So once again the help of the
Lord would like us to turn together to the second chapter that we
read together at Job 23 and the text you'll find in verse 10.
But he knoweth the way that I take and when he hath tried me I shall
come forth as gold. If we look at the life of Job,
we see that the Lord chose him to walk through a path of great
affliction, a path of great sadness and difficulty and confusion. Although it is easy for us to
read the beginning and to know all that took place and the reasons
why that had to happen. Yet Job was just like us, walking
a day at a time. One day everything seemingly
going fine, the next day everything seems to fall to bits and how
it is even in our own lives, everything seems to be going
smoothly and then things take a turn. and things change, things
alter and we sometimes are completely unaware as to the reasons why
those things come or why they take place and it's like they
come out of nowhere. It would have been the same with
Job. The trial that he entered came out of nowhere, unexpected. His life was a life of prosperity. He had an abundance of things,
yet in a moment it was all taken away from him. And for him, he
wouldn't have known and he didn't know the reason why the Lord
did it. And as we read through the book
we see that his friends come and seek to offer him some comfort. they seem to make the matters
worse. They try to look for the reasons
why the Lord brought this thing into his life. The reason why
God would have afflicted him in such a way and so they try
to bring the answers to Job. And in chapter 22 they accuse
him of committing sin. having no basis for their accusations,
but when they look at the situation that he is in, they can only
be brought to this conclusion, that Job has done something seriously
wrong for God to afflict him in such a harsh and a difficult
way. So they accuse him of great wickedness,
that his iniquities are infinite. The Bible tells us that Job was
an upright man and he eschewed evil. Though his nature was sinful,
his heart, like all hearts, deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked, and no doubt he had committed an abundance of sin, that was
not the reason for the Lord dealing with him. As the Lord looked
upon Job he saw him as a righteous and an upright man. As he maybe saw him in Christ as Job had
that faith to declare that one day his Redeemer would stand
upon the earth. And that Job trusted and loved
and worshipped God. And so for him to be accused
of wickedness and iniquity, external wickedness and iniquity was wrong. And often we can look at other
people's lives and we can try and pinpoint the reason why something
may have happened. And often we can get the wrong
end of the stick because our mind is not the mind of God.
God knows the reason why he does things. He knows the reasons
why he brings things into people's lives. and why he turned Job's
life upside down was because he was testing his servant to
prove to Satan that Job loved God, not because of the material
things that he had, that Job would still hold his integrity,
he would still love God, even if everything that he had was
stripped away from him. And we see that in all this,
Job sinned not. with his lips and acknowledge
that naked he came forth from his mother's womb and naked he
will depart from this earth. Job 1 it says, And Job arose
and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the
ground and worshipped and said, Naked I came out of my mother's
womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not nor
charged God foolishly. And so as I said, as his friends
come and they begin to reason and to try and work out what
Job had done and accuse him here of sin, abusing the poor, not
giving a drink to the weary, withholding bread from the hungry,
not giving to those in need. And so Job answers their request. His situation we could say was
dire. It was a situation that none
of us would ever want to enter into. A situation that I would
think none of us have actually passed through to such a depth
as this man went. and he says that my stroke is
heavier than my groaning. The situation that he is in is
hard. Then the situation is made even
harder by his friends. It's like having a wound and
then somebody coming and pressing that wound adding more pain. It's painful anyway yet they
come and they press it and they press it and they press it. But
worse than all of that was his feeling of a distant God. A feeling that God had abandoned
him. He says, oh that I knew where
I might find him. that I might come even to his
seat. His friend Eliphaz had told Job,
you've sinned. These are the sins that you've
done. But if you turn to him, if you return to the Almighty,
then he will return to you. He will build you back up. You
will have everything that you had again. And the advice was
good. to turn to God in repentance
and trust, and God would turn again to him and to make his
prayer unto him. But Job says, oh, that I knew
where I might find him. I might even come to his seat.
His friend's telling him, you pray. And he's saying, I've been
praying. I've been laboring at the throne
of grace. I've been unburdening my case
before the Lord, but it seems like the Lord's ear is deaf unto
my cry. He's not speaking to me. He's
not moving on my behalf. His ear is deaf to me. If I could find him, I would
find him. I would lay it all out before
him. Then I know that he would answer
me. And I would understand what he would say unto me. I would plead with him and that he would
put strength into me. Says I go forward but he's not
there. Backward but I cannot perceive
him. On the left hand where doth he
work but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right
hand and I cannot see him. I don't know if you've ever been
in a situation like that. You know the things of life are
falling apart. There's nobody to comfort you. Miserable comforters are ye,
you say. And then you're crying to God.
