and point me to the skies." There is no dark cloud hanging
over God's people. It's just a thin veil between
us and glory. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. This young preacher, Job 33,
go back to this young preacher named Elihu, was sent by God
to preach to Job. We don't know anything about
Elijah. His background, we don't know much about him. But he's
not important. The man's not important. Boy,
his message is. Ransom from the pit. That's the
title of this message. That's what we all need. You
know that? We're all in a pit called the world. And we'll be thrown into a pit
of darkness unless the Lord ransoms us. Verse 1, Job, he said, Job,
I pray thee, I hear my speeches and my words, and I pray and
I hope that you hear not my word, but God's word, this word. This
is not my word. He says in verse 2 and 3, I've
opened my mouth, my tongue, I've spoken. See, how shall I hear
without a preacher? That's what the Lord said. He
said, My word shall be the uprightness of my heart. My lips shall utter
knowledge very clearly. Paul said to the Corinthians,
he said, we're not as many which corrupt the Word of God, but
as of sincerity, as of God, in truth, as of truth, as of God,
in the sight of God. He said, we preach Christ. That's
2 Corinthians 2.17. Don't corrupt the Word of God.
I'm not trying to twist it. I'm not trying to pervert it.
I'm trying to just tell you what God says. Oh, that God would
give us ears to hear and heart to receive. Verse 4, the Spirit
of God hath made me. The breath of the Almighty hath
given me life. He says, I believe I've been born of God. I believe
by the Spirit of God. You see, this is how ignorant
people are. They say the Spirit wasn't given
until after. But there He is. The Spirit of God, you see, no
man knows God except by the Spirit of God through the preaching
of the Word of God. And so Elihu is saying that I believe God
has taught me, born of God, born again by the Word of God, the
breath of the Almighty, given me life. Verse 5, if you can
answer me and set your words in order, stand up. What he seems
to be saying is if not, And he'd already heard Job speak for a
long time. He says, now, what you need to
do is hear what I have to say from the Word of God. Here it is. Behold, verse 6,
he says, I am according to thy wish in God's stead. Back in
chapter 31, Job said this. He said, oh, that one would hear
me. Behold, my desire is that the
Almighty would answer me. He did. How? He sent a preacher. He sent a preacher with the Word
of God. He said, verse 6, I am formed out of clay. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, Paul said, that the excellency
of the power might be of God, not of man. Elihu is saying,
I'm just a sinner like you, saved by grace. A vessel of clay, a
flesh and blood man, nothing special. Verse 7, my terror shall
not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
Paul wrote, he said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. Behold the goodness and severity
of the Lord, Paul wrote. A God in whose hand And don't
be afraid of a man. Don't be afraid of me, Elihu
said, but fear God. And oh, that the hand of God,
the terror of God, the fear of God, and the hand of God would
touch you. That's who we need to touch us, our children. No,
we need God to take hold of us like He did Jacob, going to wrestle
with us, the angel of the Lord, the messenger. Hey, I've heard what you've been
saying. I've heard the voice of thy word.
You've said I'm clean without transgression. I'm innocent,
verse 10. God's found occasion against
me. He's cast me for his enemy. He's
put my feet in the stocks. Job was a child of God. Job was
a believer. Now Job at first was silent,
wasn't he? Everything God sent, he says
he did not send with his lips or charge God foolishly. He believed
God sent it. God was just. God was right.
Everything God did was right in all this, no matter what it
was. A little later he said, though He slay me, I'll trust
Him. The Lord gave, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. But Job is flesh. Job is a man. His friends. And in the course of their conversation,
Job said to them, you're a sorry bunch of friends. That's what
he said. Because they were trying to find
something Job did. Surely, Job. The Lord wouldn't
have done all this if you hadn't done something wrong. Well, Job started defending himself.
He said, no. And he should have stayed quiet,
shouldn't he? He was fine until he started defending himself. You know what the Word of God
says to everyone under the Law of God? You know what the Law
says to every single person under the Law of God? That's every
human being on the top side of this earth. It says, guilty. Whatever God's Word says, we
ought to say, guilty. When Job finally And Job 42,
he said, I've heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now
mine eyes see it, thee, and thy holiness and thy power and thy
justice, and I see my soul in your hand. He said, behold, I
am vile. I see myself for what I really
am. He said, I'm going to put my hand over my mouth. That's
what he should have done all along. You see, if we defend
ourselves, we're defending a guilty man. A woman. The best woman in here
is no better than a harlot. You've just been kept by God.
