Turn again this morning to the
book of Job and the passage we read, Job chapter 9. Bildad, the Shuhite, had answered
Job once more, criticizing, saying the trouble that had come upon
Job must have been something either that he had done or perhaps
his children had done, but he could not be innocent and he
find fault. And in chapter 9, Job answers. We read there, Then Job answered
and said, I know it is so of a truth, but how should man be
just with God? If he will contend with Him,
he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty
in strength, who have hardened himself against him and have
prospered. I know it is so of a truth, but
how should man be just with God? How should man be just with God? This question lies at the heart
of this book. It is what so much of Job's suffering
brings him to. He grapples with his state before
a holy and eternal God. He feels the hand of God gone
out against him. He knows he has no strength,
he's cast down, he's broken, he's weak. And he cries out,
how should man be just with God? How can he be? Firstly, behind this question,
Job has no foolish doubts about the existence of God. This is
simply a fact to him. He knows there's a God. He knows
God's dealings with him. God has made his presence felt
unto Job. There's no doubt that God is
dealing with him. There's no doubt that God has
created him, that his life is sustained by God. And Job feels
that God can take his life at any moment. He's in God's hands. He can't fight with God. He can't
contend with God. How should man be just with God?
If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a
thousand. Job has no strength. to fight
God or resist God. It's clear that he's in God's
hands, it's clear that he's in God's creation, and he is God's
creation. But he cries out, how shall I
be just with him? How can I stand before this holy
and righteous God, before this great God? This great creator,
how can I stand? I'm nothing before him. He knows, as we read elsewhere
in the scriptures, that it is accounted unto men once to die,
and after this, the judgment. We shall all die one day, our
lives are finite, they're brief. He feels the brevity of his life,
he feels the days fleeting, flying past him. He knows that one day
soon he shall stand before his maker and he knows that when
he stands before God that there is a judgment. So he cries out, how should man
be just with God? With such a God, how can I stand
in that judgment? You see behind the question,
behind Job's cry here, lies the seeming impossibility of it. How can I possibly stand before
a righteous God? How can I be just? How can he
count me righteous? How can he save me? Surely the wrath of God has come
down upon me and I cannot escape it. Job cast down, broken under the
hand of God, feeling his absolute weakness, his frailty. his smallness,
his insignificance in the vastness of the universe, before an eternal,
infinite, holy God, he feels so broken, so small, so lost. This God that spreadeth out the
heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the sea, which maketh
Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades in the chambers of the South,
which doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders
without number. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see
him not. He passeth on also, but I perceive
him not. He taketh away, who can hinder
him? Who will say unto him, What doest
thou? He feels so small, so lost before
this God. How can one, so small, so worthless,
so wretched, so sinful by nature, be just with God? How can he? How can we? How can you? He says, lo, he goeth by me,
and I see him not. He passeth on also, but I perceive
him not. How can I be just with a God? that I cannot even see. How can I find him? How can I
stand before him and plead my case? How can I stand before
a God I cannot even see? He passes by, he's there, but
I don't know where. This is a great hindrance to
many. Man by nature says, well, where
is God? Where is He? He's left us. He's departed. If He created
this world, He's left us. He's gone. Where is He? And yes, in Romans, Paul states,
as he opens the Gospel plainly, The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold or resist the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
We know He's there, though He's invisible. We know He's there. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like the corruptible man, and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts,
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie. and worship and serve the creature
more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Because we cannot see him with
the physical eye, We have all changed the truth of God, changed
his declaration of truth in the scriptures, in the gospel, in
the creation, in our conscience. We've taken that truth and said
it's not true, he's not there. I'm not accountable to him. This
is my life and I will live it for me and when it's gone, I
will be no more. There's no God to answer to.
