All Flesh is as Grass - Jason Schrock

I was blessed with those thoughts this morning that the

Lord is great and he has greatly to be praised,

and I trust that we, as His people are gathered

together today, will do that in a way that is

acceptable to him. I agreet to you this morning the

name of our Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ, and

we want to.

Look further into what the Lord would have for us.

I guess I'll just say a little bit what the

burden of the message is this morning before I go

any further. Thinking of the events of the past week

here with the passing Brother Ernest and some other events,

I'm impressed with the shortness of life and their time

is transcend and I hope that in what I have

to share her this morning, that will come through. And so,

as we were involved with the funeral Brother Ernest on Friday,

the same day, I got word that my oldest sister, Esta,

eighty eight years old in Mexico passed away on Friday.

And so what should what should I say this morning?

And so I hope it's all.

Right, But I'm planning to do some repeating because I

was reminded of a message that I preached fourteen years

ago when my youngest sister passed away. And so i'd

like to I'd like to base give a basis for

our message here this morning. First of all, from one

Peter one versus twenty four and the first part of

twenty five. For all flesh is as grass, and all

the glory of man as a flower of grass. The

grass withereth, and the flower the dove falls away, But

the word of the Lord endureth forever. Now we heard

some this morning about the word of the Lord from

Psalm nineteen and so on, But that word endures forever,

even though we as humans are transient. I've en titled

the message this morning all flesh is as grass. And

I'll explain a little bit later why this thought of

grass intrigues me quite a bit. And you might have

an idea, But you know, the Bible uses a lot

of similes that death and life is as or like.

So life is like a vapor, and we know how

that you see a puff of steam, it comes and

it's gone, you see it no more. Life is like

a post. Now, a post would be a messenger, a

runner that would go from one place to another in

a short time. I believe I didn't look all these up.

But I believe it's likened to an eagle that swoops

down and is soon gone. Life is like a shadow

that's there for a moment and gone again. Life is

like the shuttle of a weaver's beam. And maybe we

don't see a lot of that today, but I think

you have an idea there. But life is like all

flesh being as grass. And so as we were together

on Friday at the funeral Brother Ernest, Psalmnightdi was referred to,

and I'd like to read just a little bit of

that again. I think it was read twice in but

that's all right. Now turnest man to destruction and says

to return, ye children men, they are as asleep in

the morning. They are like grass which growth up. In

the morning it flourisheth, and growth up. In the evening

it is cut down and withereth. Now Moses is the

man that penned this psalm, and he observed death many

many times as the children of Israel wondered in the wilderness.

He must have been impressed with the shortness of life,

the brevity of life, and how man was cut down.

He saw many men who were strong and vibrant as

they left the land of Egypt, and in that forty

years in the wilderness, they withered away, or they were

killed because of their some transgression.

And so they pass off the scene.

There were only two adult men that survived that, and

that would have been Caleb and Joshua. The Israelites had

much cattle, and so it was necessary to have grass

to graze. And I've wondered already how the land could

have sustained all that was going with him there. But

you know, Moses must have observed some interesting things in

relation to grass. He said that it flourishes in the morning,

and then it is cut down and withers in the evening.

I ran onto this little quote or statement in a

couple of my of my study books, and this to me,

this description of grass in the desert is interesting. In

the east, one night's rain works a change, as if

by magic. The field at evening was brown, parched ere

it is a desert. In the morning it is green

with the blades of grass. A scorching hot wind blows

upon it, and again before evening it is withered. And

this is what Moses has seen. That a rain would

revive the grass, it would come the hot sun would

come and it would wither again. So let's think a

little bit more about grass here this morning. Most of

my life has been wrapped up with grass. We live

in an area known for grass. We observe the life

cycle of grass year for year. My physical life has

been sustained by grass. And as I look out over

the audience this morning, I think there's some people who

were who left your home and came here because of

grass for the summer work. But you know, in many

times the Bible speaks of the transit nature of grass

as being like the brevity of life. Now, the word transit,

I'll give you a definition of that. Transit is passing

through or by a place with only a brief stay, sojourn.

And so each one of us here today we are

transitsd we are passing through, we are passing by, We're

passing beyond a place only a brief stay, only a sojourn.

Now, I'd like to go back.

Just a little bit fourteen years to the situation of

my youngest sister that.

Passed away, and maybe I'll describe this just.