Is that right? Sure it is. But Job started defending
himself. Spurgeon said, I used to try
to defend myself and be consistent with myself. And he said, I found
out I was trying to be consistent with a fool. Don't trust yourself. Don't trust
anybody or anything. Trust the Lord. Hmm. No fools. That's Psalm 107. Men, no fools. There's error
and there's transgression, but the Lord saves them. He saves
them. Fools. But Job said, He's against me. And man's the one against God. Man's the enemy of God. God's
not man's enemy. Now nature, man's enemy, the
carnal mind, Romans 8 says, is enmity against God. And you,
and me, we're enemy by wicked word. But God showed us that
Christ came to bear that enmity, to bear that wrath, to bear that
judgment. God put His feet in the stalks. God put Christ on the cross.
God laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Job knew that. Job
knew that. In Job 19, he said, I know my
Redeemer liveth. Didn't he? He lost sight of that. He started defending himself.
Job, don't defend yourself now. You're guilty. You're still guilty. God said, there's nothing like
you in the earth. But every man at his best state is what? Don't defend yourself. I'm talking
to me. I wish I had a mirror right now.
Listen to me, bud. Self. You're not worth defending. Only this gospel is worth defending. Job said he's against me. Hmm. But if God's against us, ain't
nobody can do anything for you. Right? But if God be for us,
nothing's against us. Job, the Lord said all this. In the beginning, the Lord said
all this. He said, have you considered
my servant Job, the Satan? Sure he had. God did this. Have
at him. Take away this, take away that.
Cover him with boils all over him. Give him sickness, take
all his family, kill everything, take everything he owns, make
him sick, in pain and suffering, lying there scraping himself.
Who did this? God did this. Why? It's against Him. No, it's
for Him. It's for Him. I don't understand. No. No, we
don't fully understand Him. It's just not as it seems. He's
taken Job. He's taken the world out of Job.
He's taken self out of Job. He's taken Job out of the world.
Everything He's done is for His good. This is not, I gave it
to you, I'm taking it away. It was on loan and I'm taking
it back. Your youth, your health, I'm taking it back. Because naked
you came. That's what He said in the beginning.
Naked I came. Naked I'll leave this. Bless
the name of the Lord. I don't need this anyway, Job
said. That's where we ought to stay.
That's where we ought to stay. We thought it was going to happen
to us one way or another. Not, it's going to happen. The
Lord is going to do it. We say, it happened. We ought
to change our vocabulary. The Lord sent it. He said, verse 12, you're not
just, Job. I'm going to answer you. God's
greater than man. Now what he's saying here is
like Hosea and Hosea. God said, I'm God, I'm not man. In 1 John, John said, if your
heart condemned you, if our hearts condemn us, God's greater than
our heart. He knows our heart. Thou, Lord, seest me. You know
me. There's not a word in my tongue you don't know, not a
thought, not anything. My down-sitting, my up-rising.
You know what I did, what I'm doing, what I shall do. You know
me. Know me. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Those He sets His love on, those
He sets His affection on, those He purposed to save in Christ,
He reveals Christ to. He tells them the glorious message
of the Gospel. He sends a messenger. He's not
against us. He's for us. None of it's against us. He's
not going to kill us like Manoah's wife said. Manoah said, God's
going to kill us. And she said, no, husband. He wouldn't have shown us these
things. He wouldn't have told us these things. He wouldn't
have accepted His sacrifice. He wouldn't have sent Christ
to die for us. He wouldn't have told us that Christ is our only
hope. He wouldn't have given us faith in Christ. He wouldn't
have told us to look to Christ. He wouldn't have told us that.
He doesn't give ears to hear. He doesn't give faith to other
people. Because He's going to kill them. But not us. He's not
going to kill us. Because we're going to live.
Christ has come that we might have life, he said. How? Him! Ransom! I couldn't wait to get
to that. Him. Read on. He says, God, verse 13, don't
strive against him. He giveth not account of any
of his matters. Don't argue. Don't reason. Well, sure, don't reason. All
people can do is use human reasoning. Don't do that. Just believe and
trust Him. Don't try to figure anything
out. God doesn't give account of His matters to anyone. See, known unto God are all His
works from the... People call this fatalism. No,
it's God. Whatever God purposed before
the world began, nothing and no one can stop it. But if only
He'd done them. They didn't and they couldn't. That's not telling people to
live recklessly. It's just God. He doesn't give an account of
His matter. Quit striving. Quit trying to figure things
out. Read on. Verse 14, God speaketh once,
yea, twice, and men don't perceive it. Psalm 19. It speaks of two ways that God
speaks. It's known. Creation. Heavens
declare His glory. The firmament showeth His handiwork.
