Come back to Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. I titled it Gleanings from Job, but I also thought that this
would be a good title. In all this, Job sinned not. In all this, in all this. that
God allowed Satan to do to him, Job said not. Now we know, we
know that these things were written for our learning. We know that God put Job through
this to refine him. He said, when he has tried me,
I shall come forth as gold. Joe knew that. But God also tried him and put
him through this for me and you. He did this also for us. You know, any trial that we have,
when God sends our way, he has it designed for us personally,
but also for his body, the body of Christ. So whatever trial
you go through, it's designed for you, but it's also designed
for the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's designed for us.
It tries our faith too. It tries ours. There's something else about
Job here. Job is a good type picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm just going to point out a few of those in the beginning here,
but he's a good type of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, in
his character, Job is said to be a perfect and upright man.
He's also a good type of Christ in his sufferings. In all this,
he sinned not. He sinned not. There are a lot
of instructions for us in the book of Job. A lot of instructions.
Now, starting out here, I want us first to see some parallels
between Christ and Job. It says, he was a perfect and
upright man, one that feared God and a shooter, turned away
from or fled from evil. When something was evil, Job
said, I don't want no part of it. He just turned and he went
away. Our Lord was and is, he is the
perfect man, the perfect man. He feared, he reverenced God. As a man, he had perfect fear
and reverence of God. And he shunned evil in so much
it says he knew no sin. He knew no sin. He knew no sin
by birth. He knew no sin by action. He knew no sin by thought. I
cannot grasp that. I cannot grasp that. I know a
lot about sin. And you do too. But he knew no
sin. So Jesus Christ, he is the perfect
man. But also in saying this, that
Job was perfect, he was mature, mature in the faith. Upright,
he dealt honestly, honestly with his fellow man. But also know
this, that Job's perfection, spoken of here, His perfection
was in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how God sees every one
of his children. You know that? You know that
God right now sees every one of you who believe, he sees you
perfect. You're perfect. In his sight,
you are perfect. You're without sin. In Christ,
you are. Christ is our perfection. He's
our perfection. But now let me tell you this,
the perfection of Christ was not in anyone else. It was in
himself. He's the God man. He's the God
man. Now Job, here's another, here's
another, and these are some things that just jumped out at me as
I was reading this chapter. Here's another parallel. In verse
two it says, Job had 10 children. Job had a lot of children. You
know, Job ended up having 20 children. Our Lord has a lot
of children. Our Lord has a lot of children.
Listen in Mark 5, verse 34, the Lord speaking to this woman,
and he said unto her, the Lord speaking now, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he said unto her, daughter. He didn't call her a woman. He
called her daughter. The Lord looked at her and said,
daughter, you're my daughter. Thy faith hath made thee whole,
go in peace. and behold of thy plague, but he called her daughter.
Our Lord has a lot of children throughout this world. He has
a lot of children in heaven right now. A lot of them. And then
Job's substance was great. In verse three, he was rich.
The richest man in the land at that time. He was rich. You know,
the scripture says that our Lord owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. are not all things his? All things are his. He's rich. Job was rich. And here's something
else that really stood out with me. And look in verse five. And it was so when the days of
their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified
them, he purified them. And that is by the ceremonies
he conducted at that time. Symbolically is what it was,
symbolically. And rose up early in the morning and offered burnt
offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it
may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
Thus did Job continually. Job offered a sacrifice for his
children and interceded for his children. His children were sinful. And
he said, it may be that they have sinned and cursed God in
their heart. Our Lord offered himself as a
sacrifice for the sins of his children. He has sanctified them. He's purified them. And he intercedes
for them. He prays for us continually.
