Welcome to the 2010 Shepherds
Conference. General Session number 8, The
Invisible War. Steve Lawson. Turn with me to
the book of Job. Job chapter 1. I want to bring
you a message entitled, The Invisible War. I want to begin reading
in verse 6. I will conclude in verse 12. During our time here today, we
will cover the entire chapter. I want to begin by setting this
text, this passage in front of your eyes and in front of your
hearts, that the Lord might work this into your soul. Now there
was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among
them. The Lord said to Satan, from
where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, from roaming about on the earth and walking around
on it, The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant
Job? For there is no one like him
on the earth, a blameless and upright man,
fearing God and turning away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord,
Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about
Him and His house and all that He has on every side? You have
blessed the work of His hands, and His possessions have increased
in the land. but put forth your hand now and
touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your
face.' Then the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in
your power. only do not put forth your hand
on him." So Satan departed from the presence
of the Lord. It has been well said that before
God uses a man greatly, He must first break him greatly. God works best through broken
vessels who have been crushed by the hammer blows of the devil. The more we desire to be used
by God, the greater must be our willingness to suffer for Him. There are no easy paths in ministry. Every assignment is a killing
place. All of this involves spiritual
warfare. And the closer we draw to the
front lines in ministry, the more we find ourselves in the
crossfire between God and Satan. The taller we stand for the Lord,
the more we stand out for the Lord, and the more we will draw
the fire of the devil. It has always been this way.
The prophets of the Old Testament were a battered band of preachers. R.C. Sproul writes, the prophet
in Old Testament Israel was a lonely man. He was a rugged individualist,
singled out by God for a painful task. The record of the lives
of the prophets reads like a history of martyrs. Their history sounds
like a casualty report from the 3rd Division in World War II.
The life expectancy of a prophet was that of a Marine sergeant
in combat. The prophet's curse was solitude. His home was often a cave. The desert was his traditional
meeting place with God. Nakedness was his wardrobe. A wooden stock his necktie. His songs were composed with
tears." The more we advance to the front
lines of ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we will
find ourselves exposed and in a crushing place. It was so with
the apostles, as 11 of the 12 reportedly died a martyr's death,
and the other John served hard time on Patmos. The greatest
preacher who ever walked this earth, the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. In the end, he was publicly crucified
while only in his thirties, and it was a horrific death, a public
execution by crucifixion. And Jesus looked into the eyes
of His disciples and said, if the world hates you, since the
world hates you. You know that it has hated me
before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own. But because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the
world hates you." Remember the word that I said
to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted
me, they will also persecute you." Jesus went on to say, in
this world you shall have tribulation. As the early church grew and
developed, the words of Tertullian came to pass, the blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the church. The early church leaders had
names like Justin Martyr. They became famous and remembered
for what they said when tied to a stake. It would be this
way throughout history. Paul said, all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Peter said, "'Beloved, do not
be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you
for the testing of your faith.'" This is why I'm drawn to the
book of Job, and why I'm drawn to this opening chapter for our
time that we will spend together in this hour. Because there is
a note of reality for us here in this text of what it is like
and what it means to stand tall for the Lord in gospel ministry
and to draw the fire of the evil one. Every one of us finds ourselves
living in the midst of spiritual warfare and all of the calamities
that come with it. This war is not a visible war.
This war is an invisible war. This invisible war involves unseen
conflict between God and Satan, between heaven and hell, between
good and evil, and there is no middle ground. There are no fence-sitters. There are no conscientious objectors. There are no draft-dodgers. There
is no exempt status. There is no neutrality. And the
taller we stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and the more faithfully
we preach the Word of God, the more we will draw the enemy's
fire. I want us to look now at Job
chapter 1 and to know that this is God's message
for this hour to our hearts. I want you to note first, beginning
in verse 1, the unlikely candidate. We are immediately introduced
to Job, who is presented to us as the epitome of godliness,
what we would say to be the least likely candidate for a disaster. The book of Job begins, there
was a man in the land of Uz. Literally, the ordering of the
words begins with man. Man there was. The entire emphasis
is emphatic upon Job. There was a man in the land of
Uz. That's northern Arabia. Job is presented to us as a real
man living in a real place. His name was Job, and that man
was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. At the very outset, we are introduced
to the sterling spiritual quality and character of this man. It says that he is blameless
and meaning without moral blemish. Not that he is sinless and not
that he is perfect, but that he is beyond reproach in his
character and in his conduct. And he is marked by personal
integrity and honesty and fidelity. And no one could justly bring
a charge against this man's life. There was a holistic balance
about his spiritual walk with the Lord. It says that he is
upright. Literally, the word means straight. He was without
deviation from the Lord's holy standard. He lived a separated
life, if you will, and not plagued by worldliness, not courting
the spirit of this age. He was upright, sent apart to
God, walking the straight and narrow. He was a straight arrow,
morally and rightly so. It says that he feared God. His heart was filled with holy
awe and reverence for the Lord. To put it into the vernacular,
he took God very seriously. There was a weightiness, a gravitas
about his life. No superficiality with Job and
turning away from evil. He was not trying to get as close
to evil as he possibly could without being singed or burned.
