Our great reverence shall now
and forevermore be Thank you, Sherry. Thank you,
John. Okay, go back to Job's gospel, I started to say. It's
right, isn't it? It's all the gospel. It's all
the story of our Lord Jesus Christ and good news. There's a verse
I love in the book of Romans. I quote it often. And it needs
to be quoted. Whatever we read, Paul wrote,
it says, whatsoever things were written aforetime, speaking of
the Old Testament mostly, whatever was written was written for our
learning, talking to the church, to God's people, written for
us to learn, learn the truth, who God is. His will, His ways
to learn the truth about ourselves, who we are, what we are, what
our great need is, and Christ who is the truth. So whatever
is written is written for our learning, everything in the Old
Testament, that we, he goes on to say, through patience and
comfort of the Scripture. Patience. Patience means to wait
on the Lord. And it means to wait and see
His will and see His work, see His salvation. Wait, just wait. And so whatever is written is
written for our patience and comfort. of Scripture. Comfort ye one another with these
words, these Scriptures, and that through the Scriptures we
might have hope, hope in God, hope in His mercy. Hope in Christ. So if the Lord hadn't written
this wonderful book, we wouldn't have any hope. We wouldn't have
any patience. We wouldn't have any comfort.
We wouldn't know the truth. This story of Job is all of that. It's written for our learning. thought to be by most the oldest
recorded book in God's Word. That's fitting. That's fitting. An old, old story. The very oldest
and first story written by our Lord for us to read is written
for our learning. Written for our patience. You
heard of the patience of Job? What did it take for Job to get
that patience? The trial of our faith worketh
patience, and patience experience, that is, experience God's grace, God's goodness, and experience
hope. The Lord gave, you know, Job
went through what seemed to be a hopeless time, didn't it? Just
the severest of times, and yet he had hope. He hoped in God.
It's like all of God's people do. So this is the story of a
man named Job, but it's also the story of the God-man. Job,
we're going to see, represents the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's
the story of every child of God. We will, to some degree, go through
everything that Job went through. We're going to learn what Job
learned about God, about himself, about Christ. And hopefully it
gives us hope, comfort of Scripture and hope written for our learning.
Alright, this is the story of a man. Verse 1, there was a man
in the land of Uz whose name was Job. This is his life story. The Lord wrote this man's life
story. And He wrote yours too. We spend our years as a tale
that's been told. Every person in here, your name
and your life has been written down. If you belong to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're in the Lamb's book of life. Everything is working for you.
Everything is working for you. If not, it's against you and
will be held against you. Oh, that I might be found in
Christ, huh? Job was, but this was this man's story. And we
all have a story. The Lord has recorded it. This
man was greatly blessed by the Lord. Called him the greatest
of all the men in the East, didn't he? Why was he great? What were the great blessings
that the Lord bestowed upon him? What does it mention first? He
had great possessions, many possessions. One of the largest farms, that's
what that means there, in his household, his husbandry, that
a man could possibly have. You'd have to have a lot of land,
wouldn't you, to have 3,000 camels? And on and on it went. But what
was the greatest blessing of all? How did the Lord bless this
man? It says in verse 1, he was a
perfect and upright man. Was Job perfect in himself? Let me read to you what Job said. He said, If I justify myself,
my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse. There is not a just man on the
earth who doeth good and sinneth not." It was only one absolutely,
completely, wholly, in that sense, perfect man who walked this earth,
and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. We are complete. The word means
complete in Him. You are complete in Him. Likely
nothing. Perfect. Mature. It also means
mature and upright. Why was Job perfect and upright
and one that feared God and eschewed evil? Why? The Lord showed great
grace to him. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. seen as righteous in the eyes of the Lord. The only
have I seen righteous before me. Noah was a just man, walked
with God, Scripture said. Perfect. Like Job. Why? God made him that way. Christ was made unto him. I'm
not stretching the truth. The truth's the truth. And it's
all about Jesus Christ. If anybody, God calls anybody
holy, it's because of Jesus Christ. upright. See, Job was accounted
righteous by the Lord by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Like
Abraham, without works, was justified before God by faith. He got that
faith from God. He was upright. He walked straight
up. We get that term straight up, Kelly. He's a straight up
fellow. Walking upright. Nothing to hide.
