It's been almost a year and a
half since together we looked at the first five verses of Job
chapter 1. And at that time, we looked mostly
at Job as a believer, how this represents us. Then we briefly
saw how this is a picture of Christ, our Redeemer, our substitute. And so I started working on this
message. It's been burning in me for almost a year and a half.
And I wanted to preach it again. And I thought, well, I'll preach
this and rescue. But I had two divisions. We saw
Job as a believer and Christ pictured here. And I thought,
I'll flip-flop that. I'm going to show Christ first
and then show Job as a believer. And then as I worked on it, I
kept changing a little bit here and changing a little bit there.
Then I changed a whole bunch. Then I changed a bunch more.
And I'd have been better off if I had just started with a
blank piece of paper. So, I hope this is a blessing to you today.
But, in the perfect wisdom of God, these scriptures, this entire
Bible, has been preserved for us throughout time. And the whole
book has one message. One message, one story for sinners
to hear. That's Christ and Him crucified. Who He is, Christ, and what He
done. Him crucified, what He done for
His people. He satisfied divine justice for us, and He declared
the holiness of God. How righteous God was. And it's beginning In its continuance
and its culmination, all of the Scriptures, He is the message. We may not see it. We see through
that glass so dimly sometimes. We may not understand it. But
if the Lord is our Teacher, we'll see Him in those Scriptures.
So let's look there in Job chapter 1. We remember too, on that road
to Emmaus, those two disciples were walking. And Christ appeared
to him, but he didn't reveal himself. And he said, why are
you so sad? What's wrong with you? And they
told him. And they said, Christ came. He did many wonderful works.
And we thought he was going to build a kingdom on this earth.
And it's been three days now that he's gone. And you know
what? Almighty God did. out of love,
the God of love. Do you know what he did to those
two disciples that were sad, that were heartbroken, downtrodden? He preached Christ to them. Isn't
that something? Christ preached Christ to them.
It says in Luke 24, at the beginning, and in the beginning of Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them all the scriptures
concerning himself. He showed himself to them. What
a comfort. That's where our comfort comes.
I like eating comfort food. It makes me happy. Quickly that goes away and I'm
hungry again. If I can feast on Him, I'll be filled. If I
drink that water, I'll never thirst again. None of us will.
But it's a miracle when the poor have the Gospel preached to them. We saw it in Matthew 17 a long
time ago. Christ listed those miracles.
The two from John the Baptist came and said, Are you the Christ
we're looking for? And He said, You go tell John. that those
leopards are cleansed. The lame walk, the blind receive
sight, the deaf hear, the dumb could speak, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. John told us in John 21 that
there are so many other things that Jesus did. that if they
all wrote down, the world itself could not contain the volumes
of books it would take. The oceans would dry up if they
were made of ink. That's what Newton told us. We
don't have a whole planet full of books, but we have this book. We have an Old Testament and
a New Testament. Just like we saw last week when Peter received
that sword he had, the Lord said, if you've got a purse, take it.
If you've got a thing to carry food in, take it. And if you've
got a garment, sell it and go get swords." And they said, Lord,
we have two swords. For us, we have the Old Testament
and the New Testament. Sword of His Word. And he said,
that's enough. That's all we needed. So we're
going to look here in Job 1, and we remember historically,
this here is the first thing written that was preserved of
the Lord's Word. The first time the Spirit of
God moved a man. Take his hand, dip it in ink,
and write something of his word, this is what was written. It
doesn't cover creation. It's not talking about history,
but these are the first words chronologically that were written.
Job 1.1, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God
and eschewed evil. He despised evil. And there were
born unto him seven sons and three daughters, and his substance
also was seven thousand sheep, and 3,000 camels, and 500 yoke
of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a very great household, so that
he was the greatest of all the men of the East. And his sons
went and feasted in their houses every one his day, and sent and
called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of
their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified
them 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. I'm going to briefly touch on
this at the end, how this is a great example for us, for believers,
and our family, and how we interact with others. But I want us to
see Christ in these five verses. What starts a book, a prologue,
typically sets the tone for the whole book. And so if we start
the scriptures, chronologically here in Job 1, and we see Christ
in them, that proves to us Christ is on every page of those scriptures.
