May it please God to bless us
as we consider his words this morning. Let's turn to the book
of Job chapter 23 and we'll read verse 12. The book of Job chapter
23 and reading verse 12. Neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food." Just to remind ourselves of the
background to these words, we know that Job was a very wealthy
man, and he was a man that feared God. But very suddenly he lost
his family, and his flocks and his herds, virtually everything,
and he came down to nothing. And soon after that occurred,
he spoke these words, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away,
and blessed be the name of the Lord. His three friends came
after a little while, they sat and didn't speak and then eventually
they took it in turns to speak and generally Job responded to
those statements and then a young man in Lihue came and spoke to
Job he waited until the elder people had spoken and then he
spoke and he spoke for some time and Job then responded and after
that an amazing thing happened and in chapter 38 we read then
the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said the Lord
then spoke to Job and the words of the Lord which he spoke God
first of all proved who he was how great he was And it had a
good and a wonderful effect upon Job. And it brought him to this
position. And it's a good thing to notice. In the 40th chapter we read,
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."
And then the Lord continued. But we see that Job was brought
to a position where he wasn't trying to justify himself. There
were a number of places where he did try to justify himself.
But the Lord brought him to that condition where he realised before
God he was nothing good at all. And he confessed it in that way.
So we see that's the the backgrounds to this statement here. Now, I read partly that the reason
I read the chapter 22 in life as speaking was because he makes
a point, in the 22nd verse he says, receive I pray thee the
law from his mouth and lay up his words in thine heart. That was good instruction that
Elihu gave Job. Receive, I pray thee, the law
from his mouth and lay up his words in thine heart. And the word law there doesn't
refer just to what we might consider the Ten Commandments. It really
is the whole law of God and we can expand it and say the whole
word of God is indeed the law of God. and not only to receive
it, but also to lay out those words in his heart. Now, that
was what Eliphaz spoke to Job about. And we see in this 23rd
chapter something of his response. And it's really picked out, I
feel, in this 12th verse, when he says, neither have I gone
back from the commandment of his lips. That means the law
of his God. And he tells us, I have esteemed
the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Now that is a tremendous statement,
isn't it? And it will be a wonderful thing
if you and I are brought to a position that we can echo words like that. and to be able to say that we
value the words of God more than our natural food. We're more
concerned about the words of God speaking to our heart than
we are about the food that we need day by day. And Job comes
here and he tells us Very simply, I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food." Well, perhaps, I'm sure
if we're honest, we probably couldn't say that. We're very
keen, aren't we, to perhaps rush back home and have our lunch
and that's the very important next thing we do. But has it
been more important to come here this morning to hear the Word
of God than to rush home for our lunch? I wonder really and
honestly what is the most important consideration where Job was able
to say that he esteemed. I wonder if we esteem the words
of God. It's a very important thought,
isn't it? It's a very cutting thought,
really. It's really like an arrow, a sharp arrow coming into our
heart. and piercing the heart to give
us an understanding of what is in our heart and whether we do
possess this wonderful statement that we esteem the words of his
mouth more than my necessary food. The words of the mouth
of the Lord, of course, are very comprehensive and they meet every
taste and every situation in our natural life and also every
situation in our spiritual life. You know the psalmist, he tells
us in the 119th psalm, and again these are wonderful words and
I think sometimes we perhaps think, well I can't come up to
that and I don't come up to that and therefore we just pass it
by and we move on. In the 119th psalm, in verse
97, we're told, O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all
the day. He doesn't say there's just one
day in a year. He gives a very clear impression
here that the law of his God was that which he loved to meditate
upon, and not perhaps lasting at night before he crept into
bed, or perhaps first thing in the morning, but he states this,
it is my meditation all the day. All the day. Well it's good isn't
it, if again and again we're involved with many things day
by day, and we of course have to earn our bread, and we have
to go to work, and we have to study, we have to go to school,
