up to this point. But I'll read these first 13
verses and hopefully say some things about them. Everybody
knows this verse of scripture. It's been quoted so many times.
I'm sure you've quoted it yourself. Man, born of a woman, is of few
days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower,
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, and
continueth not. And doest thou not open thine
eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean, not one? Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds that he cannot pass. Turn from him that he may rest,
till he shall accomplish as in hireling his day. For there is
hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
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 brows like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost,
and where is he? As the waters fell from the sea,
and the flood decayeth and dryeth up. So man lieth down and rises
not, till the heavens be no more. They shall not awake nor be raised
out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldst hide me
in the grave, that would keep me secret until thy wrath be
passed, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me. Job, the last person to talk
to Job was a fellow named Zophar. And he told Job, he said, Job,
if you'd put your sin away from you, if you would, you'd be like a new child, you'd
be like a new morning. If you put your sin away, God
would bless you. He said, you'd be just like a
brand new child, be like a new day. It would be a wonderful
thing for you if you just put your sin away. Well, Job started
answering him back in chapter nine. And so it's been going
on here now, Job's answering them. And so he turns his eyes
from his three friends and he's talking to God, he's talking
to his maker, he's talking to his savior, he's talking to his
redeemer, his God. And this whole chapter, as you
look at it, it's just like a loud, deep wail. It's like a mournful,
mournful wail coming from this man, a mournful cry. and it's
a mournful cry to God, to his God, and he makes an appeal,
and he complains about his condition, man's condition, and then he
begins to talk to the Lord here, and he's being honest, and that's
one thing I know that God'll do with a man when he saves him,
he makes him an honest man. Old Barnard used to say, honest
men don't go to hell. And God will make a man honest.
And you know where he'll be honest before he will anyplace else?
Before God Almighty. I mean, he'll be honest there.
He'll be honest there. And Job's being honest. Job's
just expressing his heart. Job knows what's going on in
life. He had done lost everything.
He had done lost everything. And no wonder he could say, man,
man, that is born of a woman, Frail, fragile, God calls her
the weakest vessel, the weaker vessel. And he said a frail,
fragile woman. Said I'm born of a woman. Man
that's born of a woman. You know what, he just got a
few days. Just a very few days. Just a very few days. You know,
it seems like January the 1st was just a few days ago. And
here we are coming up on July. Now how did that happen? Where
does this time go? When it talks about a few days,
we understand that our life is as a few days. And I mean just
a very, very few days. You know, we was talking about
a young man, 40 years old. He got an awful diagnosis. He
may last two years, he may last two years. Got two children,
got a wife, got a mother, got a daddy, got a sister. And he's
been born just a few days. And his days are full of trouble
now. And I tell you what, and here's the thing, full of trouble.
I think I know so many men over the years and so many people
that I used to tell people all the time, if I've ever had a
trial, I didn't know it. And I really didn't because God
was so merciful to me. But then you start looking back
over your life and you realize that yes, you have had some troubles.