He was turning away from it. He knew what it was to resist
temptation and to restrain his tongue and his feet. He guarded
his heart. He shielded his eyes. And notice the blessing of God
upon his life in verse 2. Seven sons, three daughters.
The goodness of God, the abundance of His blessing has been showered
upon Job. And in verse 3, we see his fortune. His possessions were 7,000 sheep. and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke
of oxen. And all of these were used for
clothing and transportation and buying and selling in the marketplace. This is a very successful businessman
who is deeply godly. This is a rare combination. Someone who has a fear of God,
and yet he is imminently successful in the things of the world without
selling out his soul to this world. And at the end of verse
3, we read, and this man, that man was the greatest of all of
the men of the earth, certainly greatest in wealth, greatest
in reputation, greatest in influence, greatest in clout, even greatest
in godliness. In verse 4, his sons used to
go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. This would be something like
a birthday. We're not entirely certain what
this is. But all of the children, it's a picture of harmony and
of love and of camaraderie. And the children get along with
one another. They love one another. And one
time a year on each of their day, they meet in the house of
that one whose day it is, and it is a time for laughter and
a time for love and in a time for them to hug and to embrace
And the blessing of God is just being poured out. The Lord has
opened the windows of heaven to pour out His blessing upon
Job. The goodness of God is just dripping
out of heaven upon Job's life. And we read in verse 5 that Job
was the spiritual leader of his home. We believe that this is
in the patriarchal period. It predates the giving of the
law. And Job functions as a sort of priest in his own home before
the priesthood was established. And we read in verse 5 that he
would bring offerings, burnt offerings, and offer them to
the Lord as a temporary covering for the sin of his children. Job is the least likely candidate
for a disaster that we could possibly find in the record of
Scripture. He is blameless. He is upright. He is fearing God. He is turning
away from evil. He is a spiritual leader. He
is a business leader. He towers over his community,
over his region. He is the mightiest of the men
of the East. And Job will be marked out to
suffer, not because there is anything wrong in his life. There will be no disciplinary
action against Job in chapter 1. In fact, Job is being singled
out by the sovereignty of God to suffer because God deems him
worthy to suffer for His namesake. What Job is like, Job is like
the tallest tree in the forest. That tree that rises higher up
to the skies above, higher than all of the other trees, and when
the electrical storm gathers, and when the lightning bolts
come flashing down, it will strike the tallest tree in the forest. Job is rooted and grounded in
the fertile soil of saving grace. He knows God. He fears God. He walks with God. He loves God. He serves God. He obeys God. He glorifies God. And because
of that, he is the godliest man in his generation. He is the
fulfillment of Jonathan Edwards' 63rd resolution that he would
be the most godly man in his day. And as he stands tall for God
in the land of us, we will see that he is the tallest tree in
the forest who will draw the fire of the enemy. We would want this to be said
of any one of us here today. but with great godliness comes
great exposure to the enemy. I want you to note second, not
only the unlikely candidate, but I want you to see the unseen
challenge In verse 6, this is one of those rare passages of
Scripture in which the veil is pulled back and heaven is made
transparent before our eyes. And we are allowed to see into
the throne room of God. We are allowed to hear God speak.
