I go back to the book of Job
with me. The book of Job. You read with
me, and some of you were even weeping, what all happened to Job. You wouldn't wish that on anybody,
would you? God did it. All of it. And verse 22, in all
this, Job sinned not. He didn't charge God foolishly. Why is all this happening today? All this. All things are of the
Lord. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His will. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. God does all things. Deuteronomy
32, I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal, I the Lord do all these
things. Isn't it? Did it say that? You
believe it? There's three things I know.
We know in part, but three things I do know. Number one, All things
are of God. Whatever it is, all this is the
Lord. It's the Lord. Number two, everything
is for His glory. All this brings Him glory. Number
three, all this, whatever it may be, is for the good of His
people. All of it. Everything. That's
what he said. All things. All this. Whatever
it is. Eli, you know the story of Eli
in 1 Samuel 3. He had two sons. Did he love
those sons? Yes, he did. Did he love the
Lord? I believe he did. The ark, he
was charged with keeping the ark. Well, they came and took
the ark. But Samuel, the Lord told Samuel
he was going to kill Eli's two sons because they were evil. God sent an army, an invading
army, okay? And killed 30,000 people in Israel. 30,000 Israelites. God sent them. And two of them were Eli's sons. And they came and told him, they
came, the army, and your two sons are dead. He said, it's
the Lord. They didn't do what Zenith could
do. They told him about the ark. They'd taken the ark. He died. That killed him. Worse than his
sons died. Don't take the ark. Don't let
Ichabod be written over the door. The glory hath departed. Don't
take away the gospel. And it killed him. I don't know. But anyway, The Philistines who
came killed 30,000 people in Israel. Psalm 17 says this, listen. David said, and he had enemies
all around, he said, deliver my soul from the wicked which
is thy sword. Did you hear me? David said, men are your sword,
your sword, from men which are thy hand. Men come, they came
and killed 30,000 Israelites, but it was God's hand. Or they
wouldn't have died. They couldn't have died. It's
not possible. God says, I killed them. Didn't He? Do you believe
that? The other day, do you ever do
this? You're looking for a word from
the Lord and you just open the Bible randomly and put your finger
down. Have you ever done that? Yes, you have. I did it. Don't do that, but I did it. And I put it down, just this
time, it happened to say, put it down on that passage that
says, if you don't believe, it's Isaiah 7, if you don't believe,
you won't be established. If you don't believe, you'll
be tore all to pieces. You will not be established,
strengthened, settled, and calm. I needed that. That was of the
Lord. The lot is cast, but that was of the Lord. I needed that.
You need it. If you don't believe, you won't
be established. Everything is the Lord. All this.
Alright, I've got three points. All this is the Lord. I just
gave them to you. All this is the Lord. Number two, all this
is for his glory. Number three, all this is for
our good. God's people, that is. When they, now all this is
the Lord. When they were searching for
Moses, the deliverer, you remember? Pharaoh had every child in Israel,
Bethlehem, killed. We cannot imagine what that was
like. Who did it? Now we've already established
that God did it, didn't He? When they were searching for
the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was a child of Baal,
Herod had every child in Bethlehem killed, didn't He? Who did that? The Lord did that,
didn't He? Grief beyond our understanding. Weeping, wailing. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? How? How? What's the purpose
in all this? Well, I'll tell you this. There
was glory in all that. Great glory. Great mercy. Great
grace. Salvation. Heaven that day. Thousands of Redeemed souls walked
into glory that day. Glory be to God. What would you choose? For your
child to grow up and be a sinner and cast into hell? Or as a child,
smitten, taken to glory? Spared a whole life of sin and
misery? In the 1930s, this is a fact,
1930s, scarlet fever hit. Scarlet fever hit. And it hit
mostly children 15 years old and under. And listen to this.
Ninety some percent of children that got it died. Ninety some percent died of it. My mother got scarlet fever. It's the Lord. Isn't it? All this is the Lord. Look at
verse 1 in our text, in Job chapter 1. There was a man in the land
of Uz whose name was Job. That man was perfect and upright,
one that feared God and eschewed evil. All this is of the Lord. Salvation and damnation is of
the Lord. The Lord purposed, chose whom
He would before the world began. Okay? and whom he would, he passed
by. That's the Lord. Predestination,
reprobation is of the Lord. Isn't that right? That's right.