A little bit in relation to my oldest sister that

passed away, or just Friday, my younger sister was I

have to think a little bit, but just a little

over sixty years old. My oldest sister is eighty eight

years old. My youngest sister was cut down what I

would have considered in the midst of her days my

older sister, we saw her pine away and get weaker

and weaker, to where she couldn't even talk anymore. And

so I found this interesting in relation to relating it

to grass. Thinking of my younger sister, I think about

when I was about four years old, I heard that

I had a baby's sister, and I remember days on

the farm that we'd spend together. We played together, we

made mud pies, we played house, we weeded the garden,

and physically she grew rapidly, just as a stalk of grass.

And as life went on, I saw her to continue

to grow and mature. And I remember as a young

lady she blossomed into beautiful womanhood.

Then she went.

East to teach school, never to return to Oregon to

live again. She became a faithful wife and mother. She

was valuable in the work of the church as she

stood by her deaconed husband. And so this stage of life,

I would like to liking it to the reference the

Bible makes of the flower of the grass, the flowers

needed for fruitfulness, complete maturity, for reproducing itself after its kind.

And then this fruitful grass is cut down, it withers,

dies and is gone. Now going fourteen years later, I'm

thinking about oldest sister and some of the stages of

life she went through that would be like to grass.

I remember her more as a of course, I don't

remember her as a small child. I remember her as

a young teenager with lots of energy to accomplish the

work before her. I remember her as a busy mother

tending the needs of a growing family. I remember her

as one that, through life's experiences, could share bits of

advice and wisdom.

And now here.

About three weeks ago, else and I went down to

visit her, as she wasn't quite on her deathbed yet

almost she was withering. We didn't know if she'd even

last till we came back home again. But she lasts

about another three weeks. But now she too has withered

and died. Flourished for a time, bore fruit, but the

time has passed. I enjoy living in this area where

there's an abundant grass. We know a little bit the

cycle where the fields are seated, and that goes along

with our adult sunny school lesson this morning. The fields

are seated, there's tender plants that push up through the soil.

They need to be fertilized for optimum growth. They need

to be nurtured to keep them from being destroyed by disease, insects, slugs,

and even predators such as geese and neutrio. Those are

all things that work against the production of grass seed.

In the spring, we see rapid growth and we can

almost see the plants grow daily. They are vibrant, they're robust,

they're healthy. They head out they sept fruit or seed

that will be harvested. But one day it is cut down,

It withers, it dies, it's never going to live again.

I'd like to.

Read just a few more passages here, and a couple

more passages in relation to grass. First of all, I'm

going to turn to Isaiah Isaiah forty versus six through eight,

And this here has to do with the prophecy concerning

John the Baptist. If you get this picture here, the

voice said cry, and he said, what shall I cry?

All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is

as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the

flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.

Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth.

But the word of our God shall stand forever. And

I think all of us have been around grass enough

that we know how that can be. Particularly if there's

not enough moisture or a disease or whatever. The grass weathers,

the flower fades.

Then.

Oh, going over to James, it talks about rich people.

Here talks about the rich man. In James one the

latter part of verse ten and verse eleven, James won

ten because as the flower of the grass, he shall

pass away. Now this is talking about the rich man.

For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat,

but it withers the grass and the flower the falleth,

and the grace of the fashion of perishes. So also

shall the rich man fade away in his ways. So

I think it's a saying that no amount of money

can keep us from dying, no amount of money can

keep us from withering away and going the way of

all flesh. And so we are like grass now there's

some men that are well known. There's some people who

rise to prominence, and yet their end is the same

as the lowest popper. All flesh is its grass, and

so no matter how much is accomplished, or how famous

one is, or whether he is rich or poor, the

end is to wither and die. Here's a quote I

picked up in one of my commentaries. It says, the

rare flower, delicate or gorgeous, shines in its brightness above

the common weeds. But it has no more permanence, no

longer lease of life. It droops and fades and falls away.

So is it with that human life which seems most brilliant,

most glorious. The rich man died and was buried. The

dust of Caesar is not better than the dust of Lazarus.

Both mingle with the earth from which they came, and

so we have the parable of the rich Man of

the Lazarus. They both died, they both wentered away, They

both were grass. One did not have an advantage over

the other as far as living longer necessarily.

Okay, I'm going to go to.

Some one O three and read verses thirteen to sixteen.

Some one O three, Verse thirteen, like as a father

hiteoth his children. So the Lord pitieth them that fear him,

For he knoweth our frame. He remembers that we are

dust as for man his days are as grass, as

a flower of the field, For it flourisheth. For the

wind passeth over it and is gone. And the place

thereof shall know it no more. I've thought about this

quite a bit. You know, people come and go, they live,

and they pass on, but the place where they lived

does not remember who lived there.

Necessarily. When I.