You've had troubles with your children, you had troubles in
your home, had troubles with sickness, had troubles with death. And I tell you, we must admit
that man's life is full of troubles on this earth. Some have more,
some have less. But yourself, all you've got
to do is think about yourself. How's it been with you upon the
earth? Back as far back as you can remember. And some of you can go back a
long way. Go back as far as you can remember,
how's it been with you? How many have you buried? How
many funeral homes have you been to? How many tears have you shed? How many times have your children
kept you awake at night? How many times have you took
somebody that you loved, I mean loved, took them and put them
away and walked away and left them in the ground? And I tell
you, how many hopes have you had? How many dreams have you
had that have not been realized in this world? How many times
have you said, this trouble that I'm going through right now is
my own doing. I was the one that caused this
trouble to come upon me. But if I'm saved from it, God's
gonna have to be the one to save me. God himself called upon me
in the day of my trouble. And I'll hear you, I'll hear
you. And I'll tell you, and I know
this, that pain is universal. There's no place on this planet
where you can go where there's not pain. I mean even beast,
cows, dogs, horses, all kinds of animals, they get sick. And
they have troubles. And they have pain. I had two
cows that had cancer. And they had cancer so bad that
it stunk. Had to put them down. Had to
buy a horse, got a horse one time in the last three days and
died of a heart attack. Laid down and died. You tell
me dogs help. Yes, dogs and cats and everything
has pain. And nobody likes pain. If you
can get a pill for your pain, get it. I'm serious. I'm not
trying to be facetious. If you got a lot of pain and
you can take something to ease your pain, please do it. But
I'll tell you what, but how many, no matter how much affliction,
how many turn to God for help? That's what Job does, he turns
to God. That's what David did. That's
what our Lord Jesus Christ himself even did. He threw many tears,
he called on God, many tears. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane,
many tears. He said, my soul is troubled. even unto death. So our Lord
Jesus Christ, He knew what trouble was. He knew what it was to be
acquainted with grief, and that's why it's so blessed a thing to
know that He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
We ain't never took a step that our Lord Jesus Christ ain't took
a step with us. We ain't never felt the pain
that He didn't feel. We ain't never had a burden that
He didn't already bear. We've never shed a tear that
he hasn't already shed. So I'll tell you what, the only
place we got to turn to when we're in trouble or when we're
afflicted is to the Lord himself. Is there a better place to turn?
Oh my. And then look what he says. Look
what he says here. He comes forth like a flower.
He comes forth like a flower. I remember I was preaching a
funeral, and I was using these verses of scripture. He said,
that's how frail life is, like a flower. Like a flower. And the man got really upset,
got really angry about it. Got real angry about it. But
he comes forth like a flower, and then he's cut down. Shirley
went yesterday and cut a bunch of flowers down and brought them
in the house, because they're so pretty. She said, brought
them in the house, because they're so pretty. And we got this hibiscus,
this tropical hibiscus. And it has these great big beautiful
red blooms on it. And I mean they bloom, they're
real big. But you know how long they last?
One day. They bloom one day and the next
day they wither away and you gotta pull them off. He said
that's what we are. Huh? We're just, oh what a flower. Pretty flower, blooming flower,
glorious flower. And then God comes along, he
said, I'm gonna show you what kind of flower you are. Oh, then he's cut down. He says
he's a flower. He didn't say he's an oak. Didn't
say he's a great big maple. Didn't say he was like a cedar
of Lebanon. Do you have any idea what those
cedars of Lebanon were like? God calls, mentioned them over
and over again. They must have really been something. But he don't call you an oak,
he don't call you a maple, he don't call you a great big beautiful
cedar. He said a flower, a flower. And then the wind comes along
on that flower. The heat comes down on that flower.
Storms come along and destroy them flowers. I love pines, and
I know some of you love pines. But I tell you what, when it
rains and when it pours down on them, down they go. They just,
tears them all up. Carries them all out, huh? And
he says, then the storms come along and they die. They die.
And then look what else he says. He says, and not only that, but
he flees also, he said, this is how, he said, man, this is
just how few and frail he is. He's a few days, he's like a
flower, cut it down, Freeze as a shatter. Everything about him
is just pitiful. And as a shatter. Now let me
ask you something. What has less substance than
a shatter? What has less, can a shatter
hurt you? Can a shatter have any substance
to it? There's less substance, you know,
you can't have a shatter without the sun being behind you. And you can't have a shadow.
So when you're looking at a shadow, you're looking at something that
has absolutely nothing to it. And that's why he says, man just
like a shadow. And when a shadow goes, sun gets
straight up. When you're not the sun, you
don't have no more shadow. It's gone. It's gone. And that's
one thing about the scriptures. You know, Christ is the shadow
of things to come. over in Hebrews, and he is a
shadow of things to come, but not the substance. And when the
substance come, there's no more need of a shadow. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He come, He was the substance of all the types
and shadows that's in this world. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He's
not like a shadow. He has got some substance for
us. He has everything to us. And I tell you what, didn't you
know He flees like a shadow? A vapor or something, you can
see vapor. This morning, you can see the vapor coming off
the lake. But what is a shadow? Nothing, it continueth not. And then look what he says. In verse three and four, he said,
do you open your eyes upon such a one? Do you look at somebody
like me? Why in the world are you looking
on me? I ain't nothing. I ain't nothin'. I know I'm not
nothin'. So why you open your eyes on
me? Are you gonna bring me into judgment with you? I can't bear
the judgment in myself. Lord, I'm glad you look at me.
