All right, let's go now to Job
chapter 38. Job 38. Since this is the last day of
2017, and knowing that each year the believer will be
tried by God. Some of us are in trials now
and some will face trials as the year progresses. So I thought
it would be good to look at two questions that God asked Job
at the end of that grievous trial that Job bore. Now the first
question is found here in Job 38. The second question is in
Job 40. Now God asked a lot of questions
in between these two main questions. But these two main questions
reveal why God sent the trial and the lesson that God was teaching
Job through the trial. God knew these things were in
Job's heart because God knows the hearts of His people. So
He set a trial and brought it out. These things came out of Job's
heart. He vocalized these things. And then God came and rebukes
him and teaches him why these things are wrong. Job 38 verse
1. Then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind, and He said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words without knowledge? Now that's the first question.
We'll take this question this hour, dealing with the first
problem Job had. The second hour, we'll take the
second question, dealing with the second problem Job had. Now
this question, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without
knowledge? This is where the Lord begins
to teach Job the lesson for which He gave Job the trial. He's speaking
to Job here. This trial brought out what was
in Job's heart, so God's dealing with it now. Now, do you recognize
Job's first problem? This is a very humbling question. Who is this? They're speaking
so ignorantly. Who is this that's corrupting
the truth with a bunch of lies? That's a humbling question. Who
is this that darkeneth counsel without knowledge? Job's first
problem was the problem every believer has. And it was pride. Pride. Self-exaltation. Pride. Job spoke a lot of good
things. But Job spoke some things concerning
God that were very prideful things by which he exalted himself.
Go back to Job 23. Listen to this. Job 23 and verse
3. Job says, you know, God had been
silent to him. Job says in verse 3, Oh, that
I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His
seat. You think about what a prideful
statement that is. Job said, I would walk right
up to the seat of God. I would order my cause before
Him and fill my mouth with arguments, strong arguments against God.
And I would know the words which He would answer me and understand
what He would say unto me. Job said, I would walk right
up to God's throne and I would give Him some fine, wise arguments
and I'll hear God answer me as to why He's treating me the way
He is. Job is proud, he is considering
himself wise, he is accusing God of not dealing with him wisely
by sending him this trial. Now this is the problem you and
I and every believer have by nature. When we suffer trouble,
we suffer trials, we very often are lifted up in pride, very
often lifted up in pride. So we can't just blame Job. We
have to see that this is a problem we all have as believers. He's
pride. So Job 38 now, Job 38 verse 1,
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and he said,
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? and gird up now thy loins like
a man." God said, you want to walk up to my throne and you
want to talk to me? You want to answer me some questions?
He said, gird up your loins now like a man, for I will demand
of thee, answer thou me, God said. So the Lord humbles us
by reminding us that He and not us, He not us, is the absolute
sovereign who creates and rules and provides and saves perfectly
in perfect power and wisdom. That's what we need to be reminded
of constantly. Now first of all, we see here
in what God said to Job that God humbles us from our pride
by declaring that He's the sovereign creator, not us. Look at verse
4. Where was thou when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Declare it if thou hast understanding. See, when we become proud of
our understanding, remember this, you and I were nowhere around
and contributed nothing when God created all things. And the
same goes for our salvation. You and I didn't contribute to
it. We weren't around. Just as we weren't around when
God created the heaven and the earth, we weren't around when
God set His purpose in motion to create a new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. God elected the people of His
own accord. God chose whom He would to create
this new heavens and the new earth, His Son. And He chose
His people and His Son. We weren't around. Verse 5, Who
hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who has stretched
the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy? If we start lifting up ourselves
in pride of knowledge and pride of grace and pride of place and
pride of face, we need to consider this. God says, answer these
questions if you're so wise. And we can't answer those questions.
Those are questions we can't answer. That reveals our ignorance.
But you know who was with God at that time? The Lord Jesus
Christ was. He's called Wisdom. That was
with God from the beginning. I was set up from everlasting.
He was there when the morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for joy. And He is the foundation on which
God founded everything. There is one foundation. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the chief cornerstone.
