Your 120 Years (Exclusive to the Roxton Progress website)

The expected lifetime for man is about 70 years. Psalm 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.”
“Score” is not a common numerical term, but President Abraham Lincoln famously used the term when beginning the “Gettysburg Address”…“Fourscore and seven years ago…” Score means 20, so fourscore would be 80. The threescore years in Psalm 90 would be 60 plus the 10 would be 70.
In Genesis 6:3 “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” Judgement was coming. Yet, God in His compassion, allowed men of the earth 120 years to repent. In the pre-diluvian world (before the Flood) the lifespan could be over 900 years. Methuselah lived to 969 years.
In the years before the flood man did not have social media as we do today. No Facebook, Twitter, or internet. No cell phones, cameras, or any such devices. But they did have “word of mouth”. I firmly believe in the 120 years before the judgement of God every man, woman, and child on the planet heard about the man building a great ship on dry land; Noah’s Ark. They also heard why Noah was building the Ark, the coming judgement and destruction from God!
Preachers today are telling of the coming judgement of God just as Noah. Here in America we have a churches everywhere as a testament of God’s goodness and the Creation itself as testimony of His greatness. According to Romans 1 man is without excuse. Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him (God) from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
God is Holy, therefore depraved man must repent to meet the standard set by God. God is also very patient and longsuffering, allowing the man mercy so that he may repent.
But there is a random element in the equation: no one knows when they will die. We are reminded by the Apostle James that life is but a vapor. James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Have you ever watched a tea kettle? The boiling water escapes as a hot steam and the further it moves away from the kettle the more faint it becomes, eventually being absorbed by the surrounding air.
Today our expected lifespan is 70 years, but life also happens. Health concerns, accidents, and pandemics can end your life abruptly.
Jesus had compassion on the people because He saw them as sheep not having any guidance. Mark 6:34 “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”
I have learned in my threescore and 6 years that people need compassion from one another as God in His mercy extends compassion to us. People are people and will do the things not spiritually sensible. Just remember that God gave the pre-diluvian world 120 years.
So now when I witness the depravity of man, I know God is patient, desiring that they repent of their sins. The mercy of God extends to all men equally, and God is giving them their “120 years”.
See you in church. ---Bro. Louis