I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Job chapter 37 and reading verse 13. The book of Job chapter
37 and reading verse 13. he causeth it to come, whether
for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. Elihu, that young man who commenced
speaking to Job after Job's three friends had ceased spoke some very good and gracious
words, and we come in this 37th chapter to the end of his speech,
before the Lord spoke to Job. And in the chapter that we read,
in those previous verses, he directs us really to the greatness
of God, and the power of God, and how God controls everything. And he particularly relates that
to the weather pattern the clouds and the rain etc. and how important it is that
naturally we realize that God is in control of all these things
and we observe it don't we in our lives we see how man is utterly
unable to stop whirlwinds or tornadoes and to make it rain
or to stop it raining and he's not able to stop earthquakes
occurring and tsunamis they all occur in accordance with the
divine will and purpose of almighty God and as we consider such a
picture may we not then be encouraged to believe that As the Lord controls
all these things that we can so easily observe and know that
man cannot control them, should we not be therefore encouraged
and known to believe that the Lord does indeed control our
little lives. And as we see the clouds are
controlled in all their detail, to realize that our little lives
are also controlled in every single detail. And should that
not therefore be an encouragement to us, To believe that when things
seem to be going wrong, when things aren't working out, to
realise that the Lord doesn't make any mistakes. As for God,
His way is perfect. The Lord leads and directs in
that right way. And there is a way that seems
right to a man, but in the end they're off the ways of death.
You need to realise that our ways are often the wrong ways,
but God's ways are always the right ways. And so here we have
then this statement before us. He causeth it to come. And it is God who is speaking. He it is. Almighty God. He causeth it to come. Now that is so true with regard
to the weather patterns. It's so true with regard to everything
in our lives. And we might just think for a
few moments about some of those weather situations which occurred
in the Word of God. Which man was not able to override. There were droughts, there were
famines, there were floods, there were earthquakes, there were
thunderings, there were lightnings. And man wasn't able to put them
right himself. It was only as God put them right. Think of that wonderful occasion
in Elijah's day. Elijah prayed to the Lord and
there was no rain. For all those three years or
so, no rain at all, utter drought. And then, there had been that
occasion when Elijah had caused to be that division and that
separation and that challenge to be taken up by the prophets
of Baal to see who was the God and how the Lord answered by
fire. As Elijah prayed and came down
and lapped up everything. And then the rain came. The rain came. They couldn't
bring it before. But when the Lord's purpose had
been fulfilled, the rain came. We might think of another occasion
of a storm in Jonah's life. Think of Jonah. Disobeyed God. Jumped in a boat, off he went.
Everything so smooth, he went to sleep. His conscience didn't
seem to affect him, did it? But God sent the weather, and
God sent a great storm, which they could not stop. The result
was, Jonah was thrown into the sea. Immediately, there was a
calm. The way I'll swallow Jonah. God's
work was to be performed wonderfully in Jonah's life. He caused it
to come. Jonah wouldn't have envisaged
such a situation occurring. He wouldn't have envisaged the
storm. He wouldn't have envisaged the deliverance. He wouldn't
have envisaged the blessing that he received. He wouldn't have
envisaged how quickly his feet would turn round in the opposite
way to walk in the way that the Lord had ordained. And how gracious
was the Lord to Jonah. The word of the Lord came unto
Jonah the second time. Oh, what compassion to rebellious
Jonah. That's what compassion the Lord's
had toward us in our hardness and rebellion. That's what we've
seen in our life. Something like this. He causes
it to come. The Lord sometimes brings storms
into our lives. Now it may be a weather storm.
Sometimes the Lord does bring storms. He brings snow sometimes. He brings fog sometimes. To stop
us doing things. To stop us going somewhere. wonder
if we know in our lives those occasions when the weather has
stopped us doing something which we wanted to do but we knew wasn't
good and right and proper and yet our heart was set on it but
the weather stopped it and then perhaps as we look back as we
get older we recollect the Lord caused it to come he caused the
weather to change perhaps, in a particular day in our lives,
to stop us doing something. We see the compassion and the
mercy in the favour of Almighty God. He causes it to come and
it's very relevant that we notice that the first point he says
is whether for correction, Now we don't like being corrected,
do we? We don't like to be told we're doing something wrong.
