All right, brethren, if you will,
open your Bibles to the book of Job. I'm thankful to be here. I told my wife when me and her
first started dating, Every date we went on, I knew the right
things to say, I knew what to wear, and I was a pretty slick
young man. Every date we went on, I did
worse and worse. And I was shocked when we had
each date. I'm shocked to have me back,
but I'm thankful to be here. See there in the bulletin, I
know it's tough to be going through something that's a struggle for
you. It's hard to comfort yourself. You have to have Christ comfort
you. But you can be a comfort to other people. And that bulletin
there, I'm thankful for that bulletin. And that back page
brought me to think of when Paul said, we preach Christ and Him
crucified. But he was speaking to the apostles,
to the churches, but he was also speaking to the preachers with
the churches. If I prepared a message that
came here to speak to you and no one was here, there's no preaching
going on. And if you all showed up and I didn't show up, there'd
be no preaching. But it's an encouragement to your brethren,
and Ewing especially, they tell me about it all the time, to
thank you. The Lord's gave you the grace to further this work
here and to keep it. His lot has not went out in this
place, and we're desperately thankful for you. All right,
in Job chapter 1, years ago, my pastor told me
when I first started college, I told him I struggled with English.
I had no problems with history or the sciences or any of those
things come easy to me, but English I had to work really hard at,
and if it takes you an hour to write a paper, however many pages
long, it would take me three. Now I made good grades and I
got through it, but it took effort. I had to work hard at it. And
he told me, and Henry would always turn his finger when he talked
to you, he'd say, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell
them, and then tell them what you told them. And so after that,
them essays got a whole lot easier. So I was down about two hours.
Tonight I want us to look at the first book of Job, mainly
the first five verses. And I want to briefly see how
Job is a picture and a type of every believer. And then secondly,
I'd like to see Job as a picture of Christ, as a type of Christ.
And that will be our two divisions. And at the end of it, I'll tell
you what I told you. The book of Job is considered
by many scholars and people that are a lot smarter than I am to
be the oldest book in the Bible. It's got 3,000 years old is what
they say. Not that it's the first account
of man and the Lord's creation, but that it's the oldest. It
was the first one written. So I think it would be fitting
for us to look and see what the opening is, what the prologue,
what sets the context for this whole book and the other books
that follow. I hope we're able to see that
in all the books in their entirety. So Job chapter 1 and verse 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. And there were born unto him
seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, and a
very great household, so that this man 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." There
have been many, many worldly sermons preached on this text.
And I'd actually accidentally heard one. I drive a whole lot
for my job, and so Lord blesses me with the opportunity to listen
to a lot of sermon audio and download sermons. I think I was
at a red light, and I found a sermon from Bruce Crabtree, and I clicked
on it. I got about five minutes in. I said, that audio's not
right. And I quickly realized that that was not Bruce Crabtree.
I'd hit the guy below him. Anyway, there have been a lot
of sermons preached from this text, and many religions would find points
that are far beyond what's plainly told here. And I've heard these
passages used to tell parents how to make spiritual goals for
your children. Think about that. How can I make
spiritual goals for my children? How can I make them love Christ?
I can't make them brush their teeth well most of the time,
much less give them a heart for Christ. That's the Spirit's job,
isn't it? But there's been many that use
these verses as arguing points for when Job was saved, when
his children were saved, when we should save our children.
It's foolishness and all that stuff is men's wisdom. man's
wisdom and wanting to argue. First Corinthians 2.12 tells
us, Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So if
the Lord will allow me, I pray this evening we can look at these
scriptures from other scriptures and see points here that are
comforting to you and eternally useful for you. Our first point
will be Job as a believer. So in Job 1.1, there is a man
in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was perfect
and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. He was
perfect. A lot of people say that perfect
there means he was mature. We'll read later on, his sons
were grown, had their own homes. Of course he was mature, he's
grown up. But perfect here, the Hebrew word means complete. And
then gentle and dear, when you couple those together, it means
perfect, plain, undefiled. That's what he was. Genesis 6,
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and Noah walked
with God. Genesis 17, it says, And when
Abraham was ninety years and nine, the Lord appeared unto
Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before
me, and be thou perfect. Considering Zacharias and Elizabeth,
Luke wrote this in Luke 1, And they were both righteous before
God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. They
were blameless. They were perfect. I had a Mormon
friend of mine tell me, he said, Christ wasn't the only person
in the Scriptures that was perfect. I said, you're right, there's
a lot of them in there. But how did they get that way? Why are
they and I, as the Lord, perfect? What makes them like that? If
you will, turn over to Hebrews 10. You all can probably quote
this, but it'll be good for us to read through it together.
