[0:00] Take your Bibles and please turn to the book of Job. I didn't know exactly what I was going to be coming into Sunday morning with.
[0:13] Honestly, my worst fear that I was going to be looking at a congregation that just lost two people. And so my heart and my mind gravitated towards the book of Job.
[0:27] So if you could turn to Job chapter 13. Job's friends never got out of the shallow end of the swimming pool. They thought they were Olympian swimmers, even though they never had to have their feet taken out from underneath them.
[0:46] They had a simple system. People who sin suffer and people who do what is right flourish. That's how it had been for them.
[0:57] And so that's what they thought it was for everyone else. But Job was thrown into the deep end of the pool. And that's where we find him this morning.
[1:10] His friends sat with him, you remember. And then they took turns trying to get Job to repent of his sins. That's why he calls them miserable physicians.
[1:23] Of no help and liars. They take turns trying to get Job to repent of his sins. And right before the passage that we're going to read, Zophar, his third friend, goes so far as to say, who are you kidding, Job?
[1:36] Job, you think you're right with God. But God's even forgotten some of your sins. You think this is bad.
[1:48] You're not getting it as bad as you deserve. So devote your heart to him, Job. And then you'll lift up your face without fear. And so that's why Job says in 13.4, You smear me with lies.
[2:02] You are worthless physicians, all of you. They had a tame God and a tame system. And it worked well in the shallow end of the swimming pool.
[2:13] It worked just fine for a lot of things. But in chapter 12, Job says, I've seen and I've tasted God. And you're not the only wise one.
[2:27] There's a certain wildness about God that you guys aren't feeling, that you haven't tasted. He tears down.
[2:40] This is all Hebrews or Job 12. He tears down. He imprisons. He brings drought. He brings floods. He brings war.
[2:50] Both deceived and deceivers are his. Around the time when Job lived. We don't know exactly when he lived or exactly where he lived.
[3:02] But we have a general idea. About the same time Job lived, about 100 miles north of probably where Job lived, the Egyptian empire and the Hittite empire bumped up against each other.
[3:14] And they had one of the all-time ancient epic battles of the ancient world over the city of Kadesh. And it was this clash of two empires.
[3:27] And it's the story of the deceived and the deceivers at war against each other. The Hittites had fooled the Egyptians. They sent out a spy. And they intentionally let that spy be captured.
[3:44] And under torture, he gave the Egyptians false information. And so the Egyptians, deceived, marched up to the city of Kadesh. And the Hittites were hidden on the other side.
[3:54] And as the Egyptians marched up one side, the Hittites sent a chariot force around the other side. And crashed into the Egyptian lines and totally mauled them.
[4:06] All that bloodshed and lies, deceived and deceivers. Job says God owns them both. God doesn't back away from floods or droughts.
[4:18] Job says he leads the great away stripped. So rich men are reduced to nothing. Trusted advisors who always had wise counsel don't have anything to say when God is done working.
[4:33] He takes wild, frightening things out of deep darkness. He makes nations great and then just scatters them. No man can control God when he puts his hand to work.
[4:47] Amen. And Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, that's God. And now he's turned his power on to me. And so in Ephesians, or in, I'm going to get this right one day.
[4:59] Job chapter 13, 12. He says, all your maxims and proverbs are ashes and clay. And so in verse 12 is where we're going to begin reading.
[5:14] He says, please let me speak. And will you just listen to me? And so this is the word of God as it comes from Job. Keep silent and let me speak.
[5:27] Then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands?
[5:42] Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him. I will surely defend my ways to his face. He's talking about God and he's saying, I'm risking something. I know that because I've seen and tasted what God can do.
[5:56] And so I'm taking my own life into my hands. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance. For no godless man would dare come before him.
[6:07] Listen carefully to my words. Let your ears take in what I say. Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me?
[6:18] If so, I will be silent and die. Only grant me these two things, O God. And then I will not hide from you. Withdraw your hand from me and stop frightening me with your terrors.
[6:31] Then summon me and I will answer or let me speak. And you reply, how many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin.
[6:44] Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me.
[6:57] And make me inherit the sins of my youth. You fasten my feet in shackles. You keep close watch on all my paths. By putting marks on the soles of my feet.
[7:12] So man, waste away like something rotten. Like a garment eaten by moths. Man, born of woman, is a few days and full of trouble.
[7:24] He springs up like a flower and withers away. Like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. Or do you fix your eyes on such a one? Will you bring him before you for judgment? Will you bring what is pure from what is impure?