And, you know, we bridle, don't we? When we're told we're doing
something wrong. We're quizzed as to our attitude
on a certain aspect, perhaps. We don't like it. Well, what
a blessing, if our God causeth it to come. to correct us. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. You see, and no chastening at
a time is joyous but grievous, but nevertheless afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. What a blessing
it is to have a God who causes it to come in our lives. for
our good. We haven't been left, haven't
been forsaken. Sometimes we might have wished
we had been left and had been forsaken. But blessed be God,
he doesn't leave us and he doesn't forsake us. And in this way then,
he causes it to come for correction. It may be a weather pattern,
it may be something else. It may be a storm in our life.
It may be a situation which has arisen and God's cause has come
and the purpose to correct us, to put us right, to bring us
back, to deliver us from wandering
in the broad way, put us back into that narrow way. Why? Love to our souls. the favour of God, he causeth
it to come. How we need to consider these
things when in our lives we find there are those difficulties,
there are those trials and temptations, there are those storms perhaps
which rise up and they can rise up very suddenly, like it was
indeed on the Sea of Galilee, wasn't there? Disciples went
out The storm arose suddenly. The storm arose suddenly. But, in that case, of course,
the Lord Jesus spoke and said, Peace be still. Oh, and there
was a great calm. Now, the disciples had realised
they had to call the Master. They couldn't cope with themselves.
There was that storm. Perhaps that's so in our lives.
We may have had a storm arise. It may have risen very suddenly.
Unexpectedly. And we can't put it right. We can't stop it. We have to go to the Master. We may have forgotten the Master.
who may have been carrying on her own way. But then, bless God, if he's caused
a storm to arise, which has brought forth that
prayer to our Lord. There was an urgency, it wasn't
about it, it was a disciple. And it may well be in our lives,
an urgency, because we fear we may make shipwreck. We may fear we might even make shipwreck
of our faith, because the storm has risen. As it were, the billows, the
waves coming into the ship, It may appear so in our lives, the
things, the difficulties, the enormous overwhelmness coming
into the ship. Now, the Lord waits to be gracious. He causes it to come for our good, for our blessing. so that he may show his power. We had not stood on that sea
of Galilee. And the Lord said, peace be still. And there was
that great calm. Oh, the Lord's work was revealed,
wasn't it? No doubt the disciples looked
back and never forgot that occasion. Never forgot it. They had a smooth
fishing trip. But he might have forgotten it,
it's just something normal. But there was that wonderful deliverance. No storm, no deliverance. He caused it to come. The same
in our lives today. No storm, no deliverance. The storm comes and there is
a deliverance. Do we forget it? No. We remember
it. And what is the effect? Thankfulness
to the Lord. We give him honour and glory
for coming and bringing about that deliverance. But it may
have been in our lives that there was that need for correction. That need for correction. See
correction can mean a number of things. We may have been giving Perhaps
too much attention to something or to somebody. The Lord won't allow us to have
idols. And that's just what happens
sometimes. We have idols. We may not always realise it. And again it may be some particular
object or thing or situation, or it may be a person or loved
ones, and we may be almost worshipping them. He calls it the come for correction. Now let us never forget this.
The Lord does these things in love to our soul. Isn't that wonderful? He does
it in love to our soul. He knows where we've been going.
He knows perhaps how we've been wandering away from the Lord.
We've been distracted and we've been attracted away from the
Lord. And then to realise that the
Lord's caused it to come. this storm in our life. We've had to cry out, save or
we perish. I'm almost at the end of everything. What a blessing it is to have
a God who hears and answers prayer. God doesn't deal with us as our
sins deserve. And then you see, We may be corrected
for a wrong view of things. We may have used our own reason. So dangerous to use our own reason. We have the Word of God which
explains everything we need. We don't have to reason things
out. We can consult the Word of God.
