Let us turn our Bibles tonight, please, to the book of Job and to the 14th chapter. Job chapter 14. Don't worry if you don't have a Bible with you. I'll be reading the portion that we're looking at tonight. Job chapter 14. Job chapter 14. Reading together, the solemn words of Holy Writ. Job chapter 14, reading together from verse number 1. Let us hear the Word of the living God. Job 14, verse number 1. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeeth also as a shadow and continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into judgment with thee. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. 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 hireling his day. 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 dieth, and wasteth away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Amen. We will end our reading there, and we know that God will bless the public reading of His Word to every heart. Let us just unite our hearts together in a moment's prayer, and every believer praying for the help that we need from heaven in this meeting. Let us all unite our hearts together. Let us all pray. Almighty God and Father in heaven, in the holy name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and by the merits of His blood, we approach again the throne of grace and of mercy. We thank Thee again for the blood of Christ that brings us nigh to Thine eternal throne. We thank Thee for the value and the merit of the atonement. We thank Thee for that blood that cleanses, that blood that justifies, that blood that sanctifies. And, O God, we cry tonight that the blood of the Lamb will prevail over this meeting. We pray that every heart and mind will be gripped by the divine truth of God. We pray that we'll be closed in with God for a season. And we pray that over this meeting will come a sense of God's holy and sacred presence. Lord, I confess before heaven and this gathered congregation, my complete unworthiness and inadequacy to deal with what is before me right now in the meeting. To this end, empty me now of self and sin. Forgive my sins, for they are many. Wash me in the blood of my Redeemer. And fill me now with the Holy Ghost and power. Give the anointing to preach, the anointing to hear with prophet. And O God, tonight in this meeting in Belfast, Be pleased to extend the boundaries of thy kingdom and bring dear people into it, we pray. Hear prayer, bind the devil. Glorify Christ this night, for we ask it in Jesus' blessed name and for God's eternal praise. Amen and amen. Job, that dear man of God, was one of those Old Testament saints renowned for his life and for his godliness. He was a man who dwelt in the land of Oz on the borders of a place called Idumea. Job's portrait or profile is defined in this book that bears his name. His character, God tells us in the very first chapter, he was a perfect and an upright man. He feared God and he skewed evil. The word he skewed, it means he resisted it. He turned from it. He didn't want anything to do with that which was against God. As a family, he had seven sons and three daughters. Possession-wise, he had worked very hard, and because he had worked hard, he had accumulated great wealth. He had many flocks of sheep, oxen, camels, and many other things that enlarged his estate in which he worked hard to build up. Job, in fact, the Bible tells us, was actually known to be the greatest man in the East. That land, that area in which he lived, he was known to be the greatest man in that area. He had enemies, as the book tells us, Sabaeans, Chaldeans, not to mention his spiritual enemies, as every child of God has, the powers of darkness, who hated his godly life, who hated his love for the God of Israel. But you all know about Job's sufferings. He lost property. He lost wealth. He lost family members. but in the midst of it all. Job patiently endured. He was a man of prayer. In fact, whenever God was speaking to Ezekiel, God reminded Ezekiel of Job's prayer life, and he spoke of Job, and he spoke of Daniel, and he spoke of Noah, three men that were renowned in the world of being men of prayer, men who knew how to wait on God, men who could, as it were, intercede on behalf of nations, on behalf of people. But probably how Job is best known is for Job's great troubles. And he had great troubles, and he had great difficulties and great sorrow. And it is, too, a reference to Job's trouble where we began to read tonight, because it was Job that made the statement in Job 14, verse 1, man that is born of a woman. is of few days and full of trouble. And I want to look at that verse, but I want to look at another verse tied in with it. Verse number 10, but man dieth and wasteth away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Because in those two verses, men and women, that we find in this great book of Job, we have man's life. We have man's death, and we have man's eternity. And I want to speak on the final Sunday night of 2020 on a message that I have entitled, From the Womb to Eternity. From the womb to eternity. The first thing I want to show you from this portion is this, man's life. Verse 1 of Job 14 says, man that is born of woman is of few days. Just think of that statement. Job says here, man that is born of woman is of few days. And dear people tonight gathered in martyrs, in light of eternity, our days are few. And do please