Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I would like for us to look today
at the book of Job. I'm sure most of you are familiar
with Job's story. All of his misery and all of
his trial that he endured, a very, very difficult trial that Job
endured. Our text is going to come from
Job chapter 9, but the heading in my Bible over Job chapter
7 says, Job excuseth his desire of death. The trial was so great,
he experienced such loathing of his flesh and loathing of
the condition he was in. He wished he could die. He just
wished that he could just be removed from this place. In Job chapter seven, verse four
says, Job said, when I lie down, I say, when shall I arise and
the night be gone? and I am full of tossing to and
fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms
and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become
loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle and are spent without hope. My nights are misery and
my days are spent without hope. In verse 13, he said, When I
say my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,
then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifies me through visions
so that my soul cleaveth or chooseth strangling and death rather than
my life. That's what my soul chooses.
He said, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to live
on this earth anymore. And what brought him his greatest
misery was, he said in verse 20, I have sinned. I have sinned. That was his greatest,
greatest misery. He said, I'm a sinner. I'm such
a sinner. All of this misery on the outside
was just evidencing the misery on the inside. And that's the
case for all of us. That's the cry of every soul
that God deals with. Every time God comes to one of
his own and starts opening the eyes and revealing the truth,
that soul will cry, I have sinned. I'm a sinner. It brings great
misery. I'm such a sinner. Well, in chapter
eight, his friends, as he thought they were, Job's friends who
really didn't know what they were talking about at all. They
were telling him the lie of religion. They were all sitting around
talking and spouting off to each other and they were just preaching
religion to him. They said, Job, if you would stop being a sinner,
all of this would go away. Your problem is you're a sinner.
If you look at chapter 8, verse 1, it says, Then answered Bildad
the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things,
and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong
wind? Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty pervert
justice? If thy children have sinned against
him, and he hath cast them away for their transgression, If thou
wouldest seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication to
the Almighty, if thou were pure and upright, surely now he would
awake for thee and make the habitation of that righteousness prosperous.
They said, if you would do good, Job, here's the problem. If you'd
just do good, God will bless you. But if you sin, God will
curse you. That's what they told him. They
were preaching works to job. They were preaching his own works
to him. If you look at verse 20, it says,
behold, God will not cast away a perfect man. Neither will he
help the evil doers. I have a little center margin
in my Bible and it says ungodly for evil doers. They said, Job,
God helps those who help themselves. God didn't come to help the ungodly.
That's what they're telling Job. God did not come for the ungodly. He did not come to help the ungodly.
He did not come to save sinners, Job. He came to save righteous
people. Now, let me ask this question.
Is this man Bill, dad? Is he a true preacher or a false
preacher? Saying those things. God didn't
come for sinners. He came for righteous people.
He helps those who help themselves. Is he a true preacher or a false
preacher? Well, what does this word say? Who did Christ come to save? He came to save sinners. He said,
I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners. When
did he save his people? When did he die for his people? This word says, when they were
ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly,
even when they were dead in sin. So Bildad is a false preacher,
and any man who repeats his message is a false preacher. After this
man, Bill dad tried to brainwash Joe by telling him that God's
dealings with him were a direct result of his dealings with God. And that's what a lot of people
will say. God's dealings with you are a result of your dealings
with him. And, uh, that bill dad was telling
him, you know, this is, It's up to your will, Job. You're
going to have to make your decision right now. It's all going to
come down to how you run your course through this life. It's
of him that willeth. It's of him that runneth. That's
what Bildad is telling Job. Let's ask the question again.
Is that the truth? Absolutely not. The scripture says the exact
opposite. It is not of him that willeth. It is not of him that runneth. But after those lies that he
told, he did warn Job with this true statement. At the end of
verse 22, he said, the dwelling place of the wicked shall come
to naught. And he was right about that.
God will by no means clear the guilty. He will not. Now he is saying all these things
to Job and Job is about to answer him. And Job is going to ask
the question of all questions. And that's the title of this
message. The question of all questions. Now in chapter nine,
Job chapter nine, verse one says, then Job answered and said, I
know it is so of a truth. He said, I know that God will
by no means clear the guilty. I know that the dwelling place
of the wicked shall come to naught. But if that's the case, and here's
his question, he said, how should man be just with God? The question of all questions.