[7:37] Or who can bring what is pure from what is impure? No one. Man's days are determined. You have decreed the number of his months. You have set limits he cannot exceed.
[7:50] So look away from him and let him alone. Till he has put in his time like a hired man. At least there is hope for a tree.
[8:03] If it is cut down, it will sprout again. And its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil. Yet at the scent of water, it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.
[8:17] But man dies and is laid low. He breathes his last and is no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise.
[8:35] Till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed.
[8:49] If only you would set me a time and then remember me. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service, I will wait for my renewal to come.
[9:00] You will call and I will answer you. You will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps, but not keep track of my sin.
[9:10] My offenses will be sealed up in a bag. You will cover over my sin. But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man's hope.
[9:33] You overpower him once for all and he is gone. You change his countenance and send him away. If his sons are honored, he does not know it.
[9:45] If they are brought low, he does not see it. He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself. Well, Job wanted people to hear what he had to say.
[10:05] He wanted people to listen to him and actually believe what he was saying, and his three friends weren't doing that. Do you ever want people just to listen to you? Well, that's what Job wants, and we've heard what he has to say.
[10:21] Verse 14 says, Job says, I want to talk to God, and that's dangerous. I know. I know that, but he's my only hope, and though he slay me, I will put my hope in him.
[10:35] So does God ever frighten you? We want a God we can control.
[10:46] We want a God we can manage. But he won't be managed. He won't be held account by us. And that scared Job, but God was his only hope.
[11:02] And so beginning in chapter 13, verse 23, Job begins this miserable song, and this is what I do want to look at today, partly because it does feel so relevant to what we have gone through this week.
[11:19] So Rick Fish is in the hospital, and Bree was on death's door earlier this week. Linda Fish was at home, afraid, Wade and Tracy in fear and in misery over their daughter and wondering what is going to happen.
[11:41] And Job helps us to mourn with those who mourn, to feel something of what they're feeling, how Linda felt or Tracy feels or what others have felt.
[11:56] And I don't know, but you need to understand that they do feel something like what Job is talking about here, what Job felt.
[12:07] And maybe you don't know how to go there because you've never had something like that happen. You've never been there yourself. Well, that's why we need the word of God, and that's why we need to go to places that we're not used to going, because the book of Job stretches us.
[12:24] It works against the grain. It takes us to places where we wouldn't go on our own. Sort of like a restaurant.
[12:35] It's not one you would ever go to because you don't think you would like it. But when you go there, you find out it is for you. Job is for us. And it helps us now. And it helps us to carry on and to act as the body of Christ here and now in this time.
[12:52] But it also gets us ready for what certainly will be. For us. For us. For us. So Job's song has five verses.
[13:07] And I don't mean Bible verses. I mean song verses. Five verses. And the first begins in 1323. It's the first verse of his song.
[13:18] And Job here feels haunted and hunted by his sin. He feels haunted and hunted by his sins.
[13:29] He heaps up these words of how many wrongs and sins have I committed. Show me my offense and my sin. So it's not just Job's friends that are bringing up sin or Job's sin.
[13:41] It's Job's own heart. Job thought he was a righteous man. He thought he was right with God. And the important thing to understand is he was. God himself says two times.
[13:55] Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one like him. He is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil. Remember Zophar's words. His friend is saying, Job, you need to devote your heart to God.
[14:07] And God is saying, Job has devoted his heart to me. But what does it feel like in his misery? What does Job feel like is true?
[14:21] You hide your face from me. You torment a windblown leaf. You write down bitter things against me. You mark my feet so that you can track my footsteps wherever I go.
[14:35] Job feels like God is hunting him. Like God is a bloodhound on his scent. And so outside of Christ, sin does inevitably and always bring judgment.
[14:47] You can count this as absolutely true. No matter how much you don't wish it was true. But your sin will find you out. But in Christ, your sins have been forgiven.
[15:02] God does not haunt you. He's not looking over your shoulder waiting to strike you down. He doesn't hunt us. Our sins don't hang over us waiting to fall on us.
[15:13] The punishment that brought us peace. We have peace. We have that punishment that brought us peace was on upon him, was upon Jesus Christ.
[15:23] But in misery, Job is expressing honestly how you feel. Job isn't speaking accurately, but he's singing a song we know.
[15:40] I thought we were friends. I thought you were for me. But it's like all my sins are now rising up against me. Feels like you're hunting me.