And then here, another area where he's parallel with Job or Job's
parallel with Christ. Job was tried by Satan. Satan
came to God and his heart was set upon Job because that's what
said, if you consider my servant Job, have you set your heart
on my servant Job? And I tell you what, Satan set
his heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, God's servant. Christ was carried
of the spirit into the wilderness and was there for 40 days and
40 nights, and he was hungry, and he was tempted of the devil,
Satan, the adversary. You know the story. He came at
him. God let him. God allowed him
to. And then Job was protected by
God. Satan said in verse 10, you put a hedge about him, I
can't touch him. How many times did our Lord say, my hour is
not yet come? They tried to kill him. They
tried to kill him. Satan would have killed Job long
before this. Long before this time. But he
had a hedge about him. And that same hedge was around
Christ. As he walked through Judaism and they wanted to kill
him. I tell you what, that same hedge is about you. That same
hedge. The reason you're not dead, because
God has an edge about you, and you can't die, you cannot die
before your time. You know, I said the other day,
there's so many ways to die, and it's so easy to die. Well,
yes, in that we're human, we're frail, but no, we can't die before
our time. Our times are in his hand. I'm
telling you, you could stand in the middle of the hottest
battle of any war that's ever been on this earth, and you can't
die. You can't do it. I've told you this story, I believe.
There was an elder at 13th Street, Cecil Roach. He flew the first
bombing mission in World War II over Germany. He was the pilot. He flew the first bombing mission.
He said they came back, and that plane was completely riddled
with bullets, but nobody was hurt except one man who dropped
ammunition on his foot. And that's the only man that
was hurt. That's the only injury that was on that plane. And he said
that plane was riddled full of bullets. and not one soul was
touched. I'm telling you, if we could
ever get a hold of that, we could live this life with a lot more
joy and a lot more peace, a lot more comfort, couldn't we? We
sure could. You can't die before your time.
Job was protected. Christ was protected as a man.
You and I are too. And then, This jumped out at me this morning.
A couple things jumped out at me this morning. Joe's family
got along. Did you notice that? His family got along. His brothers,
seven brothers and three sisters, and everyone on their day, some
say it was their birthday, but they would have the feast day,
and the whole family would get together, and the whole family
got along. They got along together. God's
family gets along. Here's another. The family of
the Lord Jesus Christ gets along, don't we? We do. We get along. With all of our different quirks
and all of our different personalities, we get along. We love the same
Lord. We have the same goal, His glory.
We get along. I've never seen that. And all
the times I've been reading Job, I've read Job several times,
but that just never jumped out at me like that. His family got
along, they weren't fighting. And then Job is a type of Christ
in suffering. In Job 16, 10, this is written. They have gaped upon me with
their mouth. They have smitten me upon the
cheek reproachfully. They have gathered themselves
to gather against me. Go and read Psalm 22 sometime,
verse 13. It's the Psalm of Christ. In his suffering, Job is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then this morning, this jumped
out at me. In all Job's sufferings, he sinned
not. He worshipped God. In all the
sufferings of Christ, when they nailed him to the cross, when
they slapped him, beat him, whipped him, he did not sin. When he
was reviled, he reviled not. In his sufferings, we'll see
this as we periodically go through the book of Job. We see the sufferings
of Job and how much they are like the sufferings of Christ.
In our Lord's sufferings, he sinned not, nor did he charge
God foolishly. Now let me point a few things
out here for a few minutes. Being righteous, here's some
things that I wanted to point out this morning. Being righteous,
being a child of God, does not exempt us from trials. You know
that, you've lived long enough. It does not exempt you from trials. Now I know this, everyone, every
person, believer and unbeliever, everyone in this world will suffer
because sin brings suffering to all. Nobody's without it,
nobody. But the child of God has ordained
trials. You have ordained trials. You have appointed trials. You have special trials. You have sanctified trials that
God has appointed for you. I want you to read, I got this
written down, but I want you to turn over to Job 23. Job 23, I want
you to read this yourself. In Job 23, look in verse, in verse, let me start in verse
12. Neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food. But he, God, is in one
mind, and who can turn him? In what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. Now listen to verse 14. for he
performeth the thing that is appointed for me. And many such
things are with him. And Job says, therefore my children,
and this scares me. This scares me. You know, there's
certain things I can say I don't want to go through. I don't want
to bury my children or my grandchildren. I don't want to do that. Job
said, there's many such things God's appointed for me, and that
troubles me. That troubles me when I think
about it. But now listen, verse 14, for he, God, performeth a
thing that is appointed for me. He appointed it. And many such
things are with him. Trials do not exempt us, or I
mean, being a child of God do not exempt us from trials. In
fact, they absolutely ensure that there are specific trials
that are coming our way. We'll all not experience the
same thing, but we will experience what God has designed for us,
for His glory and our good. These trials are designed to
teach us. They're teachers. You know, God
has many teachers. And when God teaches, you learn
the lesson. You know, some of your teachers,
you can get in class, and there's some of you, they're not gonna
get it. You can't get their attention.
