Seeking the Lord's help for a
little while this morning, turn with me to the chapters we read
in Job chapter 1 and those first few words which are repeated
in verses 16, 17 and 18. Job chapter 1 and the words repeated
in verses 16, 17 and 18. While he was yet speaking. While
he was yet speaking. Dear John Bunyan, it is recorded
as saying that a Christian man is seldom long at ease. When one trouble comes, another
doth him seize. And indeed, this was the case
of Job, and sometimes it is the case of the Lord's dear people. It is of no accident, I believe,
that our pastor, I understand, and seeing from the website,
I believe that he's preached about 11 sermons now on putting
on the whole armor of God. And in Ephesians chapter 6 that
we read there, in verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord, and in the power of his might put on the whole armour
of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places, wherefore take unto you the whole armour of
God. that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand. And so he has taken
over several weeks, verses 14 onwards, of what that armour
is and what it represents. and that seeking to direct us
and to bless us and to favour us in this dark world of sin. And as we have to contend with
many things, some which are collectively, some which are as families, and
some which we walk alone. And so as I have come this morning
with these chapters, Job 1 and 2, I don't come as one that says,
I don't know who this is for. Well of course I don't. But what
I do know is that we are an afflicted people. The Lord has been pleased,
hasn't He, during this year especially, to lay His afflicting hand on
one and another. And we can truly say sometimes
that as we have heard of one, and then it's quickly been followed
by we hear of another. and another, called to walk in
deep waters, called to come into the Thari furnace. Now I can't remember whether
when I sought to give the prayer meeting address 10 or 11 days
ago, whether I repeated to you this
that was made a great blessing to me a long, long time ago when
in deep affliction. But it may be worth repeating
it. I know that I've said it somewhere
recently. And that is, it is doubtful It
is doubtful that God will ever use anyone greatly without first
hurting them. Without hurting them first. And it's this, I walked a mile
with pleasure, and she chatted all the way, but left me none
the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow. And never not a word, said she,
but O the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me. Who is it? Who's our friend? Who's our friend who sticketh
closer than a brother? Why, it's none other, is it,
than the man of sorrows, the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And so, dear friends, as we come
this morning to consider these things, these things which are
very, very real things, and which perhaps you've been struggling,
you've been struggling as you've sat under the ministry and heard
of this armour to be put on, and you've struggled. Well the
Lord knows it all, but you keep on, you keep seeking, you keep
knocking, you keep asking. Seek, knock, ask. And He will hear in His good
time and way, He will hear. The path of sorrow and that path
alone leads to the land where sorrow is unknown. And we're going to, I see that
we're going to finish our service this morning with that lovely
hymn, that prospect, that prospect and all that you that are so
down, that you that are so overwhelmed, that this might prove to be a
sweet blessing to you, to plead yes. Yes, despite all that Satan
says, despite all of these things that have come into my pathway,
yes, I shall soon be landed. on yonder shores of bliss. There, with my powers expanded,
shall dwell where Jesus is. Oh, it's Jesus as He was to begin,
wasn't He? That beautiful sermon that He
preached just before going to the cross. Let not your heart
be troubled, in John 14, Ye believe in God. Don't let the enemy tell
you you don't believe in him because this wouldn't happen,
that wouldn't happen. Ye believe in God. Believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. What a prospect! What a prospect! The poor worldling
knows nothing of these things. He knows nothing. Oh, the enemy
leaves him alone. Now don't get me wrong. Man is
born under trouble as the sparks fly upward. But the worldling
does have troubles of all sorts of things. But he has no hope. He has no hope. And the enemy
will do what he can, as he did to Joe, to try and destroy that
hope. We have, don't we, such a graphic
description of him in verse 7 of our chapter and also in verse
2 of chapter 2. The Lord said unto Satan, Whence
comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it. 2 And the LORD said unto Satan,
From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it those of you that have been to safari parks
and things will have seen the lions and they look so elegant
don't they look so beautiful as there they are they're prowling
up and down up and down, oh they look so harmless, but oh, what
are they prowling for? They're prowling for their prey,
and they'll go for it, and they'll snatch it, and they'll kill. And friends, and that's what
he does to the people of God. He's prowling up and down seeking
whom he may destroy. He'll seek to snuff out that
hope that you have, that good hope that you have through grace. Oh, but friends, we sang, didn't
we? Salvation is of grace. How sovereign
is the love of God to Israel's favoured few. And friends, and
for your encouragement this morning, Emmanuel had not bled and died,
nor suffered in our place, but for this truth. Oh, sound it
wide. Salvation is of grace. So, yes, we've nothing. We did Job, wasn't it? As he
