I'll start reading in verse 20
and read to the end of the chapter and deal with these verses this
evening. Now Job is speaking to God, pleading
with God. And he said in verse 20, only
do not two things unto me, then will I not hide myself from thee.
Withdraw thine hand from me, and let not thy dread make me
afraid. Then call thou, and I will answer,
or let me speak, and answer thou me. How many are mine iniquities
and sins? Make me to know my transgression
and my sin. Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
and holdest me for thine enemy? Wilt thou break a leaf driven
to and fro? And wilt thou pursue the dry
stubble? For thou writest bitter things
against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my
youth. Thou puttest my feet also in
the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths. Thou settest
a print upon the heels of my feet, and he as a rotten thing
consumeth as a garment that is moth-eaten. Job. Didn't want to reason and argue
with his friends anymore. He wanted to deal with God and
have God to deal with him. You remember what he said about
them up here in this 13th chapter in verse 3. Look what he said.
Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
But you are all, you are forgers of lies, you're all physicians
of no value. Oh, that you would all together
hold your peace, and it should be your wisdom. So he talked
to these people, said, I'm sick of you, I'm tired of you, I'm
tired of what you're saying. And he knew that God would be
his justification. Ain't that what he says there?
In verse 18 of this chapter. Behold now, I've ordered my cause. It's laid out. And I know that
I shall be justified. You know, if God justifies you,
who can be against you? And that's what he said here.
My justification has to be before God. God's the only one that
can justify me, clear me, take care of my sin, my iniquity. And then he says not only that,
but he said God is his salvation. Down in verse 16, he also He also shall be my salvation.
So he said, he's my justification, he's my salvation. And he now
turns and begins to plead with God, begins to plead with God,
to talk with God. He's come to address the eternal,
the eternal infinite God. And you know, we all come and
we come before the Lord. That's who we're coming before,
someone who is eternal and infinite. He's got all the power. He's
got all the grace. He's got all the mercy. He's
got all the ability. And that's why Hebrews 4.16 says
this, let us come boldly. Remember, this is where we're
coming. Let us come boldly under the throne of grace where we
may obtain mercy. Obtain mercy. and find help in
a time of need. And that's what Job is doing
right here. He's got a need. He's coming boldly to the throne
of grace. He's come there to plead, to
plead with God Almighty. And that's where we make our
appeal, at the throne of grace. And look what a solemn request
that he says here in verse 20. Only do not two things unto me. Two things, Lord, don't do this
to me. Then I'll not hide myself from
thee. And here's the two things that he's talking about. He said,
withdraw thy hand far from me. What he says, remove your hand
from this bottle, you know, because your hand is so heavy upon me.
I have this bodily pain. I have this torment that I'm
going through. He said, remove this mental torment. Remove this body, this pain,
this torment, this misery that I'm going through. Remove it.
Two things. Oh God, remember me. He said,
let not your dread make me afraid. And what he's talking about,
the remove the mental terror of my mind. Now you know, here's
a man, We know what he's been through. And he can't, you know,
you don't get over things so quickly, especially as much as
he lost. And he's in a great bodily pain.
His body is hurting. Remember, he was very sick, sitting
in the ashes, scraping his balls with a pot shirt. And then he
had this mental terror. Lord, is this gonna happen again?
That which I dread and feared the most came upon me, he said.
And he said, Lord, Let not thy dread, withdraw your hand from
me, let not thy dread make me afraid. Let not my, what you're
gonna do to me today or tomorrow make me not afraid, not have
this mental fear that I have. Then he says in verse, he said, then withdraw thy hand
from me and let not thy dread make me afraid. And oh, he says,
oh my, then I won't hide myself. He said in verse 20, then will
I not hide myself from you? I won't hide myself, I won't
be afraid to speak unto you. Now, we know that this is figurative
language. He can't hide from God, nobody
can hide from God. But what he's saying is, he said,
I'm so afraid, I'm so troubled. that I can't even come into your
presence. I'm in such a situation here. He said, if you'll do these things
for me, take the bottle of pain, take the dread off of me, take
the terror off of me, take the mental anguish off of me, then
I won't hide myself, I won't be afraid to speak to you. And
the Lord won't be afraid. And what he said, in the condition
I'm in, I can't think clearly. I can't think clearly. And now
I tell you, you know, therefore God, I mean, you know, the earth
shakes and the earth trembles at God Almighty. And I tell you
what, Moses said, when he said, I'm exceedingly fear and quake.
