Job chapter 9. That song had to be very special
to Fanny J. Crosby. When I shall see him
face to face. She was blind. She said whenever
she talked about that golden sun against the rosy west. She
was blind. But yet she had the best sight.
She had the best sight. She could see Him by faith. That's
the best sight. When you can see the Lord by
faith, He's that real to you. Now, Job points out four things here in
these first 13 verses in regard to God. And it's this, first of all,
God is just. God is just. He's a just God.
He's a just God and a Savior. And then God is wise. God is
infinitely wise. He makes no mistakes. He makes
no mistakes. He can do no wrong. God can do
no wrong. Isn't that comforting? God did no wrong by taking His
ten children. And Job does not charge him with
folly. God never over chastens his children,
does he? We do. We can do that. But God never does that. He never
chastens us more than what is needed. God is wise. We trust Him. That's the reason
we trust. We trust His wisdom. We trust the fact that He's holy.
He can do no wrong. He's wise. He knows what He's
doing. He can do no wrong. He's wise and He's strong. He's
mighty. He's mighty. He's able to make
all things work together for our good. He's able to make all things.
Don't let anything fall outside of that. because he makes all
things work together for our good. Taking Job's 10 children,
taking all his flocks and all his servants and all in his health,
bringing him down into the dust, God made that work for Job's
good, his eternal good. As we were singing, I was thinking,
Job right now is at rest. He's perfectly healthy. And I
thought of Fanny Crosby. She has perfect sight. She can
see. She can see. He makes these things
work together for our good. God is just. God is wise. God
is mighty. He's strong. And God is retributive. He will punish sin. He will punish
sin. No one ever gets away with anything. I know from time to time you
hear someone say, well, he got away with murder. No, you don't
get away with anything. I may not see someone brought
to justice over something they've done, but God will always bring
every person to justice. Every person. No one gets away
with anything. Not even down to a thought. not even down to a thought. Even
that will be brought into judgment. Now Job answers Bildad, and he
does so in a wise manner. Here's Job sitting there in pain,
maggots on him, boils. He's in the dust, he's scratching,
he's scraping himself with potsherd, and he waits till Bildad stops. Bildad basically charged him
of being a hypocrite. Eliphaz both basically charging
him with being a hypocrite and he must have done something terrible. And Job waits quietly. This is
wisdom. This is wisdom. And this shows
how gracious this man is. He lets him speak. But he says something here, he
says, I know it's so of a truth, and here's some wisdom. This
just jumps out at you when you really look at it. He's agreeing
with Eliphaz and Bildad where he can't agree with them. Now,
you can get somebody's attention to listen to you when you do
that. Instead of just combating, going, you know, headbutting,
he actually agrees with them where he can't agree with them. He says, I know it's so of a
truth. This is a wise way to handle that situation. And what he does, he disarms
him. He actually disarms both those
men by what he says here. He says, I know it's so there,
verse two. I know it's so of a truth. What
does he know? What's he talking about? He knows
that Bildad and some of the things that Eliphaz said and some of
the things that Bildad said are true. They're true. A man's own wickedness will bring
him to ruin. That's true. That's true. God
will not cast off a perfect man. That's true. He won't do it. The hope of the hypocrite shall
perish. That's what Bildad said, and
Job said, you're right. You're right. But here's my question. Job is gonna deal with, Bildad
is basically dealing with how God deals with a wicked man and
a righteous man. Job is gonna deal with how God
deals with his sheep and with men in general. And he says, I know it's so of
a truth, but how should man be just with God or before God?
Now, I'm not gonna say a whole lot on that tonight, because
I'm going to deal with this Sunday morning, Lord willing. I'm gonna
deal with how can a man be just before God? And I thought, well,
I'd just deal with that by itself Sunday morning. But it's the
question of questions, isn't it? This is the question of questions. How can God be just, a just God, and justify a wretch like me,
justify a guilty sinner like me? How can He do that? God is holy. God is everything
I am not. Whatever God is, I'm the opposite.