He said there, do you know where the cornerstone is? This whole
heaven and earth is held, not on foundations of stone. It's
held in place by Christ the foundation. Because God purposed everything
in Christ. And Christ is bringing everything
to pass and nothing will happen to this heaven and this earth
until Christ has accomplished the purpose of creating a new
heavens and a new earth. That's what's meant in Hebrews
1.3 when it says, Christ upholds all things by the word of His
power. He's the foundation. He's upholding
it all. He's upholding it all. And He's
the wisdom of God that's going to keep it upheld and bring to
pass creating a new people in righteousness and holiness which
will be that new heaven and new earth. Verse 8, Or who shut up
the sea with doors when it break forth, as if it had issued out
of the womb? When I made the cloud, the garment
thereof, and thick darkness, a swaddling band for it, and
break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said,
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shalt thou
proud waves bestay. We get lifted up in pride, look
to the ocean, God made the seas to be born, like a child being
born out of the womb. And God salted it and swaddled
it, preserved it, so it will always be kept in store. And like you do a newborn infant. And God said to the sea, here
is your bound. You can come this far, but no
further. No further. So when we become that proud
sea and we become those proud waves, remember this. God created
us. God created us. He made us to
be born again. Not we ourselves. And He swallowed
us. He robed us. We didn't robe ourselves. He salted us. He preserves us. We don't preserve ourselves.
And God has set our bounds. It says here is as far as you
can go and no further. And he is going to hedge his
people about, keep his people. You just think about Job. Job
had a lot of possessions and a lot of riches and a lot of
family and he had all these wonderful things. But when God saw him
becoming a proud wave and being lifted up in pride, God said,
you can go here this far but you can't go any further. And
God sent this trial and took it all away from him to bring
him down. Bring Him down. So what do we
have to be proud of? That's the first thing God shows
us. He's wisdom. He's the Creator. He's the Sovereign.
And secondly, we see here God humbles the proud by reminding
us that He, and not us, rules all these things by His sovereign
power. He said there in verse 12, Job 38, 12, "...Hast thou
commanded the morning since thy days?" Next time we think we've
got some power about us and we're proud of our power, answer this,
have any of us ever commanded the morning? He calls the day spring to know
His place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
that the wicked might be shaken out of it. It's turned as clay
to the seal and they stand as a garment. What does that mean? Well, the clay is meaningless.
The clay is without form. The clay is just a lump of clay
there. It's nothing. But then the master
takes a seal and he rolls that seal on that clay and he makes
that a beautiful seal by his workmanship. And God said, here
you have a lifeless, dark, earth, and I cause the day spring to
rise, and I cause it to shine, and I expose the wicked. I make
the wicked from the night go into their hiding places. And
I bring out all the beauty of my creation. That's what He did
for us when He caused us to be born again. We were the lifeless
void. We were the clay. And He caused
Christ the day spring to arise, and He shined the light, and
He revealed we're the wicked. We cannot save ourselves by anything
in us. And the Lord turned us from being
plain, old, lifeless, worthless clay into a beautiful work of
art in the Master's hand. And He gets all the glory for
that. It's by His power that He breaks the pride and breaks
the high arm. That's what He said there. Then
thirdly, look at this, God humbles our pride by reminding us that
He is wisdom. Verse 16, ìHast thou entered
into the springs of the sea?î Listen to that, the springs of
the sea. The beginning of life is the
spring. The spring is the beginning.
Do you know where the spring, the very beginning is in the
depths of the sea that fills all the ocean with water? You
know, we've been a lot of places. We've never been to some of the
deepest depths of this earth. God knows. He says, Or hast thou
walked in search of the depth? He says, Have the gates of death
been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of
the shadow of death? God also knows the end. He knows
the beginning, the spring of life. He knows the end. He knows
what's beyond that threshold of death. We don't know. We know
what the Scriptures say, we know what we believe, but we haven't
experienced it. God knows the beginning, God
knows the end. Has thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare
if thou knowest it all. See what he's saying, God knows
the beginning, He knows the spring, He knows the end, He knows what's
after death, and He knows the breadth in between. He knows
the whole path that you're going to walk. because He has purposed
it, predestinated it. Do we know it? We don't know
it. We don't know it. We can't declare
these things. Look at verse 19. Where is the
way where light dwelleth? You say, well, the sun. Well,
where does the sun get its light? You keep going behind everything
and you won't come back to God. We are asked for darkness. Where
is the place thereof? That thou shouldest take it to
the bound thereof. That thou shouldest know the
path to the house thereof. Where does darkness begin? Who made the darkness? God said
He does. I create light, I make darkness. We can flip on a light bulb,
we are not making light. And we can turn the light bulb
off, we are not making darkness. God made the light and the darkness.
