All right, Job 42. Job 42. We studied this six or seven
years ago, and I remember it being a great blessing. I learned
something, but I looked at it again, and I'm kind of like Job. I think I spoke things too wonderful
for me, things I understood not. And maybe the Lord will give
us an understanding. The book of Job is a very deep
book. It's very difficult to understand. Look at verse 10. Here's the text. Job 42.10. The Lord turned the
captivity of Job. Job was in captivity, bound by
something he could not get out of. The Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends. The Lord brought Job out of some
things he was held captive to, his mind. He could not get out
of his mind things in his heart that had a hold of his heart.
And his spirit was in prison, as it were, bondage and captivity
to it. And the Lord brought him out
when he prayed for his friends. Now, Job is thought to be the
oldest book in the Bible. So that's significant that we
study this. Job lived in the time of Abraham. We're certain of that. So it
was before the law of Moses was written. And Job was a man of
God. God said so, didn't He? God commended
Job. Look at chapter 1. God said of
Job three times. Verse 1, He said, Job was perfect. Now that means mature. Mature
and upright. In other words, he was a Christ-like
man. You remember Paul said that the
preacher is for the perfecting of the saints. That is, to bring
us to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, which
God has ordained that we are predestined to be like him. He's
upright. And one that fears God and is
shoot evil. And he said that three times.
God said that about him. And one time he said to Satan,
verse 8, there's none like him in there. There's none like him. What a commendation. Why was
Job like that? God made him that way. Job knew
that. Job knew by the grace of God,
I am. What I am, Job was not born righteous. He was born a sinner like everybody.
Dead and trespassed sin. But God, for His great love,
wherewith He loved Job, quickened him by His grace. Job knew that. Look at verse
20. Job was a man of great faith.
Job, after all of his trials, not all of them, but the loss
of family and things, Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved
his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb and naked shall I return to the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And in all this Job sinned not. Isn't that something? nor charged God foolishly, nor
attributed folly to God." He said, this is all of the Lord.
And Job knew and trusted and believed Christ. He said, Job
believed Christ? Yes, he did. Chapter 19, didn't
he say that? I know my Redeemer liveth. I know He liveth. We just heard
Elijah here preaching, didn't we? That ransom. But Job was
just a man. We should never think of men
too highly. We should esteem others better
than ourselves. By nature, there is not a just
man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. He that doeth
good, that goodness, that righteousness, is that new man, that new creature
created by God in a person. But every man at his best faith,
the scripture says, is altogether vanity. Job, in the book of Job, the
question is asked, can you bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No. God has to create a new one. You don't change man's nature
when you say. You don't change that old nature.
It's still with us until the day we die. God gives him a new
nature, a new man. Job knew that. Every man in his
best state is altogether man. Every man. Every man, including
Job. David, a man after God's own
heart. David proved that, didn't he?
That a man in his best state. I'm glad we're doing it now. Solomon was the wisest man on
earth. The wisest man to ever live.
And he ended up in the end of the war. Didn't he? He ended
up acting. It's unbelievable what Solomon
did. After all he wrote. David wrote,
Lord put them in fear. Put them in fear, O Lord, that
the nations may know themselves to be but men. You and I are nothing. I don't
mean to belittle us, but we can't be any littler than what we are.
You know, you and I are nothing. Every man is bestowed. Our Lord
said, without me, you can do nothing. And whatever you do,
it is God that worketh in us, both the will and do of his good
pleasure. then no flesh should glory in
his presence. See, if the Lord doesn't teach
us, we'll be a fool. We'll remain a fool. If the Lord
doesn't keep us, we'll fall. We'll perish. We'll destroy ourselves. If the Lord doesn't restrain
us, we'll do anything. If the Lord doesn't constrain
us, we won't do anything. If the Lord doesn't save us,
we will perish. If the Lord doesn't break us,
we'll be so lifted up in pride that we'll think we're more righteous
than God. And if He doesn't break us, we
won't have any friends. Job had some friends, alright?
God's people, God's children, like Job. The great lesson in
this life, and it's a lifelong lesson, it never ends, is a lesson
in humility. Job needed it. It seemed at first that he was
very humble and very broken, and he was. He wasn't completely broken with.
The great object of God's dealings with his people is to produce
a broken and a contrite heart. That's the only heart that God
said he will dwell with. You know that? Our Lord said
that in Isaiah. He said in Isaiah 57, he said,
if I can read it to you and not misquote it, And he said this,
he said, Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in a high and holy place
with him, or her, that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite
one. But now if we are not broken
and contrite and humble before him, the opposite is what? Pride. And He will bring us down. He
cannot. If we belong to Him. He'll leave
a worldling in His pride and just destroy him in the end.