[15:54] And that's how the suffering are tempted to think. And it's a struggle to believe in the forgiveness and the peace that comes from believing in these moments.
[16:05] But it is a struggle. But we must struggle to believe. And it's easy to believe when life is good. It's harder to believe when life is real full of trouble.
[16:18] But we must struggle to believe. And we must fight to believe. Romans chapter 5. Since we have been justified, we have peace with God. In our suffering, it feels like we don't have peace anymore.
[16:30] But we must struggle to believe. We have to fight to believe of what we sang. That Jesus paid for my sin. The devil sees the opening here.
[16:42] Our conscience comes awake. And all of our doubts and fears about God. About his trustworthiness. About the gospel. They all begin to exert their power.
[16:54] And that's where Job is. He's haunted. And he's hunted. He brings up the sins of his youth. The things that he did.
[17:08] Do you ever think about those things that you did 30, 40 years ago? And something bad happens.
[17:22] And you feel like you can trace a line back to that thing that happened 50 years ago. And saying, now God is finally bringing it on me. That's how Job feels.
[17:33] So how do you mourn with those who mourn? How do you help them? I think this is a key insight and realization. That in these moments, it is very difficult to believe that you have peace with God.
[17:47] And so we need to be praying for people who are going through this. Pray that they would believe the gospel. Pray that they would experience the peace of God. The peace of believing that my sins, not in part, but the whole, are nailed to the cross.
[18:03] And I bear them no more. When did Horatio Spafford write those words? After his business had been completely burned up. And his daughters drowned.
[18:18] He needed the gospel then. Because that's where the battle was in Horatio's heart. He needed to say it. He needed to believe it.
[18:29] He needed to hold on to it. And it's a battle. And the people who are suffering need us to stand with them and help them and pray for them. Because that is where the battle line, that's where one of the battle lines is.
[18:41] So that's the first verse. Here's Job and he's singing a song we know. And so how do we mourn with those who mourn? How do we get ready to go through things like that ourselves?
[18:52] Now in the time, now is the time to be laying up gospel truths, to be solidly believing it, to have a good firm grasp on the gospel.
[19:02] Because we are going to need it. It is going to be threatened at some point. So the second verse in Job's song is from 1328 to 146.
[19:16] So the very last verse in chapter 13. And then it goes down to verse 6. And in this verse, Job is feeling the misery of mortality. Job feels the misery of mortality.
[19:28] And Job gives us a terrible but accurate picture, a biography of what man is. So you go to college and you take anthropology and you learn about what man is.
[19:45] Well, here is the biblical view, at least in part, of what is man like? Well, Job is going to tell us, what is man like?
[19:58] I'm sure someone here has bananas on their counter. And they go from green to yellow to brown rather quickly. Well, Job says that's what man is like.
[20:11] He's like a banana on the counter, spotting and soon rotting away. What is man like, Job? Here's a picture that I'm not very familiar with, but an ancient person would have been very familiar with.
[20:24] A garment eaten up by moths. I've never had any of my clothes ate by insects. But Job knew what that was like. To have a full robe and then all of a sudden you have holes in it.
[20:36] And then it's no longer wearable. What is man like, Job? Well, his days are few and they are full of trouble. Few. Few. Not many.
[20:46] Few. Not easy, but full of trouble. I saw an article this past week. The average American. This just set me reeling. And I guess I need to thank God for the health and the pain-free life I have.
[21:01] The average American has 13 pain-free days a year. So if you're in pain, I guess you're completely average.
[21:12] 48% of people say it's hard to believe that they'll ever have another pain-free day. I heard one person say, you know you're getting old when you go to the doctor and you tell the doctor it hurts.
[21:34] And he just says, mm-hmm. Yep. That's what's going to happen. What is man like, Job? Well, he's like a desert flower. He's all of a sudden there and all of a sudden gone.
[21:45] And his place remembers it no more. Ecclesiastes, which is sort of a cousin of the book of Job, says, go to the graveyard.
[22:00] And what do you see there? You see names. And names that don't mean anything to anybody anymore.
[22:15] What is man like, Job? He's a fleeting shadow. Shadows can seem so sharp and definite at the time. And yet, what are they? They just stretch out until they fade away.
[22:28] And Job says, Lord, that's who I am. Impure. Imperfect. You can't expect me to come before you.
[22:40] And survive your judgment. My days are determined. 14.5. You've decreed the number of his months. So what do we have? Days and months. And he sets a limit that man cannot exceed.