we have to do all these things. But are there many occasions
during the day when, as it were, the light from heaven shines
into our heart, and we know the statement that he's made here,
it is my meditation. Perhaps not all the day, but
to be able to say that during some times of the day, the word
of the Lord enters into our heart, and we meditate upon it and it
lifts us up above the poor trivial things of this world, the things
which may be perplexing us, dragging us down, the difficulties, the
questions perhaps we're not able to answer, the difficult situations
which come into our lives, and yet then to have the Lord come
and touch our hearts so that we meditate upon the things of
God and we're lifted up Oh how I love thy law, it is
my meditation all the day. And the psalmist in this short
section here, I'll just run through it, I want to come to the 103rd
verse. Thou through thy commandments
hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. That
means the word of the Lord makes us wiser than our enemies. because the Lord directs us through
his word into those things which are the most important things,
and therefore we are wiser, because we are spiritually wise. Bless
God for that, how humbling it is to think the Lord has made
us wise, not from nature, but through his grace, through his
amazing mercy, and through his wonderful love. He says I have
more understanding than all my teachers, but my testament is
on my meditation. I understand more than the ancients
because I keep my precepts. Now let's be clear, we keep the
precepts of God, the law of God as he gives us grace and help,
because by nature we go the opposite way. But again, if the Lord has
enabled us to stand firm for some precept, from some word
of the Lord, from some law, and not to give in to the power of
Satan, not to turn aside to his cunning advances. And to realise
the truth of this, I understand more than the ancients, because
I keep my precepts. We'll bless God for the grace
he's given, which has enabled us to keep his precepts. And it will be a time of rejoicing
to thank God for that grace he gives. He says, I have refrained
my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. Naturally,
our feet run to evil. And if you know anything of your
old nature, you'll realize your feet by nature run to evil. So
it would be a wonderful blessing and a wonderful favour and something
to rejoice in and bless God for if he has given us that grace
so that our feet have been refrained. I mean we haven't gone after
evil and wrong things although perhaps our own nature would
like to be involved in things and to enjoy certain things. We've been refrained from it
because of God's word. What a blessing that is and I
believe it brings joy to our heart because of His grace, which
has come to us and enabled us, therefore, to turn away from
things. I have not departed from thy
judgments, for thou hast taught me." You see, it's the teaching
of the Word of God. It's God's Word coming to our
heart to instruct us and to teach us in the way that we should
go, to direct us in the right way, the narrow way, which leads
to eternal life. It is the word of God. Oh, bless
God for such instruction. And then we come down to this
103rd verse. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. He just draws an
analogy here of honey. We know how sweet that is, naturally
to our mouth. And here he says, His words.
How sweet are His words. They are sweeter than that comparison. Are the words of God sweet to
us? Do we love the word of the Lord?
Do we love His words? Are they sweet to us? Sometimes
they may not be sweet initially. They may correct us in a path
In a way, we may have gone wrong, and the Lord has graciously spoken
and corrected us. Now, it may not have been joyous
at the time, but afterward, we look back and we thank God for
His words, and then we realise this word is true. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? When we can view God's words
speaking to our heart in such a way that they are sweet to
us. They're not bitter. There are
many bitter things, aren't there, in our lives that we have to
face. Many bitter things and nothing
more bitter than sin. It's very bitter. when the Spirit
of God shows us our sin. It's very bitter. But what a
blessing it is when the Spirit of God comes and shows us his
words and then the sweetness of them. How sweet are thy words
unto my mouth. Yes, they are. And just finally,
he says, through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore
I hate every false way. to bless him when the Lord gives
us his word which enables us to hate every false way. And let us not forget that something
which is not of nature, our heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked and goes after wrong things. Bless God
then for his word. Bless God if we have a little
understanding of what Job said here. I have esteemed the words
of his mouth, more than my necessary food. Asaph in the 78th Psalm, he tells
us, give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to
the words of my mouth. What a good statement it is.