came to the end of the first chapter. Oh, having lost, having
lost everything, having lost everything, his cattle, his family,
there was everything had gone but he says in this naked came
I 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. You know, friends, the last thing
that I would ever seek to be, the last thing that I trust that
I will ever be is to discourage and to bring sorrow and affliction
and trouble upon trouble upon one that is already going through
it. The Lord knows that that would
not be my intention whatsoever. And so we would seek with the
help of the Lord to try to speak of a humble submission, a humble
submission to his heavenly mind and will. And when we're going
through it, that's the hardest thing to do. It's a hard, hard
thing to do. but friend he will bring you
the Lord will eventually bring you as as he's allowing all of
this he's allowing all of this and it's for his glory and it's
for that for your good for the good of your never-dying soul,
and that in His will and in His time, that this experience will
be used to help others. As I said in regard to that little
couplet of walking a mile with joy and then with sorrow, that
the Lord uses these things before and he brings his people into
these deep things so that they will be used so that they will
be used And so it is a time He has set to heal up your woes,
a season most fit His love to disclose. And until He is ready
to show His goodwill, be patient, be steady, and wait on Him still. And so what I say now is intended
to encourage you, intended to encourage you, and by no means
to criticize, but to trust that the Lord in his own good time
and way, that you'll know that he's been there all the time,
his everlasting arms of love and mercy have been holding you
down, and in due time he's gonna lift you up out of it. And then
you'll praise God. when we were Gideons, there was
a dear man and he was a retired doctor, Dr. Anthony Smith, a
most godly, godly man. He would often be seen before
he moved away to the West Country, he'd often be seen quietly sitting
outside of the in the Arndale just outside of Sainsbury's there
and just quietly there to speak a word in season and and to give
out a tract and he was a most godly man he here along with
one or two others that would make weekly trips into the hospitals
and to clean the Bibles. It was before Covid and the Bibles
were allowed in the hospitals next to the beds and they had
to have plastic on them and they would go in and they would clean
them because of this worry of infection and sadly since Covid
that along with Bibles in hotels and many places has come to an
end. How sad that is. But anyway, this dear Anthony
Smith, we went to his home. We were all invited to his home
at Christmas. And they had, he and his dear
wife, that they had their son, their only son, and no other
children, just this one son, and he was the headmaster of
a school in Seaford. and the Lord was pleased to lay
the hand of affliction on him and he had cancer and he was doing fairly well
and indeed very well most days and on this particular Lord's
Day that he and his wife and their two children they went
to church as was their custom and it was a beautiful day and
they came home from church and they went out and sat out in
the garden And then his wife went in to make a cup of tea
and get together a light lunch. And when she went out with it,
she found the dear man was gone. That he'd been taken to glory. Taken to glory. And as they were speaking about
these things, my dear wife, Crystal, said to her something to the
effect, however did you cope? However did you cope? And she said, well, She said,
we are grieving, we shall grieve and mourn to the end of our days. But she said, I came to this,
I can either fight the will of God or I can embrace it. I can either fight the will of
God or I can embrace it. and friends and that's where
you'll come to where all this pain will be turned into praise
pain will turn into praise and so dear Job recognized didn't
he Job recognized that though he had lost everything It was
all of God's grace that he'd ever had anything, wasn't it?
That like all of us, all of us, we brought nothing, nothing into
this world and it is certain that we'll carry nothing out. And so this humble submission,
oh, the deep grief that he has, Oh, we can't begin to think of
it really, can we? We hear, don't we, in this war,
these wars that are raging in the Middle East and in Ukraine
and we hear of families that are being wiped out and seeing a grieving father,
he's lost his wife, he's lost his mother, he's lost five or
six children, some perhaps more. But it's like anything, isn't
it, friends? Unless we walk something, we
can empathize, can't we? We can sympathize, but we cannot
truly understand. Bless God. No, that's our Jesus,
isn't it? Our great high priest. He understands
it all. He's this man of sorrows. we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities but was in
all points tempted and tried like as we are yet without sin
and so it's on that basis that he says you know come boldly
come boldly satan's told you you deserve it satan's told you
you're a sinner satan brings this up that up things that were
dead and buried he has that ability doesn't need to bring it all
up but Jesus says come unto me all ye that are laboured and
heavy laden come boldly come boldly to the throne of grace And so he rent his mantle, didn't
he? He rent his mantle, he shaved
his head, and he fell down upon the ground and worshipped, and
said, naked came I 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. Now don't let the enemy now get
at you and say, oh, that's why the Lord won't appear for me.