I pray He'll reveal Himself to us. But it says there in verse
1, Job was a man. He was perfect, upright, fearing
God, and eschewing evil. Our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was the perfect God-man. Holy, harmless, undefiled. He came to this earth. Christ
was a man. Almighty God became a man. Human flesh. He humbled Himself
lower than the angels to be made like me and you. Why would He
do that? Because we're human. His people
were human and He had to make Himself like His people to represent
them. Isaiah 9.6 says, For unto us
a child is born. He was made like us. He opened
the womb. He was a man, but unto us a son
is given. A child is born, just like all
other children are born, but a son, son of God, is given. He already was. He was given
to us. He was not of this world. He
was not of our father, Adam. He was the Son of God, given
to us. And because He was God, because
He was the God-Man, Isaiah continued with, the government shall be
upon His shoulder, singular. We can't hold it with two shoulders.
The government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. Christ was born of a woman to
represent His people before the Father. We needed a mediator,
a go-between, between us and the God that we offended, the
God we sinned against. Somebody had to represent us.
We needed it. He provided it. Paul told us, for there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus. That's our mediator. That's who
mediates for me. But why would Christ need to
be made a man? What would result in this happening?
Him coming here, living for His people, what would the result
be? Paul told us in Galatians 4, but when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law. Why? To redeem them that were
under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. You and I, every person walking in the face of this earth,
was born under the law of God. Maybe not the Mosaic law, but
we're born under that moral law. We're to obey God, place Him
in preeminence in all things at all times, worship Him completely
and solely, love Christ completely, love our brethren completely.
We're required to do that, and that's not in our nature. We
don't have the ability to do that. We've offended His law
through imputation, impartation, and inaction, and everything.
We need someone to substitute us. He was made a man, made under
that law we were made under. It wasn't pretend. The Gnostics
say that, that it was, well, He couldn't really become a man,
so it was just, He was like He was a man. Well, if that was
the case, then it's like we're righteous. It's not pretend that
we're made like Him. You're either made like Christ
and you'll go to glory or you ain't. We'll see that this evening.
That's clear cut. You're either Cain or you're Abel. You're either
the first Adam or the second Adam. He was made a man. Made like us. Touched the feeling
of our infirmities. He was made to represent and
save helpless sinners. Me and you. Vile things. We was talking the other day.
The way the scriptures, we're so removed from this language.
this old English, that we read things, our works are filthy
rags. If I put that into today's terms,
you all would run me out of town. That's horrible. It's dumb. That's
a real sweet way that great-great-grandpa used to say it. We say it another
way. We're not here for shock value, are we? That's what it
says that we are. That's what I am. Maggots. That
same word is still used. Something that grows in a trash
can. Something slithering on its belly. Worth nothing. Smells
horrible. Has no profit. Something to be
squished up. That's us. That's who Christ
came to save. Only those. If you're one of
those maggots wiggling around on your belly, that's good news,
isn't it? He was perfect and upright, says our Job, was perfect
and upright. Christ loved the Father perfectly. He honored Him completely, and
He hated iniquity, just as the Father did. We're told there's
no deceit in Christ, no craftiness. He was perfect. That word deceit
means guile. Peter told us that Christ being
our example, And he was speaking to the Savior and said, He did
no sin. Neither was guile found in His mouth. There was no deceit.
He knew who He was coming to save. He willfully came to save
us. And there was no deceit in Him.
There was no guile in the mouth. coming out of his mouth because
there was no guile in him. He loved righteousness and despised
anything unclean. David wrote in Psalm 45, Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, because
of that, God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. He has exaltation above the fellows,
but there's good news. There's more than one fellow.
There's fellows. He's our elder brother. He's
holy. He was from birth given as that
child, that child that was born, solely set on the will of the
Father. We remember whenever he was there in that temple,
Mary and Joseph went up to worship in Jerusalem for the feast and
they left. And they thought he was in the party. They thought
he was in that caravan heading back home. We'd come close to leaving some
children at a place one time. But they had a big bunch of people
with them and a couple days later they realized Christ wasn't with
them. So where's our son? They had to go back and find
him. They went back to the temple. And here's a 12-year-old boy,
that child that was born, teaching these theologians, these wise,
educated men, that that was their job, is to explain these scriptures. And here's, out of the mouth
of babes, he comes. And he's like, you think he knew
what it meant? It was about him. Of course he knew. Oh, he'd be
our teacher. But they asked him, they said,
where were you? Mary was still a mother. Joseph was still a
father, wasn't he? I was looking for you, where
were you at? He said, how is it, there's a 12 year old, how
is it that you sought me? Don't you know that I must be
about my father's business? Set like a, his jaw like a flint. Set like a stone, pointed straight
to the father. That's what was required of every
human on this earth. And for His people, He was set
on the Father, looking to Him only at all times. Perfection. Job 1.1, Christ became a man. It says He was in the land of
Uz. Uz is close to Ur. It's around the Chaldean Mountains. It's desolate. There's no life
in it. I went there and I thought, Abraham
didn't know there was anything better than that. As far as you
can see, there's nothing. The Lord said, start walking.