God is light, I'm darkness. God is holy, I'm sin. I'm the
opposite. The scripture says that in His
sight shall no flesh living be justified. Not by their works,
not by themselves. Not at all. It says that in Psalm
143 too. If God deals with us according
to what we deserve, we will perish. We know that. We know that. Because
God is just. He's a just God and a Savior.
But He's a just God first. And if He saves me, He's going
to do so in a just way. It says over in Ecclesiastes
7.20, listen to this, There's not a just man on earth that
does good and sins not. Seriously, now there's about
8 billion people on this earth, and you're going to tell me there's
not one just person among 8 billion people. I'm not telling you that,
God tells you that. God's telling us that. Not only
just 8 billion, but I mean since the fall. There's only been one
just man since the fall that knew no sin. And that man you
know is Jesus Christ. He's the only man that knew no
sin. And then Job says here, he said,
But how should a man be just with God? And he shows us here
that we are no match for God. We are no match for Him. If he
will contend with Him, He cannot answer him one of a
thousand. If we go to law with God, if we want to go to court
with God, we're going to lose. He cannot answer him one of a
thousand. Just take one of a thousand charges,
you can't even answer it. If there's a thousand charges
brought against you in the court of heaven, you cannot You absolutely
cannot justify yourself against one charge, and that's just a
thousand. How many charges can be brought
against us? It's unbelievable how many can
be brought. It's in the millions and millions that can be brought
against us. And we cannot stand before God
and clear ourselves of any charge. A man has to be a fool to want
to stand on his own righteousness, to stand before God's law and
be justified on his own merits. You've got to be a fool because
you can't do it. You can't do it. You've got to
be just in order to be justified, right? Well, the only way we are justified
is in Christ. The only way we are made just
is in Christ. That's the only way. We're not made just in any
other way than in Christ. And if we go to law with Him,
we want to stand before the law, we're going to lose. We will
lose. And it's interesting here. He
can't answer him one of a thousand. If you remember when you get
toward the back, toward the last few chapters of Job, God says,
where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? When
you read those chapters, God asked question after question
after question to Job. Job never answered one of them. He didn't even attempt to answer
one of them. You can't. You can't. He had no answer. He is wise of heart. He's just,
and now he says here in verse 4, he is wise in heart and mighty
in strength. God is infinite in wisdom. He can do no wrong. You look
at all the universe. You look at creation. Look how
it all works together. It all works together in such
harmony. That's wisdom. That's the wisdom of God, making
all this variety work in such harmony. That's God. That's the
wisdom of God. He's wise. Job said he's wise
in heart. He's infinite in wisdom. What
do we know? What do we really know? I have
to say, 67 years of living on this earth, I realize more and
more how dumb I really am. I don't know much. I honestly
don't know much. And that's because of sin. Sin
really dumbed us down. But God is wise. He cannot be
outwitted. He cannot be overpowered. His
wisdom and His power are unsearchable. You can measure my intelligence. It's called IQ. But you can't
measure God's knowledge and wisdom. You can't measure it. It's infinite. Everything about
God is infinite. Everything about me can be measured.
Everything about God can't be measured. He's wise in heart and He's mighty
in strength, power, and He's going to demonstrate it. He's
going to talk about that here in a second. Who hath hardened himself against
Him? If God is just, God is wise,
God has all power, Who has hardened himself against God and hath prospered? Who has turned away from God
and prospered? You know, Pharaoh is a good example,
isn't he? It says, Pharaoh hardened his
heart. It says, God hardened his heart. And he just left him
alone. He just let Pharaoh be Pharaoh.
That's what he did. And Pharaoh hardened his heart.