Was growing up, we had a farm but was right

along the Calapuya River west of Tangent, and there was

one corner of the one field that we called the

Indian Mound, and it was dark soil, and we would

go out there, and especially after the soil had been worked,

in the field again and look around and find arrowheads.

And we knew there was evidence that there had been

some people who had lived there. They camped there, made

that their home.

But who were they.

I have no idea what their way, their names were.

I you know, get a little idea of how some

of those people lives. You read some of those things,

but it says here the place knoweth it no more

in the place that we live now. I I found

out in our I think it was in our garden,

if I remember right, a pestle that that the Indians

would have used to grind their corner with a mortar

and a mortar. So in in the Halty area there

were people, native people that this was their home. And

they're gone. They were like grass. They they are no

more as far as living here. Once in a while,

someone will tell me a little tidbit. Did you know

that at such and such a time, such and such

a place right here close, that somebody lived here?

Oh had no idea, never heard of them before. They're

pastor gone.

Their grass that has has perished. As we walked out

through the office cemetery there on Friday, there's some names

of people on stones that I have no idea of

their story, no idea who they were. But they were people.

They were real people. They lived, they flourished for a time,

and then they're cut down like grass. I guess it's

all right to say this. You know, if I if

time continues on in fifty or one hundred years, no

one will remember, have any idea. They won't care that

I lived on power Line Road for almost sixty years,

become down and gone forgotten. And so my physical life

may flourish for a time, but then the flower will

soon be gone, and the place of my residence will

know it no more.

So How important am I? How important are you? Do

we really think we're somebody? Do we think you know?

In Ecclesiastes, I think it is where it talks about

people wanting to name a place after themselves and so on.

And the wise man said, even if if someone would

live a thousand times twice, told well that two thousand years,

no nobody is important. So let's think about grass just

a little bit more. Grass is important. It's a very

important aspect of livestock production, keeping alive and feeding people

with livestock. So where did this idea come from? What's

interesting to me that God said that grass should appear

before he ever created any animals to eat it. In

Genesis one, verses eleven and twelve, it says, and God said,

let the earth bring force grass, the herb yielding seed,

and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind who

seeded in itseil itself upon the earth. And it was so,

and the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed

after his kind, the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was

in itself after his kind. And God saw that it

was good. The next verse says, and the evening in

the morning or the third day. So this was the

third day of creation that God said, let them be grass.

And when was it that the animals were created? I

think it was the sixth day, so.

I was looking in the World Book Encyclopedia. It says

that grass is one of the largest and most varied

families in the plant Kingdom. Some kind of grass can

be found on almost all land surfaces on the Earth.

Grasses grow in swamps and deserts, in subzero polar regions

and hot tropical areas, on rocky land.

And on cold, snowy mountains.

So almost anywhere you go and you find grass.

And Gary was talking this morning.

He doesn't know how the trees grow in the lava,

and I don't know either, But sometimes you wonder how.

Grass can grow where it grows.

The Encyclopedia also says, now there's six main types of grass.

There's grazing and forage grasses, there's turf grasses, ornamental grasses, cereals, sugarcane,

and woody grasses, So I find that interesting, all those

categorized as grasses. It also says that it's a valuable

source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife

and organics. And there are some thirty five hundred species.

And so many types of.

Animals eat grass as their main source of food. Now,

when God wanted to bless his people in the Old Testament,

what did he do? He sent them grass. I thought

about that. In Deuteronomy eleven versus fourteen fifteen, it says

that I will give you the rain of your land

in due season, the first rain and the latter rain,

that thou mayst gather in thy corn, and the wine

and the oil. And I will send grass in thy

fields for thy cattle, that thou mayst eat and be full.

So God says, well, I'm going to bless you. I'm

not going to withhold the rain. I'm going to send

the rain so that the grass grows, so the animals

have something to eat. Some one four verses thirteen fourteen

says he watered the hills from the chambers. The earth

is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causes

the grass to grow for the cattle. An herb for

the service of man, that he may bring forth food out.

Of the earth.

So he causes the grass to grow so that he

can bring forth food out of the earth. On the

other hand, in the Book of Deuteronomy, we find that

God would bring judgment upon the people because of their

disobedient and what would he do. He would not send

them grass, he would he would not send the rain.

Now I'm going to read one saw one forty seven,

one to to eleven. This doesn't all have to do

with grass, but it probably goes along somewhat with Joel's

devotional the to praise praise the Lord for his goodness.

But there there is something here about grass. I'm I'm

going to just read the first eleven verses some one

forty seven. Praiseee the Lord for his goodness. Sing praises

under our God, for it is pleasant, and praises comely.