But no matter what shape we're in, what condition we're in,
we can always appeal to God himself. We can always go to heaven. And
I tell you what, that's where we're really truly known, regardless
of what others say about us, regardless of what accusations
men may make against us, how much Satan accuses us, and our
own hearts bother us. John said this, if our heart
condemns us, God's greater. If our heart condemns us to something
we've said or something we've done or some way we've acted,
He said, God is greater. So he knows exactly what we've
done. And he said, if our heart condemns
us not, if our heart condemns us not, then we have some confidence. We have some confidence. And
you know this as well as I do. When you're sick, and your body's
weak, and you're depressed in your mind, and you have a troubled
mind, and things are going on in your heart, in your life,
in your mind, you're troubled, and you got great obstacles.
And you know that when you're sick and weak and troubled in
body, you know how hard it is to seek the Lord? It really is. When you're really,
really sick, when your body is so weak, your mind is so weak,
Your mind has depression and torment in it. These are great,
great obstacles to seeking the Lord. And that's why Job said,
if you'll relieve me of these two things, if you'll relieve
me of this bodily pain and this fear that I have, he said, I'll
lay out my case before you, knowing you'll do exactly what's right.
And that's what he says then in verse 22. Look what he says. Well, let me say this before
I go to verse 22. You know, this is the reason men shouldn't put
off seeking the Lord till they're terribly sick or on their deathbed. That's a dangerous thing to do.
Dangerous thing to do. Men put it off and put it off
and put it off. And then they wait till they're
sick or in their deathbeds. And here's Job, here's a great,
great man who finds it in his heart to talk to God because
of his affliction, ask God to have mercy and do a couple of
things for him. How much less an unconverted
man, when he's sick and dying, would he seek the Lord. When
we find it hard when we're sick, when we're weak and we're weary,
that no wonder the psalmist said, today, today, right now is the
day of salvation, not tomorrow, not in the morning. Don't wait
till you get the bad news. Heard about a young man this
week, very young man, got two wonderful children. Diagnosed him with cancer last
week. Two years. Two years, a young
man. But he spent his life seeking
the Lord. You don't have to deal with this.
But when you get so sick that you can't think. When you get
so sick that you can't get out of the bed. When you get so sick
all you can think about is your pain. You can't seek the Lord. And I'll tell you what, if you
know Him, if you know Him, you can rest assured that He knows
where you're at. And when He raises you back up,
you're a blessing for it. If He takes you out, you're a
blessing for that too. But today, today, that's why
we get up every day and we say, Lord, today is the day of my
salvation. And it's a lot more than it was
yesterday. Yesterday. And here's the solemn,
look what he does. He inquires of the Lord. Here
at verse, starting verse 22, he says this. Then call thou,
Lord, call on me. Call me, and I'll answer. Lord, you speak to me and I'll
answer. I'll speak to you, I'll answer you. Oh, Lord, let me
speak. And Lord, when I speak to you,
would you please come down and answer me? Would you hear my
cry? Would you answer me? He said,
Lord, if you call on me, I'm gonna call back and I'll answer
you. Call me and I'll come. Call me and I'll answer. Call
me and I'll bow. Call me and I'll acknowledge
you and I'll submit to you. But Lord, if I speak to you,
if I call on you, would you please answer me? Would you answer me? That's what he's asking here.
Oh my. And then look what two things
he said here. How many are mine iniquities and my sins make me
to know my transgression and my sin? Oh my. Two things here. His sins. He said, how many are there,
Lord? How many are mine iniquities
and my sins? How many do I have? Huh? Make me to know my transgressions. That's what he says. Make me
to know them. David said the same thing. Oh Lord. What Job said here, he said,
I'm ignorant of them. I'm ignorant of them. I've got
so many, there is no way in the world I can count them. I don't
have any idea how many they are. And I've said this before, we
don't have any idea how many sins we commit, how many transgressions
we make, that we're never even conscious of. We don't know we've
done it. And that's why it's such a blessed,
blessed thing that the gospel tells us that our Lord Jesus
Christ put away our sin once and for all. He put away our
sin before you and I were. He put away our sins that we're
gonna do today, and He put away our sins that we're gonna do
tomorrow. He put away the sins that we're gonna commit on our
dying bed with unbelief. He put them all away. And I tell
you what, and you know, that's why he said, Lord, I don't know
how many of my sins are, but I know who takes care of them.