The Word of God will give us the answer. But you see, man
likes to reason things out. He likes to be able to come to
a conclusion himself. And say, well, I've come to that
conclusion. It would be a good thing if God leads us to that
conclusion, as the Word of God speaks to our heart. And it may
sometimes then be like this. The storm comes to show us that
our reasoning, logical as it may have sounded and been, in
actual fact was illogical. in comparison with the God's
almighty plan for us. And again, we might have needed
to be corrected, to be brought back. And again, you see this
correction is in love to our soul. And I believe as the Lord
teaches us and instructs us, we're grateful for his goodness
to us in these things. We have to confess that we're
slow learners, I always had to confess that we're not very good
at learning. He caused it to come. Well, what
a cruel word this was in Job's life, wasn't it? And, well, he caused it to come
in Job's life, didn't he? You know, those awful things,
they were really awful things, weren't they? He lost virtually
everything. Everything. And he wasn't an
ungodly man. He wasn't an ungracious man.
Indeed God describes what Job was like. We're told that man
was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed
evil. And yet Job had a tremendous
storm in his life, didn't he? A tremendous storm in his life.
You might say, well, did it produce any good? Yes, it did. Produced
a lot of good in Job's life. A number of things he was able
to declare as he answered his three friends. Yes, he was able
to speak words like, I know that my Redeemer liveth. He knew the
reality of religion. And he knew that there would
be a good end. And then when the Lord spoke
to him, he repented in dust and ashes and confessed he was vile. Yes, that man who before was
upright and yet the people used to bow down to him when they
went past as we read in this book. But you see there was a
necessity, even in Job's life, for the Lord to cause it to come,
whether for correction. And it turned out, of course,
to be a time of blessing. We read, and God blessed the
latter end of Job more than the beginning. How gracious was the
Lord in Job's life. What a blessing it is if you
and I can Trace out God's hand toward us in our life. He causes
it to come. Weather for correction. Correction to stop us going in
a certain direction. We may have set our minds on
something. May have thought, yes, well that's the direction,
that looks quite pleasant for me, I'm going that way. Just
like Jonah, or Luke 1 to begin with. Well, the Lord dealt with Jonah,
and the Lord deals with his people, and the Lord will deal with you
and me. And it will be a good thing if we are able to realise,
in all of our lives, God causes it to come, to bring us back. Now, it may not be a storm, There's
various ways. It can happen in a weather pattern. It can be a lack of rain. It can produce a famine. And one of the famines we read
of in the Word of God, a famine of the hearing of the Word of
the Lord. And that's a desperate thing.
Because that means there's no communion with the Lord. That means we're in a dark place,
a hard place, a cold place, famine. He calls it the come. You might say, well why am I
in this place? It may be because we haven't
appreciated the blessings of the Lord. It may be because we
haven't been thankful for the blessings of the Lord. It may
be that we've taken things for granted. We've carried on thinking,
well this is alright, the Lord's helped me here, the Lord's helped
me there, everything's going to be alright. And then we find
we're in a barren state. We find there's a famine in the
hearing of the Lord's word. We find we're not blessed with
spiritual food as in a natural famine. It wouldn't be natural
food. So in a spiritual famine, there
isn't spiritual food. Perhaps in that time, the Lord's
cause will come to correct us and to remind us that we haven't
been thankful for the blessings we have had. Perhaps we haven't
acknowledged the blessings we have had. Perhaps we haven't
honoured the Lord in the way that we should have done. So now the Lord's dealing with
us. And dealing with us in this way,
That we're now walking in a time of famine. He causes it to come
for correction. Again, what a favour it would
be if the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and we realise
our faults. Perhaps we might even say, I
remember my faults this day. I realised, oh I'm sorry, what
a hard-hearted wretch I've been in not acknowledging the Lord's
goodness and favour and blessing towards me. I just passed it over and now I find myself walking
in this way. He causes it to come. But again, the blessing is that
we haven't been left. We haven't been forsaken. We haven't been passed by. I thought of that a bit recently.
