Now please turn to the 29th chapter of the book of Job. I want to preach upon the first phrase of the verse 2, entitling my message this morning, Looking Back to Better Times. Job exclaims here, O that I were as in months past! O that I were as in months past! Harvest time is a time for reflection. I probably would find support for the view that of all the seasons of the year, There is none which prompts us to recognize that we are a declining people. The time passing over our head is leaving its mark upon us and we are hastening onward to that occasion when the harvest of our life shall come. This verse is one that I felt led to. As you know we have been studying the book of Job and I usually try to keep ahead of myself just a little bit. Selecting those portions that I feel the Lord would have us consider. And it's some little time ago that this was a verse I was drawn to. It's a verse that when I read it appealed to me. It appealed to me because I felt something of an echo within my own heart of the sentiments that Job here expresses. I hope that you too this morning feel something of an echo within your heart of the words of Job. Oh that I wear as in months past It's a sad fact that we, God's people, ever seem to be in a lower spiritual state than that which we occupied a little while or a little time ago. Whenever we look upon ourselves, Whenever we examine ourselves, it seems to us that we can remember times when we were better spiritually. It seems that we can remember when our zeal was stronger, and our love for the Lord was warmer, and our energy was more abundant than we were occupied more consistently with the things of God than at that moment in which we were looking upon our own hearts. That seems ever to be the case, doesn't it? Rare indeed is the time when we as God's people can stop and say, I have never been in a better spiritual state than I am at this moment. That occasion is very rare. Our time spent up on the heavenlies seem very short-lived in comparison to the times we seem to spend in the shadows. And I think that If truth had its way, we would often say with Job, O that I were as in months past. I want to consider these words, not strictly in the context in which they are set, though for a moment I would like us to consider that, but to use the words in a more general sense. Now Job is prompted to look back and to remember. And he looked back upon times which were very much different from the times in which he was presently going through. In the chapter 29 he begins to remember. He begins to remember his former times and the experiences and how things were with him a short time ago. Just a short time ago. If you care to study more closely, in the verses 3 to 5, he remembers the great blessing of God that rested upon him. He says, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was yet with me." Oh, that those times were with me again, Job says. Those times when God's presence and power, I knew. I knew. He looks back a little more and he remembers a time when his children were alive, a time when his family was complete, a time in which all was well within his family circle. At the end of verse 5, he remembers, when my children were about me. Job is reflecting, reminiscing, and thinking of better times in the past. He can remember a time when he was prosperous. Verse 6, when I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil. Metaphors taken from the age in which Job lived that indicated the wealth that he enjoyed. but not so anymore. A look again, he can remember from the verses 7 through to 17, he speaks of this, he can remember a time when he was greatly respected, greatly respected. I'll not read all those verses but do have a look at them. This is for instance In the verse 7, when I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up. Job was held in reverence. He was highly regarded in former times. And he's saying, O that I was as I was then. He continues and recalls in the verses 18 to 20 the times of contentment and peace that he knew. Then he says, Then I said, I shall die in my nest, I shall multiply my days as the sand. My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand. Days of contentment and peace. Job looks back then on these times and he reflects upon them and he's saying, oh, that I might have them restored to me again. Oh, that I might be as I was then. Now, as I said, I don't want to take this prayer of Job, this request of Job, this desire of Job and look at it strictly in its context, but I want in a more general sense to apply it. First of all, I want us to consider that decline may set in among God's people. Decline may set in amongst us. And that's what Job was speaking of here. Now, there's evidence always that indicates whether decline has set in. You can measure yourself today, and I want you to do it honestly. The evidence of decline, well, I think first and foremost, there will be the loss of a sense of the Lord's presence. there will be a loss of the sense of the Lord's presence. Nothing is more real for the believer than a sense of the Lord's presence. But we can go through life and not notice, not notice that the Lord's presence is not with us. Moses said to the Lord during the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, If thy presence go not with me, carry us up, not hence. If you're not going to go with us, Lord, I don't want to move one more foot. I don't want to advance any more. Oh, how essential was the presence of God to Moses. And he did not want to go forward. He did not want to leave Egypt any further behind. He did not want to get any closer to the promised land unless the Lord's presence was with him. Decline is always evidenced in us by a loss. of a sense of the Lord's presence, though sometimes we don't at first notice that. Samson knew not that the Lord had departed from him. He didn't know it. Mary and Joseph, as they journeyed back home again from Jerusalem, didn't notice that the Lord