Turn to Job chapter 9. Job chapter 9. Lord willing,
I want to finish this one up tonight. And I'm basically going to look
at one verse, verse 33. This is Job's desire for a mediator. He says, neither is there any
day's man betwixt us, a day's man, umpire, one to settle the
case that may lay his hand upon us both. Bring us together. We sing a song, of course, we
know who the mediator is. We know who it is, we have an
advantage here. Now, Job knew that he had a mediator. He maybe
talked about that, just that specific case where he was in,
the friends were charging him of sin, and he said, if I had
a mediator, that would settle this matter. But he also knew
and understood his need of a mediator between him and God. To know that is a great, I mean,
it's priceless to know your need of a mediator. And we know we
have that mediator in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we sing
a chorus that says, Jesus Christ is made to me all I need. all i need wisdom righteousness
sanctification and redemption jesus christ has made to me all
i need god has provided in christ all that a sinner needs to stand
in his presence accepted we don't have to bring one thing to the
table not one thing to make ourselves accepted this is why it's written
in colossians you are complete in him God has made us complete
in His Son. Now we have in Christ the Mediator. We have one who can satisfy both
parties. He can satisfy the offended party,
which is God. We have offended God. And He
can provide what's required from the offending party. Obedience. Righteousness. And not just obedience
to the law in his life, but also in his death. The scripture says
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The law required his death. As my substitute standing in
my place, the law required his death. And so we have this mediator
in the Lord Jesus Christ who can satisfy God and represent
me. We have in Christ, and these
are three, three offices I want to speak of tonight. As, as Christ,
the mediator, he is the mediator and he's also our advocate. He's
our advocate in the court of heaven. We have an advocate. with the Father, it says in 1
John 2. We have an advocate with the
Father, appointed by the Father. You know, if you're poor, you
go to court and you're poor, they give you a court appointed
lawyer. Well, there's nobody poorer than
a sinner. We can't come up with anything. God has appointed him
to be our advocate. God has. He couldn't appoint
any better person. God appointing God to be our
advocate. And then we have in Christ. The
high priest that we need to intercede for us. pray for us and to present
himself as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice for us. We have him
as a mediator, an advocate, and a high priest. Now Job agrees
here in chapter 9. Let me kind of recap this a little
bit. Job agrees with some of what Bildad had to say. God does not pervert justice.
He doesn't do that. God would not cast off a perfect
man. And then Job asked this question.
He said, I know it's so over truth, but how should man be
just with God? It's not how can you and I be
just with one another, go to court, you know, you and I can
go to court together and there'll be a judge and he'll, but not
with God. I can't go to court with God.
And when? So Job recognizes this and he
says, how should man be just with God? And this led him to
this recognition of his need of this mediator to stand between
him and God, to represent both parties, not just him, but both
parties. You know, I was talking to someone
this past week about God being just. And I said, I want God
to be just. I want to be saved in a just
way. I know that way I know that there's nothing coming behind
me. I don't have to look over my shoulder. And I want to be
saved in a just way because I want God to be just. I want a just
God. I don't want a crooked God. I
don't want that. I want God to be just and holy.
I want him to be that way. I want to be who he is. Just
be who he is. And then in Chapter 9, Job recognizes
God's infinite greatness. You know, basically in Chapter
9, he recognizes God's infinite greatness, God's sovereignty
over creation, God's power. He said, if I talk of strength,
Lord, He's power, He's strong. You know, there's none like Him.
He speaks of God's power to shake the earth and remove mountains. God does that. How can I contend
with such a one with such power? And Job recognizes that even
if he were righteous, he says, he would not be able to plead
his case before such a holy God. He knows that. And he recognizes
his sinfulness. He said, if I justify myself,
my own mouth will condemn me. He says, if I wash myself with
snow water, snow water the snow that comes from heaven he melts
it and washes himself with it he said if i wash myself with
snow water and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch my own clothes shall abhor me but the real problem is this
here's the real problem in verse 32 for he god is not a man as
i am He's not a man as I am. That I should answer him and
we should come together in judgment or in court. That we should be
pulled in court together on equal, on an equal basis. You know,
I'm here and he's there. He said, God's not a, God is one infinitely
superior to me in majesty, power, wisdom, and justice. I can't
contend with God. I can't do that. And this is
where Job recognizes his need for a mediator, one who can lay
hold of both parties and serve both parties' interests. Now
what is a mediator? A mediator is one who mediates
between two parties at odds. At odds. You know, you probably
you could poll the human race and for the most part, unless
they've been taught of God, for the most part, they're going
to say, I'm not at odds with God. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, because of sin, we are
at odds with God, God is holy, we are seeing, as the scripture
says in Isaiah 59, too, but your inequities. Have separated between
you and your God. your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear now this is where the importance
of Jesus Christ comes into full view right here God is not a
man I am God's not a man he's saying God's not a man like me
in other words there are two completely different people here God said in Psalms, you thought
I was altogether like yourselves. You thought I was like you. But
Job recognizes the difference. Job said, he's not like me. He's
not a man like I am. There's two completely different
people. First of all, one is spirit. God is spirit. That's what it says in the scriptures.