Straight up. Upright. Why is that? The Lord
was gracious to him. The Lord gave him great grace,
restraining grace. He said there was none like him
anywhere on the earth. The Lord said that. Can you imagine
that? The Lord said there's none like him on the face of the earth. But you know, our Lord says that
about all these people, doesn't he? Of whom the world is not
worthy. He said you're the salt of the
earth in his sermon. Don't you know, all of them, to a man like
Job, said, no, I hate myself. God said, don't you call in playing
what I play. A perfect, upright man. And the
fact of the matter is, he was an upright man. A man who has Christ's righteousness
imputed to him also has his righteousness imparted to him. He's got a new
man, a new creature inside him that's different than the old
man, that's different than the people of this world. And he
is upright. He's an upright man. Now don't let that make you despair,
because we can't see him. We can't see him. Don't look
for him either. But God sees him, and others see him. Others
see him. We're growing in that grace,
aren't we? God-fearing. You know, Scripture says he eschewed
evil. It says, by the fear of the Lord,
men depart from evil. It's the only way. So he feared
God. He had great substance. A large
family. Verse 3. His substance was just
amazing how much he had. Everybody in here, I don't see a person in here
who has not been greatly blessed with great substance. Honestly. We live, in most respects, better
than Solomon. Yes, we do. He didn't have hot
running water. He didn't have some of the luxuries
that we have. We have so much, don't we? Everybody
in here. There's not a person in here.
I'm looking. I know you. I know you. You've got a car. You've
got a house. You've got plenty of food to
eat. You've got plenty of clothes to wear. You've got more than
at least a third of the people on this earth have. Maybe two-thirds.
Rich and increased with good. Everybody in here. Not a person
in here can say, I'm dirt poor. Not a person. We're being greatly
blessed. But are those the great blessings?
Are those the blessings? No. We're going to see, like
Job, we're all going to lose it all. We're going to lose it
all. No matter what you name something,
you're going to lose it. Whatever Job had, even to his
family, he lost it all. Did he lose hope? No. Where was his hope? David said that, didn't he? I
love that Psalm 42. Art thou cast down within me,
O my soul? Hope thou in God. That was at
a time when he had great loss. But this man named Job had great
substance, and so do we. And he was a God-worshipping
man, God-fearing man. He had a family. He loved his
family. Verses 4 and 5, you read with me, his sons and his daughters
were eating and drinking. And it tells us that two or three
times, doesn't it? Eating and drinking wine. There's
nothing wrong with eating and drinking. The Lord said that,
didn't He? Nothing wrong with that. Nothing
goes into the mouth. Even wine. Scripture talks about
that. But apparently, his sons and
daughters, that's all they cared about. Didn't it? Does it seem that way to you?
That's all they cared about. And Job, he probably enjoyed
eating and drinking wine or whatever. He had much, didn't he? And he
enjoyed it. And the Lord tells us, Ecclesiastes,
to enjoy it. But that wasn't his life. His
life wasn't in food. His body in raiment wasn't. But
he saw that his children, that was what they were all about.
And his great concern for his children was that they know the
same Redeemer that he knew, the same Lord that he knew. And Job,
he said, he sanctified, set them apart. He prayed for them and
offered a sacrifice for them. And he said, it could be that
they've sinned against God in their heart. And he said, I'm
going to pray for them. And it says he did it all his days. As long
as he was living, he was praying for those children of his until
the Lord either took them away or saved them. That's a man who really believes
God. Really believes God. We want
our children to have things, but we want them more than anything
to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we teach them right, we'll
tell them, you're going to lose everything. You're going to lose
it all. Everything. Even your health. Everything.