keep in mind that when Job lived on earth, people lived a lot longer than they do now. They lived into many hundreds of years. And yet Job makes this statement, man that is born of woman is of few days. Few days because of sin. The word few could actually be read short or hasty. Short because of sin, and because of sin our days are few, and because of sin there's death. Oh dear people, let us remind ourselves, on the final Sunday of 2020, man was not made to die. but man willfully and deliberately plunged himself and plunged the race into death. Adam willfully became a dying man. And because of sin, let us just remind ourselves again, the final Sunday of an old year, because of sin, if the Lord tarries in His second coming are days that are few, are days that are short. As Job tells us, they're all going to come to an end. Man that is born of woman is a few days. Job here is speaking of our mortality. He's speaking of our frail earthly existence, our days being short, our days being swift. You can actually read it like this, man that is born of woman is of short days, or hasty days. Hasty days marked by frailty, marked by briefness, marked by few days, as Job here puts it in verse number 1. Man that is born of woman is a few days. We see the frailty of life. We see the frailty of life. Man that is born of woman is a few days, shortened days. The word man in the text is actually the Hebrew word for mankind, the word adam. So you could just read it like that. Mankind that is born of woman is a few days. It's a universal statement, men and women. Mankind that's born of woman is of few days. Verse 2 actually continues with that thought. Look at verse 2 of Job 14. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He fleeeth also as a shadow, and continueeth not. Think about it, men and women. A flower, shadow, things that are fleeting, temporary. Job here deals with man's existence on earth, and he tells us it's fleeting. That's why we sang Henry Francis Light's great hymn, and he penned that great verse, frail as summer's flower we flourish, blows the wind and it is gone. But while mortals rise and perish, God endures on changing on. Dear unsaved in this meeting, you need to see what God is telling you here. Your days are marked by frailty. They're marked by a short time. They're all temporary. They're not going to last. Look at verse 2 again of Job 14. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He fleeeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Now, underline those words, continueth not, because unsaved especially, what the Lord is telling you there is this, your days are marked by closure. is all going to end. You may not even see this year out, but even you do, we're seeing here in this book of Job the frailty of life. It's all marked by closure. All our days have an end, like a vapor appearing for a little time, and then vanisheth away. See, the thought is, men and women, with our time upon the world stage, it ends at a moment set by God Almighty, whose presence every one of us is sitting in tonight. And nobody passes the boundaries. Look at verse 5 with me. Job says, "'Seeing his,' that's mankind, "'days are determined,' The number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." Oh, dear people, do you see what God is telling you tonight? Nobody passes the boundaries of God. You had a time to be born, and you have a time to die. And the confines of that death, it's all within the boundaries of heaven. And you're sitting in His presence. And there's a moment set in heaven tonight that's set for Tom Laverty. And not one fraction of a second longer will Tom Laverty exist on the world stage, because we can't pass the bounds that God has set. Our little time upon the world stage We're born when God says, we die when God says, our bounds are set which we cannot pass, even the devil doesn't pass the boundaries God sets. Think of Job chapter 1, when the devil wanted to try Job and tempt Job, and God says, so far, no further, and that was the end of it. It's all in the boundaries of God. The devils under the control of them were under the control of them by means of our lifespan. The word bound there actually bounds in verse 5. It actually could be read decree. Statute. Read it that way. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his decree that he cannot pass. O men and women, young people, your time in the world's stage, it's fragile, it's marked by closure. Verse 2 tells us, it continueth not. And what a time to think about it. The final Sunday of an old year. 2020 has been a strange one, but you're still here. Twenty and twenty has had millions enter eternity. They're gone. But my dear friend, you're here tonight, and some of you still aren't saved. And God is reminding you in this marked night, the final night of an old year, this final Sunday, rather, that your life's frail, and it's marked by closure, and someday you're going to have a final day, a final moment in the world stage, because frail as summer's flower, we flourish. blows the wind, and we're gone. Marked by frailty, marked by closure, there's man's life. What about man's death, secondly? Because we see it here, the finality of man's death. I want you to note again, Verse 2, He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He flayeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. But then the