And God seems to be silent. The Bible seems to be closed. Just words on a page offering
you no comfort, offering you no help, offering you no peace. It's like the Lord's mouth is
closed. His ears are closed. Providentially,
it seems like His face is against you. His hand has gone out against
you. And you're in the darkness. And
you can't understand why or what is happening. Job is there. A miserable, lonely, cold, isolated
place for a believer to be. But then he comforts himself
with this. I don't know where he is. But
he knows where I am. He knows the way that I take. I don't know what he is doing.
I can't work out the end from the beginning. I can't get any
comfort from his word. He seems to be deaf to my cry.
I don't know is our cry. But then what he does know, he
knows that God knows. but he knows the way that I take. How often we forget that God
knows. There is nothing God could ever
forget, especially his beloved people who he placed in Christ
Jesus. Could never forget them. He knows exactly where they are. exactly what they are doing,
exactly where they are going, exactly what they are passing
through. Of course he knows about Job
and of course he knows about you and your situation. God is
all-knowing. He possesses complete understanding
of past, present and future events. and the intimate details of every
life of one of his children. He knows. And so Job comforts himself with
this statement of faith in the nature, the character
of God. It's a difficult situation. Made
worse by his friends, made worse by the seemingly an absent God. Yet he took comfort from the
fact that God knows. And that God was causing him
to pass through this thing for a specific reason. For he says,
he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, when
he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. In Isaiah chapter 30 verse 18. And therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you therefore will he exalt that
he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment
blessed are they that wait for him. Job was able to continue
in his present situation by the knowledge that God knew Not only
that God knew but that God had a purpose in the trial that he
was passing through to bring him forth as gold. He was able
to view by faith the end of the trial knowing that it would have
a specific benefit and effect upon his life. And so he is able
to wait for God. Blessed are they. that wait for
him. The Lord waits that he may be
gracious. The purpose of the trial, the
elongating of the trial is to enable Job, we could say, to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
grow in his own understanding of himself and the greatness
of his God. Isn't it the same with us? The
longer you wait for something, when that thing happens the greater
the rejoicing it is. Through an elongated trial the
desperation that we may feel for that thing to finish As we
wait patiently for when that time comes for that deliverance
great is the rejoicing. Forty years the children of Israel
wandered through the wilderness before the Lord took them over
into the promised land to humble them and to prove them to know
what was in their heart whether they loved the Lord their God
or not. It's been often said, hasn't
it, that anyone can say that they love God when everything
is going smooth. And just as Satan came to test
or came to accuse Job of loving God because of the material things
that he had, God sought to test him and to reveal to the kingdom
of darkness that Job was not in love with the material things
that he had, that his love for God was far greater than the
love for the material things, and so he could take it all away,
even his health. And Job was still able to confess,
he knows the way that I take, and when he has tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. He's able to say the way. He
knows the way because God is all-knowing. Of course, he knows
the way. He knows the way that Job takes
because he put Job on the way. He knows the difficulty that
Job is passing through because he put him into that difficulty. He knows the way that he takes. in Psalm 107. And verse 6 it says, they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distresses
and he led them forth by the right way that they might go
to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and his wonderful works to the children
of men. the Lord is all-knowing, knows
the end from the beginning as he leads his people on the pathway
of life, that narrow way that leads to life, he leads them
forth forward in a right way. Job although a difficult way
and a hard way and a sad way and a perplexing way a mysterious
way yet it was still the right way. It was right because God
led him on it and he's able to confess that God knows the way
that he is on. As I was thinking of God knowing
God knowing everything. I was reminded of some other
texts which speak about the Lord knowing. In Psalm 103, sorry. It tells us there in verse 13,
like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that
we are dust. For as a man, his days are as
grass, as a flower in the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passes over it, and it is done, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. He knoweth our frame, he remembereth
that we are dust, as a father pities his children. The Lord
understands the weakness and frailty of the human body. He
understands the frailty of the human mind and the perplexities
which we feel. He understands that we can't
work out the way that he is leading us, that we cannot see the end
from the beginning. He understands the limited nature
of our minds. He remembers that we are but
the dust of this earth. You know that God is spirit. He knows no bounds, no limits. If we go to the tops of the mountains,
there he is. If we go down into the depths
of the earth, there he is. There is nowhere that we can
not be from the presence of Almighty God. He knows our frame and remembers
we are but the dust. But in more detail, in a more intimate way. He knows us in
Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ put on
flesh. He was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. And so though we may
look at God the Father and see that he doesn't understand the
weaknesses of the flesh, the frailty of the mind, that we
are made from the dust of the earth, yet through Christ Jesus
we have this great high priest who is touched by our weakness
and our infirmity. because he has been housed in
a body like unto our body yet without sin. He understands what
it is to be persecuted, to be hurt, to be tired, to be weary,
to be buffeted by Satan, to be tempted in the wilderness. He understands our frame completely. And so when we come to the throne
of grace as Job, as he seeks for God, he comes to him trying
to find him. We come to God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Hebrews 4 is where it tells
us there about our high priest. Seeing then, we have this great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And so through Christ God the
Father understands that we are but the dust of this earth and
the human frailty and weakness that we have, who can understand
the mind of the Lord. His ways are far higher and greater
than our ways. But Job rested on that, that
although I don't know, although I am frail and weak and but the
dust of this earth, limited knowledge, limited understanding, limited
ability, yet he rested on the fact that God knew. I don't know,
but God knows and he knows exactly where I am. He knows exactly
the way that I am taking because he has led me down that path. He has brought me into this present
situation that I'm in. Although it is extremely difficult,
it is a dire situation, yet the Lord knows. And because Christ has ascended
up into glory, he has given to us his spirit, the Holy Spirit,
the Comforter, to help us on our way, to bring us to that
throne of grace, to offer up that prayer with groanings that
cannot be uttered, that our prayer will enter into the ears of the
Heavenly Father, although he delays his answer, Yet he sustains
in the trial and when that time comes that his purposes are fulfilled
in that trial only then will he deliver as Job experiences
at the end of the book that great deliverance and that great blessing
as he waited for the Lord and the Lord then appears unto him. So he remembers our frame he
knoweth he knows our frame. because he knows our frame. He
created Adam from the dust of the ground. David says, I was
knit together in my mother's womb. Every single one of us
has been made by God. He knows our character. He knows
the things that we struggle with. He knows the things that are
perplexing and difficult to us right now. But the Bible goes even closer
with the relationship that the believer has with God the Father
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does God know what is
going through our minds and the present situation that we are
in and that when we come to him in prayer we are not revealing
to him things that he doesn't know. We are merely pouring out our soul to a father
that is in heaven who knows the things that we have need of before
we even ask him. But the Bible tells us, Matthew
6 verse 8, Be ye not therefore like unto them for your father knoweth. Your father knows what things
you have need of before ye ask him. God the Father has chosen
to weave prayer into his will for the benefit of his dear people. He knows what we need. He made
us. He knows the necessities of the
body. He knows the necessities of our
souls and yet he has chosen to use
the means of prayer in his will to encourage us. He's chosen to weave sinful man
into his own perfect will to bring about his own purposes. so that we can be encouraged
in our faith, that we as a sinful person dropped to our knees and
pleaded with our Father in heaven about something that's concerning
to us and then we witnessed the answer to that request. that
God already knew exactly what we needed and he prompted us
by his spirit to pray for that thing and then we witness the
answer to that thing and our weak faith is encouraged to press
on and we say praise the Lord he answered my request. Do not
deserve the least of his mercies but he inclined his ear unto
me and he heard my cry and he answered my prayer. What a mercy
it is to experience the answers to our prayers that this holy,
holy, holy God would even listen to us. We said recently the children
don't listen sometimes to us. Sometimes you're speaking to
adults and it's obvious that they're not listening. They start
looking around and King Charles would never listen to any of
us. Why would he be interested in what we have to say? Yet our
Father in heaven delights to hear the cries of his people.
He has told them, come boldly to the throne of grace through
my beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know your frame. I
remember you are but dust of the earth. I see your weaknesses,
but come to me. I'll burden your heart and I
will hear in heaven my dwelling place and I'll forgive your sin
and I'll work on your behalf in your life to bring about my
purposes for my own glory, just as Job. He knoweth the way that
I take and when he has tried me, when he has tested me, then
I will come forth as gold. True faith, living faith, genuine
faith must be tested, must be proved in the furnace
of affliction and even if we come into situations that we
cannot understand Circumstances that are beyond our limited understanding
yet our faith lays hold of the truth that God knows. That when we don't know God knows. The scriptures tell
us many are the afflictions of the righteous. but the Lord delivers him out
of them all. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Jesus tells
us in the world you will have trouble, tribulation. I'll be
of good cheer I have overcome the world and if we understand
that those trials are working for a specific purpose it helps
us as we pass through them that God has not just decided randomly
to bring this thing into our life but he has appointed it
for a particular purpose. Maybe it is because we have drifted
off into some sin that he brings it in as a discipline but then
it is still done in love It is still done with a purpose not
to destroy you but to bring you back to himself as a heavenly
father deals with his children. He brings that discipline, that
correction, that trial into their lives for restoration not for
destruction. It has a purpose. Ultimately
it is for our growing in grace and to being conformed into the
image and likeness of Christ. That sanctifying effect that
trials should have in the lives of believers. I said to you before
of a sculptor. As they begin work
on a rock no one can see any likeness in it. But as he chisels
away day by day by day, slowly a shape begins to appear. He's making it into something,
a likeness of something, a person. And so it is with each of the
Lord's people, the Lord, God the Father, is conforming them
to the image of his Son, working on them day by day by day, bringing
trials into their lives, sanctifying them. causing them to grow as
a seed of the word is planted into their hearts it brings forth
fruit for the honour and glory of God the Father and so there
is a specific reason for Job's trial and there is a specific
reason for your trial so that you may come forth as gold. Gold in scripture portrays holiness
You see in the temple, the gold that was there. God is making
you holy. He is putting you in the fire,
turning up the heat so that the dross, that sin, comes to the
surface and then cleans it off. Yes, we will never be perfect
this side of the grave, but he works and works and works upon
his people. as he did with Job, I shall come
forth as God. So although we don't know, but
we do know what the purpose is. And if we can hold the purpose
of the trial in our minds, that God is not afflicting us willingly,
but he has a purpose to bring whatever it is into our life,
to shape us and to mould us, whether it is correction or whether
it is for his own glory, that we may glorify him in the trial
that we are passing through. The end result is God. And as we pass through that last
trial, that last enemy death, then we enter into that sinless
state. We wait for our bodies to be
redeemed, to be resurrected on that great day, a body like unto
his body, a body without sin, a body that can stand in the
presence of a holy God for all eternity. Then we will be as
pure gold, holy, before the Lord. Peter says that the trial of
your faith is much more precious than gold that perishes though
it be tried with fire. So as God knew exactly what Job
needed the Lord knows exactly what we need and although we
pass through various varied situations in life. God brings each one
through a distinct pathway and brings various trials into the
lives of each of his people. But he does so for a specific
reason. My trials are not your trials.
Your trials are not my trials. God deals with us as individuals
knowing our character, our nature, what we need. As the heavenly
physician, he provides the treatment necessary for individual people
to cause them to grow in grace and to be conformed to the likeness
of his son. And Job says, though I can't
find him, I can't see him. I'm not being spoken to. It's
as though the Lord is not listening to my cry. I'm in the darkness. But one thing I do know, I don't
know where he is, but I know that he knows where I am. And
I know that he knows what he is doing in my life to bring
about his purposes and that end of that purpose. is that I may
be conformed to the image of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For he knoweth the way that I
take, and when he has tried me, tested me, I shall come forth
as gold. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. May the Lord help us as we sing
our final hymn from Gatsby's 461 to the tune 671. Lord dismiss us with thy blessing,
fill our hearts with joy and peace. Let us each, thy love
possessing, triumph in redeeming grace. O refresh us, O refresh
us, travelling through this wilderness. 461. ? Fill our hearts with joy and
peace ? Oh, refresh us! Oh, refresh us! Gambling through this wilderness. Length we give in adoration For
thy gospel's joyful sound. May the fruits of thy salvation
in our hearts and minds be found. May thy presence, may thy presence
with us evermore May we read Thee, May we read
Thee, And now may the grace of God
and the love of the, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God, the fellowship and the communion of the Holy
Spirit to be with us each now and for evermore. Amen. Amen.