Oh, because I've rebelled, I've sinned. Friend, go on to read
the dialogue. Go on to read the next 40 chapters
of that dialogue between Job and his so-called friends. And
although Job spoke many remarkable things and you could see his
faith, and yet he also was left to speak things that were unwise. And so that's for your encouragement
this morning. That's for your encouragement
this morning. How often it is, isn't it, that
when something, when we're brought into something of some great
loss, of affliction, of a circumstance, whatever it may be, that we're
helped along, aren't we? It's often, isn't it, because
the prayers of God's people, they're lifting us up and the
Lord is very gracious to us. But then as time comes and you're
left alone, as it were, so that things, oh, they become so huge,
don't they? And a delayed shock it often
is. But the Lord knows it. The Lord
knows it. And He's given that account,
that account of these three friends, as we think of them. We read
of them, don't we, in verse 11 of chapter 2. Now when Job's
three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him,
they came every one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite,
and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Nemethite, for they had made
an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort
him, and they lifted up their eyes afar off, and they knew
him not. Oh, such was his state. He's
now, he's lost everything and now his body has been touched
and he's disfigured. He's in, oh, he's in such pain. He's taking a potsherd to scrape
these boils that he's been inflicted with from the sole of his foot
to the crown of his head. He's such a sight, they don't
recognize him. They knew him not, and they lifted
up their voice and wept, and they rent every one his mantle
and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon
the ground seven days. and seven nights, and none spake
a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. But what do we prove, friends?
What do we prove? as we're brought into these things
and into bereavement's pathway or whatever it is that the Lord
is pleased to bring us into. In the case of bereavement, when
the funeral is over, well, everyone else, they get on with their
life, don't they? They get on with their life.
and the poor sorrowing one is left alone is left alone and
these things are written for your encouragement and my encouragement
that he does appear in the midst of it all didn't he could speak
of I know that my redeemer lives I know that he's trying me and
when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold and he was
brought to this wasn't he he was brought to this that when
the lord did appear when the lord did appear when he'd had
to go through all of this painful dialogue with his three friends
and then the lord spoke to him and he spoke to him of the wonders
of creation and everything that there is in the universe at which
god has made And what was Job's response? Lord, I am vile. He says that in chapter 40. Then
Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer. Yea, twice, but I will proceed
no further. In Micah, in the prophecy of
Micah, he says this in chapter 7 and verse 9. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my
cause, and execute judgment for me. And he looks, he looks in
faith, he's blessed with living faith in this great darkness
and understanding with this humble contrite heart. He will, He will bring me forth
to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. Was it not our Jesus, was it
not our Jesus, that He learned the path of obedience? God himself,
in the person of his own dear Son, a body was prepared for
him like our own, and not a taint of sin, and yet in the garden
of Gethsemane. as he's sweating great drops
of blood and this hour that he'd ever known way back in eternity
past when that covenant was agreed between the Godhead that man
would fall, Adam would sin and we would all fall in him and
he would be sent the second Adam and that as he suffered, bled
and died made an atonement for sin that He would rise. He was
delivered for our offences and He rose for our justification. He'd ever known it, dear friends. but to encourage you, to encourage
you that are finding it so difficult to humble yourself under the
mighty hand of God, to seek to be submissive to his heavenly
mind and will. We read that he prayed, oh my
father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But he says, doesn't he, in his
agony, as he's sweating great drops of blood, that fountain
is open for sin and for uncleanness. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. and then the hour is here right
now isn't it right now here they come here they come with their
weapons and lanterns and torches coming out as though they're
coming to arrest the vilest of sinners Little do they know that
he is to be made a curse, that he is to be hung up and crucified,
a death that's reserved for the vilest of sinners, because he,
the spotless, holy, harmless Lamb of God, is And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. And so he is to be made a curse
as the sins of the whole of the election of grace. are imputed
to him, laid upon him, and the wrath of God that descends upon
him as he makes an atonement for sin in that three desperate
hours of darkness. And it is as they come with their
weapons, lanterns and torches. Sweet submission Arise, let us
be going, the cup which my father hath given me. Shall I not drink
it? Amen. May the Lord now help us to sing
that hymn, hymn number 483, The Christian's Prospect of Heaven. Yes, I shall soon be landed on
yonder shores of bliss. Therewith my powers expanded
shall dwell where Jesus is. Yes, I shall soon be seated with
Jesus on his throne. My foes be all defeated and sacred
peace made known. Hymn number 483 to the tune 583. This time shall soon be landed
on yonder shores of bliss. Wherewith my powers expanded
Shall dwell where Jesus is. Yes, I shall soon be seated With
Jesus on his throne, Thy foes the old defeated, And sacred
peace they'd known. With Father, Son, and Spirit
? Thy peace shall forever reign ? ? May joy and peace inherit
? ? And every good obtain ? ? Thy smooth shall reach the harbor
? To which I speed my way, Shall cease from all my labour, And
therefore ever stay. Spirit guide me over this night
tempestuous night. O Latin, jubilant, swelling,
I may be held to sing, And buzz the river, telling the triumphs
of my gift. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, the fellowship and the sweet communion
of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us all, now and for evermore. Amen.