He gave him faith to do that. The whole time he was there,
Christ came to this land of us, this land of desolation, no life
in it. He came here, being made a man,
and he was perfect and upright, honoring the Father the whole
time, and despising and eschewing wickedness. skewing evil. And
there's a reason he did this. There's a reason he condescended
from his majesty in heaven to be on this earth. He had some
people to save. He came for us. Look here in
verse 2. And there were born unto him seven sons and three
daughters. Now there could be more debate
than acceptance on this, but there's numbers in the Bible
that mean things. If something's numbered, It means
something, the Lord did it on purpose. And we know that three
in the scriptures speak of completion. And the seven does the same thing,
not hardly to the extent, there's perfection and completion there.
Job's children were complete and they were given to him. All
of Christ's sheep are complete. There's not one more, there's
not one less, and they're given to him, put in him, put in his
loins before time was. The Lord gives him children to
him and they're complete. They were chosen in that spiritual
adoption before the world was formed and it was the will of
the Father to keep them in our Redeemer forever. Keep them forever. Turn over to John chapter 6. John chapter 6 verse 37. These are speaking of those perfect
children that were put in the Lord, just as Job was given his
children. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which hath sent me." Have you ever asked that? Oh, what's
the Lord's plan? What does God have? What's His
plan for my life? I've heard people say all the
time. What's His will? And we pray for the Lord's will
to be done, don't we? Here's a glimpse of it. And this
is the Father's will which hath sent me that all of which He
hath given me I should lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the
last day." Do you think He's going to lose one? Do you think
if I'm His, I can get in the way of Him losing me? If I'm
His, He won't lose it. They'll be raised up, won't they?
The children of God are loved with a divine love, that distinguishing
love, and it's an everlasting love. If a believer loves someone
on this earth, we pray for them. You pray for the ones you love,
those in your family. We pray the Lord for them, don't
we? Turn over to John 17, just a few pages. We pray for those
that we love. Christ loved the children that
were given to Him, and He prays for us. He prays for His friends,
His children, His sheep. Turn to John 17, verse 9. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but I pray for them which thou hast given me, for
they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them." He will be glorified
in those that he prays for. If Christ were to pray for someone,
I think it'd be effectual. He prays for his children, like
Job prayed for his children, like we pray for our children.
He's effectual. He can get the job done. Back to our text here in Job
1. Job was a man, perfect, in a
desolate land. The cross was perfect, made a
man come here in this desolate land for his children, his perfect
children. Job 1.3, and his substance also was 7,000 sheep, and 3,000
camels, and 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a very
great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the
men of the east. That's a whole lot of cattle.
If you ever try to count anything, I couldn't count a thousand jelly
beans. I'd lose count real quick. He had such a great household,
they were numbered. His providence to provide, the
stuff he had to provide with was numbered. He knew how many
it was. That would be quite a feat. So
much so that he was the greatest of all the men of the East. We
look before at those sheep, that was the ideal livestock. They
gave meat, wool, clothing, milk. They still make tents out of
them. There around us in Ur, the Bedouins do, out of sheep
hide. They tan it. They make tents out of it. And
that was what was provided for, for the sacrifice. The sheep. And camels are the workhorse.
That's the transportation. Go over long distances. Reach
way out there. Oxen to pull all those plows.
Grow enough vegetables to feed all those animals. Have them
grain. Feed all those servants that
are watching them. Donkeys carry all those heavy loads. It's pack
animals. And a great number of servants
to tend it all. That's what our Lord has. He has laborers in
His vineyard. Don't feel like there's a great
number of us, but it's the number He's given. It's the right amount.
He has the ability to go long distances to find His people.
You've got those oxen to pull things to provide for His people.