The Lord just built up Jerusalem. He gathers together the

outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and

bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars.

He calleth them all by the names. Great is our Lord,

and of great power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord

lifted up the beak. He casteth the wicked down to

the ground, singing to the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise

upon the harp, unto our God, who covereth the heaven

with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh

grass to grow upon the mountains.

There we are with the grass.

He giveth to the beast, his food, to the young ravens,

which cry. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse.

He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in

those that hope in his mercy. And so we are

all dependent upon the goodness of God, upon his provisions,

upon his sustenance, and a lot of that has to

do with the rain that he sends and the grass

that grows. We see here too that his greatness is

likened to the numbering of the stars. It says here

that the He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains.

As I read, that made me think.

Of a number of years ago.

My family we traveled in Great Britain, and one day

we went on a train ride in Wales in the

Snodova mountains and this train would wind around and it

was amazing just to look up. It was right along

the mountain. You look up way up in the mountain,

and on this mountain there was green grass growing. And

on this mountain all different levels there were sheep that

were eating that green grass. And that really caught my attention,

and it made me that all the sheep could go

up there and eat that grass. And then you think

about it, that that grass grow because of God's provision

for man, and so generations a man come and go

one after another, and like the grass, it flourishes for

a time, it withers, it dies, making place for the

next generation. Now, we have a lot of children and

young people here today, which I'm thankful for, grateful for that.

And the babies and the little children are growing up fast.

We see them growing up just like grass that is

just has a good shot of fertilizer vigorous plants. But

you know, every child here today is born to die.

And that's maybe a little bit hard to imagine. Just

as stalk of grass does not last forever, it will

soon wither and die, so is every human ever born

subject to the same fate as a grass. Yes, you know,

there's some verses that remind us that grass grows rapidly.

They shall flourish like the grass of the earth, the

wicked springings the grass, all the workers of iniquity do flourish.

Then there's others that talk about being cut down and

withering and Pal thirty seven one or two it says,

fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious

against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be

cut down, like the grass, whither as a green herb.

And so if there's someone that just seems like they.

Are are.

Just on top of things, and they don't pay much

attention to the things of the Lord, just remember that

someday they too will cut down, be cut down like

the herb.

One or two. Verse eleven.

My days are like a shadow that declineth, and I

am withered like grass. So here we have two sibilies.

My days are like a shadow, and I am like grass.

So considering the brief life of grass, and considering that

we will soon be cut down, and considering that we

may flourish in the morning and being cut down and

withered in the evening, what should we do? There's no

time to waste. We have a few moments, We have

a little time to do what God has for us

to do here in this life. You know, our brief

stay puts great importance on a passing moment. And I

know many of you here today have been involved in

the harvest in the last few weeks. And so if

you think about that, you go out to the field

and you see those stalks heavy laden with heads of

seed and harvest time, the combine comes in, then the

bailers the rakes, so the bailers come in and bail

up the straw. That is all the cycle of grass

in this area, and not what you see today.

Drive around. There's bare fields.

There's still stacks of straw that somebody hadn't picked up yet,

but it's all passed, no growth. But now we see

the farmers out there working and getting that ground ready

to go again. And so a few short months ago

what you see today was growing rapidly. It was dressed

and brillian green. It looked like nothing could to stop it.

A few short weeks ago during maturity would soon be

cut down. But today the life is gone. It's only

the remembrance of what was in the past. It is

withering away, making place for the generation to come. So

is your life today. I think we have a lot

of people here that are robots, and they're healthy and

growing and maturing.

But soon you will be cut down.

And time will move on and will not be remembered anymore.

And so what have we accomplished? Are we fulfilling the

place God has for us to fill. I'd like to

bring this to a conclusion again this morning, with turning

to Psalm Nightdi, I read a little bit of that.

Here at the beginning. I'd like to read the first

six verses.

Lord, thou hast been a dwelling place in all generations

before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hast formed

the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting.

Thou art God, Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest return,

ye children men, for a thousand years in thy sight

are but as yesterday when it's passed, And as a

watch in the night Thou carriest them away as with

a fly, they are as asleep in the morning. They

are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth,

and growth up in the evening. It is cut down

and withereth as we're saying that song, O God, or

help in ages past this morning, of course this was

on my mind. I think it's a story. The fourth

stands are there said a thousand years in thy sight

are like an evening gone. And here it says that

in a thousand years nice sight, or but as yesterday

when it's past, and as a watch in the night.

And so I trust that we can take these sauces

and think of the seriousness of life, the shortness of it,

the blessings of it. And we're thankful that God has

given us life and health, and may He continue to

grant us that blessing call for a closing us all