Job 33. Go back there with me. Job, God said, was a perfect
man. Meaning he was mature in the
faith. He knew God. He knew the truth.
He was upright. He was upright. Righteous in
Christ. An upright man, a just man, he
feared God. God said so. He feared God. He
eschewed or avoided evil. God said there's none like him.
A little thing to say about a man. He did. But Job was just a man. Just a man. He's a sinner. There was a time when Job did
not know the Lord. And like Noah, he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Like all of us who know the Lord,
found grace. The Lord found Job in the pit. In the pit called sin. This world,
the earth, he brought him out. He bought him, he brought him,
he taught him. He was saved by grace, the grace
of God, kept by the power of God from the pit. The pit. But Job, like all of us, sometimes
we get into a pit again. Job was in a pit of bitterness and despair and he
even cursed his day. Remember, he went through so
much trouble and he didn't know why. And he tried to figure it
out. He said so much good throughout
the book of Job, like, though he slay me, I'll trust him. The
Lord gave, the Lord taketh away. But he began to defend himself. And when we defend ourselves,
we defend in a bad manner. So the Lord sent him a preacher. You know, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. The gospel is preached. The Lord
sent Job a preacher. Job, though he was a perfect
man, an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil,
none like him in the earth, he still needed a preacher. And
it was a young man at that. A young man who respected Job. And he said, I waited on you
to speak. You've read this, chapter 32.
He said, I've waited on all you older men to speak. And age should
speak. The aged men should. And he said,
I did not listen. And I was afraid to say anything.
But God gave him a message for Job and for us. And we all need
this. Always will. Or else, we'll go
back into the pit. And he'd say, from the pit. Did
you notice with me how many times he talked about the pit? The
pit. And if you'll just look that up in the scriptures, it's
just many, many times. Well now, a hundred times. The
pit. The pit. All right, so we read the last
two verses of chapter 32, because this is good. He said, I don't
accept any man's persons. I'm not giving flattering title.
Listen to me. Paul said, if I yet seek to please
men, I wouldn't be the servant of God. Paul said, I must tell the truth.
If I become man's enemy, I must tell the truth. He said, don't
flatter him. Don't listen to somebody who
flatters you. Don't listen. And he said, I don't know, I
don't give flattering titles. Those belong to our, not flattering
titles, but titles belong only to our Lord. So he says in verse
one, Job, I pray thee, I pray thee, hear my speeches, hearken
unto all my words. Verse 2, I've opened my mouth,
my tongue, I've spoken my mouth. My words shall be of the uprightness
of my heart. My lips shall utter knowledge
clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me.
The breath of the Almighty hath given me life. He says, if you
can answer me, set your words in order before me, stand up.
Look at the last two verses. The last three verses. Mark well,
O Job, hearken unto me. Hold thy peace, and I will speak. If you have anything to say,
answer me. Speak. I desire to justify thee. If not, shut up. That's what it's telling me.
Sit down. Stand up. If not, sit down and
shut up. I've got something to tell you. You know, the Lord is pleased
to use the foolishness of preaching, what the world calls foolishness.
And us which believe gospel's preaching is the power of God,
the wisdom of God, the power of God, we're kept by the power
of God. We're brought out of the pit
by the gospel and we're kept from going back into it by the
power. And we come here to hear from the Lord, like Cornelius
and all those in his house. We say, we're here to hear. And
they all sat down and shut up. You know, men need to do that.
See, these two things don't work simultaneously. If the mouth
is open, the ear shuts. If the ear is open, the mouth
has to be shut. Oh, that we would be swift to hear and slow to
speak, slow to anger. So Elihu says, if you have something
to say, stand up, but if not, just sit down, just hold your
peace. That means, don't say anything,
listen, hearken unto me. Didn't our Lord say that in Isaiah
55? Don't you love that? He said,
hearken diligently unto me. He says, incline your ear and
come unto me, hear, and your soul shall live. So, faith cometh by hearing. And though God uses a man, God
speaks. He does. He speaks through men
like young Elihu. So, verse 6, he says, verse 6,
he said, I am according to thy wish in God's stead. Over in chapter 9, this is what
Job said. Don't you love this book? Those
of you who know it. Job said, God's not a man as
I am that I should answer him, that we should come together
in judgment. He says, neither is there any dazeman betwixt
us that might lay his hand upon us both. Yes, there is, Job.
