What to expect from our bodies throughout life, emphasizing their importance as gifts from God. It outlines the physical development and peak vitality in the first two decades, followed by the gradual decline and changes experienced in subsequent decades, referencing Psalm 90:10 regarding the typical lifespan. The message highlights the need to adjust to aging, the potential for illness, and the importance of maintaining a clear conscience regarding body care, ultimately encouraging wise stewardship of our bodies for God's glory and preparedness for eternity.
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not very often that we have exactly the same audience as we had yesterday and that makes it necessary to torture those who are faithful for the benefit of those who came in and were not here yesterday morning just to give you a brief review we use it as our springboard text first Thessalonians five and verse twenty three where Paul is remind Paul by the Spirit is reminding us that we are spirit soul and body and that all three of these parts of us are important and while there is emphasis given to the spirit because we are creatures that tend to go to extremes and maybe even forget that the body too is important so I want to lay a little stress on the importance of our body We mentioned yesterday morning that these are gifts that we receive from God and that they are given to us.
First of all, someone else has to take care of us because we are totally helpless as we arrive on this scene. But gradually the responsibility shifts to the owner and the owner is responsible for the care of that body. And he may be able to shorten his life or lengthen his life. by either being careless or taking care of the needs of the body. I think we ought to turn this morning for a verse in the Nineteenth Psalm, which is a very familiar Psalm. And as you have read that Psalm a number of times, you have recognized that the writer is very time conscious.
He uses many, many expressions, a thousand years, months, days. And down in verse ten, I think we should use that of our verse this morning. Psalm ninety verse ten. The days of our years are three-score years and ten. If by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength, labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. I'm sure that this is speaking of the body. If I were to give a title to my message this morning, it would be what to expect. from our body. You've already had some experience in knowing that the body does change.
And I've raised the question, why does the Spirit of God tell us here that we have some general expectation that the days of our bodily length on the earth is probably three-score years and ten? if by reason of strength four score years he didn't say eighty years or seventy years but use the term scores which is of course twenty years I wonder if you have noticed that our life is changed by these scores to some extent yesterday morning we pointed out that the first approximately twenty years and maybe I should go back to tell you that no one can claim this verse and say I have a right to be sure that I will not die before I'm seventy years old.
The Bible says so. The days of our years are seventy, three-square years and ten. We know there are other verses that would not allow that interpretation, that there is the possibility of dying, but there is a general sense in which this is the allotted span of our life on earth. So the question, the subject, what to express from our body? In those first twenty years, the first four, there is the development of the body, the growth of the body, and the height of the body. I don't know of anyone who passes the twenty-year mark that can say, I'm still growing.
There is growth up to approximately that point. And from then on, the person has leveled off, and that is his height. If he six foot tall at the age of twenty, he probably will remain that way until he starts shrinking. Now I don't know whether I should even mention the width of the body or not. But I'm taking a guess that regarding the width of the body, about fifty percent of it is beyond our control that may have been inherited from daddy or mother, and the other fifty percent may be somewhat in our control.
But the development of the body, mentally, physically, is seen in those twenty years. Then we go to the next study. And this is probably the age or the period of time where we can use the three V's. Vim, vigor, and vitality. the army is looking for men, they make a boundary of the kind of men they're looking for, and usually they include the age limit. And that of course will depend perhaps upon supply and demand.
If the demand is not too high, well it may be from twenty to thirty-five, or if there is a demand, a draft, then it may go from eighteen to forty-five. But it stays in that second score, doesn't it, pretty well, which means during that period there is the full strength. Man has reached its height before his strength is concerned. Our Blessed Lord was approximately thirty-three years of age when he was here when he died on the cross in the full bloom of hell. One day a man said to me, you know, it's a shame.
that that man who was sinless and who did so much good on the earth that he had to die in the full bloom of his strength. And I guess he presumed that suppose he had been living eighty years of age. Look how much more he could have done. And I had to point out that the greatest work that he ever could have done, he did at the age of thirty-three because he had his mind on the fact that he opened the eyes of the blind and he unstopped the years of the deaf and raised the dead and all of these things and just think what could have been accomplished if he had lived to be eighty years of age. But he forgot that the main purpose of his coming was to settle the same question.