You know, that's the biggest problem, you can't get their
attention. God'll get your attention. I promise you, God knows how
to get your attention, and he'll teach you. All thy children shall
be taught of God, it says in Matthew. And he teaches us in
order to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ and to wean us
from this world. You'd be surprised how attached
to this world we are. I went the other day and did
my annual blood work. And then when I was looking at
it, and I got all these trace minerals in magnesium and copper,
I mean, you name it. You know why I've got all these
trace minerals? I was made from this earth, dust. And because
you and I are made from this earth, we still have a real attachment
to it, too much of an attachment to it. And God has to wean us
from this world because we live in another kingdom and we're
going to another world. And he's going to destroy this
one. Peter says this in 1 Peter 1, 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. You rejoice in the gospel, though
now for a season. And now let me say this about
trials. They all have their season. They have their season. They
have their purpose. And when that purpose is accomplished,
it's over with. Wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be. In every trial God sends
our way, every last one of them is a need be trial, every one
of them. You are in heaviness. Is anybody here in heaviness?
Has God sent you a difficult, difficult trial? You know, some
years ago I wrote Henry about a difficult situation we were
going through. And you know what he wrote me
back? He didn't say, oh, I feel so sorry for you. He didn't say
that. He said, it seems it pleased
the Lord to send you a difficult trial. I never expected that. And, but that really comforted
me. It comforted me. He said, it seems that it pleased
the Lord to send you a difficult trial. It pleased me. And you
know, if that's so, it ought to please me. That the fact that he had even,
that he'd even can be concerned enough with me that he would
send something my way in order to wean me from the world and
to bring me closer to him. You know, someone said that the
closer one walks with God, the more dross has to be burned off. Dross represents our sinfulness. 1 Peter 4.12, Beloved, think
it not strange concerning the fiery trial. This is one at a
time. The fiery trial. Don't think
it's strange, like what's going on? Why this? Don't think it's
strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you. as
though some strange thing happened to you. It didn't, no strange
thing happened to you. God sent it. God sent it. Someone said, God had one son
without sin, no son without suffering. No son without suffering. And
then suffering teaches the child of God obedience. I tell you
what, when my parents tried me, I obeyed. I said, okay, I won't
do it again. It teaches obedience. Listen
to Hebrews 5a. Though he were a son, Jesus Christ,
speaking of Jesus Christ, though he were a son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered. And how much more us? Trials
teach us obedience. It's one of those ways where
the Lord directs our steps. He does so in correct, and it
does so out of love. Now, this is the chasing of our
father is out of love. It's out of love. You see, he's
already there where he's gonna bring us, where he's gonna take
us to, carry us to. He's already there. We're here. We don't know what that's like.
We don't know what it's like. And he's preparing us for that,
bringing us to that place, conforming us to the image of his son. And
then we see in Job how transitory everything is. Isn't it? How transitory. Here today, gone
tomorrow. This ought to teach us to set
our hearts on things above and not on the things of this earth.
If you and I could learn to enjoy these things as God gives them
to us, not abuse them, not get a death grip on them, but to
enjoy them. It's like sitting down and eating
a good meal. You sit down and you taste it.