We are allowed to hear Satan speak. And Job has no idea of
what we are about to look at that this is even transpiring. This is a rare insight into the
unseen world above. And note verse 6, now there was
a day. Stop right there. This is a day
like any day. This is a routine day in heaven. This is a day like Monday or
Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday in heaven. This is not presented
to us as a day that comes only once every thousand years. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord. We know who the sons of
God are. They are the angelic host of
heaven. later in chapter 38, verse 7,
they are mentioned to us as the sons of God. And these are the
angels of heaven reporting back to the throne of God. They have
no doubt been discharged with divine assignments and have been
sent out by God to carry out duty and work for the sovereign
upon His throne. And they are now seen as coming
back to God with accountability, to receive more orders, and to
give account of themselves to God. And we read at the end of
verse 6, and Satan also came among them. I know what you're thinking.
It's what I think. You tell me God is holy and no
sin can dwell in the presence of a holy God. And there is no
way that unholy man can access holy God. It's the message of
Leviticus, that the only way that sinful man can approach
holy God is by the prescribed means of a sacrifice and atonement
that God has prescribed. And yet here we see Satan himself
coming before God in the courts of heaven, and you ask me, how
can this be? And my answer is, I do not know. But here is Satan, once the highest
of the angelic order, of the order of the cherubim, the one
who had closest access to God in heaven. and the one who led
a coup, a revolt against God. Think about how persuasive Satan
is to be able to manipulate a third of the angels who are standing
in the very presence of God to turn to him and follow Lucifer
while they're standing in the presence of God in heaven. That
is how good, that is how shrewd, that is how cunning the devil
is. And here now is Satan coming
back before the throne of God, something that he does again
and again and again. Many today would try to deny
the existence of Satan and say he's a figment of medieval imagination. I would remind us all here today
that the existence of a real personal devil is taught in seven
Old Testament books by every New Testament writer and by Christ
Himself. In the Bible, He is presented
as Satan. the devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub,
Belial, the evil one, the tempter, the ruler of this world, the
god of this age, the prince of the power of the air, the accuser
of the brethren, the old serpent, the great dragon, a roaring lion,
Apollyon, The devil is identified as a murderer, as a liar, a sinner,
a tempter, a perverter, a counterfeiter. He is quite simply the evil one. And we ask ourselves in verse
6, what is Satan here to do? And the answer is found in his
name. His name is derived from a word
which means to attack or to accuse or to slander. It speaks of an adversary or
an opponent in court, one who acts as a prosecuting attorney
to bring criminal accusations against a plaintiff. And so what
is Satan here in heaven doing? He appears as a prosecuting attorney
to bring criminal charges against the people of God. Revelation
12, verse 10, he is the accuser of the brethren. Zechariah 3,
1, Satan standing at God's right hand to accuse Joshua, the high
priest. This is the avowed purpose of
the devil. It is to indict the people of
God in the high court of heaven with their sins before the Holy
One. Satan is, as C.S. Lewis once
said, he is a grave digger who digs up dirt in all of our lives
and to press charges against us before God in heaven. And let me tell you, you and
I need someone to take up our case on our behalf in heaven.
We need an advocate at the right hand of God the Father. And all
who put their trust in Him, I want you to know, He's never lost
a case, as He pleads the merit of His
own life and death on behalf of His chosen ones. And so we read in verse 7, the Lord said to Satan, please
note the initiative is with God puts the ball into play. The
devil will have to return serve. The Lord said to Satan, from
where do you come? The purpose of the question is
not for God to come by information that He does not presently possess,
for God knows everything that there is to know immediately,
instantly, comprehensively, eternally. from eternity past. Now, the
purpose of the question is for the devil to enter into the court
of heaven his evidence regarding his sinister nature. From where
do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, from roaming about on the earth and walking around
on it. Please note the devil is not
in hell. The devil is upon the earth, roaming the earth, creating
extraordinary destruction and appearing before the throne of
God to bring accusation against the elect of God. The picture
is of a lion stalking his prey here upon the earth. 1 Peter
5 verse 8 says, be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary
the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone
to devour. No, the devil is on this earth.
The devil has picked up your scent. The devil is stalking
your path. The devil is after you if you
are one of God's people. He and his minions from hell.
