I'm gonna ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me back to the book of Job. Job chapter 9. Job 9. Last time we considered this book, we listened to a man named Bildad's reprimand of Job. Bildad reprimanded Job based upon what Bildad considered to be the reason that God had dealt so harshly with Job. And we looked at Two or three passages there coming up to this chapter 9. And listen to time after time after time that Bildad reamed Job out. And Job, hearing everything that was said, said this, verse 2, chapter 9, I know it is so of truth. But how should man be just with God?

Now, the epitome of Job's words that we're going to read, I'd like to look at the rest of this chapter. I'm just going to touch a few verses. It goes through verse 35, and I don't want to keep you long I know everybody's tired, but what I want to do is say the heart of what Job is going to say after Bill Dad has told him, this is why you're suffering. It's why your kids got killed. It's why you lost your land. It's why you lost your reputation. You lost a sin in your life. There's sin in your life. And Job said, I know it. I know it. You're right. But how should a man be just with God?

Job's pleading relates to all of us what we're getting ready to look at, the truth. of a new man and an old man, talking, rehearsing, back before each other, back and forth, back and forth. And we're going to hear, or believers are going to hear what's being said, and they're going to say, that's exactly the way I am, right there. That's how I am. God's people know that they know God. Apostle Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I know, I know that I know God. But a believer sees sin within himself. And he sees it and he says,

John Newton, I got this little John Newton's Hymns. It's a song we sing so often. Every time I read this song, to this point, I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse who have never heard his name. Could my heart so hard remain prayer a task and burden proof and every trifle give me pain if I knew a savior's love? When I turn my eyes within all is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin, can I deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? Yet I mourn my stubborn will, find my sin and grief a thrall. Shall I or should I grieve for what I feel if I did not love at all? Could I joy his saints to meet, and choose the ways I once abhorred? Find a time, the promise sweet, if I did not love the Lord.

Lord, decide the doubtful case. Lord, you decide the case for me. That's what I'm getting ready to preach on in just a minute. I've thought about this song. I thought about what I'm getting ready to preach. Lord, do I love you or do I not? I see sin in me. I love you. I know I love you. But all the things that I do and say and think, Lord, I don't have sense enough to call it. I need an umpire. I need a daysman. That's why I entitled this message, A Need of a Daysman. That's just an old English word that means an umpire. I need somebody to make the call on this. I need somebody to call it. When I'm reading this, studying for this, I think about, I don't know why I kept thinking second base, but I was just thinking of a baseball player sliding into second base. an umpire, and he's squatting down, he's watching. And that ball has been thrown, and the guy's coming in for a slide, and almost when you see it in slow motion again, you're trying to decide, did his foot touch the bag first, or did the ball get there first? But the umpire had to make the call.

Lord, you decide this doubtful case. thou who art thy people's son, S-U-N. Shine upon thy work of grace, if it be indeed begun, and let me love thee more and more, if I love at all, I pray. And if I have not loved before, help me to begin today.

The Spirit of God moved a man named Job to bear his heart whenever his friend, Bill Dad, was just wearing him out. And while Bill Dad was wearing him out, Joe beheld in himself. He saw something of what he is, what he is by nature. He saw it. He knew it. And therefore, he needed some assurance. And you that know him, that's what you need, that's what I need. I need some assurance.

Now, I just want us to consider these, the rest of this chapter, and like I said, I'm gonna read quite a few, I'm gonna read, plan, read all the verses, not one time, but read them, make a few comments. But I just want us to hear this, and just think in your mind, about what John Newton just wrote, what the Lord is dealing with us, and what the Spirit of God moved the writer of Job to write.

Lord, would you decide the case? Lord, you decide. I feel in my heart that I know you, but I see the rebellion in my life and in my heart and my attitude, and I think, Lord, You make the call. You make the call. The day's mine. That's why I need an umpire. I need a mediator.

Job was speaking, and I'll start in verse 3, and I'll read through verse 12. And here's Job. And he sees, he's heard what, he's heard what Bildad said. And Job said, verse 3, If he will contend with him, if God will contend, or if man will contend with God, or God contend with man, but if he will contend with him, if God, I think is what it means, if God will contend with a man, he, a man, can't answer him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? Which moveth or removeth the mountains, and they know not, which overturneth them in his anger, which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble, which commandeth the sun, and it rises not, and sealeth up the stars, which alone spreadeth out the heavens, tread upon the waves of the sea, maketh arch to Russ and Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the South, which doeth great things, past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not. He passeth on also, but I perceive him not. Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? Who will say unto him, what doest thou?