[22:53] No man knows the day of his death, but God has put a limit on it. And it will show up on your calendar. What is man like, Job?
[23:06] He changes the picture. We're like hired hands. We put in our day's work, and then we go home. And how quickly those days go.
[23:19] Have you ever had a job like that, where you show up in the job, and it seems like it's taking forever. But it's soon over. So, again, Job says, just look away from me.
[23:34] Leave me alone. God knows how men talk when they're desperate. Life is short. Death is sure.
[23:45] Death is not the natural part of life that we hear so much about.
[24:04] That doesn't help anyone to say. It's another stupid idea. It's another maxim of clay and proverb of ashes.
[24:14] It doesn't mean anything. It's what fools tell each other to be comfortable with a sad thing. We're flying away from eternity to eternity.
[24:26] And so, we're an arrow flashing across the sky, and the arrow will land. And Ecclesiastes says, where the tree lands, so it will stay. And you say, I don't like to think about that.
[24:44] That's not fun. Again, Job takes us to places where we wouldn't go. What you like or dislike doesn't change anything.
[25:00] Ecclesiastes 9.12, the quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Job is singing a miserable song.
[25:11] But if you listen to it, it will make you wise. If you listen to it, it will make you wise. Man is mortal, soon to die. And if you're wise, you will take that to heart.
[25:23] The third verse in Job's song is, he feels the despair of death. So now we're talking, the last verse was just how quickly man's life is over.
[25:38] And it's so limited. And then it's there, and then it's not. But now here, Job feels the despair of death. This is verses 14.7-12.
[25:49] And Job is pondering the finality of death. He contrasts it to a tree. There are all kinds of verses and all sorts of places in the Bible where man, where the Bible compares men to a tree.
[26:07] And it's a good thing. Psalm 1, the man who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, he is like a tree planted by streams of water.
[26:17] Psalm 52, the psalmist says, I am like an olive tree, flourishing in the house of the Lord. Well, Job isn't singing one of those songs.
[26:28] Because trees have hope that after they're cut down, they might grow back. They could grow back. He says, at least there's hope for a tree. If it's cut down, it will sprout again.
[26:39] Sometimes it takes a while. Now, sometimes, but with enough rain, maybe you've seen this. Maybe you have a tree like this in your yard. With enough rain, it will sprout again.
[26:52] Trees have something in them that even after it seems like they are dead, they can come back. Verse 10 is the contrast.
[27:04] But man dies and is laid low. And in this world and in this life, there's no coming back.
[27:18] He says he's a dried up riverbed. He says, he's a dried up riverbed.
[27:51] He says, he's a dried up riverbed. He says, he's a dried up riverbed. He says, he's a dried up riverbed. So we think we hear them in the house. We see them out of the corner of our eye, or we forget for a moment that they're gone, and we can't wait to tell them something.
[28:08] You remember them, but there's no coming back. Job never got his first 10 children back. his camels and his horses and his cows and flocks and sheep or whatever they all grew again into huge flocks and he had other children god comforted him it says but but there was no reversing the finality of death not in this world and then in in verse four so that's verse three of job's song now here in verse four we've seen the mortality of man the despair of death we've seen job feeling haunted and hunted by his sin and now here in verse four of job's song job wishes for resurrection he wishes and he hopes for resurrection verse 13 if only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed so what does job want job wants to die just die and be hidden from the misery of life and when the storm has passed he says remember me remember me now in the old testament god has often said to remember someone or remember a person or remember a barren woman remember israel in in egypt when when the bible talks about god remembering people it's as if god says oh now it is time for me to act for them to do them good to bless them to give this woman a baby to save israel from egypt remember me that's what job is asking so what is resurrection now we're going to the end of time we're coming to the second return of of jesus christ what is right resurrection it is god acting to save us it's god remembering us and standing up and it's a call to salvation and to deliverance so remember me is what job says what what is resurrection he he says it's renewal i will wait for my renewal to come what is resurrection it will be you but it will be a new you it will be the same but it will be different a new you and then there's this beautiful beautiful picture job says you will call and i will answer you you will long for the creature your hands have made when will christ come when will that resurrection take place well it will be when god's patience runs out and i'm not talking about his patience with the wicked although that's very true that's true resurrection will finally take place when when he wants his people body and soul and he will not wait one more minute for it jesus said i want them where i am i want them where i am not just their souls but their bodies their body and soul i want them where i am resurrection happens because finally god's desires will not be denied anymore and the lord will get up this is for first thessalonians got the lord will get up the lord jesus the lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command what is he commanding he's commanding the dead to rise and to come and be with him with a loud command with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of god and the dead in christ will rise first you will call and i will answer resurrection is jesus calling his people to himself saying marriage now i'm gonna have it