And he ended up being drowned in the sea. You cannot harden yourself against
God and prosper in any way, shape, or form. You can't do it. I thought of this. I thought,
you know how And I did this growing up as
a young boy when I got a whippin'. When I got a whippin' I'd just,
I'd get mad, I'd bull up, you know, and you'd just get angry,
you'd pout. You'd just pout. Yeah, go ahead
and try that with God, see how it works. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. Not with
Him. Who has hardened Himself? And sin has that effect. Sin
has a hardening effect. Every time we sin, every time
a person sins, it has a hardening effect. If it were not for the
grace of God and the bounding grace of God toward us in Christ,
it would harden us like a rock. But God's grace keeps us softened. It keeps us from being hard and
mean. You know, a lot of people, here's
an example of grace. A lot of people would have been
mad at God over the loss of those 10 children. Over the loss of
his wealth. Over the loss of his health.
They'd have been mad at God. But Joe wasn't mad at God. He
wasn't mad at him. Because grace won't let you do
that. Grace will make you submit. Under
the most severe trials, grace will make you submit. Grace will
enable you to submit. Grace will enable you to give
God the glory during the trial. I mean, Job is speaking things
that are right of God here. And then he speaks of his power.
He speaks of His all-mightiness, the all-mightiness of God. He says in verse 5, "...which
removeth the mountains, and they know not, which overturneth them
in His anger." He removes mountains in His anger. If we look back at history, at
mountains that have exploded, erupted volcanoes and mountains
have just been blown apart. Does anybody ever think that's
God at work? Do they ever think that that's
God at work? Do you ever think of that? Do I ever think of that?
That's God at work. And I have no doubt there's probably
some reference here to the flood. In Noah's day, when the flood
descended, when it went down, I have no doubt there were mountains
removed. This earth, no doubt, physically was altered. It had
to be. It had to be altered to have
such a massive flood. 20 feet above the highest mountain
on this earth? He removes mountains. Who am
I? That's what He said. Who am I?
And if you want to speak of this in a spiritual sense, He removes
kings. He removes dynasties. People
who look or kings and dynasties that look like they were going
to be forever, He's removed them. He did it. You know, that's what
Job does through his whole book. He did it. God did it. It didn't
just happen. It wasn't just Mother Nature.
God did it. God removed the mountains. God removes kings and dynasties. God does that. He said, I lift
up and I bring down. I do that. God said, I kill and
I make a life. I wound and I heal. I the Lord
do all these things. This is the God we worship. This
is the God of heaven and earth. This is who God is. Natural man doesn't want to hear
about that God, does he? He don't want to hear about that
God. He said, is there trouble in the city? And I have not done
it. Is there trouble in the city?
Is that Lord, is He asleep somewhere? Did He not wake up in time to
stop it? Was His hand not, and I can't
see into the mystery of God, I can't see that. I can't see
into the mysterious workings of God on this earth, bringing
about His eternal purpose. But was His hand not in those
towers coming down? Nobody dies unless God takes
their life. We don't die by accident. We
might die in one, but we don't die by accident. He gives life and He takes life.
That's what He's speaking of here is a demonstration of His
power. Who can stand before God? Who can stand before his almightiness? He's no weak God. He's not sitting
on a shelf who has eyes and can't see and hands that can't feel
and feet that can't walk. No hands but your hands, I doubt
that. How'd you get your hands? For God to remove a majestic
mountain is not a challenge to his power, you know that? It's
just, all he has to do is speak. All he has to do is speak and
that mountain's gone. I don't care how big that mountain is, it's
gone. It says here, he overturneth
them in his anger. He overturneth them. How much
more easier can He overturn a man? How much more easier can God
level a man if He can level a mountain at His Word? A frail thing like
me. He made Sinai to smoke when His
presence came. It just shook that whole mountain.
It said that mountain shook. And it smoked. The same God is
still here. The same God is still in heaven.