To not be passed by. Many people are passed by. They don't see the Lord and they're
passed by. We don't want to be passed by
I'm sure. I hope not anyway. I hope we
want the Lord to come where we are and stop like it did when
Zacchaeus was up in that sycamore tree. Zacchaeus wanted to see the Lord.
The Lord knew where Zacchaeus was. He stopped under the tree
and looked up. Zacchaeus, come down, for today
I must abide at thy house. He came down immediately. Well, it's a great blessing,
isn't it? We realise the Lord hasn't passed us by. And as it
were, he's stopped where we are. And Zacchaeus was a changed man.
It would be a great blessing if we know what it is for God
to stop where we are. He causeth it to come. Wherefore
correction? What a mercy to know the Lord's
taken us in hand, directing us to himself. He causeth it to
come. And again, you know, solemnly
it may be that we've, as it were, turned our back upon the Lord's
blessings. And we haven't appreciated when
he has perhaps drawn near and revealed himself to us. It may
be in a small measure, it may be in a greater measure. But
the Lord has drawn near, and as it were, shown us his hands
and his feet. We've been able to come, as it
were, like Thomas and say, And my God. And now we wander away. He causes it to come. To return. To return to the Lord. What a blessing is it not if
we are brought to that place where we realise that situation
has developed in our life. because we have not followed
the Lord as we should. Now here's that very striking
word, those that honour me, I will honour and those that despise
me shall be lightly esteemed. And that's a very embracing word
really, if you think about it carefully. Because that means honouring
the Lord in our life at all times. Not only when it's nice and easy
when we come to chapel, when we live our life day by day,
when we mix with the world, when we mix with our school friends,
when we go to college, when we go to work, whatever it is, do
we honour the Lord? Do we honour the Lord? He causes
it to come. It may be the Lord causes things
to come into our life to make us understand that we have not
honoured the Lord as we should. And the word is very beautiful,
isn't it? Those that honour me, I will
honour. God is faithful. We are not faithful,
very often. Those that honour me, I will
honour. What a blessing. What a wonderful favour. And
yet, those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. You may
say, well, I don't think I despise the Lord, really. Well, if you're
answering that way, that means you are. That means there's a
question mark in your mind as to whether you are despising
the Lord. He caused it to come. What a
blessing. The Lord coming in this way directs
us to see that we've been despising the Lord. We've been despising
His grace and glorious work. That wonderful work of salvation. That grace and glorious life
the Lord lived. And we're despising it. Do we come and say, do we perhaps
think of those lines? Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend,
on whom my hopes of heaven depend. Are we despising that dear friend? Have we despised that dear friend? He calls it to come. What a blessing,
it's a kind, gracious God. comes to us in this way that
we realize that we have been despising the Lord. Now, we don't
want God to despise us, do we? We don't want God to despise
us. But are we despising Him? Oh, He causes it to come. Remember, don't forget, it's
God's causing, it's not man's causing, it's God's causing.