What Job is saying when he's answering Bildad, he said, if a man finds himself to desire, to contend with God, Bildad, Job said, you're saying that I've got anxiety, anxiousness, maliciousness, sin against God, he said, Bildad, if a man would contend, if a man would strive or make complaint or quarrel with God, if a man was going to debate God, Bildad, what man could answer one question out of a thousand that God had asked him? If God asked a question, Could that man answer one question out of a thousand that God had asked him? He said, whoever was found to be stubborn before God and prospered, whoever bowed up against God, you're telling me that I've been rebellious against God and sinned, that's why my kids died. Whoever prospered. was being stubborn before the Lord. He said, God is God in heaven and earth. He said, the Lord gave an example. He said, the Lord can remove mountains of this world, this world cursed by God in Adam's fall. This earth is under the curse of God. There's earthquakes and hurricanes and all these physical things that we see.

Let me tell you something. All these physical things that we see, earthquakes and, you know, floods and disasters and all this, God is speaking. God's speaking in all that. God is speaking because of man's rebellion, this earth being under the curse of God. Now, cursed is the ground. That's what the Lord told Adam. Cursed to the ground for your sake, because of your rebellion. And man does not even know what's happening. Oh, we're going to have a, we're going to have a, you know, cat five coming through here, and boy, I tell you what, better over this, that, and the other. God is speaking. And man, by nature, watches the weather channel to find out what's going on. And it never, by nature, enters his mind. God's talking.

The Lord can make this world to be in a state of physical agitation because of God's anger, sin, wrath against the rebellion of this world. God can move the pillars of this world. Things that God has put here, God can shake them. What holds up this world, just like these natural, we call natural disasters, And man doesn't even know what's going on. God, by the prayer of a man named Isaiah, was pleased to cause the shadow of a sundial to go back 10 degrees to give Hezekiah a word from the Lord through the prophet Isaiah that said, God's word is so. I'm going to show you something that God's listening. Isaiah said, God's going to move the shadow backwards. But if the sun is going down this way, God's just going to move it back 10 degrees to show you that God knows what he's doing.

Bill, Dad, or Joe had said, the Lord, in those first verses we read, he said, the Lord stretches out to heavens and marches upon the heights of the sea, fashioning and naming constellations and the inner chambers, the innermost parts of this earth that nobody knows anything about. I looked at some app the other day, I think Gabe was showing it to me and he was showing, he started off with the earth and it just went out and then it went into the, you know, our constellation, you know, the Milky Way and it went on and on and on and on and on. It just showed the minuteness, the nothingness of man. Here's a man, and here's, I mean, this goes on and on. These telescopes look at it, and, you know, this thing is 5,000 light years away. You know, when you think about, you know, the speed of light, it's that many years away, light years away. 5,280, is that how many miles it is per second for light? How far do you think that light goes in one year? These things are a thousand light years away, the expanse.

Job says, this is who I'm dealing with. Then he says in verses 13 to 21, he said, if God will not withdraw his anger. Actually, if you notice the word there, if you have an italicized version, that word if is in italics. It's not there. Actually, it's God will not withdraw his anger. God is going to deal with sin. He's going to deal with sin in that sinner, or he's going to deal with sin in his substitute. But he's going to deal with sin. God will not withdraw his anger. The proud helpers do stoop unto him. Verse 14, how much less shall I answer him and choose out my words to reason with him? Whom though I were righteous, yet I would not answer. but I would make supplication to my judge. If I had called and he answered me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice? For he breaketh me with tempest and multiplieth my wounds without a cause. He breaketh me with his dealings with me."

That's what Job was saying. broken me down. God brought me down, put me in the dust. Everything's going fine. And he, he said, verse 17, he breaketh me with a tempest and multiplieth my wounds without a cause. Does that mean that God does this without any cause at all? No, no, no, no. It doesn't mean that. God does everything with a cause. He does it according to his will in the army of heaven. He says he does it without a cause revealed to me. Why does God Almighty send a flood and wipe out whole communities? Why does he do that? Because he was pleased to. Somebody said, well, I just don't understand how a loving God could do something like that. Well, you don't know the end from the beginning. And He doesn't owe you any explanation of me either. He does it.