Lord, in this very portion, He shows actually a contrast. Look with me at verse 7 to 9, please. Look at verse 7 to 9. For there's 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'll bud and bring forth boughs like a plant." And the Lord is showing us here in this meeting that in the natural realm, a tree cut down will grow again just by a little water. just by nature itself, little rain, a little sun. You know what happens to a plant if it's no water and it gets weathered, but rain comes and it buds again. But, dear people, it's not so with man. And therefore, I say to you, unsaved in this meeting, what the Lord is showing you, this is this, though, though in the natural realm, the tree, the plant may bud again, you won't. Once it's over, it's over. And that's seen in verse 10, in the contrast with the tree. Look at verse 10, but. Oh, the tree might, and the plant might, but man doth. and wasteth away, yea, man, giveth up the ghost, and where is he? For though a tree may bud, and by a little water come back to life, dear people, it'll not be so with you. There's hope with a tree when it's cut down, but when the life of man or woman this side of eternity ends, there's no coming back. There's no second chance. There's no future opportunity to have your sins forgiven. The little tree is cut down. It means you down. You see, though there is hope when a tree is cut down, it's not so for us, because man man wasteth away, man giveth up the ghost. And where is he? Man's death. There's this contrast. The tree might bud again. You'll not. But there is also the reality here, looking now at verse number 10. Man dieth. It's just a statement of fact. Dear people, here is death. Man dieth, The word for man here in the text is actually a different man, or a different word. It's the Hebrew word gerer. It means mighty man. And the thought is, man in all his greatness cannot stop death. Bars and locks can't keep it out. Death will enter the palace. Death will enter the farm. Death will enter the habitation of the rich. Death will enter the habitation of the poor. Oh, I tell you, the wake in the rich man's home may be better attended, but the boundaries of God have come to the home, and they weren't able to be surpassed. Man dieth. Weak man, strong man, Christian man, sinful man, man dieth. There's the reality. Now, dear Unsaved, I really want you to think about this tonight. I don't know how long you have lived your life without Christ, but I want you to understand what God is saying to you tonight. It might be 20, it might be 40, it might be 60, it might even be near 80 years. But God is telling you it's all going to close someday. It's marked by closure. It's marked by frailty. And though with a little water and sun a tree might bud again, you won't. The reality of death is seen here. There's also something else, the process. Look at verse 10 again. Man dieth and wasteth away. You see, what is life? Life is but a journey to the grave. The body gets old, frail, wastes away. The process is continual. The process never stops. From the womb to eternity, the process is continual. Man dieth, reality. Man wastes away, process. then there's separation. Man giveth up the ghost. There is a separation. It means to expire, giving up the ghost, separation of the soul from the body. And the thought is what it says, gives up the ghost. The thought is no power to stop it. Unavoidable. Unavoidable. When the moment that God has said, I'll just use me again, for Tom Laverty comes, there is nothing I can do to avoid it. It's set in the decrees of God. Oh, men and women, think about it. Think about it tonight. The moment of your death, the moment of the separation of the soul from your body, is set by God even now. Alexander the Great. I remember reading a pamphlet by Dr. Paisley. Alexander the Great died, and he had made his own funeral arrangements, and they were striking. They proved the points of this text, because for Alexander the Great's funeral, He had the greatest doctors of that day to carry the coffin to show that they couldn't stop it. He had all his wealth or much of it thrown across the street as the procession went through the city to show that for him it was now worthless. And he had his arms out over the edge of the casket. to show he took nothing with him. Man dieth reality. Man wasteth away. Man giveth up the ghost. Separation. But, dear people, as we think of death, here's the final one. Where is he? Man dieth reality. Man wasteth away process. Man giveth up the ghost's separation, but now he come to man's eternity. Where is he? Where is he? Where did he go? That's the thought there. Where is he? He's changed his abode. Oh, dear people, understand this. Come on your mind across the world tonight. And think of every cemetery that are there, and you pass hundreds of them, earthly remains of people, all the cemeteries, and all the world's metropolises, and cities, and towns, and hamlets, and tribes, and glens, and jungles, and there's burying places across them all. But God asks a question, a striking question, and a question that has to be answered. Where are they? Where do they go to? You see, the question isn't, where's the body? The question is, where is the soul? Man dieth reality. Man wasteth away process. man giveth up the ghost, separation, but man dieth wasteth away, giveth up the ghost. But the question is