and through all the good pleasure of His will. So, He dealt with that. He dealt with that. Let's move on to 14. [Speaker 2] 2 Kings 23:14-16: "And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words." [Speaker 1] Are you seeing something? "According to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words." [Speaker 2] 2 Kings 23:17: "Then he said, 'What gravestone is that that I see?' So the men of the city told him, 'It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.'" [Speaker 1] So, when he was even doing it, you know where we ended with our last topic was that God has prepared this work before time. Good works that we should do them. And that is what we are calling purpose in any man's life. So, when a life, when eternal life don't manifest in good works, there is a problem. It must manifest in something practical. Now, so you see that God have ordained this thing, He did not even know that this thing has been prophesied concerning him and so he was told as that, "Look, you are doing what has been prophesied." What am I trying to bring out? Is that Bible gives a clear understanding that God don't only know the time of birth, He have also set out the days, the number of days for them. We will close the meeting here. We will pick it up next week from this point, trying to understand the concept of long life. May the Lord continue to grant us understanding. May the Lord continue to give us insight into His word. May the Lord help us to come to the truth. May we be men who understand. May we not be overtaken by perplexity. May we not be overtaken by confusion. May the ways of God not become a discouragement to us because we don't know them. May we know the ways of God. May we understand His path. May by the help of the Spirit, may we be able to follow God in the fullness of His ways in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says He made His act to the children of Israel, but He made His way—He showed His act to children of Israel, but He made His way known to Moses. May we know the ways of God in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [outro music and announcements]