Verse 18, He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness. He gave me no time to breathe and just take a breath. You're working somebody, let's take five. Let's just take five here. Y'all just sit down for a minute. Get you a drink of water. Let's just take a break. It's hot. You know, sit down under this tree and take a break. He says, verse 18, he will not suffer me to take my breath.

They came time after time after time, said all your cattle are gone. All your livestock are gone. Your kids, your kids are all dead. Here comes another one and another one. And another one, verse 19, if I speak of strength, lo, he is strong. And if of judgment, who shall set a time to plead? Do I have a right to plead my side of the story with God's dealings concerning me? If Lord's pleased to deal with me in a certain way, do I have a right to kind of let's negotiate a little bit on this thing. All these things that happened to me that you're reprimanding me on, this is my plea, Job said. If I justify, verse 19, if I speak of strength, lo, he's strong, and of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If I justify myself, Mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet I would not know my soul. I would despise my life.

What he said in that 21st verse is this, if I really was aware, if I was really aware of what I am by nature, if I knew, Oh, I can look at me and I think, well, you know what? I don't know. I've done a few things I guess I shouldn't be proud of, I'm supposed to. But as a general rule, now that I've straightened up and fly right, I've tried to work hard, make a living, provide for my family, do the right thing, be honorable. Henry Mahan said one time, he said, a preacher of the gospel ought to be the most respected. man in the community, by believers and unbelievers. He ought to be the most respected man in the community. People ought to speak well of him. Maybe not because of what he believes, they won't, but he said just out of his fairness. Job said in verse 21, though I were perfect, not perfect in the sense of righteous before God, but if I was a man that walked with respect, stuff like that, though I were perfect, Yet, would I not know my soul? I'd despise my life if I really saw myself for what I am. I'd hate my own guts if I really saw me for me. I really did.

Verse 22, 23. This one thing, therefore I said, I said it, he destroyeth the perky. and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

Job was saying that he said he's outward sufferings that I'm going through trials. He said that's that's no indication of whether or not God has been pleased to find favor or displeasure in me. Same thing happens to all, Ecclesiastes 9, 2 and 3. We can't, you can't go on the outside, you know, saying, well, I can tell you've really been blessed to the Lord because ABC, this is what's happened to you.

The scripture sets forth, Ecclesiastes chapter 9, 2 and 3, all things come alike to all. one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean, to the unclean, to him that sacrifices, to him that sacrifices not. As it is good, so is it to the sinner. As it is to the good, so it is to the sinner. He that sweareth is he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done unto the son, that there is one event, even to all, Yea, also the heart of the sons of men are full of evil and madness in their heart while they live and after they go to the dead.

Job said, fellas, I know you're telling me what a rebel I am because of all these things that have happened. But these things all happen to the just and the unjust. That's not a barometer. Well, I tell you, you've gone through some real physical problems. Evidently, you must be a greater sinner than somebody else. I've never had those problems. I've never had anything happen to me. Well, you must really be righteous then. Before God, Job said, no. You're accusing me of being a rebel against God. But I'm going to tell you something. That's not the barometer. That's not the way that we judge it.

If these severe trials, in the case of Job, Job said in verse 23, this is kind of a hard one to understand, but I think the heart of it says this, 23, if the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. What he was saying is this, if these severe trials come, known unto the Lord that they're coming because he sent them. These trials come, he said, I want you to understand that God Almighty, whenever Satan raises up his head and said, I told you, I told you God would, you know, Job would curse you. God is going to, God's going to send this trial and tribulation and Job's going to curse you to your face. And the Lord sent those trials. All that scourging that Job went through, and Satan was made a mockery. God mocked Satan's words. He said, you sinned, trial, tribulation, all this anxiety, and he'll curse you to your face. And God did. And all of that cursing that God sent, or the trials and tribulations, let me say it like that, only proved God's faithfulness to keep him. Job didn't mock God. He didn't.

23, if the scourge slay suddenly, he, the Lord, will laugh at the trial of the innocent. He's going to laugh at what man by nature thought, or Satan, let me say, thought was going to be man's downfall. God's going to laugh. at what happened. He's going to make a mockery out of Satan's accusations. It's a hard one to understand, but I'm trying to get it apart, get the point across to you. God is going to send these trials. Satan is going to say, you're getting this because you're a rebel against God. And God is going to send the trial, send the scourge, and then laugh, the scripture says, at what happened. showing that his faithfulness was true and he made Satan to be a liar.