God is spirit. And then one is flesh. That's
me and you. That's me and you. Two totally
different people. One is holy and just. One is
sinful and lost and depraved. One is God and one is a fallen
creature. Now here's the problem. I have
offended God. I have offended God and God is
on such a level. He's on such a level that I cannot
repair the, I can't repair the, the breach, the problem. I can't
do it. I can never undo sin. You cannot undo what you do.
It's like you can't unsay what you said. You can't do it. And I have offended God. I have
sinned against God. And I cannot stand before God
on my own and represent myself and come
away justified. It's not even possible. Not even
possible. Now to understand our need of
a mediator, we must understand two things here. I mean, and
I mean spiritually understand these two things, not just factual.
We have to understand who God is. God is on another level. God is holy, just, and God is
spirit. That's a completely other life. It's another level. And then
we are sinful, flesh, ungodly. You know what ungodly is? Unlike
God. We are as unlike God as we can
be. So the importance here now, we'll
see the importance of Jesus Christ as our mediator. Because what
we have in Christ by the wisdom of God, by the power of God,
by the purpose of God, we have God and we have a real man. We have a real man. We had this mediator in the Lord
Jesus Christ, son of God. And what also, what else is he
also called in the scriptures? Son of man, son of God, son of
man. This is, this is so important
that we get a hold of this. It's been a blessing to me because
it just, it just makes me realize how secure I am. Christ I have
all I need I have the one I need to represent me before God we
have in him son of God son of man as God he can satisfy as
a man he can identify and provide what God demands God demands
righteousness God demands my death you know that the soul
that sinneth shall surely die have you sinned you know you
have God demands my death. And I have that obedience and
that death in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have it. It's mine.
It's provided in Him. And here's something we've got
to understand, though, about this work of Christ as a mediator. Christ is not trying as a mediator. he's not trying to get us to
come up to the standard try to raise our standards and God the
lower he is there's not there is not a negotiation in this
now you know when we have mediators and you know they have negotiations
and one gives and one takes and you know they go back and forth
that is not how this works this mediation is giving all that
God demands on our behalf he's mediating that There's no negotiation between
God and sinful man. God does not. He does not bargain
with a bunch of rebels. He doesn't do it. Christ meets
the standard of God's holiness. He meets that standard of God's
holiness by his own obedience as a representative man called
the second Adam. He's the second Adam. The first
Adam failed, but the first Adam was a type. He was a type in
representation. But the second Adam is the Lord
from heaven. You see, the second Adam is the
Lord from heaven who is our mediator between God and men. He is. Now let me give you three branches
where Christ's mediation here is concerned. And I'll try to
be brief. The first one is as Redeemer
and Reconciler. the second one as an advocate,
and the third one as a high priest. He holds all these for us. Now,
as a redeemer and reconciler, listen to these scriptures. In
2 Corinthians 5, 18, 19, And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He brought us back. He reconciled us. and has given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ."
God was in Christ. Christ said, as I hear, I speak. He said, My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world, not just the Jew, not just that nation called Israel.
He's reconciling the world, Jew and Gentile, me and you. People
like me and you. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, bringing it back to himself. We separated.
There's a, there's a gap. There's a, there's a, there's
like the bridge is out and he's bringing us back to himself.
He, and he devised the way to bring us back and it's through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That man has our mediator. NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES
UNTO THEM. WELL HE IMPUTED THEM TO SOMEBODY.