And then what do you got? If you don't have Christ, you
have nothing. Nothing. Vanity of vanity. This is what the Lord is teaching
us here. And surely, this whole story is talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. None like Him on the earth. Great
man. Substance? Richer than Solomon,
richer than Job, that great husbandman, that great landowner, the scripture
says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The
earth, the world, and the inhabitants thereof, the Lord Jesus Christ.
None like him, or near perfect, upright, sinless, without sin,
feared God. Here's the thing though, he started
out with nothing on this earth, but he had everything. What does that tell us? A man's
life doesn't consist in the things that he possesses. Because if
that's his life and he loses it, he loses his life. It's over. For a man's life, for me to live
is Christ. In Him we live. If God's your
life, nothing can take that away. Whatever happened. Whatever happened. The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, did
He have many children? Was he devoted to his God? Did he pray for his children?
Does he? Job did it all his days. Our
Lord ever liveth to make intercession for them. I've never really thought
about Job as being Christ, but he is, isn't he? He is. Whatever's written testifies
of him, doesn't it? Job was a man who was tried by
God, greatly tried. Whatever trial you and I will
go through, Job had it ten times over. And one right after the other.
To show us several things. That no matter who you are, what
you have, where you are, who you are, if you're one of God's
own, you're going to be tried. You're going to be tried. He's
going to show us that. And the vanity of all things.
Severely tried not. And to show us, to show us that
whatever we go through, somebody else has gone through it. God's
people have gone through it. And God's grace is sufficient. His grace is so sufficient, the
God of all grace, that giveth more grace, and giveth more grace.
His grace is so sufficient that you can go through everything
in one round after the other. And the Lord still brings you
through it. Because he's true. He's true. He can't lie. And he uses Job as that. But oh my, what about his own
son? He suffered more than Job, didn't
he? From the cradle to the cross,
he suffered. He bore our sorrows and carried
our griefs. Oh my. And then God made him
the greatest trial he went through was being made sin. You and I
can't enter into that. Brother John, you and I were
talking the other Wednesday night about this, weren't we? What
it would be like to be without sin. We can't even think about
it. John kept saying that. I can't even imagine being without
sin. Well, the Lord couldn't imagine
sinning. He couldn't imagine thinking
sinning. It was so repulsive to Him. And yet for the joy that
was set before Him, for the love that He had for His children, it made sin for them. God laid
on him the iniquity of his soul. We don't know anything about
that, that trial. We do not. Tried by God, tempted
by Satan. Job was greatly, severely tempted
by Satan. Verses 6-8, the Lord said to
Job, look at it, there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan was among them. That tells us that Satan, whenever... Now people don't think of this
as some kind of angelic meeting and Satan. That's not that any
more than like Genesis 5 where the sons of God went into the
children of men. That's not what that's saying.
It's talking about God's people. The sons of God, alright, came
to worship like we're doing right now. Like we're doing right now. Came to worship. And Satan was
right in the middle of it. Is it so with us? Yes, it is. The Lord Jesus Christ had twelve
disciples. And there was a devil right in
the middle of them. Our Lord said, there must be heresies
among you. Why? That they which are approved
might be made men of him. There must be. It has to be.
It's a trial. A severe trial. Satan was right
in the midst. And the Lord said to him, the
Lord initiated this. Verse 7, the Lord said to Satan,
whence comest thou? And Satan said, from going to
and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. Isn't
that exactly what Peter said? You know, Peter, the Lord let
Satan have Peter, didn't He? And oh, my, it was a severe trial,
wasn't it? Remember when Peter made that
great profession of faith? Thou art the Christ. And then
it wasn't ten minutes later that the Lord said, Get behind me,
Satan. Satan entered into it. Nothing new. He's in the midst. He tries God's people. He's the
adversary. He's the accuser of the brethren.