Job's trial truly moved the Lord to cause that scourge to come. And Satan accusing him, Job is asking, am I suffering these things because of God's justice and judgment? Am I suffering this because of His judgment, his anger against me, or is it because of his loving chastisement? Am I going through these physical problems because God is showing me I'm displeased with you, Marvin? You're a rebel against me. You hadn't been faithful, and I'm going to send judgment.

Satan all the while will say, well, Marvin, this is the reason you're going through this. If you'd have been faithful to the Lord, if you'd have been faithful, God wouldn't be putting you through all this, and the Lord will send it anyway, and make me go through this precious time with some precious people that love me, and prove Satan to be a liar, and God faithful, and God gonna laugh at Satan's accusations. The scourge will come, and God's going to mock Satan, proving that he's going to uphold his people in the midst of it.

Verse 24 to 35. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked, and he covereth the faces of the judgments thereof. If not, Where and who is he? What we're saying right there is that the earth, this earth is a wicked place. It's a wicked place. And the Lord's covered the faces of the judges, those that are ruling in this world right now. And they don't see what's going on. They don't see. They don't see what's really happening. This world's in a mess, boy. I'm telling you, you ain't kidding. It ain't never been like this before. And the Lord covers the eyes of those that think, well, the economy is falling apart and nothing's going well.

Job ended up saying in that 24th verse, the earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covered, he the Lord covered the faces of the judges thereof. Then Job says, if not, where and who is he? If this is not the Lord doing this, who is then? That's what he's saying. If God is not doing this, then who's doing it? Like old Scott used to say, who's running this show anyway? Who's doing all this?

Job said, now my days are swifter than a post. They flee away. They see no good. They're passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. If I say I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself. I'm afraid of all my sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. If I be wicked, why then labor in vain? If I wash myself with water, with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him. We should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, among us. We're all just the same. We're all in the same boat together in this world. We're all born in Adam. We're in the same boat, going through the same trials and same tribulations. We're suffering. We're getting older, weaker. And I know that.

Verse 33, neither is there any dazement, any mediator, any advocate betwixt among us. I wish I could help you out. I wish I could give you some comfort. I wish I could fix your problem, but I can't. That they may lay his hand upon both of us. Oh, thanks be unto God, there is a days man though. He's not us. I can't fix it. But I'll tell you, there's one in heaven. There's one among us. born made of a woman who knows and loves his people.

There is a daysman. There is a mediator. There's a daysman, one that can lay his hands, man, God, God, man, that can lay his hands on both of us and satisfy the justice and judgment of God on behalf of his people and comfort Keep them, give unto them, impute unto them righteousness. There is a daysman. There's got to be a mediator.

God is holy. And he will in no wise clear the guilty. It ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. I need a daysman. I need an umpire. I need somebody to get down where I am and call the play. Safer out. You see, you watch that baseball game sometimes, and boy, they'll come in there sliding in, and one umpire might be looking, and he might not see it, and he'll look at the umpire, and he'll point at him. You make the call. You make the call.

I need a daisman. I need a mediator. Job finished his discourse, 34, 35, let him take his rod away from me. And let not his fear terrify me. Then I would speak, not fear, fear him. But it's not so with me. I'm not the one that can do this. I need a daysman. I need one that can touch God, except that of God, and one that can touch me. I need a go-between.

He proclaimed his insufficiency. He could see the rebellion in himself, he knew in his heart. Job did, he loved God like every believer does. I know, I know, I love him. Oh, if God dealt with me and what I see in me, I'm gone. Job was saying, like every believer says, I cannot trust myself. I need a daysman, I need an umpire, one to settle the issue. For me, I need a mediator, competent, accepted of God on my behalf. One that'll have pity on a helpless sinner and show mercy to me in the midst of what I am.

Oh, thanks be unto God. There's a daisman. There's an umpire that's gonna make the call. And if he makes the call, it's gonna be a call forever. If he looks upon me, this wretched, no good, worthless sinner, if he looks upon me in Adam only, I have no hope. But if he looks upon me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing what I am by nature, and he's taken all of that guilt, and he's borne all the guilt in his own body, the scripture says, that he was made sin for me, and imputed his righteousness to me, and makes the call, safe, safe! And I'm okay, I'm okay.

I pray the Lord bless this to our hearts. Amen.