you want to be turning to Job
chapter 14. I'll get there in a few minutes.
Job chapter 14. This congregation very much part
of my life, my wife's life. I've had an association with
you for 45 years. First met most of you back in
1972 over in Birmingham. and been coming down here preaching
to you at least once a year for the better part of 36, 37, 38 years just before I moved to
Danville. And I thank God for you. I appreciate it. Williams
and Myers driving down from Crossville. I've spent a lot of time under
their roofs. Thank God for you. And I believe God's given me
a message for you. Serious people are thoughtful people. Serious
men are men of contemplation and they take serious things
seriously. They ask serious questions and
face serious facts with a serious mind. God's servant Job was such
a man. This man's experiences in life
caused him to ask some very serious, thoughtful questions. Questions
about the only things that really matter. Life, death, and eternity. When all's said and done, nothing
else much matters. Life, death, and eternity. I want to look with you at these
questions Job raised in Job chapter 14, and I want to address six
big questions we find in these 22 verses. We don't really know
for certain who wrote the book of Job. I suspect probably it
was Job. The book of Job is certainly
one of the oldest books in the scriptures, if not the oldest
book. It describes the life experiences of a man. A man who walked with
God in the midst of a crooked, perverse, dark generation when
there were few, very few men who knew God, worshipped God,
trusted Christ Jesus, and walked with God. We come to meetings
like this. We get together with friends
who love the gospel of God's grace, go to Bible conferences.
Oh, it's such a good time. That's an easy time. But then
you've got to go home, and you've got to go to work, and you've
got to spend eight hours, 10 hours, 12 hours with folks who
don't know God from a billy goat. And most of them very religious,
and ungodly, and vile. And you live in a world of constant
sorrow, and pain, and heartache. And you have to deal with reality,
life, and the certainty of death, and the certainty of judgment,
This book of Job describes a man who lived in just such a day.
This man who life experiences were very much like our own.
I think probably he lived in the days of Abraham. He may have
lived in the days of Enoch, maybe the days just after the flood
of Noah, but in the early, early days, when the world was full
of babble and confusion and darkness, but this man believed God. He
walked with God. He worshiped God. He trusted
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God declares to us that
Job was a perfect man. an upright man, a man made perfect
by his grace, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, justified in
his righteousness, sanctified by his spirit, one who feared
God and discued evil. Now, some have questioned whether
Job was a saved man, suggesting that instead he was a terribly
self-righteous man because he justified himself when his friends
accused him of hypocrisy and evil. But such questions should
not even be entertained, because God declares Job to be an upright
man, a perfect man, a man who feared God and eschewed evil.
And he says that to us three times in the first two chapters
to make us understand who this man Job was. When Job justified
himself in the chapters 3 through chapter 31, he was talking to
men. who falsely accused him of hypocrisy,
of hidden evil, of secret sin that others didn't know about
and God was now judging him because of it. And Job's justification
before those men shows a weakness of his own person, a weakness
of his own character, a weakness of his own state in this world,
kind of like yours and mine. But when he spoke to God about
himself, Job didn't speak like that at all. When he spoke to
God, he said, if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn
me. If I say I'm perfect, it shall prove me perverse. Now
this is important. It's important that we understand
the kind of man Job was. Otherwise, we can't possibly
understand these 42 chapters of divine inspiration. Job was
a faithful servant of his faithful God. He was the faithful servant of
his faithful God. This man was a man whose faith
was greatly tried. Tried with greater severity than
the faith of any man I have ever known or read about in history,
except the God-man, our Savior. In one day, in one day, he lost
all of his children. He lost his health. His wife
turned upon him and said, well, why don't you just cuss God and
die? This is enough. He lost his reputation
and his influence. This man who was the greatest
man in the East, I'm talking about he was that fellow when
he walked by. Daddy, who's that? Oh, that's
Joe. That's Job. You need to know him. You need
to know him. That's Job. He's somebody. Everybody
knows who Job is. Pay attention when Job comes
around. And suddenly he lost all name and reputation. And his friends came and accused
him. Men who knew him like your pastor
knows me. Men who knew him well. And they
said, uh, Job, this is what's wrong. That's what's wrong. You've
done this. You've done that. And they accused him and they
turned upon him with vicious, self-righteous hypocrisy and
judged him to be an evil man in the midst of terrible heartache
and trouble. At times, Job showed weakness,
frustration, even unbelief. Me too. Now, I don't say that to excuse
anything. I don't say that to justify anything. I say that
to make you understand and acknowledge while we live in this world,
God's saints, all of us, Brother Gary, are sinners still. You're
not one bit better man now than you were the day I met you. That's
just fact. Not one bit better naturally
than you were the day God saved you by his grace. Job did show
signs of weakness, frustration, even unbelief. But even in his
lowest times, in his lowest traits of unbelief, in his weakest state,
this man Job maintained his integrity and he believed God. He worshiped
God. Brother Todd Nyberg and I were
talking a couple of weeks ago about Peter and his fall. And he said to me as we were
chatting, he said, if you were to ask Peter just after he denied
the Lord Jesus, and then the third time he denied him and
cussed, he said, I don't know that man. And the Lord looked
on him and Peter went out and went bitterly. If you were to
ask Peter, he said, Peter, are you a disciple? Are you one of
his followers now? Now do you call yourself a believer?