The word is full of wonderful words of encouragement. Wonderful
words of instruction to you and me in our life as we pass through
this world. And so the Lord says, give ear,
O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. Are we willing listeners? Do we want to hear God's words
speaking to us? Do we have an open mind? to receive
God's Word, whatever that may mean to you and to me, that we
may come and desire to hear this statement, that we might give
ear, O my people, to my Lord. It's addressed to the Church
of God, that we might give ear and we might incline our ears
to the words of the mouth of God, that we may not be, as it
were, standing back but we might be inclined, our hearts have
been inclined to hear the words of God and they are important
to us. Give ear, O my people, to my
law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. He says, I
will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of
old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told
us. Asaph was familiar with the words
that his father and the ancients had spoken and left on record,
and it was important to him. And therefore he says, I will
open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which
we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will
not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to
come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful
works that he has done. And how important and how relevant
it is for us today to remember it is good to instruct our children
and the young people in the things of God. So that we might indeed
show the truth of God's Word to the generation which is to
come. It's not to be hidden away, the
words of the Lord. And if you think of the Bible,
you think of the tremendous number of words the Bible contains. And we should be desirous to
bring before the children and the young people, the generation
to come, the truth of God's word, so that they may be found perhaps
blessed with this same desire that Job was able to speak and
to say, and I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than
my necessary food. And so we have this wonderful
statement that the psalmists make. Well, Job was concerned
and he tells us here this great desire that he esteemed the words
of his mouth more than my necessary food." Well, we have of course
the full word of God, which is all the words of God. But perhaps
in a more particular way, we might think of the words of the
Lord Jesus. The words of his mouth. How many
words there were. Surely that he spoke when he
was upon the earth. And we're thankful that there
are some of those words recorded for us to encourage us today. To encourage us that we might
hear his word speaking to our souls. I have esteemed the words
of his mouth. Well, we know that the Lord spoke
many, many words, did he not, when he was on the earth. Remember
that wonderful sermon that is recorded. We refer to it as the
Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus went up the mountain and spoke
wonderful words. And he spoke words of encouragement,
words of instruction. He started off in perhaps what
we might consider to be a rather unusual and a rather strange
way. It wouldn't be the way that you
and I would have anticipated. But nonetheless, they are encouraging
words because they come down to a low place. And he says, blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Do we esteem such words as that? Blessed are they that mourn.
Do we esteem words like that? Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed
are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you forcely for my sake." So
we have there a list that the Lord spoke those who are blessed
and surely those that he refers to in these few verses must have
a relevance to the Church of God, to the people of God. Surely
there must be In that list, something that speaks to our heart, and
we can say, yes, well Lord, I'm poor in spirit, I'm mourning,
and I feel meek, and I hunger, and I thirst after righteousness,
and I desire to be merciful, and I desire to be pure in heart,
and I desire to be a peacemaker. And then we might say, And Lord,
yes, I am persecuted, and men revile me and speak evil against
me." Well, are any of those statements, do they ring true in our heart
today? Now, if that is so, then the
words which we can truly esteem, because the Lord says, For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. For they shall be comforted. For they shall inherit the earth.
For they shall be filled. For they shall obtain mercy.
For they shall see God. For they shall be called the
children of God. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Surely there are wonderful statements there to encourage
us. the words of the mouth of the
Lord, speaking today to our hearts. Are they not wonderful? And are
they not true? And then, the Lord, as it were,
sums it up in these words. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Perhaps we're seeking a reason
to rejoice. A reason to be glad. Well, here these words are spoken. The words of the Lord which Job
so esteemed. The words of his mouth were so
important to him. I wonder if these words are really
important to us. Well we could go through, we
won't, we could go through that whole 7 on the mount, which occupies
chapters 5, 6 and 7. They are very wonderful and very
important. But there are other words which
are spoken sometimes individually. The previous ones were spoken
to the multitude. And then we have those words
which were spoken individually. And perhaps that's precisely
how we feel, that we need to have the Word of God spoken unto
us. Now, in the Gospel of John, the
Lord spoke to the multitudes and spoke to the people, and
he spoke some difficult things. He spoke about himself being
the bread of life, the living bread, the water of life, and
many people didn't understand it. And he also spoke to them
about himself, when he would indeed rise from the dead. And we read this in the sixth
chapter of John. What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh provideth nothing, The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are
some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
me, except it were given him of the Father. What was the result? What was the result of those
words? From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked
no more with him. They didn't want to receive the
truth of the words from his lips. They didn't want to receive.
