Let us turn then to God's Word
in the book of Job. This remarkable part of God's
Word of Job. Martin Luther said it is magnificent
and sublime as no other book of scripture. I want us to turn
to the book of Job this morning in the chapter that we read Job
chapter 12 and verse 14, Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot
be built again. He shutteth up a man, and there
can be no opening. And in particular that last part
of the verse, He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening
in Job chapter 12 and verse 14. In this chapter we see how Job
is beginning to answer the things that Zophar had said in the previous
chapter. Chapter 11 opens and answers
Zophar the Amathites and said, should not the multitude of words
be answered? and should a man full of talk
be justified and so forth. It is what has been said there
in that 11th chapter then that Job is beginning to answer here
in chapter 12. Remember how this book is made
up principally of these cycles of speeches from chapter 3 through
to chapter 31. We have Job's friends, his three
friends saying various things to him and Job answering what
they have to say. We're introduced to the friends
back in the second chapter and there at verse 11 We're told
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 Shuite and Zophar the Amathite for they
had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and
to comfort him. But they were poor comforters.
as we see in the chapters that follow these various cycles of
speeches, right through to chapter 31. And then, in chapter 32,
we're introduced to a fourth person, introduced to this one
called Elihu, there in the 32nd chapter. So, these three men,
the three friends, cease to answer Job, because he was righteous
in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of
Elihu the son of Bereichel the Buzite of the kindred of Ram. Against Job was his wrath kindled
because he justified himself rather than God. also against
his three friends was his wrath kindled because they found no
answer and yet had condemned Job and then we have quite a
lengthy speech by Elihu that reaches through chapter 32 into
chapter 37 and then we come to the to the end of the book and
we see how it is the Lord God himself who then addresses Job
at the beginning of chapter 38 then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind. So after all the speeches of
these various individuals we see that it is God himself who
finally speaks unto Job and at the end there of course Job is
brought to abhor himself. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ears, he says, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. But this morning, as I said,
having given that brief outline, as it were, of the content of
the book, I want us to turn back to chapter 12 and these words
at the end of verse 14. He shutteth up a man and there
can be no opening. And the theme that I want to
take up really is that of the prisoner of hope. The prisoner
of hope. First of all to say something
with regards to this particular prison that is being spoken of. He shutteth up a man, it says. And there can be no opening. This is the prison of the holy
law of God. And here we discover something
of the purpose of that law that God has given to the sons of
men. And what we have here really
is what Luther refers to as that theological or spiritual use
of the law. This statement that we have in
the text is quite similar to what we find in other parts of
God's words. Job is saying, he shutteth up
a man and there can be no opening, but much the same is also said
in the book of Psalms. There at the end of verse 8 in
Psalm 88 we have the words of Heman, and he again, acknowledges,
confesses that God has shut him up and there can be no opening. If you look at the language there,
in that particular psalm, Psalm 88, we're told in the title who
the author of the psalm was. It's not a psalm of David. It
is a psalm of him and the Israelites. And then he says at verse 8,
Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me, Thou hast made me
an abomination unto them, I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. See how the language there in
that last clause is so similar to the language that Job is acknowledging
and confessing in his experience here in our text. And not only
in the Old Testament, but when we come to the New Testament,
We have something similar in the language of the Apostle in
that portion that we read in Galatians 3 and verse 23 Paul
says before faith came we were kept under the law shut up to
the faith that should after would be revealed. Each of these men
be it Job or Heman or Paul they use this language of being shut
up Shut up to what? Well, shut up to that condemnation
that comes from the Lord of God which is holy, the commandment
of God which is holy and just and good. What is that law then? What is the purpose of that law?