I hope I want you to see me. But don't bring me into judgment.
Please don't bring me into judgment. You gonna bring me into judgment?
I can't deal with you in judgment. I gotta have somebody else to
deal with me in judgment. I gotta have somebody else to
bear my judgment. And then look what he says here
at verse four. He talks about his ancestors. About his ancestors. He said,
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. He's, what he's saying is, if
my mother was unclean, my father was unclean, how in the world
can they bring anything clean out of themselves? They was born
sinners, they lived as sinners. They was weak, they was frail,
they was unclean. And he says, so look out, I'm
not a clean thing. My parents were unclean, so how
can I be unclean? And because our parents were
sinners, and I'll tell you, I know mine was, and I know I am. Because
if our parents were sinners, that's not justification for
our own sinfulness. You know, a man, he can't look
at his daddy and say, I'm a sinner because my daddy was a sinner.
I mean, we're gonna face God for our own sin. Well, you know,
God judges us for our own sin. He looks at us and our sin. He's
not gonna go back and deal with me over what my father did. He's
gonna deal with me over what I did. You know, it's like somebody
that commits murder and he says, well, My daddy was a murderer,
so I'm a murderer, so listen, I can justify myself because
I've done that. Well, you reckon that the law
is going to let him get by because he murdered somebody and he said,
I've done it because my daddy was a murderer too? I'm just
following in his footsteps? No, of course not. And I'll tell
you what, here's the thing about it. Scott used to say like this,
he said, people are born confused because their mama's confused
and their daddy was confused. That's why there are people so
confused. But I'll tell you, we cannot
look at our parents and say, I am what I am because of what
my daddy was. I am what I am because of me
and what I've done. And that's the thing about it.
Bless God that our Lord Jesus Christ You know, I wake up sometimes,
and I've told you this before, I wake up sometimes and everything
I ever done from the time I was nine or 10 years old till I was
23, 24, just my sins, just all this awful, they just keep coming
and keep coming and keep coming. But you know what I say? I say,
Lord, you told me that you sent your son to put away all my sin
by the sacrifice of yourself. You told me that you would not
remember our sins against us anymore, that you said you'd
cast our sins as far as the east is from the west, you'd blow
them out as a thick cloud. So I don't care how many sins
come up against you. All you can say is, God, you
said you wouldn't remember me. I may remember, but you won't.
That's what David said. My sin's always before me, but
at the same time, you read it tonight. He's my life, he's my
salvation, he's my strength. Wouldn't it be awful to have
these sins come to your mind and then you couldn't do anything
about them? Wouldn't it be awful to remember things you said and
you done and you couldn't do nothing about them? I tell you
what, we can do this, we have this assurance, and I mean we
got it, that God already put away all of our sin, and He done
it with the blood of His blessed Son. And I tell you, I don't care
how sinful a man is, if Christ died for him, all his sins are
gone. All of them. And I tell you,
here's the thing about it now, all of my future sins, and your
future sins, has already been put away. All of our sins were future when
Christ died. And oh my, then look what he
goes on to say, I thank God that we've got a Savior. Yeah, we
come out of unclean parents. But oh my, God said, what God
hath cleansed call not thou common or unclean. The blood of Christ
cleanses from all sin. David said, wash me and I shall
be whiter than snow. Oh my, ain't you grateful that
God don't hold you accountable for something somebody else did
in yourself that he held you accountable in his blessed son,
the Lord Jesus Christ? And then look what he said here
in verse five. Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds that he cannot pass. Now what in the world is he talking
about here? Job didn't think his life was a thing of chance. No, you know what he said? He
didn't think it was a law, a resistless law that couldn't be, that he
couldn't have no power over. But he knew that his life was
a God-determined life, that every day that he lived, God determined
it. Ain't that what he says here? His days are determined. Every day you live, it's already
determined how many days you're gonna live. Do you know that?