And Peter said this. He said, Satan, as a roaring
lion, Your adversary walketh about,
to and fro, seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast
in the faith, not looking to Christ. But the Lord is the one
that did all this for our comfort, that we through patience and
comfort of the Scripture might have hope. The Lord is the one
who instigated, initiated all this and allowed or directed,
if you will, Satan to do what he would. Satan did what he wanted
to do, but he did what the Lord allowed him to do, or he couldn't
do a thing. That's fire-comforting. The Lord
couldn't touch him. Satan said that. You've hedged
him about. Aren't you glad? Huh? Satan said, I can't get
to him. You've hedged him about. And
you've blessed him. Well, that's true. It's true
of every child of God. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us. We sing that song. Nothing moves in his arm. Thousands
shall fall at thy side. Ten thousands at thy right hand.
He will not come nigh thee unless the Lord says for it to. Why? Because he's God. Beside him,
there is none else. He said, I am the Lord. I do
all these things. I make peace. I create evil.
He's not the author of sin. But He allowed it to come or
it wouldn't have happened. And everything, even the wrath
of man, will praise Him and the remainder He restrained. And
whatever the devil does, God in some way allows it to happen
and His purpose directed it without getting blamed for it, without
getting charged for it. And it brings about God's purpose
for His people. The greatest example of that.
What's the greatest example of that? The most atrocious, the
most horrible, horrific crime of man against man, of humanity,
of man against God, took place at Calvary, where man finally
got his hands on God. And it says, we with wicked hands
have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. Why? We did what
God determined before to be done. And the most atrocious act of
man, the most horrible act of man, and Satan was right in the
middle of it. Was Satan there at Calvary? Absolutely. Was Satan
at his birth? Absolutely. He wanted Herod,
he tried. Herod, Satan was, Herod was one
of his ministers. and wanted that baby, all babies
killed, to try to get at the Christ. The Lord hit him like
He did Moses. But Satan was behind that. Who
was behind it? Well, Satan did it, but God determined
it. God purposed it. Why? What comfort does that give
you? There is no other God. The powers that be are of God. Nothing and no one can, Barney
used to say, wiggle his finger unless God purposed it. That's right. The very hairs
of your head are numbered and so on. So, the Lord did this. Satan greatly desired Job. The Lord said that. Hast thou considered, or you
have been considering Job, haven't you? The Lord knows. He greatly
desired Job. And again, that's what Peter
told us. He seeketh whom he may devour.
And the Lord must give him permission. What about our Lord Jesus Christ
who was tempted in all points like as we are? He allowed himself to be taunted
by that. I try to think about that, Brother
Stan. The Lord standing before Satan, letting him tempt him. Then standing another day before
Pilate, and Pilate saying, you have no authority. He said, don't
you know I have authority? Oh, what would you and I have
done? You know, just shut him up. He could have, couldn't he? And allow people to take him
and pluck out his beard. I'm glad he's God, not man, aren't
you? I'm glad he did that. He made sin. But anyway, the
Lord was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. And Satan bruised his heel, just
like the Lord said he would in the very beginning. He would
bruise his heel, the woman's seed. But yet the Lord said that in
doing so, he would crush his head. All by God's design and
purpose. I love, one of the old writers
said that concerning us, concerning us, Satan hath desired thee,
to sift you like wheat. And God only allows him to do
what is good for you and according to his purpose. That's right. And one of the old writers said,
Satan sweats at the task. that with every blow of his hammer,
poof, he conforms us to the image of Christ. It's like, you know,
like Stephen, you try to hit something and it doesn't turn
out like you did. Oh, I didn't mean that. Oh, no, it's worse. I'll never forget why I read
that. Sweats at the task with every blow of his hammer trying
to do us evil, God is directing that blow for our good. That's
God. That's our God. And all of this
that happened to Job, you'd think nothing worse could happen. No,
nothing better. The way we see the end. Alright,
he had great faith. The Lord gave this man great
faith and he got it through great trials. Well, trials. No, no, no. I've
said that wrong. The Lord gave him faith. And
the trials proved it. Okay? The trials proved that
he had faith. Faith is a gift of God. You don't
know you have it, though, until you have trial. Like a boat,
you don't know if it's going to float. It may look good. But
you don't know if it's a boat unless it floats. Unless it gets
out there on the sea. And I don't mean a farm pond.
where there's no wind blowing. Uh-uh. I mean a storm where the
waves are crushing. And you don't know if you've
got a good captain either, do you? You don't know if you've got
a good captain until you go through those storms of life. Great faith
was revealed by these great trials. Look at it. Now, this is Job's
story and this is our story. Verse 6, Now there was a day.
Verse 13, Now there was a day. Chapter 2, verse 1. Again, there
was a day. It's coming. It's coming today. That's right. Man is born a woman. It's a few
days and full of trouble. It's coming. The Lord said you
must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven.
If you don't have it, if you be without chastening, you're
not my child. Not much time. We don't want
it. Sometimes the hardest part is
the dread of it, the fear of it, anticipation of it. The Lord has promised, I'll give
you grace for it. Yes, He has. And Job, it says
there was a day. It's coming time. You can count
on it that the child of God, troubles and trials have come,
have gone through them, are and will yet. And I remind you of
Abraham when he was real old and everything was just wonderful.
He had Isaac and it said, after these things the Lord tried him. It's the hardest one yet, isn't
it? That's what it says. But it must be so. And these
trials come in different forms. Look at verses 13 and following.
These messengers came and said the Sabaeans fell upon the oxen and the servants. Sabaeans. And then he said the fire of
God has fallen and burned up the sheep and the servants. And
the Chaldeans, they came three bands and fell on the camels
and the servants and all of that. And then the wind blew and the
house where your children were fell and all of them are dead. Trials come in different forms.
These Sabeans and Chaldeans were people of the world. The Sabaeans
and Chaldeans were enemies of Job. Enemies of God. Enemies of His people. In the
world, our Lord said, you shall have tribulation. You know what
Job's name means? It means hated. It means persecuted. This is our story. If you're
a child of God, He said, you shall be hated of all men for
My name's said. The world loves its own. But
Christ said, since you are not of the world, therefore the world
hates you. The Sabeans and the Chaldeans,
some of the Chaldeans were from the south. The Chaldeans were from the north. They were beset behind and before
by enemies, weren't they? Like the children of Israel out
in the wilderness, didn't they? So are we. But I'll tell you
who goes behind and before us. A cloudy pillar and a fire. The Lord goes before. Sabians
and Chaldeans, the world, the enemies, even friends can turn. And then the fire of God fell.
That was a severe trial. Fire of God. They knew. They
told Him. God sent a fire to burn everything
up in a wind. And I think about the parable
our Lord gave of the two men who built their houses, one on
the sand and one upon the rock. It says, the foolish man built
his house on the sand. And it says, the rains descended. And the floods came, or arose,
and then the winds blew, and that house fell, and great was
the fall of it." That's three forms of trial, isn't it? The
rains, the sand. It comes from God. You know God
sent this. You know God did this. Like the fire fell. Then the
floods come up. Trials upon this earth. Daily
living. Everything that tries you in
this earth. Being a member of this awful, sinful race. And then there's those winds.
You don't know where that, or why it came. Trouble that came
from where? Where did that come from? Why?
