Job, put your mark, your Bible
mark in chapter 14, and we'll look at this chapter in just
a few minutes. But we'll begin in chapter 1. Serious men are men of thoughtful
contemplation. They don't waste their time and
energy and efforts upon trifles except for necessary recreation.
They take serious things seriously and they ask serious questions.
God's servant Job was such a man. And if God hasn't yet called
you to take serious things seriously, I promise you he has a way of
seeing to it that you do. If he hasn't yet called you to
weigh the weighty matters of life seriously, he has a way
of seeing to it that you do. by the things he experienced. To look upon life, death, and
eternity with a sober mind and a sober heart. Now there are
some who question whether or not Job was a saved man because
they read the book of Job and they see his friends accusing
him of different things and Job justified himself before men.
But whenever Job spoke about his righteousness, whenever Job
spoke about his uprightness, whenever Job justified himself,
he was not speaking with reference to God, but with reference to
the accusations of men. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. If Skip Gladfelter were to say to me in front of
this assembly, Don Fortner, he's a thief. Don Fortner, he's an
adulterer. Don Fortner, he's a drunk. then
I would perhaps, if I felt needful to do so, I would begin to say,
no, that's not so, and here's the reasons why. That's just
not so. And I would declare my righteousness in the matters
about which I had been accused. That's exactly what Job does
throughout this book, declaring himself upright, contrary to
the opinion of his accusing friends. But when Job spoke of himself
in his relationship to God, It was another thing. When he spoke
to God about what he is, when he spoke to God about himself,
he spoke with honesty and plain confession of his sin. He said,
if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I
say I'm perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Now this is
a very important thing because we would understand the book
of Job. we would understand the message of Job, then we must
know who Job was and what kind of man he was. Now the scripture
tells us plainly that God declares Job to be a faithful, faithful
servant of God. Look at chapter 1 verse 8. The
Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that
there is none like him in the earth? A perfect man. Now the word that perfect doesn't
mean that he was perfect in his life, perfect in his actions.
He was perfect before God. God made him perfect. And he
was a mature, upright, sincere, and honest man. Perfect and upright,
one that fears God and hates evil. Again in chapter two, verse
three, he told Satan, he said, there's none like him in the
earth. This man, Job, being a man of
faith, being a man who believed God. And again, I remind you,
this is probably the earliest book in the Bible. Don't know
whether it was written by Job or written by Moses, it doesn't
really matter, it was written by the inspiration of God's Spirit.
But Job is probably the earliest book of the Old Testament Scriptures. And this man, Job, was a man
of faith. And this earliest record in scripture
declares plainly that a man of faith is a man who endures trial
while he lives in this world. You read Job chapters 1 and 2
and you see just the beginning of his trial, just the beginning. On one occasion, in one day,
in one day, what a day it must have been. You try to imagine
he's the richest man in all the land where he lived, the most
influential The most powerful, the most highly regarded, most
highly respected man in all the area where he lived. Everybody
who knew anybody knew who Job was. Everybody. One day, God
destroyed his whole family. Took all ten children. That's
that. Took all his cattle. Took all
his wealth. Took all his property. Everything.
One day. One day. The next day, God sent
Satan after him again. and destroyed his health. Job
scraped his boils. He was covered with sickness
and disease. His friends and his acquaintances looked at him.
Even the servants in his house gave him no respect. Nobody.
And his wife said to him, won't you just cuss God and die? Cuss? And then his friends came. And
we've all got such friends. wonderful, wonderful freak. They
came and they looked at Job and they sat for seven days,
speechless. Now we think we know something
about Job's troubles. When these fellows saw him, they
sat for seven days and didn't utter a word. Can you imagine
what, you can't, what a horrible sight they must have seen. Is
this Job? Is this Job? Is this Job? And one after another, they began
to tell him why it was he was suffering such things. I get angry thinking about it,
but that's the nature of man, especially the nature of religious
men. And they began to tell Job, now Job if you, what's wrong?
But it is something inside you. We didn't know you after all.
There's something going on, secrets. Or God wouldn't have done this
to you. If you were a good man, this wouldn't happen to you.
If you really walked with God, this wouldn't happen to you.