Peter would have said, oh, there's no hope for me. There's no hope
for me. But if you were to ask Peter, Peter, do you believe
that Jesus is the Christ? He says, oh yes, I believe that
Jesus is the Christ. He's the son of the living God,
that no one to whom I can go but him. So it was with Job in
his greatest strengths. In the midst of his heavy, heavy
trials, Job acknowledged, always acknowledged, God's total sovereignty
and God's absolute dominion and bowed to it. That didn't mean
he didn't feel pain. That didn't mean he didn't weep.
That didn't mean that he didn't have confusing thoughts. But
in the midst of all his woes, in the midst of all his troubles,
in the midst of all his trials, he acknowledged God's absolute
sovereignty and bowed to it. This man Job understood what
few men in this day understand. All things are of God. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. That doesn't just apply to go
to the funeral and put somebody in the ground. That applies to
everything. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And in the end, God honored Job. He always does. This is what
he said. Him that honoreth me, I will
honor. Him that honoreth me, I will
honor. And when this is all over, you
get the 42nd chapter, the Lord God condemned these three men
who falsely accused Job, and he condemned their harsh judgment
and told them to go to Job and offer sacrifice. And Job would
pray for them, and then he would accept them. What a marvelous
type Job stands for, says a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those
friends went to Job and made the sacrifices and Job prayed
for them and God accepted Job. So he accepted them. And then
the Lord God gave Job twice as much as he had before. Gave him
all the wealth you could imagine. He was already beforehand the
richest man in all the East, and God doubled him. And then
he gave him seven sons and three daughters, and his daughters
were the prettiest girls in the whole territory. His daughters
were like those purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
altogether lovely. This man, Job, is held before
us by our God as a marvelous example of faith, of devotion,
of consecration to God. Now let's look at chapter 14.
I want us to hold your Bibles open right here, chapter 14,
and follow along with me as we look together at these six big,
big questions that arose from this man, Job, and his experiences
in this world. He's answering the accusations
so far, and it begins in verse one. Look at this. Man that is
born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth
like a flower and is cut down. It don't take long, does it?
He comes forth like a flower, and before you know it, he's
withered and gone. He fleeth also as a shadow, and
continueth not. Now watch what Job says. And
dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one? Dost thou open thine
eyes upon such a one? Lord God, do you look on me? Do you look on me? This question
arose from Job's consideration of the sinfulness, the frailty,
the brevity, the utter insignificance of man in general. But specifically,
it arose from Job's sense of his own sinfulness, frailty. his brevity in this world, his
utter insignificance. Job has now been reduced to nothing,
nothing but a body wracked with pain and sickness, isolation,
poverty, and difficulty. Friendless and alone, Job sat
in his horrible condition, and he lit his eyes to heaven. And
he said, God, do you look on me? Do you look on me? We're gonna say it in verse one.