THEY DIDN'T JUST GO AWAY. THEY DIDN'T JUST GO AWAY. EVERY
SINFUL THING I HAVE EVER THOUGHT, SAID, DID, AND WAS LAID ON HIM. IT WAS LITERALLY LAID ON HIM. IT WAS GIVEN TO THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST TO RECONCILE ALL THE ELECT OF GOD whom they offended, to
reconcile them back, to bring them back. God's justice had
to be satisfied. It had to be. And the basis of
this reconciliation is the love and mercy of God. It's not you
and I deserved it. It's not that God created the
heavens and the earth and man fell, now he's obligated to do
something about it. If that was so, the fallen angels would have
a savior. There wouldn't be no difference.
There's no difference between a fallen angel and a fallen man. Here's the difference. God loved
a multitude of sinners in Christ, and he provided a mediator, and
he provided one who could reconcile and bring us back. That's what
he did. Listen here in Jeremiah 31.3.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Here's the basis. Here's
the foundation. Therefore, with loving kindness, Have I drawn
thee? You know, that's why you believe.
You know, that's why you're here and you have an interest in the
gospel. Because God drew you by his loving kindness. He loved
you with an everlasting love. And that loving kindness, he
reached out and just pulled you like a rope was tied onto you
and just pulling you to himself. And you don't even realize it.
You don't even realize it. I think of those animals that
went into the ark. Noah didn't drive them in the
ark. they were coming from all parts of the earth not all of
them not all of them but the ones whom god chose are those
animals they didn't just they wouldn't just happen to be too
elf and smarter than the rest of them god chose the animals
that went on that ark and they started walking toward that ark
and they got and they went into the ark God has drawn us with cords of
love to himself while others have gone their way that's the basis that's the foundation
of this reconciliation it's his love to us and then Jesus Christ
as the God-man is the reconciler it was laid on his shoulders
it was laid on his shoulders before the world began it was
laid on his shoulders to bring you home as a reconciler, as
a surety, it was his responsibility given to him to bring you home. Psalm 89, 19. Then thou spakest
in vision to thy holy one and saidest, I have laid help upon
one that's mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of
the people, but I've laid help upon one that's mighty. My son, my son he laid up he
laid our salvation upon his shoulders the government shall be upon
his shoulders and then christ death is the means of our reconciliation
listen to these scriptures in ephesians 4 32 and be ye kind
one to another and tender-hearted forgiving one another even as
god for christ's sake has forgiven you What's he mean by that for
Christ's sake? Christ died for you. That's why
God forgave me. The first reason, the number
one reason God has forgiven me of my sins is because Jesus Christ
died for me. Not because I asked him to. Now
he forgives us when we ask. We do, he does. But we wouldn't
ask if Christ hadn't already put him away because there'd
be no foundation for him to forgive me. There would be no reason
for him to, no, there'd be no foundation for him to forgive
me. But Christ dying for me, being called by the gospel, being
forgiven of God is evidence that Christ died for me. that my sins
have been put away now listen to first timothy 2 5 and 6 now
listen for there is one god and one mediator between god and
men this is the one joe was asking for this is the one joe was looking
for and i think looking too uh john gill says he he takes it
as a prayer for the incarnation of christ for his coming to be
the mediator but there's one god one mediator between god
and me and the man christ jesus who gave himself A ransom for
all, all sorts of men. If you go back and read those
verses before that, he says to offer prayers for kings and people
who are in authority and all these different men. And that's
what he's talking about, all sorts of men. He gave himself
as a ransom for all sorts of men to be testified in due time. First John 2.12, I write unto
you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for
his namesake. His death is the means of our
reconciliation. Here's the outcome of reconciliation.
It's restored fellowship with God. And then what John writes
in first John chapter one, that we may have fellowship with the
father and with his son, Jesus Christ. You can't have fellowship
with God apart from Christ. You can't have fellowship with
God apart from satisfaction. It's not possible. We have restored
fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's another blessing
of this or outcome of it. Propitiation, appease, God is
appeased. You know this, those who don't
believe, it says the wrath of God abides on them. The wrath
of God abides on them. With all those who are brought
to faith in Christ, chosen of God, God's appeased. God is appeased, satisfied. That's just another word for
satisfied. And then the third thing we experience is joy and
peace, a quiet conscience. And then we have Christ as an
advocate. As a mediator, he stands as an advocate. It says in 1
John 2, 1 and 2, My little children, these things write unto you that
you sin not. God never approves of sin. And
if any man sin, we can read it like this. And when, when any
man sins, any believer he's talking about, he's talking about believers
here. And if, if, if any man sin, we have, don't have to go
looking for one. We have an advocate with the
Father. It's not Mary. It's not a departed saint. It's
not Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us poor sinners. What
a mess. But here's what we have. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. The righteous one. that man that
man is the righteous one and he's the propitiation for our
sins he's the mercy seat he's the he's the appeasement of our
sins not for ours only but but for the sins of the whole world
Jew Gentiles also Christ stands before God as the advocate the
court-appointed representative of that whole host of heaven.