[32:13] i'm calling it you're coming and you're going to be there and that's our glorious hope and that's why we don't grieve like those who have no hope now we need to be very careful and understand what we're dealing with here none of this undoes the misery of mortality or the despair of death none of this is like just completely undoes the the reality of what job has been talking about here but what it is doing is right alongside the experience of mortality and despair and the hopelessness of we're we're not going to make this out of this alive but right alongside of that is hope it's hope it's not all bad there's hope and just for a moment job sees it job feels it it's like the room that was so stuffy the window just cracks open and there's just a breeze of fresh air that comes in just for a moment and job smells something that's better and different from the outside now do you see what it is for a saint to suffer it's not being stoical it's not lying to yourself it's not being impervious to suffering or to misery or even to deep depression it's not that it's even in the misery to say lord you are my hope even in the misery it's wrestling it's wrestling with god in the fear it's wrestling with the lord and that's what job is doing in this whole passage that that is what the new heart the new born-again christian the new born-again believer does this is what it looks like all the live long night i'm gonna hold on i'm gonna hold on i'm gonna hold on to the lord so you think of jacob wrestling with the angel of the lord beside the stream all through the night that's what the that's what believers do there's something inside of them that will not let the lord go and that's what we see and job says then oh then it's going to be different you're going to act for me and you're going to you're going to do something new and different you won't haunt my steps anymore you'll count my steps to do me good that's psalm 23 6 goodness and mercy will pursue me hunt me persecute me sometimes that word is used you'll pursue me to do me good and then you won't keep track of my sins my offenses my sins you will just tie up in a bag and tie it close and throw it behind you and you'll remember it no more and now isn't that so much of the bliss of resurrection is that we will get to live in these bodies on a new earth and a new body without sin it will be something completely different and my sin will be sealed up and as we sing we will be saved to sin no more and job says oh that it will be different it'll be different and so for just now just for a moment job comes up out of the water and for a moment he touches something solid and i would have loved to end the sermon there but that's not how it is his head comes up out of the raging sea for a minute but in the last verse of his song he slips down again but but this is verse 18 in contrast to all of that there's this dreary picture but as a mountain
[36:21] tin erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil so you destroy men's hope death god is as relentless as erosion day by day god destroys the hopes of men all the hopes of men all that eating and exercise that was going to keep you alive all the wisdom and righteousness all the medicine and doctors god finally wears them all the way and he says you overpower them once for all and he is gone now job isn't singing a happy song but he is singing an honest song and and so this really this is this ends the the this big the first big section in the book of job this is the longest speech this is the end of the longest speech that job has and but but there's going to be more to say the battle is still going on there's no easy answers that's the point there's no glib response that just makes it all better after job says all of this there's no quick victory but again the man of god is going to go on the lord is going to secretly uphold job through this whole process and what is interesting is at the end job is going to make sacrifice for his friends and the lord is going to say you haven't done right like my servant job has job goes through deep suffering and he gets to the end and all the lord says is well done good and faithful servant now i just want to end with two reflections two simple reflections on job's song the first is this that we're meant to sing along with this song there's lots of songs there's lots of things in the bible where we're meant to sing along this is just this is another one this this song is for the suffering for those facing death because it's honest it's coming from a man like you who had thoughts like you have from a man who god threw into the deep end and and he made it through still believing and so this is a song is meant to be uh sung and you're meant to sing along with it and so if if no one else knows what you're going through job knows job is saying hey you're not alone in this listen to where i am listen to where i was you're not alone and more importantly and more wonderfully jesus lived this song too do you want a wonderful insight into something of what was going on in the garden of gethsemane when jesus is deeply troubled at what he is about to face this is it's not a perfect insight but i think it sheds wonderful light on this is what jesus he he was troubled should i take this should i say take this cup from me but for this very reason i came but if you can if there's some way take this from me several times in that passage it said his heart was deeply troubled jesus knew this song this is how jesus felt jesus jesus was wrestling uh with all of this he's dying and yet hopeful