Ain't that something? And listen, he goes on here to
say, The number of his months are with you. Every how many
months he's gonna live, they're with you. You set an invitation. You set the bounds of how far
he'll live, how far he'll go, and what he'll do. And when those
days are gone, when those bounds are over, then that man's leaving
this world. And he said, I'm in God's hands.
You've determined everything about me before I ever was. Huh? Oh my. He came into being by God's purpose. And we came into being by God's
purpose. We'll live by God's purpose for
a set time that's settled and it's unchangeable. So many days,
so many months, and no more. And thank God we don't know the
boundaries. We don't know the boundaries.
But I'll tell you what, everybody's got a boundary. And when you
get to that boundary, that's it. A dear man told me this morning,
he said, you know, when I was in the hospital and he was very
sick, he said, I thought the Lord's fixing to take me home.
I really did. He said, now, sometimes I wish he
had. But oh, no. I tell you, ain't
you thankful? I'm thankful that I don't know
the number of my days. You know, a doctor can say you
got this amount of time or you got that amount of time, but
they're just telling you what God's already knew. They're just
telling you what God's already knew. There's nothing happens
to anybody in this world, especially God's elect, that God didn't
order for. Nothing. And I find great, great
comfort and assurance in that, not only for myself, but for
my brothers and sisters and what they go through. I really do.
And then look what he says in verse six. Because of our relationship
to our fathers, our own sinfulness, our days are limited. And then
look what he says here. He said, oh Lord, turn from him,
seeing that you've already set my days, you've numbered my months,
you've set my boundaries, I can't go past that. Turn from him that
he may rest. Let him have some rest in this
world. Let him have some comfort in this world. Oh, let him cease
from this worry and this pain and this few days of full troubles. And then look what he says, till
he accomplishes days like a hireling. He says, you know what it is
to, all of you have worked, some of you still work, but all of
you have worked and made a living. and you'd get up in the morning
and you was a hireling. You was a hireling, you worked
every day, and you was a hireling. And you can't wait until, if
it's got off at 3.30, you said, well, it's time to quit, time
to go home. And that's what Job said, Lord,
said, let my days be as a hireling. He said, I'm just like a servant,
I'm a hireling, and I want to get to the end of the day, and
I want to have rest when I get to the end of that day. I want
to have some rest. That's what he says. Turn from him. I come from imperfect
parents, so turn away. Lord, let me have some rest.
You set my bounds, I can't go behind it. Oh, my. Till I shall accomplish, my time
will be just like a hireling and I'll get to the end of my
day one of these days. But I tell you what, You know, when we come to the
end of this thing, when it's all said and done, it's not a wise thing to talk
to God like this, but I do know this. Our lives, our lives influences
other people while we live. Our lives influence other people
while we live. Our conduct touches other people.
You know, we just, when a man dies, even when he dies, his
influence is gonna live on. How many people do we know that
their influence lives on and on and on and on? And so what
we do and how we act in this world, no matter who our parents
are, no matter God keeping his eye on us, setting the limits
of our day, we have an influence on people for good or bad. And
when we leave this world, we're gonna leave some influence behind.
Our lives gonna influence our children, gonna influence one
another. We're gonna leave behind wonderful memories, but not so
good memories. But I do know this. I know this,
that I won't... When God's watching us, he said,
Lord, you see me. You see me, you watch me, you
set my times, you set my appointments, you set my days. So Lord, while
I'm here, let my life, let my life, turn from me, let my life
be some kind of a good influence on the people and leave something
behind besides a bad name. Huh? Oh my. And I tell you, listen,
I think God keeps His eye on us, and I'm glad He does. He
said He numbers the hairs on our head. And then look what
He says. And this is as certain as the
sun coming up in the morning. He said in verse 7, He's talking
about the certainty of leaving this world. For there is hope
of a tree, if it be cut down. that it'll sprout again and that
the tender branches thereof will cease. Cut down a tree and after
a while it starts sprouting. It'll start sprouting. And then
he goes on to say this. And he says, though the tree, to him death was as certain as
the death of a tree being cut down, diseased or old age. He
says, yea, the root thereof is old. It's an old, old, old tree.