Creation. Romans 1. His eternal power and God had
clearly seen the things that are made. Clearly seen. Day in
the day uttered a speech. Everything uttered clearly. God is. And then God wrote a
book. Psalm 19 talks about the Word
of God, the written Word of God. We don't know the mind, we don't
know the purpose, we don't know the will, we don't know the works,
the saving works of God except through His book right here. This is the revealed will of
God, mind of God. What is that? His will is. He's made known unto us His will
in Ephesians 1. That in the fullness of time
He's going to gather together all things, How many people know
that? You know that? God's not against
us. He's gathered us to read the
will. He's gathered us here to read
His will. We have an inheritance through
the death of the Son. But God has spoken once and twice
that way, creation and the book, and then the Law and the Prophets.
What do they give witness to? Christ. Well, then you've got
the prophets and then you've got the apostles. Don't you? Then God spoke through the prophets
and times passed. Hebrews 1, God in sundry times
and divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets.
He spoke twice. He spoke through men and then
He spoke Himself. God came down to this earth.
His name was Jesus Christ. And He spoke. And He said, the
words that I speak, I speak not of myself but of the fathers.
Amen. This is God speaking. Twice. Men don't perceive it. They don't perceive it. I don't
believe it. That's what men say. I don't
hear it that way. No, you don't. He didn't give
you ears to hear. But I do. Don't you? Do you hear
this as the Word of God? Does anything offend you? Anything? You must be born of God. He's
given you love for the truth. He's given you ears to hear.
He's given you a heart to love Him. See? That was Job. He lost sight of that. Now look
at this. Here's the way the Lord used
to give the Word to men. Verse 15, A vision of the night,
a dream, deep sleep falleth upon men, slumber into the bed. He
opens the ears of men and sealeth their instruction. God used to
speak to holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Spirit
of God, but it wasn't any private interpretation. Isaiah, all these
men, before the Word was written, God spoke to them in vision and
dreams, didn't He? And He gave them this Word and
sealed the instruction. He'd already had it written in
a book. And they just took dictation, He said. And he wrote it down.
Isaiah. Can you see Isaiah writing Isaiah
53? That speaks of Christ. Like the eunuch said, is he speaking
of himself or some other man? Isaiah knew that. This is not
me. This is the Christ that the Lord
is telling me to write. Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. That's the very name of Christ.
Isaiah wrote that. Well, God spoke through these
men, through their writings, okay? Down in verse 17. Here's why God had the book written. Verse 17, that He may withdraw
man from his purpose and hide pride from man. that God may
withdraw man from man's purpose. What is man's purpose? Sin. What was Satan's purpose? I'm
going to drag God off the throne and I'm going to put me on it. What did Adam do? Same thing.
They only consult to cast him down from his existence. This
is the purpose of man. I will. And when God sends His
Word through preaching, the first thing He's going to do is withdraw
you from that. He's going to take that I will
out of you and you're going to say, not my will, but Thy will
be done. He's going to break it. Not me,
but Thine. He's going to break pride. God hates it more than anything.
Why does God hate pride more than anything? Why? Because everything
we have is by His grace. And to take credit for, or glory
in, or be proud of anything we are, or do, or look, or say,
or think, is to take the credit and the glory from God. And God
won't share His glory with nothing. And so this is the first thing
the Lord is going to do. He's going to break our pride
in it. This is the first thing. Here's
salvation. This is what God does to all
of His people. He sends the Word. He opens ears. They're all taught of God. And
He's going to break us. This pride that's in us. Verse
18, why? He's keeping our soul from the
pit. God has got a pit that He's going
to send all these vainglorious creatures into. All these proud
creatures that won't give God a thought. God says, okay, I'm
done with them. But God... Read on. He keeps some back from
the pit. His soul, all souls are mine.
His life from perishing by the sword, the justice of God, the
wages of sin is death. That's what I deserve. That's
what you deserve. He keeps us back. How? He sends the Word.
He sends the Gospel. Verse 19, and this is what happens.