Everything on this earth, temporally and spiritually, He provides
for us. And He has sheep. He was the sheep. He was that
lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. He provided His
sacrifice for us. Christ has He is now and will forever be
able to provide everything for His people with His great wealth. Turn over to Psalm 50. Two pages
there to Psalm 50. Verse 10. For every beast of
the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know
all the fowls of the mountain. I read to us today about the
number of hairs or head being numbered in the sparrows that
hit the ground without the Father. He knows them. His children are
much more valuable than those sparrows, aren't they? I know
the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field,
they are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the
world is mine and the fullness thereof. What are we supposed
to do? We can't bring a sacrifice of something that God already
owns. says he won't accept the blood
of bulls and goats. He doesn't have a desire from
it. Our burning sacrifice is an extension of his notes. What
can we give him? If I had a debt to pay, Cass,
if I had offended you and I was the reason one of your sons died,
and I went to your house and I got one of them real nice classic
cars you got up on that shelf, and I said, here, are we square? I can't give you something of
yours if I owe you a debt. I have to have something else.
What's the Lord's? Everything. I just breathe His air into His
lungs and His heartbeats. It's His. There in verse 14. What are we going to do? We've
got to believe on Christ, don't we? Offer unto God thanksgiving. and pay thy vows unto the Most
High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble." If we know Him,
we're thankful for Him. If we trust Christ, we call on
Him in our time of trouble. Is He faithful to help in time
of trouble? Read on. I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify Me. He's going to do everything. Why? So we can't glory in our
hand. We can't glory in our work and
all we can do is glorify Christ and that's it. And the person
that's brought that low all the way down to cross feet to look
up only to Him wouldn't have it any other way. you're going
to be tickled to death." Like Dom said, he saved me against
my will with my full consent. He said, Amen. All the promises
in him are yes and Amen. Alright, back to our text there
in Job 1, verse 3. It says, Job was the greatest man
of the east, Christ the God-man, it says, whose going force hath
been from everlasting. He's the greatest of all. all
things he has preeminence in. It says they're the greatest
of the east. He's the greatest from where the sun comes from.
From before time. From the beginning. The beginning
of eternity. That's oxymoron. We can't fathom
those things. But he's been the greatest from
the east. before the sun came up, till
now and till eternity to come. Paul told us in Romans 11, for
who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor,
who gave him it thus? Or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed to him again? Who gave him something
that wasn't his? For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things. Most things, everything except
for what's mine, All things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. He receives all the glory for
it. That's the greatest. That's the greatest in the East.
That's Him. Now these children of Job, they feasted together. Lord's children feast together.
Look here in verse 4, Job 1.4, And his sons went and feasted
in their houses every one his day, and sent and called for
their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. They were
relaxed. They were comfortable. They were
drinking wine and being merry. Why were they so relaxed and
so comfortable? Their wealthy father provided
everything for them. He loved them. He provided for
them. He prayed for them, cared for
them. He provided the sacrifices for them. You think they was
relaxed? We should be relaxed too, shouldn't
we? We're relaxed here. The Lord called us all here. He gathered
us, sent for us, and brought us here today to hear of Him. And we're feasting on Christ
the Word. That's who fills us. And that's a good thing. Solomon
wrote, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine
with a merry heart. Go, go be peacefully, go feast.
For God now accepteth thy works. That's a reason to celebrate.
You want to have a feast of joy. That's a reason to have it. That's
what Brother Maurice used to tell us. He'd say, go sit underneath
a shade tree and eat a ham sandwich. The Lord accepts your works.
Calm down. Believer's warfare is accomplished.
God accepts the works of Christ and we're in Christ. He's who
he is pleased in. And if we're in him, he's pleased
in us. Well done, my good and faithful servant. We can't wrap
our head around that. I wish I could live my life like
a man at half believed that. Most people in this world couldn't
put up with me. I'd just be so carefree and so jolly and peaceful
all the time. The Lord will take care of it.
He controls all things. He controls the elements of the
air floating around us. He'll provide. He has cattle
on a thousand hills. I ain't gonna miss a hamburger.
It'll be all right. He'll feed me. I should walk
around, shouldn't I? I should be feasting, drink wine,
be merry, it's fine. Job 1.5, And it was so, when
the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and
sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Job said, it may be that my sons
have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Our Redeemer sins for us, calls
us. He sets us apart. He sanctifies us. That's what
the word means. And he gets up early, before
the earth was, and he offers our sacrifice for us. He provides it all. When God
the Father put us in Christ's hand, in His heart, before time
began, immediately, it was so. We can't grasp that because we
live in this linear timeline of our lives. We have a past,
a present, and a future, but it's always a present. We just
think there's a past, think there's a future, I guess. But when the
Lord said, I'll take them, God the Father said, here's my people,
you're going to save them. And He said, I'll do it. It was
done. My dad said, that's something
you take to the bank. It's completed. And some people doubt that. Some people question it. Remember
there, we looked at a while back, the Mount of Transfiguration?