So think we're wise. Knowest thou it because thou
wast then born or because the number of thy days is great?
Are we old? Are we wise as God? I like this
now, listen to this. "...Hast thou entered into the
treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the
hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against
the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted
which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?" You think about
this. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo
because he had to wait till lunchtime to attack because the ground
was too wet. He was waiting for the ground
to dry out. God changed the direction he thought he was going to go.
God changed and sent history in the direction he already ordained
for it to go, just using water. World War II. Russia turned back that mighty
German army for one reason. God sent the worst winter storm
they had ever seen in their life. American Revolution. George Washington
crossed the Delaware River over here and defeated the Brits at
Trenton because God froze up the Delaware River like it is
right now and there wasn't but about a 15 feet space where you
had to put a boat in and walk across the boat to get to the
other side. These pictures of him crossing and they're all
in the boat. They just had to go out there
and stick a boat in the middle and walk across. That's all they
had to do because the rest of us froze up. Civil War, a win,
a simple win made Lee change his strategy and defeated him
because of a win. God said, I reserve that for
the day of battle. I'm controlling everything. We're
just not that hard to control, you know? We think we're so wise
and we got our path figured out. We're just not that difficult
to turn whichever way we want us to go, whether it be an individual
or an entire nation. And that's how God conquered
our pride and our hearts by that wisdom too. It was that same
wisdom that sent Christ to life who's the beginning and the ending,
the Alpha and Omega, who knows everything in between. And He
is the one God reserved and sent Him forth at the appointed hour
just like He sends the snow and the rain at the appointed hour
and by Him He saved His people. Conquered our hearts, turned
us to Him, brought us to believe on Him. Christ is the wisdom
of God. And then fourthly, God humbles
our pride by reminding us that He alone provides for us and
not we ourselves. We get proud about what we've
accomplished and how we are such providers. God has to bring us
down from that. Look here in verse 25, Job 38,
25. He says here, Who hath divided
a water course for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning
of thunder, to cause it to rain on the earth where no man is,
on the wilderness wherein there is no man? to satisfy the desolate and waste
ground and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. He takes us out of the equation.
He said, now you take a wilderness out here. No man is there to
cultivate it. No man is there to irrigate it.
Who causes it to rain and bring forth tender bud there? Look
here, verse 28. Hath the rain a Father? Is it
Father nature or is it God our Father? or who hath begotten
the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice
and the hoary frost of heaven who hath gendered it? Is it mother
nature or is it God who did it? The waters are hid as with a
stone and the face of the deep is frozen. You see that right
now. There is water out there in that
creek like a stone and the water is hidden underneath it. I came
home Thursday and my neighbor He's putting up a little old
thing about this tall, all out in his yard, like a border, all
out in his yard. And then I see him, he's up there,
he's filling up with water. I'm from the South. I'm thinking,
what is a man doing making a swimming pool in the middle of the wintertime?
A wading pool at that. It's only about a foot deep.
And he was making an ice rink. And you can go up there now,
and that ice is just hard as a rock. And the waters. If there was any running water,
it would be underneath it. You wouldn't be able to see it.
That's what he's describing here. How did that come to be? Verse
31, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleads, or loose
the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Maseroth
in his season, or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? He said, Can you control any
of the constellations that causes all these things to happen? Knowest
thou the ordinances of heaven? Can you control the laws of heaven
so that they provide for the living on the earth? Canst thou
set dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice
to the clouds that the abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst
thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, Here
we are! Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath
given understanding to the heart? Who can number the clouds in
wisdom? Or who can stay the bottles of heaven when the dust grows
into hardness and the clouds cleave fast together? Wilt thou
hunt the prey for the lion? Or feel the appetite of the young
lions when they couch in their dens and abide in the covert
to lie in wait? Who provideth for the raven his
food when his young ones cry unto God and they wander for
lack of meat? You see, all of this, he said,
I control everything from the heaven to the earth to the wilderness
to provide food for the tender bud and the food for the hungry
lion and for the raven and for all these things that men deem
insignificant. I'm feeding all of them. I'm
providing for all of them. And so he's teaching Job and
he's teaching you and I. When we get proud, you just imagine
how Job must have felt. This man, he was a wealthy man. and everything he possessed,
and he thought he had really provided in the things he had,
you know, and God is saying to him right here, you haven't provided
anything. I've provided everything for you. So we get proud. We've got to remember Christ
is the dominion. He's ruling heaven and earth.