Jesus wasn't with them. They traveled on for a time not noticing the Lord wasn't with them. And men and women, I tell you this, we can journey as Christians and not notice that the Lord's presence isn't with us as once it was. Oh, we still have our religious activities. We are still in the company of God's people, like Mary and Joseph. It's not as if we have broken out in open and wicked backsliding. But nevertheless, decline has set in, and a gap has developed between us and the Lord. That's the first evidence. That's the first evidence. Can we say today, I'm as close to the Lord as I've ever been? Can we say today that the Lord's presence is constantly abiding about me? Or must we acknowledge a decline? Another evidence of decline is the hardening of our conscience. we become less sensitive. We become more tolerant of sin. Those things that we would have stopped our ears against, now we can listen to. Those thoughts we would not have dreamed of thinking, now we can think them. And now we can close those thoughts with words because our conscience is less sensitive. It has become hardened. Our conscience hasn't the power over us that once it exercised. We do not tremble when conscience speaks as once we did. And the fear of God is not upon us. as once it was. Something of the spirit of Psalm 2 and the verse 3 has broken loose within our hearts and souls. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. This is the voice of rebellion. This is the voice of those determined to break free of God, and just a little of that is at work in the one who has declined from God, whose conscience has become hardened somewhat. and who is prepared to do things, to think things, to say things that in a former time they would never have been allowed to do by their conscience. But now they can. Why? Because their conscience has become hardened. It hasn't been kept under the same influences that made it tender in former times. That's an evidence of the time. Let me give you one more. we become less energetic for God. We just haven't got energy for God's work. We have energy for other things. Indeed, we have more energy now for other things than once we had, but we haven't energy for God. We may well have said with David in Psalm 116 in the verse 12, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? But we don't seem to say that just as once we did. We don't look around for things to do, for labors to perform, for duties to be undertaken for the Lord as once we did. Now we consider ourselves first when we hear the call to Judah. Self comes first. It's not convenient. I don't feel like it. I haven't the time. Decline is marked by a declining energy for the cause of God. Let me come to the second point that I want to make. Not only is it a sad fact that evidence of decline is to be seen often times amongst us, but I want to point out to you how quickly, how quickly our circumstances, our spiritual circumstances may decline. How quickly. Job was saying, O that I wear as in months past. This all began with Job. The great change that he encountered, the great alteration in circumstances that he had encountered, it all happened just a month or so ago. It doesn't take long for great events to happen. We have all seen that in this generation. In fact, we're, the elders coming home from the respiratory meeting on Friday evening, we were just reflecting on the fact that as a generation we have seen more changes than any other generation has ever seen. Some of us are old enough and we're in the right places to have seen horses ploughing in a field as a common thing. The ordinary course of events, not put on as a bit of a show as is the case now, not as a bit of a novelty, but that was the way. And we have lived from days when that was done until now. Men are probing the depths of space. man has walked upon the moon and ten thousand other things undreamt of at the beginning of our life what changes what changes there have been in the political realm in Europe indeed upon the surface of the globe generally what changes there have taken place in Russia none of us ever would have thought that would have happened What changes in Germany? None of us ever would have thought that would have happened. Those things were fixed as far as we were concerned. Nothing would ever change them. What changes we have seen in our own country? What changes we have seen? Change doesn't take long to take place. Dear Christian, you may look back a month or two months ago and reflect upon your life then and the zeal you had for God. But just because you had it two months ago doesn't mean that you have it today. You know, it's almost a year, another week or so, and it will be a year from that memorable Sabbath when we met in this very house. And God came down with power and hearts were broken. Souls were saved that day. Backsliders were restored that day. There was such a work of grace wrought that the preacher wasn't out having to chase after and seek after people, but people were coming to seek after him. There was a brokenness, a melting. There was a zeal, and tears were shed before the Lord. But that was months ago. How is it today, Christian? Are we still the same weeping people? Are we still the same broken people? Speaking for myself, I tell you, my friend, I don't think I am. How quickly we decline. How quickly we decline, how quickly we may change. It is for this reason that we are exhorted again in the Psalm 2, in the verse 11, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling. When a day of rejoicing breaks forth amongst us, let us do it. Let us rejoice, yes. God doesn't say don't be happy, but he says be happy with trembling. Like when you examine some very precious article, God says examine it, hold it, but hold it carefully in case you drop it. And when God blesses you and your heart is thrilled and filled, REJOICE! But do it carefully. Lest through pride we drop it. How quickly decline can set in, men and women. How