Joe! What have you done? What are you? And they began
to accuse him, one after the other, one after the other. And
I suspect when all said and done, that was the most difficult trial
he had to do. reputation, his name, his character, were slandered,
maligned, and men attempted to murder it who claimed to be his
friends. At times Job showed signs of
weakness, frustration, and unbelief. Tell me who wouldn't. You tell me who wouldn't. But
even in his lowest times, he worshipped God and maintained
his integrity and believed God and would not charge God with
folly. Job finally said, though he slay me, yet will I trust
him, and I will maintain my way before him. He said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth, and though as to my skin one destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I'll see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. What faith? This man Job, this
man who lived in the earliest of times. believed clearly in
redemption by the blood of Christ, looked to Christ as his Redeemer,
and believed he was coming again, and would raise him from the
dead, and he'd stand before God, and see God face to face in human
flesh. Man alive, what faith he did
have. And in the midst of his heavy,
heavy, heavy trials, Job acknowledged God's total sovereign is absolute
dominion over all things and bound. Now that's faith. That's faith. You see, all men
must submit to God's will. And men and women, especially
religious men and women, you know, they see things happening
that's beyond their control and they say, well, all we can do
is just leave it in the Lord's hands. That's right, that's all
you can do. But men, that's all we get to do. There's a difference. We don't have to leave it in
God's hands, we get to leave it in God's hands. We don't have
to bow to Him, we get to bow to Him. We rejoice to bow before
Him. And this is what Job said. He
said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall
I return. Sinner, the Lord gave, the Lord
took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He said to his pretentious friends as they looked at him in their
self-righteous scorn and indignation, He said, he said, pity me. Pity
me. Oh ye, my friend, the hand of
the Lord hath touched me. Other folks looked at Job. Looked
at Job's circumstances and situation and said, well, you know, those
bad things. Why did those things happen? Somebody wrote a book
one time. Why do bad things happen to good people? It was mistitled. Why do good things happen to
bad people? Wait, I'll get rid of it. Job understood. Job understood
what happened to me. God did. I'm sitting here in
these doors. I'm sitting here in this misery.
I'm sitting here in this poverty, in this isolation alone because
God touched me. God touched me. And in the end,
God honored Job and made even his enemies to know that the
Lord had accepted him. And that's what's going to be
with you and me. He gave him twice as many sons and daughters
as he had. Gave him twice as many cattle as he had. Gave him
twice as much wealth as he had. Gave him twice as much respect
as he had before. And his friends, the Lord God
said to them, said, now listen, you haven't spoken the truth
concerning me as my servant Job has. He said, you go talk to
him, he might pray for you. He might pray for you. And he
did. Now in chapter 14, Job has been answering the accusations
of his friend Zophar. And he begins to answer Zophar's
accusations in this 14th chapter by raising some questions. In
verse 1 he says, man that is born of woman is a few days. I'm going to tell you something.
The longer I live, the more I thank God that's the way it is. Aren't
you thankful that since the days of the flood, the age of man
has continually diminished on this earth? I know medical science
thinks they're going to make us live a little longer. God
arranged things otherwise. Back before the flood, Methuselah
lived 969 years. I'll be honest with you. I don't
care how smart, how bright, how intelligent, how aware of things
I was. I don't care how full of BIM and bigger I might be.
I wouldn't want to live in my present condition or in this
world in its present condition for 969 years. I'm tired of it already. I'm
not quite fixed yet. I'm just tired. Tired of me and
tired of this world. Tired. Tired of sin and tired
of conflict. Tired. Thank God the number of
our years is three score years and ten. And if you get more
than that, it's going to be affliction and sorrow. That's the way it's
going to be. God said it. Therefore the wise
man in the book of Psalms, Psalm 90 verse 12, cried, teach us
Lord to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. The few
days we have on this earth, because we are sinners in a world full
of sin and sorrow, these sins are full of trouble. Do you see
that? Man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. Full of trouble. Without being morbid, without
being seeing the black where you ought to see white, without
seeing the dark side of things, that's just at this time. You tell me, will you tell me
any relationship you've ever had or hoped to have that doesn't
bring trouble? You bounce those babies on your
knees and you laugh and rejoice and give thanks and pretty soon
your heart begins to ache for them. You take a wife and you
rejoice in the wife of your youth and pretty soon you realize that
you've gotten yourself into a relationship where you're responsible for
another human being in everything you do. And I don't care how
much you love it, it causes trouble. I have the blessed privilege
of pastoring with the siblings. I have the blessed privilege
of preaching the gospel. I told Shelby, coming home last
night, I thank God, please understand, I thank God for the privilege
he's given me. But there's never a waitful moment
when I'm not preparing to preach. Never. Never a waking moment
when I'm not concerned about your soul and seeking a message
from God for you. Never. A blessed, blessed birth,
but it's a birth. Man that's born of woman is a
few days full of trouble because we live in a world full of sin
and where there's sin, trouble is sure to follow. Now this word
trouble It's one of those words that has many shades of meaning.