He's put wisdom in our inward parts. understanding in the inward
parts. How come you go so long in a
country and you don't know anything about this certain aspect of
medicine? And then one day, all of a sudden, men just, he's been
right there staring them in the face all the time and they say,
ah, now we know how to do that. We discovered it. It's our wisdom.
Who puts wisdom in the inward part? I'd say, who gave that
wisdom to you? When our dry hearts were like
clods of dry dirt, who sent the rain of His grace? When we were
starving for righteousness and for life, who was the bread from
heaven that came down and gave us life to these dead, wild animals
that we were? When He brings us to cry out,
hint to Him like the baby ravens cry out, who is it that provides
the blessing and makes it effectual in the heart? It's Him. He's
our provider. So then lastly we see here God,
He humbles us by reminding us He's the one who gave us life,
who gives us a nature and who gifts us with all gifts. God
gave us life. Look at Job 39.1. Knowest thou
the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth... He's
talking about life now. Canst thou mark when the hounds
do calve? Canst thou number the months
that they fulfill? Or knowest thou the time when
they bring forth? They bow themselves, they bring
forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows, their
young ones are in good liking, they grow up a coin, they go
forth and return not unto them. Just like He gives physical life,
God alone gives spiritual life. We come into this world dead
sinners. God gives life. Just like He
caused these to be born, God causes His people to be born.
And then God gives us a nature. And you know this, now listen,
the nature dictates your will. Quit boasting that we got a free
will. Your will is bound to your nature. Always. Watch this. And God gives
that nature. Job 39.5, Who has sent out the
wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands
of the wild ass, whose house I have made the wilderness, and
the barren land his dwellings? Why does the wild ass like to
dwell there? Because of the nature God gave
him. Look, he scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth
he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is
his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. You
see that? That's his nature. God gave him
that nature. Well, what about this wild animal
they call the unicorn? This is some animal that could
not be tamed by men. And yet God is describing what
God uses him to do out in nature. Look at this. Will the unicorn
be willing to serve you or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind
the unicorn with his band in the furrow? Can you make him
plow? Will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him,
because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labor
to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed
and gather it into thy barn? Maybe this is some wild animal
that men were able to tame to do these things. If it is, God's
saying, who gave him that nature to be tameable? Who gave him
that nature so you can trust him to plow in your field and
he can be taught to do that when others can't? See, God gave him
a nature. And that's what's going to dictate
what you do is the nature God's given you. You're born into this
world, your nature is sinful and corrupt and dead because
Adam sinned in the garden and we were born of his corrupt seed.
So we're going to do what our nature is to do, that is to hate
God. The natural mind is enmity against
God, God says in Romans 8. It's enmity against God. It's
not adamant with God, it is enmity against God. It is hatred against
God. So we're going to hate God. We
don't hate the God of our imagination, but we hate the true and living
God. But when Christ makes you willing in the day of His power,
it's by giving you a new nature, making you partaker of the divine
nature. Now, for the first time, you're willing to believe on
Christ, willing to receive the gospel, willing to say amen to
what God says is so. This is the nature God gives.