The same God still reigns. Same God. And I tell you what,
a lot of people are going to meet that same God outside of
Christ. Because God outside of Christ is a consuming fire. God
in Christ is a God of love and mercy and grace and kindness
and tenderness. But outside of Christ, He deals
with rebels as rebels. He hateth, it says, the workers
of iniquity. That's just the truth. It says,
"...in which shaketh the earth out of her place." John Gill
said, that's more than an earthquake, that's removing the earth. You
see, this earth is going to stand and it's going to produce as
long as the Lord has a purpose in it. He has a people in it
and He has a purpose. When that's done, when that's
finished, He will remove the earth. He'll remove it. "...He shaketh the earth out
of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." You know at Calvary, I have to
think of Calvary, when our Lord was hanging on that cross in
the darkness and it said the earth shook. The earth, it didn't
just happen to shake, God did that. God did that, God shook
the earth. This shows us here also, it says,
which he removes mountains they know not, which overturneth them
in his anger, which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the
pillars thereof tremble. This shows us how his mercy is
over all his works. Pretty quiet today, wasn't it? It's a beautiful day out there
today. The earth wasn't shaking, not where I was standing. Not where I was standing. You know, the rebellion, the
hatred of God, the true God of heaven and earth, the hatred
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true one. Paul said, they'll
come preaching another Jesus. I'm not talking about another
one. I'm talking about the one this Bible sets forth. The world
hates him, and yet he feeds them every day. He takes care of them
every day. That sun comes up every day,
shines on them. Shines on the just and the unjust.
His mercy is over all his works. Sinful man defies God to his
face every day, yet the earth still yields her increase. He
could put a stop to that, just don't send the rain. The rain
does not just happen. He commands it to rain and he
can command it to not rain. He did that. Remember Elijah
prayed? It didn't rain for three years. And then he prayed again
and it rained. You know, weather doesn't just
happen. When you and I, seriously, when you and I watch the weather,
we are watching God in action. We literally are watching God
in action. One of the writers said that,
well, I believe it's over here, it's in Job. It speaks of the
horror of frost being his breath. It's being the breath of God.
I wouldn't complain about the frost next time. That's the breath
of God, he said. Oh, he shakes it, shaketh the
earth out of her place. Shows also how temporary this
is. how unstable it is, really. God's
the only one who keeps it stable. He keeps it stable. And then we see here in verse
7, His power is not limited to earth, but is over heaven. You
remember one time in the Old Testament, Israel was whipping
an army and they said, let's go get them in the valley. You
know, their God is the God of the hills. We need to get them
in the valley. We whip them in the valley. Because they didn't
think he was the God of the valley. God is God no matter if it's
on the hill or in the valley. It doesn't matter if you're on
top of a mountain or if you're going through a severe trial. God is God. God
is on top. He's on top of it all. Which commandeth, and it says
in verse 7, which commandeth the sun, and it rises not. and sealeth up the star. He hides
them. He like puts a veil and you can't
see the stars. Paul, remember Paul when he was
on that ship and had that shipwreck? They didn't see the stars for
like two weeks. God hid them. He veiled them. God did that. God did that. He commanded the sun. You remember
over in Joshua and over in 2 Kings that God commanded the sun at
one time to stand still? God commanded this sun that shines
on us today. That sun was commanded by God
Almighty one time to stand still. You say, that's something. Well,
here's something even greater. At one time, He commanded it
to go back so many degrees. He commanded it to reverse. It
literally reversed. Now, we know this. Here's something
that's mind-boggling. It's mind-boggling. The Sun is
stationary. The Earth revolves. Did he reverse
the Earth? I thought, man, that's the way
I'm thinking. I'm thinking this Earth had to
reverse unless he moved the Sun in space back three degrees or
so many degrees. I mean, that's amazing. And those
things we don't even think of. But when you look at it and you
think of it, this is your God. This is your God. This is my
God. He commanded the sun to back
up, or the earth to reverse. However it happened, it happened.
He suspended the laws of nature that he put in it. He suspended
them. Who can do that? I'll tell you
who can do that. The one who can walk on water.