But not His people. In Isaiah 66, and this being
broken is a good thing. In Isaiah 66, He says, Thus saith
the Lord, the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. All
these things my hand has made, but to this man will I look.
To him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and tremble at that my
word. Tremble at that my word. We don't always tremble at his
word. This is a stripping. It's a very
painful, very needful lesson that never ends until we awake
with his likeness. It won't end until we awake with
his likeness. David, don't you love that? He
said, I'll behold thy face in righteousness. The righteousness
you give me. And I won't be satisfied until
I awake with thy likeness. I don't just want righteousness
imputed, David said. I want to be like Him. I want
righteousness imparted. I want to be like Him. But I'm
not going to be completely like Him until I lay this body of
death down. And until then, the Lord is stripping
us The Lord is emptying us of what? Self. Self. This stripping and emptying. Oh, the old writer wrote so much
about this. You won't hear this in modern
religion. But this stripping of our covering, our facade of
goodness, this stripping of vanity and Hypocrisy, a stripping and
this emptying us of self that we're full of, self-love. If
it's not learned with communion with God, close communion with
God, you can't be lifted up in pride if you're in close communion
with God. You can't do it. If you're in close communion
with God, you'll settle right over your head. You can't in
His presence. You'll not speak ill of anyone else. You'll know
what you are. in His presence. And in closely
contact and communion with His Word, if His Word lives in you,
if your steps are ordered in His Word. But if not, if you don't learn
it that way, we'll learn it by painful and bitter sin and failure
and falls. And it's bad. It's bad. But we will learn. that no flesh
should glory in his presence, and we must all learn our utter
sinfulness. Christ means nothing to us unless
we are an undeserving, unworthy sinner. You know that. Christ
means nothing. Christ means nothing unless you
know something of your helplessness and your utter powerlessness. Christ means nothing. It's not
all to you unless you're nothing at all. Unless you have nothing
at all. No ability. You know what it
is to be strong in faith? To grow strong in faith? It means grow less dependent
of yourself. Think less of yourself. It means
to grow weaker. Feel weaker. That way you keep looking down.
We've got to all learn this. Christ will not be made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption unless we don't
have any of that. Now, I esteem Job much higher
than myself, and anything I say tonight, I am not judging Job
or condemning him at all. Oh my, he's a better man than
I am. And I certainly haven't gone
through a fraction of what Job's done. I'm only telling you what
the Lord says and why He did all that He did to Job and the
end of it all. It was real good. It was real
good. The end was real good. James
said, Consider the end of that man. Now, at first, Job totally submitted
to the Lord's mercy and grace and blessed God for everything,
even his troubles. Job said, the Lord gave it all
to me. I didn't earn any of it. I don't
deserve any of it. He took it all away. He gave it to me. He took it all away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. And he didn't sin. He didn't
charge God foolishly. He believed God. He really did.
You know, trials are for many reasons, but I'll give you four
reasons why the Lord gives trials. My sins trial. Number one, for
His glory. The trials are for God, for us,
and for others. Number one, it's for God's glory.
It proves to us that God is. God proves himself to us in these
trials that he sends. We go through them, and he proves
that his grace is sufficient. He promises us grace, a way that
we might escape, that we may be able to bear. And we go through
unbearable trials, and we think, I can't make it. And God proves
himself. And when it's over, You learn
something. David said, it's good for me
that I've been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. He
learned something of his promises. He learned something of living
by faith. He learned something of looking to him. He learned
something of the weakness, the frailty of your flesh. He learned
something of your sinfulness. He learned something. He learned
that God is God and you need him desperately. And he's true
to his word. And his grace is sufficient.
And you need to look to him and trust him. It's for God's glory. for God's glory. And I said it's
for God, it's for us, it's for us, and it's for others. It's
for us to witness and testify of God's grace during that trial. It's for us to witness a good
testimony. Our Lord had said that of our
Lord. He witnessed a good profession before Pilate, before men. And these trials we go through,
we endure them. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, James said. And we go through these trials,
and we endure them, and we say, like Job, the Lord did this,
and it gives glory to God. And men and women see that and
glorify God. Number two, trials strengthen
our faith. The trials of your faith work
with patience. You have to wait on the Lord.