He chastens us upon the bed with pain. A multitude of strong pain. So your life, your poor bread
and soul, dainty meat. Verse 21, your flesh is consumed
away. It cannot be seen. Your bones
stick out. What this is is a picture of how God convicts of sin and
you find out you've got this thing called leprosy. In my flesh
dwelleth no good thing." And when God convicts of sin, you
say, woe is me, I'm undone. Can't eat, can't sleep. Flesh is consumed away, or in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and I've got this sin called
leprosy. Verse 22, "...his soul draweth
near unto the grave, his life to destroy." God ought to destroy
me when I die. I was working on the railroad
one time. A man, I was trying to talk to
him about the truth. He said, oh, I know if I die
tonight or tomorrow, I'll go to hell. I said, you don't believe
in any such thing. Let's just talk. I said, if you
really believe that, you'd be on your knees right now, on your
face, crying for mercy. You don't believe that. You don't
believe in God. You don't believe in hell. You don't believe you're
going there. Right? Buddy, when you find out the
truth, you find out there is a God, there is a hell, and I
deserve to be there. Woe is me. And if He puts me
there... Verse 23, but oh, if there's
a messenger with Him. If God sends a messenger. You
know what the word messenger is? Angel. Same word. Angel. Our Lord in Malachi 3
said, the angel of the Lord shall come. That's John. Prepare the
way before me. And then He said, then the angel
of the covenant shall come. And every preacher of the gospel
is called an angel. Every pastor of the church in Revelation is
called the angel of that church. And what does that angel do?
He points to Christ, the messenger of the covenant, the messenger
of God, the angel of mercy. The preacher points to the messenger
of the covenant, the Christ who is to come. Interpreter. One among a thousand. Who is
he speaking of now? Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,
the only begotten from the dead. That's who the preacher preaches. That's who Elihu's preaching.
The messenger, the covenant, Christ. Elihu was an angel of
mercy to Job, and he's preaching THE ANGEL, capital letter, Christ.
An interpreter, the only one who knows the mind and will of
God. One among a thousand. Oh, the fairest of ten thousand,
the bright and morning star, to show unto man, to show unto
man His uprightness. This is what God does through
the preaching of the Gospel. He shows every guilty sinner,
you're guilty, you deserve to die, I ought to kill you. But God says, look, look on that
cross. There's your uprightness. There's
your sacrifice. There's your sin atonement. There's
the one paying for what you've done. That's what I ought to
do to you. But no, I gave Him what you deserve
and I've given you what He needs. No, really? Sure, yeah. Oh, so verse 24, then He's gracious
unto us. See, by grace He is saved. What's
grace? It's in Christ. It's the gift
of God, the unspeakable gift. It's Christ Himself. The gift
of His blood, the gift of His righteousness, the gift of knowing
Him, the gift of the Gospel. Oh, God is so gracious unto us,
isn't He? And here's what He's saying. Here's what God says,
because Christ died. Deliver Him! Herb, deliver them
from going down into the pit. Why? That's where He belongs. No. I found a ransom. I found an atonement. That's
what the word means. Someone to take His place. Someone
to pay for sins. It's not like God was looking.
It's what so many people believe, you know. Sent to law, that didn't
work. We'll try this, we'll try that.
No, no, no. Christ was the Lamb slain before
the world began. He died for Abel. Abel trusted
Christ, His blood. And it shows him His uprightness. It shows him His blood. I found
a ransom. Here's your ransom. Here's your
atonement. Here's the one that's taken your place. You know, the
only way we really know this ransom today is if someone's
kidnapped, right? Say someone takes a child of
someone captive, some rich man usually, for money. Takes that
child captive, so you have to pay a ransom. They demand a ransom. If you pay that price, that ransom,
then He'll set that son free, He'll return that son. Well,
we're not redeemed, we're not ransomed with corruptible things.
It's silver and gold. No man can redeem his brother
and can't redeem himself with your works, with anything. You
can't undo, you can't atone for anything you've ever done, because
it's done. It's against God. Sins are against God. There's
only one that God will accept. There's one ransom. There's one
payment that God will accept on behalf of captive sinners,
and it's Jesus Christ. No ransom. Couldn't pay anything. He said,
if you sold yourself for naught, you're going to be redeemed without
money, without price, with the precious blood of the Lamb. Isn't
this the best message you ever heard? It's the same message
you've always heard. Ransom. Ransom was found. Oh,
then you know what will happen if the person hears about Christ
crucified? A person that knows they have
leprosy and Christ was made a leper? A person who knows they're in
captivity and Christ was put in prison for them? A person
who knows they deserve to die but yet Christ died for them?
You know what will happen? Verse 25, His flesh will return,
be fresher than a child. He'll be born again by the Word
of God. What's that? And you know what?