And professing ourselves to be wise, we know, science says,
I cannot see him. Professing ourselves to be wise,
we have become as fools. And God has given us up to our
foolishness. And we serve the creature. We
serve man and his wisdom and his knowledge and his science
and his cleverness and his technology. We serve man and the created
things of man, the things he makes. More than the creator. You may
say, well, I don't bow down to idols, don't you? We live in
a day and an age where there are more idols and more worshippers
of idols than there ever were. Oh the things that man's cleverness
have allowed him to develop and make and how men bow down to
those idols. How we bow down to riches and
to fame and to acclaim and to the applause of men. how we have
turned from God. And we say we cannot see him,
therefore he cannot see us. Like a child that covers her
eyes and says, I can't see, therefore they cannot see me. And yet he's
there. We cannot see the wind. And yet
when the wind blows as it blew last night, we hear it, we know
it, we feel it. We cannot see the air, and yet
should God take away the air, we struggle to breathe, we soon
know. Yet the wind is there, the air
is there, and the God that sends them is there. But where is it? Job cries out
in chapter 23, oh that I knew where I might find him. He passes me by and I see him
not. Passeth on also but I perceive
him not. Oh that I knew where I might
find him. How do I find him? How do we
find him? How might you find this God that
you cannot see? What leads to Him? Who leads
to Him? Which religion? Which church? Which of the thousands of messages
that there are in this world leads to God? Which is the truth? If we turn to religion, which
one Islam says this, Buddhism says that, Judaism says this,
Christianity says that. Who speaks the truth and how
shall we know? In Christianity, which denomination
Which sect, which group, which preacher preaches the truth? They're all so divided. Is it
the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church? Is it the Presbyterian, the Brethren,
the Methodist? Is it the Independent Churches,
the Free Churches, the Charismatic Churches? The Grace Church is
who preaches the truth and how shall we know there's such confusion
and such division? How do we find him? We cannot. By our own wisdom
we cannot, we could go and study, we could study every religion,
we could study every book, we could study every message in
Christianity, we could hear, we could study, we could read
the scriptures inside out and still be lost and still not know
Him. He must find us. He must come
to us. He must make himself known to
us. How shall man be just with God? He must come and make himself
known before I can begin to know the answer. Paul writes in Romans
10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. But how can I call when I don't
know who he is? How then shall I call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall I believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall I hear without
a preacher? And how shall I preach except
they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. God must come. with his word
and preach it unto us and it must be the truth we will never know God listening
to a lie it must be the truth he sends by his faithful preacher
it must be the truth it must be the gospel it must be Christ
it must tell us the truth of man what we are what state we are in before a
holy God, how wicked we are, how fallen
we are, how desperate our state is. This message must tell us
the truth about God, how holy he is, how righteous he is, his
sovereignty, his power that he creates. that He sustains the
world, that He brings in this world for His glory, that all
that He does, He does for good. It must say the truth of Him. This preacher must declare what
we are, how bad the situation is. It must bring us where it
brought Job. Job asks this question when God
has dealt with him. God brings him low. God convicts. God took away his strength. God took away, as it were, his
wisdom. He's left empty with nothing
at the hands of God, at the mercy of God. Yes, God must bring us there
to teach us that we are blind by nature and we cannot see,
that we are deaf by nature and we cannot hear, that we have
no wisdom but that which would lead us astray. There is a way
that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction.
that we have no wisdom, that we have no strength, that we
cannot save ourselves, we cannot work ourselves up to heaven,
we cannot build ourselves a tower of Babel to climb up under heaven,
we cannot clothe ourselves in righteousness, we cannot wash
ourselves clean, like a leopard can't wash away its spots, we
can't cleanse ourselves. We're dead, we're lost. We're utterly at God's mercy.
Job knew this. He was broken. Hence his cry. How shall man be just with God? You see, should God send his
gospel our way, should we begin to hear his truth, then it will
begin by declaring our sin and our state before him. And what
can we do about it? Job says in chapter 14, who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. We're sinners by nature. Born
of Adam, Descendants of Adam in the garden, when God commanded
Adam in the garden that he could eat of any tree in the garden,
but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what did Adam
do? Following Eve, he took of the
tree and he ate, he disobeyed, he turned from God, he turned
to his own wisdom, his own way. Just like you have, just like
I have, we've gone our own way. And we've said because God isn't
there, I can't see him, then he won't see me. But soon God came in the garden
where Adam tried to hide and said, where art thou? And if God comes in the gospel
unto you or I one day, he will come in that message and say,
where art thou? And will he find us trying to
make ourselves cloves out of fig leaves, trying to cleanse
ourselves, trying to cover up our sin, trying to hide from
God? Or will we find ourselves exposed
before him, guilty, without an answer? Oh that God would show us what
we are, that we might come to see our sins. God gave the law to Moses to
show man his sin. Man took that law as he took
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and tried to keep
it as a way of making his own righteousness, as a way of sewing
fig leaves together. He took the law and said, all
that the Lord have commanded, that will we do. And awaken to
the truth. brought to religion. That's what
we do by nature. We hear of the truth of God in
the scriptures. We read of the law. We read of
the exhortations throughout the scriptures, even in the New Testament.