That's right. Not up to man. It's up to the
Lord. The Lord chose Job. The Lord elected Job. You say,
where's that? What do you mean, where's that?
It's from Genesis to Revelation. He wouldn't be perfect. He wouldn't
be upright. He wouldn't fear God if God hadn't
chosen him. Go all the way back. Noah. Why
was there one man, just, whom God saw just, named Noah? Because Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. God chose Noah. All this is of
the Lord's salvation. The Lord chose Job. I want to
tell you a couple of things. The Lord chose Job. The Lord
chose Job to suffer. Are you taking notes? The Lord
chose Job. The Lord chose Job to suffer.
The Lord chose Job's sufferings. All of them. It was the Lord. You can ask, why, why, why? He
doesn't give an account of his matters. He does what he will
with whom he will. And his friends got together.
Job, it's because of you, because of this, you didn't do this,
you didn't... No! No! Job said. No! It's the Lord. He does what He will with whom
He will. For His glory. For my good. Let's see that. The Lord chose Job. He's perfect.
He's upright. He's just. Why? Because God is
God that justifies. It is Christ that died. Christ
is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Why
is Job considered perfect before God? Upright? Because Christ
died. That's why. Repentance is the goodness of
God. Faith is the gift of God. Justification is God that justifies. Holiness is God that worketh
in us, both the will and do of His good pleasure. All this is
of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. All
that Job had was of the Lord. Verses 2 and 3, we read all that
he had. Hannah said, The Lord maketh
rich, the Lord maketh poor. In the Psalms, I believe it is,
it says promotion couldn't come from the East or the West, it
comes from God. He had sons and daughters. He had all this stuff,
all this substance. He had sons and daughters. The
Lord gave him all those sons and daughters. No flesh can glory for anything.
The Lord does not give children to some. I counted one time,
12 or 13, 14 adults in this congregation that the Lord did not give children
to by natural means. Flesh and blood. It's the Lord. This is one thing for certain.
The Lord gave and the Lord took it away. Which would you choose? To have
many children and all of them be lost? Go to hell? I never have any. And the scripture says, it's
going to be great mercy upon those who didn't give a cent.
Isn't that right? So who decides? Aren't you glad
you don't decide? And he takes it away. Whom he
will, when he will, from whom he will, doesn't he? And we ask
why? Why? Stop asking why. Just say
it's the Lord. Don't charge God foolishly if
you try to reason things. Here's faith. All that Job had
was of the Lord, his sons and his daughters. The Lord gave
and the Lord took them all away. It doesn't seem that the Lord
saved any of his children. Did it seem that way to you,
brother? It doesn't seem that way, does it? It's the Lord. There are many believers who
have lost children. It's the Lord. We're not saved
by blood. We're not saved by the will of
the flesh, the will of the man. We're born of God. We're chosen
of God. It's His choice. Adam and Eve
had two sons and one of them was lost in the very beginning. David had seven or ten sons. Only a couple of them knew the
Lord. Samuel had two. Neither one of
them knew the Lord. Eli and the Lord killed them
both. Eli had two. Didn't know the Lord. The Lord
killed them both. And they both said, it's the Lord. The Lord chose Job. The Lord
chose Job's sufferings. Look at verse 6. He said, there
was a day, it says, there was a day when sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among
them. I just wanted you to see this.
Satan came among them. This is strange, isn't it? It's
mysterious, but it's true. And it's strange and mysterious,
and why God allowed it, it's His purpose. But Satan was in
the garden. Why did He let him in the garden?
God had to let him. It wouldn't have happened if
God hadn't purposed it, right? In the upper room. When they
were eating, twelve apostles and the Lord himself, Satan was
there. Wasn't he? It says he entered
Judas, right there. The Lord knew it, the Lord allowed
it, the Lord purposed it, right there. You see, in our midst, He walketh out the earth seeking
who he may devour. Our Lord said to Simon, Satan
had desired thee to sift you like wheat, and he let him have
him, and he sifted him. That's the great threshing and
sifting. All of God's people are beset
by Him constantly. We come in here, we try to listen.
What is Satan's grand design? Keep you from hearing the truth.