[40:26] he's innocent and yet he's going to be punished and the battle is not easy he's saying this song so how do you go through things like this well you sing it with him you sing these songs with jesus you you take this and you pray it back to god and you say this is how i feel lord help me when when you don't know what to say isn't it wonderful to find a passage in the bible that is just giving you words joe gives us words and so you take these words and you sing these words back to god just like joe did just like jesus did and then learn to sing it with others maybe you aren't suffering but i just want to ask will you let them sing alone we we even if times are good for us we need to learn this these words we we need to learn these verses we need to learn these themes we need to fill things these things in our bones and then when we come alongside of them we're now ready to help them we're ready to have compassion and mourn with those who mourn and sing with them and so now you're listening and you're saying i know these words and that's going to help you to speak words that are helpful to them so where you're listening to them and you're speaking and you're speaking and listening we just can't suffer alone we suffer together and we need to learn to suffer together as this common choir of singers now that's the first reflection this is something that you need to learn the song and to learn to sing with others and i guess i don't know other any other way to do that except after this you need to come back to this passage and read it and just like joe said don't argue with joe listen to him and believe what he says his friends were just doing nothing but arguing with him but listen to what he says and take it on board secondly we also have this wonderful thing i don't want to end with a sad sad note we we do have clearer light than joe did we know things we've experienced things we have truths that joe never did he could long and hope for resurrection but he hadn't seen that he hadn't known anyone that had gone through that but we we have more to lay beside the misery so we have our miserable song but we have more truth more good things more hope to lay beside this misery we have christ because christ destroys him who holds the power of death we met him the one who holds the power of death in job chapter 1 and 2 christ came to destroy his works christ came to destroy him who holds the power of death christ destroys the last enemy 1 corinthians 15 christ sang joe's song and he sang it from the inside to destroy it he sang it in order that no one would ever have to sing it again like he sang it and so finally that song would be done away with so when death swallowed him up it swallowed someone too big for it someone who was truly haunted and hunted our sins found him on the cross god's bloodhound found him and met him on the cross someone felt his life slipping away he felt the mortality of man and the despair of death and he felt it from the inside
[44:27] and he sang it from the inside of that and then bursting forth into glorious day up from the grave he arose and as he stands in victory since curse has lost its grip on me we have something joe never had we have christ the risen reigning savior who has gone into the jaws of death and has blown its shackles and chains away so death and despair get to sing their song and we're going to learn how to sing it one way or the other but they don't get the last word and at last jesus will say enough and death and hades will be thrown into the lake of fire to be destroyed forever and but but so while here we are on the earth we we sing this sad song we need to know what it is to sing job's song with him but it's not going to be forever there is another song that outlives this song and we'll sing a new song and the very first words will be a taunt a taunt you know what a taunt is it's where you make fun of someone's weakness do god's people ever get to taunt someone we will in the end where oh death is your victory where oh death is your sting you're a loser you have no fangs you have no poison where oh death is your victory where oh death is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to god he gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ and so we will sing the victory song so will you sing that victory song like i said one way or the other we're going to sing the song of misery but how can you sing the victory song where you can sing where oh death is your victory where oh death is your sting how can you sing the victory song well paul gives us the answer god gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ he is how we get to sing the victory song he is our life he is our salvation and so you come to him you come to him in your sin you come into it come to him in your misery and you say save me and he will and then he'll sing the song and you'll sing it with him you come to him in your sin in your misery and you say save me your fear and your worry and your concern and you say save me and he will and he will let's pray heavenly father thank you for the lord jesus christ who is our victory who is our life and our salvation he is our song he wins for us and so we don't have to face death all by ourselves but we can face death with him and death is already at his feet and death cringes in the sight of our risen savior so thank you that we can attach ourselves to jesus christ and even as we face misery and the mortality as we face dread and fear we don't have to face it like those who have no hope but we can face it knowing that our lord jesus knows exactly how we feel he has been every step down that path
[48:31] and he has come back triumphant so give us faith to believe him give us faith and love give us love for our brothers and sisters give us sympathy give us ears to hear what they're saying give us hearts to love and care for them save us from being miserable physicians make us more like jesus the great physician i pray in his name amen well please take your hymnals and turn to him 192 jesus sang the song of misery and he knows what it's like and the song is a reminder of that the fourth verse says how here we have a firm foundation here a refuge of the lost christ the rock of our salvation his the name of which we boast lamb of god for sinners wounded sacrifice to cancel guilt none shall ever be confounded who on him their hope have built amen please stand hymn 192 hymn 192