We may see secondary effects, but it's God that is the mover,
it's God that's the instigator, and it's God that brings these
things to pass. And God, He it is that causes
it to come, whether for correction, Well that can come individually,
that can come collectively as a church, it can come collectively
as we have it here, as a land. And again we can look back in
history, can't we? And we can see how the Lord brought about
things in the history of nations to bring to their attention Those
things which have been wrong. The Lord calls it to come for
his land. And this can be for a natural
land and it can be for a spiritual land. We might perhaps think
more importantly to the point, his spiritual land. That really means the Church
of God. He caused it to come. And again, we see sometimes how
churches have had the wrath of God come upon them, perhaps not
in a physical way, but yet in a way where there's been a departure
from the truth, a wandering away, and the Lord's cause of the come, for his land, for his church,
to bring them back to that right way, to that God honouring way,
to that God blessed way. And what is that way? It's very
simple. The way is a Christ-like way. If churches and individuals have
lost their way, and they're bringing in peripheral
things as more important than a Christ-like way, that Christ is not lifted up,
that Christ is not exalted, that Christ is not central to the
Then you see, we see the Lord in coming like this. He causes
it to come for his land. Oh, that the Church of God might
realise the importance of the head of the Church, the blessed
Saviour, as the central figure in worship. Because without that, there will
be no true blessing. There will be no drawing. It's
Christ that draws, nothing else. I'm going to feel something of
the power which it is. The power of the drawing of Christ. He calls it the come. So that
the land, the churches of God might examine themselves to see
whether the ministry is a Christ-exalting ministry. And whether the people
are walking in a Christ-honouring way. And whether the church of
God desires the honour and glory of God. And whether their great
concern is that Christ might be lifted up and honoured and
glorified. He causes it to come. whether
for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. Or for mercy. Think of that.
God is a God of mercy. We're not very merciful ourselves,
are we? God is a God of mercy. He hears
our cries. He sees where we've got to. He
doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. Why? Because He's a
merciful God. If it wasn't for His mercy, we
wouldn't be here tonight. None of us. We wouldn't be here
tonight. It's because of His mercy. When
He calls us to come, so that we are able to observe His mercy,
to see His mercy, And we shall observe that and see it when
the Lord points us to us and reveals to us something of the
wickedness which indwells within us. The evil heart. Yes. The sinful heart. The deceitful heart. The heart
that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. How true that is. And if the
Spirit of God comes into our heart and shows us something
of the wretchedness and the evil that exists there, we'll need
mercy. He causes it to come. That means
it directs us to ourselves. You might look to the person
next door and say, well, that person's doing that wrong and
that person's that. It'll be me. Oh me, I am the
sinner that needs salvation. I am the sinner that needs forgiveness.
I am the sinner that needs mercy. Mercy is welcome news indeed
to those who guilty stand. Oh what welcome news it is. Has
it been welcome news to you? Has there been an occasion? Is there an occasion where he
calls it to come? Yes, the application of God's
word to your soul through the influence of the Holy Spirit
that directs you to the need you have of God's mercy. He causes it to come. What a blessing it is. It's a
wonderful subject, isn't it? Mercy. It's a lovely word, isn't
it? Mercy. Mercy. How prisoners are so pleased
to receive mercy. And how pleased we should be.
to receive the mercy of our God, to realise that the Lord hasn't
dealt with us as our sins deserve, but as one who is dying in our
place for our sins. His mercy, the mercy of God,
was so great, He sent His only begotten Son in this world, that
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. His mercy to a sinful race. His mercy to a race that fell
at Him. We all that have sinned become
sure of the glory of God. We are all guilty and hell deserving. What a blessing it is to realise
this. He causes it to come that we
may see Here is mercy. Mercy to a hell deserving sinner. And that mercy comes to us through
the merits of Christ. So tonight, what does Christ
mean to us? Is he to us all our hope of salvation? All our hope of eternal life?
It's because of his mercy toward us. Rich in mercy. That's the Saviour. Rich in mercy. What a favour
then, if tonight we understand something of these words. In
light of His spoken, spoken to Job, true words they are. He
causes it to come. Whatever that may be. And I say,
it may be in a storm, it may be in a famine, it may be in
a similar kind of situation, but whatever it may be, if the
Lord uses the situation to cause us to be corrected, causes us
to remember the Lord's mercy, we shall bless God for it. To
realise it's an evidence of Sonship of the Lord God. He's dealing
with us as sons and daughters of the Most High God. He's being
gracious to us. He's making His compassion and
love known toward us. And we observe that great grace. We see the redeeming love of
the Saviour. And we glory in what Christ has
done. Now then, if these things come
into our lives to direct us back to Christ, to bring us, as it
were, into a lively spiritual condition, we shall bless God. And in such a word as this, to
realise that it is God's work, and with blessing for it, He
causes it to come. Amen.