He's the one who can do it. The Lord Jesus Christ. He commands the sun and it rises
not, he seals up the stars. Job is recognizing here, Job
is recognizing the awesome holiness, wisdom, and power of God. Brethren, we ought to recognize
that day by day. Maybe we wouldn't be so down
half the time if we could recognize that. And that same sun that God commanded
to stand still has never failed to rise on this mass of sin and
rebellion. It never failed to rise on me
when I hated God. It shines on me now. I love God,
love Christ. That same sun shined on me when
I hated Him. Didn't want nothing to do with Him. How patient!
Long-suffering of God. It's amazing! But listen here, in verse 8,
"...which alone spreadeth out the heavens." Like a curtain,
that's the sense that it has, like a curtain or a tabernacle.
He spread out the heavens. All the heavens. He spread them
out, and He treadeth upon the waves of the sea." My, my, my. God walking upon water. He did that, you know. You know
God walked upon water? The Lord Jesus Christ, He walked
on water. When the disciples were out in
the boat and the storm was raging, and He went out to them, He walked
on water. He walketh on the waves of the
sea. And they got to see it and write
about it and tell us. He keeps them, he spread them
out and he keeps them spread out. This is why I can sleep
at night. I know who's maintaining all
this. All things were made by Him and
for Him. And He's maintaining all of it.
The Lord Jesus Christ, that man seated at God's right hand, is
maintaining the whole universe. He maintains this earth. This
earth produces in spite, in spite of man trying to rape it, it
still produces. Because God has a people He's
going to feed. And it's going to produce until
he says, time should be no more. He alone, ain't nobody helped
him. He didn't create the angels and they all got together and
helped him. He alone, when there was nobody but God, when there's
no one but Him. Someone said, where did God come
from? He said, He came from nowhere. Because there's nowhere to come
from. He's alone. He alone. There was no one to help Him.
Christ purged our sins how? Alone, by Himself. He said He
tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. This is God. He spreads it out alone. He created
it alone. He went to Calvary and saved
us alone. By Himself. He did it all by
Himself. And we are just recipients of
it. He keeps the sea at bay. You
know, they say that this earth is two-thirds water. You know
what they say? Two-thirds water? You teenagers,
you all just get out of school. Is it two-thirds water? If it tilts, if it tilts off
its axis, you and I drown. We're only two hours from the
ocean anyway. We would drown if it just tilted off its axis
that, just a degree, maybe a half a degree. Maybe just a half a
degree if it tilted off its axis. God keeps it in place by his
word. By the word it says of his power,
he keeps it in place. This is our God. This is our
God. You know, as he sets forth God's
greatness here, you have to feel your littleness, your insignificance. We're not insignificant to him,
but I know that I am to myself. Who am I? As David said, who
am I? Who am I? He alone spreadeth it out." I've
got down here, read Jeremiah 5.22. I can't remember what that
is. Turn over to Jeremiah 5.22. "'Fear ye not Me,' saith the
Lord." In Jeremiah 5.22, "'Fear ye not Me,' saith the Lord. Will
ye not tremble at my presence, which hath placed the sand for
the bound of the sea by perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof
toss themselves, yet can they not prevail? Though they roar,
yet can they not pass over it? If you don't stand at the ocean
and stand at all, you've got a problem. I never ceased to
stand in awe looking at the ocean. It's astounding. And that's not
even to speak of what all's in the ocean. Oh, my soul. Nature, listen,
nature, creation, ought to teach us the fear of the Lord. It ought
to teach us. You're standing there at that
great big ocean, and if you got any sense at all, you think,
if this thing was just a tad bit, I'd be in trouble. And listen here, which maketh
Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
God created all the constellations. That's what he's saying, all
the constellations. This used to impress people.