It might be translated trouble. Just as we normally think of
trouble. A man gets in trouble, he's in
trouble. But it might also be translated commotion. That doesn't
need an explanation for anybody, does it? We run Helter Skelter
all the time. Every one of us. We're either
in a hurry going somewhere or getting from somewhere all the
time. Full of commotion. Because the lives of men in this
world are like the troubled sea. We're wrecked. And the more the world you get
in your hand, the more restless you get. The older you get, the
more restless you get. Restless. Fallen men are in a
constant state of uneasiness. Because everything is uneasy.
Everything is fickle. Everything's here. Everything
here, everything in this world, everything around us is just
on a shaky sandy foundation and it's crumbling. The word might
also be translated trembling. The reason for man's restlessness
is to a very great extent the trembling of his soul in the
prospect of death. The reason men run around helter-skelter
all the time. The reason men are so full of
commotion, so full of trouble. The reason men and women are
so, so, so uneasy. Gotta go to the doctor and get
them some tranquilizers so they can sleep at night. I'll tell
you the reason why. Because they're scared to death
of death. Scared to death of meeting God.
Scared to death of judgment. Scared to death of eternity.
Troubled men. whose life is but a momentary
thing in this world, we're told in verse two is as insignificant
as a withered flower after the first freeze in wintertime. Those last flowers, they survive
the early cold nights and the early, early slight touches of
wintertime. But when the first cold freeze
comes, next morning you get up and look at them, they're and
brown, and the sooner you get them out of your sight, the better
you like it. Look what he says, he cometh forth like a flower,
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, and
continueth not. And in the light of these things,
these facts, these facts, Facts that no man can escape. Job was
simply overwhelmed with the knowledge that the holy, infinite, eternal,
omnipotent, unchanging God should take notice of man. He says,
and dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one? Does God look
our way? Does God consider us? You read
back there a little bit ago about the law concerning not plowing,
not muscling the mouth of the ox and plows out the corn. And
Paul said, does God care for oxen while it's dead? No! God,
that law wasn't designed to take care of oxen. It was designed
to teach us something about taking care of God's servants. And here
he says, he says, man, like a, like a flower, withered, That's
the first fast in the wintertime. And does God Almighty take care
of man? Does God look upon man with compassion
and care? Indeed He does. Oh, what a wonder. The psalmist David said, What
is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that
thou visitest him? Turn to Psalm 144. Let me show
you. Psalm 144 verse 3. Lord, what is man? That thou
takest knowledge of him, or the Son of man, that thou makest
account of him? Man? Why, he's like Benedictine,
whose days are as a shadow that passeth away. Now think about
this. Rex Barton, the God Almighty,
looks on you. And not just looks on you to
know you, looks on you to care for you. Does God look old man? Indeed. He looked on us in eternal
electing love before the world was and said, I'll be their God
and they should be my people. He looked on us in giving his
dear son to be a sacrifice for our sin to put away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. He looks on us continually from
the beginning of time before time even began in his good providence
everything that is made and everything that comes to pass in God's good
providence is brought to pass because God looks on you. He
looks on us in his saving mercy, and at the appointed time of
love sends his spirit to call out his own. He looks on us continually,
preserving us, keeping us in the midst of trials, heartaches,
adversity, temptation, and trouble, in the midst of our falls and
failures, he still preserves and keeps us. Somebody wrote
to me the other day and said, You know, everybody's got bursitis.
They want to prove things by turning to a birth. This fellow
said, can you give me one birth? One birth that just absolutely
convinces you of eternal security. I said, yeah, which one you want?
