If we turn back to that passage,
we looked at it, Job chapter 15. Job chapter 15, where we
read a life as his words to Job again. Verse 14, he says, What
is man that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman,
that he should be righteous. Behold, he put if no trust in
his saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. how
much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity
like water. I will show thee, hear me, and
that which I have seen I will declare, which wise men have
told from their fathers and have not hid it, under whom alone
the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. The wicked
man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years
is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall
come upon him. He believe, if not, that he shall
return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword. He
wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knoweth that
the day of darkness is ready at his hand. Trouble and anguish
shall make him afraid. They shall prevail against him
as a king ready to the battle. For he stretcheth out his hand
against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. I will show thee, hear me, and
that which I have seen will I declare. Hear me, Listen to me, Job. Hear me. Yes, Eliphaz replies to Job here
for the second time. Each of Job's friends, Eliphaz,
Bildad and Zophar, have spoken to Job once. And Job has replied
to them each in turn. And here in chapter 15 they begin
to speak again, again we hear Eliphaz reply to Job. Job answers, then Bildad, Job
answers, then Zophar again. Round and round they go, presenting
unto Job their wisdom, their thoughts, their words. Hear me,
I will show thee, Job, hear me, and that which I have seen I
will declare. They have much to say and they
want to be heard. And here, when they begin to
speak a second time, emboldened by one another and increasingly
annoyed at Job's responses, their words become harder, stronger,
more condemning, more confident. more scathing. There's Job in the midst of suffering,
broken, weak, on the brink of death, having lost all, broken
physically, broken emotionally. He's lost his family, he's lost
his goods, he's lost his health, he's in suffering that these
men cannot imagine and they in their comparative richness and
health look upon him and instead of showing pity, instead of uttering
words of mercy and comfort, all they can do is condemn. All they can do is find fault.
All they can do is cast down. Where's their mercy? Where's
their pity? And all they do is parade their
own wisdom, their own knowledge, their words, their understanding. Hear me, and I will show thee. Hear me, that which I've seen
I will declare." We also begin to see in some
of these responses how they take Job's own words and, as it were,
throw them back at him. Job has previously cried out,
how shall man be just with God? Lifas here said, what is man
that he should be clean and he which is born of a woman that
he should be righteous? Job had said unto them, You speak
unto me like you have all knowledge, but I know what you know. They
come back at him with similar words. What knowest thou that
we know not? What understandest thou which
is not in us? With us are both the grey-headed
and very aged men, much older than thy father. We have knowledge,
Job, and we're older, so we're wiser. Hear me. Effectively, they say, do you
know more than us? Are you so special? Are you so
favoured that you have insights greater than we do? What do we know that you don't
know? And yet all they can utter unto Him is condemnation. All Eliphaz goes on to talk about
is the wicked, and the state of the wicked, and how the wicked
will enter into darkness and never escape. All he can see
is God's fury, God's judgment, God's justice and anger against
the wicked. He says, what do I know that
you don't know? We have the same understanding.
And yet, when we read Job's words, Job knows this. Job knows that
man is wicked. Job knows that he's a sinner.