What are we to understand when we read here of this prison of
the law? Well, the law as we know is spoken
of in scripture as administration of death. the language again
of Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 3. He speaks of it as the ministration
of death. He goes on to say, the letter
killeth. That is the letter of the law. Now, Paul knew that experimentally. Paul had lived to prove the truth
of those things. He discovered the proper use
of the law of God because he once thought that he was a man
who was able to keep the law of God. He thought he was a man
who had obeyed God's law just as God had commanded, just as
God had required. Remember how he writes to the
Philippians there in the third chapter, he says of himself,
touching the righteousness of the law, that he was blameless. The law could not charge him
with any sin because he was diligent in his Pharisaic observance of
the law. He was a Pharisee himself, he
was the son of a Pharisee. He'd been brought up at the feet
of Gamaliel, he was learned in the letter of the Lord of God
and he sought in his life to observe it and he did so outwardly. He conformed to all the commandments
of God and so he could say as he imagined that he was blameless. But then Also, this man, when
the Lord begins to deal with him, is made to understand the
true and proper use of that Lord of God. You are familiar with
the language that he uses when he writes in that great seventh
chapter of the epistle to the Romans, there in Romans chapter
7. And writing at verse 9, following, Paul says, I was alive without
the law once, That's when he thought he was blameless. I was
alive without the Lord. He knew nothing of the Lord.
But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. for sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceive me and by it slew me." Oh, he discovered
then that the Lord truly is administration of death. He killed him. to all
hope that he ever had in himself and his own ability to conform
his life to that Lord of God. What did he come to understand
by God's dealings? Well, he saw then something of
the true nature of the Lord of God. He saw the spirituality
of the Lord of God and he confesses there in that chapter. that the
law is spiritual but I am carnal, he says, sold under sin, it's
not just a matter of the letter of the Lord, it's not just a
question of an outward conforming to the law of God but God's law
has to do with the hearts of men and the attitude of their
hearts as well as their outward actions and he sees what is what
his own heart is, he speaks of being full of all concupiscence.
It's a remarkable word, that word concupiscence, literally
all evil desire. Why it was that 10th commandment
in particular. thou shalt not covet that found
Paul out, that brought him to understand the real nature of
the Lord of God. He saw that you don't covet outwardly,
it has to do with the heart of man, the desires of a man's heart. Just as the Lord himself expounds
the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ makes it
plain how that hatred is murder, how that wanton thoughts are
adultery. all those things that transpire
in the heart of man. And Paul then comes to see what
the law is. It is that ministration of death.
It killed him to any hope that he might have in himself. But
not only is it a ministration of death, there in 2 Corinthians
3, he also speaks of it as a ministration of condemnation. It's the ministration
of condemnation and here is the condemned criminal, shut up. As Job says, he shut up a man
and there can be no opening. The man has been found guilty,
he's been condemned and he's shut up now in the prison. Again, the language that we have
there in that portion that we read in Galatians chapter 3 verse
22 he says the scripture hath concluded all under sin and then
in the next verse we read hath I kept under the law shut up
and it's interesting to observe the change of the figure there
he speaks of them being under sin in verse 22 and then in the
next verse he speaks of them being under the law under sin
under the law it's one and the same thing sin is terrible and
sin is vital to man because sin gets its power from the Lord
of God that's what Paul is saying under the law, and as they are
under the law, they are those who are still under sin. The strength of sin is the law. The law worketh wrath, we're
told, for where no law is, there is no condemnation. Remember how John speaks of what
sin is. Whosoever commiteth sin, he says,
transgresseth also the law. for sin is the transgression
of the law. This is the real purpose of the
law as it's unfolded to us in the writings particularly of
the Apostle Paul, who is writing, as I've said, out of his own
experience. He had to learn these things
in the very depths of his own soul. Remember the language that
we find him using in Romans 3.19, whatsoever things the law saith,
It says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. And what is this, this sin of