All manner of trouble we're going to go through. But the man who
built his house on the rock. What's that rock? What's that
rock? That rock is Christ. His house
stood. Stood. Only one way to know if
you're really God's child and you truly belong to Him is that when these trials come,
you trust Him. You trust Him. Like Job. He worshiped
Him. At the end, verse 20, it says,
Job, and all this happened. one right after the other to
show us the just how great the trials Job went through and how
great our Lord's grace was. He said it would be. And to show
us more than anything, our Lord Jesus Christ. Greater grace,
greater love hath no man than this. And He laid down His life
for not only His friends, but His enemies. While we were yet
enemies, Christ died. And for the joy set before Him
in worship to His Father. But Job, look at verse 20. Job,
after they brought all these horrible tidings, lost everything,
every earthly possession, all of his children, and I'm sure
he had grandchildren. Then Job arose and it says, rent
his mantle, had no more pride, nothing to cover himself, came
in naked before the Lord, shaved his head, His glory, His crown
fell down upon the ground and what was he left to do? Did Job really believe the Lord? Did Job really believe the Lord? Trust the Lord. Did Job really
love the Lord? Was the Lord Jesus Christ his
treasure? How do you know? And when the
Lord took everything he had from him, what did Job do? He worshipped. He worshipped. Didn't he? Can we? We must if we're going
to be If we're His child, we must. And look at what Job said. He said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb. I came into this world naked.
I came into this world without a thing. And every one of us
in here came the same way. We came into this world without
one single earthly possession, not even the clothes on our back.
And we're going to leave, he said, naked. Shall I return feather? Back to the earth. And everything
I have, he said, was by God's grace, the Lord gave. Whatever
it is, whoever it is, the Lord gave it. Yes, He did. It belongs to Him. If the Lord
gives you something, that means it belongs to Him. It was His
to give. And really, He just loans it to us. He just loans
it to us. Everything on this earth, even
our relationships, are on loan. We can't keep them on this earth.
Now, if our relationship is in Christ, that's forever. See why that's so important?
You love your children, your family, your husband, your wife,
then you want them to know Christ. Because when you lose them, you
haven't lost them. You'll see them again. You'll
see them again. And never lose them ever again. And the amount of sadness you
had at the first loss will be Totally forgotten for the joy,
the abundance of joy at that great game. David said, Job said,
David said the same thing. Eli said the same thing. Job
said the same thing. All of God's people say the same
thing. You say, I don't know if I could
say it. Well, you must not be going through it then. Because
when you do, the Lord giveth grace. And he said, blessed the
Lord hath taken away. The Lord did that. It's of the
Lord. We say that all the time, don't
we? This is the Lord's will. It must be of the Lord. Well,
sure it must be. It's the Lord. He said, I'm the
Lord. I do all of these things. Whatever it is, remember that,
I love that. I love that where the Lord appeared
to them going through that trial and on that boat. And He said,
Be not afraid. Why do you imagine things? It
is I. Why are you? Oh, we see the Spirit.
Oh, this and that. Oh, that. Look at the Sabaean.
It's I. Or what Brother Greg preached
on. Whatsoever they did there, the Lord was the doer of it.
Remember that? It's I. Be not afraid. Why are
you imagining all sorts of things? Oh, this and that. Oh, this and
that. It's I. The Lord did this. Did it all. Nobody else had a hand in it.
Well, he let them, but it was the Lord's hand. Everything that
happened to Job, no matter how evil you think it is, the Lord
did it. The Lord did it. Now, was Job sad? Did Job cry? I don't think we've ever cried
like Joe cried. We have cried to some extent,
but everything? To lose everything and everybody? No, we haven't done that yet.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did, didn't He? Rich, yet for our sakes became
non-poor. Left His Father's house. Left
us home where everybody loved Him. Everybody praised Him. Everybody desired Him. Everybody
was holy and peaceful and loving and kind and gracious. And his
father, rich beyond just nothing but eternal, wonderful happiness,
left all that for a cesspool where nobody wanted him, where
everybody hated him. And they finally killed him.
