Most Bible historians agree that
the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, the oldest
recorded, the first written book of God's Word. And in the book
of Job are found some profound questions, and questions which
are pertinent or relevant to our day many thousands of years
later. questions which demand an answer
from us, eternal questions. And I'll be reading from the
book of Job chapter 14 if you want to follow along. Job 14.
It begins this way in verse 1 by saying, Man that is born of a
woman is of few days and full of trouble. Few days, very few. three score and ten years, or
seventy years, basically, or if by reason of God-given strength,
four score or eighty years. Nevertheless, that's not very
long. Some of you are getting up in
years, and the days and the years have flown by. Well, he's a few
days, and it says, full of trouble. These few days that man has on
earth, are full of trouble, sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, and eventually
death. In verse 2, he goes on to say,
Man cometh forth like a flower, young, alive, full of life, a
beautiful, perhaps, flower, but is cut down. And he fleeth also
as a shadow, and Continueth not. Shadows don't last very long,
do they? As soon as the sun goes down,
so do the shadows flee away. Verse 3. And Job asked the question,
And dost thou, or does God, open his eyes upon such a want? Does God even consider such an
insignificant and finite and quickly passing creature such
as man? Why is God mindful of man? He said in the Psalms. What is
man that God is mindful of him or thinks upon him? He goes on
to say, does God bring me into judgment with him? Why bother? Why would God bother to be concerned
with such an insignificant creature as man? We'll read on. In verse
4 he said, and he asked this This profound question which
we need to know the answer of. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Now he's talking about man. That
man is an unclean thing before God. You see, God is holy. We've considered that last week,
that God's chief attribute, that every other attribute is contained
in this one attribute. God is holy. His love is holy. His justice, His righteousness,
everything about God is holy. God loves holy things. God, the righteous Lord, loveth
righteousness, the scripture says. Well, Job says man is unclean. How can an unclean thing dwell
with the holy God? And he asks this question in
Job 25, verse 4. He says, How can man be justified,
or rather declared holy, clean, righteous, acceptable with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? I'm reading Job 25. Verse 5 says,
Behold, even the moon it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure
in God's sight, how much less man that is a worm. Now, that's a serious question,
isn't it? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? And back in Job chapter 9, he
asks this question, this powerful question. How should man be just
with God? Job 9 verse 2. He says, I know
it's of a truth. I know it is so. I know it must
be. Man must be just. Well, how? How should man be just with God? Do you know the answer to that?
Do you know that only the just, the righteous, the pure shall
dwell with God? Read Psalm 24 for yourself sometime. Who shall ascend under the holy
hill of God? Who shall dwell with God in his
heaven? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. He that hath not lifted up his
soul under vanity or sworn deceitfully. And who can say that they've
never sinned or that they have a pure heart. No man. No man. Well, Job also says there's not
a just man on earth that sinneth not. And the answer to this question,
how a man can be clean with the righteous and holy God, how a
man can be just with the holy God, is the answer of salvation. All right, let's read on in Job
14. Verse 5, he says, seeing man's days are determined, the
number of his months are with God. Thou hast appointed his
bounds that he cannot pass. Is that fatalism? No. That's Job 14, verse 5. That's God's Word. Man's bounds
are set. He cannot pass. There's appointed
unto man wants to die. a day to die, and after that,
the judgment to stand before this holy God. Well, who will?
Who will live with God? Who will be justified? Who will
be declared acceptable by God? Well, let's read on. Verse 6
says, Turn from him that he may rest till he shall accomplish
as an hireling his day. That is, man is as an hireling
to God. That is, his days upon this earth
is serving God's purpose somehow. And only God knows what that
purpose is. And then Job talks about death
here in Job 14. And he uses a tree as an example. Let's read on in verses 7 through
9 of Job 14. Let's read these verses. Job
says, There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down. that it will
sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old
in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in the ground, yet through
the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a
plant. Now some long dead and fallen
trees suddenly sprout and grow again. Well, I've known locust
post that men have used on their farms as fence posts. I've known, I've seen those suddenly
sprout. Sprout limbs and grow leaves
after many years. Well, he says, a tree may do
that. A tree may die and fall into
the ground and live again. But what about man? Verses 10
through 12. He says, man dieth. and wasteth
away." That is, man is planted in the ground or buried, and
his body wastes away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost
or his soul, and where is it? Where is it? Verse 12, "...man
lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more. They
shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Man, where
is it when he dies? He is somewhere Man is a living
soul. These bodies, this is not the
man. This body is merely a vessel
that the person lives in, a tabernacle which the soul dwells in. You
see, the soul is what animates the body. And when the body dies,
when the body decays and fails, when the heart stops, the breathing
stops, where does the soul go? Well, God said, all souls are
mine. For the man, the soul, goes back
to God who gave it to be determined only by God what shall happen
to it. Where is it? Where is man after
he dies? Verse 13. I'm reading Job 14.
Verse 13. Job says this. Job pleads this. Oh, that thou wouldest hide me
in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret. until by wrath
be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember
me." Job talks about the certainty of God's wrath. Job speaks of
God's wrath and anger and judgment against sinful man as if it is
a certainty. Now remember, this is the oldest
book in Scripture, and he talks about the wrath of God. anger
and judgment of God against sinful man. And Job's plea is that God
would hide him, keep him, that God would appoint a time for
him, remember him. These are all saving prayers,
saving requests. Verse 14, Job says, If a man
die, shall he live again? Shall he live? How? How shall
he live again, or that is, live eternally, live with God in whom
we live and move and have our being? How shall he live before
a holy God? How shall man be just with God? How shall an unclean man be clean
enough to live in God's holy heaven? Well, do you know, like
that tree, he said, the root waxes old in the earth, yet through
the scent of water it will bud." If there's a root there, if the
root of the matter is still there. And the Lord said of Job that
the root of the matter was in Job. And the root of the matter
is saving faith. True saving faith which justifies
us. That was in Job. Now it wasn't
of himself. It was the gift of God. No man
decides to believe. figures these things out of his
self. In fact, it says that in Job.
Can a man by searching find out God unto perfection? No. God
must reveal the truth in us, to us. But the root of the matter
in saving faith is this. Job said in Job chapter 19, verse
25, he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth. You see, Job knew that he was
an unclean thing. Job knew that he was unjust in
himself. Job knew that he needed and had
to have a Redeemer, a substitute, someone to represent him, a righteous
substitute before God in his place. And Job's Redeemer, and
the only Redeemer, is God manifest in the flesh, and that's Jesus
Christ. Because Jesus Christ came and
did what he did for Job, because Jesus Christ came and did what
he did for all sinners, all his chosen ones, because he did that,
man can be just with God. An unclean thing can be clean
before God. I'm reading Romans chapter 3
now. The answers to Job's questions
are found here in Romans 3. And it says in Romans 3, verses
21 and 22, Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest,
made clear, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, yes,
even Job, the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all that believe. And he says in
verse 25 and 26, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, Jesus Christ was set forth to be a
bloody sacrifice for sinners and to declare His righteousness
Verse 26, "...to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness,"
Christ's righteousness, "...that God might be just, and the justifier
of them which believe in Jesus Christ." That's how a man, how
a person can be just with God by Jesus Christ doing what He
did for that person. Are you just before God? Well,
it is not by our own works, but only by faith in Jesus Christ.
Until next Sunday, good day.