Hebrews 10, we'll look at verse 14. For by one offering he, that's
Christ, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, those
that are set apart is elect. Job feared God. He was reverent
toward God. He honored Him. He eschewed evil. That means He hated it. It's
a lot easier for me to say, He hated evil. He put it away. He
despised it. And Christ is the only one that
made Him that way. Why? Because Christ was that
way. We looked at that last time,
didn't we? We were made to be like Christ. And so whenever
we were put in His charge, we became perfect in the eyes of
the Lord. Alright, let's go back to Job 1, look at verse 2. They were born unto him seven
sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000
sheep and 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, and a
very great household, so that this man was the greatest of
all the men of the East. The Lord was gracious to Job
physically, materially, and spiritually. And he had 10 children. There
was an abundance of livestock, and he had a great household.
That's all the people to take care of all that livestock. and had
such a large number of animals. So much was the substance that
says that he was the greatest man of all the East. That's saying
something. That's a big area. And he was
the most blessed out of them. Verse 4, And his sons went and
feasted in their houses every one his day, and sent and called
for the three sisters to eat and drink with them. He was blessed
with many children. They were grown. They had their
own homes. They got along well. They were
raised by loving parents that taught them right, and they had
a good heart towards one another to be happy. I'm talking about
my children on the way over here. They care for one another. I
said, everybody come over to my house this evening and eat.
And then tomorrow we'll go over to your house. Everyone had their
day. They went together and feasted together. Now when they feasted,
the Hebrew word there is not for a sacrificial feast. They
didn't have a feast of sacrifices. It meant that they just gathered
together like a banquet. They got together and they ate
dinner together. They enjoyed each other's company. David wrote
this in Psalm 133, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity. It's a sweet home, wasn't
it? I'm going to look at verse 5
now. 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." Job sent for his children. He sanctified
them. He set them apart. He had them
all by himself. And he offered burnt offerings for each of them.
It says, to the number of them all. And he pleaded on their
behalf. Why would he do that? He knew
he was a sinner. He was aware of his depravity.
If we look at that, we'll notice he didn't say that the boys were
running around town and causing trouble, or the girls were riding
in cars with boys. They weren't doing something
wrong outwardly that would make him have sacrifices for them.
It says there that they may have sinned and cursed God in their
hearts. That's the same as he had known of himself. That's
unbelief. He knew on the inside they were human, they were flesh
just like the rest of us. And he made an offering to the
Lord for them continually. Hopefully tomorrow we'll see
this in 1 Samuel, but Samuel begins with the story before
his birth. and his mother was barren, and
she asked for a child, and the Lord remembered her prayers and
gave her Samuel, and she said, I'm giving him to the Lord until
his death. And she used the words that she
lent him to the Lord until his death. And I've heard a lot of
old-timey authors and preachers that say, I was given to the
Lord at my birth, or I gave my children to the Lord at my birth,
and I always found it to be foolish thing to say. I'd be real careful
about saying that. I had a troubled stomach and
then I had children. And then I thought, I hope the
Lord teaches them that they're a sinner. I hope the Lord teaches
them who Christ is. I hope He teaches them they need
to hear Christ. And I did that all the time,
continually. And so then I understood what
it meant when it came out of those people's lips. Lord, they
knew that they were the Lord. So He gave them to you. He's
yours anyway. Take Him, you know. But you still,
you continually look for those sacrifices for them. An elect
child of God by the Lord's grace has shown the earthly blessings
that we have. More importantly, we're shown
our spiritual blessings. Then, for the ones that we care for
and love, we want those blessings for them if it's the Lord's will.