And Lord, make me to know, make me to know how sinful I am, how
my transgressions are, and how great they are. Make me to know. He said, I need you to know,
his friends were telling him what an awful sinner he was.
Job, God would have done this to you if you was living a righteous
life. His wife told him to give up
his integrity and just go ahead and die. And his fears would
tell him how great their sins were and how numerous they were.
But God, you show me. You show me. lay it out before
me. And here's what he said, Lord,
I'm willing to know the worst, the worst of myself, the worst
of myself, because they're going to come out sooner or later.
And Lord, let me know now. If he just got through saying
it, God will justify it. Oh my. And then look what he
said. There he said, Thou knowest him,
Lord. He said there in verse 25, he says, Thou knowest him. Oh my. Oh, listen, let me show
you a couple of verse scripts. You keep Job there. Look over
in Psalm 19. Look in Psalm 19 with me. Talking
about the Lord, he knows him. He said, Lord, make me to know
him. Look in Psalm 19 with me. Look what he says over here,
talking about Lord thou knowest him, no one's escaped your eye.
David said this, you know, this is the psalmist David. He started
talking about how God's heavens declare his God, declare his
glory and affirm and show his handiwork. And then look what
he said in verse 12. Who can understand his errors?
Who can? Most of us, we don't understand
them. You know why we don't understand
them? If we ain't careful, we'll try to justify ourselves. Make
ourselves look better. But who can understand his errors?
Then he says, Lord, cleanse me from secret faults. Faults that's
even secret to me that I don't know what they are. You take
care of them. Take care of them. And then he goes on to say, keep
back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let not them have dominion over
me. Please don't do that. Then look over in Psalm 90 in
verse 8. Psalm 90 in verse 8. Look what he said here. Psalm
90 in verse 8. Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
Oh my, that's why Job said, Lord, my sins, there's so many, I don't
know them. But God said, he said he's got
his secret sins right before his countenance. Oh my. Oh, nothing's escaped his eye.
And ain't you grateful? I am, I am so thankful. I am
so thankful. that God himself says, their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And then look what he's
suffering, talk about his suffering, talk about his sin, now he's
gonna start talking about his sufferings. In verse 24, wherefore
hidest thou thy face? Oh, where do you hide your face
from and holdest me for your enemy? Oh my, when he had lost
all, you remember when he lost everything, he shaved his head
and bowed before the Lord and said, the Lord hath given, the
Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And
then he, second time, you know, and he said, naked I came from
my mother's womb, naked shall I go. And here he had lost everything,
but yet he blessed the Lord. And when it causes him, and what
it is, it's causing him to plead with God. And this is the thing
that bothered him as much as anything, that God hid his face
from him. Why are you hiding your face from me? Listen, if God wants to chastise
us, really wants to chastise us, and make us miserable for
a few days, just hide his face. Just hide his face. Don't look
your way. Don't think, you know, just make
the heavens bless. Make your words to be a struggle. Make your prayers to be a burden. And there you are. And oh God,
please, please, please. That's why David said, oh Lord,
cause your face to come down here and shine on us. But he
said, Lord, why are you hiding your face from me? Oh, the presence,
the power, and the approval of God makes the greatest afflictions
unbearable. It's the only thing that can
make them bearable. But I tell you what, when He
withdraws His presence, oh my, that makes the least things,
the least things unbearable. Look in Psalm 77 with me. You know, There's people, I don't know
about you, but when God, do you ever come to services and come
three or four services and absolutely get nothing out of it? Feel like
you're lifeless? Feel like you're dead? Psalm
77. Do you ever feel like that? Do
you ever feel like you come and you just don't get anything? And you know him the first thing
you say, he said, Lord, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with
me? And you go through that four
or five services, and then you'll say, Lord, Lord, who are you
at? Who are you at? Look what he
said here in Psalm 77 and verse seven. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be no more favorable?