Keep you in fear, keep you in doubt, keep you looking to man,
keep you believing man, not trusting the Lord. That's blinding your
minds to the truth and make you believe a lie. That's Satan's
grand design. What's he doing right now? Try
to keep you from hearing this right here. That's right. I'm not making this up. He was
right there. The Lord presented Job to Satan. He said, the Lord said this,
whence cometh thou? Satan going to and fro in the
earth. I believe the Lord was mocking him. God is not mocked. You can't
mock God. You can seem to, but you can't
mock God. The Lord said unto Satan, Hast
thou considered my servant Job? He went on to commend him, extol
him, and honor him. Have you considered? Verse 9, Satan said, Doth Job
fear God for naught? You've made a hedge about him,
about his house, and about all that he hath on every side. It
was true. And we saw there it was still true. When the Lord
said, take everything he owns, but don't touch him. Right? Satan could not touch his body. He could not get sick unless
God said so. Is that right? Is that right? Let the redeemed
of the Lord say, Amen, for our peace and for His glory. Okay? And it's all good. We're
going to see this. And we are hedged about. But
sometime, according to the purpose and the will of God, like He
did with Job, He let down a hedge. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And
Job and his friends spent 30 some chapters trying to figure
out why. When Job, he should have stayed
right where he was in the beginning, the Lord gave, the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job should have waited on the Lord, kept his mouth shut, and
waited on the Lord. And in the end, he'd see. In
the end, he'd know as he'd been known. And that's us. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
You see that? He said, Joe fears you for nothing.
You pay a little hedge about him. But verse 11, here's what
Satan said to the Lord. You put forth your hand. You
touch him. You see this? You touch him,
and he'll curse you to his face. And our Lord said, Behold, all
that he hath is in thy power. Was it? was everything in Satan's
power. Not one thing. But what he's
saying is, do what you will. Satan didn't do one thing that
he willed. He did, he meant it for evil, but every bit of it.
God did it. God purposed everything that
Satan wanted to do. But God didn't do it. You see,
God is not charged with sin. You cannot charge God with folly
or sin. You cannot charge Him with what
men do. They do what they will do, but they do what God determined
for it to be done. And the greatest example of that
is Calvary. Alright? And it's so of all things. He has all power in heaven and
earth over everything. Satan went forth from the presence
of the Lord, and then you read with me all that happened. All
that happened. Here's my next poem. All this
was for God's glory. All this was for God's glory.
What glorifies God more than anything? What is it that glorifies
God? God gets great glory and honor
in this from man. Faith. Faith. One of the brethren sent me that
passage from Job where Job said, though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. Faith is believing God. That's what faith is. Believes
God. Trusts God. Looks to God. Submits to God
in everything. Like Job. Submits to God in everything.
Acknowledges God in everything. This is you. This is the Lord.
It's not man. It's not circumstances. It's
the Lord. Okay? Faith believes and trusts
and looks to and bows to and calmly submits to the Lord. the Lord in all things. Faith,
and true faith, really, really is only in affliction. It's easy to say you believe
when things are going well. That's easy. That's just saying. But if everything's going against
you, in the midst of trials, and tribulations, and troubles,
and fears, and affliction, and persecution, and all these things. If then you can say, it's the
Lord, I trust the Lord. Now that's faith. And that honors
Him. That honors Him. There's no faith
otherwise, it's just talk. And it says, after hearing all
of this, Job, look at verse 20, Job arose, and by the way, did you see how
all those servants were killed but one? Each time, one. Reckon what that one thought?
Why me? Why was I spared? All of them,
but one. And Job, when he heard all of
this, Job arose and rent his mantle. A mantle is used all
through the Scriptures, kind of a robe or something to throw
over you back then. He rent his mantle. He stripped
himself. His covering. He stripped himself
of his covering. He stripped himself of his comfort. Nothing could comfort him now
but one thing. He stripped himself of his beauty,
his adornment. He stripped himself. It says
he shaved his head. Did he have a full head of hair?
Maybe a beard? He stripped, he cut off all that
glorified the flesh. Why? Most of us come out of the
womb bald-headed. You know that? Little babies.