If He's there, we want Him to call them out and teach them
of Christ and teach them to give them a heart and a new spirit
in them to look for Him. We do that all the time. Now,
if we saw Job only As a typical believer, what he does, how he
handles his family and those things, we can get a lot from
it. We can get a lot of comfort and knowledge from that. And
I hope that someday the Lord will give me a message to preach
just that. But for the last several weeks,
I read this first five verses about a month ago. And as soon
as I read it, I believe the Lord showed me this and I got excited
and I said, if I go back to San Diego, I'm preaching this to
those folks. And I held off last week in New Jersey. I saved this
for you. It's special to me. It's a blessing
to me to study it. You may have to suffer with me,
but it was a pleasure to see the second part. The second part
is Job as a type of Christ. I've seen it written. I lost myself. I'm sorry. We've seen the first written
declaration of a saint. It's the first declared thing
in the Word of God. And he was like everyone before
him, what few there were, and he's been like everyone after.
He saw his need of a Savior. And he was blessed earthly, but
more importantly, he is blessed spiritually. We've got all things
in heavenly places, don't we? A man that has a new spirit.
And that new man is perfect. It's upright. And he fears God
and he hates evil. The new man in us. that one that
loved his children and prayed for them. But we'll read it again
here and we'll try to see this as a type of Christ. So in verse
1 again we'll go back. There was a man in the land of
Uz whose name was Job. And that man was perfect and
upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Job was perfect,
upright, fearing God. He hated evil. Our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, was the perfect God-man. He was holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners. He came on our behalf. Look over in Psalm 45. Psalm
45, verse 7. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
Above thy fellows, in other parts of Scripture, it says he was
made to be the firstborn among any brethren. In verse 2 we'll
see, and there was, I'm sorry, back in Job 1, And there were born to him seven
sons and three daughters. Now in the Scriptures, three
speaks of completion, but more so seven does. So both of these
is a complete and totality of children. And Job's children
were complete. He had seven sons, three daughters,
but the Lord Jesus Christ's children are complete. Not one more and
not one less that was given to him is going to be his children.
John 17, 9 says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, this
is Christ speaking, but 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. So the Lord gives us children
and allows us to see how we're given to Him as His child. He prays for us and makes sacrifices
for us. All right, Job 1 verse 3. His
substance 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 Middle East. During the summers,
we have chickens now. I can count them. We had a bad
fox problem. We have about 10. But during the summers, I normally
keep about 30 or 40 chickens. We have two goats. I know that.
But you start counting those chickens, and you go 5, 6, 7,
1, 2, 3, 4. until they move. So 7,000 sheep, that's a lot
of sheep. How would you count that? That's a whole lot. You
have to have a lot of people to take care of those. But these
sheep, they were ideal livestock back then. They provided meat.
They had wool for clothing. They had milk to drink. The Bedouins
still make their tents out of the hides. They tan the hides. And they were provided for sacrifices
for God. Now the camels, they were the
workhorse. That was the transportation. That's how you got to and fro
long distances. Oxen pulled the plows for growing
food and provided for all the house that raised them. Had to
have the stuff, all those servants, you had to feed them. You had
to feed those children too. You had to feed the animals. The donkeys
carried the heavy loads of pack animals. And a great number of
servants attend to it all. Those servants are laborers in
His vineyard, as the Scriptures say. Now Christ had, now has,
and will have forever, the full means to provide for His household
and all of His servants, totally and completely in all aspects.
It says Job was the greatest man of the East. Christ, it says,
whose going force hath been from everlasting, He is the greatest
of all. In all things, He has preeminence.
Look at Romans 11. Romans chapter 11, verse 34.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been His counselor? For who hath first given to Him,
and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through
Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever." We
see a lot of, man has a lot of things, cattle, which isn't popular
now, if they have cars, and houses, and airplanes, or whatever they
have. We think that's something. Christ has it all. Because of
Him, He's the source of all things. Through Him, He's the cause,
that's the providence. And to Him, that's where all
the glory is going, are all things. Alright, now Job 1 again, verse
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 drink with them. And they were
relaxed and comforted. Their father was in control.