That's Christ. And then he went on, Job went
on in chapter 16, he said this, he said, chapter 16, Oh, that
one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded with his
neighbor. So the Lord sent Job a preacher. He said, I am according to thy
wish. You've asked for help. And God sent me. He says, I'm
just formed out of clay. I'm just like you. Okay? We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellence of the power might be of God,
not of men. So Elihu said, I'm no better than you. I'm just
a man just like you, but God has given me a message for you.
Verse 7, my terror shall not Make thee afraid. Don't be afraid
of man. Oh, no. We should fear God. Neither shall my hand be heavy
upon thee. Oh, may the Word of God lay hold
of us, the hand of God. Verse 8, Elihu said, he said, Now spoken in my hearing, I've
listened to you, I've heard the voices of thy word. I've heard
you say, I'm clean without transgression. I'm innocent. See, there's an
iniquity in me. The whole joke said, God findeth
occasion against me. Now remember, that's what Jacob
said, all this is against me. That's what Naomi said, it's
all against me. Job was fine in the beginning
when he said, Lord gave, Lord take it away, blessed be the
name of the Lord. He was blessing the Lord, though
all this happened to him. He didn't believe God was against
him. What was the Lord doing with
Job? Tried him. Tried his faith. Trial of our
faith. It was a heavy trial. Painful
trial. Yet, it worketh in us a far more
exceeding eternal weight of glory. When it's all over with Job,
he's going to rejoice and going to praise God as never before.
More than he did before his trials. The Lord trieth the righteous.
He tried the righteous, and when they're tried, they'll come forth
as gold. But they've got to go through
the fire. The fire. And so, Job, when he
got into trouble, and when we get into trouble, is trying to
figure out why God is doing what He's doing. And we should trust Him and believe
Him. He's not against us. Whom the
Lord loveth. He does what? Chastening. And the Lord jokedly did chastening
to him. And so did we. And the Lord loved
him. Chastening is not punishment
in the strictest sense. It's not penal judgment. No,
no. Christ took our judgment. Christ. We're going to see Christ
was put in the pit to bring us out. Substitute. But chastening is firm correction. Loving correction. Bring us out. So he says, you said that God
findeth occasion against me, he counteth me for his enemy.
No, no, the Lord loveth. His enemies he just puts in the
pit, throws them in the pit and leaves them there. He said in verse 11, he puts
my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths. Job, in this thou
art not just. It's not right, Job. He said
in verse 12, I'll answer thee. Listen, Job. God's greater than
man. God's holy. Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God. God is just. God is right. You
were right when you said, though he slay me, I'll trust him. He
ought to slay us. He doesn't. He won't, Job. God speaketh, verse 13, why dost
thou strive against him? He giveth not account of his
matters. Now, go with me to Job 4, Job
chapter 4. This is what one of his friends
said, and he was right in what he said. And Job, and this is
said two or three times in Job and other places. Job 4, verse
17. Eliphaz said this, he said, in
verse 17, you have it? Job 4, 17. Shall mortal man be
more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than
his maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servant. And his
angels he charged with poly. Chapter 9, look at Job 9. Now this is the question, these
are the questions that few ask. One time, one of our brethren
preached a message on the radio entitled, The Questions Nobody's
Asking. Here it is. Job 9. Are you with
me? Job said, verse 1, verse 2, I
know it's of the truth, but how should man be just with God? That's the question. And then
Job 14, Job 14 talks about death and man going down into the grave. And he began by saying, man's
a few days full of trouble. Why? Because he's in trouble
with God. And should a living man complain for the punishment
of his sin? No. And he says, do you bring
such a one, such a creature into judgment with thee? David said,
what is man that thou art mindful of him? Son of man that you would
even think on him. Why didn't God destroy Adam and
Eve immediately? Rebellious creatures that they
were. Like a dog bites your hand, you feed it. Why did God? Because God's not a man. Because
God is merciful. Because God's going to show His
greatest glory and show Him mercy. And being gracious to these creatures
that don't deserve mercy. Look at verse 4, Job 14, 4. Here
it is. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. And we could ask the question,
too, who could bring a man out of a deep pit of uncleanness
and make him clean? That'd be a good question. Only
one. Only one. This is the question
that few ask if you know the answer to it. Nobody's asking
the question. So if they really don't know, Why Christ came. This is why Christ came. This
is the whole reason why Jesus Christ came to this pit. To deliver some from it. And
keep from throwing back in it. You understand? You do. This
is the reason Christ came. To deliver us from the pit. So he says in verse 13, he says, He says, I'm in Job 14, Job 33,
okay. In verse 13, he says, Why do
you strive against him? He giveth not account of his
matters. Why? Why? Why? Don't ask why. Just trust him. Just trust him. Though he slay
me, I'll trust him. And any, you know, God doesn't
give an account of himself. And this is what all human beings
want God to do. They think God's accountable
to man. That's the other way around, isn't it? God calleth
man into account, and all are guilty. All of mankind are guilty.
All mankind is guilty if they don't give God all the glory
for everything they are and everything they have and thank God and worship
God and call on His name for mercy and believe God's Son whom
God sent to do what He did for the likes of us. They're guilty
of treason. They're guilty of rebellion.
God took the holy angels that kept not their estate, the fallen
angels that kept not their estate, and cast them into a pit That's
where they are right now. With no hope. With no mercy.
And that's exactly what Adam and Eve did. That's what mankind
did. That's what we all did. And such
were some of you. But God. God in mercy said to
some of you, many of you, if not most in this room, deliver
him, deliver her. Why her? What about her? She hasn't, sir. Well, she hasn't
either, I know. But I've chosen her. Deliver her from going down
to the pit. I've got a ransom for her. You see? You can't preach the
truth without preaching sovereign election. That's where it all
started. God chose a number. He chose
a number as the sands of the sea. His Son said, there's sin
debt I'll pay. I might be just chose one that
man and a pretty singing about sovereign elect in love and grace
at all the days of his life. Christ would have had to come
to die for him. One man. But he did it for so many. How
merciful. How gracious. He did it for me. God giveth not a count. God speaketh,
look at this, verse fourteen, God speaketh once, yea, twice,
Man perceiveth it not. Job 19, you know, the two books
of God, the book of creation, heaven is declared glory, the
firmament showeth its handiwork, day unto day uttereth speech,
God speaketh through creation, saying, His eternal power and
Godhead are clearly seen, so that all mankind is without excuse. You know, the jungle native can
see that there's some higher power that has done all this,
and if he'll fall on his face and say, show me, God will. You know, He'll give you more
light. God will send a preacher. You
remember the story of the man in the jungle of Mexico? His
name was Feliz. Happy? He was not happy. But
he was in a deep jungle, and God impressed Walter Gruber to
get in his truck and drive up in the jungles. And there that
man was standing there with a rifle. And he stopped Walter's truck. Walter didn't know if he was
going to shoot him or what. He said, who are you? The man said,
who are you in Spanish? And Walter told him, a missionary,
a preacher of the gospel. And the man said this. You know,
we don't put stock in dreams. And I'm going to explain this
in a minute, that dream. But it happened. The man said,
I had a dream. I dreamed that God would send
a white man up here and tell me about God. So you tell me
about God. He did. He did. But this here is speaking of
God's two books, his book of creation and God's book that
he's written. And then God spoke before the
Bible was written. God spoke to men in dreams and
visions before the Word was written. He spoke to believers and unbelievers. He spoke to Nebuchadnezzar in
a dream. He struck fear in Nebuchadnezzar, and nobody could answer his dream.
Abimelech. Remember when Abimelech was going
to take Abraham's wife? God spoke to him in a dream.
Don't you touch her. Scared him. God spoke to him. And Darius, Pilate's wife, remember,
had a dream and said to Pilate, Don, this is a just man. I've
suffered many things to dream because of him. And on and on
it goes. So God did speak to men and women. He doesn't do that now. And I
know I just told you a story. But at any rate, God speaks through
His Word. He used to speak to preachers. In Numbers 12, it says that God
said, If there's a prophet, I'll speak to him in a dream and a
vision. And He did. The vision of Isaiah. The vision
of Jeremiah. The visions of Daniel. The visions
of Ezekiel. The visions. The visions. The
dream. He rebuked the false prophets for telling their false dream.
And you've heard these, these fellows. And God said there in
Jeremiah 23, He said, he that hath his dream, let him tell
his dream. What's the chapter? Tweet to the chapter. Tweet to
the chapter. But he that hath my word, let him speak my word
faithfully. He said to the law and the prophets,
if they speak not according to my word, there's no light in
them. Right? God speaks through his
word. And he spoke to me. And Peter
said, no scriptures of any private interpretation, but holy men
spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. God spoke to them
in dreams. visions, deep sleep, and he sealed
their instruction. He opened their ears. And how
God opens our ears and seals our instruction is through a
preacher whom he sends the word. He opens our ears. He opens our
blind eye, doesn't he? By preaching. So thank God we're
preaching the gospel. And here's what Preaching is
aimed at. Here's what God's purpose is
in sending His Word to open ears, open blind eyes. Here it is,
verse 17. To withdraw man from his purpose
and hide pride from man. What's man's purpose? What is
man set out to do? Sin. His purpose, all of his
purpose, work is what the margin says. His work. Man is a worker
of iniquity. Adam and Eve, without saying
it, they said, we want to be God. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellence. That's what Satan did. That's what all those fallen
angels did. They said, we'll be God. We'll bring God down
from his throne. We'll be God. And that's what man says. All
this talk about free will and all that. That's what man is
saying. It's not innocent false doctrine. It's rebellion against
God. It's hatred of God being God,
of God's right to be God. It's hatred of God. That's what
it is. That's what Romans says. Men are haters of God. What do you think about that?
It's true, isn't it? It's me. Though I didn't say
it, though I've been frightened to say it, but as a young rebel
with no thought of God, that's pretty much saying I wish there
wasn't a God. Right? So I can continue to sin
with both hands, like with a cart rope. Have you ever read that?
Isaiah. We're going to go through Isaiah.
We're going to look at the whole book of Isaiah. I didn't know what
to leave out. and 30 minutes. But over in Chapter
5, I believe it is, sin, as if with a cart rope, that is, it
can't get enough of sin, the whole purpose of man. Like Genesis
6, his imagination is evil, all he wants to do is work wickedness. God, in mercy and grace, is going
to take man out of that. Take that out of him. Only God
can do that. God's the only one who can do
that. It's a pit called the pit of lust, pit of desire, pit of
sin that men and women and young people are in, the pit of corruption,
the pit that holds people in captivity. And to hide pride
from man, pride that goes before destruction, pride. God, the
Lord of Hosts, here's His purpose. The Lord of Hosts has purposed
it. to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. Why? Why does God hate pride
so much? Because what do we have that
we have not received? For us to take credit for and
be proud of and boast of and talk boldly and boastfully proudly
about anything we've ever done or anything we have, is to say,
I did this, not God. God hates it. God hates it. So, the life of a believer is
one continual, humbling lesson. He's going to bring us down.
He knows, him that walketh in pride, he's able to obey. He's
able. We all do it, you know. Job started
defending himself. God said, ah, Job. I'll bring you down. And we all
do it, don't we? Why is this happening to me?
Oh, hold on there. He hath not dealt with us according
to our sin. We may not deserve something
that human beings do unto us, but we deserve it from God. We
may have not done something to somebody, and they do evil to
us, but God did it. In fact, David said, God sent
him to cuss me. God sent him to cuss me. Leave
me alone. I deserve worse than that. And
Job's going to find that out. Job knew this, but he got in
self-pity, self-righteousness, self-justification. We've all
done it. We will do it. And God will love us. How? He'll send a preacher. He says, verse 18, He's going
to keep your soul back from the pit. God's going to send all
proud people down into a pit. One time, years ago, in a Bible
school in Ashland, Dad asked me to lead that whole thing,
address everybody at the beginning. And I told the young people,
You know, young people, I know, I was guilty. Even as adults,
we all tend to try to act cool. You know what I mean? Cool. You're driving along in
our car. Boy, ain't that something? It's not funny, is it? That's
what we do. That's man. He's proud. I'm cool. Who are you? I said, God's got
a very hot place to put cool people. That's where he's going
to put them. Sounds funny, but that's what
he's going to do. Isaiah 2, we're going to look
at that. Enter into the rock, hide in
the pit. The lofty looks of man are coming down. Coming down. He's going to keep us back from
the pits. And he does this in humbling passion. And he's alive
from perishing by the sword. Perishing by the sword. The sword
of God's justice. Now the pit, all through here
it's spoken of, pit, pit. Four times here, many times in
the scripture. Pit, a pit is as you might think,
it's a hole in the ground. Hole in the ground, earth. Isn't that fitting? This whole earth is a pit. Slime pits, like Egypt. The children of Israel were in
slime pits, working. And God came and said, I've come
down to bring them out of the pit, to bring them up. Isaiah 40, I can't wait to get
to it. I'll quote it later. I'll go
ahead and quote it. He brought me up out of a horrible pit and
set my feet on the rock and established my company. Pit, hole in the ground, earth. Pit, it's an abyss. It means
it's a hole that just swallows up everything. That's just earth.
Hole in the ground. Sin, as I said, is a pit. A deep,
dark hole that you can't get out of. You can't do it. Nobody
can. Sin of lust. Sin of ambition. People are in a pit of ambition. Sin of wanting fame and fortune. The pit of wanting to be something
or be somebody. The whole world's in a pit. Sin
is a pit. The world is a pit. It's a darkness.
It's called a dung heap. That's what the scriptures call
it, a dung heap. Everything in it turns to dung. And we're in
it. And we heap up a lot of it. And
we're full of it. And hell is a pit, a bottomless
pit, the revelation it speaks of over and over and over, the
bottomless pit where the worm does not die, where all those
consuming desires are never fulfilled, never go away. Now who can bring us out of that?
How? How? Here's how. Here's the only way
that he delivers from the pit. Verse 9. It's a painful thing.
Verse 9, 19. He says he chastens him with
pain on his bed. His bones, strong things, inner
being. So it is life of whoreth bread,
his soul, dainty meat. Listen to Psalm 25. David says it over and over. Deliver my soul from going down
in the pit. John read it in Psalm 30, but
listen to this. He said, Lord, I leave. He said,
remember, O Lord, I tender mercies, thy loving kindness, they have
been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth,
nor my transgression. According to thy mercy, remember
me for thy goodness' sake. O Lord, O Lord. He says, Lord. He says, the seeker of the Lord
is within that fear him. He said he'll deliver him from
the pit. He'll deliver him from the pit. And it's a painful thing, though.
He says in verse 20, His life, of course, bread, His soul, dainty
meat, His flesh is consumed away that cannot be seen, His bone,
as if it didn't stick out. Well, we have heart pain, pain,
when we realize soul pain, head pain, even bodily pain. When
we realize what we are, when God shows unto us what we are,
what we've done. David said, Psalm 51, oh, he
was in a pit. Oh, have mercy on me, O God.
According to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of
Thy ten mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me through
the lip of mine iniquity. Pain. Your life. It says, His life abhorreth meat,
and His flesh is consumed away. You know, we find out when we
realize that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. And I am in a pit. Verse 22. His soul draweth near unto the
grave, His life to the destroyer. It says, I am in a pit. Who shall
deliver me? I do want you to turn to Psalm
143, okay? Psalm 143. Turn over there. Who shall deliver
me? I'm going down into the pit.
I'm going to be just like everybody else if the Lord doesn't do something
for me. Look at that. Psalm 143. And this is, you know, this is
Christ on the cross is who this is. Praying on our behalf. Psalm 143. Hear my prayer, O
Lord, give ear to my supplication. In thy faithfulness answer me,
in thy righteousness. Enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
The enemy hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life
down to the ground. He made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed
with it. My heart is within me as desolate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on thy work. I muse
on the work of thy hand. Stretch forth my hands unto thee.
My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty lamb. Hear me speedily,
O Lord, my spirit failing. Hide not Thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. And our Lord in Psalm 88, it's
the same thing. He prayed. See what the Lord... Here's what the Lord does in
verse 23. Here's what the Lord does. He
sends a messenger. This man is down in the pit and
he can't get out. Who shall deliver me? If there
be a messenger with you. The Lord's got to send a messenger
with a message. Okay? And Malachi 3 says there's
a messenger. The Lord sent John the messenger.
And his message was Christ. He's the ransom. And then Christ
came as the messenger of the covenant. If there be a messenger,
an interpreter, is there one that can tell us? Who can tell
us? Remember the message from Ecclesiastes? Who can tell us
about God, about man, how we can be delivered from this pit?
One among a thousand. Oh, that's Christ in it. Fairest
among ten thousand. To show unto man his uprightness. I bet you most people read this
wrong, don't you, John? To show unto man his uprightness.
Oh, God loves you. Oh, no, no, that's not what he's
talking about. He's going to show you your corruption. And
he's going to show you his uprightness. And the only way that he that
is unclean can be clean is that he that was clean was made unclean.
You understand? The only way that he can bring
someone out of the pit Sent out of the miry clay and sent with
princes is to take the prince of glory off the throne and put
him in the miry clay. So he put Christ in the pit of
hell on Calvary's trail. This is how. This is the message.
This is my message. This is the only message there
is. This is the message of deliverance. To show unto man God is holy. God is upright. God is just. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Well, how can God be just and justified? That's what Job was asking. This
is the question. In Romans, Paul said that he
might declare, I say, his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin. To
show man his uprightness. The just one came down. It was
without sin. It was made sin. God put him
to death. God laid on him the iniquity
of all of his people. All right? All the transgressions,
all the sin, all the iniquity was laid on Christ. He was made
sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.
He made sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how God can
be just, not clear of the guilt that's in Him, and yet punish
Him. Punish Him and clear Him. Because
Christ took His place. And if you hear that, if you
need that, God's gracious. Verse 24, then God's gracious
unto you. This is the gospel of God's grace. Eli, you preached
this thousands of years ago. There's no other message. God said it in the garden to
the first guilty sinners. You tried to take me off the
throne. Adam, I ought to throw you in a pit. I'm going to cast
you out of the garden, and you're going to go through pain all
your life, and suffering because of this
thing called sin. But I'm going to deliver you
from the pit. I found a ransom. I found a ransom. The soul that
sins must surely die. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Behold the Lamb. And God slipped
that through. She poured His blood out. That
Lamb died that they might live. And He wrapped them in that skin.
He said, Now go. But don't come back in my presence
without their blood. That's the ransom. Christ is
the ransom, the atonement. You know, a ransom, you think
of ransom as somebody that's been taken captive and they demand
a ransom prize. That's exactly what it is. That's
exactly what it is. We're taken captive by Satan.
So what did our Lord have to do? God let Satan bruise his heel. God let man God let man do with
Jesus as he will. And they killed Him. But they
did what God determined before to be done. You with wicked heads
have taken and crucified the Lord of glory, but you did what
God determined before to be done. They killed the Lamb, the Passover
Lamb. And later on, the very ones who
killed Him, Christ prayed for them, interceded for them. Is
there one that can lay hands on God and man? Yes, there is,
Jesus Christ, Job. Yes, there is. Write it down.
That's your Redeemer. That's your abasement. That's
your mediator. That's your intercessor. That's
your ransom, Job. And this, what happens, verse
25, is a new birth. His flesh will be fresher than
a child. All through Scripture it talks about men being in pain
as a woman in childbirth. Have you read that? Over and
over again. Thus men have never been through
childbirth. Some of you women have, some
women haven't. But we all have, we all go through
this pain of the new birth. And we feel something of this
pain of conviction of sin and fear. I remember Mindy being in such
pain that she thought, I'm going to die, give me something, cut
my head off, something. And you know, we go through the,
I remember thinking, Lord, Lord, kill me. I get what I deserve. But he didn't. That pain was
a means of delivering man. Conviction of sin. When he comes,
he'll convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and what? Judgment.
It all has to do with Christ. And when he does, he'll be born again.
Born of God, born of the Spirit, born of His Word, born of the
Gospel. His flesh will be fresher than
a child. He'll receive the Word as a little
child. He'll return to the days of His
youth happy. Not in pain, but joy. He'll pray
unto God. Verse 26, look at this. He'll
pray unto God and God will be favorable unto Him. He'll show
favor unto Him. He'll see His face with joy.
But see whose face? That's to see God or God see
us? Both. There's a time I didn't want to come in here. I wanted
to see God's face. He didn't see mine. He saw me.
Now I want to see His face, don't you? And He sees my face with
joy, amazingly. And He'll render unto man, here
it is again, His righteousness. You know, sometimes I think,
Maybe we say that too much. It's just saying it by rote. Are people just receiving this
as doctrine? Righteousness is not a doctrine
if you believe it's a doctrine of saving. No, righteousness
is a person. What's his name, John? Say it. Jehovah what? Sidkenay. What's that mean, John? That's
exactly right, John. The Lord's been gracious to you. You found a ransom. That's his
name and that's our name in it. That's her name. So David said this. Here's what
David said. Deliver me in thy righteousness. God's holy. He really is. He will not clear the guilty.