Job, he didn't know. He's going to know why these
things happen. Patience, experience. The old saying, experience is
the best teacher. It's the only teacher. You don't
learn anything until you go through it. Believe it. People can tell
you. You can hear it from the Word.
But you're not going to learn it until you go through it. Until
you actually experience it, right? And experience hope. When you
experience it, God's grace, preciousness of his promises. And then you
have hope. And you trust him again next
time. Strengthens your faith. Thirdly, trials enable us to
have compassion on others and help others. That's why he sends
them. Paul went through so many trials,
didn't he? And he said, these things He
said, I'm comforted. God comforteth us in all our
afflictions that we may be able to comfort them who need comfort
by the same comfort where we're comforted. That's why. There's some widows in our congregation. Well, a lady loses her husband. Who best to comfort her than
someone who's been through that? That's the time. To reach out
to that person. That's why. That we might be
able to have compassion on and help others. Okay? That we might comfort them. Chastening. Chastening. Now, chastening of
the Lord. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Whom the Lord hated, he punished
him. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. The Lord doesn't punish. I'm
going to get you for that. We think that, don't we? He's
going to get me. God's not a man. He's so pure
He's not in there. He's long-suffering. Slow to
anger. Slow to wrath. You're not like
us. Aren't you glad? They're chasing it. Reproved. We need it. Oh, we need it. We'll always need correction,
won't we? I'm in my sixties. You'd think I'd have learned
something. You'd think I'd have quit something. Have you? Let me ask some of
the older people in here. Do you still struggle with some
of the things you did as a young man? Do you need chastening? Need corrections? Corrections.
Paul told young Timothy, preach the word, Timothy. The word is
possible for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be truly furnished
unto all good works. Chastening, reproof, rebuke,
correction, instruction. It's not punishment. It's loving
reproof and loving rebuke and correction. You're heading a
bad way, and the Lord turns you. But sometimes it's faithful.
He's laying hold of something too tight, too strongly. Brother
Scott used to say, and he went through a lot of trials. Brother
Scott used to say, don't hold on to these things of this world.
They're thorns. That's what the Lord called them,
the thorns that carry this life. He said, it's painful when the
Lord has to remove them from you. We always need correction. Can a person be chastened by
the Lord and not know it? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. This is what Elihu said about
Job. That's why Job did all the talking that he did. That's what Elihu said. You read
it for yourself. Elihu said, God did this to you,
Job, and you didn't consider it. You don't consider it. You
did it first, but you lost sight of it. Can a person be chastened
by the Lord and not know it, not think he needs it? Can a person not think he needs
God's chastening? Job started defending himself. He started defending himself,
thinking, have you read it? Have you read
his account? At first, Job said, it's the
Lord. I must need this. And then Job, the Lord sent his
friends to him. Look at chapter 2. The Lord sent
Job's friends to him. And they were his friends. But they weren't too good of friends
were they? They weren't too good. They didn't
do for Job what Job needed. In fact, the Lord's wrath was
kindled against them. Because all they did was condemn
Job. judge him and bring him down.
They never did build him up. But Job 2, verse 11, when Job's
three friends heard of all the evil that was come upon him,
they came, everyone from his own place, they came to see him.
They visited him. And they made an appointment
together. Did you hear about our brother Job? No? What is
it? Oh, my, my. He's going through
some terrible things. So they made an appointment together
to come to mourn with him, to comfort him. And when they lifted
up their eyes afar off, they didn't even recognize him. It boils all over. He was a poor
man now. He had nothing. Have you ever seen a brother you haven't
seen in a while that he's sick and you go see him and you're
just shocked? And it broke their heart. And they lifted up their voice
and wept. And they rent their mantle, they
rent their clothing, and they sat down and sprinkled dust upon
their heads toward heaven. And they sat down with Him on
the ground for seven days. They didn't say a word. Their
grief was very great. And they were grief-stricken.
These were real friends. They were true friends. They
were grieving over him, grieving with him. They were longtime
friends, I believe. And they came from a long way
to see him, which is a noble thing and a good thing and a
reasonable thing. It's what you ought to do. Well, then, after a week of this,
verse 1 of chapter 3, after this, opened Job his mouth and what
did he do? The last time we heard him, he
was a blessing to us. Cursed is that. Job opened his
mouth and had met our prophet. Oh, he that keepeth his mouth,
scripture says, keepeth his soul from many troubles. The more
Job talked, the worse he got. He got down in a hole in a pit
and became bound and in bondage to and in captivity to many things
that he couldn't get out of until, and I'll tell you how, and then.