Job knows that he deserves nothing from God. And yet, Job looks
unto God for mercy. And Job's hope and trust is in
a God that delights in showing mercy. Job knows the grace and
the mercy and the love of God, which Eliphaz simply does not
mention. So where is your knowledge, Eliphaz? He has truth, he has understanding,
but in part, Where's the grace of God in his words? Where's
his comfort for a suffering friend that needs words of comfort,
that needs hope, that needs consolation? Yes, all he does is come back,
taking Job's words and throwing them back at him. We know what
you know, Job. Hear me. Hear me. It all becomes gradually an exchange
of pride, as so much debate between men becomes. Job, in the midst
of trial, approached by his three so-called friends, in engaging
in conversation with them, is, as it were, dragged down to their
sort of level. They throw words at him, and
he answers, at times justifying himself. Throughout it, we see
Job's hope in his God, but we also see how Job is pulled down
by these words, these men, and how easily we can do the same. Where men debate, where men discuss,
where men argue, especially in the spiritual realm,
but also, of course, in any realm where men discuss politics, they
argue, they throw their ideas against the other man's ideas,
they vaunt their understanding. I know better than you do. It's
just pride. But they do the same with the
Word of God. How many religious men will come
with the Bible and discuss doctrine and discuss this matter and discuss
the ways of God and with their own understanding, they argue
and debate and it's just pride. Hear me, they say to one another. I will speak. I will show you
what I know. Hear me. We're so prone to it, we're so
easily caught up in this. And it all boils down to pride. It all boils down to this cry,
listen to me, hear me, hear me. But it's not a hear me said in
prayer. This hear me is Eliphaz demanding
Job's ear. demanding other men to hear his
wisdom. This is not the hear me of David
in the Psalms, when in trouble he cries out unto God and says,
hear me Lord, hear me, help me. This is not the cry of a man
unto God for help. Eliphaz doesn't hear cry unto
God to intervene and help his friend. He doesn't pray for Job. He doesn't pray that the Lord
will deliver him and have mercy on him. He doesn't say, hear
me, Lord, have mercy on Job, have mercy on us. He doesn't
cry unto God for himself. He doesn't say, hear me, Lord,
give me wisdom to know how I might help. how I might comfort Job,
or how we might understand what's going on. He doesn't cry unto
the Lord, hear me. He just cries out unto Job, listen
to me and my wisdom. Oh, that God would bring us to
an end of ourselves and cause us to cry out if we do unto him. Hear me, Lord. Lord, help. Give mercy, grant grace. Indeed,
oh, that God would stop our mouths and bring us to silence. Oh,
that these comforters would be brought back to where they were
at the beginning when they came to Job and saw his suffering
and sat there in silence for seven days and seven nights.
That was a better place. Oh that God would shut their
mouths again and bring them back there and show them through Job,
their saviour, suffering in their place. Because as we've seen before,
Job is presented unto us throughout this book and presented to these
three witnesses, these three men, He's sat there in their
midst, he's presented as a picture of Christ the Saviour unto them. He's presented as a picture of
Christ in his death, suffering and travailing for sinners. And
they should have sat in silence and beheld by faith the Saviour. And yet in their own wisdom they
have words, they have opinions, they have things to say, they
throw their condemnation against Him. They utter condemnation
as they did at the cross, as the passers-by did. They all
found fault with Christ, they all railed against Him. Oh that God would stop our mouths
and cause us to hear no man. but Jesus only. No man, but Jesus only. A life as you see utters truth,
but never the whole truth. His whole understanding, his
whole view that we see from him is always a legal view of God,
God judging the wicked. He speaks of the wicked and their
state. and condemns Job as being one
of them. This trouble that's come upon
you, Job, must be because of your wickedness. This is how
God deals with the wicked. He brings trouble their way.
He takes everything from them and leads them into darkness.
All he can see is judgment, the justice, the wrath of God. All
he sees is law, never grace, never mercy, never mercy. But why was the law even given? If God taught him anything, if
he teaches us anything, he will teach us that we are wicked and
we are sinners. and that the judgment of the
Lord does ring in our ears, but that by it we cannot justify
ourselves. Romans 3, we read this, words
which speak of the words of men, the words of those like Eliphaz,
your words, my words there is none righteous no not one there
is none that understand if there is none that seek if after god
they are all gone out of the way they are together become
unprofitable there is none that do if good no not one their throat
is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit
the poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. All our speech, all our cries
to hear me, they're all just lies. The wisdom of man, cursing
and bitterness, condemnation. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they
not? Do you know the way of peace? The way of grace? The way of
mercy? The way of peace have they not
known, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know
that what things soever the law sayeth, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. That every mouth may be
stopped. If all we have is a legal view
of God, if all we know is law, then if we heard that law, If
God took that law and made it known unto us, we would come
to see that we are guilty. If Eliphaz had heard that law,
he wouldn't have uttered a word to Job in condemnation because
everything he pointed a finger at Job about, he would have seen
he was guilty of. Ten times worse! everything that
he could look at Job with, he would see, I'm the sinner. I'm the guilty. And he'd know
that what came upon Job could come upon him that he was not
any better than Job. It would have stopped his mouth.