Sometimes I like to chew it just a little longer because it tastes
so good. But you taste it, you eat it. Now listen, you don't
throw it back up and eat it again. Do you? Here's what you do. You eat the next meal that comes
along, and the next one. And that's how we are to enjoy
these things that God gives us. Enjoy, listen, I'm just an old
saying that I've always said, enjoy the life out of it. Just
enjoy the life out of it. And then when it goes, he gives
us something else, enjoy it. But don't get a death grip on
something. Because they're all transitory. And God took all
this way from, you know, Job, you know the only thing Job was
left with? And I tell you this, if this is what it takes, if
this is what it takes for God to prove to us that our faith
is genuine, I pray he'd do it. He said, now hold on to me. No,
no. I pray he'd do it. If the only
thing I'm left with, and as the only thing Job was left with,
was faith. Job believed God, and he worshipped
him. Listen to Matthew 6, 19 through
20. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, set your heart on things above, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. Set your heart on those things
that can't be destroyed, that cannot rust, and no one can steal
them from you. No one. And then We are given
here in this first chapter a glimpse behind the scenes. This is not
it. What you and I see and experience
here is not it. It's not the only thing that
is. God is pulling back the curtain
here to instruct us and let us have some insight into that unseen
world. this conversation that goes on
between God and our adversary. When the sons of God, and everyone
says this is the angels of God, they came to God, Satan came
with them. The brazenness of this evil adversary,
he came with them. And so we get a glimpse into
this unseen world. The Lord said this, Peter, Satan
hath desired thee to sift thee as wheat. Peter didn't know that. Peter didn't see that, hear that
conversation go on. This is not the first time this
conversation ever happened. Even though Job was, Job was
believed to be the oldest book in the Bible. But the Lord said, I prayed for
you. that your faith fell not. I prayed for you. Even before
it happened, even before Satan came, I prayed for you. And listen,
here's what I prayed for. And I assure you he prayed for
Job too. He's Job's intercessor as he is ours. You reckon the
Lord Jesus Christ didn't already pray for Job also, that his faith
fell not, just like Peter? I pray that your faith fell not, He didn't pray that Satan would
be stopped or he wouldn't be allowed to do this. No, he said,
I just pray that his faith fail not. He needs the trial. You
need the trial. You need it. I need it. And the
Lord prays that our faith fail not, but that it shine, that
it shine, that it give him the glory in whatever it is he sends
our way. And then we see the power of
God to keep us believing under the most severe trial. See, these
things we learn. These things we can learn, be
instructed out of the book of Job. It says in 1 Peter 1, 5,
who are kept by the power of God through faith. We're not just kept by his power.
We're kept by his power through believing. God keeps us believing.
We'd have left a long time ago. We would have. By His power,
He keeps us through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. God keeps us believing. He kept
Job believing. He kept him believing. Like that
Syrophoenician woman, when she came, the Lord gave her no encouragement.
It's not right to give the children's bread to the dog." She said,
I know that. And he just, he never gave her any encouragement.
But listen, at the same time, he is pressing down upon her. At the same time, he is upholding
her. That's how it works. That's how
it works. And then we learn also sometimes,
verses 13 through 19, sometimes trials come in bunches. Do you
notice that? Job's sitting there one after
another, one after another, one after another. I mean, it's just
like a train. It's like a train coming down
the tracks. One after another. Sometimes they are sent in bunches.