which the law convinces and for which the law condemns? Well,
it's unbelief that is really at the root of all man's sin. It's unbelief, which is that
sin, which does so easily beset us, as we read in the opening
part of Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews 11, as we know, Paul
says much about faith. He speaks of the faith, of the
Old Testament saints, the great catalogue of faith in the 11th
chapter, and when we come into the opening verse of chapter
12 there in Hebrews, and we have to remember of course that the
divisions that we're so familiar with, the chapters and the verses,
are not part of the original inspired Word of God, they're
that that was added later, they're very useful and convenient. they
help us to find our way around the Word of God but there's a
connection of course between chapter 11 of Hebrews and chapter
12 and having spoken so much of faith we come into chapter
12 there and immediately he speaks of the sin which does so easily
beset us and that besetting sin is unbelief not just to think
in terms of our own particular weakness you might have a besetting
sin, I might have a besetting sin But really the root of every
sin is that awful unbelief that we see there in Genesis chapter
3 when our first parents transgressed. What was the sin of Adam and
Eve? It was unbelief. It's the rejection of the truth
of God. It's the embracing of the lie of Satan. And there we have to be brought
to this, we have to be those who believe what God says concerning
man's fall into sin. We have to believe in our own
innate unbelief. And how awful it is when we feel
it, how God, as it were, shuts us up to what we are, shuts us
up to our unbelief. As we have it here in the language
of Job, He shutteth up a man and there can be no opening. or we're shut up to what we are,
we're condemned. We cannot free ourselves because
we cannot of ourselves believe. We're those who stand condemned. Well, we've sought to say a good
deal with regards to that Lord of God and the purpose of that
Lord of God, the ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation. and how the Apostle Paul is made
to understand these things, because he feels these things. But we
have to remember this all the time, that really this Lord of
God is there to serve the Gospel. And we have it, as I say in that
chapter that we, or that part of the chapter that we read in
Galatians, Galatians 3 verses 23 and 24, before faith came, We were kept under the law, shut
up to the faith, which should afterward be revealed. Wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster, he says, to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified by faith. Why it is plain, is it
not, there that it is the gospel that has the priority over the
law. And not only the priority, but
The antiquity really belongs to the Gospel. The Gospel, in
that sense, is before the Lord. In fact, he speaks of it being
some 430 years before the Lord. Look at what Paul says there,
Galatians 3, 17, this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed
before of God in Christ, the Law, which was 430 years after,
cannot disannul, that he should make the promise of non-effect."
Now what is he saying? Well, he's speaking of Abraham,
in the previous verses. He's speaking of Abraham, and
the covenant that was made with Abraham, and that covenant with
Abraham is recorded in Genesis chapter 15 and then of course
it's renewed in Genesis 17 and in the following chapters and that is some 430 years before
God gave the law at Mount Sinai. He says verse 19 It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made. So,
the gospel is before the Lord of God, it's the covenant
that God made with Abram, it's the promise that was given to
Abram and that promise that centers in his seed. Verse 16 of chapter
3 in Galatians, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made,
he saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, unto thy
seed which is Christ. Well, here is the great thing
you see. The seed of Abraham is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the promise of the Gospel
in Christ is before ever God gave the law by Moses at Mount
Sinai. And so the gospel is that that
must have the priority. The gospel comes first and the
law is subordinate to the gospel. It is this gospel that is a revelation
of the power of God to save the sinner. Is the sinner shut up?
And there's no opening? There's no hope? There's no salvation
in the Lord of God. This is what Job is brought to
recognize and to understand. All but the Gospel. In the Gospel
we have that revelation of the power of God and you know the
language of Paul when he writes in the opening chapter of the
epistle to the Romans. And Romans of course is a great
book on the gospel. The gospel as it really is. The title that was given to that
popular commentary that was written some years ago by Stuart Elliott.