The cross appeared in His glory. He shone in front of Peter and
them. And Moses and Elias stood there with Him. Now it's been
several hundred years. They didn't have pictures of
the folks back then. They didn't know it was Moses and Elias,
but through discernment they saw it was them. And they were
already in glory. How'd that happen? Christ hadn't
died yet. What if something got in the way? He's a sovereign God. Things
don't get in His way. He'll accomplish the Father's
will, won't He? And that's what happened. So much so, it hadn't
happened yet, hadn't come to pass, but through the commandment
of His lips, they were raised to glory, brought to glory already
before it happened. That's all. How could that be? It was the commandment of His
lips. He makes intercession for us continually with the Father,
just like Job did. He could provide those sacrifices
continually. Our Master, our Father, sacrifices for us continually,
provides intercession for us. Romans 8, 34 says, Who is He
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And then He says, Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who's going to take
us out of His hand? Nobody. Throughout this whole
book of Job, we see pictures in part of our Redeemer. Job
was suddenly brought from great riches to poverty. Great poverty. Paul told the
church at Corinth, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
that though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that
through his poverty he might be rich. Job was assaulted by
Satan. God the Father said, you should
consider my servant Job. And He set the bounds of that
trial. And He said, have your way with
him. But here's the limits of what you can do. Our merciful,
blessed Savior was assaulted by Satan, wasn't He? Persecuted
unjustly for us. Job made that effectual sacrifice
and intercession for his friends by the will of God. And our hearts
rejoice to know that the Lord Jesus Christ made an effectual
sacrifice and He effectually intercedes for us. And Job was
laid low that he might be exalted very high. Our Lord Jesus was
made the least in the kingdom that he might be made the greatest
in the kingdom. Look here in Philippians 2. Look here in chapter
42. Job 42 and I'll close. If not,
I'm going to go over double. Job 42. Look in verse 12. Now remember, everything
is numbered. Those numbers we read, all those
oxen, it matters. We may not know why, but it does. Look here
in verse 42. So the Lord blessed the latter
end of Job more than his beginning. He waxed greater and greater.
For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and
1,000 she-asses. He doubled everything he had.
He waxed greater and greater. His glory, his renown doubled. But something didn't. Look here
in verse 13. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
Now why would everything Job went through, the Lord showed
him the Lord as a man, protected him, kept him, and doubled everything
temporally on this earth. Why didn't he have fourteen sons
and six daughters? That's weird. The number of his
children do not change. He has the same number of children.
He won't lose one, he won't gain one. They're his. Perfect. Perfect numbers. Complete numbers
of children. They're his. And it won't change.
Forever. Some say, well, those children
died. And then he had more children. Well, that was a miracle. You
used to have seven sons and three daughters. You never know what
you're going to get. But that ain't good enough for you. You
know, he never lost his bride. Was she a good bride? Sweet bride? pleasant. She cussed him. She
said, curse God and die. Job didn't kick her out. He didn't
run her off. He didn't chop her head off.
He didn't disown her. The whole time through all that
trial, all that suffering, that being brought low and even raised
up, same bride. The bride of Christ ain't going
away. And we are so shameful and act so foolish and are so
low in front of Him, and He's steadfast. Keeps us. When we see that in ourselves,
do I say, oh, look at Kevin. I've been a good bride. Glorify
Him, don't we? I pray we glorify Him today. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank You for
Your Word, Lord. Allow us to encourage one another Be seen looking to Christ. Lord,
show us Him in these Scriptures. Allow us to feast on Him. And when we see Him, when we
see what He's done, and we see what we are, and what He has
accomplished, it's complete, it's fulfilled. Lord, let us
be merry. Let us feast in our houses, saying
Your praises. What a wonderful God. Lord, thank
you. Forgive our sins. Forgive us
today until this body's gone and we're made like Christ. Lord, keep us. We know you will. You've promised and it will come
to pass. Call out your sheep, Lord. Comfort them. Provide for
them, protect them, and keep them. It's in His name that we
ask it. Amen.