No more. Will he be no more favorable? No more. Is his mercy clean going
forever? Does his promises fail forevermore? This is the King of Israel saying
this. Oh my. Well, is he not going to be faithful
anymore? Is his mercy clean gone? Has
his promises failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Hath him anger shut up his tender
mercies? Oh, what questions! What questions! You can't miss something you
ain't never had. When God shuts up the heavens, turns off the
mercies, and turns off the grace, and leaves you to struggle, And that's what, this is what
David's going through right then and there. And oh my, then look
over here at Psalm 88. Psalm 88. Verse seven. He says, thy wrath lies hard
upon me. And he said, oh my. And thou hast afflicted me with
all my woes. You just cause wave of trouble,
wave of trouble to come over me. And look what he says down
in verse 15 and 16. I am afflicted and ready to die
for my youth up. Thy fierce wrath over me, thy
terrors have cut me off. Oh my, he says your terrors have
cut me off. And then back over here in Job,
Job said, Lord, have you hid your face from me? Why do you
hide your face from me? And do you hold me as your enemy?
Do you really hold me as your enemy? Lord, do you? Do you hold me as your enemy?
Have I got so, you made me your enemy? Look what he said over
here in chapter six in verse four. I know I'm having you look
at several things, but these things explain some of these
things that this man's going through. Look in verse four. For the arrows of the Almighty
are within me. The poison whereof drinketh up
my spirit, the terrors of God do set themselves in array against
me. He said, God set himself against
me. And then look what he said in chapter seven, verse 20. He said, I have sinned, what
shall I do unto thee? O thou preserver of men, why
hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden?
to myself. I'm a burden to myself. And then
look what he says in verse 25. He said, Wilt thou break a leaf
driven to and fro? Wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? And what Job is saying here,
is this worthy of you? He said, I'm like a leaf. I'm
as frail as a leaf. Is it to your honor to take a
leaf and trample on a leaf and blow it about until it's broken?
Is this worthy of your honor to trample upon more than is
down already? Or crush one who neither has
nor pretends to have any power to resist you? I'm just like
dry stubble. I'm just like a leaf thrown here
and yonder. Is that to your honor to treat
me that way, Lord? I'm just dry stubble. I've got
no power to resist you. I'm like a leaf. I've got no
power to resist you. Is this worthy of you? And then
he said in verse 26, oh, what a sad, sad complaint. over his
sins, the sins of his youth. He said, for thou writest bitter
things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities
of my youth. Oh, what a sad complaint over
his sins, the sins of his youth. And when he said, you write bitter
things against me, and afflictions and the troubles he went through
were very, very bitter. You remember Naomi went down
to Moab and she went down full and she came back empty and said,
call me Naomi no more. Call me Myra, for I'm bitter. My life is bitter. My life has
been bitter. And that's what Job was saying.
You write bitter things against me. And when he talks about writing,
he's writing about, he says that you're deliberate and you're
determined. That's what he means. He said,
you've got it written down about me. And he says, you make me
to possess the sins of my youth, the sins of my youth. You know, I don't know about
you, but there's lots and lots and lots of times in my life, and not too far off, and it may
happen again, I'll wake up in the night, And I'll think about
sins I committed when I was 12 or 13, 14, 15, 18, 20. I remember them vividly. And
they just come to me. And every time they come to me,
they come to me. And I say, Lord, I'm so ashamed.
And I start asking God, please forgive me. You know, David said
like this, my sins are ever before me. And you know why God makes
these sins come to mind and come to our understanding sometimes?
It's to make us understand how desperately we need Him. How
desperately we need Him. You know, like I said, there's
so many sins that we don't even know we commit. But when you
can remember sins that you did, sins that you committed, And
they're so horrible and so bad and so wicked and so black and
so dark that they come to your mind. That makes you automatically
say, oh God, forgive me. I'm so sorry. I'm so ashamed
of that. And that's what David said. That's
what Job said here. You make me to remember the sins
of my youth. Oh my. And I tell you something,
we are today. We are what we are today because
of what we were yesterday. If we didn't have sins back there,
we wouldn't have grace today. If we didn't have sins, we wouldn't
need grace. And I tell you one thing, like
I said this morning, this is where I'm going to drive my stake
down. Paul said in Hebrews, he says, you know, holding your
confidence steadfast unto the end, And I tell you what, what
confidence do I have that I came to God as a sinner. Christ received
me as a sinner. He healed me of my sins and because
I come to Him as a sinner and I keep coming over and over and
over. That's the beginning of my confidence
and my confidence when I leave this world that Christ came into
this world to save sinners. He died for sinners. And I don't know much about me,
but I do know I'm one of them. And that's where, oh, I heard
a fellow tell me, he said, that's too simple. And it may be, but
that's where I'm staying. That's where I'm staying. And you know how I know I'm a
sinner? God's Word says I'm one. God's
Word says I'm one. I've sinned and come short of
the glory of God. All have sinned. My conscience tells me I'm a
sinner. My heart tells me I'm a sinner.