I guess some of us a few years ago, was it twenty-five years ago, when those five missionaries were murdered in Madiaka, Indians, we raised the question immediately. Isn't that a shame? Just think of the good they could have accomplished. They are in the bloom of their health, their strength. Where was God when that happened? Why did he allow it to happen? From our point of view, it would seem as though it would have been much better if they had lived through those years of strength and served the Lord. If God doesn't make any mistakes, then I know that that the death of those five missioners had a tremendous sobering effect not only on the United States but the whole world an impact was made and as people read of that young men who perhaps were little careless about their involvement in the work of the Lord said somebody's got to step in and do the work that they left undone and probably when we see the whole record unfolded we can say those five men couldn't have done anything better and the far-reaching effect of laying
down their lives in that which seemed so unnecessary they accomplished what God had in mind in those years of strength we realize that there is a leveling off period and we don't stay in that second for very long and I think I ought to go over into the third score which is forty to sixty because if my eyes are good many of you have just passed the forty mark and you are now in that third score of forty to sixty and a number of things happen a number of changes take place during that time the athlete who has a cupboard full of trophies He is shot when he is asked to sit on the bench.
We found a junior who can do it better. You have to join the has-been. The ladies say, I wonder why they don't make cosmetics as strong as they used to. They just don't do the job anymore. And it's their fault. There's something wrong. And we have to adjust to... something new. We discover that there are some hungry, ambitious germs flying all around us and looking for victims. And sometimes they seem to organize. And they pick out their victim.
And that's a nice, juicy one that's claimed him. And we raise the question, this is strange that we have to face this getting older all the time, but we have to face it regardless. In some cases, I guess we have to go to the doctor and find out. We have just detected that I'm not quite as strong as I used to be. Something is wrong, and I can't put my finger on it. And the doctor who is trained has instruments to measure things, and he says it's Mr. cholesterol. that has come to see you, or Mr.
Diabetes has come to see you, or there is a big family of Titus Warrens, Arthur, Bers, Noor, Lymphon, just a number of them, and they come to visit you, and some of them don't even come to visit you, they move in, and they stay there, and you say now, that's strange, I don't like this. I thought I could go through life and I could remain strong forever and just go on, but we had to face facts. And sometimes we may be naughty enough to raise the question. I wonder why the Lord didn't bring us into the world at ninety years of age and then got younger every day.
Younger, younger, younger. And eventually a helpless tiny baby. Would you like that? No, I don't. No, we better leave it the way it is. The Lord didn't make any mistake. So we are heading in that direction. And there's not very much that we can do about it. The appreciation of the body. In that period that you have just entered now, you find that your arms aren't long enough to read the telephone numbers anymore. So you have to get these catches. And then... not very long before they say you need bifocals.
Then they go a little farther and say trifocals. I don't know if they, what would be next to that, whether it's gotten farther than that, but anyway. It means that there's something happening to our bodies. And then we say people don't talk as plain as they used to. I have never seen so many people that mumble as they do today. Why don't they speak distinctly like they used to speak? There are just a number of things that we have to recognize that are happening day after day. Then comes that we're getting up towards that time when we face retirement. And I have seen men who look for retirement just like a child looks for Christmas.
Counts the days when he's going to be retired. I'm reminded of a policeman who lived in Durham on our street just as we were moving there. And he was just telling us how wonderful it be to be retired. He was retired for one week. And they said he comes up to the police station every day because he doesn't know what to do with himself. He had to be in the house with his wife. And I don't know what kind of a wife he had. But it seemed like punishment to him. And he wanted to be up there at the police station. I know another man who had a restaurant. Very active man. A wonderful man. He was back there in the kitchen doing anything.
He had everything popping. And then he came out to the people, the patients, or the customers. And he would talk to all of them. And he would have a conversation. An active kind of a fella. And had plenty of money. He decided to retire. He might as well have put him in jail. He was a miserable wretch. The rest of his death. He didn't know what to do with himself. All that energy. And it had to be subdued. and he would walk the streets and bring his hands and just didn't know what to do. I wonder as Christians if we don't have to face the reality of life and adjust to it in such a way that we shall bring honor and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ as we grow older gracefully and recognize that these things are a part of our life.
God gave to us a desire to live. And it's good that he included that in our physical systems. Otherwise, I suppose we would give up. As soon as something goes wrong with the body, we immediately try to find some help. And rightly so. God put into our bodies reflex action so that when we, well, let me talk to some of the older men. Did you have a Model T board? And one day accidentally you touched the spark plug while the motor was running. And something happened immediately. A message went from your hand up to your brain and said, that hurts.