He is the ruler of this world. He is the god of this age. He
is the prince of the power of the air. And there are those
who say that Satan is presently bound by a great chain. and cast into the abyss already,
and if that is so, he is on a mighty long chain." Martin Luther said, I believe
in the devil because I did battle with him this morning. So what is Satan doing here on
the earth as he prowls about as a roaring lion? He is blinding
minds. He is stealing God's Word. He
is opposing God's work. He is inflicting disease. He
is tempting into immorality. He is sowing tears among the
wheat. He is attacking God's Word. He
is causing persecution against the church. He is spreading false
doctrine. He is deceiving the nations.
The devil never takes a day off. The devil is busy. And in verse 8, the Lord said
to Satan, please note, this is not Satan speaking to the Lord,
this is the Lord speaking to Satan, have you considered My
servant Job? Please note it is God who initiates
the involvement of Job in what is to follow. It is God who tosses
Job's name into the ring. Job will be drawn into the disasters
that he will experience by divine appointment and by divine sovereignty. It is God who issues this challenge.
The universe is being run off of God's agenda, not the devil's
agenda. Martin Luther was right, the
devil is God's devil. And God will use the devil for
His own holy purposes. God will draw a straight line
with a crooked stick. The divine script is being followed. Have you considered my servant
Job? Have you considered my servant
John MacArthur? Have you considered my servant,
Rick Holland? Have you considered my servant,
Al Mohler? This scene is being repeated
in heaven again and again and again. And note why God singles
out Job before the devil at the end of verse 8, for there is
no one like Him. He's in a category by Himself.
He's in a class by Himself. It's not just that He's at the
head of the line. There is no one like Him. He has so distinguished
Himself in His day, His hour, His generation. This is God's
estimation. He is blameless and upright,
fearing God and turning away from evil. Would you not want
God to say that about your life? For this to be the appraisal?
And Job is the most righteous man on the face of the earth,
and what he will suffer, he will suffer not because there is anything
wrong about his life, but because there is everything right about
his life. And when applied to us, there
are times, there are seasons, there are storms when we will
suffer in ministry and in this world because we are preaching
the Word of God, because we are shepherding the flock, because
we are a spiritual leader at home, because we are upright
and turning away from evil, because we are God-fearing and blameless. There are times that we suffer
because of our sin. There are times that we suffer
because of other people's sin. There are times that we suffer
because we live in a fallen world. But there are times that we suffer
for the glory of God because God has appointed it for us in
a challenge in heaven between God and between Satan. Does God think highly enough
of your spiritual walk to say to the devil, have you considered
William? Have you considered Robert? There
is no one like him on the earth. Does God see you as blameless,
God-fearing, upright, turning away from evil? It is a badge of honor that God
pens upon the man who is faithful to the Word of God and to the
Person of God to be appointed to suffer for the sake of righteousness. Jesus said, "'Blessed are you
when men persecute you and revile you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely on account of My namesake. Rejoice, for
great is your reward in heaven.'" I want you to note the unholy
counter. In verse 9, how Satan counters this, I would remind
us all here today that Satan is stunningly brilliant. He could
think circles around the smartest of us here today. Notice how
Satan responds. Verse 9, then Satan answered
the Lord, the Lord's words are in the air. And before those words can even
fall upon the floor of heaven, Satan immediately answers and
says this back to God. It speaks of the diabolical genius
of the devil. Does Job fear God for nothing?
Oh, that is so sinister. That is a frontal attack on the
glory of God and upon the integrity of Job. The devil here accuses
Job of serving God for selfish reasons for what he can get out
of God. Like, God is an ATM machine,
and I put in a little prayer, I put in some worship, I put
in some consecration, and out will come blessing for me. That
is the indictment that is brought by Satan to God against Job. And it is an indictment against
God as well that, well, no one would worship you, God, for the
beauty of your holiness. No one would worship you for
who you are. You have to buy worshipers on the open market. And it is
by your blessings that you are just lavishing upon your people. you have seduced them into worshiping
you." Does Job fear God for nothing? This is a rhetorical question
that screams a negative answer. Job does not fear God for nothing. Job has every reason to fear
God. Verse 2, verse 3, he's already
told us, seven sons, three daughters, sheep, camels, oxen, servants,
donkeys, the greatest of all the men of the East. The indictment
is, that is why Job serves you, because you're so good to him,
because you indulge him. because you lavish your gifts
upon Him. You've spoiled Him. So he says in verse 10, have you not built a hedge around
Him? and His house and all that He
has on every side. God in His goodness had set a
wall of protection around Job, the invisible hand of God's providence. The devil is tightening the screws
now at this point. And the clear implication is
the devil does know because the devil has been trying to crack
the code to get against Job for quite some time, front door,
back door, side door. The devil has been trying to
climb down the chimney, anything to get into Job's life and ruin
and destroy Job. And it has been the providential
hand of God. around Job that has prevented
and thwarted the devil from being able to come against Job. Oh, the devil knows very well
who Job is. When God said, have you considered
My servant Job, the devil has been considering Job for quite
some time. He is well known by the devil. I like that. Martin Luther said,
would to God I would be as well known in hell as I am in heaven. We want the devil to know who
we are and where we are and that our life has had impact. We're
not hiding behind the skirts of the choir. Have you considered my servant
Job? Notice what he goes on to say. You have blessed the work of
His hand, verse 10, as if the devil is pointing a finger at
God. You have blessed the work of
His hands. That's the charge. That's the
indictment. You have blessed the work of
His hands, and His possessions have increased in the land. God,
here's the problem. You've been way too good to Job. Now I want you to understand
something. There's only three places in the Bible where we
hear the actual voice of Satan recorded. The first is in Genesis
3, as Satan comes slithering onto the stage of human history, and he says to Eve, God's not being good to you.
Now think about this. Eve lives in paradise. She actually has a perfect husband. The thought just came to me. Came to my wife a long time ago,
but… Where was I? Paradise, thank you. She lived in paradise. She had
everything. She had the planet. Perfect world. There was one
tree from which she could not eat, and it was the goodness
of God that said, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil because you don't want to know evil. It'll
pollute, it'll corrupt, it'll pervert your mind, your soul. But the devil said, God's not
being good to you. God's holding out on you. He's
withholding His blessing. God must not love you. He won't
let you eat from this tree. Now, the second time we hear
the voice of the devil is right here. In Genesis 3, the devil
is talking to Eve about God. Now the devil is talking to God
about Job. In Genesis 3, he said, God is
not good enough to you. Now in Job 1, the devil says
you're too good to them. The devil says to Eve, God is
withholding goodness from you. And then in Job 1, God, you're
just too good to Him. The third time we hear the voice
of the devil is in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, and the temptation of
Christ in the wilderness. And the devil's temptation is,
if you'll worship me, I'll be better to you than God will be
to you. I will give you the kingdoms
of this world. Do you see how shrewd and how
scheming and how subtle the devil is? So verse 11, here is the hammer
blow. The devil says, but put forth
your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse
you to your face. Satan challenges God to stretch
out his hand and to strike everything that Job had. Again, how diabolical
are the ways of the devil. And this challenge between God
and Satan is really this challenge as it relates to each one of
us. Will we worship God in tough times? Will we bless the name
of the Lord when we are thrown into the fire of affliction?
And when we're met with difficulty, and when we're met in challenges
in our ministry, in our family, in our own personal life, are
we going to fold up our tent? And are we going to go home?
Are we going to curse God? Are we going to walk away from
it all? Or will we say, I will worship the Lord? That is the
challenge. And that is the challenge for
each and every one of us here today. And the more we advance
to the front lines of serving the Lord, the more we will be
faced with this dilemma. So I want you to notice in verse
12, the unrelinquished control. I want you to please note that
God is totally sovereign in this entire encounter. And in verse
12 we read, Then the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he
has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.
God is absolutely, totally, completely in control. He is sovereign over
the devil. Spiritual warfare is not a cosmic
tug-of-war between two equals. Greater is He who is in you than
he who is in the world. Everything is unfolding top-down,
God to Satan, and God is defining what the devil can do, and God
is using the devil for the higher purposes of the glory of His
own name. This is what the Lord is doing
with the devil even right now. God is using Satan as an instrument
in His hand, even as He would come roaring against our lives
to bring about His higher purposes in our lives. We are to resist
the devil. We are to flee. We are to hold
our ground. We are to put on the full armor
of God. But nevertheless, we must understand
that in the sovereignty of God, God has purposes in the midst
of our suffering. So we read at the end of verse
12, so Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Armed now with divine permission,
The evil one departed from God's throne and descended down from
the throne above. He winged His flight through
the outer atmosphere and came down to this earth, came to the
Middle East, came to the land of Uz, found the land of Job,
and has Job now in His crosshairs. The hedge is now removed. But I want you to know there
is no panic in heaven, only plans for the glory of God's name.
So in verse 13, I want you to see the unleashed catastrophe. What follows now is a devastating
attack by the devil upon Job's life. Here is the fury of hell
unleashed. Here is hell breaking loose. Round one is in verse 13. Now,
it happened on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. Here is Job's
ten children together at the oldest brother's house. Again,
it's a picture of love and harmony and unity. This is as it should
be. Verse 14, that a messenger came
to Job, just burst into his house, all but threw the door down as
he came, sprinting in. And he said, the oxen were plowing
and the donkeys feeding beside them. And the Sabaeans attacked
and took them. They also slew the servants with
the edge of the sword. Say, do you think that just happened?
You think that's a coincidence? A band of terrorizing robbers
from Arabia and Sheba descended upon Job's property and stole
all 500 oxen and all 500 donkeys and killed all of his servants
but one in a moment in time. And in reality, it was Satan
behind this scene, the devil manipulating the Sabeans like
pawns on a chessboard, filling their hearts with unholy rage
and inciting their hearts to kill Job's servants and to steal
his animals. just like He filled the heart
of Ananias and Sapphira. And I alone have escaped to tell
you. Round 2, verse 16, while He was
still speaking, another also came and said, the fire of God
fell from heaven. That would be like a lightning
bolt that has come down and struck the ground and kindled fire.
and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them."
All 7,000 sheep were burned up. All of Job's servants who took
care of the sheep were killed except for one. And we read,
and I alone have escaped to tell you. Do you think that just happened? Round 3, verse 17, and this is
happening in rapid-fire succession, in staccato fashion. Verse 17,
while he was still speaking, these messengers were beginning
to stack up at the door at Job's house. While he was still speaking,
another also came and said, the Chaldeans, now that is a nomadic
group of people who were in the Arabian desert. They were warmongers. The Chaldeans formed three bands
and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants
with the edge of the sword." What did Jesus say in John 8
verse 44? That the devil is a murderer
and a liar. And I alone have escaped to tell
you. And then in verse 18, while he
was still speaking, another came and said, your sons and your
daughters, and at that point we turn our head away. We don't
even want to hear the rest of this. Oh no, not sons, not daughters. You can rebuild your business.
You can try to recoup your losses, but don't take my sons, don't
take my daughters. Your sons and your daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
and behold, a great wind," that would be like a desert whirlwind,
came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of
the house, and it fell on the young people and they died. And
I alone have escaped to tell you. Rightly did Martin Luther write,
for still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe. His craft
and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is
not his equal. You and I find yourselves in
the very same spiritual warfare. Our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the
world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places. Men, the taller you stand in
your faith for the Lord Jesus Christ, the more you and I will
be singled out in spiritual warfare. by the devil under the sovereignty
of God. It will not always work out with
such catastrophic results as this, but the devil is armed
with cruel hate, and on earth is not his equal. I want you to see finally the unshakable
confidence In verse 20, in this last scene,
we see Job standing over ten fresh graves on a barren hillside. His world has come to a screeching
halt. Think of his shock. Think of
his grief. Think of his pain. In verse 20, then Job arose. which implies He may have already
been crushed under the weight and staggered under the weight
of this report, which crushed Him to the ground, and rose and
tore His robe and shaved His head, which were all signs and
evidences of deep grief and extreme sorrow, and He fell to the ground. staggering under the weight of
this trial that has been dropped upon his head. And the devil
now strains his ear to hear what he always hears when he brings
his affliction upon people like this. He is waiting to hear the
cursing of God, the blaspheming of God's name. He is waiting
to hear the shrieks and the cries of one who has no desire for
life, who spews out his venom upon God, what has it brought
me to worship God or to serve God? He is used to hearing someone
who is angry with God, who is bitter with God. But instead, Satan sees and hears
this, and worshiped. shahah, which means to prostrate oneself,
especially before a superior, to ascribe worship to another
of great importance. Job's first response was to humble
himself and to lower himself before the throne of God and
to worship God and to ascribe honor and glory to God, who is
infinitely holy, whose all of His ways are perfect, who can
only do what is right, who can only do what is pure towards
me. And he worships God and makes this staggering statement in
verse 21. naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall
return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away." Job recognizes the absolute sovereignty of God over
all of the affairs of his life. He understands something of the
truth of divine providence that God gives and God withholds,
and it is all under the purview of the sovereignty of God. You see, Job, who cannot see
into heaven and to know of this challenge, he just knows that
ultimately, above it all, that God rules and reigns in the heavens,
and He does whatever He pleases. There is primary causality with
God, and there is secondary causality through the devil, and through
weather, and through the Sabaeans, and through the Chaldeans, and
through the fire, and through the whirlwind. But ultimately,
there is only one primary causality, and that chief primary cause
is God in heaven. And so he says, I came into this
world with nothing, and I shall leave this world with nothing. God by His throne rights has
given, and God by His throne rights has taken away, and this
is the divine prerogative of God. Listen, Job does not have
to understand why. All Job needs to understand is
who. He just needs to know God. And then he said, blessed be
the name of the Lord. Job blessed the name of the Lord.
Job chose not to malign the name of God, but to magnify His name. Not to bless God, but to bless
Him. Not to revolt against God, but
to reverence the name of God. This is the choice that you and
I must make again and again and again as we are slammed to the
canvas In the contest of faith in this world, when we find ourselves
in the midst of spiritual warfare and difficulty coming against
us, and it is above us, and it is stronger than us, and there
are times when we are thrown into the deep end of the pool,
and we are in over our head, and our trials are overwhelming,
and the affliction is painful And we must make the choice to
say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Verse 22, through all of this, through
all of this adversity, through all of this personal loss, through
all of this painful ordeal. Through all of this, Job did
not sin, nor did he blame God. Job is held before us as a positive
example of how a man, how a woman should live in the midst of difficulty,
and how he or she should respond to the trials of life As Calvin
said on his deathbed, I kiss the rod that smites me. The prophet Habakkuk wrote, though
the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the
vines, though the yield of the olives should fail. and the fields
produce no food, and though the flock should be cut off from
the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult
in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of
my salvation. The Lord is my strength, and
He has made my feet like hinds feet and makes me walk on a high
place." At this point in the ballgame, it is God 1, the devil
0. How do you respond? How do I
respond? How do all of us respond when
we find ourselves in a difficult part of the Lord's vineyard,
when we find ourselves in the midst of ministry? in which we
are plowing rocky soil, when the storm is gathering,
when the difficulty has come, when there is the sweat on the
brow. How will we respond when tough times come in our ministries
and in our lives? We must respond as Job responded. We must worship. We must say,
the Lord has given, the Lord has taken, blessed be the name
of the Lord. We must ascribe honor and glory
to God. We must recognize the sovereignty
of God over all of the circumstances of our lives, that God causes
all things to work together for our good. That what others mean
for evil, God intends for our good. that God, who is the great
author of providence and the great executor of providence,
God who has a perfect plan for each and every one of our lives,
that there are no maverick molecules here in the universe, and that
God is totally under control of even the devil and even the
forces of evil that would come against our lives. How we must, as Spurgeon said,
make the sovereignty of God the pillow upon which I rest my head
at night. In 1672, fifty miles northwest
of London, in the little town of Bedford, John Bunyan was released
from twelve years of imprisonment. When he was put into the prison,
inside that prison he was to write Pilgrim's Progress. Spurgeon
said that the smell of the prison is on every page of Pilgrim's
Progress. He was a preacher of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. He would not be intimidated.
He would not be turned away from preaching the free mercy and
the free grace of Christ in salvation. And because of that, he was thrown
into the prison cell. His wife had just died earlier.
He had remarried a second time. And when he was put into prison,
his wife was pregnant, and she was so distraught with her preacher
husband put into prison, she suffered miscarriage and the
child died in the womb. They never locked the door of
Bunyan. He could walk out of the prison at any time. Just
say, you will not preach the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the cross. John Bunyan remained in that
prison for twelve years. He had a blind daughter named
Mary. He could have rationalized in his mind, my family needs
me. I will just say I will not preach the gospel. I will simply
look for common ground. Bunyan would not back from his
call to preach the gospel and remained in prison. when he was released, he sat down and wrote a book
called Advice to Sufferers. And in this book, Bunyan writes
this, "'It is not what enemies will, nor what they are resolved
upon But what God wills and what God appoints, that shall be done. No enemy can bring suffering
upon a man when the will of God is otherwise. So no man can save
himself out of their hands when God will deliver him up for His
glory. That must be our bedrock confidence
as we serve the Lord, as we suffer, as we face the devil head-on,
that God is God, that He is sovereign, He is over it all, and that He
has appointed and ordained my trials. And it is God who will
preserve me in the midst of the flames. Several years ago, I was approached
by a Christian publisher to write a commentary on Job. I agreed to write a commentary
on Job. I had just written one on Psalms,
and so I sat down and looked at the book of Job. I saw there
are forty-two chapters. I said I will preach 42 sermons
through Job, and I will use that manuscript as a foundation for
writing a commentary. I preached Job 1. I preached Job 2. And as I prepared to preach Job
3, all hell broke loose in my life
and ministry. Someone broke into the church
that I pastored and secured the membership list and went and bought a P.O. box
and wrote a four-page letter indicting me and charging me with being one who believes in
the sovereignty of God and salvation. A ballot was in that letter,
and you were to check one of two boxes. Either you were a
Baptist or you were a Calvinist. They released it to the television
stations. They released it to the newspaper. And as I continued to preach
Job 3 and Job 4, as all hell was breaking loose, when I came
to Job 5, I felt it would honor God to
resign. I stepped down from a pulpit
in which I preached on white marble. an oriental rug, a building
that held 4,000 people, and the next Sunday preached in a warehouse. I then went up over my garage,
where my study is, and for the next year sat down and wrote
the commentary for Job, alone, by myself, without even able
to preach the series. And I thought, how wise of God if I am to write a commentary
on Job then I must sit in the ashes with Job and to hurt with Job and to cry
with Job. How wise of God it is for Him to bring adversity into
your life and trials and storms and lightning flashes, and dark
nights of the soul, and difficulty in ministry, and antagonistic
elders, and rebellious deacons, and unconverted church members,
and shrinking church budget. How wise of God to bring all
of these storms of affliction so that you and I would be broken
vessels, so that we would walk with a limp, so that we would identify with
hurting people whom we serve, so that we would be weaned off
of this world, so that we would minister with an eternal perspective,
so that our faith would grow stronger, so that we would be
more humble so that we would be more Christ-like. For His ways are not our ways.
As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways beyond
our ways. It was George Whitefield who
said, happy, when we can look back and say, thus I have been
enabled to glorify God in the fire. Happy you who have got
into Christ's fire. Happy you who have found His
fire in your soul. May you glorify God in the midst
of the suffering of ministry, and may you know that the most
righteous man on the face of the earth is the one who many
years ago is the one whom God said, have you considered My
servant Job. May you and I glorify God in
the midst of our suffering and trials as we serve the Lord Jesus
Christ in this world. Let us pray. Father, we hardly know what to
say. These lines intersect far above
our heads. how inscrutable are Your ways,
how unfathomable are Your judgments. We cannot understand, we cannot
grasp the magnitude of Your design and Your plan for our lives. Lord, we want to be found faithful.
We want to glorify You in the midst of difficult times. We
want to bless Your name. We want to magnify Your name.
We want to say that You give and You take. Lord, use this chapter to edify us,
to strengthen us, to fortify our faith. And for those brothers
here today who especially have come under fire, even as they
have come to this conference, who have come here leaking oil,
who have come here bloodied, bruised, and beaten, Lord, for
those brothers here among us who find themselves in the valley
of affliction. May you use the example of Job to enlarge their hearts that
they might rise up and bless your name. May our trust in your
sovereignty be unshakable May our commitment to Your purposes
be unwavering. May we understand that we enter
into great conflict as we step into ministry. It is an arena of war, and I
pray that we would be strong in the grace that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we pray this in the name
that is above every name, the name of Him who is despised and
rejected of men, and the name of Him who was crucified for
sinners, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You've reached the end
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