They're all over the place. The Lord God looks on us to preserve
and keep us. And then in verse three, he asked
another question. Bringest thou me? into judgment
with thee. Now sooner or later you're going
to have to face up to this fact. God Almighty is going to bring
you into judgment with him. And notice the word. He doesn't
say bringest thou me into judgment before thee. That we recognize. It's inscribed on our hearts.
We recognize there's a day of judgment coming. We're going
to stand before God Almighty and be judged of Him. Every man
knows that. History demonstrates it over
and over again. Go ask Sodom and Gomorrah. Go
ask the Antediluvian saints. Go ask those who drowned in the
flood. Does God punish sin? Indeed, He does. Go yonder to
Calvary and find out. God Almighty knows there's more
punishment. But He says, Dost thou break
me into judgment? with them. In other words, Job
says, here I am a man, and will God bring this man,
who is more insignificant than a withered, false-bitten flower,
will God bring this man into judgment with him? Now if you look in Acts 17 31,
you don't need to turn there now, but at your leisure, the
Apostle Paul declared plainly, God has appointed a day into
which he will judge the world by that man who do hath ordained
Christ Jesus the Lord. Now this is what Job said, here
I am a man, and does God bring this man into
judgment with the standard of judgment? being God himself. That's it. Yeah. He's not only
going to judge us by Christ being the judge, but in that day, Paul,
the standard of judgment is the God-man Christ Jesus himself. You're either going to be standing
before God, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, or
you're going to perish under the wrath of God. There's no
other hope for you. If we're washed in his blood, robed in
his righteousness, then we have no sin before God, and shall
never be charged with any, but only with perfect righteousness.
Does God bring me into judgment with him? Now look at verse four. Understanding both the brevity
of life and the certainty of divine judgment, Job asked this
next question. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Our translation reads in response
to this question, not what. But a better translation might
continue the question to the end of the fourth verse, so that
Job is actually saying this, who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Is there one? We realize that
man who is altogether unclean by imputation, by nature, by
birth, by choice, by practice, must stand in judgment with the
Holy Lord God. This question is one for which
every sensible soul must seek an answer. Here I am, a man,
a man who must meet God and stand with God, God himself in judgment. Who's going to make me clean
before him? Is anybody able? God's 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 higher linguistic. The number of our days in this
world are determined by God's decree before we ever drew our
first breath. God himself has appointed the
boundaries of every man's existence in this world, and beyond those
marked boundaries, nobody is going to pass. Somebody lays
on their deathbed, and the doctors and nurses, you know, they say,
you know, he has such a will to live. Your will is not going to keep
you alive, not one second past God's appointed time. Brother
Scott Richardson back years ago, we were preaching together down
in Rocky Mount, Virginia. This has been over 20 years ago. And
Scott has a way of putting things, you know, to remember them. Everybody
was involved in this health generation, you know, they're beginning to
spring up health spas and health clubs all over the country. Scott
said, everybody's running and jogging and eating tofu and eating
lettuce and rabbit food, hoping to add 10 years on their life.
He said, I read into something the other day, Scott said, how
come you're out here running like this every morning and early?
He said, I'm figuring on adding 10 years on my life. Scott said,
the problem is you got to add it on the wrong end. So you spend
the last 10 years of your life sitting around in a wheelchair
drooling all over yourself. But the fact is, you're not going
to add it. You're not going to add it. You're just simply continuing
to live older because God has not yet called your number. And that's all there is to it. If man has no power over his
own life and death, or even over his own health, It's certain
he has no power to bring the clean thing out of an unclean.
No mortal can give himself life. No man can give himself faith. No man can regenerate himself.
No man can justify himself. No man can put himself into a
more favorable condition before God. Oh no, man's just sad. But bless God, there is one who
can bring the clean thing out of an unclean. God our Father,
that one of whom our Lord Jesus said when his disciples said,
who then can be saved? He said, with men it's impossible,
but with God all things are possible. God Almighty, by redeeming us
from our sins, has made us clean by the blood of his Son, imputing
to us the righteousness of his Son, made us righteous before
him, and in the new birth gives us a righteous nature, so that
that one that is born of woman and clean is born of God, clean
in his sight. Now here's another question. In verse 10, Job says, and if
you forget it in verse 7, he says to go out here and cut down
a tree. The tree looks dead. The branches
are all dead. So you go down and you cut that
thing down right to the ground. But there's hope. There's hope
that there's still maybe some life in the roots. And it might spring up. It may
smell water and run to the water and spring up with life again.