Naked. We come out of the womb. A nothing. A nobody. No nothing. Not beautiful. Ugly. Covered in our own blood. Born in sin. Come forth from
the womb speaking lies. And if God leaves us alone, like
He does some people, we'll split hell wide open. But God... So Job shaves everything
and he returns back to the way he was where it began. Naked I came, and God clothed
me. Naked I came with nothing in
my hand, but God gave it all. And look at this. She fell down
upon the ground. We came from the ground. Thus
we are and thus we'll return. And that's where we're going
to end up. You know, every one of us unless the Lord returns.
Talk about six feet distance. We're all going to be separated
six feet. Somebody ironically chose six
feet for social distancing. Every single one of us, when
the time comes, they're going to put us six feet in the ground
and nobody can come near us. That's where we came from and
that's where we're going to go back. And Joe fell on the ground
and said, I'm just dust. in ashes, in repentance, in nothing. I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody.
And now I have nothing. I didn't have anything to begin
with. Everything I got came from you. Look at verse, fell down
on the ground, literally on his face, and he worshipped. God is being honored and glorified
right there more than anything. Surely the angels in heaven will
go, yes! He's not overcome by... what
is it? Overcometh Satan and the sin
and the world and sorrow and things. Faith! I believe God! He gave it all, He took it away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. I can hear heaven. Can't you?
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Now who could? Faith is a gift of God. You see,
that's a gift of God. Even that's a gift of God. A
man can't do that. You wouldn't do that unless God
gave it to you. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord, and all this Job sinned not, and
charged God foolishly." And all this, and all this. But it's
not over. It's not over. Look at the next
chapter. You know what happened. Let me
just tell you. Satan came again. In verse 3,
God commended Job again. He's upright. He still holds
fast his integrity. Why does he hold fast his integrity,
John David? Because the Lord's holding him.
That's why. Integrity means truthfulness
and faithfulness. And the Scriptures talks about
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. You know why we're faithful?
We're in Christ Jesus. We're held up by Him. In Him. He in us. He holds us. And bless His name, we hold fast
to Him. He holds fast. Although you moved
me to destroy him. Verse 3. That's what the Lord
said. You moved me. I did it. For my glory. Satan answers skin for skin.
All that a man hath, he'll give for his life. He'll do anything
to save his life. Now, listen to me very carefully. What is everybody afraid of right
now? Why? might lose your life. What did the Lord say? He that
saveth his life will lose it. And it says of the martyrs in
Revelation, they loved not their lives, even to death. The Lord
says, The day of one's death, for a
believer, a good name is rather to be chosen, a good omen, and
the next line says, the day of death is better than birth. Why
is that? Because birth, you're born into
this sinful world, you're going to live in this world, you're
going to have misery and heartache and trouble and all that when you
die. It's over! It's over! I don't want to die. Yes, you
do. You just don't know it. Well,
that might kill us. Hallelujah! Huh? Oh, the preacher is getting work. Our Lord said, he that liveth
and believeth in me will never die. You believe that? Oh, I don't want to die. Christ
died. He came back and said, I told you. I told you. It's something to
look forward to. And Paul said, I'm ready. Over
and over again. Paul said, I'm ready. Have a
desire to part. What we need is faith, don't
we? Isn't it? We don't walk by sight.
If you walk by sight in the hearing of your ears, you won't have
faith. If you trust God and look to
God and believe God and hear His Word and look to Him, you'll
have faith. I'm not joking. Well, verse 7. In verse 6, the Lord said unto
Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. You
can't kill him. Satan went forth in the presence
of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from on the bottom
of his feet to the top of his head. Have you ever had a boil? I had one one time. My mother
had shingles. Robin says one of the worst cases
you've ever seen, wasn't it? Horrible, painful. They say it's
one of the most painful things there is. It lasts a long time, doesn't it? You'd rather have that than
the coronavirus. I mean, you'd rather have the coronavirus than
that. Do you understand me? It's a fact. Boils the bottom
of his feet, top of his head. Who did it? Who did it? God did. And his friends, they came and
they thought, you're doing something wrong, Job. God's punishing you,
Job. No, he's not. He's honoring Job. Job's going to be a testimony.
Job's going to be a witness. Now he's really got an opportunity
to testify. Two weeks ago, the Lord gave
Cody Henson the coronavirus. I've been talking to him through
all of this. The first couple of days he felt
bad. It just was like allergies. He said, I've had the flu and
this was not nearly as bad as that. I just talked to him a day or
two ago and he said, I'm great. I said, how's your wife? How's
Hazel and Rachel? He said, they're fine. Everything's
fine. He said, it's the Lord. I said, you've got a real opportunity,
Brother Cody, now. to tell people, there's nothing to fear. And the Lord's grace is sufficient.