this, where is he? Where did he go? Now, to your unsaved in this meeting, I want to ask you a question at this point. If this is it tonight—and none of us can be presumptuous, because it could be, and your death comes. And 2021 never casts its shadow on you. You never reach it. The soul departs the body. Answer it before heaven. Where are you going? The thought is you're going somewhere. You're going into another world. You're going into another world of consciousness. You're going into another world where men and women's souls live forever. Oh, understand it, my friend, tonight in this meeting, unsaved, we are so glad you are here, but let me make this clear. You're alive tonight, and you're alive forevermore. You're just going to change your abode, and you need to face it. Man dieth, man wasteth away, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Let me tell you, there's a few delusions about this one. a few delusions about it. Some tell us the departed are always with us. They're not. Some say they have made contact. They've made contact with the dead, and word has come back, don't worry about it, it's all great, it's all good, we've made contact. They haven't! It's a delusion! Christ forbids it! Luke 16, didn't happen. No contact was ever made. Some say, live as you want, die as you want. There's nothing to worry about. My dear friend, if you die without Christ, there's everything to worry about. And may I say that statement, nothing to worry about, has the dialect of hell. That's exactly what they told Adam and Eve. Don't worry about it. God doesn't mean what He said. Dear people, anybody that lived and died and rejected the truth of God and rejected the person of Jesus Christ found to their eternal peril that they were wrong. man dieth, man wasteth away, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" And the thought is, he's in one of two places, because the confines of God's eternity, heaven with Christ or hell without him, Your days are marked by frailty. They're all marked by closure. Death's coming reality. The question is this, where are you going? My friend, face it tonight. Every brother and sister of mine tonight in this meeting, saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ, they had to face it one night. They had to deal with the subject. They had to deal with the subject of their sin, of their eternity, of where they would spend it. And I can tell any unsaved person in this meeting, you talk to anybody that ever came to faith in Jesus Christ, nobody ever regretted it. He's a great Redeemer. He's a great Savior for those that are dying. for us who are wasting away, for us whose lives are marked by closure. He's a great Redeemer. He's a great Savior. He keeps us till the river. But my unsaved friend, He's your only hope. He's your only hope. Which brings me to this. We've seen man's life, man's death, man's eternity, man's hope. Turn to John 19, please. Come with me to Calvary. John 19, verse number 30. Look with me there. John 19, verse 30. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Oh, my friend, there's your hope, a dying Savior, the hope for the sinners found in Christ alone. You see, what a man or woman does with Christ determines where they go. Our blessed Redeemer, born of the Virgin, took into union with his own Godhead a true humanity. His days were few, but his days were perfect. Thirty-three and a half years of knowing no sin, doing no sin, couldn't sin. Yes, they were few, but they were perfect. They were perfect days. They were impeccable days. And they were days that were lived for sinners. They were few days, but I'll say this, His death was atoning. Look at John 19 again there, verse 30, when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. What was finished? That's the question. The work the Father gave him to do was finished. Redemption was accomplished. Divine wrath was propitiated. Divine justice satisfied. And when the lover of our souls cried, it was finished. The work was done that takes a sinner from earth to heaven, and sinner there is your only hope." Man's death, it's coming. but man's hope found in Christ alone. Oh, my friend, on that cross, I say, come to Calvary. It's a deathbed scene, but there's no bed, just a Roman gibbet. And the one who's dying is the Savior of many sitting tonight in this meeting. Oh, understand, dear people, multitudes have been crucified, but never for the sins of the world, never with the sword of justice plunged into their soul, as Christ made His soul an offering for sin. And sinner, tonight again in this meeting, the claims of Christ, the message of a finished work, has been set before you, for I don't know how many times. And the question is, What will you do tonight with Christ? It matters nothing what you do with the free church—irrelevant. When it comes to your eternity, it only matters what you have done with Jesus, which is called the Christ, because death's coming. Let me remind you, there were three died that day at Calvary. Three died. Where did they go? My friend, two went to heaven and one went to hell. But I want you to think about the one that went to hell a little moment. I want you to think about the opportunity that he spurned. You say, what opportunity? Do you know what he saw? He saw what you and me have never seen. He saw the blood of Christ. He saw the blood that washes whiter than the riven snow, and it meant nothing to him. He saw the sun eclipsed for three hours in the middle of the day. He heard the centurion cry, surely this was the Son of God. He saw that fountain opened, and it meant nothing to him. He saw the head that once was crowned, crowned with thorns. He heard the cries from that cross, I thirst. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He heard it all. And he heard his comrade pardoned. in the words, "'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.'" I tell you, my friend, it is doubtful if any man on God's earth ever spurned such an opportunity. But he did spurn it, and he never came to Christ. and he left Calvary and his soul expired. And unlike the other thief who was welcomed home to paradise, welcomed home by the Savior, the thief that perished had no welcome. He only was met with the wheels of damned souls. the fires of an eternal perdition in hell." That's what Welcome done. Ah, my friend, man dieth, man wasteth away, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? That's the question. Three died at Calvary. two went to heaven, one went to hell. Which one will you die like? Will you die, I trust you will, like the pardoned thief, who died pardoned by a dying Savior, as he looked by faith to the one in the middle tree? And Christ, in the words, thou shalt be with me in paradise, assured him of his eternal love for him, that his sins were all forgiven, that he was on his way to heaven, that he was now the Savior's. And I tell you this, in those dying moments, for that thief, he could say, now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone. but for all my eternity." Sinner, 27th of December 2020, where are you going? As you sit here tonight before God, and let me just emphasize that, forget about the preacher. It's irrelevant. You're before God. holds your breath in your hand. You're facing it tonight again, head on from this pulpit. Death's coming, marked by frailty, marked by closure. But where are you going if tonight it closes? If tonight the curtain comes down on your stage, Where do you go? Man's life, few days. Man's death, fact. Man's eternity, where did he go? Man and woman and young people's hope found in Jesus Christ alone. sinner, I'm closing. Will you come to Christ tonight? Will you obey the gospel for the first time in your life, and before it's too late, be saved? Come to Christ. The gospel isn't take it or leave it. The gospel is, repent right now and be saved ere you perish. Will you come to Him? Your life is moving, as all our lives are in that direction toward eternity. Our deaths are coming. Our eternal home awaits. And there's only one hope for the sinner, Christ. And tonight, Christ says, come. That's all I'm doing. I'm only telling you what Christ said. He says, come tonight, be saved, be pardoned, be forgiven. And the blood that flowed that day at Calvary will wash all your sin away." I tell you, there's not a doctrine like it in the book. The doctrine of the blood of Christ speaks peace to the guilty conscience. You say, preacher, you don't know what I have done. I want you to understand, the Lord didn't ask the thief what he had done. He knew all he had done. He pardoned him. He pardoned him. He knew that that thief, looking by the eye of faith in his heart, had turned from his sin. And Christ pardoned him that day in Calvary, and his sins were all forgiven. Sinner, will you come? Don't be deluded in these final moments of this meeting. You say, what do you mean, preacher? Every thought in your mind right now that tells you, don't come to Christ, is from the devil. I don't want to alarm you, but I'm just telling you the facts. The devil himself is whispering into your ear, don't do it. Put it off. You couldn't keep it, and you couldn't. You're kept by the power of God. Come to Christ, sinner. Be saved tonight. Flee to the only Redeemer, and heaven will rejoice over your conversion, over your coming to the Savior. Man dieth. Man wasteth away. Man giveth up the ghost. And where did he go? Let us pray. And with every head bowed and the Lord's people praying, in these moments, the year unsaved, is it not time you'd come to Christ? You couldn't be in better company tonight. We know where you are. We've been there. We've sat in meetings troubled. We know what it's like to have that battle rage. But ah, my friend, come to Christ tonight. Seek Him with all your heart. And if I can be of help to you and you want to speak to me, go into this little back room here on my right-hand side. I'll speak to you after the meeting's over. It'd be a joy to sit down with you. But above all, just come to Christ where you are. Say, Lord, be merciful to me. Save me tonight and help me from this moment to live for you. Father, take your word. Let all that's been of the preacher fall to the ground, but let all that's been of God live on in every heart. Apply the word by the Holy Ghost and bring many souls to Christ. And Lord, remember every head bowed. Remember those that have watched on. Oh, may heaven rejoice tonight in the conversion of lost souls. Answer prayer. Part us now with your blessing. Keep us in your fear and favor. And now may grace, mercy, and peace from God in holy, sacred Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, rest, remain, and abide with the Lord's people this night and forevermore. Amen.