And it would do the same with us. We whack a finger at others because
we forget that we are worse, that we are guilty, that we are
just the same. Oh, that God would stop our mouths. Now we know that what thing soever
the law sayeth it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. It's sent to silence us and bring
us in before him guilty without a word to say in our defence.
Hear me? No. No. We've nothing to say that does
not add to our guilt. But now, Verse 21 of Romans,
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. But now, Yes, every
mouth is stopped. Yes, we're all guilty before
a holy God. But if God should reveal his
Son unto us, as he's done in the Gospel, if he should reveal
the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto us, as he's
done in his Gospel, then we will hear speech worth hearing. then
we will hear words of wisdom, then we will hear words of life,
words of comfort, words of grace. Yes, now the righteousness of
God by faith of Jesus Christ is revealed. Christ is revealed
and how we need to be brought to see him and to hear Him. To hear Him. Hear me, Eliphaz
says. We need to hear Christ. We need to hear Christ in the
Gospel. We need to see Christ. To see
Christ in Job. To see Christ in his sufferings. To see Christ in his death. Oh that Eliphaz would have heard
Job and seen in him the speech of Jesus Christ, the sufferings
of Christ, to see in him the Saviour. Oh that we should be
brought to hear the Son of God. In Matthew 17, When Peter, James and John were
brought into a high mountain, Christ was transfigured before
them. His face did shine as the sun
and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then
answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us
to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for
Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the
cloud, which said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased, here ye him behold a voice out of the cloud
which said this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased
hear ye him oh that god would bring us there to hear him to hear his speech,
to hear his gospel, to hear the comfort of his speech in the
gospel. Likewise in Luke, we read the
same account, there came a voice out of the clouds saying, this
is my beloved son, hear him. Don't hear Matt. Don't listen
to your own heart, the wisdom that comes from the flesh. Don't
listen to the wisdom of men. Hear Christ. Hear Him. Hear His speech. Hear His words. Hear His speech from the cross. Hear Him. Christ is the Word of God, as
John makes known. God has spoken in times past,
as Hebrews tells us, through the prophets of old, in the law. But now in these last days, he's
spoken unto us through his Son. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty, on high, being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. God has spoken by his Son. That Son through whom he spake
and formed the worlds and the heavens and all creation, That
Son through whom He speaks and upholds all things by the word
of His power. Christ's speech, His word upholds
all living things today. The earth that you walk on, the
chair that you sit on, the atoms that form your body, the world
around you, your very life and being is upheld by the word of
Christ at this moment, at this hour. how we should hear Him. Oh that
God would cause us to hear Him, would bring us to a place where
we hear Him. Jesus took Peter, James and John
up into a mountain apart and they heard the Lord speak out
of heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye Him. Oh that God would take us and
take us somewhere, wherever He must take us, take us to a high
mountain, as it were, apart, apart from the voices of others,
apart from the wisdom of this world, apart from sinners, bring
us to Himself, alone with Himself, and cause us to hear His voice,
cause us to hear Christ, and cause us when we hear, as
the disciples did. When the disciples heard it,
they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and
touched them and said, Arise and be not afraid. And when they
had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. O that God in his gospel would
bring us unto Christ. And when we fall down before
Him, knowing our guilt, knowing that we're condemned under the
law, knowing that our mouth is stopped and we've nothing we
can say before Him in our defence, knowing that here is the Judge
of heaven and earth before us and He can do with us what He
will, knowing that we're wretched and guilty before him, as Eliphaz
was, as Job was, as Bildad was, as Zophar was, as you are, as
I am, knowing that we're guilty, wretched before him and he could
cast us into hell at any moment, that he could send us into outer
darkness, knowing that he has all power in his hands. If God
brings us there to know what we are before a holy God, and
we see something of His glory, we will, like these disciples,
fall down and be sore afraid. Until we hear Jesus in the Gospel
speak unto us in grace and mercy and say, Arise, and be not afraid. and He gives us faith to see
Him, and we see no man save Jesus only. No man save Jesus only. When He brings us to see Him
upon the cross, when He brings us to see Him as our Saviour,
when He is revealed as the righteousness of God unto us, when we see him
there in our place, having taken our sin, having taken the condemnation,
having taken the guilt, and suffered under the wrath of God in our
place, bearing our sin, bearing the condemnation, made sin, drinking
the cup of God's wrath for us. When we see Him, when we look
upon Job and see through Job's suffering unto Christ, when we're
brought to see Christ upon the cross for us and know that He
died in our place, then He will look upon us. And
as it were from the cross, say, Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. Be not afraid. Thy sins are forgiven
thee. thy faith hath made thee whole.