And they all talked. And neither Job nor his friends
knew why all this happened to Job, did they? They didn't know. They were trying to figure it
out. If you remember what Elijah said, God doesn't give an account
of His majesty. We're better off not trying to
figure things out. Just take it. It's the Lord.
Right? When our reasoning tries to reason,
why would a loving God... That's when unbelief sets in. That's when so many things set
in. They start to reason. Job's friends, wrongly, condemn
him. They should have come to just
comfort him, right? They should have come to just
comfort him. All they're doing when they condemn
him and judge him is commending themselves. That's what they're
doing. By innuendos, by suppositions,
by suggestions, by their reasoning, carnal reasoning.
You must have something. Now, God wouldn't do this to
you if there's not some sin in your life or something. You're
supposed to do the best that you can. Love believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love rejoiceth not in
iniquity. And they're just, you know, they're
just conjecturing. They're just reasoning. And what
they're doing now, what they should have done, they didn't
comfort Job. They didn't comfort Job with
the Lord's love and mercy and grace. And they mostly condemned
him and judged him. Aren't we supposed to judge ourselves
rather than our brethren? We're talking about... I don't
know if these men were believers or not. You know that? In the end, the Lord said His
wrath was kindled against them. He said they didn't speak right.
They said some good things. But they didn't speak right,
the Lord said concerning them, like Job did. They said some
true things, but they didn't speak the truth. That reminds
me of a lot of preachers, a lot of professing Christians. We're talking about those who
claim to be brethren. We're supposed to judge ourselves,
aren't we? And they were judging him. And they were condemning
him. They were condemning him. You've
got something wrong here. And Job couldn't take it any
longer. Have you ever been wrongly condemned
or accused of something that you absolutely were not guilty
of? Huh? Have you been? That's hard to
take. It's impossible. It's impossible for us to take
the blame for something we didn't do. And I'll tell you what else
is impossible. It's impossible for us to give
the credit for something we have done. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus
Christ did, both of us then? Didn't He take the blame for
something He didn't do? All of it opened up his mouth. Ooh, I want to be like that,
don't you? And didn't our Lord give all
the credit, all that he did to us, took our blame, we got his
glory. But Job, being a man, He'd been
wrongly condemned by his friends. Now, it's one of the most painful
things of all. Job went through some painful
things, but this was tough. In fact, David one time said,
if it had been my enemy, I could have taken it, but it was my
own familiar friend. And it just killed him. And Job began to defend himself. He began to order his cause.
And he began to defend himself. Are you with me? We're going
to learn something here. Though he was not wrong, perhaps,
of some of the things they thought accused him of or might have
suggested that he was guilty of. He's still the sinner before
God. And he still is not received in half. Everything he has is by grace.
Nothing is my merit. The Lord didn't give him anything
because Job married him. But Job got into captivity in
a hole in a pit down in darkness, and it got darker and darker
in this deep. He got captive to self-pity. Anybody. Have you ever been captive
to your own self-pity? I remember as a boy, young boy
and my parents were chasing me, probably would not give me something
I wanted real bad, you know. We couldn't go over to Marky's
house and spend the night. One time, listen to this. One time Marky, my friend, was
spending the night and another boy was spending the night in
a little basement room. workshop room and I wanted to
go and they wouldn't let me for some reason. And both those boys
asphyxiated. They died. I wasn't there. They didn't let me go. And I got mad. I got mad like, was it wit for
him riding that horse and a man and it was raining? Don't you
love that story? Whitefield was riding a horse
and it was raining and he was bitter and mad because it was
raining and a guy came out behind the bushes with a flintlock gun,
you know, was going to rob him and shot that and it's wet. The
powder was wet, you know, it wouldn't go off. And Whitefield
just kept riding. He was thanking God for that
rain. Oh, he was thanking the Lord
for that rain. Self-pity though. It's a pity. I used to get in that way as
a boy. I remember it. I had a big dog,
a St. Bernard dog. It had a house about
that tall, you know. And I'd crawl in that house with
that big dog. And dad or mom would scold me
or whatever. And I'd go in that house and
put my arm around that big old dog and say, you're the only
one that loves me. No, that's a foolish thing. I still get that way. I still get that way. Whoa, poor
me. Poor you. You ought to be in
hell right now. Except the Lord's mercies, He
doesn't concern you. Poor me. Now, again, I haven't
gone through what Job's gone through, I know that. But this
is what the Lord is teaching Job, okay? He got in this captivity
to his own self-pity. He got in captivity to his own
self-defense. I don't deserve this. He started
saying, I don't deserve this. He didn't deserve it from his
friends. He didn't deserve for them to treat him like that.