Get out of here. How did he do that? How did he end
up? He said, for the joy. His eye
was single, wasn't it? For the joy set before Him. He
didn't do it at all. Knowing who did it. Knowing who
did it. We quote those Scriptures. All
known unto God, all His works from the beginning. We need to
know that. We need to know that for our patience. Wait! Just
hold on. You're going to see. Job, hold
on. You know, all their anxiety and
all their troubles and all that they went through, he and his
friends were trying to figure it out. All their talking, they
all got together and tried to figure it out until finally Job's
friends were blaming him. You must be the worst fellow
on earth for all this to happen to you. Fellas, you've got it
all wrong. You've got it all wrong. In fact,
since you said that, God's going to deal with you severely. That's
right. My servant Job, I did this to
show my grace. Show that I did it. Show my grace,
my power. Show that I uphold a man no matter
what he goes through. And to show that the end is with
him better than the beginning. Did Job weep? Until he had no
more power to weep. You know he did. Is that evil? Is that sinful? It's love. You can't love somebody and not
weep over them. Our Lord did. Jesus wept. Was Job perplexed? He didn't know. He just didn't
know. He didn't know. Faith, though it doesn't understand. This is what faith is. Faith
doesn't understand. We're not told to understand. We're supposed to receive it.
Like a little child, aren't we? We cannot tell our children,
our little ones, what we're doing. They wouldn't understand. But
faith doesn't understand, but faith trusts the Lord. Trust the Lord. Listen to Job. Though he slay me, I trust him. Oh Lord, let me have that faith.
Huh? Though He slay me, I'll trust Him. Faith doesn't know
why, but faith knows it's Redeemer living. Job didn't know why is all this
happening to me. He didn't know why. He got in
trouble trying to figure it out. Here's safe ground. I don't know
why all this is happening, but I know who's doing it, and I
know my Redeemer living. Yes, I'm a sinner. And Job tried
to justify himself, didn't he? Until he caught himself. He came
to himself and said, what am I doing? I'm a sinner. When he finally saw the Lord,
that's when he said, oh, I've spoken things too wonderful for
me. How could I justify my own sinful self? But here's his hope. Here's His salvation. I know
my Redeemer lives. He stood upon this earth and
He'll stand upon this earth again at the latter day. I'll see Him.
I'll see Him for myself. The root of the matter was in
Him. That's the important thing, isn't it? When all else was gone,
the root of the matter was in Him. So, though He lost everything,
how do you know Job was one of God's own? Because his testimony,
his dying faith was this. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Turn with me in closing to the last chapter of Job, chapter
42. Here's Job's end. You mark the
perfect man. David wrote, didn't he? Mark
the perfect man, Psalm 37. The end of that man is peace. Peace. And this trial lasted
a great while, a long time. Everything, these trials, everything
you could go through, Job went through. And they lasted a long
time, but it had an end. It had an end, and so do ours.
And the end of that man is peace. Look at chapter 42, look at verse
10. The Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends. Oh, what a picture of
Christ it is. And also the Lord gave Job twice
as much as he had before. Twice as much as he had before. Everybody that he lost, his friends,
came back to him. And his children. Verse 13. He had seven sons and three daughters
and he lost all of them. Well, here the Lord gave them
back. You know, I think it was my pastor at one time pointed
this out. The Lord gave him twice as much as before. And it tells
about how he had double of oxen, double of sheep, double of this
and that and the other. What about sons and daughters? The Lord could have saved all
ten of them. It doesn't say He didn't. Oh,
we hope in His mercy. We hope in His mercy that the
most evil son Isn't anything too hard
for the Lord? That's all they know to do. That's
what they live for. The Lord gives a man true life
without you knowing about it. He doesn't give an account of
his matters to anyone. It's the Lord. Save your children without you
knowing it? Can't eat Amy? Her mother, Jill's mother, didn't
live to see the Lord deal with them. But He did. The Lord is merciful. We hope
in His mercy. And then it says, look at verse
16, After this lived Job a hundred
and forty years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons, even
the four generations. So Job died like all those believers
in Hebrews 11. He's all died, yes. But the important
thing is, you die in the faith. You live by faith and you die
by faith. Old and full of days and full
of faith and full of hope in His God. Alright, let's sing in closing number 336, I believe
it is. Yeah, 334. John, you come please. 334.