We come to discover what a righteous man should be, what a Christian
should be, and we try to be like it. We strive to do what is right. We strive to turn from our sin. We strive to keep the law, but
we can't. It condemns us utterly. And its penalty rings out from
heaven on high. The soul that sinneth it must
die. We discover that there's a debt
that we've built up that we owe unto God. We've broken that law
day after day, month after month, year after year. We've built
up a debt and we cannot pay it. So awakened we seek to turn from
our sins. We seek to keep the law. We seek
to follow God. But there's nothing we can do
about what we've done. We find the multitude of our
sins condemn us even if we turn from them. What of the past sins
we've built up? There's nothing we can do about
them. They pull us down into the depths of the sea. They drown
us. Indeed, as we discover more,
we find we can't do anything of our presence. If we keep the
law, we're boosted in our pride. And God hates the proud. He hates
the proud. How wicked we are in our self-righteousness. that we build up as we try to
serve God in our own strength. We can't do anything about our
present sins, our future sins. We're utterly condemned and utterly
lost. But even if we could cleanse
the outside, as the Pharisees thought they did, As Saul, Paul
thought he did before he came to meet Christ on the Damascus
road. He thought he was a Pharisee
of the Pharisees. Of the tribe of Benjamin. Touching
the law blameless. He thought he was keeping it.
He thought he kept the outside clean. Even if we could do that. When the Spirit of God awakens
us, he shows us what we are within. We find that our trouble is much
deeper. That even if we could walk a
right, even if we could cleanse the outside of the cup, what
about that which is within us? What about the sin within? We
may deal with our sins, the iniquities we commit, but what about the
sin within? What about the heart? What about
that which is within us? This is what Job knew. This is
what lied behind his question. His friend said, you've done
this wrong and that wrong. But he knew that even if he was
innocent of all their charges, he knew that within himself he
was a sinner. He knew his own heart. He knew
his own weakness. And he could not cleanse it.
He could not answer for it. How should man be just with God? It's impossible. Jeremiah tells us of the heart,
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Every thought
of our hearts, every imagination is evil. Genesis 6, 5 we read
that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. Even in religion, it's all self-righteousness. It's all trying to bring praise
and glory unto ourselves, unto man. It's all taking away from
the glory of God. When you examine the vast majority
of what is preached that claims to be Christian, what does it
do? It sets man to work in his way
under heaven. It tells man that he only needs
to make a decision to receive Jesus into his heart. Therefore
we're the ones that save ourselves because we decide to take him
and make him our saviour. So we have something to glory
in, something to boast in. I believed when others didn't. I lived right whenever others
were wicked. God should be pleased with me.
Lord, Lord, look at what I've done. I've served you. I've been this in the church.
I've been that in the church. I've gone this way. I've gone
that way. I've not fallen into this wickedness. Lord, receive
me for my righteousness. And God hates it. The pride of
man. that flows forth from his heart.
There's nothing in us but sin and self-glory. Our works can't
save us. Isaiah says, we are all as an
unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf.
And our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Our righteousness
is that which we think are good, are filthy rags before God. They're
full of pride. They slay us, they condemn us. What of our will, our decision?