quickly we can lose the great blessings of the Lord. Sometimes we are slow to realize that our spiritual state has altered, because it was such a short time ago that we were filled with zeal and love for God. But there are some elementary causes why we decline that I would suggest to you, and as you look at these causes, perhaps you'll be able to trace them in your own life. And I hope if you can trace them in your own life, I hope that all of us will give attention and see to it that those causes are removed as swiftly as possible. What causes decline then? Well, decline will set in when private devotion within our own lives is given less attention. Where there is a decline in private devotions, there will be a decline, a spiritual decline in our lives. Do you reserve a time for the Lord? A time to read His Word and pray and get before Him? Sometimes our devotions are a bit like the course of medicine that Occasionally, we may be prescribed, or the course of tablets. We just go along in between the toast and the tea, and we screw the lid off, pour out the tablets, throw them into our mouth, swallow them, and we don't have to think about it. Is that how it is with our daily devotions? Lord, forgive us. We do not, I do not, attend to these matters as I ought. We ought to seek God's face with great deliberation, setting aside everything, shutting down every other business, turning our back on all other responsibilities and considerations. and we should enter into his presence and read his word and pray. Psalm 44, verse 18, the psalmist says, Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways. Psalm 119, The verse fifty-five, I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and I have kept thy law. In the most unlikely of seasons, David remembered the Lord, and he kept his law. Where there is a decline in private devotions, there will be an overall decline in our spiritual condition. Where there is a yielding to some secret sin, there will be a decline in our spiritual state. Sin will act as a cancer, like a worm devouring the root of a shrub. Its activities may not be seen by every eye, but the consequences of its activities are clearly seen. The decay, the withering, the deadness. I tell you this, men and women, if we yield to some secret sin, then the evidence of decay will soon be seen in our lives. Isaiah 59 verse 2 reads like this, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. This is an age, men and women, in which it never, never, never was more easy to indulge in sin. Never. In ages past, sin may have been indulged in by the rich. Those who could afford to pay the price to indulge in the pursuits of the flesh. Poor man had to put up with poorer forms of sin. But that's not so today. Sin is on tap. It can be purchased in printed form. It can be purchased in the form of television. It can be purchased in the form of the computer media, it can be purchased in the form of tapes. There's a world, no, I should say there is a hell of iniquity that can be secretively indulged in today as never before. Consequently, it is ever more likely that secret sins will enter the lives of God's people, and if we sin secretively, it will soon be seen. It will cause a spiritual decline. Let us ask ourselves the question this morning, do I harbor sin? Do I regard iniquity in my heart? Have I grown so dull of understanding and of sight that I don't even recognize that what I do harbor in my life is sin? That's often the way men and women not one of us but can look back to the day when we were converted and we lamented before God our sins but from that day as God gave us spiritual eyesight we began to see that in our lives more and more there were wrong things that we never had recognized at the first to be such. And as we lose spiritual eyesight and lose sensitivity of soul and conscience, more and more our eyes will pass over in our lives those things that are sinful. And we'll not consider them to be so. Where there is a yielding to some secret sin, we'll decline from God. May the Lord help us. Where there is a preoccupation with the things of the world, there you have a decline from God. When that which is legitimate begins to occupy just too much of our time, then it becomes a snare to us and we decline from God. We take time from God and give it to that which is now occupying our hearts and minds. We decline from God in order that we might give more to this new pursuit. It can be a hobby. It can be a sport. It can be a person. It can be a business. Nothing wrong with sport, nothing wrong with a hobby, until it takes God's place. Then it's wrong. Our friends, our companions, may be in themselves very good people, but our friendship with them becomes wrong if it takes us from God. Our business may be honorable, upright, moral, clean, proper, but if it takes us from God, then it's wrong. We must not become preoccupied with the things of this world. Remember what we read in Matthew 13 and the verse 22, the care of this world. and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful." The Word of God and that which it would promote within our lives may be choked by the cares of this world and by the deceitfulness of riches. Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, emphasized this truth again, 1 Timothy 6 and 9. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. These then are the causes of design. Are they at work in your life, Christian? Is there a decline in your private devotions? Are you harboring some secret sin? Are you preoccupied with the things of this world? That shows that there will be a decline. If those things are operating, then there will be a decline. Let me say, finally, that we ought not to merely pine after former times, but actively seek to regain them. It's not enough for us just to utter the words of Job, Oh that I were in months past, and leave it at that. Now there are many things in life that you can look back on and say, Oh that I had them again! But you're wasting your time trying to get them again. You'll never be young again, you know. Though it must be said there's an industry engaged in taking money from people who think they can. But you'll never be young again. You'll not turn the back, the clock back. You may say, oh that I was like I was a few years ago. Oh that I have the strength, the vigour, the health. But you can't go back to that. You can't go back to that. That's wasteful, wishful thinking. But when we talk about spiritual decline, then we're talking about something that can be recovered and ought to be actively pursued after. How do we seek to regain the spiritual state we enjoyed in former times? Well, first of all, we must seek after those times again, beginning with repentance. We must freely and wholeheartedly confess to ourselves and to the Lord that we have fallen into decline. That's not easily done, men and women. That's not easily done. We'll avoid that confession with every craftiness that our old crafty heart can come up with. We'll blame this and we'll blame that, but we will not if we can get away with it. Say, I am what I am because I have declined from the Lord. I have not been faithful. I have not kept up my devotions. I have given place to sin. I have become preoccupied with other things. We'll avoid confessing that, if we possibly can. We'll say, well, it's just my present circumstances you don't understand. I just haven't time to do the things I used to do. That's a confession. That's a confession alright, though it's not a humble or honest confession, though it does clearly indicate what is wrong in the heart, though the heart is not clearly confessing to that wrong. Though if we are going to recover ourselves and see again the kinds of blessing that we look back upon, then we must freely honestly, wholeheartedly confess to the Lord, to ourselves, acknowledge to ourselves, I am not what once I was. I have declined from following the Lord. That confession will only come from a broken heart. And how our hearts will hold out against being broken. Like Mary and Joseph when they lost the child Jesus, We must return to the place where we first knew His company. We must acknowledge we haven't got Him anymore. He's not with us anymore. No matter what reproach that may bring upon us, no matter what people may say, how could you be so stupid as to lose your child? I'm sure they thought of that. But they deemed it more important to acknowledge that they had lost their child Jesus than to hold on to their reputation as parents. And so whatever criticism may come their way, whatever mocking may come their way, they started to look for the Lord Jesus and indicated that they had lost him. Oh may God help us to humbly take the place of the penitent. and acknowledge that we have lost out with God. That's where it begins. That's where we begin to recover our former times of blessing. We should seek an abiding consciousness of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Nothing will melt your heart, Christian, like that. Go for a sight of the crucified one. Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, urging upon them to yield themselves up did so on the basis of the cross. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I'll tell you this, we'll never give up the world or its ways until we are watching and looking upon Christ. He's the only one who is worth losing the world for. No congregation will give up the world for the sake of a good preacher. No congregation will give up the world for anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only as we see Him and become conscious of His love for us and His death for us at the cross, it is only as we stand under the power of the cross that our hearts will melt and yield afresh. Now Christian, I tell you this. Seek. Actively seek to bring your heart under the power of the cross. Read about it in the Bible. Read the godly thoughts of godly men on the subject. Seek to apply the balm of Gilead to your very soul, and I tell you this, it will melt you. It will soften you. And you will be enabled to actively regain that which you have lost. Let us live with eternity in view. We ought to eat our bread and engage in this world's affairs as did the Israelites on the night of the Passover. You know, they ate the Passover and their shoes were on their feet. They had their outer garments on them and belted. They had their staff in their hand. They were ready to go. Now some people, if they were going to sit down at the table, man, they'd loosen the shoes, and they certainly would loosen the belt, and they'd lay down everything out of the hand so that they could get both hands at it, and give themselves over to eating. And that's how we sometimes live. We give ourselves over to the things of this world. But if you're going to live for God, and maintain a walk with God, then we have got to live with eternity in view. Ever ready. Ever ready for that great day that is soon to dawn upon us. Conscious that this time in which we live is passing. Cultivate. Cultivate, Christian, a sense of eternity. Bless the Lord. We can be as once we were. That's the only aspect of our being, I've touched upon this before, that is renewable. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, their spiritual strength, not their physical strength. But spiritually we may be renewed. Declining health in the body is a natural process. That's the way things go. But increasing spiritual Health is the natural process. The righteous shall hold on to his way. The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more. That's the natural way for the child of God. And if we are declining, that's unnatural. That is unnatural. I say to you today, dear Christian, let us take these words. Let us look at them. Let us seek by God's grace to recapture, to recover, to regain that which we wear in former months and learn the lesson. and having recaptured them, hold on as God enables.