The Lord hates Man, the Lord said two things He hates and
abomination to Him is the justifying of the wicked and the condemnation
of the righteous. He hates it. So we need to be real careful
about who we condemn. But Job started saying, I don't
deserve this. I don't deserve this. Job. He don't deserve it from them.
that you deserve it from God. The worse. Bitterness. He got in a way of bitterness.
Paul told us to beware a root of bitterness springing up. Trouble
you and many will be defiled by it. Everybody around Job.
You know, if you're in a way of bitterness, it spreads. It's awful. Job became bitter
against God. He did. Can a believer be bitter against
God? Job was. He even said in the course of
this, he even said, I wish I could find him, I'd order my cause
before him. That's what a lie he was dealing with in Job. And he became captive to that
bitterness. If you've ever been in bitterness,
I have. Oh, it's hard to get out. But I'm going to give you
a key in the end of this thing. You're consumed with it. Bitterness,
you're consumed with it. Everything is bitter. Whatever
you taste, your thoughts are bitter, your feelings, you wake
up bitter, you go to bed bitter. Anybody? Mad, angry. He got captive to his anger.
He couldn't get over it. He couldn't get it out of his
mind. He just stayed angry. You ever been there? Angry at
God. He was angry at his friends. His friends that were supposed
to be his friends were treating him bad. His friends were supposed
to be comforting him, and they were condemning him. They just
ganged up on him. He couldn't stand them. And boy, if God had left them
all alone, they'd have parted ways and never been joined again.
But when this thing's over, they're going to be good friends again. And if we get angry at people,
see, the Lord sent these men. These men came to try Job even
further. This was some of his most painful
trials of all. In fact, the whole book is spent
about these men. If we get angry at people, they
are the means that God sends us, whether it be the people
of the world or whoever and whatever it is, the means that God is
trying us with. And in essence, if we get mad
at them, we're getting mad at God. I remind you, David, before
his terrible sin against Uriah and Bathsheba, remember he sent
his young men to get some food from Nabal, a man named Phul,
Abigail's husband. He was a Phul. And Nabal said,
I ain't giving my food to that guy. He ain't my king. Saul's
my king, not that guy. He's not my king. David. And
David said, boy, devil, strap on your soul. We're going to
kill everything that pisses against the Lord. And Abigail, oh, I love that
story. Abigail interceded with, oh,
please. After his sin against Uriah and
Bathsheba, He was riding along and there
was a fellow named Shimei that started throwing rocks at him,
kicking dust on him, cussing him, mocking him. And his captain
said, let me go take his head off. And David said, no. He said, the Lord sent him to cuss
me. I need a good cussing. If the
Lord gave me what I deserve, It'd be a whole lot more than
that person. It'd be a curse. I'd be cursed forever. God sent this man. So when we grow angry at men
or things, we're really angry at God. Guilty. Guilty. We need to consider that.
That'll help us come out of this captivity. Job's friends were
wrong. They spoke wrong. They hurt Job.
They shouldn't have hurt him. Oh, my. But God sent them, and
Job needed stripping. Job needed stripping. Job was
captive to his grief and sorrow. Now, I can't imagine what it
would be like to lose a child or all the children. He married an unbelieving wife.
She told him, curse God. He had nobody to comfort him. And he got down in grief and
sorrow. It was very real. David, one
time, was so sorrowful he refused to be comforted. No matter what
anybody said, he would not be comforted. But finally, the Lord
did. Eventually, he encouraged himself
and the Lord his God. Joe came in depression. We give it a clinical meaning
now, don't we? But he got in depression. He
couldn't get out of it. He got in bitterness. He was
angry. He couldn't get out of it. All his waking thoughts,
everything. He couldn't get out of it. He
was in a deep, dark hole like a dungeon, like a pit. He was
captive. He couldn't get out of it. How? How? Didn't the Lord bring him out? Alright, let's look at it. Look
at chapter 33. Again, the first thing the Lord did was send him
a preacher. Send him a preacher. Young man, much younger than
him. What can he tell me? What's he
gone through? Joe, don't be talking like that now. That's what Elijah
said to me. If you can answer me, you've
been talking a long time. If you've got something more
to say, say it. But if not, you need to listen to what I'm saying. In chapter 33, he said, I pray
thee, hear my speeches. Verse 1, hearken to all my word.