And the brain said, well, take your hand off. And by that time you had your hand off the flat plug. Built-in reflex action to prevent us from being harmed. I read a prayer not so long ago that I think is spitting. for us and I want you to listen very carefully. Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. By the way, at Mark of the Psalms, are you allowed to use that word if I have it in a prayer? I guess we are. Otherwise you don't use it.
It's about yourself. Okay, all right. I am growing older and will someday be old. That's putting it mildly. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. Free my mind from the recital of endless details. Give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the days go by.
I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure them with patience. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness that my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I might be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint. Some of them are so hard to live with. But a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see some good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people.
And give me, Lord, the grace to tell them so. I thought there was quite a bit of wisdom in that so far as our growing older is concerned. Now in regards to the depreciation of the body, I guess we have to go to that next score from sixty to eighty. And maybe the things that we have learned in this previous one are increasing. And eventually we will go to the doctor and say there's something wrong and he gets his instruments out and he says he will come to my office and I will explain some of the details.
And he says there are some minor things that need to be repaired, some deficiencies that need to be helped along and so on, but there's nothing serious. But eventually, each one of us will maybe have to face the time when the doctor will look rather sad and start to hedge a bit. And the more he hedges, the more suspicions that arise. And we say to him, now, I want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And the doctor says, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. Well, the reports is not good and you will have to take it.
After reading this prayer, I have difficulty in giving you one of my personal experiences. I don't know how I can do it after having read that. But sometimes we may hold back things that we have experienced without sharing with people and maybe we should. I'm going to share with you what I have found in this particular area, and then if you think it's wrong, well, I can't help it. At least I have shared it, and maybe it'll help someone. Three o'clock in the morning, or approximately, I'm awake, and I have a strange eight in my upper left arm.
I must have slept on it. It's asleep, and I've got to rub it. But whatever it is, it's a strange feeling. But eventually I go to sleep again. I wake up at around six in the morning, and that same dull ache, not really an ache, but a discomfort in the upper part of the left lawn. Never had that before. I wonder what it is. Something new has come to see me. Wash and ready for breakfast, sit down at the breakfast table, and immediately, I need fresh air. This is just before Christmas. I go to the front door and I get a whiff of that good cold air. I've got to lie down.
And by that time, of course, if you have a good wife, she said, I'm going to call the doctor. And if it's serious enough, you don't argue with her at that point. And the doctor says, if it is what I think it is, you call the ambulance and I will meet you at Lady Watt's hospital. And that was my first ride in the ambulance. I am nauseated by that time. And we get to the doctor's office. And in a very short time, he said, you have had a coronary thrombosis. And this will require rest. I would like to suggest that you will probably be hospitalized for one month. And the first week, at least, in the intensive care unit, you have had a heart attack.
Doctor, are you sure? My heart is here, and I don't have any pain right here. Are you trying to tell me that my heart is in my left arm? That's the only place I have any pain. He said, they're not all alike. Well, I said, I've heard of people, and they say it feels like a ton of bricks is crushing you, and you can't get away from it. It's just crushing you. I haven't got the slightest bit of pain in my chest, just in here. He said, sometimes people have fooled me, and they've had the pain in the right arm. which is rather unusual. But anyway, the instruments have told me the story, and you have a rather serious heart attack.
How do you adjust to that? A cast iron stomach? You can do anything, and you've lived for a number of years, and you can do anything that any other man can do, and all at once you come down, and then the doctor adds, you will not even be able to feed yourself. A nurse or an orderly or a nurse's aid will be feeding you. You will not even lift a spoon. Now that's an awful shock to the system, is it not? But each one of us will someday have to face something similar to that. Graduate, in a little while at the visiting hours, the children have left their employment and they come to visit you and you are aware of the fact that this may be the end.
that you didn't expect so suddenly. But the doctor says you must relax. And if ever you appreciate your salvation, it is at that moment. Because I could say then, one of two things are going to happen to me. Either I get better and pull through, or else I go to heaven. And nothing else can happen with one of those two. And I can't lose. if I get better I win if I go to heaven I win and if I had to make a selection of the two that would be a hard selection because by nature I want to live as long as I want to as I can but to be with Christ is far better and of course the human side enters in I will have to leave my family and all the relatives that I have and then because I'm an old man I can say You know, I have just about as many relatives on the other side as here.
So I'm not going to leave any of my relatives. I'm just going to exchange them. Exchange these for those. Even in that area, I don't lose anything. And before going to sleep, I said, you know, I haven't seen Mr. Harper lately. I haven't seen George Landis lately. I went over a list of preachers. I knew they were now in heaven. and I had the anticipation of saying, maybe, before this day is over, I will be in the presence of these and also my Blessed Lord. And then I reflected, I said, suppose I wasn't saved.