Man that is born of woman is of few days. The longer I live,
the more thankful I am that life in this world is just a brief
part of my existence. I'm truly thankful, I'm truly
thankful that men since the days of the flood have had their days
shortened on the earth. I would hate the prospect of
living in this world in this present condition for 969 years
like Methuselah did. How would you like to go on for
another thousand years as things are now in this world? I much prefer the prospect of
three score years and ten maybe. And yet we ought to learn to
recognize the brevity of this life and apply our hearts to
wisdom. Now this is what this means when
Moses in the 90th Psalm prayed, Lord, teach us wisdom. Now, teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. He's not saying apply
our hearts to know how to prepare for the future, apply our hearts
to know how to prepare for old age, apply our hearts so we'll
have enough money to have a good old age. I was talking to a mechanic
the other day, a friend of mine, he's my mechanic. He's religious
and he used to tell me I could retire. I've set aside enough
money for my wife and I to get along fine. If I were to retire,
I just don't want to. I make preparations. That's not
the kind of wisdom he's talking about. God teach me to number
my days that I may fix my heart on Christ who is wisdom. Number your days and set your
heart on Christ. Nothing else matters. Number
your days and set your heart upon the Redeemer. Few days we
have upon this earth because we are sinners in a world full
of sin and sorrow. And because of those horrible,
horrible evils that arise from our own hearts, as well as the
world around us, this is a world full of trouble. This word trouble
is one of those words used in scripture that has many shades
of meaning. It might be translated trouble
because sin and trouble always go hand in hand. Where there's
sin, Trouble follows. It might be translated commotion.
Just a constant stirring. Because the lives of men in this
world, like the troubled sea, are restless. Fallen man is in
a constant state of uneasiness. Constantly uneasy. Constantly
agitated. Constantly unable to really rest
and be peaceful. The word also might be translated
trembling. The reason for man's restlessness
to a great extent is the fact that all men live with a trembling,
trembling, trembling knowledge that soon you're going to die
and you're going to meet God in judgment and you're going
to spend eternity in hell unless you meet God in judgment in His
Son. and full of trouble are the age
of men. Troubled man whose life is but
a momentary thing in this world is insignificant. He's as insignificant
as a withered flower. Just insignificant. You, probably
like we are at home, we're having a little bit of mild winter,
good bit of a mild winter, and flowers are starting to bud out.
And if they do, if they do, by the time we get home, they'll
be gone. And you know what? I won't shed
a tear. It won't bother me a bit in the
world. It's just a weed. It's gone. There'll be nothing
to come up. It's insignificant. You too. Carlos and Don are both
insignificant. Just insignificant. The old time
we used to say, you want to know how important you are? Stick
your finger in that bucket of water, now pull it out. Where
was your finger? That's how bored that you are.
Just insignificant, just insignificant. He cometh forth like a flower
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and
continueth not. In the light of these things,
we ought to be simply overwhelmed at the fact that God Almighty,
holy, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, all-wise God opens his eyes toward
us. This is Job's question. Does
thou open thine eyes upon such a one? What is man that thou
art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?
What a wondrous thing this is. God Almighty looks our way. He cast his glance upon us. Job
was overwhelmed by it. We ought to be. And can it be
that I, that I should gain an interest in the Savior's love? Died he for me, who caused his
pain for me, who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can
it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Indeed he does with everlasting
love in electing mercy before the world began with such love
they gave his son to redeem me and watched over me all the days
of my life, ordering every step, bringing me at the appointed
time of love to meet his darling son, where he confronted me with
his grace, brought me love and lifted me up, making me to know
him in the mighty saving operations of his grace, in the free, full
forgiveness of sin. I don't watch much on television.
I was watching a newscast the other night. I forgot which program
it was. One of the fellows asked the
panel, said, if you could change anything in history, what would
it be? Just one thing. And they all
had ideas that folks applauded. And I listened to them for just
a few minutes. It didn't take but a couple of minutes. And I thought to
myself, thank God. Oh, thank God. If I could change
anything. I wouldn't change a thing. I
wouldn't change a thing. Everything our God has done,
he's done because he looks on us in mercy. Everything our God
shall do, he shall do because he looks on his people in mercy.