Oh, that we should be brought to see him there, and hear his
voice, and the voice of no man. Because until we're brought there,
every trial, every trouble that comes our way will shake us,
and we'll turn to the refuge of man, we'll turn to the refuge
of self, we'll ask this man and that man for help. And all we'll
find is the comfort that comes from Job's friends. All we'll find from men is condemnation. All we'll find ultimately when
we turn to South or to others for help is we'll see our own
sin, our own weakness, our own guilt, and we'll feel the wrath
of God raging against us because we know we deserve nothing. But
if God, by grace, bring us to his Son, bring us apart, as it
were, to a mountain, to a mount upon which the Son was crucified,
to Zion, to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, outside the camp, if he brings
us to that mount to hear his Son, and we hear the voice from
heaven, hear ye him, And if we hear the voice of Christ from
the cross crying out, it is finished. And we see our sins washed away
in His blood. We see them cancelled, taken
away, blotted out. We see in Him the righteousness
of God made ours. If we're brought to see in Him
our Saviour, then we will be brought to that place of the
psalmist in Psalm 46, where we, in our experience, will be still
before a holy God. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Be still and know that I am God. Oh, that God would bring us there.
If we're brought into trial, as Job was brought into trial,
in whatever measure, if friends are proved to be miserable comforters
to us, if all the words of man just come down upon us in condemnation,
if all we hear from them is the state of the wicked and all we
can see is our own wickedness, will be cast down. But if God
causes us to hear him and leads us unto Christ, he'll cause us
to be still and know that I am God. To be still before him,
to listen for him, to look unto him, to wait on him, to trust
in him, though he slay me. Yet will I trust in him. That's what we need to hear.
The grace, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. All Eliphaz could
do was condemn. He had much to say. But when
he spoke, he spoke nothing but condemnation. Job was brought
to wait on his guard, to be still, And in Christ, Job's sins were
answered, every one. In the end, he came to know for
a certainty that his Redeemer lived, that he'd blotted out
his sins, that he was the Lord's. He came to know that his sins,
all that guilt under the law had been taken away, blotted
out at the cross. When Job did nothing, when Job
was still before God, when Job had been brought to an end of
all his words, all his wisdom, all his ability, all his works,
all his strength, when he was there, as it were, in suffering,
stripped of everything, helpless, weak, broken, when he could do
nothing, when he was still. Christ took his sins and bore
them and took them away. And there was now no condemnation
because Christ loved him and gave himself for him. Christ
loved him and gave himself for him. Oh, has God brought you
to an end? an end of your works, an end
of your own righteousness, an end of your own words, an end
of your own wisdom, an end of everything in self or in man,
and brought you to be still and know that He is God. And know that every condemnation
has been taken away. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. In the midst
of tribulation we're more than conquerors. In distress, persecution
and famine we're more than conquerors. in famine, nakedness, peril,
or sword, when we're slain every day, when the words of men condemn
us and put us down, when trouble comes our way, in the midst of
the fire, in the midst of the depths of the sea, no matter
what trial we are in, we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. There's no condemnation. No condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. He's taken away every sin, every
guilt, every iniquity. It's all been blotted out and
washed in his precious blood. There's nothing to condemn if
we're in Christ. We're more than conquerors. and
nothing shall separate us from his love. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He loved his own and gave himself
for them. and He will love them to the
end, and none shall separate them from His love. O believer,
if you're in Christ, you're in Him forever. He's your all, and
His love shall never be taken away. You're in Him forever,
to eternity, into glory, and no matter what men may say, none
shall condemn. None can condemn if we're in
Christ. For in him we're more than conquerors. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. Should Eliphaz come your way
and say, hear me, who will you hear? Hear me? No, Eliphaz. Hear him. Hear me? No. Hear Him. This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Hear Him. Hear Christ.