And unsaved people come to that bigger point too. Then I would have to say, one of three things will happen to me, either I get better, or maybe somehow by some strange event I'll slip into heaven, or maybe I will be in hell before this day is over. Now that would have been dreadful, it is not. And your salvation is wonderful the day that you trust the Savior, but you never realize the full value of that. It unfolds itself day after day. to come to the end of the road, or presumably the end of the road, and be able to say, I can relax.
Now one of the questions that will come to you at that moment, and it came to me, am I responsible for what has happened? And I said, now what did I do that might have caused this? And I couldn't find any particular reason. But I lived a normal life. I felt that I took care of my body. But it happened. And I think it was a relief to be able to say, as far as I know, if this is something beyond my control, I didn't cause it. But I think it would have been very hard to relax if I had been conscious of something that I had done in the way of neglecting my body that might have caused it.
We had a neighbor living right next door to us in the city of Durham, who was a chain smoker. And she probably smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. And she laughed when she heard that the Sergeant General had put out a report that all advertising for cigarettes must carry the label, this may be injurious to your health. What do they know about it? They're just trying to scare people. Three months ago, we heard that she was in hospital and she has lung cancer. And we feel that she may not be a Christian and we wanted to contact her.
But we heard from Miletus, she is in her room. She won't let anybody come in. She doesn't want to see anything. She wants to be alone. And I think she is fighting with her conscience. All this while, I was a victim and I brought this upon myself. And now I'm paying the price for fighting against knowledge that I have. Now we want to try when that point comes, if it comes, to be able to have a clear conscience and to say, as far as I know, I did not contribute to an early death.
It's wonderful that God gave us the desire to live. And God gave us also a desire to take care of our bodies. Now I think I need to mention once more that we are creatures that tend to go to extremes. And I know some people who are reading books continually on health problems. And I don't know whether I have a right word to call them, but in North Carolina we call them health nuts or health fanatics. One was in our home some years ago from the state of Virginia, a preacher who told us all of the things that people were doing to kill themselves early.
Eating white bread, which is absolutely poison. After it gets into your stomach, it's just like a ball of putty. And people are being killed by eating white bread. And my wife said, after you went to bed, you know, there's a pretty good chance that we'll outlive in. And I don't know whether that had anything to do with his death two years later. But he was gone. And maybe he was right. I don't know. But I do think it's possible for us to go too far in this and say, oh, I can't even live a normal life because I'm afraid of this and this and this. But I think that besides the five senses that God gave us, and I mentioned yesterday morning, is common sense.
And I think we still need to employ that in regards to the care of our body because we have to have good bodies if we're going to serve the Lord. Our loved ones who are in heaven are there as, is it correct to say, disembodied spirits. You don't have to have a body to worship the Lord. But you do have to have a body to serve the Lord. And those that are in heaven are worshipping and praising and singing. The Lord's praise is just as if they had bought. But in order to serve him, down here we do have to have healthy bodies. Now I hope that my message this morning has not been too sad, but we can do one or the other.
We can do as the proverbial ostrich does, run away from reality or faith. And I think the Lord wants us to be prepared for any eventuality. what to extract from the body. You can't talk yourself into the fact that you're going to live a hundred years or a hundred and ten or a hundred and twenty. You already have almost concluded that I'm going to follow the normal routine. It may be tomorrow. It may be today. It may be ten years and maybe thirty years. It may be that I'll outlive everyone in this room. God knows. And he doesn't make any mistake when we leave that in his hand.
But let's not overlook the fact that God has given us these bodies and he expects us. He used them wisely and for his glory. My time is up. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you again for thy blessed words, reminding us what to expect that these bodies of ours, though it's made them, they are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we thank you for We thank thee, too, that thou hast so arranged that these bodies do wear out, and that eventually we leave them. And we thank thee for the salvation thou has provided for us, so that at that day we can with joy slip into thy presence, leave these bodies, and be forever with thee.
We pray thou will help us to wisely take care of these bodies and use them for thy glory. We give thee thanks for what thou hast given us in thy word. to guide us and to direct us. And we ask thy blessing on all who are bowed before thee, various degrees of health that we enjoy, and we thank thee for thy goodness stewards. We accept the strength and the health thou dost give us, and we thank thee that thou dost allow us to use this for thy glory. We look to thee for thy blessing, the remainder of this day, for thy protection in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.