Look at verse three again. And bringest thou me into judgment
with thee? There's the second question. What a horrible realization for
a sinful man to come to. Sooner or later, you and I must
face the fact of divine justice and certain judgment. I face the fact of it. You know
it. You may suppress it, hold it
down and say, I don't believe in that, I'm an atheist, I don't
believe in God, I don't believe in judgment. I believe when a
man dies, he just dies like a dog and that's the end of it. You're
lying through your teeth and you know it. You know it. There's no such thing as a man
who doesn't recognize the fact that God is. There's no such
thing as a man who doesn't live in the constant knowledge of
the fact that soon he'll meet God in judgment. And when he
does, the judge of all the earth is gonna do right. And that means
he's gonna send you to hell. that means he's going to send
you to hell unless God himself finds a way to forgive your sin
without compromising his justice and he did in the person of his darling
son the Lord God Almighty fully punished the sins of all his
people to the complete satisfaction of divine justice so that God
says to Jacob are you listening Fury is not in me. Fury is not in me. Fury is not
in me. Now listen to me. Please listen
to me. I'm talking to you as plainly as I can about myself
and Job and you. I am a sinful, horribly evil,
abominably corrupt, vile man. And there's no excuse, no justification
for any evil I do. I don't care if you see me lose
my temper or you find me in some situation where I wish you hadn't
seen it. There's no excuse for it. There's no excuse for it.
No justifying it at all. At all. None at all. It's all
my fault. But I want you to hear this. God in glory, in his absolute
holiness, in his perfect justice, in his absolute purity, has no
reason ever to be angry with me. He satisfied his fury, his justice
and his wrath, punishing me for all my sins in the sacrifice
of his darling son. And when he made his son sin
for me and satisfied justice for me, he made me the righteousness
of God in him. And the day will come when I
meet him in judgment, when the God of glory will say to me,
Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. I never was interested in being
a good son. I would grow old before God saved
me, and I never had any interest in that. I wasn't at the time
interested in being a good brother. I am now. But I've had some real
interest. I want to be a good husband to
that woman sitting there. And she'd tell you I am, but
I have failed miserably. I just have one daughter. Oh,
I want to be a good father. I want to be good with all my
soul, how I failed that girl. I want to be a good pastor, good
preacher. But oh, what misery, to acknowledge
what I am. But God says, well done. This is what the wise man said.
Go on now, rejoice with the wife of your youth. God accepteth
thy works. God accepts what I bring to him
with these dirty hands and says this is perfect holiness. He
accepts me in his son. And there's no other way God
can or will accept any sinner. This is what the book of God
says. It shall be perfect to be accepted. God won't accept
your best intentions. He won't accept doing as good
as you can. He won't accept you being religious and going to
church and tithing and going to mission field and giving your
life in service to Christ. No! God demands perfection, inward
and outward, all the time, from the first breath to the last
breath, nothing but perfection. And the only man who has that
perfection is Jesus Christ, the God man, and we in him. if we trust him. So I urge you,
believe on the Son of God. In the light of these things,
Paul said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
man. Now back in Job 14, verse four. Understanding both the brevity
of life and the certainty of divine judgment, Job asked this
question. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are
numbered, 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 an hireling his day. Now in verse
four, the question really would be better translated if the verse
read as one continual question. And so that Job asked, who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Is there one? Is there one? Realizing that
man is altogether unclean by nature, by birth and practice,
that man must stand in judgment before a holy God, this is a
question that every sensible soul must ask. The number of
our days in this world was determined before ever God spoke the world
into existence. He numbered the days we would
live on this earth and you're not going to extend them and
nobody's going to shorten them. I just, I believe we ought to
do this, we ought to do that, we'd live for another 10 years. No,
you won't. If you decide to quit eating meat, quit eating pork,
quit eating anything fried, and all you eat is a bale of hay
a day the rest of your life, you'll still die exactly the way I determined
it before the world was. That's just a fact. Don't bring
me any of your green slime to drink, I ain't drinking it. I
ain't drinking it. Well, aren't you concerned about
your health? Not much. Not much. I'll leave here exactly
as God ordained, and you will too. If a man has no power over
his life or death, even over his health, it's certain that
he has no power to bring a clean thing out of an unclean. No mortal
can give himself life or faith. No mortal can justify himself.
No mortal can save himself. No man can make himself righteous
before God. but Jesus Christ is made of God
and to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption
that according as it is written he did glory let him glory in
the Lord the Lord God Almighty by redemption and by regeneration
makes sinners on the earth meet to be partakers with the inheritance
of the saints in life Right now, right now, worthy of God's smile. Right now, worthy of God's approval
through Jesus Christ our Lord. He alone is our righteousness. He alone is our sanctification. He alone has redeemed us. He alone is our holiness. We look nowhere else and trust
nothing else, no one else, especially ourselves. And this is altogether
the work of God's free grace. Look at Job's fourth question.