Look at verse 8. He said, now, you've spoken and
I hear it. I've heard the voice of your
word. You said, I'm clean without, I'm innocent. Oh my. He said,
you've even called God your enemy. Oh my. Chapter 32, verse 1, it says
that Job was righteous in his own eyes, and remember, Elihu,
his wrath was kindled against Job and his friends, as he justified
himself rather than God. Look at verse 17. He said everything God does is
to withdraw man from his own vain, sinful purposes and things
that he wants. That's what we want. If the Lord
didn't withdraw us from that, we'd destroy ourselves. And hide pride from man. Pride,
the Lord is going to destroy a world full of proud people.
Have you ever seen a more proud generation than now? Isn't that
what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 in the last day? Heady, high-minded,
proud, boasters, blasphemers, oh my God's name. That's now
more than ever. And God does this to His people
to bring them down in their pride to hell. You got any pride? Anybody can say, like that man
that came home with his wife one day, that pious, legalistic
fellow. He said, Behold woman, I have
overcome my pride. You didn't think that was funny.
I thought it was funny the first time I heard it. He says in verse 18, He's keeping
back his soul from the pits You see, that's where it got him.
That's where the Lord found us. We need to remember the pit. What pit? The Lord always talks
about the pit, doesn't He? Deliver my soul from going down
into the pit. David said, don't let me go down
into the pit. What pit? Well, the children
of Israel, when they were in Egypt, they were in the slime
pits, weren't they? They were in the slime pits working
out. in bondage in the slime pits. But you know, they'd no
sooner been out of there very long until they wanted to go
back. They wanted to go back to Egypt.
Go back to what? The slime pits. Don't you remember
the dung heap that he found you on? Don't you remember the slime
pit? Go back to the world. Go back
to sin. Go back to these things. Leave Christ. Leave the gospel
and go back. He's not going to let his people
do that. He's going to deliver you from going back to the pit.
This world's a pit of corruption. It's good. And the only way he
can do this is to chase it up. Keeps his soul from going down
to the pit. Verse 19, he's chasing on his
bed. And he's talking about sickness. And verse 23, but if there's
a messenger, if there's just a messenger, is there a messenger,
an interpreter, one come from God that can speak the Word of
God to him? One among a thousand? Is there
a messenger? Is there a man that can show
unto this man in the pit and his soul is near the grave? Is
there one that can show him God's uprightness? God's mercy, God's
grace, if there is one, send him to that fellow, then God
will be gracious to him. Here's what he'll say, deliver
him from going down in the pit. I found a ransom. Oh, and he'll be a new creature,
fresher than a child. He'll return to the days of his
youth. Job, right in the middle of all his murmuring and complaining,
Job said, oh, that I were as in months past. I preached the
whole message on that. Oh, did I worry months passed.
Well, it's his own fault. He got himself with his mouth
into that pit that he couldn't get out of. And it says that God will be
favorable unto that fellow if he hears the truth of Christ
crucified and deliver him from death. He'll render unto that
man. There it is in verse 26. He'll render unto that man his
righteousness. Sinner though he be. All the
man has to do is say, I've sinned. I'm guilty. And God says, you'll
see the light. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, you're nothing. Never was anything. You aren't now. Never
will be anything. But Christ is all. Don't ever
be lifted up above nothing. Or else you'll get in a hole
you can't get out of. He sent a preacher. Next, the
Lord spoke to him personally. You know, if the preacher is
the only one you hear from, you might be delivered from captivity.
If the preacher's voice is the only one you hear from, it won't
do you any good. You won't hear. That's just young
Elijah. What if Job said, what does he
know? I'm a hundred years old. He's thirty-whatever. What if
Job said that? And then God spoke to him. You know, a brother and I were
just talking about this. You can tell people something,
tell them, tell them, even read the Scriptures to them and preach
the Scriptures to them, and unless God says it to them, they're
not going to hear it. One-on-one does no good. I've
written letters, I've talked to people, I've sat one-on-one.
It's never done one bit of good. In fact, it's made people mad
at me. But if God speaks to you, you're
convinced. If God speaks to you, there's
no talking back. You're convinced of the truth.