And the stalk thereof died in the ground. And then he says this, yet just
a little bit of water, a little bit of water, you know what it'll
do? It'll cause it to bud, you know, a little old branch will
come up from it, it'll come out of it. And what he's saying was,
he said, you know, you set my bowels just like a tree, and
I'm gonna be cut down just like a tree. I'm gonna be old, I'm
gonna go away. And then he says, death to him
was like the water drying up, in verse 10. But man dieth and
wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost. And he fails as
the water, as the sea, and the flood dries up. He said, I'll
just dry up like the water, just dry up like the sea, dry up like
the Euphrates in the Nile. And then look what he says. And
this is something that is so final, so final. There's a place over in Job that
says, you know, a man goes away and he never comes home again,
never comes home again. And he says this, so man lieth
down and rises not. He lays down, he dies, he dies,
but there's more hope of a tree than him. And he gives up the
ghost. And then here's the water question.
Where is he? Where is he? Look what he asked
down there in verse 14. If a man die, shall he live? Will he live? If he dies, will
he live again? And Noah, he said, there's more
hope of a tree than for a man. More hope of a tree. The man
lies down, he's not gonna rise up again. Not gonna rise up again. And then he's, what he's saying,
until the heavens be no more. Now what he's saying here, he
said, I'm gonna stay in the ground, until God takes this, time ceases
to be, and the heavens cease to be until there's a new heaven
and a new earth, I'm gonna stay right where I am until that new
heaven, new earth. That's where I'm gonna stay until
God calls me out of there. You know, there's no second chances,
there's no more opportunities. As a tree falls, so shall it
lay. There's no coming back to our
homes. No coming back to our businesses.
No coming back to pleasure. No coming back to worship. Till
the heavens be no more. And I tell you what, we're walking
a path right now that we'll never ever walk again. Never walk again. And then he says to God, he said,
look what he says in verse 13. Lord, hide me in the grave. Just
hide me. That's a good place to be in.
that thou wouldest keep me secret, oh my, until your wrath be passed,
and that you would appoint me a set time, a time that I would
come out of the grave, that I wouldn't be in this grave anymore. And
listen to this, that you would appoint me a set time. And listen,
Lord, remember me, remember me. Like that thief on the cross,
Lord, remember me. Remember me. Please remember
me. I'm a born of a woman. I'm a
few days and my life's full of trouble. Please remember me. You got my time set for me? Lord,
when I'm in that grave, remember me. When the heavens are done
away with, remember me. Our Father. Oh, our Lord, our
God. our Savior, our Redeemer. Oh,
Jesus, Thou lover of our souls, all our righteousness, all our
plea, all our hope, all our strength, all our salvation, all our light,
everything that we need, You give us, and we thank You for
that. And Lord, I thank You that we
don't know our boundaries. We don't know what the future
holds. And I'm so thankful that I don't know how long I'll live.
I don't know how long anybody else will. But Lord, you know,
you've got a time set for every one of us. You've got a day set
for us. You've got a boundary set for
us. And oh Lord, I thank you for that. I thank you that we
don't know. And as long as you let us live,
as long as you give us health, as long as you give us strength,
as long as you keep us in our sound mind, Lord, we want to
worship you. We want to honor you. We want
to glorify you. And we want to be a blessing
to your dear people while we live on this earth. Whatever
else we may do, Lord, let us be a blessing. Let us be an encouragement. Let us be a help and a hope to
our dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We ask these things
in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Good night and God bless you
and Lord willing.