In Romans we read, as it is written, there is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. You may make a decision,
but it's not after this God. You may receive a Jesus into
your heart, but it's a Jesus of your own making, a little
idol that does your bidding. It's not this sovereign God. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Of God that showeth mercy. How should man be just with God? Not by his will, not by his works,
not by his running, not by his wisdom, not by his strength,
not by his religion, not by where he's born, not by his upbringing,
not by the fact that he lived here or was in this church or
had these parents, not by anything that he does or is, but of God
that showeth mercy. John 1 we read, But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of
man but of God. God must come unto us in his
gospel in his son Jesus Christ and look upon us in mercy because
what Job learned And what you and I will learn if God leads
us this way is that we are lost and we are
undone. How should man be just with God? We cannot answer Him. We're guilty
before Him. We're lost. When Isaiah came
before God and saw His glory, he cried out, Woe is me, for
I am undone. Because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. If God gives us to see his Son by faith in the Gospel, we will
know how vile we are. I am undone. I am a man of unclean
lips. How should man be just with God? It cannot be by man. It cannot
be by my own strength, my own works, my own will. It cannot
be through others. It cannot be because I'm in a
church or others pray for me. It cannot be because there's
a priest on earth that does this or that. We're vile, we're lost. It must be through God. But what
of my sins? How can God show me mercy when
I'm guilty? How can God show me grace? How can he show me love? How
can he declare me to be just before him, righteous before
him, when I'm not just and I'm not righteous? When I'm full
of sin and my past sins are a huge debt that I cannot pay and I
cannot begin to pay. How can God declare me just? There's only one way. There's only one way and that
is through another. And that is if another comes
and stands in my place and says the penalty of the law that is
due unto me, he will pay. The death that I deserve to die
because of my sin and my iniquity and my guilt He will die on my
behalf. He will die that death. I can only be declared just if
somebody takes my sins and pays the price for them and washes
them away. I can only be declared just before
God if one takes my sin, my evil heart. and pays the price for
its wickedness and takes it away in judgment and makes me to be
righteousness. I can only be saved, I can only
be declared just with God if one comes and stands as a substitute
before God in my place. And that is what God has provided in the
gospel. He sent his only begotten son into this world to save his people
from their sins by offering up himself in their place at Golgotha. He came and He stood in the sinner's
place as His substitute and took the judgment that was due unto
the sinner, unto Job, unto Paul, unto you believer. He came and
He took that judgment. He died that death. He bore that
guilt. He bore the curse of the law. He bore the sins of His people. He was made sin that they in
Him should be made the righteousness of God. He stood in their place
as a substitute. There was a great exchange. He took what they are and He
made them to be what He is. God gave His Son. as an offering,
a sacrifice for sin. Such was his love for his own. Such was his love for Job. Such was his love for sinners
chosen in Christ. Sinners like you and I. He gave
his own son because he loved them. He loved them and gave
himself for them. There's only one way that man
can be just with God. Through death. Through death
of a substitute. The soul that sinneth it must
die. So God took the sinner. He took
Job. He took Paul. He united them. They were united. They were one
with Christ. And at the cross, they were crucified
with him. God judged Job in Christ upon
the cross. God judged Saul, Paul in Christ
upon the cross. Did he judge you in Christ upon
the cross? Did you die in Christ? Was your sin taken away? Was your evil heart crucified
at the cross? Was your wicked flesh taken away
like the scapegoat into the wilderness, burnt, destroyed, taken away? Was it judged forever? And did
you rise in Christ with Job, with Paul, with everyone whom
Christ loved and died for? Did you rise with Him victorious,
righteous? There's only one way that we
should be just with God. Our sin must be judged. The soul
that sinneth it must die. And it must be judged in another
because we cannot pay the price. We're not perfect. God needed
to take a perfect lamb as a sacrifice. One without spot or blemish.
He needed to take his son who never sinned. who never fought
a sinful thought. who never turned from God, who
always lived in faith, resting upon God his Father, trusting
his Lord, trusting his God, looking unto God in all he did. He lived
from the day he was born as a man, from the day he was made man
upon this earth, he lived by faith. The just shall live by
his faith, Christ's faith. He lived by faith. And that faith
took him to the cross, where he took the sins of his people
and took them away. Yes, God can't turn a blind eye
to sin. He can't simply forget your sin. It must be judged. God is just. This is the problem. This is
the dilemma that Job has. He knows God's just. He knows
God can't just turn a blind eye to his sin. It must be judged. Then how can he be saved? Only
if it's judged in another. In his Redeemer. In his Saviour. So God judged sin justly, righteously. He took another. He took the
perfect lamb of God. He took his own son and he took
him to the cross, the place of execution. Christ as the high
priest took himself as the sacrifice and nailed himself to the cross. He took himself to the altar
And God took the sword of execution and slew his own son and shed
his own blood and washed the sins of his people away. And
he took their sin in the flesh and he took that flesh away in
the scapegoat and he burnt it up. And he took his people in Christ.