This impressed the Old Testament prophets. They always spoke of
God of creation first. You go through there, they speak
of Him, the creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
is therein. He created all of them, and they have their force
and their power on this earth that we live on. They all do. They all have a purpose. They're
not just hanging there. They're not ornaments, they're stars
and they're planets and they're working for us. I don't know
how, but God knows. Which doeth great things, verse
10, which doeth great things past finding out. You and I don't need a God we
can figure out. We don't need a God we can just
figure out. No, it's past things, past finding out. You know what
that means? That means if you know it, he's
got to reveal it. He's going to have to reveal it to you. Yea and wonders without number. God is, God is great. I just wish I had words to describe
it. God is great. He does great things
in heaven and earth. He does great things in salvation.
He does great things in the heart when he saves a sinner. Put away my sins, that's a great
thing. That's a wonder, I can't do it. I can't put them away,
I can't even stop doing them. They come faster than you can
put them away. If you could, if you could put them away, they
come at such a breakneck speed, you can't, you can't handle it.
But the Lord Jesus Christ put them all away. That's a wonder. To stand before God just, that's
a wonder. That's a great thing. It's a
great thing to a lost sinner. God's greatness is unsearchable.
Scripture says, Who by searching can find out God? He has to reveal
Himself. Let me wind this down. Lo, He
goes by me, and I see Him not. He passes on also, but I perceive
Him not. God goes by me in providence.
Did you see God today? Did anything happen today, and
you said, that's God. That's God. No, you probably
didn't. Probably, probably not. We recognize his providence,
but did we recognize him going by us? You see, God is spirit. He can't
be seen. But yet we can see the effects
of his presence. We can see the effects of his
power. He said, he goes by me and I didn't perceive him. He goes by me and listen, he
passes on also, but I perceive him not. As I said earlier, I
couldn't help but think of the Lord Jesus Christ. How many people
he went by and they didn't see him. They didn't see him. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
Hear my humble cry. Don't pass me. Lord, open my
eyes, as Elijah said to the Lord about that young man. Open his
eyes and let him see. And I perceived him not. I didn't
perceive it was God at work. Something happened at work or
something here or there and you didn't perceive it. That's God
at work. That'll keep you from complaining
a lot if you perceive who's at work. God Almighty does all things,
yet we perceive Him not. We see the second causes, but
in reality, it's God working among us. And then He speaks of His sovereignty
here in verse 12, Behold, He taketh away. Who can hinder Him? Who will say to Him, What doest
thou? He taketh away Job. He took Job's
10 children away. He said, no, Satan did that.
God's the first cause of all things. Who can stop him? You know, if the Lord is pleased,
if he's pleased to take something away from you, he's not going
to ask you. He is not going to ask you if
he can do it. He is an absolute, absolute sovereign. He's not
going to ask you. Behold, he said, get a hold of
this. His power is irresistible. If he wills to take away all
that I have, who's going to stop him? Job was speaking from experience
here. He's like, I can't stop him. God is sovereign. Who can turn
him back? Who can stay his hand over in
Daniel 4.35? Who can stay his hand? Who can
question what he's doing? Who can say, what are you doing?
Why are you doing this? Who's going to draw God into
court and question his wisdom and his judgment? The potter has power over the
clay. And then last of all, if God
will not, and it's a big if, I got that if circled in my Bible,
if. If God will not withdraw his
anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. What a word, if. If God deals with me in anger,
I'm a goner. Just look at the flood. Look
at Sodom and Gomorrah. If he rises up in anger, none
can stand. The proud helpers will stoop
under his power and anger, and none can resist his power, and
none can deliver themselves from his power or from his anger. This is who God is. This is who
God is. Let us bow before Him and give
Him the glory. Let's do His name. Let us draw near to Christ, the
Savior of sinners, and rest under His wings. He's the one doing
all this. Job described this one. You know
who he's describing? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who he is describing. Now, Lord willing, Sunday morning,
I want to come back to Job chapter 9 and look at how can man be
just with God with this one is just described. How can he stand
before him justified? All right.