And then we read, then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also
go away? You see the Lord is speaking
to the twelve disciples, will he also go away? And what was
the response? A wonderful response from Peter.
This is what he said. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Now Peter wanted to hear the
words of eternal life. We come to ourselves today. If
the Lord Jesus was to ask us, will you also go away? Will you
go away? What was the answer? To whom
shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal
life. He didn't stop there. He said,
and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ the Son
of the Living God. What a wonderful revelation it
was to the Apostle Peter, and it would be a wonderful truth,
and that is a revelation to you and to me, that we can rejoice
indeed today of these great and glorious truths, the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and to thank Him for them, and to bless
Him for them, and to rejoice in the truth of them. Remember, another occasion. Soon
after the Lord had finished this statement of the Sermon on the
Mount, a man came to him. It was a centurion. He was an important person. And
he came and he said to the Lord, Lord, my servant lieth at home
sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto
him, I will come and heal him. And this is a word of the centurion. He said, Lord, I am not worthy
that thou shouldest come under my roof. Now remember, he was
an important person. The centurion in those days was
an important person. But he came to the Lord Jesus
and made this statement, I am not worthy. It's good if we come
to the Lord in that way and think that we're not worthy of any
blessing, of any favour. But he said this, but speak the
word only, and my servant shall be healed. Speak the word only. I wonder if that's what we want
the Lord to do to us today. Come like that and say, oh Lord,
speak the word only. Speak to my soul, that's what
I really need. I'm desperate for it. And I believe
if that's so, you'll understand What Job said here, I have esteemed
the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. What a blessing
it is when our souls are on the stretch after God, that we need
the Lord to speak to our souls. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. It's a wonderful word. It's a wonderful desire. It's
a wonderful prayer. And I believe if that truly is
our condition and our situation, we will understand something
of what Job means when he said, yes, he has seen the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food. Now then, if we are to
hear the words of the Lord, if they are to come to us and if
they are to have an effect upon us, I believe then We will be
like the man that the Lord described at the end of that Sermon on
the Mount. He spoke like this. He said, Therefore whosoever
heareth the sayings of mine, heareth the word of God and rejoices
in it. He tells us who we're like. I
would liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a
rock. And the rain descended And the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it
was founded upon a rock." It was founded upon the words of
the Lord. Founded upon the words which
were spoken. The words which had been heard.
The words which had entered in. The words with regard to the
Saviour Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, His great work. and they
are founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth these sayings of
mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man
which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and
the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell and great was the fall of it see that was the two
positions Those that heard the word rejoiced in it, and those
that heard the word and did not rejoice in it, they didn't esteem
it. They counted it as nothing. And
we read, for the Lord taught them as one having authority
and not as the scribes. And so we have an encouragement,
don't we, from Job this morning to esteem His words, more than
our necessary food. But I will just draw your attention
to that which Ezekiel speaks to us, and it's a very solemn
warning. You see, we're very blessed,
aren't we, to hear God's word. We're very blessed to be able
to read God's word. Very blessed indeed if we have
a desire to be like Job and esteem the words of his mouth more than
our necessary food. But Ezekiel comes and he gives
us a warning. And he tells us in the 33rd of
Ezekiel, he tells us this. Also thou son of man, the children
of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and
in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one
to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is
the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto
thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people,
and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. for with
their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their
covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as
a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can
play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they
do them not. And when in this cometh the pass,
light will come, Then shall they know that a prophet hath been
among them." That was a very solemn warning, wasn't it, by
Ezekiel. It's very necessary in his day. I believe it's no less necessary
in our day. So may we, as we read such beautiful
words as this, may we know the encouragement the Word of God
gives us. May we take such words to heart and to realise and consider
whether they are a blessing to us or whether we treat them in
a wrong way. We turn away from them and cast
them from us and say, well they don't have any application to
me. So remember what Job said, neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food may be found in that way. Amen.