and rose them on the third day victorious from sin, victorious
from judgment, victorious from hell, victorious from all their
enemies. They rose in Christ alive and
righteous in Him that He was made sin that they should be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Yes, God sent unto Job a Redeemer. Christ set him free and Job eventually
was given faith to see that Redeemer and know what he did for him. He set me free. He made me just. He made me righteous. He washed
me from all my sins. He loved me and though he brought
me through this trial which brought me to the end of myself, though
He brought me down low, though I was broken and lost, though
I wished to die to be spared the suffering, in the end God
brought me through and He brought me to a greater end than my beginning. He brought me to His Son. He
brought me into eternal union with Him. He gave me everlasting
life. He gave me the righteousness
of God. He brought me into glory, into
paradise. He set me free. I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. whom I
shall see for myself, for mine eyes shall behold, and not another,
though my reins be consumed within me. I'm going to see him because
he loved me and gave himself for me. God gave Job faith to
see, has he given you faith to see? How shall we be saved? How shall man be just with God? through another, through Christ.
How shall we know it? Through faith. God must give
us faith to see Him, to see the Saviour, who lived by faith,
and walked by faith, and died by faith, and trusted God that
when He went into the abyss of judgment, when he suffered hell
in the three hours of darkness upon the cross he knew he trusted
he believed that God would bring all his people through that judgment
in Christ and bring them into eternal glory and his faith was
rewarded and he believed And Job believed and Job knew that
Christ was his Saviour because Job heard the Gospel, the Gospel
of Christ, the power of God unto salvation. He heard that Gospel
and in that Gospel the righteousness of God was revealed unto him. Revealed from faith to faith,
from the faith of Christ to his faith that God gave him to believe
in Christ, as it is written. the just shall live by faith. Has God brought you here? Have you asked the question that
Job asked? How should man be just with God?
How shall I be just? How can I be saved? How can I
stand before a holy God? as he brought you to his Son,
to the cross, to the Saviour, and pointed you out at the Redeemer,
and said, one way, in Christ and Christ alone, as he said
unto you, I gave my Son for you. Have you come to see Him? Have
you come to know that He's your Redeemer? That you will live
with Him? That you will stand with Him?
That you will rise with Him? That you are one with Him? has
he come freely unto you by grace, sovereign grace in the gospel,
and said, I loved you freely when you hated me. While you
were yet a sinner, I gave my son for you. While you were lost
in the darkness, I came in the light of the gospel to deliver
you. When you were in the darkness,
in blindness, I preached the gospel unto you. I shone the
light unto you. I shone it into your heart. I
gave you faith. I quickened you to life. I gave
you faith to see as He come unto you and shone that light into
your heart, to see Christ, your Savior, your righteousness, your
justification, the one by whom you are just with God. Has he
done this freely by grace for you? You can't do it yourself. You can't do it by your own works,
your own decision. You won't get to God by the law,
it will slay you. It must be God must come unto
you in his gospel in Christ and make his salvation known unto
you. For Paul says, I through the
law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I, through the
law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself
for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Yes, the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. How should man be just with God? Freely, by grace, through the
offering of God's Son, Jesus Christ, as a substitute, a sacrifice
for his people, by grace, freely in Christ, by grace, through
faith that believes on him, through the faith of Christ, by which
he offered himself. the faith of Christ that he gives
unto his own to see him and to trust in him. O God, give us
that faith. O God, give us grace to be drawn
unto Christ, to be delivered from our own wisdom, our own
works, our own will, our blindness, our deafness, our deadness, and
to see and to know our Redeemer who loved us and gave himself
for us. How should man be just with God,
in Christ, in Christ alone? Amen.