I do like that title that was given to that particular commentary. And it's a very useful little
commentary that one by Stuart Elliott. The gospel as it really
is. That is the epistle to the Romans. And there in chapter 1 at verse
16 Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, but also to the Greek." Oh, it is God's salvation
to Jew and to Gentile, and now in the Gospel that old distinction
between Israel and the Gentile nations is now gone. This is
the great mystery that is revealed in the gospel that God has a
purpose of salvation for sinners of the Gentiles as well as sinners
of Israel. It's the power of God. And you
will see here in this chapter where we find our text the whole
context in Job 14 is God, and the power
of God, and the omnipotence, and the sovereignty of God. It's
so much emphasized here from verse 7 right through to the
end of the chapter. Look at what Job is saying as
he begins to answer Zophar at verse 7. He says, But now ask
the beasts, and they shall teach them, and the fowls of the air,
and they shall tell them, or speak to the earth, and it shall
teach them, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto them. Who knoweth not in all these
that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this, in whose hand is
the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
He's speaking of God as that one who is the mighty creator
and sustainer of all things. Verse 16 he says, "...with him
is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are his." Then again at verse 21, "...he poureth contempt upon
princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty." It is God, you
see, who is the one who is omnipotent and all-powerful, who is sovereign,
who doeth according to his will among the armies of heaven and
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say to him what doeth there. And what does God do? He will
humble the sinner, He humbles the sinner. He brings the sinner
to the end of himself. And this is what we read here
in the text, is it not? Behold, he breaketh down and
it cannot be built again. He shutteth up a man and there
can be no opening. When God deals with us, He makes
us feel what we are. He humbles us. He makes us feel
all our own weakness, be it our physical weakness. Our breath
is ever in his hand. He could snuff us out in a moment
of time. But when he deals with us in
our souls, does he not also humble us? He has to bring us to the
end of ourselves, because we are by nature, of course, those
who are the proud sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. And you remember
out there in Genesis chapter 3, what he's bound up with the
unbelief. that is the root of the fall,
the root of all sin, bound up with that unbelief, is man's
pride. And the serpent comes as that
instrument of the devil himself and says to the woman, ye shall
be as gods. Oh, it is pride, the cursed pride,
that spirit by God, abhor, do what we will, it haunts us still,
it keeps us from the Lord. And God has to break the pride
of men. To know then and to enjoy this
great salvation, this gospel salvation, God has to first teach
us our total depravity. We have to learn that truth concerning
what we are by nature. And we have to learn it in our
own soul's experience. Now that doesn't mean we have
to sink into every sin. I'm not saying that for a moment.
It doesn't give us any license to indulge in sins. but when
we are brought to feel that root of all sin when we're made to
understand what unbelief is do we not then have to confess our
complete and our utter inability our complete impotence such is
our condition by nature we're dead in trespasses and in sins
but we don't know it by nature But when God comes, here's the
strange paradox of the experience of those that the Lord is dealing
with. As soon as there is any communication
of spiritual life, we feel our spiritual deadness. We feel that
we can do nothing. This is the condemnation of the
Lord of God, is it not? When God shuts up a man, he sees
that he cannot in any way deliver himself, there's no opening,
there's no way in which he can believe, because he's full of
unbelief. Paul says, as he's thinking really
I suppose in terms of his own ministry, not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, Our sufficiency
is of God. He's speaking of his ministry,
yes, but what a truth there is there. We're not sufficient of
ourselves to think anything. We cannot, left to ourselves,
fashion one right thought. Left to ourselves, we can't even
begin to think. And what does a believer desire? Well, the believer surely is
one who desires to be thinking God's thoughts. We think God's
thoughts after him, we want to see things as God sees things.
But God brings us to the end of our own thoughts, our own
thought patterns. Again, there's that portion that
we often refer to in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah
26, 12. Thou also has wrought all our
works in us, he says. all our works. If our works are
going to be saving works and not our own works, they are the
works of God. Thou also hast wrought all our works in us,
says the prophet. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make
mention of Thy name. If we're going to rightly confess
the name of God, or we can only do it by the grace of God. or
what the believer feels then. He feels what he is by nature. And I say this is the experience
of the godly so often. This was the experience of David.