He's the advocate. And his advocacy is for forgiveness
and mercy for all of the elect of God. That's who it's for. It's not for the whole world.
It's not for the whole world. Let me give you scripture on
that. John 17. I'll have to find it. The verse, but I know it's
in John 17. He doesn't pray for everybody
because if he did, he'd get it. Look in verse nine. I pray for them. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I pray not for the world. He
does not make an empty intercession. He never prays a prayer that
is against the will of God and has never answered. He said,
I know you always hear me. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou has given me for they are
thine. They are the ones I pray for. This is our advocate here. I
advocate for them. I stand for them. I'M HERE FOR THEM! I DIED FOR
THEM! I ROSE FOR THEM! I SENT IT ON
HIGH FOR THEM! I'M SITTING AT YOUR RIGHT HAND
FOR THEM! For them. Thank God you're one of them.
Thank God you're one of them. And then, last of all, he's a mediator as a high priest. says in Romans 8 34 who is he
that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that's risen
again who's even at the right hand of God who also maketh maketh
continually that's what that means continually maketh intercession
for us right now as we as you sit there and I stand here as
much as we're trying to pay attention much as I try to preach with
what limited knowledge I have the Lord is interceding for us
even as this goes on to accept our worship our prayer our singing
he intercedes for us Hebrews 725 wherefore he's able also
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him Don't
go around him. I wrote an article, Scott Richardson
said that, I wish I'd have brought it out here now. Scott Richardson
made this statement that God has never spoken to nor been
spoken by any of his creatures except through a mediator, ever. They come to God by him. No man
comes to the Father except by me, the Lord said in John 14.
Seeing he ever liveth, Right now, right now, try to comprehend
this. Jesus Christ is alive and well,
and right now he's interceding for me and you, right now. While
we're sitting here in our sinfulness and we try to worship, we want
to worship and we do worship as best we can in this flesh,
he's interceding for us right now. Right now. He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. them. Jesus Christ is our Mediator,
our Advocate, our High Priest, stands before God, representing
us, interceding for us, and in a little while He's gonna come
and get us. He's gonna come and get us. The Scripture tells us over in
Hebrews that He's the Mediator of that New Covenant. In other
words, all the blessings of that New Covenant come to us through
Him. It mediates through him. Now, here's what he intercedes.
Most of all, he intercedes for us. He intercedes with his sacrificial
death on our behalf. Listen to these two scriptures
and I'm going to close. It says in Hebrews 12 24 into Jesus the
mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling
his blood That's what immediate his blood His blood his blood
cries out for forgiveness It's forgive them father The very
sins I asked forgiveness for, His blood was shed for. And you
can be sure God's going to forgive me. I don't care how bad the
sin is. I don't care how dark my life
has been, how depraved I may have been. His blood, His blood
puts it away, washes me white as snow. Isn't that something? and to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things than that of Abel, than his blood."
Abel's blood didn't save anybody. You know, Abel died for the gospel. He died for the gospel. He died
believing the gospel and died because of the gospel. But his
blood doesn't save anyone. Jesus Christ's blood saves. It
saves. and listen Hebrews 9 26 for them
must he often have been suffered since the foundation for them
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but
now once in the end of the world that he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself they're gone this is what he
mediates his sacrificial death his person and his work Now here's
the question. Here's a question that I ask
myself. Do I really see and understand
my need of a mediator between me and God? You know, at the
end of Job, at the end of the book, Job said, by the hearing
of the ear, I've heard of thee. But now mine eye seeth thee,
and I abhor myself in sackcloth and ashes. I need a mediator. I need one
that can stand between me and God. I need one who can represent
God, give all he demands, and one who can identify with me
and give what's demanded. And I have that in Jesus Christ. This is not just a cold doctrine. This is life. This is the truth. This is a sinner's hope. A sinner has a mediator who is
God in human flesh. God representing me before God.
Isn't that something? God representing me before God.
Only God will come up with that. Only God can do that. All right.