If a man's salvation is dependent on his own goodness and his own
sinlessness, Then how on this earth will a man ever be just
before God, justified in the eyes of God? This is a question
that the book of Job asks over and over again. Over in chapter
15, a man named Eliphaz is asking the same question. Chapter 15,
verse 14, he said, what is man that he should be clean? and
he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous." How
is this possible? How can a man who is born of
a woman be clean and righteous before God? In chapter 25, the
same man, Bildad, is now asking the question. The Lord is revealing
some things to him and he says in chapter 25, verse 4, how then
can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Man thinks he has God all figured
out. Mankind naturally believes that
he has God and God's salvation figured out until man thinks
he understands God and understands all these things until God reveals
two things to him. God's holiness. and man's sinfulness. He believes he has got all figured
out until God reveals God's holiness and man's sinfulness. As soon
as God reveals that, every man or woman that he reveals it to
will cry, how can a man be just with God? As soon as he sees
God's holiness and man's sinfulness, he'll only have one question.
How can a man, a sinful man, be just with God? Now, what does
it mean to be justified before God? To be justified is to be
without blame, without guilt, without sin. It's to be unblameable. Unblameable, completely unblameable
in his sight. If you have your Bible there
and want to look with me at Romans chapter five, verse one says,
therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. To be just with God is to be
justified in perfect peace with God. It's to have perfect peace
with Him. Total peace with God. Right here
in Romans 5 verse 9 says, Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life
to be justified with God is to be reconciled. Man naturally
is the enemy of God and it's to be reconciled. It's to have
perfect peace and union and reconciliation with him over in Romans chapter
eight. Verse 30 says, Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. To be justified with God is to
have eternal life and glory with Him. Verse 33 says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justify. To be justified with God means
no charges will ever be brought up against us ever again. No
charges will be able to be brought up against us. That's what it
means to be justified. Good, right, perfect. With that
being said, I wanna show you something in Psalm 143. Psalm
143, verse one says, hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my
supplications. In thy faithfulness, answer me
and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant. For in thy sight, shall no man
living be justified. He said, in thy sight shall no
man living be justified. To be justified with God is to
have all of those wonderful things that we just read about. All
those wonderful things. But David said, in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. Why is that? Here's the reason,
God's holiness and man's sinfulness, man's absolute sinfulness. If only one word could be used
to describe the almighty God of heaven and earth, if we could
only use one word to describe him, it would have to be this
word right here, holy. Holy, he is so holy, holy, holy. Isaiah said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims, each one had six wings, and with twain he covered
his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly. And one cried to another and
said, holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. I've seen his holiness, holiness,
holiness. When Isaiah saw him, he said,
that's what I saw. I saw holiness. David said the
same thing in Psalm 99. He said, the Lord our God is
holy. Habakkuk cried, the Lord is in
His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before Him. Let all the earth fear this holy
God. Don't come near this holy God
in sinful flesh. Do not try to reach out and touch
God's holiness with sinful hands. We will never be justified in
doing so, never. Do you know the story of a man
named Uzzah? A man who was with David. David
was bringing the holy ark of God's covenant back to Jerusalem.
And the ark was placed on a cart and some oxen were pulling this
cart and. It hit a hole or something, the
oxen stumbled. And this man Uzzah put his hand
on the on the Ark of the Covenant to steady it so it wouldn't fall
off the cart. And as soon as he did that, the
scripture says, when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon,
Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark for the oxen stumbled
and God killed him. As soon as he put his hand on
it, God killed him. Why did God do that? He was working
in the service and the ministry of the Lord. He was bringing
the ark back to Jerusalem. He was doing what we would naturally
think was a good thing. Why did God do that to Uzzah?