And the Lord gave, and the Lord took it away. I wound, and I
heal. Can't you hear these friends
of his, Job, if you'd done this, if you'd done that, if you'd
done this, if you'd done that, if you hadn't done this, if only you'd
armed your shepherds with guns, if only they had guns to defend
themselves, No, that couldn't stay. Job, if only you'd... those boils are a bacteria. Job, if only you'd wore a mask,
you would... It's the Lord. Right? He chose His suffering. The Lord
chose His suffering. What would you choose? Two weeks
of pain and suffering with some kind of virus or two years of
cancer? Which would you choose? If it was your choice, would
you give it to your children? Would you? No, you wouldn't.
God does. In fact, God gives trials and
troubles and afflictions to all of His children. They all go
through the deep waters. They all go through the fiery
furnace. They all go through these things. Every one of them
is going to go through these things. He said you must through
much tribulation. And the greatest example of that
is of all. God made His Son be sin. He was wounded. God wounded him
for our transgression. He was bruised. Please the Lord
to bruise him. He was chastised. The chastisement
that was meant for us laid on him. By his stripes, healed. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. What would you choose? Aren't
you glad God doesn't choose it? He did the choosing, does the
directing, it's up to Him. He gives not account of His matters.
We need to worship Him. We need to worship Him, no matter
what. Faith without reason. We need faith without reason.
We need faith in the face of adversity, faith in the face
of affliction, faith in the face of suffering. It's what we need. In our mind, in our hearts, We
may be crying out, why? And we do, we all do. Why? Why?
Why? Why, Lord, did you do this? Why?
David, many times throughout the psalm, why? Why? Why? Why?
Why? And the only thing we can answer
when it's all over is, it's the Lord. And that's faith. And it
says in all this, look at the, I love the way Job answered his
unbelieving wife. And I think she was an unbeliever.
Verse 9. He said to his wife, or his wife
said to him, does thou still retain thine integrity? You still
believe God's sovereign? Do you still believe that God
did all this? Do you still trust this God? Look at you. Look what you've
got. Surely the Lord... You don't
believe in a Lord that does that. God is love. Why would a loving
God do that to you? Do you still believe that God
loves you? That God did that? Do you still
believe? Look, all our children, everything we've got is gone.
Do you still believe? Yeah, I do. Verse 10, Job said,
you speak as one of the foolish women. What? Shall we receive good at the
hand of God? And shall we not receive evil?
It wasn't evil for Job, was it? But he's saying what we think
is evil, it's not. It came from God. Psalm 91 says,
No evil shall befall you. We've looked at that over and
over and over and over, haven't we? It's not evil. Whatever it is,
for God's people, it's not evil. That's my last point. It's good.
It's good. In all this, covered with boils
from... In all this, Job sinned not,
but he lived. Oh, man. Boils. It's the Lord. It's the Lord.
Now, listen. The Lord does send punishment
upon a nation. He's done that many times. He
does. He punishes. Yes, He does. Read the Bible. But He doesn't punish His people
in that sense of the word. It's used there in Amos 3, 2,
the Lord said, you of all people of the earth have I known, so
I'm going to punish you. And David even said, you punish me
less than my iniquities deserve. And shall a living man complain
for the punishment of his sin? My father used to punish me,
and he said that, I'm going to have to punish you for that.
But he's not going to cast me out. He's not going to disown
me. He's not going to... Read Watson's
article in the book. He's not going to disown me.
My father didn't mean, I'm going to come down on you, I'm going
to kill you. He said, I'm going to punish you. Meaning, I've
got to do something about your sin. And it was good. It was chastening is what it
was. That's the word. It's a different
word for God's people. Chastening. It's not strict punishment
of the law. He hath not dealt with us after
our sin. No, no. He hath not dealt with us according
to our iniquity. He dealt with Christ. He punished
His Son. He punished Christ for our sin.
But He chastens us. We've got sin. And He chastens
us. What was Job's sin? Pride. Do you have any pride? We're going to have it till the
day we die. And everything in this life for a believer is meant
to break us. Break us. Chastening for God's people.