They weren't out working in the fields. They had to go have dinner
and drink wine and be merry. Ecclesiastes 9 says, Go thy way,
eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
For God now accepteth thy works. They were comforted. Job's children
physically were comforted, but the Lord's children were comforted
because we know He's took care of everything and He's accepted
our works because they're Christ's works. Alright, on Job 1 verse
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, 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. Our Redeemer, He sends for us.
He calls us out. He sanctifies us. He sets us
apart. And He gets up early, before the earth was made. And
He offers sacrifice for us. And when God the Father put us
in crossed hands, immediately it was so. That's why Job was
said to be perfect. That's why you're said to be
perfect. I think I referred to it last time, but on the Mount
of Transfiguration, Moses and Elias was there, spoke with God. The apostles saw and knew who
they were. But Christ hadn't died yet. But
we don't see things, we only see things as linear. We see
things in time. He's omnipresent. When the Lord
told him, these are my people, they're going to be yours and
you're going to save them. And Christ said, okay. Immediately,
it was effectual. It happened right then, because
he said he was going to do it. We need to bless our hearts if
we understood whenever Christ says He's going to do something,
it's already done. But He makes intercession for us. That's that
sacrifice continually with the Father. 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. That's something. And
verse 35 says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? There's
our assurance. Not only did he do it, it was
effectual. He can keep you. All right, now
throughout the rest of this book, Clay told me to pick a book and
work through it. He said, because you're going
to come to some stuff you don't know what to do, and the Lord's going to
teach you some stuff, and He'll give you some weeks where it's easier.
I hope maybe the Lord will bless me to study through Job even
just for myself. If you read the rest of this
book, you'll see how Job was suddenly brought from great riches
to poverty. Our Lord came from great riches.
He was made lower than the angels. He was made low. Job was assaulted
by Satan from the Lord's permission. He allowed him. Our Savior was
assaulted by Satan, challenged by him in the garden. Job made
an effectual sacrifice, an intercession for his friends by the will of
God. Christ made an effectual sacrifice
for us and effectually intercedes for us every time. And because
the Lord accepted Job, He accepted those for whom Job made intercession. So because our great God accepts
His Son, He accepts us. Job was laid low that he might
be exalted very high. He started out, lost all that
stuff, and he got a lot of double back, didn't he? Our Father in
Heaven gave us Christ. He was made low, and oh how much
higher He'll be, the glory He'll have on Him. We'll praise Him
forever. And if you look in chapter 42,
there in verse 12 it says, So the Lord blessed the latter end
of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000
camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 she-asses. He had also, so He did double
everything. That glory was increased because
of what He did. He had also seven sons and three
daughters. Now why was everything doubled
but His children? Christ's glory will be increased
because we'll be there to praise Him for eternity. But His children
hasn't changed. Not one has been lost, not one
has been added to it. The ones He started with is the
same number He's going to end with. And some people can argue
that. They may want to disagree. Job
had the same bride the whole time. He lost everything. He
didn't lose his bride. She was with him. She was mean
to him. Said some things she shouldn't
have said. Acted as one of the foolish women. He didn't discard
her. He kept her and provided for
her the whole time. Now Job is a great example of every believer
in this text. In the eyes of God, we are perfect.
Everything we are given is perfect and abundant and for our good.
And He gives us a spirit that does the will of the Father in
seeking out Christ's sheep. That's what we're doing here.
We're preaching Christ crucified. You're preaching that. Showing
up, giving you time and your money. The Lord gave you that
heart to do it. That's serving Him continually.
But, we've seen in these first five verses written in God's
Word, a shining picture of Christ that sets the tone for the rest
of the Scriptures. That's the introduction. We call
it the law of first mention. So if the first five verses of
the first book of the Bible, historically, show a picture
of Christ, we may want to look for a picture of Christ in all
the other scriptures, shouldn't we? So the perfect one. That's
who we're looking for, with all the glory and the praise, with
a complete house of elect children that He sanctifies, that He makes
an offering for, and He does it continually. Brethren, let
us always have a comfort in the fact that Christ is our High
Priest. He makes the intercession for us. He makes the sacrifice
for us, for our sheep, for us sheep. And He does it effectually,
and He does it continually. So I hope that's a blessing to
you.