God needs to speak to us then. And the Lord spoke. And what's
the first thing the Lord said? Job 38. Oh my. Then the Lord answered, Job,
out of the whirlwind. The whirlwind. Why was the Lord
speaking out of the whirlwind? Because that's who the Lord speaks
to. The wind. The Holy Spirit. And here's what He said. Who
is this? Just who is this? Darkened and
counseled by words without molly, gird up your loins, I'll demand
of thee." And the next thing he said in verse 4 was, where
were you when I did all this? Who is this and where are you
from? Joe may have despised Elihu's
youth. Paul told young Timothy, let
no man despise your youth. Speak with authority. And Job
may have despised Elijah's youth, so the Lord God said to Job,
I am the ancient of days. Where were
you when I made these things? Who is this doing all this talking? The Lord spoke to him personally.
We must hear his voice. And then verse 42, quickly, we're
getting to this. I'm telling you the answer. The gospel's answer, the truth's
answer isn't to get out of this pit, out of this captivity. The
Lord has to speak to us through a preacher, and then repentance,
confession. We've got to confess what we
are, like Elijah said in his message, didn't he? If we just
say, I've sinned. If we confess our sins, if anybody
says, I have not sinned, you're a liar. You're calling God a
liar, John wrote. But if you confess your sins,
Don't you love these next words? If we confess our sins, he's
faithful. He's forgiven every confessing
sinner, every one of them. This is a faithful saying, John.
Chief of sinners, doesn't matter who they are. The thief on the
cross, just say, we're getting what we deserve. Innocent. I'm a leper all over. Clean. What's hard about that? What
prevents us from doing that? Pride. I've got one good little spot
here. I'm a leper, yeah, but look here. I've got one little...
I've done a lot of things. I haven't
done that. Confession. Repentance. I meant
to bring this up Sunday. I'm not going to be here this
Sunday. Repentance is threefold. You've
never really repented unless you first repented of your sin.
That's what you are. That makes you do what you do.
Sin is what makes you sin sins. It's your nature. As David said,
my sin is ever before me. He meant what I am. That makes
me do what I do. You've never repented unless
you've repented of what you are, your sin. Secondly, you've never
repented unless you've repented of your sins, what you've actually
done. Now, that also means what you
had not done. Not only sins of commission,
but omission. Not only have I sinned against
God, I've sinned against others. Not only have I sinned against
God and others, I haven't glorified God. I haven't helped others.
I've loved and served myself. Sins. You haven't repented unless you've
repented of your self-righteousness. Job hadn't repented of that.
He hadn't repented of that. He said, you know what all I've
done for people? Didn't he? Read it. And he did. He did. He did. He did all those things.
He said, I did this, I did this, I helped others. That's fine
until they start talking about it. You need to repent of it. And
repentance is not a one-time thing, it's an ongoing, lifelong
thing. You're not repentant unless you
keep repenting. That's not like this Catholic
notion of you'll never be forgiven, you've got to keep thrashing
yourself and all that. No. But it's an attitude, it's
a state of, it's a character of total, constant repentance. That's what makes a person humble.
Think. It's the only thing that will
humble us, realizing I'm a sinner. Through and through. In my flesh
there was no good thing. And I've done nothing good. I've
just been a sinner. Noting by God and self-righteousness. People, I've got to tell you,
I've told you before. My little niece, I think it was
my niece, maybe my nephew, came home from school years ago. See, people think highly of themselves
for not sinning. I don't do that. Well, my little
niece or nephew, I forget which one it was. Niece, okay. She
came home one day and said to her mother, she said, Mama, so
proud of herself, she said, I didn't kick anybody or bite anybody
today. Well, should she be rewarded? Isn't that human nature? I haven't
done evil. What good have you done? Live for yourself, that's evil.
So repentance, there's that. Lastly, you've got to see a sacrifice. The Lord said His wrath was kindled
against these men, and He said in verse 7, After he spoke these words to
Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled
against thee and against thy two friends. You have not spoken
to me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath. Therefore
now, take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and
go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering.