Read all that Paul went through in 2 Corinthians 6 for yourself. Just read that. Just sometime
you get time, read all that he went through. Would the Lord
do that to somebody? Would you choose to be beaten
Five times with 49 stripes, that's 256 stripes with a whip or a
virus. God did that to Paul. Had him
stoned, beaten with rods, lay out in a shark infested water
for days on end. Which would you choose? Would
you choose that for your... God did. God did it all. God did
it all. Why? Paul said, God did it. And he
said, it's good. Good for me. Here's my last point.
It's all for our good. Now turn to Job 42. Let's see
the end. Let's see Job's end, shall we?
Because this is our end. Job 42. It's all good. Our Lord
said, All things work together for good. For them that love
God, who are called according to His purpose. God does all
things on purpose. God does all things on purpose
to His people, and it's all good. He said that. He can't lie. He
can't exaggerate. It's not a figure of speech. It's a fact. All things, but
I don't see why, why, why. Stop asking why and bless His
name. Now look at this, all for good.
Job needed humbly. Job needed nothing but the Lord. God took everything away but
Himself. And that's what's going to happen
to us people. One of these days, if we live long enough, we're
old, and our children are gone, and grandchildren are gone, and
our health is gone, and we're on the verge of eternity, and
our mind's gone, our memory's gone, and everything. What matters?
God's not gone. God won't leave us. The Lord
gave and the Lord is going to take it all away. Every bit of
it. Naked we came and naked we are
going to return. But bless your heart, when we
walk into glory, we won't be naked. We are going to be clothed
with a robe, a pristine, beautiful, white robe by the jaw. Look at
Job. Look at his face. Look. Rich. Rich. God's going to say, it's
all yours. Greater than Solomon, it's all
yours. Took all his sons and daughters away. Look, Job, look
at all my sons and daughters. Look at that sea of faces. Every
one of them loves you. They'll be your companions forever. Just sit down with the rest of
them and enjoy me. It ain't a fable, it's a fact. Look at Job 42, it says, verse
16, after this. After this, in the afterlife,
people. After all this, lived Job 140
years and saw his son, his son's son, his four generations. Job
died being old and full of days. But for us, brethren, we're not
going to die. We are going to lay this body
down. We're going to live forever. How old will we be? We're going
to live forever. Because Christ died. Because
Christ died, and it says in prophecy there, he shall see his seed.
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Because
he was, transgressions of his people was he submitting. And
they're all going to be justified, like Job, by Christ. He said,
it's all good. Psalm 37, David said, I was fretting,
I was worrying, I was this and that and the other. We need to
fret not. Trust the Lord. Commit your way
to the Lord. He said, I've been young. I now am old. I've never
seen the righteous forsaken. Receive begging bread. He said,
you mark it down. You write it down right now.
Mark it down. Write it on your heart. It shall be well with the righteous.
The end, mark it down. The end of the righteous man
is peace. Perfect peace. And rest forever. Job. If he were here right now,
we could ask him, was it all worth it? Would you go through it again,
Joe? Yes. How is grace sufficient? The Lord did it, and we just
don't understand. Joe would be telling us this.
We don't understand why. He doesn't give an account of
the matter. But we have to know and have to believe he did it.
He did it for his glory. And our faith that just trusts
Him, that honors Him, that glorifies Him. And someday we want to see
as the best thing that could possibly happen. Especially our
death. Especially our death. The best
thing. Stand with me. Our God in Heaven, again we thank
You for Your Word. Oh, from cover to cover, speaks
of our great God, fall of man, His restoration, His salvation,
redemption in Jesus Christ. What a glorious book, what a
wonderful story. The story of salvation. Man ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, regenerated.
and you're received up into glory. Received. Oh, great God, thank
you for this blessed book. The story of salvation. The story
of Christ and Him crucified. Our story. Oh, Lord, let us read
the end. You've declared the end from
the beginning. Let us be wise and consider the end of it all. Where we're headed. To whom we're
headed. And the purpose of all these things. Your purpose. For
your glory, for our good. And let us just rest right there
and quit asking why. And quit being so fearful and
troubled. Oh Lord, give us the faith of Job. The faith of God's
elect. In Christ's name, Amen. You're
dismissed.