We'll start reading at verse seven. For 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. But man dies and wasteth away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost,
and where is he? Where is he? Where is he? A man
dies, where is he? As the waters fail from the sea,
and the flood decayeth and dryeth up, so man lieth down and riseth
not, till the heavens be no more. They shall not awake, nor be
raised out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldest hide me
in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret until thy wrath
be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me
man dieth he wasteth away he gives up the ghost and where
is he? the scriptures answer the question
the scriptures answer the question when a man dies immediately the
wicked lift up their eyes in hell, being in torment. I don't know what hell is, and
I don't want to know. Somebody says, do you believe
in literal hell? Yes, but I don't know what that is. Do you believe
in literal fires of hell? Of course, but something considerably
different than what you think. Because those fires, they can't
be quenched. Fires of a burning conscience
fully awakened. A worm gnawing all the time. Darkness. Separation from God
and light and everything good forever. And your only company, folks
just like you, and you hate them. and they hate you. Full of venom,
anger, hate, wrath, and no relief forever and ever and ever. Such a death that men long to
die and can't die. Men long to cease to exist but
can't cease to exist. So it is with all who perish
without Christ. For the believer Oh, how things
are different. We talk about death, and we talk
real painfully about death. I wish I could learn to do better,
and you too. I really do. Our Lord said, Lazarus is sleeping. He's sleeping. I've been in hospital
a few times and I'd be just almost asleep and somebody says, he's
sleeping, don't bother him. No, don't bother him, he's sleeping.
No, no concern, he's resting, that's good for him. That's good
for him, he's resting. He needs his rest. Shh, let's
go outside and talk. Why would we think of death in
any other way for believers? Our Lord said, our friend Lazarus
sleepeth. He said to Martha, he said, he
that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Believers
don't die. These bodies die. But as soon
as the believer dies, I know that when this earthly house
of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building not made with
hands, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. For me to live is Christ to die
is gain. The black folks used to say,
he said he's passed. That's a pretty good way to put
it. He passed. Passed out of here, gone somewhere
else. Passed out of trouble, gone to joy. Passed out of darkness,
gone to light. Passed out of pain, gone to pleasure.
He's passed. Passed into glory. The believer
leaves this world of woe, to join Christ and the saints above
in a world of light called the paradise of God. Job said in
verse 13, oh, that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou
wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be passed. That is
all the woe that you bring upon this world in time that's overwhelmed,
that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me. The wise God tells us in Isaiah
57, the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. Merciful
men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away
from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace. They
shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his brightness. When God takes one of his saints
out of this world, he's taking the object of his love out of
a world of pain, keeping him from experiencing and seeing
evil that is yet to come in this world. and he raises him up to
glory, and he rests forever, walking uprightly in his peace. Now I told you I don't have any
idea what hell is. I've got a closer idea of what
hell is than I do what heaven is. So a preacher, we know all
about heaven. No, you don't. No, you don't. You just see little outlines
here and there. You're gonna see his face. See
him face to face. You'll gather with the saints
and sit down with the elders around the throne of God, sing
his praise. Just the outlines. That's all you see. Listen to
what the book says. I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which
God has prepared for them that love him. God's revealed them
to us by spirit. We know that, they're certain,
but we just don't know hardly anything about it. We don't hardly
know anything about it. Look at verse 14. Here's Job's fifth question.
If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait till my time come. Thou shalt call And I will
answer thee. Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of thy hands. Now listen to what Job says.
He asks the question, he says, if a man died, will he live again?
And then he answers the question. He says, all the days of my appointed
time I'll wait. Because there's a day of change
coming. There's a resurrection coming. God's going to call me. And when God calls, I'll answer.
I'll rise from the dead. And God, my God, the triune Jehovah
shall have a desire to the work of his hands. What a blessed, blessed prospect. When our little granddaughter,
she's 18 now, she'll soon be 19. She's in college. And she and our grandson were
just little shapers. Our daughter, Grace, must have
been just... Will was just still in diapers, so she couldn't have
been more four or five years old, four years old. And we had
a boxwood elder tree right out from our patio, right outside
the kitchen door. And the boxwood elder wasn't
much higher than the top of the patio, and a robin had laid her
eggs in there. And the kids would come over,
and they saw those eggs in there, they were just... Oh, they were
just dumbfounded by that. They came back one day, and the
first thing Aldergrace did was went right outside, looked up
there, and those blue eggs were broken up, laying on the ground,
some of them in the nest. And she came inside and said,
what happened? What happened? And I said, honey,
nothing happened. The little birds hatched out. And Mama fed them, and they've
flown away now. They've flown away. Soon, I'm
going to hatch out. and in no need to cry, I will
have soared into heaven. You understand that? You understand
that? Oh yeah. Soon our Lord Jesus will come
again then and raise this mortal, this mortal. You talk about contradictory
statements. You gotta explain that to me.