And I saw this this morning. Sometimes our trials have a real strong effect on
others. You notice all those servants were killed? That jumped
out at me this morning. All those servants that served
Job were killed. The only thing, you know the
only thing left was Job and his wife, which turned on him. She told him, why don't you just
curse God and die? You know what she's saying? Why
don't you commit suicide? Why don't you curse God and go
out and commit suicide? He said, my breath is strange to my wife. She'd even turned on him. Job
was there all alone, but the Lord was with him. We know that,
the Lord was with him. Because he said, I'll never leave
you, nor forsake you. And then we see this. We see
that we came into this world with nothing. Job said, naked
I came into this world. We came into this world, we didn't
even have a suit on. We were completely naked. And you know we're gonna leave
with nothing of this world. Nothing of this world. No U-Haul's
gonna follow a hearse. The only thing a believer leaves
this world with is what he or she has in Jesus Christ. Now
when the world leaves the world, they leave with their sins and
stand before God. That's all. That's all they live
with. And then we see, and I'm going
to come to a close here, we see in Job here in his first chapter
how the trials lead believers to worship. They don't lead us
away. They don't run us off. You can't
run a believer off. You can't do it. Trials do not
run a believer off. If you can be ran off, Then you
need to know that now. They will never run a believer
off. They run us to Christ. They cause us to bow in worship. It brings out true worship is
what it does. It brings out true worship. It
says in verse 20, then Job arose and ran his mantle and shaved
his head, fell down upon the ground and he worshipped. He
worshipped. He worshiped the Lord, listen,
who gives and takes. Religion worships a God who gives
and gives and gives and gives. He's gonna make you healthy,
he's gonna make you wealthy, he's gonna make you happy. No, we
worship a God who gives and he takes. He gives and he takes. And that's the experience we
will have throughout our whole life. He will give and he will
take. according to his wisdom. And
then trials that our Lord sends our way are like medicine, not
always tasteful. You know, I can remember mom,
I think it was castor oil. She'd stick on it, put on a spoon,
and bleh. She'd put some sugar in it and
try to make it taste a little better. It was awful. Then she
would cook beef liver, which I could almost throw up thinking
about it. But the stupid doctor told her to give that to me,
because I supposedly had rheumatic fever, which apparently I didn't.
But it was to increase the iron. All it did was increase my distaste for liver. But medicine's
not always tasteful, but always, listen, The medicine God gives us is
always needful. If we could just see what the
Lord is doing with us, we would just take it and not complain. And last of all, in closing,
if we set our hearts on things above, we will not be destroyed
and cast down when he takes these things away. If your joy is tied
up in these things, When these things are gone, so is your joy.
That's why Paul said, rejoice always in the Lord. Doesn't matter
what's gone, rejoice always. Luke said this in Luke 12, 15,
and he said unto them, the Lord said this, Luke did say this,
the Lord said this in Luke 12, take heed and beware of covetousness. Now, we don't think we're covetous,
do we? We don't think we're covetous
until the Lord takes something from us and then just grieves
us to death. You know what that is? That's covetousness at work. Take heed and beware of covetousness,
for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things
he possesses. My life consists in the one who
possesses me, the Lord Jesus Christ. If our joy is tied to
these earthly things, when they are taken, so goes our joy. How are we to handle these trials?
When God sends them our way, how are we to handle them? Well,
we got the example here in verse 20 and 22. Then Job arose, rented
a mantle, shaved his head, fell on the ground, and he worshipped.
He worshipped God. And he said, naked I came out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave
me these things, and the Lord has taken them away. Well, blessed
be the name of the Lord. And all this, Job sinned not,
nor charged God with folly. One of the things that would
do us well to learn is we haven't lost anything until we've lost
our life. And if we have Christ, we can't lose our life, because
our life is hid with Christ in God. Even when Satan comes again
and he's allowed to touch Job physically, when he's allowed to touch Job
physically, he can't touch Job's life. He said you can't touch
his life. And the question is answered.
Listen, the question, I know I was gonna end on that one,
but the question is answered. Satan said in verse nine, and
Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for not? Does Job fear God for nothing? He worships you because of what
you've given him. And God took it all away. God
allowed Satan to take it all away, and Job still worshiped
God. I think it's some good gleaning
there, isn't it? Some good things to learn. Some
good things to learn. God did this for us. Not only
for Joe, but he did it for us. So whatever the Lord puts us
through, let's pray that he enables us to bow down and worship him. Because this will soon be over.
It's just for a season. All right.