My actions tell me I'm a sinner. And then if I, like you said
to my prayer about God's word, what confidence, the only confidence
and assurance we have is what he gives us in his word. And
he said, he that cometh to me, and all that hath need of healing
came to him, and he healed him. He said, son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Tell me, I said, your sins which
are many are forgiven you. And my sins, which are many,
they are forgiven. And that's why Job said, you
make a member of the sins of my youth. And we are today because what
we was yesterday, back in our past. We could not have got here
without starting back there to get here. You understand what
I'm saying? And I had Job saying here, they
shamed me. They hurt me, they shamelessly hurt us. And what
we sow to the flesh, we're gonna reap to the flesh. But look what
he said here again, in verse 27 and 28. He said, you put my feet in stocks,
and look as narrowly under my paths, that I set a print upon
the heels of my feet, and he as a rotten thing consumeth as
a moth garment that is moth-eaten. And what he's saying here is,
you set my suffering right out where everybody can see me. Said
that right here, you set me forth publicly for all to see. You've
exposed me to shame. He said, you look narrowly on
my path. You look narrowly, you've got
my path narrowly down here. This is Job's melancholy thoughts.
He knows God's not such a hard taskmaster, but he's so down,
so melancholy here. And he said, you set a print
upon my heels. He said, you can see where I
set my feet. That's what he said. He said,
you can see where I set my feet. You've seen where I set my print.
And then when he put his feet in the stocks, he said, you hobbled
me like a slave. And you marked my prints and
you marked my heels. And that's why he said, you know,
Oh Lord, you wash the print, you wet my feet. And how we ought
to ponder the path of our own feet. And then look what he said
about himself and said about man. He said, and he, man, as a rotten
thing, consumeth away as a garment that is moth-eaten. He said,
man is rotten. Man is a rotten thing. He's being
consumed like a moth eats on a garment, eats holes in a garment
and destroys a garment. He said, that's the way we are.
That's what he said. And we consume, we're consumed. And I tell you what, and we're
going to, we're under the, he said he was under the heavy hand
of God. And he says, I'm consuming away,
I'm consuming away. And brethren, my brothers and
sisters, we're all consuming away. Obie and Stacia told me
yesterday that Aubrey was 18 years old. I just didn't register
with my brain. I just didn't. I can't imagine
her being born 18 years ago. There's so many things you can't
imagine. If we just slowly but surely
consume it away. And that's alright. But oh God,
and this is what we ought to always pray, Lord don't hide
your face from me. Please don't hide your face.
Don't hide your face. Our Father, our great, glorious,
blessed God in heaven, full of mercy, oh full of mercy, And
Lord, we understand to some degree what Job is going through. We've
all had our dark days. We've all had our bodily pain
and we've all had distress of mind. We've all suffered some
depression, darkness. We've all suffered unbelief.
But oh Lord God, please, please hide not your face from us. Look
on us, oh God, and look on us for Christ's sake. Look on us
for His worth, His righteousness, His merit. But Lord, if you're
pleased to hide your face, give us the grace to believe and give
us the grace to keep on looking, trusting, and believing, no matter
how dark the day, how hard the trial, how troubled the heart
is and how weak the mind becomes. Oh, God. Oh, God. Help us always to look to you
no matter what happens in this world. We bless and praise your
holy name. God bless these dear saints.
Keep them and preserve them for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. I think it's I need thee every
hour. Is that 118? What is that? 133 or what? I need thee every
hour? 318. 318. Let's stand together
in saying that. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. Tell tender voice like mine,
can peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Stay Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee every hour. I need Thee, O bless me now,
my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide. where life is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, most
holy one. Oh, make me Thine indeed, Thou
blessed Son. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. Boy, we do need Him, don't
we? Oh, how we need Him. Good night
and God bless you. See you Wednesday, Lord willing.