Here's the reason. God's holiness and man's sinfulness. He will not and he cannot allow
sinful flesh to touch his holiness. He cannot. Man cannot mix his
sinful deeds with God's holiness. He will die right there in his
sins, no matter what man it is. This is why Job said, how can
a man be just with God? Man thinks he has God all figured
out. All you have to do is do good
and God will be happy with you and he'll accept you. Man thinks
that he has salvation figured out until God reveals his holiness
and man's sinfulness. And as soon as a man sees that,
he will cry, how on this earth can I be just with God? How can
I be just with God when he's that holy? And when I'm this
sinful, How can I be just before him? When every imagination of
the thought of my heart, this is what the scripture says about
you and about me. Every imagination of the thought of our heart,
our mind, our heart, it's only evil continually. When every
work that I've tried to do for God has turned out to be filthiness
before him. Filthiness in his sight. All
of my purity is actually filthiness before him. When there is truly
none good, no not one. When these scriptures accurately
declare that I am spiritually a dead man in this world with
no hope, how can I be justified with God? Here's the answer. There is only one hope that a
sinner has. This is the good news of the
gospel. When we talk about good news, man stands up and says,
Oh, the gospel is good news. This is it. This is it. We have already stated that it's
God who justifies. We read that in some of those
verses we read in Romans five, it was by his blood. We read
that it's by faith. But let's read what Romans three
has to say about it. Go with me over to Romans chapter
three. If you're looking with me in Romans three, Verse 20
says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. This right here is the greatest
news that I could ever tell sinners who are trying to be as good
as they can. They're trying so hard to be
good. They're trying so hard to obey God. be accepted in His
sight, live according to His law. They're trying to justify
themselves as hard as they can, but they know in their heart,
they know in their soul that they're not doing it. Is that
you? Are you trying and trying and
trying, but somewhere deep inside you, you know you're not doing
it. You know what rolls around in that mind. You know what's
going on in this heart. Is that you like it is me? Are
you ultimately deep down a sinner just like I am? This is the greatest
news I could ever tell sinners who are in that condition, scared
to death to go stand before God because they know what God requires
and they know that they're not fulfilling it. This is the greatest
news that a sinner like that could ever hear. It is not by
the deeds of the law that sinners are justified before God. It
is not through the deeds of obeying the law that sinners are justified
before God. Galatians 3 says all that this
law can do is curse a man or woman. It'll never justify him, never.
Right here in Romans 3 verse 21 says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. For there is no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God sent
his son. Christ Jesus, the Lord, he sent
him into this world. To do for his people. What they
could not do for themselves. Christ came to do what we could
not do for ourselves. We could not stand just before
God. So Christ came and stood just
before God for us. We could not justify ourselves
through our deeds. So Christ came and he justified
us through his deeds. Everything he did justified us. He lived a life for us and gave
that life to us. And he justified us through his
own deeds. Verse 24 says, being justified
freely by his grace. Grace means gift. through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. How can a sinful man be
just with God? Through the perfect life and
the perfect death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how. That's
how. Verse 25, here in Romans 3, it
says, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. That means
the victim, the sacrifice, the bloody payment whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just, justified,
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. This is the only way a man or
a woman can stand just, justified in the eyes of God by believing
on, by looking to, by claiming for his own the perfect life
that the Lord Jesus Christ did and the perfect death that he
died. It's by seeing Christ to be his
substitute. He's my Savior by living for
me and dying for me as my substitute. When I look at what God's law
requires, and then I look at the life that I have lived, all
I see is failure. And I'm just being honest with
you. When I look at this life right here, all I see is failure.
I cannot justify myself. How could I expect God to? If
I can't even justify my own self, how on this earth could I expect
God to? But when I look at what God's law requires, and then
I look at the life that Christ lived. That perfect life that
he lived and gave to me. All I see is success. All I see
is perfection, and that's all God the Father sees too. When
I look at my sin. I cannot see one possible way
that I could stand just before God, not one possible way, unblameable,
free of guilt. But when I look at Christ's death,
the death he died for me, when I look at the blood he emptied
from his body to put away my sin and put away my guilt and
put away my blame, I don't see one possible way I could not
stand before God justified, free of guilt. free of blame, Christ
took it for me. In the person, in the life, in
the death, in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I must stand
justified. In Him, righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. In Him, God is just in punishing
our sin by punishing Him. And man is justified. God sets
him free because the payment has been made. In Christ, the
record of his people is wiped clean. Totally clean. And this
is how you'll know who they are. This is how you'll know a just
man or a just woman. They will believe on. They will
obey. They will follow. They will cling
to the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. He will be there all. He will be there all. How can
a man be just with God? How can a woman be just with
God? By looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him, bow to
Him, cry out to Him for mercy. Approach God in His life, in
His death, through His blood, and you and I both will stand
there justified. Till next week, the Lord bless
His word. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.