And God alone can give it. And God gives all gifts or He
withholds our gifts. We can't be proud over our gifts
either. We can't be proud that we have
life. We can't be proud that we have this nature. We can't
be proud of any gifts we have. Look here at verse 13. Job 39.13,
Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks, or wings and
feathers unto the ostrich, which leaveth her eggs in the earth,
and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that the foot
may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them? She is
hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers,
her labors in vain, without fear. Why is she like that? Because
God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He imparted to her
understanding. You've seen these bumper stickers
that say you can't fix stupid? God can. God can. That's what He does every time
a man is born again and brought to faith in Christ. He just fixed
stupid. But look at this though. He made
her fearless to lift up herself against horse and rider. What
time she lift up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his
rider. See there? She doesn't have one guilt, but
she's got another guilt. Verse 19, "...Hast thou given
the horse strength? Hast thou closed his neck with
thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The
glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paws in the valley and rejoices
in his strength. He goes on to meet the armed
men. He mocks at fear, and he is not affrighted, neither turns
back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him,
the glittering spear and the shield. He swallows the ground
with fierceness and rage, neither believes that it is the sound
of the trumpet. He says to the trumpets, ah-ha,
ah-ha, he smells the battle afar off and thunders, the thunder
of the captains and the shouting. See, who gave him that gift? God said, you can't give that
gift to him, I gave him that gift. What about the hawk? Verse 26, ìDoes the hawk fly
by thy wisdom and stretcheth her wings toward the south? Does
the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high? She
dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, in
the strong place. From thence she sees the prey,
and her eyes behold her far off, and her young ones suck up the
blood. Where the slain are, there is she. See, we can't be proud
of our gifts. Every good and every perfect
gift is from God, comes down from above from the Father of
lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So
now, having done this, you see, it wasn't enough to just give
Job the trial. That's how helpless we are apart from God. God can
give you the trial. That's not going to help you.
You're going to do what Job did and start exalting your pride.
But it takes God coming and speaking to us in our heart and teaching
us what we need to learn from the trial. So He does that. Now
look what happened. Here's Job's reply, Job 40 verse
1. Moreover the Lord answered Job
and said, now listen to this, Shall he that contendeth with
the Almighty instruct him? And he that reproveth God, let
him answer it. Job, you've been contending with
the Almighty. You've been trying to instruct
me. Now, I've given you all these questions. Now you answer me. When God sends a trial, brethren,
don't contend with Him. Don't murmur. Don't complain
about it. You see in all this that we're
seeing here, this is what God's teaching us in every trial. He's
bringing our pride down. He's teaching us He's our power,
the wisdom, our provider, our creator. all things in salvation
to us He is. And this is what He's teaching.
Every single trial, that's what God is teaching His people. And
here's where He's going to bring us. Listen to Job's answer. Then
Job, verse 3, Then Job answered the Lord, and he said, Behold,
I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth once I have spoken, but I will not
answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. Now we're
going to see the next hour That wasn't enough. It just wasn't
enough. God's not done with him yet.
He's got another problem and God's going to deal with it.
But what we've seen from this in this new year when trials
come, maybe they're here already. If we truly believe that all
our salvation is by the sovereign power and wisdom and perfection
of God, whatever the trial, Rather than being lifted up in pride
and face it in pride and trying to think we can take it on and
we're going to handle it and we're going to stand on our feet,
get down at the feet of Christ. Get down at Christ's feet and
look to Him. He's the one we've been talking
about here. This one that's saying, have
you done this like I've done it? He is the one we are talking
about. God trusted the whole thing into Christ's hand in eternity.
Read Colossians 1. He made everything by Him and
for Him. And He is the one saying, can
you do any of this stuff I have done? God has trusted in my hand
with this. So you trust that I have sent this child to you
to bring you down from that pride to my feet to trust me. It is
always the case. And come back now in the second
hour, we will see the second thing is always the case too.
Alright, let's stand together. Father, thank You for this Word.
Thank You for the trials that come. We don't like them. It's never pleasant. But Lord,
if You bring us to this end and teach us and bring us down off
of our lofty high place, what a great end it is to every trial. We thank You for that. Keep us
at Christ's feet. Help us now, Lord, to worship
You and keep these things in our heart even after we leave
here today. We pray for Your people everywhere,
for Your pastors and people that are gathered to hear Your Word.
We know, Lord, that You are manifesting Yourself through the Gospel wherever
Your name is lifted up. Right now, this morning, Glory,
every knee is bowed looking to You and wherever Your Gospel
is being preached, the same thing is happening in the earth all
at the same time. Everybody is looking at Christ.
That is how we want it, Lord. We pray You will do that now
in our hearts. In His precious name we pray.
Amen.