But he asked the question in verse 10, man dieth and wasteth
away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost.
And where is he? Where is he? When a man dies and his body
is laid in the ground, where is he? immediately to somewhere. Either in hell under the wrath
of God or in heaven in the bliss of everlasting life. One of the two. When Lazarus
died and the rich man died, when the rich man died in hell he
lifted up his eyes. When Lazarus died the angels
of God carried him away into Abraham's womb, into paradise. That's the way it is. We know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. And this blessed state of death,
I use the word with regard to believers, Because that's the
way folks understand it. When the body quits breathing,
they say he's dead. But our Lord said, he that believeth
on me shall never die. When this body goes to the grave,
listen to me, it'll be a blessed state of life. And in this blessed
state of life, for the believer, there is a hope and expectation. Not a matter of dread and fear,
but of hope and expectation. Job prayed for the Lord to graciously
take him out of this veil of tears and keep him hiding his
body in the grave and his soul in heaven until the days of God's
wrath and judgment on this earth were over. Look at verse 13.
Oh, that thou wouldest hide me in the grave. Job said, God,
I'm tired. I'm tired. I've had enough. Oh, but thou wouldest hide me
in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, keep me secretly,
keep me hidden, until all the woe that comes as a result of
sin is over. until thy wrath be passed, that
thou wouldest appoint me then a set time, and remember me. Now how can you be sure that's
what he's saying? Look in Isaiah 26, let me show you. Verse 19, thy dead men, this
is a prophecy concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Thy dead men
shall live together with my dead body, shall they rise. Awake
and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew
of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Look in chapter
57, verse 1. When the righteous perisheth,
no man layeth it to her. No man understath Preach, preach,
preach, nobody pays any attention. I've been experiencing that a
while. I used to think, man, if I get, my hair gets gray and
starts to fall out and I get a few of these wrinkles you get
when you get maybe about 50 years old, somebody might pay attention.
Nobody pays any attention. They just keep on preaching.
The righteous perisheth and no man lays it to heart. Merciful
men are taken away. None consider it. Nobody understanding
what God's doing. What's God doing? What's God
doing? Will you listen to me? If I draw my last breath before
I get done preaching, this is what God's done for me. The righteous is taken away from
the evil to come. Hidden from God's wrath against
sin on this earth. from all the future woe and trouble
that men must endure upon the earth. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds,
rest in their graves, each one walking in his uprightness. Isn't
that something? He's still floating there. His body goes to the dust
and there it rests, but he's not asleep. My soul knows he's
walking in uprightness. Now Job asks another question
in verse 14. If a man die, Shall I live again? Now look at his answer. All the days of my appointed
time will I wait. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm gonna die. This body's going to the ground.
It's gonna, it's gonna be eaten of worms just like anybody else's.
In that sense man dies like an ox thrown in the ground and worms
eat his flesh. That's exactly the truth in that
sense. But when I die, unlike the ox,
all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
come. Christ is coming again. And the dead in Christ will rise. Change comes at God's appointed
time. Thou shalt call voice of God,
the trump of the archangel, the day when Christ shall rise, thou
shalt call, and here I go. I'm going out to meet my God.
In my flesh shall I see God. I will answer. Thou will have
a desire to the work of thy hand. How can you be sure? Because
God looks on me. God looks on me. Some years ago,
I think about this, I forgot who had died when I wrote this
a long time ago. I wrote these words. Now I am free from sin and pain,
and with the glorified I reign. Don't stand around my grave and
cry, I'm glorified, I did not die. Seated with Jesus on his
throne, glorified by what he has done, I am a trophy of his
grace. Rejoicing, I behold his face. Don't stand around my grave and
cry, I'm with Christ, I did not die. My body lies beneath the
clay until the resurrection day. In that day when Christ comes
again, body and soul unite again. Don't stand around my grave and
cry. Rejoice with me. I did not die. Amen. All right, you come lead
us in the hymn please.