David is spoken of, is he not, as the man after God's own heart? Or what a remarkable example
we see in David of the grace of God. And look at what David is brought
to confess concerning himself and his sins, and how he feels
the awful reality of that sin. In Psalm 38 he says, There is
no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin, for mine iniquities
are gone over mine head. There's a heavy burden that's
too heavy for me, My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long,
for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease. And there
is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have wrought by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. How David here in the Psalm,
the Psalm of David, it says to bring to remembrance. Oh, he
remembers what he is, he remembers the awful nature of his sin and
he compares it all really, it seems, to a fearful disease,
the disease of leprosy. His loins filled, he says. with
a loathsome disease no soundness in my flesh as if he was a leper
and that's how he feels not physically but in his soul he's under real conviction of sin and he
feels the things that he's writing he's not just speaking in the
theoretical terms but he's speaking out of his
soul's experience. Read right through that remarkable
psalm of David's to bring to remembrance. The hymn writer
says, to cease in smart but slightly to own with lip confession is
easier still. But all to feel cuts deep beyond
expression. And this is what God is doing
with Job here. He's making Job to feel. to feel
the awful truth of his sin, and the sin which doth so easily
beset, the accursed sin of unbelief, he shutteth up a man, and there
can be no opening." Or when God deals with us, you see, we cannot
then be in any sense partial in the Word of God. But we come
to God's Word and we recognize that we have to feel everything
that God says here in His Word. We want that faith which is truly
the faith of God's elect. That faith that does not stand
in the wisdom of men, but that faith that stands in the power
of God. We've spoken of David, but it
was also true, was it not, in the case of a man like Moses. Although we associate the name
of Moses with the Lord of God, The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, but let us not fail to
recognize that Moses was the most gracious man. And Moses
also experienced that conviction that comes by the Lord of God.
He had the same experience as Job is writing of, or as Heman
in Psalm 88, or as Paul in Galatians chapter 3. there is that that
is common to all of these men and we see it also in Psalm 90
that Psalm that is the prayer of Moses the man of God and what
does he say there in verse 3 thou turnest man to destruction and
sayest return ye children of men how does God turn man to
destruction? well it's what Job's experiencing
he shutteth up a man and there can be no opening. For this is
a particular office of the law of God. It is that that brings
conviction, condemnation, and death. And yet those who are
experiencing that are really, as we said at the outset, prisoners
of hope. Oh there's hope for these, you
see, they're brought to the end of themselves. Where can they
look? Where can they look? They can
only look to the Lord Jesus. We sang it just now, of course,
in the language of the hymn writer of Isaac Watts there in that
111th hymn, in vain. We ask God's righteous law to
justify us now, since to convince and to condemn is all the law
can do. Jesus, how glorious is thy grace,
when in thy name we trust. Our faith receives a righteousness
that makes the sinner just. How that Lord of God clearly
is understood to be serving the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It
is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth to the Jew first says Paul and also to the Greek
but he goes on to say this for what the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh or the law could not do it what the law could not
do but it's not the weakness of the law All that law of God,
it's a holy law. That commandment is holy and
it's just and it's good. Now what does Paul say there
in Romans 8.3? What the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh. The weakness is in us. It's what we are and the law
deals with all that weakness and shows us what we are and
condemns us. All this was the experience then
of this remarkable character Job and he acknowledges it in
the words of our text this morning concerning God's dealings he
shutteth up a man and there can be no opening only the Lord himself
can deliver the sinner and this is what God has done in Christ
always in the person it's in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
him who was made of a woman and made under that law him who came
to stand in that law place for all His people. He who has answered
the law both in respect to all its precepts, why He has obeyed
every commandment perfectly, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens, that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has honored and magnified
the Lord of God by living such a perfect, sinless, obedient,
holy and righteous life. And then that's just man has
died. He has died in the room and in
the stead of sinners. He has died to atone for sins
not his own. and there in dying of course
we see him honoring and magnifying the same law now in respect to
all its terrible penalties he bears the curse of the broken
law as he dies for the sinner and he is the only one who can
deliver the sinner he is that one then who is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Oh, the Lord
then grant that we might have a true and a right understanding
that we may, by the grace of God, be able to discriminate
and discern between these things that do indeed differ between
law and grace. Well, the Lord be pleased to
bless His Word to us. Let us Now conclude our worship
this morning as we sing the hymn 894, the tune is Horsley 853,
the hymn 894, the saviour empties whom he'll fill and quickens
whom he slays, our legal hope he'll kindly kill to teach us
gospel praise, 894.