And my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept,
lest I deal with you after your filing. You have not spoken to
me that thing which is right like my servant Job. And oh my,
we've preached this before, that Job was a type of Christ. What
a glorious type of Christ, that there it is, that Christ, His
righteous servant, came to offer a sacrifice on behalf of His
people. Job offered this sacrifice. Take
it to Job. He's going to offer it, and he's
going to pray for you that the effectual, fervent prayer of
that righteous man, the Lord Jesus Christ, availeth everything,
is our salvation. He prayed for his people, and
he offered up his own precious blood for his people. But now,
listen to this. Listen to this. This is just
a man, Joe. And the very man that they were
condemning, God said, if you don't go back to him and
beg his forgiveness through the blood of the sacrifice, You're with me? If you don't
go back to that very fellow you were down on condemning and thinking
was wrong, if you don't go back to him, he's the one I'm going
to use to bless you. And if you don't reconcile to
him through this blood, this sacrifice, I'm going to kill
you. Think about it. Did you hear
what I said? That's the man that I'm going to bless you. You better
be reconciled. Our Lord said this in Matthew
5. He said this. Let me turn real
quickly. I never saw it in connection
with this. I do now. He said, I say unto you, whoever
is angry with his brother without a cause, angry, is in danger
of judgment. He said, so if you come to the
altar, You come to church and your brother has something against
you, you better go back to him right now and be reconciled. Or I'm going to deal hard with you.
That's what the Lord said. Don't come to church and act
like everything's fine. You don't worship God and have
something against your brother. For Christ's sake, love one another. That's Christ. You may have a
grudge against another. Love is for Christ's sake. It's
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. In light of this sacrifice,
that sacrifice is about the substitute, the innocent substitute dying
for the guilty. In light of Christ doing that,
what could you possibly be angry about your brother? It's talk. It all happened over talk. They
were real good friends, so everybody started talking. Now, you go
to him, and you be reconciled to him. He's going to pray for
you. Now, Job heard that. And Job
heard everything. And Job heard Elihu. And Job
heard the Lord. And here's what Job said in the
end in verse 5, chapter 42. Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear. Oh, how much truth we've heard,
haven't we? We need to see. See what? See God, see ourselves. You see God, we'll see ourselves.
How merciful he's been. And you'll hate yourself. Wherefore
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Until Job got
a real good fresh look at himself at the pit from which God had
digged it. him out of, and could have let
him go back to, until he saw that, he got angry, and he was
encaptured to everything, against God, against his friends, against
everybody. And then God saw, Job, you don't
deserve anything from David McGrath. And Job saw that clearly again,
as if it was the first time, and it broke him. He said, I
hate myself. And Job started thinking about
his friends. Yeah, they'd been bad friends, but so had I. Yeah,
they've treated me wrongly, but so have I. And he said, Lord, forgive me for being so angry
at you and angry at my dear friends. I love these men. We've been friends a long time.
Please. Break my heart, heart. He wouldn't
say, break their heart. Break my heart, heart. Would
you have mercy on them, us? Father, forgive us our debts
as we forgive those that have debted against us. Lord, please
forgive us. I am the worst. I am the worst. Please forgive me and able me
to forgive them. He turns. No more anger. No more anger. No more depression. He's not thinking about himself. When he thinks about himself,
all he can see is sin. He thinks about God, all he can
see is mercy. He thinks about God, all he can
see is grace, goodness, long-suffering, kindness. He thinks about himself,
sees sin. He thinks about his brethren,
That's my brethren. That's my good brethren. I need
them. They need me. Turn. Just turn. Like a light came on. Darkness
dispelled. Depression gone. The Lord turned
His captivity. He went to bed, not thinking
about it, not angry. He went to sleep. Didn't eat
meals. Woke up. Skin fresher than a
baby. Slept all night. Not angry at
anybody but himself. You stay angry at yourself, you
won't be angry at anybody else. Pray for your brethren, you can't
be mad at them. You can't. You can't stay mad.
Real prayer. Real prayer. Alright, that's
the best I can do with that. Stay with me. Our God, we thank You for Your
Word. It's so wonderful. It is Thy
Word. It's so clearly Thy Word. Holy
men speak as they are moved by Thy Spirit. Oh, we thank You for it. We would
be in darkness if the entrance of Thy Word gave us light. And
it is so much. It's our voice and it's how You
speak to us and teach us Reprove us, correct us, comfort us, console
us, open our eyes, direct our ways. Oh, we thank
You for Your Word. Thank You, thank You, thank You,
Lord. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You. Cause us to abide
in Thy Word. Cause us to abide in Thy Word
and Thy Word to abide in us. May we abide in Thee and Thou
in us, O Lord. Let sin not abide there. Lord, we thank You for reconciling
us by the blood of Thy Son. Oh, what a sacrifice. Lord, reconcile
us to Thee and one another, we pray. Let us love Thee as we
ought and love one another as we ought. Deliver us from going
down into the pit. Deliver someone who is hearing
this who is perhaps in captivity to something. We pray, we ask
that you might deliver them from it. For Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed.