Once again, with the Lord's help,
I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Job, chapter 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. Those who were here this morning
will remember that we looked at the way in which the Lord
leads his people and that as we are converted we are given
a new heart, a new desire. We lose sight of our own will. We say with Christ, not my will
but thy will be done. We deny ourselves and take up
our cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and we surrender
ourselves to him. We, as it were, jump into the
boat and he is the master of the ship and he sails, he is
in control and we go where he he takes us and where he leads
us. And although our destination
is the same, we all end up or all believers end up in heaven
to be with the Lord forever and ever, yet their pathways are
distinct. And as each individual is an
individual member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
have been equipped for the tasks that the Lord has given them
to do. And so they are led in unique
and distinct ways and there are times in our lives when we have
to make decisions and choices. We can make wrong choices, we
can make wrong decisions and there are times when we have
to step back and turn and come to repentance and to return and to seek guidance again as
to the Lord's will for us. And the Christian life is a life
of seeking to know and to do the Lord's will. Sometimes there
are times of silence when we have to walk in silence. that we're on the path that the
Lord wants us to be in. And there is no reason for him
to tell us to turn to the left and turn to the right for we're
walking on that right way. We're walking in the pathway
that he wants us to walk at that specific time. And there are
times when our lives are so difficult or so unsettling when we need then
that constant affirmation, that constant confirmation that we
are walking in that right way. Which way is it that I am meant
to be taking? And there are times in life when
we have to make big choices regarding husbands and wives, regarding
school and college and university and work and career change and
all manner of things. and they're decisive points in
life that you don't want to make that decision based on your own
knowledge. You seek for that divine guidance. Lord, what is thy will? Which
is the way that thou have me to go? And so the Christian pathway
is that constant looking to the Lord as our shepherd and as we
saw that there are sometimes that times when the Lord seems
not to be there and we have to walk forward in faith and then
we hear that voice behind us saying, this is the way, walk
ye in it. That voice can be that voice
of conscience knowing that the Lord through the Spirit has made
our conscience sensitive And so we seek to know and to do
his will and we listen to those promptings from within. And there
are times when we have to line up those three lights, the word
of God, the promptings of the spirit, the conscience and also
providence. And so there are ways in which
the Lord leads his people and it is essential for believers
to look constantly to the Lord seeking
for those points, those lights, for those ways of direction and
being aware of what is going on inside. Do we feel some measure
of anxiety regarding what we are doing? And as I was driving
home, I was thinking of an event that took place in my life. Someone had crashed into Elsie's
car years ago. And we'd been given a Volkswagen
Passat for an insurance car. It was really nice. And we had
it for months. And then we had to give it back.
And my business was doing quite well. And so I thought, well,
maybe I'll get one. So I went to Volkswagen and spoke
to the representative there and ordered one. But deep down, I
felt it was wrong. But I kept suppressing that feeling. And on the day when I came to
sign the agreement, I noticed that they had increased the payments. So I questioned them and they
said, oh, they've done this, they've done that. I've got no
control over it. But it gave me an opportunity to walk away.
And thankfully I did because I ended up losing a load of money
on a job and I wouldn't have been able to afford the payments. But what it was, was that prompting
within. What you're doing is not right.
It was like the spirit was speaking, yet I was suppressing it. I didn't
want to be put to shame by going to them and saying, look, I don't
want it anymore. But thankfully, the Lord intervened and I was
able to walk away. But it was that nagging voice
of conscience that can be suppressed. The voice behind you saying,
Turn not to the left hand or to the right. This is the way. Walk in it. And so the Christian
life is a life of seeking to know and to do the Lord's will. But also it's a life of the Lord
testing and trying his people. And we all know the story of
Job and how the Lord dealt with him in such a fiery trial, such
a difficult pathway that he had to pass through. And it's very
easy for us to read about it. And because we are able to see
into heaven and we're able to witness the conversation between
the Lord and Satan and the reasons why these things were taking
place. Yet Job was not. Job was just
like you and me. The events that took place in
his life came out of the blue. He woke up one morning and suddenly
all of his life was turned upside down by the end of the day. He
didn't know the reasons why. He didn't know that it was between
God and Satan. God was seeking to prove to Satan
that Job loved God, not because of the material things that he
had gained, but because he loved God. because of who God was. Job knew that he came into this
world with nothing and he should leave the world with nothing.
Job knew that everything that he had had been given to him
by the Lord and the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But
Job also knew that God was the judge of all the earth and that
he should do right. Job also knew that one day he
must stand before God And so Job loved God because of who
God was, not because of the abundance of the things that Job had been
given. And so the Lord says to Satan,
go to him, take all of these things away. And he will, Satan says, take
all these things away and he will curse thee to thy face. And so Job entered into a great
fiery trial. And it was to test his faith,
to see that whether his faith was a genuine faith or not. Job, just as a person like you
and I, experienced the same experiences that we experience in trial.
You know, he lost sight of of God. He says, oh that I knew
where I might find him. I might even come to his seat. I would order my case before
him. I'll fill my mouth with arguments. I would, he would, so I go, I go forward but he
is not there and 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, but I cannot see him. And so Job
in the trial, such was the fiery condition of the trial and the
difficult circumstances that he was in. Trusting in the invisible
God he sought to search out for God as to where he could find
him. He looked on the left but he was not there. He looked on
the right, he could not perceive him. He felt as though God was
hiding himself from him. It's like God was in the darkness. He was shut out Job, shut out
Job's cries. And it's a very difficult place
to be in. If you've ever experienced what
Job has experienced spiritually speaking, maybe not having lost
so much as him, but a feeling of darkness, a feeling of being
abandoned by God, a feeling of being shut out of heaven, a feeling
of your prayers not even being able to go, as it were, beyond
your bedroom. It's like you cry unto the Lord
and his ear is deaf. It's like he doesn't see. And
you pray and you pray and you pray. You pour out your heart
unto the Lord and it feels like it doesn't go anywhere and you're
searching the scriptures and you're after a word. You're seeking
for a blessing for your soul and there's nothing. You turn
page after page after page and it's just words and words and
words. Like Job, he says, I go backward
and he's not there. I go forward and I can't perceive
him. It's a difficult place to be
in but it's a testing place of God. God tests his children and
sometimes he seems as though he withdraws himself from them
to see how we react to the present situations. Job lay hold on what
he knew. He says, I can't perceive that
God is there, but what I do know, I know that he knows the way
that I take. And so these trials that the
Lord puts his people through, they are not to They're not so that he may gain
more knowledge about us. Because he knows everything. He knows how you will be as you
enter into a trial. He knows how you will be as you
walk through the trial. And he knows how you will be
when you come out of the trial. And so the trial itself is not
to benefit God or to add to God's knowledge anything. The trial
itself is for the person or for the people round about
or for Satan. Job's trial was in a way to prove
to Satan that Job loved God. And even if you removed all of
his props, all of his luxuries, all of those material things
round about him, Job would still love God. You see, Satan couldn't
understand why anybody would love God. Satan believed that
it is the wealth that caused Job worshipping God. And he wanted to hear Job curse
God and die. One minister said this, as Job
bent down upon the floor after all his things had been taken,
he was hoping, as Job bent down upon the floor, as though Satan
drew near and he was hoping that he would hear him curse God and
die but instead he says naked I came forth from my mother's
womb and naked I came into this world and naked he will pass
or I came into this world with nothing and I will leave with
nothing. Satan didn't get what he wanted but Job was tested and proved. And you and I are able to read
about him and be encouraged that someone can pass through such
difficulty and such hardship and still experience the love
of God and still experience the help of God and still be brought
through at the latter end. So trials are for the benefit
of the saint. They're for the benefit of the
church. and they had to prove to Satan that these are people
of God who truly love God with all of their heart, soul and
mind. And Job felt, yes, as we do,
sometimes abandoned, yet he was not abandoned. He searched for
God, but he felt that he couldn't find Him, but he rested upon
what he knew about God. And this is where faith comes
into our trials. Sometimes it can be so black. Sometimes it can be so difficult. It can be so hard. And we can
feel like we are abandoned and lost and alone. But this is where
faith steps in. Sight sees nothing. Sight sees no hope. Sight sees
loneliness, but faith lays hold of the word of God and the promises
of God and God's love towards his people. And so Job says,
but he knoweth the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I shall
come forth as God. He looked for God. but he couldn't
see him. So he rested on what he knew
about God and what God was doing. He knew how God worked. He knew
the purposes for God in trial. He knew that God had a greater
purpose in the trial that he was passing through to do something
to Job that Job didn't have before. Yes, he lost material things. Yes, he lost his children. But
God was doing something to Job himself. He was going to test
him and he was going to bring him forth as gold. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? My God, why has thou abandoned
me? Job felt to be abandoned. Job felt to be isolated and alone. Yet he was able to rest on the
promise that God will never leave nor forsake his people. He rested
on the promise that God is all-knowing and that God knew the way that
he was taking. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou abandoned
me or forsaken me? He truly was. Job wasn't. And you and I, if
we are believers in Christ, we may feel like we are abandoned. We may feel like we can't find
God. We can't search for him. He's
in the darkness. But we can always fall back on
that. Our faith can always rest upon
that, that God never ever abandons his people because he has abandoned
Christ for them upon the cross. That Christ was forsaken of the
Father so that the children of God will never ever be forsaken
of the Father. They are loved with an everlasting
love and he knows the way that they take. He knows about them. He knows everything about them.
He is leading them and guiding them and directing them and he
is with them in their trial even though they feel like they are
completely alone. Even though they feel like they
are abandoned. Yet they are not. Job says I
go forward but he's not there. I go backwards I can't perceive
him, I can't sense him. On the left hand, where does
he work? I can't behold him. He hides himself on the right
hand. I cannot see him, but I know that he knows the way that I
take. And so we had a right view of
God. And this is essential. Satan will always try and undermine
our view of God. tell you that God is horrible,
that he's not being kind, that you don't deserve what you're
going through. And so we have to lay, our faith
has to anchor onto who God is. Job. His faith anchored to an
all-knowing God that he knew everything about him and God's purposes in the trials
that he was passing through. Job knew that the Lord tests
the righteous. You know sometimes You look at
the lives of Christians and they seem to pass through more difficulties
than other people. Their lives seem to be harder.
There seems to be much more ups and downs, many sadnesses and
sorrows. And you look at the lives of
the unbelievers and it seems like they sail through life. But there is a reason for it.
that God, he is at work in the lives of his children. He tests
them as Abraham was tested by God to prove whether he loved
God more than Isaac, whether he had enough faith to believe
in the promises of God, whether God would, as God had promised
that Isaac would be, that through Isaac the seed would continue.
God tested him. And so he continues to test his
people. Psalm 11, verse 5, it says, The
Lord tries the righteous. He tests them. The righteous
are the people of God. They're not righteous in their
own standing. Their righteousness comes from
the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are declared righteous
and just before the law of God. And the Lord tests the righteous.
But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon
the wicked he shall rain snares and fires and brimstone and an
horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of
their cup. For the righteous the Lord loveth righteousness.
His countenance doth behold. the upright. And so the Lord
tests the righteous and it's vital that we understand that
as a child of God that the Lord is going to test your faith,
he's going to put you through the furnace, he's going to seek
to prove you whether you love the Lord your God or not, whether
you're just a a Christian who likes a smooth,
easy pathway, whether you're just a dressing room soldier,
or whether you're willing to walk through the battles of trials
and afflictions, the Lord tests the righteous. And Job knew that. He says he knows the way that
I take. The scriptures tell us, don't
they, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Once we are
in Christ, we've been adopted into the family of God, we belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are His. God is the Heavenly
Father. He knows all things and He has
said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, even if you
pass through the fire, I'll be with you there. In the water
it shall not overflow you. And these are things that we
have to lay hold of as we pass through the difficulties of life.
Satan will want to sow doubts and fears and lies into our minds. But the truth must prevail that
God will never abandon his people and he never abandoned Job. And Job rested on that knowledge,
his faith anchored into that truth that he knows the way that
I take. And so Job knew that the trial
had a purpose, it had an end result, that God was doing something. In the book of Romans, chapter 5. it says in verse 1, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God and
not only so but we glory in tribulation Just like Job, he understood
there is a purpose. He could glory in tribulation.
He knows the way that I take and when he has tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. not only but we glory in tribulation
knowing that tribulation work is patience and patience experience
and experience hope and hope make us not ashamed because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. And so the apostle knew that
there was a purpose. A purpose in his tribulation
so much so he says I can glory in my tribulation because God
is working. He's working patience, endurance,
experience and hope. And so in Job's life and in our
life, God doesn't afflict without purpose. He doesn't cause
his children to go through a trial and not have any effect. The trial of our faith, Peter
says, is much more precious than gold that perishes, though it
will be tried with fire. Job understood. He says, I will
come forth as gold. There is an effect upon it. And so Job had in his mind that
God knows what he is doing. God knows what he is doing. And the trial was working for
the benefit of Job. If you were to have a operation you would want to know that the
surgeon knows what he is doing. And when you know that the surgeon
knows what he is doing, that will give you some hope that
all will be okay. If you had no hope in the surgeon
as you prepared for the operation, you would be extremely anxious
and afraid. If you had met the surgeon beforehand
and you saw that he was incompetent, he was dropping his knife, he
was chipping over this and that, you wouldn't have much hope in
him. But if you were able to view him as a competent person
and you could see that he knows what he's on about, then you
can rest, you can put yourself into his hands, you can have
faith in him. How much more than God? As a
child of God, as he puts us through trials and as he puts us into
the crucible or on the fire, as he turns up the heat of trial
in our life, how much more should we trust in him? That he knows
exactly what he is doing and how often it is that we're so
drawn aside from focusing upon him. and his greatness and his
ability and his purposes. That we become like Job as he
searches this way and that way for God and can't find him and
then we come to that point and we rest on that point that he
knows the way that we take and that he tries us that we shall
come forth as gold. And so the trial that Job was
passing through, the trial that you and I pass through, God is
at work as the refiner, the heavenly refiner in our life. Turns up
the heat to bring out the dross of our lives. And you all know, don't you,
of those who those goldsmiths and how they purify the gold
by putting it over the fire. And as they heat it up then the
impurities will come to the surface and it's scraped off. The gold
becomes pure. The dross is removed. The unnicities
are taken away and scraped aside and so that is the purpose of
God. in our trials. He turns up the
heat, the dross in our lives that is exposed. Sins are dealt
with. Weaknesses are dealt with. Besetting sins are dealt with. Lukewarmness and coldness, hard-heartedness
is all dealt with in the fiery furnace of affliction where the
Lord deals with his people. He doesn't do it to destroy,
but he does it to refine. He does it to show us who we
are and who he is. Every trial that the Christian
passes through has a specific purpose. Maybe we could say a
specific sin is being targeted in the life of that person. As
Job, he didn't understand all that he was going through yet
God was at work and he says, I shall come forth as God. At the end of the book of Job,
Job has a confession. Chapter 42. And Job answered the Lord and
said, in verse five it says, I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself
and repent in dust and in ashes. Here's the outcome of this refining
process on the man, Job. He saw himself in a new light.
He saw himself in the eyes of God. As the goldsmith puts the metal
into the crucible he doesn't really know what's going to come
out. He doesn't know how much impurities are going to have
to be scraped off. But he knows if he turns up the
heat it will have an effect. It's been said, hasn't it, that
the goldsmith knows when the gold is ready, when he sees his
face in the gold itself. And so Job, as he has passed
through this crucible experience, this refining process, he sees
himself. Oh, I abhor myself. I realise what a sinner I am. I realise how impure I am. I realise what weaknesses I have. I realise what sin still remained
in me. And I abhor myself. And I repent
of that sin. I've said to you before, there
are times only when you've been outside and working, maybe you've
been on a walk through the woods or you've been playing sports
and you go and have a shower and you wash yourself and you
see the filth that comes off and you realize how dirty you
were. A part of the process of God putting
his children through the trial is to make them realize how unclean
and how sinful they are. Yes, they may be righteous in
his sight through the Lord Jesus Christ, yet they carry a baggage
load of besetting sin with them. And so the process that Joe went
through, he comes to the conclusion, I abhor myself. I repent in dust
and ashes. This trial had a double effect. You see, not only did Job see
himself in a new light, but he also learned more about God.
He says, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. That's
what he knew before. Before, as he walked with the
Lord, he had an experience. But as he went through the trial,
His experience became deeper. He became more acquainted with
God and himself as he saw himself and his sinful nature in a deeper
way. So he saw God in a deeper way. He began by just hearing. But now he says, I see. But now my eye seeth thee. And because of this, I abhor
myself and repent in dust and in ashes. Remember Peter, when
Peter was on the boat with the Lord
Jesus Christ, as Christ tells him to cast the net onto the
right side of the ship, and he caught all those fish, and he
says, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. You see
the effect that the revelation of God or the revelation of Christ
has upon a person is to show them their own sin, a reflection
of themselves, to make them realize this is how sinful you actually
are. And so as we pass through the
fire As the heat is turned up in our lives and the gold is
melted and the dross raises to the top, the Lord is showing
us, this is how sinful you are. But not just how sinful you are,
how gracious I am. As we look to Isaiah and we see
how God shows us the sin of the people of Israel, This is how
sinful they are. Yet my arm is still stretched
out in mercy. I'm still willing to receive
them if they will turn from their sin. If they will come to me,
then I will receive them unto myself. And so the double-edged
sword, as it were, of trial is that it shows us our sin, but
it shows us more of the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus,
that he's willing to accept such sinful people into his family
and to continue dealing with them as sons and daughters of
God and as Job says, excuse me, but he knoweth the way that I
take and when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold. So
Job knew This is what God is doing. He knows and I know that
he knows what he is doing. The purposes of his trial are
not to destroy me but to refine me. It's been said that trial It's been said that a good man
shines in trial. Trials have the ability to make
us shine or to shatter us. The purposes of God in our trial
are to make us shine. as gold gets brighter in the
furnace, as the refiner views himself in the gold. So the people
of God are to shine in their trials. When we are shattered in our
trials is when we've lost sight of the
purposes of our trials and we begin to forget that God is at
work, that God has a purpose. As Paul says, I glory in tribulation,
knowing that tribulation works patience and patience, endurance
and endurance hope. As Job says, he knows the way
that I take and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold,
or may be enabled to remember the purposes of God in our trials. And even Job, in the amount that
he went through, and though he's filled with doubts and fears
and perplexities about all that is going on, yet he is able to
lay hold, to grip hold of this truth that God knows, and that
God is doing something for the benefit of my soul in this trial,
the trial of your faith. is much more precious than gold
that perishes. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Let's sing together our closing
hymn for today from Gadsby's hymn number 143. 143. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Cleanse
me from its guilt and power. Hymn 143, tune 505. Let me hide myself in Thee. sing good thoughts of God, help
us save the world. Now thee I have I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. Make it come true. Thou best look to me for grace,
Thou light to the fountain fly, Hush me, Savior, for I am Thine. in breath, when my eyes' shapes
break in dim. When I saw through the eyes of
love, seeing all my judgment through, a clock of ages fell. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for this day that has been given to us. We thank
Thee for the purposes of the trials in our life and we pray
that we may be helped to focus upon Thy goodness and Thy loving
hand in all things. We pray that Thou dismiss us
with Thy blessing, take us home, we pray in peace and in safety
and do be with us as we begin another week of time. Now with
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father,
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with
us each now and for evermore. Amen.