It's a who. Christ the Word. Born again. And He'll return
to the days of His youth. He'll become as a little child.
He'll receive the Word. She'll receive the Word as a
little child. You know what? They'll hear this story. And
like the people at Antioch, they first heard this Gospel. You
know what they said? And they were preaching it for days and
days and days. You know what the people all said? Come back next
week. Preach it again. But I just told you, we won't
hear it again. Like little children. Tell me again. And here's what he'll do. He'll pray
unto God. Verse 26. He'll pray unto God. All that
God foreknows, predestinated, He called. And you know what
they'll do? They'll call. They'll start calling.
Because He called them. As many as the Lord our God shall
call. They'll call on the Lord. And
the Scripture says He's heard them before they've called. They'll
pray unto God, and God will be favorable unto him. He'll see
his face with joy. That sinner, saved by grace,
who sees Christ crucified, His ransom, who calls on the name
of the Lord, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
be saved. How? Look into Christ. He'll see His face. What's that? I'm going to quote it again,
Brother John. the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. The light of the knowledge when
a day springs from on high, shines in your heart, you'll see the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So many people say this when
finally the Lord reveals Himself to them. Christ the Lord. And after being in religion so
many years, after thinking they were saved, after making a profession
of faith, after having some Calvinistic knowledge, and finally they see,
it's Christ, it's Christ, it's Christ. And they come up to the
preacher. So many times, big tears running in their eyes.
I thought I knew something, I don't know anything. You know, it's
Christ, isn't it? It's Christ, isn't it? Salvation is Christ.
It's Christ. I didn't know that. I thought
it's what I knew. Now I know it's who knows me. And I see Him everywhere. Oh, and what God has done, verse
27, He looks upon men. Don't let me go past this. He'll
render unto men His righteousness. Faith is counted for righteousness.
Isn't that amazing? Just believe me, and I'll wipe
out everything you've ever done. I'll remember it no more. It's
like it never existed. Really? Yeah. I don't understand. Christ died. He paid for every
one of those. I just believe. We can't even
do that unless God enables us, gives us His faith. Counting
for righteousness. Is that it? Don't have to earn
my way. No. Christ did it for you. Oh, He looketh upon me in verse
27. Stay with me now. Come on. He looketh upon me and
if any say I've sinned, perverted, wicked and perverted, generous,
if any say I'm perverted, I'm not right, everything about me
is wrong. If any say that, He will deliver. Verse 28. He will
deliver his soul from going into the pit. He hath delivered. He doth deliver, and I trust
He shall yet deliver from going down into the pit. You know,
we were in a pit when He found us. You need to remember the
pit from which we were digging. We're in a pit right now, it's
called the world. And a lot of it is still in us. Sin, all this
leprosy, just struggling with it. And He's got to keep us from
going back into the pit. If the Lord doesn't keep us by
His power, you know what we'll do? We'll go right back to those
slime pits of Egypt. That's what the children of Israel
did. We want to go back. What for? Leaves and onions. But God... He will deliver his soul from
going down to the pit. His life shall see the light.
See the light. See the light. This world is
darkness. You look to this world as dimness and darkness and anguish
of spirit, but the people that walked in darkness have seen
a great light, which is Christ. Oh, maybe somebody said, you
think God will do this for me? He said, He does it oftentimes. He does it a lot. He delights to show mercy. Verse
29, He oftentimes works to bring His soul back from the pit. Do you see that? The pit, the
pit, the pit. To be enlightened in the light
of the living. So Joe and Jeanette and Ed and
Helen, whoever, Stephen, Joseph, hearken unto Me. And his son
had not yet hearkened, I wish I could say this with... No,
the Lord must do it. He must give ears to hear. Hold your peace, I'm going to
speak. What are you speaking about? A glorious good news of
Christ. If you'll hear, your soul shall
live. He said, I have a desire to justify
thee. Oh, I want you to be justified
by faith. But if not, hearken unto me now
as I hold you at peace and teach you wisdom." He ends with wisdom. Wisdom. What is wisdom? Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. Do you know what chapter that
is in the Bible? 33. 33 verses. What's the significance? That's
how long Christ lived. Every verse is Him. It's all
about Him. That's the last message I ever
prayed. I hope that was just great. I appointed you to Christ. Now look to Christ. Come to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You shall be saved. You're in a pit. There's a pit
in you. You look to Christ and He'll
deliver you from it. He does it often. I did it to
me. I did it to Him. Alright, Brother John, you come.