Every sin shall receive a just recompense reward. That's the
God of the Bible, isn't it? It really is. You're being too
strict. I'm not strict. God is. I'm just saying what God said,
okay? And men think God's a lot like that. He's more like that. He's a whole lot more holy than
we can make Him to be. We just read that God charges
His angels with folly. The Son is not pure in His sight,
the Scripture said. God saw sin. The greatest proof
of that is Calvary, when God, His own Son, made sin and God
killed His own Son. Like, remember Mr. Lynch hanging
his son? I saw horror on some of your
faces. That man actually did that. Well, God killed His Son.
He really did. His beloved Son. There's no other
way. Christ in the garden said, if
it be possible. God said, it's not possible.
It's not possible. Okay. And God hung His Son on a cross
for who? See why it's an abomination to
God for anybody to talk about anything other than Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Man's will, man's works. That's
not false doctrine. It's treason. It's saying Christ
didn't need to come here, didn't need to die. That's what it's
saying. It's not innocent. It's willful transgression. Can't say it strongly enough.
And look at this. I love this. I love this. Verse
27. He looks upon men and if any
say, I've seen. Some of you are hoping, get to
that quick. He looks upon me and if any say, I've sinned and
perverted that which was right. In other words, you're saying
everything about me is wrong. And probably not. God will deliver
his soul from going down into the pit. It doesn't matter how
bad. Where you been? You know where the first mention
of pit is found in the scriptures? You're going to love this, Melanie. All of you love this story. Melanie
teaches our children. She just lights up when I talk
about Joseph. The first mention is Joseph being
thrown into a pit by his brethren that hated him because the father
loved him and gave him a coat of many colors. And they hated
him and they despised him. And when Joseph came, they threw
him into a pit. He said, let's slay him. That's happened. How could he
do that? Joseph came to see about his
brethren. Joseph came to do good to his brethren. And his brethren
said, let's kill him. Throw him in a pit. So they threw
him in a pit and made it look like he was slain, his blood,
and took it to the Father. Later on, he was put in prison,
a pit. A pit, also in Scripture, is
prison. Scripture says all these people
were snared in holes, prison holes. They put Jeremiah down
in a pit. They lowered him down. Jeremiah
is a type of Christ. They lowered him down into a
pit. They sunk in the mire and stayed there forever. Who knows
how long? That's Christ. That's what they did to cry.
That's what they did to... Well, while Joseph was in prison, okay,
there were two men there in prison in the pit. And one of the men
was delivered out of the pit, according to Joseph's word. And
the other man was thrown into... his head cut off. And when they
left, Joseph said, now remember me. Does that bring back a story? Our Lord's hanging on the cross,
going through the pit of hell. Two men, one man on his right
hand and one man on his left. The man on his right hand, yes,
all the sheep are on his right hand. All the sons of favor are
on his right hand. Right? Jacob had on the right
hand. The first. Anyway. The last. Our Lord said
to that man on his right hand, He said, Today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. That man had lived in the pit
of sin all his life. And with a word Christ said,
Today you will be with me in paradise. The other man, Christ
threw him in. It's up to Him. It's up to Him. And with any sight, Lord, remember
me. Any. He's gracious. He's gracious. He'll deliver
you from going down in the pit. And He says He'll deliver him.
And his life will see light. That thief on the cross, he'd
lived a dark life all his life, hadn't he? The only time he saw
light was hanging on that cross, looking at Christ, the light.
And in a moment, in a twinkle of an eye, boy, did he see light.
Boy, did God bring him out of a pit. His whole life was a pit. And the next thing he knew, he's
in the light because of Christ. Do you see all these things?
Verse 29, see when you like this stuff. All these things, God
does it quite often. Will He do it for me? He did for me. Maybe there's no more mercy left.
Oh, no, hold on there. Mercy endures forever. There's
plenty of mercy. He's got plenty of it. He delights
to show mercy. He's got plenty. He reserves
mercy for thousands. He does it quite often with man,
to bring his soul back from the pit, to be enlightened with the
light of the living. Mark this well, old Job, hearken unto me.
Just hold your peace. Just be still. Now speak. If you have anything to say,
answer me. Speak. I desire to justify thee. If not, hearken
unto me. Hold your peace now. Be still.
Listen to what I'm saying. I'm going to teach you wisdom.
What's wisdom? But I'm going to quote it again,
okay? Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. A ransom. Redemption. Okay. Stand with me.