How is mortality gonna put on immortality? How is corruption
gonna put on incorruption? How shall a carnal body be raised
a spiritual body? Ain't no such thing as a spiritual
body. They're gonna be. They're gonna be. That's what
Paul said. We're gonna be raised in the
likeness of our Redeemer. Now, look at verse 60. Here's the sixth question. And
the answer to it is so delightful, I can't send you home without
it. Dost thou Watch over my sin. Look at verse 16. Now thou numberest
my steps. Dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up
in a bag. Thou sewest up my iniquity. Our
great God numbers our steps in this world. What does that mean? Well, God
looks back and he counts up all the, no, that's not what it means.
That's not what it means. In Matthew chapter 10, verse
30, our Lord Jesus says for us to not be careful about anything.
He said, your heavenly father has numbered the hairs of your
head. Now these days for me, I could
almost do that. You'll catch it in a minute,
Bobby did. But the Lord God says, He numbered our hairs. Before
the world was made, God Almighty counted up and determined the
number of hairs that would sit on his head. He numbered your steps before
you ever took the first one. He ordered every step of a righteous
man. even when he was not aware of
being made the righteousness of God in his son. He ordered
every step. The Lord God has numbered our
steps as he numbered the hairs on our head. And he has ordained
each step throughout this world, no matter where those steps lead.
And he watches over our sin. Well, how can that be a blessing? Does God look on our sin? Blessed be his name, he doesn't.
The word translated sin here is the very same word that is
translated sin offering throughout the Old Testament. It's the very
same word. In fact, there is really no English
translation for the word sin offering in the Old Testament
scriptures. What's given in sin offering is always sin. That's
the word, that's the word. Does he watch over our sin? The Lord God gave a picture in
the Old Testament. He required them to make an ark. And that ark was overlaid with
gold, made out of just shit of wood, just ordinary wood, overlaid
with gold. And inside that ark was the law
of God, the Ten Commandments, given at Sinai, the law of God
we broke. The law of God that demands justice,
satisfaction. The law of God that demands God
punish sin. The law of God that every man
gonna have to face. It's inside that ark. And over top of the
ark, he had to make a mercy seat. A mercy seat made out of pure
gold. And formed with the mercy seat
are these cherubs facing one another. Wing touching wing,
looking down on the mercy seat. And it put it in the holy of
holies. And once a year, God's high priest would go in there
and sprinkle the blood of the Passover lamb. And he'd come
back out and bless the people in the name of God because the
blood on the mercy seat. And the Lord God used a word
for that. He called making atonement. Atonement. Atonement. The word
is the word reconciliation. It means at one with. But it's
a covering. There's a good intention for
that. God uses so many ways to give us some idea of what he's
done for us in Christ. He blotted out our transgressions.
He took them away and removed them from us as far as he is
from the West. He covers our transgressions.
Well, that can't all be right. Yes, it is. It's all right. He
covers them so he can't see it. He blotted them out so he can't
see it. And he said to Moses, you make the mercy seat, and
there I'll meet you on the mercy seat between the cherub. That's
where I'll meet you. That's where I'll meet you. And
Christ Jesus is called in the book of God our propitiation,
our mercy seat, the covering of our sin, our sin And the Lord God watches our
sin offering. He looks on our sin offering. He always has. And he says, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And his eye has been on
the blood from everlasting. And his eye is on the blood now. Michael said, when I fall, don't
rejoice over me. God's watching my sin, old friend.
I'll be all right. His eye is on the sacrifice. His eye is on his son. And Larry, when he receives us
into his heavenly glory, the Lord God will say, well done. His eye is on the opportunity. Now if you can trust Him, oh
if you can trust Him, if you can trust Him, if you can trust
Him, that's His Word for grace. I said I use the word faith deliberately,
if you can trust Him, it's cause He gives you faith. If God gives
you faith in your son, God says son, rejoice now, God accepts
you in all your work, He watches the sin of the world. Okay.